Just from its brilliant demo, The Drifter is doing something special with the point ‘n click genre

The Drifter’s titular speaks in the sort of rough Aussie accent that, alongside his first person, present tense commentary (“I grab the tarp”), lends this point ‘n click adventure the feeling of being a half-memory, relayed over dive bar drinks, possibly to a reluctant server. It’s dreamlike, isolated, at least until it erupts into pockets of panic.

A “fast-paced point ‘n click” is how the Steam page describes it. Sounds like a misnomer, but while there’s no time limits as far as I could tell, The Drifter’s scenario design and pacing is all about tension, danger, and desperate puzzles that feel grounded in the present moment. And, actually, I get the sense that the server’s pretty into the story by this point.

You play as Mick Carter, an irritable transient on the way to his sister’s to plan a family funeral. First, tarpaulin. Then, gun murder. Then, Mick is “sucked headfirst into a lunatic web of shadowy corporations, murder, and the thousand-year obsession of a madman.” Featuring:

• 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.

That controller scheme is a good ‘un, at least once I got used to it, since it lets you flick through points of interest instead of pixel hunting. I’m not the point ‘n click aficionado our Jeremy is, but I’d go as far to say The Drifter feels like it reaches out of its genre box as just a very compelling bit of puzzly storytelling, worth a look whether or not you know your Stobbart pockets from your moon logic. The full game is out July 17th.