Let's have an Adventure!

[Yora]

I really want to play an adventure again.

I still have The Longest Journey half finished and Beyond Good and Evil lying around, but I'm somehow not quite in the mood for them.
I havn't been up to game releases except RPGs for years, so I have no idea what games are out there. Anything you could recommend?

[Psychonaut]

I'm not sure if you're only looking for recent adventures or older ones that you might have missed, so this will be a long list.

The Last Express is the main adventure game that I highly recommend that isn't very commonly known among gamers. For more details, see my post here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11901776&postcount=147), which also goes into detail about Gemini Rue, Blade Runner, Sanitarium, Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, Zork: Grand Inquisitor, Zork: Nemesis, KGB (aka Conspiracy), the Tex Murphy series, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, and Quest for Glory I-IV (as well as some non-adventures). All of these are great games in one way or another, though I'd put The Last Express above them for being one of the few games I'd unreservedly call a work of art. It all depends on what you're interested in, though; if you want great, tough-but-logical puzzles that really require you to think, for instance, two of my favorite games in this regard are Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive and Riven (the sequel to Myst).

Other games I'd highly recommend include Grim Fandango, the Monkey Island series (although I didn't like the last one very much), Day of the Tentacle, and Sam and Max Hit the Road, though if you have an interest in adventures, you most likely have already played these.

Since I've already listed most of them, other LucasArts adventures I like include The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Full Throttle. Maniac Mansion, too, although you can play it in its entirety via an easter egg in Day of the Tentacle if you're interested.

Oh yeah, I also had a second post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11906296&postcount=152) in the same thread referenced above where I went into detail about A Tale of Two Kingdoms, Dark Fall: The Journal, and Toonstruck, though I'd rate these a bit lower than most of the games listed above.

The Myst series is pretty good in terms of puzzles and beautiful worlds to explore, though as mentioned above my favorite is Riven. They have minimal character interaction, though, with the vast majority of the games spent manipulating objects in the environment.

For indie adventures, I'd recommend most of Wadjet Eye Games' selection - though most of them are on the short side - especially Gemini Rue, which came out earlier this year. The Blackwell series is pretty good, too; it's been a while since I've played The Shivah and I haven't played their other games, so I can't go into more detail there. Another recent game I liked was Grey Matter, which comes from the maker of the Gabriel Knight series and has a similar sort of plot, although it's a bit on the easy side. The Syberia series is pretty good and is probably the set of games that comes closest to the feeling of The Longest Journey out of the ones I've listed.

The Dark Fall series, the Penumbra series (minus the last one), and Amnesia: The Dark Descent are all good games if you're into horror, although only the Dark Fall series are what I'd consider "pure" adventure games (the others have some action/FPS elements). I personally prefer them in terms of horror, too, although I seem to be in the minority opinion there. I've also heard good things about the Clock Tower series as far as horror goes, too, though I haven't played them.

Speaking of games I haven't played/finished, a lot of people recommend Phantasmagoria, though it has some content that wouldn't be forum-appropriate if you're planning an LP (which I'm guessing you are from the thread title). Machinarium, too, though I'm told it's on the easy side. And people keep encouraging me to play Azrael's Tear, though I know next to nothing about it due to trying to avoid spoilers.

Aside from that, if you're in an old-school mood, I enjoyed most of the old Sierra and Infocom adventure games, especially the Quest for Glory (more of an adventure/RPG hybrid), Gabriel Knight, and text-based Zork series (note that the Zork games mentioned previously are graphical). Keep in mind that some of these are quite unforgiving in terms of difficulty, and some - especially the second and third GK games - have bizarre, illogical puzzles. Also, the sense of humor in them may or may not appeal to you (Sierra's workers, in particular, were very fond of puns in many of their series).

I'll probably come up with some more suggestions before I get back on later. It might help narrow it down if you gave some more details about what you're looking for - for instance, do you prefer point-and-click games, keyboard movement, or text parsers? First person or third person POV? Puzzle-heavy or story-/atmosphere-oriented games (not that the two are mutually exclusive, but most adventure gamers tend to fall into predictable patterns of the games they'll prefer based on this distinction)? A serious story or a humorous one? Is there a lower boundary on the level of graphics you'd be willing to play? It also would help if you confirm whether or not you're planning an LP, and if so, would it be video or text? (Some of the games I've mentioned would not be very conducive to a text LP because, for instance, they have a lot of dialogue and no subtitles or an atmosphere that wouldn't "translate" well. And some, like The Shivah, probably wouldn't be allowed under the forum rules.)

Edit: Argh, punctuation+grammar+migraine = :smallsigh:. Will make this post more readable later.

[Azaran]

What about the "Runaway" -series from the spanish Pendulo studios?
They are quite famous in the german adventure community.
The first one is in my opinion a cult classic. The story is not that special and interesting (compared to TLJ), but they have amazing and hilarious characters in all three games.
Just make sure you get the "second edition" on DVD. The first CD release got a few problems with its copy protection on newer systems.
Stay at first from the second (even if you find it cheap in electronic stores).
Its story was confusing and ended with an annoying cliff hanger.
Another classic would be "Broken Sword" (deutsch: Baphomeths Fluch)
The first two (especially the first) were amazing and far from the crappy puzzle design they chose in three.

