PC Adventure games?

Visual Novel Community Off Topic
#1

Does anyone here play PC adventure games, those of the point-and-click variety? I’ve only played a few but I suppose of all the gaming genres Adventure games have most in common with Bishojo games in that they rely on story and character devlepment rather than flashy visuals and fast-paced gameplay.

Recently I bought a couple of point and clickers, and would like to recommend them to anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of experiencing them. For those who have, any thoughts?

Syberia is a very linear game and the puzzles will not overload your brain, but its atmosphere is incredible, its visuals beautiful and its story involving. Definately something that has to be experienced, I loved every minute.

Currently I’m playing The Longest Journey which again is linear, but has some striking locations, a spunky female lead, an epic story and most of all, a TALKING BIRD!

Apart from the games I just had to talk about above, the only Adv. games I’ve played are Broken Sword 1&2 and Gabriel Knight 3 so any recommendations would be appreciated

#2

Over the years I’ve played a few. Less recently though. The Longest Journey was the most recent for me. Took awhile to finish it, but definitely worth it.

Can’t really recommend all that much, most of the ones I know are outdated. I know when I’m feeling more than a little demented, I pull out one of the Leisure Suit Larry games to play…

#3

Adventure games seems to be an almost a dead genre (US-wise, that is). Even though there are classics like Monkey Island, Kyrandia, Quest for Glory and so on, it will be somewhat difficult for you to get the classic ones. You can go to site like this where fans have made re-hashes of old games.

#4

Quest for Glory! WHOO! One of Sierra’s more unknown, popular series.

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#5

Man it’s been a while since I played an adventure game. Bishoujo adventure games don’t count right?

#6
quote:
Originally posted by fxho:
Adventure games seems to be an almost a dead genre (US-wise, that is). Even though there are classics like Monkey Island, Kyrandia, Quest for Glory and so on, it will be somewhat difficult for you to get the classic ones. You can go to site like this where fans have made re-hashes of old games.

The problem is, the old all-text adventure games supported a much more interactive environment than modern ones. The only things you can interact with are things you need to do to solve puzzles (usually) and so it's far easier to use brute force to solve the riddles; so it's harder to make good ones.

Also they tend to be frustrating AND short.

#7

If you like adventure games you should track down any of the various Activision Infocom collections; the most recent is like “Infocom Text Adventure Masterpieces” and contains every adventure they ever did, minus two or three that had rights snafus (Shogun, Leather Goddesses of Phobos II, and…umm…Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy come to mind).

These are the Old School, all-text games. They’re the source of my more common online screen name - LrdDimwit.

#8

if you have any interest in text adventures, you might notice that the annual Interactive Fiction competition is going on - http://www.ifcomp.org/ - (Of course, being contrary, I entered a point-and-click. But cannot say any more about it until judging is over; comp rules. )

#9

The one thing you have to watch out for, if you’re interested in the old school games, is that they were made ten or so years ago. So the processor speed was neanderthalic, and the game speed may be a lot faster than it was originally meant to be and may cause some unwanted errors. A classic example of such is in Quest for Glory IV. There’s a spot in the game where the speed of the processor far exceeds the game expectations and it results in the dreaded Error 47. The most famous error in QFG history. I used to be a volunteer on the $ierra boards to help out with that problem, since I still have my old 386 which I use as a monitor stand now. But I had some… conflicting problems with them and now I stay clear of the Sierra boards. And that’s all I’ll say on that matter.

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#10

I LOVE adventureg ames and I still hold out hope that the genre will come back someday

my favorite oldies were a lot of sierra titles…of course Quest for Glory, as well as Kings’ Quest series, Police Quest series, Space Quest series…I loved Lucasarts stuff…the Indiana Jones games were great, especially Fate of Atlantis…definately play The Dig sometime, it’s a wonderful wonderful game! And my favorite adventure game of all time, well it’s more of a simulation, is the Alter Ego games…try them, they rock!

you can download a ton of old old adventure games and other genres at Home of the Underdogs (do a Yahoo search, I forget the web address)…I think it’s still technically pirating on some of the titles, but I don’t mind too much because you can’t get them anywhere anymore anyway, and haven’t been able to for years and years…also, Underdogs shows you where you CAN buy the games if they are still available, so that is always a good thing

#11

OH MY GOD, I forgot the Gabriel Knight series! ::whams herself in the forehead:: dumb me! that is my favorite series of ALL TIME! you can still get them and they ROCK!

