Adam Wolfe review - A gently gothic point and click adventure

Adam Wolfe is dark and mysterious. He's brooding. He has a rubbish little beard and floppy hair and he's plagued by nightmares about his missing sister.

He's also a supernatural detective. Which is good, because if he was just a bit mardy then Adam Wolfe the game wouldn't be all that interesting.

As it is it's an interesting blend of mobile puzzling ideas with a story that's interesting enough to keep you looking for things, solving riddles, and moping about in your trench coat looking into the middle distance.

The game sees you trying to solve a series of spooky mysteries. The first one, which you get a chunk of for free, is about spooky demons making spooky fires in a rain-lashed and probably spooky city.

Every step in the adventure offers a different sort of experience. There are QTE-ish fights, jigsaws, and hidden object puzzles. All presented in reasonably pleasant, if generic, hand-drawn graphics.

Everything is held together with a neat UI. Your in-game mobile acts as a notebook, there are hints you can access with the tap of a button, and depending on what difficulty level you're playing on things you can poke are highlighted on the screen.

Sometimes you use your super vision to put together a series of clues. Sometimes you need to manipulate objects to find messages or evidence on the other side of them. You've got a fingerprinting set too. For taking fingerprints.

There's a lot to do, but none of it is complex enough to leave you flustered or angry or sad or confused. It just clicks nicely, as it probably should because you're a seasoned supernatural detective not some Johnny-come-lately.

It also keeps the action moving along, because you're learning new ways of interacting with the world. Sure they're prescribed ways of interacting, and most of them you'll only use at specific points when the game lets you, but it keeps things fresh.

The game rolls along at a decent pace, throwing pyromaniacs, demons, intruders, and weird clues at you within the first couple of hours. You won't exactly be swept away by it, but you won't be bored either.

And since this is just the first couple of episodes there's a lot of content to be added. Which you're going to be happy about if the game gets its claws into you.

But will the game get its claws into you? Er, it might. Despite all of its gothic bluster this is a pretty casual affair. If you're a fan of more traditional pointing and clicking then it's unlikely Adam Wolfe will grab you in a meaningful way.

But if you're looking for a slow, vaguely soapy story that will wander past while never truly taxing you if you don't want it to, then you're in for a floppy-haired treat.