Adventure Games

[Joshua_Blackman]

re: Andrew's nice article about Adventure games and so forth:

What about The Longest Journey?!! Awesome, and with the writer/developer having a name like Ragnar Tornquist, how bad could it be?

But, seriously...funny guy, awesome game, great story, great characters...good stuff. The sequel is coming up in a year or so, looking forward to that. Hmmm, sounds like an idea for an article.

Syberia was good too, but not as good as Journey. :P

Also Planescape Torment. So, it's an RPG too, but that game has a phenomenal story, the best story of any game, which, admittedly isn't saying much (honestly, the stories in games on the whole are _so_ crap it's unbelievable. For gods sake get someone who can write).

Right, there's my rant.

[syx]

Anacronox is good, you know about that??

[Beefy]

Hmmm, interesting article.

There's a lot of games that haven't been mentioned, but that's not important. The article is good for bringing back the memories of old and starting this discussion. :)

Planescape: Torment was more of an RPG than an adventure game, however it was still a classic. I was thinking more along the lines of the classic Lucasarts games (Full Throttle, Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle / Maniac Mansion, The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis). Those were some fond gaming memories. Even some of the newer attempts on console like Clockwork Tower, the Broken Sword series... they all made for decent adventure games...

I'd like to know why they are turning into a dying breed? Is it the limited attention span of today's gamers? Is it a simple lack of interest from the majority of players? Anyone?

[Joshua_Blackman]

> Is it the limited attention span of today's gamers?

To an extent. It's also that FPS and big action titles make more money. Just like the movies. Which, incidentally, is a topic in my next article... :P

> Is it a simple lack of interest from the majority of players?

I think the market is there, but it is difficult to get a publisher/distributor to finance these sorts of projects. The Longest Journey, despite universal critical praise, struggled to find a distributor in America (still not sure if they got it), and took ages to get to Australia from Europe. It did, however, sell quite well, but not like the action titles. It's the old struggle of marketability/artistic worth.

And it comes down to how multiplayer is such a big thing these days (happy that Half-Life 2 should be a great single player game, like the first one) and that these sorts of games require a large investment in time and attention. But, then, I guess that didn't stop RPGs like Baldur's Gate 2 with over 200 gameplay hours be hits.

They make you use your brain too (oh no!).

[Beefy]

They make you use your brain too (oh no!).

That's my kind of game. :)

I'm honestly surprised that companies can churn out FPS after FPS and get away with selling them. Original ideas for themes, gameplay are slowly running out, and all companies seem to be doing is adding better graphics / sound effects now. So environments are looking better, but for gameplay / storyline there's not a lot to keep people involved. Once the novelty of the new features wears thin, you are left with 'just another FPS'. That could just be me though. My attention span has been shot to pieces lately and I only seemed to get sucked into games with either decent storylines, or something that is simple yet provides hours of fun.

It's for that reason I'm disappointed that games like Animal Crossing (Gamecube) aren't being released over here in Australia. From all accounts it seemed to be one of that games that I know I'd get stuck into and play for hours upon hours, but then they decide not to release a PAL version. :(

My :2cents:

[Osiris]

Ah, adventure games.

There's been so many good ones, but my top three would have to be (in no particular order) Grim Fandango, the Tex Murphy series and the Zork series (particularly Grand Inquisitor).

[Kauza]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the feedback. Of course I didn't want to mention every adventure game I've played and enjoyed because that would quickly turn long and boring. But honestly I haven't played an adventure game I didn't completely enjoy. For some reason even if it isn't such a good game in itself, I find I'm able to enjoy the story enough that it doesn't matter.

[PersianImmortal]

I used to play a lot of the old adventure games on my Amiga 500...games like The Pawn, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Zork, DejaVu etc. They were great fun for their time, and games like DejaVu also had radical new technology in the form of being able to interact with your surroundings with the mouse (radical for 1987). I recently booted up DejaVu on my WinUAE Amiga Emulator (100% accurate :)) and it is still fun to play and the graphics and sound hold up incredibly well.

However nowadays with the incredible technology we have to render things relatively realistically from a first-person point of view I think it's vital for immersion and popularity that you can take the first person (or even 3rd person).

I think games like Morrowind, the Thief series and even Mafia take adventure/action/roleplaying and blend it all together. Traditional "adventure games" can't compete with that.

I want to be able to fight realistically, use lighting realistically and also explore large worlds from the first person. The puzzles and strategy should form part of the storyline and be intuitive. I believe only true 3D, first or 3rd person, realistic games can deliver that. I think that's the essence of true "adventure" gaming. Not finding the right key or jumping from platform to platform. It's up to the developers to give us this, not for us to simply "support adventure games".

[Joshua_Blackman]

Yeah, I think you have a valid point there. Computer games are only in their infancy, and are developing as a medium all the time. Maybe the "traditional 2D adventure game", is something that has been and gone. As you say, something like Mafia, or Morrowind combine elements of many genres to create a more realistic experience, which is probably ultimately where we're headed - to restrict yourself to a format of the past just because you're nostalgic seems a bit silly. That said, I like the seemingly more developed storylines in adventure games - if only developers would pay more attention to in in "non-traditional" adventure games.

Mafia had a decent story, but still far below that of a half-decent film; it set many things up that didn't lead anywhere, which was disappointing. Top game, though.