Preview – The Drifter

For a genre that supposedly died in the ‘90s, the point-and-click adventure genre is pretty lively. Even adjacent adventure formulas have been getting a lot of love. It’s to the point where there’s so many, and it’s such a niche genre, that I experience choice paralysis and wind up playing nothing.

But I liked what The Drifter was putting down, so I picked it up. The demo, that is. Which is going to be part of Steam Next Fest in June 2025.

It’s a short demo, and it doesn’t quite get to the “use monkey on pipe” sort of puzzles, but what’s included at least shows off the vibe they’re going for, and that counts for a lot.

THE WELCOME PARTY

The Drifter follows Mick Carter, who, appropriately, is a drifter. He’s travelling via freight car to attend his mother’s funeral. No sooner does he arrive in the neighbourhood that he witnesses a fellow drifter get perforated by some mysterious figures packing serious firepower.

Once you save remove Mick from the situation via some careful pointing and clicking, he finds himself in a worse predicament: his phone is out of batteries, and he doesn’t know his sister’s address.

I appreciate that the game kicks off on such a mundane problem. It gets you to explore the immediate vicinity and have conversations with the locals to discover the inciting events. Good stuff.

What I don’t like is that the puzzle involves trying to charge the phone using a wrecked car’s cigarette lighter port. Mick complains that the derelict vehicle in question is functional but out of gas. Mick, my man. I’m not a mechanic, but you don’t need to start the car completely to turn on the juice. As long as the battery is alive, you just turn the key part way to start the electronic components of the car. If the battery is dead, it’s not going to start anyway, and we’ll need to start talking about a puzzle involving jumper cables.

Anyway, it doesn’t work out that way.

THE ALTERNATOR

In the roughly 30 minutes it takes to complete the demo, there are two pretty grisly scenes, which is pretty solid mundane-to-pants-wetting ratio. The trailers all focus on the more thriller stuff, even though the middle part of the demo involved trying to teach a reporter to respect homeless people.

It’s a good vibe that is made more effective by a striking pixel art style that makes good use of colour, perspective, and framing. It’s underscored by creepy atmospheric music and feels tight all around, but will need to be maintained throughout the entire runtime.

If there’s one thing that really stood out to me, it’s the narration. Rather than just use the voice acting for dialogue, Mick narrates everything. Not in a cliché film noir detective sense – this isn’t Max Payne – but more like he’s reading to you from a book. This stood out as unusual to me, at first. This is a show-don’t-tell kind of medium, after all, but I began to appreciate it overall as it gives The Drifter a unique atmospheric hook.

I’M LISTENING

The demo for The Drifter packs a lot into 30 minutes, so colour me impressed. It doesn’t say a whole lot, but still gives an impression of what you’re in for. It’s an effective introduction.

However, there’s still a lot to prove. It’s not enough to assure me that the entire production is going to be stellar from tits to toes. The mystery is established, but where it’s going has been left out. It’s at least enough to get me interested in seeing the final result, and with a genre like poink adventure, that’s not easy. So, keep an eye on The Drifter.

The Drifter is out on PC July 17th, 2025. A Switch version is planned for later in the year. The demo should be available to download today.

This preview opportunity was provided by the developer’s PR.