Adventure Gaming Catch-All

Freddy Pharkas (sp?) was pretty great. I vaguely recall Codename: Iceman and Manhunter as well.

Thowky wrote:

Fair enough on the Discworld games, must admit I'm a bit surprised about the dislike of these though, I always remember them being well received at the time. I remember Discworld Noir getting quite a few bad reviews when it was released due to comparisons with the earlier games.

I'll give Discworld the 2nd. They were 100% pure awesome for a fan of the books. The puzzles were purposely arcane. Hell, some of the voiceovers self-referentially point out the insanity of the puzzles, if I recall.

Pure point and click greatness.

duckilama wrote:
Thowky wrote:

Fair enough on the Discworld games, must admit I'm a bit surprised about the dislike of these though, I always remember them being well received at the time. I remember Discworld Noir getting quite a few bad reviews when it was released due to comparisons with the earlier games.

I'll give Discworld the 2nd. They were 100% pure awesome for a fan of the books. The puzzles were purposely arcane. Hell, some of the voiceovers self-referentially point out the insanity of the puzzles, if I recall.

Pure point and click greatness.

Alrighty then, they're on the list!

Added Freddy Pharkas too, that's another one I just forgot about. Not familiar with the others mentioned...anyone else?

IMAGE(http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/images/05/10/51060_RunawayATwistOfFate-01_normal.jpg)

Brian and Gina are back in a new adventure, a bit darker than the previous one but still loaded with an omnipresent humor and based on a production worth a big 2D animation film. For the first time in Runaway history, you will have the control of Brian but also of his girlfriend, Gina! Following the story line of the previous episode, A Twist of Fate is also an independent new adventure that players who have never played Runaway before will fully enjoy.

Runaway: A Twist of Fate has visually improved thanks to a new graphic engine. The game now has high resolution backgrounds, more detailed and expressive characters, and more realistic animations... The interface has also been improved and offers an inventory allowing you to check each item from every angle possible. You will also find an ingenious hint system that will guide you throughout difficult situations without giving away the solution to the puzzles.

Of course, both the particular visual style and the omnipresent humour that appealed to the players have been retained in order to make A Twist of Fate a rich episode, full of novelties and unexpected turns yet still faithful to the Runaway spirit.

I'm yet to play first two Runaways, but I thought that this might interest some of you.

Yeah, I'm stoked. I have it in the up-and-coming section, but Runaway has been one of my favorite series over the last few years. Plus, the last one ended on a serious cliffhanger, so I'm anxious to finish the story.

For those who are interested, I've linked to Steam purchase info for the first two (in the Highly Recommended section), and the first one is available on GOG, as well.

This thread keeps taunting my from the first page, asking me why I've given up on my adventure-gaming roots. My first 2 PC games were QFG3 and KQ6 - not a bad way to start at all - and I played adventure games pretty much exclusively for several years after - that's all I wanted.
Then, of course, I played Doom and Warcraft, and it all went downhill from there.
Still, I've decided to make an active effort to get back into it - I played Sam & Max Season 1, but it just didn't do it for me. I played The Longest Journey, and it DID do it for me - but the pattern didn't stick.
Screw it. I'm getting me some Myst when I get back home tonight. I always regretted never beating that game.
Great thread, Minarchist.

Aw, shucks. Twarn't nothin'.

Just as a general note to people, the genre has come a long way since the days of yore. If it's something you used to enjoy but just got fed up with some of the, ah, "pitfalls" of the genre, you might want to check out some of the newer games. Impenetrable puzzles specifically designed to sell strategy guides, multiple deaths, game-breaking missed inventory pickups, all these are things of the past. Sure, in a few cases, these have been replaced with new inane gameplay choices (witness Dreamfall's combat sequences or the box-pushing exercise that is Broken Sword 3), but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. We've even had a couple good ones pop up as Fringe Buster games, like Emerald City Confidential and The Path. Next time you're in the neighborhood, stop on by and give us a try.

Rock Paper Shotgun just posted about a new series of teaser cartoons for The Blackwell Convergence. I'm really looking forward to that game.

Bah! I see Syberia still hasn't made the all-time greats list. I guess I'll just go back to ignoring the thread and hoping that the wrongs will be righted by themselves.

Would Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble be considered an adventure game, or is it more of an RPG?

