P&C Adventure Games

[emwearz]

Well I have loved the genre since I was a child, I have fond memories of playing them with my dad, from Kings Quest V to the Monkey Island series I have played many of the years. Though I am somewhat of a LucasArts fan boy, I doubt anyone will ever match the formula of story, puzzles and humor like that did however many others are doing a pretty damn good job recently (I am looking at you Telltale (Makers of Sam n Max / Monkey Island episodic games) and Péndulo Studios (Creators of the Runaway series)).

Lets discuss this awesome genre a bit.

Oh oh oh and Broken Sword is utter awesomeness.

[ZeroAX]

Well I have loved the genre since I was a child, I have fond memories of playing them with my dad, from Kings Quest V to the Monkey Island series I have played many of the years. Though I am somewhat of a LucasArts fan boy, I doubt anyone will ever match the formula of story, puzzles and humor like that did however many others are doing a pretty damn good job recently (I am looking at you Telltale (Makers of Sam n Max / Monkey Island episodic games) and Péndulo Studios (Creators of the Runaway series)).

Lets discuss this awesome genre a bit.

Oh oh oh and Broken Sword is utter awesomeness.

Syberia and The Longest Journey.

I love you Kate and April . Dreamfall wasn't that good though

[Gamerforlife]

The SCUMM engine stuff really appeals to me. I've played and enjoyed Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, and Monkey Island 1-3(of which Curse of Monkey Island is my fave). I REALLY liked Day of the Tentacle

Started but never finished Sam and Max, Escape from Monkey Island and Simon the Sorcerer.

Those are pretty much the ONLY things I play as far as PC gaming is concerned

[lisalover1]

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is definitely one of the best adventure games I've ever played; it's engaging, fun, has great voice acting, and looks positively beautiful on the original Xbox. From what I've heard, the PC version is great, too.

[ZeroAX]

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is definitely one of the best adventure games I've ever played; it's engaging, fun, has great voice acting, and looks positively beautiful on the original Xbox. From what I've heard, the PC version is great, too.

Have you played the first game?

Dreamfall plays really bad on PC, since the controls are for a console game and not designed around a mouse

[Pulsar_t]

Retro PC players ought to have a gamepad handy in case a game is built around console controls.

As much as I love me some old school adventuring there's no escaping the fact the genre hasn't evolved as one would have hoped it could. By the end of the day all you're doing is reverse-engineering the designer's rigid puzzles in a limited, predefined fashion, and even when choices are present they're usually not that varied. Which is why I prefer AGs which are light on the puzzles and heavy on the story. AG's are still the best all-round mediums to deliver storylines in an interactive environment.

An example of this rigidity would be the locked door conundrum which involves looking for keys placed in the most illogical of places. Why not just bash the door open if the protagonist is physically capable of doing so?

Anyway my rant wasn't to detract from anyone's enjoyment of the genre, since I'm 'guilty' of that myself. AGs I played in the noughties include:

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Machinarium
3 Cards to Midnight
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut (DS)
Tales of Monkey Island
Miami Law
Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Art of Murder: FBI Confidential
Secret Files: Tunguska (DS)
Immortals of Terra, The: A Perry Rhodan Adventure
Overclocked: A History of Violence
Experiment, The
Flower, Sun and Rain
Time Hollow
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
Sam & Max: Season One
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All
Portal
Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express
Scratches (Director's Cut)
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit (yucky second half)
Still Life
Another Code
Syberia II
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
Syberia
Stupid Invaders
Shadow of Destiny
Isabelle
Escape From Monkey Island (not THAT bad)

Having a hard time getting into Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, guess I'm not in the pirate mood these days. At least the niche is established and AGs are here to stay.

[Gamerforlife]

Escape From Monkey Island (not THAT bad)

.

A computer virus kept me from finishing Escape from Monkey Island, but I got far enough into the game to say that it was pretty much what I expect from a Monkey Island game. The graphics and controls were altered, but it certainly wasn't bad. Don't know why it gets so much hate. I actually really liked the time jumping puzzle where Guybrush meets other Guybrush in the boat

[emwearz]

I really feel this game is horrid compared to the other MI games, it just doesnt feel like Monkey Island, sure its not as bad as people say, but it is by far the worst entry in the series, Tales of Monkey Island shits all over it and its not made by LA.

[Ack]

As much as I love me some old school adventuring there's no escaping the fact the genre hasn't evolved as one would have hoped it could. By the end of the day all you're doing is reverse-engineering the designer's rigid puzzles in a limited, predefined fashion, and even when choices are present they're usually not that varied. Which is why I prefer AGs which are light on the puzzles and heavy on the story. AG's are still the best all-round mediums to deliver storylines in an interactive environment.

An example of this rigidity would be the locked door conundrum which involves looking for keys placed in the most illogical of places. Why not just bash the door open if the protagonist is physically capable of doing so?

They tried evolving the gameplay a bit in the Penumbra games. Do you want to know what happened?

"I am a big fan of adventure/mystery/horror games and I have played many games with different levels of difficulty. However, Penumbra Overture is a torture. First of all, having to use the keyboard for almost everything is annoying, yet much more when you have to press several keys at the same time to make something happen, and when something finally does happen, you didn't even know which key triggered the action! Simple actions like picking up objects and using them on other actions is so very confusing. And what's with the having to walk around using keys. Personally, I prefer games where you can do everything using the mouse. I still haven't finished the game, but all this keyboard stuff is too frustrating to even considering continue playing. The storyline is ok, but the game controls are the worst I've seen in my life. I would give this game a zero if there was one. "

That's a review from Amazon.com. The "keyboard controls" she's referring to are the WASD movement commands and an inventory key. Evolving beyond point-and-click was simply too much for her. Some fans of the genre simply don't want it to grow beyond what it's been for the last twenty years.

That said, I beat the Penumbra Trilogy recently, and I loved it. The games are not nearly as difficult to control as this review makes them out to be. If you enjoy horror titles and want a little adventure goodness, look into these.

I also beat Still Life a couple of months ago. I'm upset that you have to play the later games to get any closure in the title, but I had fun while I was playing it, even if certain plot elements made me think a 14-year-old wrote the dialogue.

Alas, I've had some bad luck as well. My copy of Scratches does not work. The disk looks fine, but it has refused to run in everything I've tried it. My desktop? The CD-ROM wouldn't even register there was a disk in the drive. My new laptop? Blue screens whenever it attempts to load the game. And the developer's website provides no helpful information, since it was made by a couple of guys in Argentina who ended up getting real jobs about four months before I bought the game. Anyone else had similar troubles? Or even heard of it for that matter?

[Pulsar_t]

I didn't get into Penumbra after trying a demo, but I appreciate what it tried to bring into the world of adventuring.

As for Scratches, it's not fun trying to find a solution to a technical issue plaguing an unsupported niche title. It's so bad in your case you can't even crack the EXE (which is something you're entitled to, ridiculous EULAs notwithstanding)

Let's now talk about freeware AGs since we covered a bit of the commercial ones


http://h2g2remake.wordpress.com

I never played the original Infocom adventure but this remake looks slightly interesting, not to mention SCUMMy-like.