There are times when you finish a game and you get the sense that you’ve just played something very special. Something that will stay with you even years later. I got this feeling with point & click adventure classics like Monkey Island 1 and 2, the original Gabriel Knight and the unforgettable Beneath a Steel Sky, just to name a few – and now it’s happened with The Drifter. Developed by Powerhoof, a team you may know from games such as Crawl and Regular Human Basketball, The Drifter takes a tried-and-true formula and adds its own spin to it: from its imaginative plotline to its spot-on voice acting and gripping narrative beats reminiscent of a pulpy page-turner, it’s got all the ingredients for success – and although it does stumble here and there, I’m still of the opinion that I’ve just played one of the finest adventure games to have come out in a while.
Drifting through time
One thing’s for sure: this game is very good at getting the players’ attention and gluing them to the screen. Wasting no time, it immediately opens with a scene that makes you go “Huh?” and then throws you into the thick of things while hinting at some of its later plot points. The basic premise of the adventure is that our troubled protagonist, down-on-his-luck drifter Mick Carter is sort of, well… incapable of dying. He’s not exactly the Highlander, mind you: instead of being immortal, he simply travels a few minutes back in time whenever he bites the dust – while also keeping all of his memories. Convenient for sure, but it keeps you guessing: how did he acquire this “power” and why does he even possess it in the first place? The plot then expands on this idea, along with various other mysteries involving shady corporations, mind-boggling conspiracy theories and homeless people going missing without a trace, giving The Drifter the unmistakable vibe of a good thriller novel that you simply cannot put down. It’s a dark, mature story with flawed characters and well-paced twists and turns that will keep you engaged for the entirety of the game’s roughly 10-hour runtime.
An audiovisual treat
So, the plot is pretty good, which is already a huge win for an adventure game, but what about everything else? Well, the writing is on point, while the voice acting performances are all solid: Mick’s Australian accent is a joy to listen to, especially during the storyline’s more intense scenes, and every side character does a fantastic job of immersing you into the world. No one really feels out of place. As for the visuals, they sort of speak for themselves: the game’s retro-style pixel art comes to life with vivid colors and sharp, comic book-like contrasts that effortlessly conjure up the dark and gritty atmosphere required by the story. The puzzles also manage to hit a satisfying sweet spot in terms of difficulty: the solutions aren’t handed to you on a silver platter, but the game never goes all-in on the moon logic, either. There are a few tricky parts here and there, but the handful of times I did get stuck usually boiled down to relatively obvious things that I simply failed to consider. Yes, I’ll admit that I did slap myself on the forehead a couple of times.
Minor hiccups
I do have a few small complaints, though. I’ve already mentioned the narrative hiccups – I can’t say what they are without spoiling them, but needless to say, I felt that certain choices made in the final act almost made the story slip into that “okay, this is a bit too much now” territory. Other than that, while most of the game’s puzzles are intuitive and fun to solve, there were a couple that sort of devolved into an endless series of trial-and-error attempts where I simply kept trying everything with everything until something eventually worked. Finally, the game’s world feels a touch claustrophobic in the sense that there aren’t a tremendously huge number of areas to explore – I was hoping the city would drastically open up as the story progressed, but it never did, and even the areas I would later unlock usually just consisted of a single screen. Then the aforementioned final act rolls around, the entirety of which takes place at a samey-looking area that, in my opinion, sort of outstays its welcome by the end. If you’re hoping for a sense of adventure and a truly globe-trotting journey, you might find The Drifter’s somewhat confined areas to be a tad disappointing.
A modern classic
The DrifterPlatform: Windows, Linux, macOSGenre: AdventureDeveloper: Powerhoof, Dave LloydPublisher: PowerhoofRelease: 07/17/2025All that aside, though, The Drifter is still, without question, an experience that any self-respecting fan of classic point & click adventures should have on their bucket list, especially if they’re looking for an engaging storyline backed by strong writing, with themes and ideas that combine elements of detective thrillers and science fiction. It feels like a project that could’ve easily been made in the golden age of adventure games and held its own against numerous other titans of the genre, which, I believe, tells you everything you need to know about how much I enjoyed it. Highly recommended.