MoonDragon wrote:

Bah! I see Syberia still hasn't made the all-time greats list. I guess I'll just go back to ignoring the thread and hoping that the wrongs will be righted by themselves.

I loved that game, but I haven't picked up on enough general love for it to vault it to that top tier; I think some people were turned off by the slower pacing and a few of the puzzles. I know that I, for instance, got really hacked off at trying to figure out which kind of feet to make at the beginning; there were no clues at all to lead you the right way.

That being said, be on the lookout for Syberia 3. Microids is gearing up for another go, although how they're going to continue the story remains to be seen.

adam.greenbrier wrote:

Would Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble be considered an adventure game, or is it more of an RPG?

Neither. I'd consider it a boring minigame collection. But that's just me.
One of the rare indie games that I really have it in for. I do not get the appeal of that one.

Ok, here's one I bet not many others played: Hell - A Cyberpunk Thriller. It was WEIRD but I remember having a lot of fun with the story, puzzles, FMV, and voice work by Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones, and Stephanie Seymour.

IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/60/Hell-act.jpg/256px-Hell-act.jpg)

I played Hell! I didn't think it was great at the time, and it's aged terribly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8-dipscKg4

I tried it again a few years ago and it's great for some laughs.

I never played the game Hell, but I did read the book......NOT recommended.

Another one I'm surprised wasn't on the list is The Colonel's Bequest: A Laura Bow Mystery, by Roberta Williams of King's Quest fame. I remember this game being terrific in plot and it was very character-driven, which was fresh for its time. Instead of solving tons of puzzles you had to figure out how the characters' true relationships were with each other. I can also vividly remember the tension the game created, I really had a sense of getting the knife at any time.

IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/The_Colonel%27s_Bequest_-_Cover.jpg/256px-The_Colonel%27s_Bequest_-_Cover.jpg)IMAGE(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/LipMyReeds/laura1-01.gif)

Monkey Island is confirmed. From another thread:

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Holy Awesome!

LucasArts has confirmed that a remake of the original Escape from Monkey Island is coming to the 360 and PC and that new, episodic Monkey Island games are coming from Telltale for WiiWare and PC. There is certainly no better team on the planet that I'd want handling this than Telltale and I'd buy them all, sight unseen.

And for your viewing pleasure.

w00t! Hopefully it will be better than Monkey Island 4.

NERDGASM.
This remake is amazing. Subtle, faithful, yet up to current adventure gaming standards. All one can wish for.

There's a lot of my favorites up there already (I replay the first two Broken Swords at least twice a year just for the spectacle - the graphics is still good and voice acting + music are extremely good as well). Here go some I haven't seen in the list and deserve at least a recommendation:

Bloodnet - It hasn't aged well (pre-rendered graphics in low-res), but I loved it back in the days, I even bought a CD copy recently just for the nostalgia value. Vampires in the future, ability to jury-rig own weapons, turn-based combat etc.

I'm sure there will be opponents, but I really enjoyed Gabriel Knight 3. Some puzzles and weird 3D engine and controls really hurt the game, but I liked the story. If you haven't played it, let's just say it's basically The Da Vinci Code, only told much better.

Mission: Critical by Legend. Great atmosphere, voice acting and touching story. Almost impossible to find (Home of the Underdogs used to have a CD-rip), but I believe those who have played it still remember it. Maybe even the best sci-fi adventure.

While we're at Legend: Time Quest, both Gateways and Superhero League of Hoboken. Great writing, and maybe the best parody/homage to superhero myths in Hoboken until Freedom Force came around.

Not sure if I can fully recommend it, as it felt somewhat bland, but Starship Titanic was quite enjoyable. Or quirky. Whatever. Written by Douglas Adams and Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame), with weird jokes and interaction possibilities. And a bomb (!) voiced by another Python John Cleese.

I also enjoyed Noctropolis when it was still young, the graphics was nice, but included some FMVs and motion capture. Atmospheric comic book adventure.

Dreamweb was another weird one. Top-down view itself was an oddity, lots of gore, cyberpunk atmosphere, sex. This was a strange beast, but I remember enjoying it a lot.

I also second the first two Simons the Sorcerors. Very funny games with great hand-drawn art. Still enjoyable to look at, even in that 320*200 resolution.

Man I'm old. The most recent of these games is GK3, and it came out 10 years ago.