[Cespenar]

I really want to play an adventure again.

I still have The Longest Journey half finished and Beyond Good and Evil lying around, but I'm somehow not quite in the mood for them.
I havn't been up to game releases except RPGs for years, so I have no idea what games are out there. Anything you could recommend?

But... if you have TLJ only half finished, that means... you never got started on Dreamfall?!

:smalleek:

[Yora]

Somehow I was under the impression that that game isn't very good.
Reviews were very mixed and I think the mentioned shortcommings did not make it sound like a game for me.

[Comet]

Dreamfall is by no means bad. Not quite as good as the Longest Journey, maybe, but still a lot of fun.

Never got around to finishing it, though. Probably because I heard the ending is somewhat lacking in resolution and any sequels are unlikely to come out anytime soon. Still, a fun game.

Can't come up with anything not already mentioned. Gabriel Knight is ace, though, so do give it a go if you can.

edit: Actually, I did come up with something that I'm pretty sure wasn't mentioned previously.

Yahtzee Croshaw's Chzo Mythos series of point and click supernatural mysteries. Four games, the story starts off as a pretty simple ghost mystery but evolves into a centuries spanning cosmic horror story. Good stuff, made Yahtzee famous-ish before all this Zero Punctuation commotion.

[Cespenar]

Somehow I was under the impression that that game isn't very good.
Reviews were very mixed and I think the mentioned shortcommings did not make it sound like a game for me.

If you care about the story more than the gameplay, Dreamfall is one of the games that can go far as any game can.

Seriously. I would rate it close to Planescape: Torment, and it's well, Planescape.

[Mx.Silver]

If you care about the story more than the gameplay, Dreamfall is one of the games that can go far as any game can.


Well, to be fair it's more a case of not caring about gameplay at all. To stick with the Torment example, PS:T is often criticised for it's combat being a bit poor (mainly on account of the combat UI, btw). Dreamfall's combat system makes it look astounding in comparison. Dreamfall is also notable for having gone full 3-d and really not handling the change well.

[Cespenar]

Dreamfall's combat system makes it look astounding in comparison. Dreamfall is also notable for having gone full 3-d and really not handling the change well.

Funny. I recall the combat system being above-par, and the visuals nothing short of breathtaking (for its time), but to each its own, I guess.

[Mx.Silver]

Funny. I recall the combat system being above-par,
Then I'd hate to see what you consider par for the course :smalltongue:


and the visuals nothing short of breathtaking (for its time), but to each its own, I guess.
Oh the visuals were fine. The problem was in how the controls handled (especially the inventory).

[Eldan]

See, I still think proper adventures shouldn't have combat systems at all.

[Mewtarthio]

Well, to be fair it's more a case of not caring about gameplay at all. To stick with the Torment example, PS:T is often criticised for it's combat being a bit poor (mainly on account of the combat UI, btw). Dreamfall's combat system makes it look astounding in comparison. Dreamfall is also notable for having gone full 3-d and really not handling the change well.

Plus we have the Alvane levels, which mostly consist of you making Alvane walk fifteen feet to the next cutscene. Basically, it helps if you think of Dreamfall as an epic, computer-animated movie instead of a game. It really is an astounding work of art, but you don't really play it so much as you watch it.

That's not a criticism, by the way. I think that was awesome and we should have more "interactive movies" like that. It's just a warning.

[Sipex]

What sort of adventure are you looking for? Huge world to explore and travel in sort of thing?

[Yora]

No, much rather linear story with good puzzles.

[Sipex]

Ah, okay.

Linear Story with good puzzles, no big world exploration.

You could go retro and play Wild Arms 1 for the playstation 1 if you haven't tried it yet. Good quality RPG with great puzzles.

[Yora]

That seems a lot more like an RPG with turn based combat and special combat abilities.

[Cespenar]

Also from Psychonaut's earlier post, I would second... almost all of the LucasArts adventures, Sanitarium, Syberia 1&2, and Machinarium.

But srsly, TLJ and Dreamfall are above them all, maybe except Grim Fandango and Sanitarium. Maybe. I'm likely to be sounding fanboyish or grinding here, but all I'm saying is you'd do yourself a favor if you'd gather your willpower and return to them.

Oh, and also, there have been a new Monkey Island game since the four, namely Tales of Monkey Island. Not great, but good.

[Sipex]

That seems a lot more like an RPG with turn based combat and special combat abilities.

It's strong points are it's puzzles but it is also an RPG, yes. If you want something which is more along the lines of just puzzles I'm not sure if I have anything new which hasn't been mentioned here already.

edit: You could look into the Professor Layton line of games, they're basically a mystery/investigation game supplemented with hundreds of puzzles and brain teasers.

[Thane of Fife]

Commercial game -wise, I'd recommend Starship: Titanic, which is noteworthy for being Douglas Adams and for having an excellent conversation system.

Free game-wise, I thought Tale of Two Kingdoms was excellent, and there is a series of games under the Ben Jordan name which are also interesting.