Guard Duty (2019)

The love for classic graphic adventure is evident in Guard Duty, where the traditional point & click and inventory system takes us back to the 1990s. While it's a good game, the handling and controls could have been a little more comfortable and it has some performance flaws that tarnish the final result a bit. Still, a highly recommended game.

Picking up Guard Duty is going to be massively dependent on whether you were around in the heyday of classic point-and-click adventures, or holding onto some morbid fascination for this type of puzzle-filled journey. This a really enjoyable experience that does require that certain way of '90s thinking to complete. What would look like a pocketful of junk, quickly becomes a series of intricate contraptions in the mind of a seasoned adventurer. Length-wise this is short and sweet, if you know what you are doing, but could easily become much longer without proper guidance. Savour it, get lost in the humour and characterisation of each of the common folk, and enjoy a great, nostalgic experience... then petition for another Discworld when you complete it.

If you're a big fan of point-and-click adventures, especially those respecting the genre's heyday, you'll find Guard Duty to be a good game. I can't give it as high a recommendation as first thought due to some story aspects and the way they're intertwined, but I liked it enough that I'm hoping for a sequel.

Guard Duty is an ambitious adventure game, inspired by the likes of Discworld and Monkey Island, that doesn't quite reach its goal. Still, if you're looking for a short, funny romp through two distinct worlds the game definitely delivers.

While the genre had pretty much died before the indie revolution brought it back from the brink the Switch has been blessed with a pretty wide variety of middling to excellent point-and-click adventures...