The Drifter is easily my new favourite point and click adventure

The Drifter from Powerhoof has released, and it is something truly special for the point and click adventure genre that's one not to be missed. Note: a key was provided to GamingOnLinux.

I've long been a fan of the point and click genre, growing up playing some classics on the Amiga. I've also played a lot of modern takes on it, but I never quite get the feeling I did from back then. Until now, that is. The Drifter is truly exceptional and just does about everything right to hook you in. Not only does it have some seriously great pixel art, but the voice acting is truly amazing too.

My favourite thing though? The interface. While I'm sure there's some that will get their pitchforks out to stick me with on this, I played it with a gamepad. I know — sacrilege right? But wait! The Drifter was designed for both sides of the fence. The gamepad interface they designed is impressively easy to use and feels so natural that it made sitting back and relaxing with it just a wonderful experience.

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From the first few minutes, it will totally absorb you into the world, especially so thanks to the intro. You have absolutely no idea what's going on, but you really will want to know more. You will need to know more. What was that crazy guy on about? Was he actually just crazy or is there something bigger going on? Why were people firing at you and who are they? So many questions will start popping into your head. It certainly sets the scene nicely for the adventure you're about to go through. And that only continues the more you go into it, as things just start getting plain weird like out of some Netflix sci-fi drama, especially with the loops around death.

The voice acting is what really pulls you in though, mainly thanks to the main character Mick voiced by Adrian Vaughan (but they're all good). There's some great dialogue in there and Vaughan really helps to sell it all, especially with some of the complete silliness that goes on. I'm a bit of a sucker for a deep, gruff but soothing voice. I especially liked the way the conversations flow, with it jumping between characters talking and getting little bits of backstory from Vaughan narrating things and even with the flicking between talking and narrating it all feels so smooth.

It's not just the voice acting though, the soundtrack is brilliant too. Really brings out the atmosphere.

If you're after an adventure that will make you scratch your brain with puzzles, this is not the one, the puzzles here are interesting but more like set-pieces to stop it being a constant run through the story. Most of it is pretty obvious, which is not a bad thing, the puzzles are gentle on your brain to make you feel like you're actually doing something. However, the design is interesting with the puzzles often being done across multiple scenes with you needing various items, often combining them together. The result is some fun item hunting and silly events involving the items you're using.

Game Highlights:

• A Pulp Adventure Thriller from the minds that brought you Peridium and Crawl.
• An engrossing roller-coaster of a story- Drawing on King, Crichton and Carpenter, with a dash of 70s Aussie grindhouse.
• Point 'n Click or Controller- Unique twin-stick controls make The Drifter as comfy to play on the couch as at your PC.
• Bursting with raw crunchy pixel art and high-impact animation.
• Professionally voice acted, with a brooding dark-synth cinematic score.

All together from the animations to the voice acting and the slick gamepad interface you owe it to yourself to play this one. Seriously impressive, a double thumbs up from me. Do not skip it. It's going to be hard to enjoy another point and click adventure if it's not up to the quality of The Drifter in future.

It has Native Linux support and runs great out of the box. Also Steam Deck Verified. No performance issues or special bugs worth noting.