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Adventure Games Thread 2021 - The Future of Fine Leather Jackets

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Welcome to the 2021 NeoGAF Adventure Games thread! This thread is community for discussing all things pertaining to the adventure game genre, as well as a resource for keeping track of news and the latest releases. 2020 was, for my money, one of the best years for adventure games I can remember. With an abundance of great titles: from the imaginative south African wasteland of Beautiful Desolation, to the heartfelt Scandinavian folklore of Roki, or even the mind bending creativity of There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension. Not to mention the largely appreciated return of Robert Foster & Joey in Beyond a Steel Sky. 2020 may have been a horrible year for a number of reasons, but adventure gaming certainly wasn't one of them. Let's hope that trend can continue into this new year (the good adventure games, not the horrible everything else).

What are Adventure Games? - They are a genre of narrative games that consist of exploration, story and puzzle or problem solving. Adventure games are distinct from other genres in that the gameplay is narrative lead. Whereas, in a puzzle game, the solution is set by logic independent of whatever narrative may or may not be included (such as matching 3 colors or lining up shapes to create an image, etc), in an adventure game narrative context determines which solution is correct. Drugging Elaine's pet poodles is the "correct" solution in The Secret of Monkey Island because of the scenario the game's narrative presents, same for presenting a particular piece of evidence to contradict a witness in Ace Attorney.

Due to this unique aspect of adventure game design the genre is host to all sorts of unique stories and worlds that couldn't fit within the mold of other games. For this, as well as many other reasons, adventures have sustained a dedicated niche of gamers who play them for those unique experiences and unforgettable worlds.

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Early Years - 70's ~ 80's
The genesis of adventure games was the text adventure. In recent years referred to as interactive fiction or "IF." These games contained no graphical element aside from text on a screen but nevertheless set the foundation of what the genre would later become. The genre's namesake is derived from "Colossal Cave Adventure," which released in 1976 and developed by Will Crowther. Players would explore locations, navigate mazes and solve puzzles by inputting commands into a text parser. The most notable developer of this era was Infocom. Which developed games like: "Zork," "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" and "Planetfall."

Graphical Years - 80's ~ 90's
Eventually computer technology would advance sufficiently to allow the genre's next leap. Legendary game developer, Roberta Williams, created the graphic adventure in 1980 with the release of "Mystery House." At the start, these games were still very similar to text adventures. Only now with an accompaniment of crude, static artwork to represent where you were and what you did. Williams, and her company Sierra, would innovate on this with their seminal "King's Quest" series. Which added player controlled movement and a more dynamic game world. In 1987 Ron Gilbert would popularize the influential point & click interface for graphic adventures with the early Lucas Arts classic "Maniac Mansion."

Golden Years - 90's ~ 00's
As technology continued the advance, allowing for a more sophisticated audio-visual experience, and developers like Lucas Arts and Sierra found their footing; adventure games entered a golden age of top quality releases. When most people think of "adventure games" chances are they're thinking of a title from this era. In 1990 LucasArts released The Secret of Monkey Island which to this day is still one of the most influential and highly revered games of all time. LucasArts would establish itself as the masters of the adventure genre through a string of classic releases like: "Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis," "Sam & Max: Hit The Road" and "Day of The Tentacle" just to name a few. Sierra would release many of it's most beloved and successful titles such as: "King's Quest VI: Heir Today Gone Tomorrow," "Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and The Time Rippers" and "Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers."

Other prominent developers would also make notable contributions like Revolution Software's "Broken Sword" series and Infocom's "The Longest Journey." In addition to Seirra and LucasArts iterating on their formula, a lot of experimentation occurred during these years. In 1993 Cyan Worlds released "Myst." Its distinct visuals and narrative approach of exploring a mostly vacant world spawned a vast legion of imitators. Myst would go on to become the highest selling PC game of all time until being surpassed by The Sims in 2002. However, not all experiments yielded positive results. At the end of the 90's more developers were focusing on fleeting trends like FMV and struggling with early 3D development. This would set the stage for the next period of the genre's history.

Dead Years - 00's ~ 10's
In the late 90's many developers, in attempt to keep pace with the ever increasing technical fidelity of ascendant genres like the FPS, scoped up production budgets and transitioned to 3D development. Something that they struggled with producing clunky, visually ugly games like "Simon The Sorcerer 3D" or "Gabriel Knight 3." Famously, LucasArts' Grim Fandango under performed, despite a bigger budget, longer development time and even attaining great critical reception. In 2003 LucasArts formally halted it's production of adventure games, cancelling the then in development Sam & Max sequel as well as the planned sequel to Full Throttle.

In 2005 Ron Gilbert wrote, on his blog, "From first hand experience I can tell you that if you even utter the words 'Adventure Game' in a meeting with a publisher you can just pack up your spiffy concept art and leave. You'd get a better reaction by announcing that you have the plague."