I'd forgotten about Dreamweb, I remember enjoying that a lot at the time too. Bit strange and I'm not sure I remember it well enough to even describe it anymore but it was a lot of fun at the time.

I also remember Starship Titanic but only played it briefly. The humour was great but if I remember the game itself was a bit bland and didn't really live up to the potential.

I've sent this list to friend of mine, and instead of 'thanks' message I got back was this: WHERE IS THE LAST EXPRESS?
At first I thought that he missed it, but I've checked and it seems that my second-favourite adventure game of all times isn't there at all.
It's one of deepest, most immersive, most ambitious experiences in all gaming history, yet, totally unfamiliar to most of gamers, because it was published at the very, very wrong time. If it wasn't for piece in Escapist I wouldn't even know it existed. It's so awesome, that it should be every gamer's duty to play it.

UCRC wrote:

NERDGASM.
This remake is amazing. Subtle, faithful, yet up to current adventure gaming standards. All one can wish for.

Plus, the instant switch to old graphics for old times sakes. Love the idea. Instant purchase for me.

Finished adding dates to all games not on the "Jury's Still Out" list. Also added a few more buy links, including the Tex Murphy series at GoG! w00t!

Speaking of the new/unreleased list, anyone have any comments about games that are on there? Several have been out for a while (Wallace and Grommit, Strongbad, Vampyre Story, etc.) and I'd like to either start removing them or putting them in the appropriate recommendation list.

As for me, I'm about halfway through So Blonde, which is...passable, but not really great. It would actually be pretty good, if it wasn't for the LOADING PAGE BETWEEN EVERY DAMNED SCREEN!!! Which in a classic fixed-background adventure game is, um, a lot.

Minarchist wrote:

Speaking of the new/unreleased list, anyone have any comments about games that are on there? Several have been out for a while (Wallace and Grommit, Strongbad, Vampyre Story, etc.) and I'd like to either start removing them or putting them in the appropriate recommendation list.

The only one on that list that I've played is The Path. The Path is good, maybe even great, though I wouldn't call it an adventure game.

I own Overclocked, and I've been meaning to get around to it but I haven't yet. It doesn't look all that good, but I will report back when I get bored enough to play it.

Hrmmm...guess we should probably add Hotel Dusk and Professor Layton and the Curious Village to the list. Both are great little adventure games for the DS. And we should add the new Escape from Monkey Island remake and Tales of Monkey Island games to the upcoming list (oh, and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box).

Minarchist wrote:

Speaking of the new/unreleased list, anyone have any comments about games that are on there? Several have been out for a while (Wallace and Grommit, Strongbad, Vampyre Story, etc.) and I'd like to either start removing them or putting them in the appropriate recommendation list.

I'd say for anything older than 3 months, just put it in the bottom category until someone vouches for it. We could probably also put some criteria in place for nominating games as must play. Maybe if 5 (or 10, not sure of the audience for this thread) suggest it, we'll put a game in the must play group. I know that I think that Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy and Sam and Max Hit the Road should be up there.

I gotta resist the temptation to dive into the Tex Murphy games. Am I going to be wishing for a Rifftrax if I go for the FMV ones?

Rat Boy wrote:

I gotta resist the temptation to dive into the Tex Murphy games. Am I going to be wishing for a Rifftrax if I go for the FMV ones?

No, I don't think so. It's a particular brand of humor that's still kept in those games, so you aren't watching real people try to be painfully dramatic about a subject that doesn't really interest them, and the music isn't hokey like most FMV games were. As far as FMV goes, Under a Killing Moon is probably right up there with Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within for quality.

I've been going back and forth on this, but should the Phoenix Wright series be on this list? While they're more Visual Novel-type games rather than full blown adventures, they still have a lot of mechanics usually associated with them.

Plus, the new game in the series is supposed to be much more of a point-and-click style game.

cube wrote:

I've been going back and forth on this, but should the Phoenix Wright series be on this list? While they're more Visual Novel-type games rather than full blown adventures, they still have a lot of mechanics usually associated with them.

Plus, the new game in the series is supposed to be much more of a point-and-click style game.

I need to add a DS category, as casktapper, lard and several others have been asking for it. Since I am shamefully deficient on my DS adventure knowledge, I will require the hive mind to inform me what should be populated therein. So, have at it!

To answer your question, I've played a bit of PW, and I'd call it adventure; not every game has to be pure classic P&C.

How come Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites aren't listed?