#12

actually, the swamp crash doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the OTHER speed-related problem in QFG4 on a fast machine… the way the game locks up for ten seconds at a time every time Igor whacks his tombstone.

I mean, I can understand sloppy programming in a complicated combat sequence causing trouble down the road. But why does playing a sound make the game freeze? That’s just silly. (And eventually corrected with slowdown utilities, when I found some.)

#13

Thanks for all the links and recommendations everyone. I haven’t heard of most of what you mentioned amateur but I will be checking them out

quote:
Originally posted by ladyphoenix:
I LOVE adventure games and I still hold out hope that the genre will come back someday

There is the new Broken Sword game, though I think Revolution have moved on from the point and click interface, sequels to Siberia and The Longest Journey are forthcoming and there’s Spanish game Runaway, which has had a recent release in the US and looks pretty decent.

quote:
The Dig sometime, it’s a wonderful wonderful game!

Hmm, I knew that title sounded familiar. Game UK have a Lucas Arts box set for sale which includes The Dig and Grim Fandango, something that I’ve been interested in for a while. Trouble is, according to Lucas Arts, many of their older adventure games are in DOS and are not recommended for XP. Any advice from anyone about this (I’m retarded when it comes to computers)?

As for Gabriel Knight…I was enjoying the third game, but moving the camera around constantly made me feel nauseous…pukes

[This message has been edited by Interzone (edited 10-03-2003).]

#14

Hmm, all this talk reminds me to update my Quest for Glory page. I haven’t done so in a year or so. The whole Sierra forums incident, left me emotionally scarred for life and hesitant about revisiting my past, ie. Quest for Glory. But, nevertheless, I shall trudge on, and provide hope and inspiration to those faithful few who need to know about Quest for Glory.

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#15
quote:
Originally posted by Interzone:

Currently I'm playing The Longest Journey which again is linear, but has some striking locations, a spunky female lead, an epic story and most of all, a TALKING BIRD!

OK where did you get the game from?
Around here they sell all the same games, nothing new.
My gripe with the old text & graphic games
like King Quest was the fact the game was Too detailed at the begining and too hard at the end.

#16

I bought The Longest Journey new off Ebay recently.

#17
quote:
Originally posted by woodelf:
OK where did you get the game from?

I picked up a copy from a British online retailer. It's a budget edition so all four discs are crammed into a single DVD case, but it was cheap (equiv. US$13).

Amazon.comhave copies in stock so you may want to try there.

#18
quote:
Originally posted by Seishin:
Quest for Glory! WHOO! One of Sierra's more unknown, popular series.


Make sure you get all 5 games in the series.

So You Want to be a Hero?
Trial By Fire
Wages of War
Shadows of Darkness
Dragon Fire

Definitely play them in order, because Dragon Fire heavily refers back to previous games in the series. (It's greatest Flaw IMHO)

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"His last thought is wry, Not bad for a dead man." Moon Knight vol.1, #1 (1980)

#19

How can you bring up Adventure Games and not think of Leisure Suit Larry? If memory serves, there were like 7 games total in that series.

Sure, they were linear, but they were all packed with inside jokes, potty humor, ridiculusly-funny situations, easter eggs and whatnot. Sure, they had some bawdy, raunchy scenes… but Al Lowe was more into the entire slap-your-mama humor.

I mean Al Lowe uses bawdy humor almost like Mel Brooks does when Mel makes a parody.

As for The Longest Journey, it is a bit linear, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Not to mention the game is full of adventure and story to unlock. April is a sassy, smart, girl… and I enjoyed The Rolling Man too.

#20

Hmm, PC adventure games? Well, a few. not as many as I should have played, perhaps. But I have “The Curse of Monkey Island 3” and “Grim Fandango” in my collection, sot hat counts, i suppsoe. both great games, of course . But mainly my PC game collection consists of strategy games of various kinds and RPG’s like Morrowind, the Baldurs Gate series and (most recently ) Lionheart.