However, despite this, adventure games never really died. In the mid 00's the genre enjoyed a miniature resurgence on the Nintendo DS with games like "Hotel Dusk: Room 215," "Another Code: Two Memories" and "Ace Attorney" among others. European developers Microids and Pendulo continued to develop popular games such as: "Syberia," "Still Life" and "Runaway: A Road Adventure". Some of which sold millions of copies. David Cage's Quantic Dream studio would take inspiration from Westwood's 1997 Blade Runner to make games like Indigo Prophecy. Eventually breaking into the mainstream with Heavy Rain. Freeware development tools like Chris Jones' Adventure Game Studio made small scale, DIY, development accessible for many. Which resulted in an entire underground scene of adventure games.

Meanwhile, in 2004, Ex-LucasArts developers would come together to form TellTale Games. Starting small and innovating with an episodic formula. A sign of things to come.

Revival Years - 10's ~ Now
Three major changes happened around the same time in the early 10's that brought adventures back from the "dead." Those were the rise of Telltale Games, indie development gaining prominence and Kickstarter. In the late 00's TellTale had been making its moderately successful episodic adventure games. They enjoyed good reviews and at that time their most popular game, Back to the Future, sold 500,000 units. This modest success would be eclipsed with the release of 2012's The Walking Dead. Taking notes from Quantic Dream, TellTale updated their formula. They simplified puzzles, adopted a darker tone and implemented choice and branching narrative mechanics. Their new take on the genre, at least initially, proved to be a massive success. The Walking Dead sold 28 million episodes and won many GOTY awards.

Also in 2012, Tim Schafer and his Double Fine studio would launch a KickStarter campaign. Initially asking for a modest budget of 300,000 dollars and an additional 100,000 dollars to produce a companion documentary series. However, "Double Fine Adventure" exceeded all expectations when their record breaking crowdfund campaign brought in 3.3 million dollars from over 80k backers. Double Fine had managed to subvert game publishers and show there was still a sizable demand for adventure games. This would inspire a massive wave of crowdfunding campaigns for games like "Broken Sword 5," "Thimbleweed Park" and "Kentucky Route Zero."

These first two changes in conjunction helped shape a new narrative in gaming. Publications that had previously mused over the death of adventures were now saying "adventures are back!" Which, along with the overall increasing popularity of indie games, helped give attention to the scene of DIY developers who had been chugging along for years keeping the genre alive using tools like Adventure Game Studio.

However, the successes of The Walking Dead and Double Fine's crowdfund campaign ultimately weren't sustained. After the overnight rise of TellTale, mismanagement and creative stagnation resulted in declining sales. Eventually culminating in the studio's closure in 2018. Broken Age, the game that DFA became was a good effort, but delays and an underwhelming 2nd act disappointed many fans. KickStarters were, overall, very hit or miss. The genre's comeback deflated somewhat after that initial spike of hype. But really it's more like things just leveled out a bit. The state of adventure games currently is a very good one, especially for fans. Every year there's a flood of cool games to play. You just might have to dig a bit to find some of them.


But that's what this thread is for, anyway.

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Syberia: The World Before - Microids - 2021 - (Steam) (GOG)


The Night Is Grey - WhaleStork Interactive - 2021 -
(Steam)


Dordogne - UN JE NE SAIS QUOI - 2021 - (Steam) (GOG)


Kapia - 2 FOR 2 - 2021 Q2 -
(Steam)


Saint Kotar - Red Martyr Entertainment - August 2021 -
(Steam) (GOG)


Encodya - Chaosmonger Studio - January 26th 2021 -
(Steam) (GOG)


Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER - MidBoss, LLC - 2021 - (Steam)


NORCO - Geography of Robots - 2021 -
(Steam)


Kathy Rain Director's Cut - Clifftop Games - 2021 -
(Steam)


Strangeland - Wormwood Studios - May 25th 2021 -
(Steam)
 
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Rosewater - Grundislav Games - 2021 - (Steam) (GOG)


Happy Game - Amanita Design - Spring 2021
(Steam)


The Medium - Bloober Team - January 28th 2021 -
(Steam) (GOG)


Theropods - Tinystuffz - 2021 - (Steam)


Twelve Minutes - Luis Antonio - August 19th 2021 - (Steam)


Rauniot - Act Normal Games - 2021 - (Steam)


INCANTAMENTUM - Cloak and Dagger Games - Q2 2021 - (Steam)


Papetura - Petums - May 7th 2021 - (Steam)


TOHU - Fireart Games - January 28th 2021 - (Steam) (GOG)


The Darkside Detective: A Fumble In The Dark - Spooky Doorway - 2021 - (Steam)
(GOG)
 
