Slice of Sea’s aesthetics are its best feature and serve as some consolation for the disappointing and often frustrating gameplay. Solving puzzles grants access to new areas. This also adds further confusion to the gameplay as players have no idea what Seaweed’s goals are beyond eventually reaching the sea. Since there is very little sense of story progression (if any), motivation to trawl through a laborious pixel-hunt across dozens of scenes is stifled further. Players will probably know from the game’s description that they are helping the protagonist Seaweed back to the ocean but there is nothing to explain who or where the character is, why they need to get back, why there are broken trains and other machines everywhere, etc. Unfortunately, the wishy-washy attempt at telling a story through the gameplay and environmental elements is vague and speculative at best.

Slice of Sea features no narration, dialogue or text and contains no explicitly delivered narrative. To further confuse matters, a large number of totally useless items can be collected and stored in the inventory so finding something doesn’t necessarily mean progress. There is often little logic or direction, the current objective is often unclear and the lack of a viewable map or hint system means there is no assistance if players get stuck. There are very few interactable objects, some of which are not clear at all and easily missable this means players are left roaming what eventually becomes a vast and sizeable map in search of one, often obscure detail. Slice of Sea gets off to a good start in this regard but things soon go downhill.

Whilst there is some variety in the puzzles types, including jigsaw, hidden object and environmental, the majority of the game is made up of familiar inventory-based puzzles. It is also impossible to die, if Seaweed falls to their doom they simply respawn at the location that they fell from. There is a fast travel system that can be accessed from specific points throughout the game to speed up travel. Players can control Seaweed with keyboard controls (WASD or arrows) and the characters movements are entirely separate from any mouse interactions as Seaweed does not need to be near an item in order for the interaction to take place. It is not possible to interact with this character at all. Plus, of course, the greatest puzzle of them all: finally discovering the secret of Monkey Island.This game is being reviewed as part of the Indie Game Collective (IGC) showcase. This is a story that celebrates almost every idea Monkey Island has ever had, from assembling a (terrible) crew, to completing three trials, to solving challenges across multiple islands. But, for long-term fans, it’s the structure that really cements it as a wonderful send-off for the series. A fantastic hint book helps gently nudge you in the right direction for any conundrums you may be stuck on, but it’s rarely needed these puzzles are so well designed that their solutions often naturally manifest in your mind.

Return to Monkey Island is both a retro-styled throwback and a thoroughly modern puzzle game all the graphic adventure stylings and witty dialogue of the 1990s, but this time packed with puzzles that demand real-world logic rather than whatever voodoo thinking was used for the duo’s original games. It took over three decades to happen, but Monkey Island co-creators Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman finally returned to their old grog-drenched shores this year for a long-awaited sequel. Our winner for the Best Puzzle Game of 2022 is. There were also some wonderful puzzle games that have you solving levels in the most efficient and fun way possible like Teardown and Escape Academy. 2022 had a great range of puzzle games, and a lot of them came packaged with a great story like Immortality, Return to Monkey Island, and The Case of the Golden Idol.

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