Fond Memories in Adventure Gaming.

[Venetia]

Spoiler

Yeah, I'm making an Adventure Game with RPG elements, so this kinda is information-gathering on my part, but also Adventure Games are some of my favorite games ever so it's also just for fun :'D

Anyone remember the golden era of adventure games? When you typed in what to do and got a response, or, later, when you clicked "look", "touch", "take", or "walk" on things and everything had a different response?

I don't know about you but those are some of my favorite games, ever. Maybe because I'm old school--in fact, definitely so. But I can't be the only one.

My concern here is that there's been a drop-off in this incredibly fun genre. Every once in a while you'll get a Siberia or an Indigo Prophecy but they're few and far between. It makes me a little sad, because Adventure games are just so incredibly fun for me.

Anyone remember King's Quest? Or Leisure Suit Larry (in his 2D realm)? Or Space Quest? What about Curse of Monkey Island? Grim Fandango?

If you're too young to remember these classics, find yourself copies of them, because you're missing out on a huge chunk of gaming goodness by passing these up just because they're a little dated in the graphics department. There are programs that'll run DOS games in new OS's, BTW.

What are your favorite adventure games ever? Interactive, exploration-based puzzle games count, too, like Myst or the 7th Guest.

Mine would definitely be:

1. King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!: This was an incredibly beautiful game. It was made in 1990, and it was the first of the King's Quest games to get the point-and-click interface instead of the typing "Look at ___", "Take the ____" dialog boxes. Everything was beautifully hand-painted, the music (for 8-bit MIDIs) were awesome, and the story was incredibly fun. I've played it about 20 times, especially the final castle! The characters were strong and loveable and it played like a storybook, with clever sight-gags and intuitive uses for every item.

2. Myst: Riven: This was made in 1997, I believe. Another gorgeous game. The atmosphere was eerie, the story was amazing, and the puzzles were just so intriguing. The beginning and ending sequences are the most thrilling I've enjoyed in a game ... Ever. Sometimes the final animation pops up in my dreams. THAT'S a game that sits with you, that you can't put down, because you HAVE to know what happens next. It's like reading a novel full of your favorite things--you can't put it down for anything.

3. Leisure Suit Larry 2: Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (In Several Wrong Places): Oh yeah, this game was made in 1988. I'm pretty old-school. It featured the typing, dialog-system, complete with 8-bit graphics. The only thing was, it was so F-U-N. I can still pick it up and play it and have a hell of a time. The puns, the gags, the cheesy lines: It's classic. It goes to show that about 10 guys can make a game in the basement of a studio with about $10 and a 6-pack, and just spend the whole time making sex jokes, and still churn out one of the most memorable experiences ever.


Post yours!

 

[Rare]

2. Myst: Riven: This was made in 1997, I believe. Another gorgeous game. The atmosphere was eerie, the story was amazing, and the puzzles were just so intriguing. The beginning and ending sequences are the most thrilling I've enjoyed in a game ... Ever. Sometimes the final animation pops up in my dreams. THAT'S a game that sits with you, that you can't put down, because you HAVE to know what happens next. It's like reading a novel full of your favorite things--you can't put it down for anything.

I own both of these, and yes, they were amazing. For some reason a lot of people are turned off by this genre...but I love them.

And...

Curse of Monkey Island

! I loved this game! Doesn't it have a remake?

 

[Venetia]

I don't know of a remake, but "Escape from Monkey Island" was the latest one, in 2000. The Secret of Monkey Island was the first one--I always get the name mixed up with the 3rd one for some reason. (LeChuck's Revenge was the second one)

But yeah, all great :'D

 

[Myrai]

I used to play a lot of Adventure games when I was younger. It's too bad that they died out. I guess the modern gamer needs constant action or else they get bored.

Most of the ones I played were LucasArts ones, given to me by my uncle. Secret of Monkey Island (Awesome to this day. I still play it time to time), Zak Mckraken, Maniac Mansion, Loom (Which I loved, until I got to a part where I needed to dull a blade to continue, and I missed the melody to dull it. Couldn't continue).

I have never played Myst or any King's Quest aside from number 7. 'Tis a shame, as I hear they are excellent.

 

[Despain]

I used to play a lot of Adventure games when I was younger. It's too bad that they died out.

Zack and Wiki

 

[Rare]

Zack and Wiki

Cookies for you, sir!

 

[Myrai]

Zack and Wiki

I hadn't actually heard of that before. Thanks for pointing it out.

Though I'm not saying that there isn't the odd quality adventure title released every now and again. It's just that compared to how many releases their used to be, there really are very few now.

 

[Dopples]

Myst and Sam & Max (Both the originals and the remakes) are the only ones I've played, and all of it was made of awesome. I would like to note, however, that the remake of Sam & Max isn't as good as it should be, though it's great nonetheless.

 

[khmp]

Day of the Tentacle.

Katamari Damacy.

 

[Marcus]

Katamari isn't an adventure game...

