The Corruption Within was not what I expected! By that, I mean that I was very familiar with Dave Seaman's other work, but the Captain Disaster series - a comedic series that I want to describe as being along the lines of Space Quest meets Red Dwarf - is very, very different to this title. The Corruption Within is a dark tale with strong gothic vibes. Unlike most point and click games, in The Corruption Within you're almost immediately granted access to the entirety of a large mansion and its surrounds and there are surprisingly few puzzles. Instead, the game presents itself more as an old fashioned gumshoe style of game, where your job is to sleuth around the open world looing for clues and the story itself is the puzzle.   It's short and to the point, all thriller and no filler.  

A stark contrast against The Corruption Within: Twilight Oracle not only delivers a much brighter game in terms of both ambience and tone but also a much more "expected" point and click experience in terms of quirkiness, puzzles, and progression. Veteran point and click fans will likely find the puzzles a little simplistic but Cosmic Void has delivered a very authentic retro feel that'll hit all your nostalgia buttons.  Twilight Oracle has a really fun story, and a range of bizarre and interesting inventory items to collect and locations to visit.  It's another short stint at ~2-3 hours gameplay but there's absolutely no filler content; Cosmic Void is very talented at packing a lot of game into a short timeframe.

The Tachyon Dreams Anthology is a culmination of all three chapters of the Tachyon Dreams series released on Itch over the course of some years.  Unlike Cosmic Void's other titles, Tachyon Dreams is even more retro, aiming for an 80s rather than 90s feel.  The graphics are gloriously reminiscent of VGA rather than modern pixel art and there's even a score counter, it looks and feels just like the very early Leasure Suit Larry or Space Quest games! It's a fantastic homage to the era, nostalgic yet fresh, with a smooth & friendly text interface. Like other games of the era, puzzles are occasionally obtuse but are solveable through experimentation.  Features a huge range of scenes to explore across a range of settings (time travel!).

Although I've labelled Devil's Hideout a "Horror" title, it's really aiming for terror rather than horror, and nails it.  The characters are well-developed and the art direction is as strong as the writing, both hinting at imminent danger and keeping you constantly on edge rather than just thrusting gore in your face.  As a bonus, there's also some very decent voice acting! While Devil's Hideout is plenty interactive, the puzzles are simple, lending a really nice "sitting in the dark reading a horror story" vibe. And the story itself is worthy and memorable. 

It seems like every game Cosmic Void makes is better than his last and Neon Hearts is my favourite so far.  Like other games by this developer, the game is rather short - roughly 2 hours - but there's a surprising amount of story and world building jammed into that time.  The focus is the story again but this time there's not a lot of sleuthing; the gameplay's a little more like a traditional point and click - and while there still aren't many puzzles, they're a touch more complex than in previous titles, which I found refreshing. By that I mean there are more "locked doors," more inventory interaction, more interactivity with items and characters across multiple scenes. As always for a Cosmic Void game, Neon Hearts City is high quality, with even more polish than previous titles. The characters and story are engaging, the art direction really helps set the scene, the music fits the tone perfectly, and there's some great voice acting to boot.