GROUNDHOG SLAY

Our hero comes back from the dead to unmask a serial killer in this clever point-and-click mystery

- CHERYL MULLIN

YOU can track the history of point-and-click games right back to the early days of PC gaming.

The interface feels deceptively easy, use your mouse to move your character around the screen by pointing at various objects and non-player characters to examine and interact with.

Where the complexity comes in is the prompts, interactions that elicit conversation 'trees' - often seemingly endless dialogue options you can tie yourself up in knots trying to keep track of.

Done well, you can get totally lost in a point-and-click adventure, done badly, it becomes a source of frustration that puts a downer on the whole genre for you. I'll put my hands up and say it's been a very long time since I sat down to play a point-and-click game, but I was quickly drawn back into that world after playing a demo of The Drifter.

Billed as a pulp adventure thriller, it's the story of Mick Carter, a man who is down on his luck and who witnesses a dreadful execution.