Anyways, the genre died for a good reason. Just like conventional (or I should say "cookie cutter") RPGs, adventure games went away because it was a stale genre full of terrible, repetitive ideas that only garnered to a small niche of gamers. Because gameplay basically boiled down to clicking on the correct pixel until you achieved the correct action, there's little to no challenge involved and because the puzzles were so obscure or ridiculously hard, the games were frustrating which kept you from advancing the story.

Which is really the only thing adventure games had going for them. There was no gameplay, so you had to focus on the writing and cinematic aspect. Adventure games had fantastic stories, but who wants to slog through 3,000 terribly done puzzles with trial and error results in order to see a 1 minute cinema that advances the story and opens up MORE puzzles?

If you're searching for ideas to make a fun adventure game, then don't forget the roots. The term adventure brings up certain adjectives and verbs that people like to experience; danger, excitement, exploration, action, dark, mysterious, disturbing... Base your story around discovering the unknown. Even familiar territory like a back alley can be transformed into something haunting or beautiful that the player will WANT to discover. Just look at Grim Fandango, king of adventure games. The story revolves around El Dia De Los Muertos or "The Day of the Dead" and involves supernatural creatures acting, well, natural.

Next, for the gameplay ideas, don't bore the player. Your puzzles should require the basic amount of thinking and shouldn't require some sort of obscure logic. One of my favorite RPGs, Pajama Sam, could be beaten by a 10 year old. This is your rule of thumb; if your little brother or sister can't figure it out in 5 minutes, then retool it. For example, in order to get past a guard you have to find a weapon to fight him off against. In a bad puzzle, you would be required to find a shin bone and a dead squirrel, mix them in a vat of pudding, and then throw it at the guard at a range of exactly 3 feet. Make any sense to you? Didn't think so.

The generic adventure genre is dead, yes, but the heart of adventure games still lives on. Shenmue was an adventure game, but it smartly combined fighting elements to break up the monotony of opening random drawers and asking people "do u no any sailurz lol?" Indigo Prophecy was a fantastic new direction for the old genre... just don't come up with any bullshit, super lame, last minute story ideas like IP did. I loved that game all the way up to the final 5 minutes which seriously felt like the developers got tired 99% of the way through and said "eh, fuck it."

Hope this helped.

 

[Venetia]

Admittedly a lot of old adventure games had obtuse item puzzles, but I beat them when I was 6+, so yeah ... They weren't THAT hard. I was smart, but I've never been a puzzle genius.

I disagree that puzzles should be able to be solved in 5 minutes. The entire thing behind the entire Myst series was that it was hours of only a few puzzles that were extremely multi-layered.

Puzzles in most adventure games aren't supposed to be mini-games ... They ARE the game. I agree that the solutions shouldn't be so irrelevant to the problem that they just constitute gathering items for the sake of having them, but they shouldn't be easy. Grabbing a weapon to get past a guard is too obvious. Using a golden needle to exchange for a tunic from a tailor requires a little more thought, and I prefer it that way.

A genre can only stagnate if the developers let it stagnate. For a while, every single platformer was a cookie cutter of Jak n' Daxter (which was, in turn, a cookie cutter of Banjo Kazookie, but less people played that). I think the reason they're fewer and further between is because most gamers have grown accustomed to action, action, action, action, and they've lost the will to indulge their brain on a puzzle for more than 5 minutes.

But for what it's worth, I totally agree about the lots of exploration concept, and about the well-scripted story.

 

[Marcus]

But you're not using your brain to solve the puzzles, you're just using trial and error. I'm trying really hard to think of a good example because it's been several years since I played a point n click adventure game but the best reference I have is the text adventure version of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fantastic writing, clever design, TERRIBLE puzzles. If you screwed up in some minor way, you'd die. I think there was one section where if you didn't do an action at the beginning of the game you couldn't advance several hours down the road. Even Zork, which is one of the granddaddys of adventure games, had puzzles where if you screwed up once then you ruined the entire game.

The Myst series suffered from this too. I could beat Myst simply by picking up every item and clicking on every object without even knowing a single thing about the game. Sometimes you'd actually have to interact the world on a player to game basis, but for the most part it's picking up obscure widget A and clicking on obscure object B.

Games are supposed to be exciting and making tough puzzles doesn't mean you have to have a lack of excitement. The Dig, probably Lucasarts most underrated game, had clever puzzles but you never felt like you were randomly clicking or doing something ridiculous. Tim Schafer's Full Throttle was PERFECT as far as puzzles go. Everything involved in the game required some form of LOGIC behind it and all you needed was some basic thinking skills to make it past the game.

So all I'm saying is to evaluate your puzzles based on how intelligent they are. In the case of your example, why would I be finding a needle for a tailor when a professional tailor should have needles to spare? Or, if he lost his needle, why do I have to go through some ridiculous method to find one when a needle should be a ridiculously common item to find?

Lets bring up context clues in this conversation, because the best puzzles give you some sort of clue in how to pass them.

Going back to my example let's assume I want to get past a guard but I don't have a weapon. However, it's cold outside and the guard says "It's pretty chilly out. Could probably use something to warm me up."

Okay, he gave us a context clue. He wants to get warm. If I'm standing out in the cold and tell you "lol i'm cold" what's the first thing that you, as a human being, would probably think about? 99% of the time it's going to be "Well, you should be wearing a jacket."

