What games have inspired true adventure in your mind?

[Briomoto]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I have played most of these games and they are pretty great. Is Morrowind that different than Oblivion? I have only played Oblivion and I haven't really been able to get into it.

I really couldn't tell you why, but Morrowind actually always felt far more immersive. Maybe it's because there were no other continents that were connected that you were blocked from getting to, or maybe it's that some of the world was just so alien that I didn't stop and say "I've seen this" over and over again. Plus, in some ways there was just more stuff, like more styles of combat and armor. Morrowind just felt like a better game to me. Oblivion...I get that feeling of wonder sometimes, but it just never got to me like Morrowind did. Too many Oblivion portals blocking my view, I suppose.

I attribute it to two things: the transportation system and the difficulty balance. I know that Oblivion's instant transit system was convenient and saved tons of time but I thought Morrowind's mix of silt striders, mages guild teleporting, and mark/recall spells struck a great balance with convenience and good ol' fashioned exploration. Being able to go nearly anywhere at any time in Oblivion really took some of the fun out of it.

The difficulty match thing (I don't know what you'd call it) was definitely one of the more annoying characteristics of Oblivion. Basically, it made all of the creatures in the game more powerful as you gained levels. Morrowind had a similar mechanism with some of its major bosses and such but Oblivion took it to absurdity as it applied it to almost everything in the game. What good does it do to become a powerful, high-level battlemage when ogres and mountain lions start posing more of a threat than when you were at beginning levels. It was an artificial way to make the game more accessible to beginning players, I guess. I just thought Morrowind's frustrating-now / easy-later mentality was more organic and rewarding and you didn't have to feel like you were cheating (adjusting the difficulty bar) to still have fun with it.

And as Ack alluded to, the varied architecture and aesthetics of each city and region in the game really made Vvardenfell a much more unique and interesting world than did Cyrodil's slew of Elven ruins and identical towns.

Anyway, to add to the list:

Shenmue
Mass Effect
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Orta
Deus Ex
Banjo-Kazooie, Super Mario 64
Half-Life (applies to series as a whole)

[blackmagepwns]

Hmm. . . I'll look into playing it sometime. For me, a good adventure almost has to be in a stark, isolated world. Populated cities or almost any human contact pretty much just disrupts the trance for me. Another aspect of a good adventure would be one with little or preferably no explanation of what you "should" be doing.

There is a free to download independently developed game called Yume Niki that follows a girl who has locked herself in her room and basically sleeps and records her dreams in a journal, its solitude, its all exploration, and you don't really have a set goal aside from explore the different parts of the girls dreams (which may disturb you a bit). You should really give it a try, as it is like nothing you have ever played before.

Google it now.

[gradualmeltdown]

Phantasy Star 2 on Genesis. Grinding because I was too scared to lose a character in battle. The party system and multiple characters with specific abilities really stood out at the time. Definitely my favorite RPG of all time. God that summer was so amazing, and so long ago......