The Drifter Review

SPOILER WARNING: Some plot spoilers for The Drifter are contained within this review.

Sometimes, I think about where I’d be now if I didn't have the support of my younger sister, Kelsey. I was down on my luck, kicked out of my house just a few days before being shipped off to basic training to join the Army National Guard. The owners had sold the house without ever mentioning to us that it was up for sale — a real kick to the nuts while I already felt down enough about signing away my soul to the closest thing this Earth has to the Devil.

Mick Carter is down on his luck, too, starting The Drifter off by riding in a boxcar on his way back to his old hometown so that he can attend his mother’s funeral. I never got that far down. For myself, I had two days in my car before making my way to Alabama and enjoying the luxuries of swamp air and abuse at the hands of drill sergeants. Once all that was over with, I got to come back home to a family who was willing to put me up on their couch. I had support when I needed it most. Mick doesn't seem to have that — or at least he doesn't think so.

Publisher: Powerhoof

Developer: Powerhoof

Platform: Played on Nintendo Switch

Availability: Released Jul 17, 2025, for PC (Steam); June 22, 2026, for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2

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So when Mick makes his way back home, there are a lot of emotions wrapped up in his decision. It has been five full years since he’s been back, afraid to see his ex-wife, Sarah, child, and the family he left behind. Worse still, he’s a drifter, homeless and without purpose. Things change quickly when another homeless man sharing the car with him gets gunned down, and he subsequently becomes embroiled in a massive conspiracy surrounding the disappearance and murder of multiple unhoused people.

A person completely untethered from society would make the perfect target for such a crime. Without family or friends to check in on them, a transient’s disappearance is likely to go unnoticed, or in the event it is stumbled upon, determined unworthy of our full attention. Mick being fully estranged from his family and ex-wife would mean certain death. But that’s the rub, isn’t it? Even when we’re down on our luck, even when we’ve messed up badly or hurt the ones we care about, sometimes it’s less about them and more about us.

Mick can’t forgive himself for his past failures. Missing his son’s funeral, skipping town and leaving his family behind, never really being able to pull himself together and make something of his life after the divorce — all of this weighs on his mind heavily throughout the game, even as secret forces hunt him and his loved ones down. Yet despite his past failures, his friends and family are willing to set that past aside to help him through, as long as he lets them.

Image Credits: Powerhoof

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The first time you meet Sarah in-game, Mick is going through an episode, and she’s angry. Her voice carries the weight of that anger, and the pain of her ex-husband now lying on their son’s grave, covered in filth and blood. Mick’s voice is similarly expressive, emoting his shock and sadness with intense fervor. The game's voice acting elevates these emotional beats, and Mick’s in particular is intensely powerful. Adrian Vaughan delivers one of the best performances in gaming, period. Between his sardonic quips, bouts of fear, fits of anger, and everything in between, each line serves to pull you into the action more deeply.

Later, when we visit Sarah again, there is still pain behind Sarah’s words, but empathy too — a closeness that comes through in the tone and word choice rather than being delivered point-blank. So when you use the right stick to examine the various objects in the room, and get chastised for spending a little too much time on eating food off the counter, there’s a marrying effect that takes place between the gameplay and narrative. You don’t really think about the two separately in the same way that you otherwise might. The adventure game bones of The Drifter don’t weigh so heavily on the experience.

That isn't always the case, however. While the conversion of point-and-click mechanics to the Switch is admirable — using a linear selection of nearby points of interest rather than a traditional cursor — The Drifter can never really escape the trial-and-error nature of its puzzles.

I did not love how much of the advancement and arriving at solutions comes through this poking and prodding of everything I can find on screen. There are some great moments where allowing the player to think through solutions and actions elevated the gameplay into something more than haphazard stabbing at objects, such as when combining items to make tools that are immediately useful in a situation. Those moments feel earned, allowing players to think through utilizing their limited inventory; a feeling of revelation is gifted to the player by the curated interactions and narrow use cases.

There are some great moments where allowing the player to think through solutions and actions elevated the gameplay into something more than haphazard stabbing at objects, such as when combining items to make tools that are immediately useful in a situation.

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In other cases, the answer is not so cleverly devised. You’d never really know some of the solutions unless you stumbled upon them. Other moments have the player bouncing back and forth between zones for single interactions at a time, dragging out what most frequently feels like a tight experience into bouts of tedium. Despite this, the more time-sensitive scenes of action still strike me as wondrous.

Running from a monster, you only have moments to make a decision on where to go and what to do. Economy of action is necessary — one wrong move and you may find yourself splayed out on the pavement below a several-story-tall building. I found myself enamored with the ways in which the electronic thrums of the music were deployed in scenes full of tension, heightening the urgency with which players are pushed to act, and how that urgency bred mistakes. When Mick finally crawls his way out of each hole, you feel just as much relief as he does.

But guys with guns aren't the only things Mick is running from; his own demons are the real threat to contend with. There’s never enough time to get everything done that we want to, and unexpected events can change the very course of our lives, pulling us away from the people who matter most. Yet, when the conspiracy completely spins out of control, Mick finally stops running. He learns to trust the family he abandoned, and they step up to pull him out of the dark—baggage and all. Sometimes, a little help is all you need to make it through the night.

Verdict

The Drifter stands out by masterfully intertwining its narrative depth with compelling gameplay and atmosphere. The game is driven by a powerful story about grief, estrangement, and redemption, which is elevated by Adrian Vaughan’s phenomenal and expressive voice acting. The Drifter marries traditional point-and-click mechanics with its narrative, utilizing item-combination puzzles and a Switch-focused control scheme that minimizes traditional genre friction.

The Drifter excels at building high-stakes tension through its time-sensitive action sequences, where a pulsing electronic soundtrack perfectly heightens the urgency of Mick's narrow escapes. Ultimately, it delivers a deeply immersive experience that balances the thrill of a massive conspiracy thriller with a grounded, empathetic look at overcoming personal demons.