Confront the past in beautiful free adventure game An Eternity, Reflecting

In An Eternity, Reflecting, an entry to the reliably excellent Adventure Game Jam, you return home, to your parents' house, to confront the father who has neglected you all your life. As that father doesn't appear to be around, however, you're free to investigate the past in the traditional adventure game style: meaning rooting through his possessions, combining and using them to solve a few basic puzzles.

As you might expect from a jam game, this is pretty short, being set on only a few screens. But they're beautifully drawn, rich in atmosphere, and of course contain several items to examine and pick up, as you unravel a simple but intriguing mystery.

Eternity differs from many adventure games in a way I particularly like. You don't move the protagonist directly here. Instead, she changes position on her own, thanks to a range of specific animations that blend seamlessly with each scene background. Rarely does a protagonist feel so connected with their environment. Which is just one of the reasons this heartfelt story is worth a download. (Via Warp Door.)

For more great free experiences, check out our roundup of the best free PC games.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.