Now, in an obscure (i.e. TERRIBLE) puzzle, the player would be required to find a ridiculous item like a cup of hot cocoa (how that fits in the players pocket is beyond me) or coffee and EXPECT THE PLAYER to recognize this as an item that will warm the guard up!! This is stupid. The guard asked for something warm, not something to drink. If he had said "I wish I had something sweet to drink" or "I didn't sleep last night. Could probably do with some caffeine" then the cocoa or coffee would make sense. Hell, he could ask for something sweet and caffeinated and you'd have to find a soda or coffee and sugar.

See, smart puzzle!

 

[Venetia]

Okay, yeah, I see what you're saying. Good points, Marcus. I appreciate your input.

Spoiler: ?

(But when in Myst did you have to pick up obscure things to put in obscure places? The only thing you really collect are blue/red pages--everything else is done by looking at patterns, pushing buttons, pulling levers, rotating things, etc. And the pages themselves go in the red/blue books--pretty obvious. After the frst Myst, you never really collect anything but diary pages which help you get clues to solve puzzles.)

 

[Despain]

(which was, in turn, a cookie cutter of Banjo Kazookie, but less people played that)

what

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

I've always been partial to Gabriel Knights - but the game sucks anyway.

Why I stopped playing adventure games - and this is an actual set of puzzles that were mandatory to solve if you wanted to beat a certain game - who honestly I barely remember the name of.

Rubik's cube.
No really. You had to solve a digital representation of a Rubik's cube. Best of all, you couldn't move the camera - you couldn't rotate the entirety of the cube. You were stuck looking at it the way it was, seeing 3 sides, and solve the fucking Rubik's cube.
Sure it wasn't called a rubiks cube - instead of colors there was a triangle on one side, a circle doodad on the other - but it's a fucking Rubik's cube.
Best of all your fucking progress on it, all those moves you did weren't saved - if you exited the item menu you lost all your turns and motions. Though there was a trick. It was called "uninstall".

Rubik's cube.

What? It deserved to be said twice.

Another thing in this game was they gave you a fictitious language. A language completely alien to you - and no booklet or anything. I'm sorry but I know some people like to take notes, but I'm really not going to sit down and write down and decipher a language - they didn't even have examples. It wasn't the hardest thing - oddly of the things I'm mentioning it was the thing I completed first, but my god if it wasn't for rapid fire mouse clicking and sore index fingers it can't be done.

You had to collect a set of items. Not so special - except no one told you what these items were, and trust me they were more random than those listed in Marcus' examples. My god it made no sense, had no explanation, and really confused me. I never beat the game.
Why? Could I just go randomly move the mouse over every screen until the pointer became a hand and then just started clicking away? No. I couldn't. They were hidden.
The mouse never changed. You had to find them by clicking every pixel. Fuck.
Rubik's cube. Every pixel. Best of all there was an item that would beep if you were in a room/map with one of these items, but unfortunately (no joke) you had to hack a save file for it.
Rubik's cube.

 

[Cruelty]

lol^

xD

That was the best thing i've read all day.

 

[Anonymous]

lucasarts's offerings are kindof overrated imo but sierra's old stuff is incredible. quest for glory <33

 

[Falloutfan]

"Maniac Mansion " and "Prison", on the Amiga.

Now THAT'S being dated. :D

"Prison" had some very evocative music, and I enjoyed the theme as
well. Your character was a convict stranded on an abandoned world
that had suffered some kind of ecological or war related apocalypse.
You had to find the parts necessary to repair a shuttle you found
in order to escape. It was a side scroller, where you ended up using
melee most of the time to defeat the various foes. There was also
a fair amount of jumping, and putting things back together to make
them work properly. It was great because as you progressed,
you'd open up new parts of the environment to explore. You never
did become a superhero, and basically stayed the same
disheveled, bearded castaway the entire time. You eventually
find one pistol, which has VERY limited ammunition - like
three or four rounds at the most. You had to save those
for dire emergencies, for when an enemy was blocking your
way and you couldn't move by.

I would seriously pay $500 bucks to play that vintage sidescroller
today. It was maddeningly addictive - like, losing sleep additive.
Of course, that's what nostalgia is all about, isn't it? I'm sure if
I played it today it wouldn't be as good as my memory paints it to be.

Respectfully,

Falloutfan.

 

[EmuMaster2002]

As far as adventure games go, I don't think anything at all can beat Gabriel Knight. Not the first one, at least. Even the second was amazing. The third was shipped too early (the infamous cat-hair puzzle was actually meant to be something completely different.) but was still fantastic by most standards. The best thing is that -every single puzzle- was something that made perfect sense in context, with only a very few feeling.. what's the word.. "fake," I guess.

I'd post a few examples, but I don't feel like it at all. =P

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Gabriel Knight series was good, it really was some of the better put together I played, but even that didn't add to the genre, I honestly don't think there's much out there that evolved.

Let adventure games die, and let's make a new genre quickly enough so it can dance on adventure game's grave while the bodies still luke warm.