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Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit - Tag of Joy - 2021 - (Steam)


Forever Ago - Third Shift - 2021 - (Steam)


Lake - Gamious - September 1st 2021 - (Steam)


Perfect Tides - Three Bees - 2021


Genesis Noir - Feral Cat Den - 2021 - (Steam)


Dexter Stardust - Sea Monster Media - 2021


Whateverland - Caligari Games - 2021 - (Steam) (GOG)


Brok The InvestiGator- COWCAT - 2021 - (Steam) (GOG)


Massive Galaxy - Massive Galaxy Studios - 2021 - (Steam)


Growbot - Wabisabi Play - Spring 2021 - (Steam)
(GOG)
 
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Backbone - EggNut - June 8th 2021 - (Steam)


Chinatown Detective Agency - General Interactive Co. - Summer 2021 - (Steam)


Re:ZERO Starting Life in Another World The Prophecy of the Throne - Chime Corporation - January 27th 2021 - (Steam)


3 Minutes To Midnight - Scarecrow Studios -2021 - (Steam)


Nascence: Anna's Song - Dreampainters Software - 2021 (Steam)


Almost My Floor - Potata Company - 2021 - (Steam)


Brassheart - Hexy Studio - 2021 - (Steam) (GOG)


Cyanide & Happiness: Freakapolypse - Skeleton Crew Studios - Early 2021 - (Steam)


Verne: The Shape of Fantasy - Gametopia - 2021 - (Steam)


The Last Stop - Variable State - 2021 -
(Steam)
 
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Monorail Stories - Stelex Software - 2021 - (Steam)


Born Punk - Insert Disk 22 - 2021 - (Steam) (GOG)


Children of Silentown - Elf Games - 2021 - (Steam)


Nine Noir Lives - Silvermode Studios - H1 2021 - (Steam)


Lost In Play - HappyJuice Games - Mid 2021 - (Steam)


Last Days of Lazarus - Darkania Works - Early 2021 - (Steam)


Rain City - Big Pineapple - January 21st 2021 - (Steam)


Booklice: Prologue - Octavi Navarro - 2021 - (Steam)



Chronicles of Innsmouth: Mountains of Madness - PsychoDev - Q1 2021 -
(Steam)


Port Valley - Wrong Pixel - 2021 -
(Steam)
 
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Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood - Devespresso Games - February 2021 - (Steam)


Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries - Outsider Games - 2021 -
(Steam)


Cats and the Other Lives - Cultic Games - 2021 -
(Steam)


Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind & The Missing Heir - Nintendo - May 14th 2021


Imposter Factory - Freebird Games - Spring 2021 -
(Steam)


Life Is Strange: True Colors - Deck Nine - September 10th 2021 - (Steam)


Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - Capcom - July 27th 2021



Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View - White Paper Games - December 2nd 2021 - (Steam)




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This section is intended for people who are new to playing adventure games. In the past adventure games have been stigmatized as being obtuse or having unforgiving puzzles, while there is a degree of truth to this (particularly for older games), it's far from the overall truth. So, with that in mind this is a list of adventure games, sorted by difficulty. Each game is suited to newcomers looking to get their feet wet with the genre.

Roki - Medium Difficulty
If there was a game scientifically engineered for the purpose of acclimatizing a new player to classic adventure games, it would be Roki. Or at least it would be damn close. It's got a damn near perfect difficulty curve, slowly layering new mechanics and concepts as the game world opens up over time. Anyone should be able to play Roki and afterward you'll likely be in ship shape to tackle some of the adventure game classics like Secret of Monkey Island or Fate of Atlantis. Superb design aside, Roki is also a treat for the eyes and has a genuinely heartfelt story based on Scandinavian folklore. It was one of my favorite games of 2020 and I whole heartedly recommend that anyone give it a try.

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Full Throttle - Medium Difficulty
One of the later LucasArts entries, Full Throttle is also among the least punishing 90's adventures in general. There's a few rough edges here and there (kicking the wall to reveal a secret entrance) but they've mostly been smoothed over with the excellent Double Fine remaster. If you want a taste for the unbridled creativity and world class writing of classic era LucasArts, Full Throttle is a great place to start.

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The Shivah - Easy Difficulty
The Shivah is a short and simple game, clocking in at around 2~3 hours depending on how you fare against it's mostly easy puzzles. But what The Shivah lacks in complexity it more than makes up for in heart. Good thing, too, because you may need some spare heart when yours is broken after playing this game. The tragic story of Rabbi Stone, trying to unravel the mysterious death of an ex-member of his synagogue, after being left a large sum of money in his will despite their relationship ending on bad terms. The Shivah is a fine example of gameplay intelligently woven into a narrative and the first sign of greatness from Dave Gilbert. Who would go on to make classics like the Blackwell series and Unavowed. I'd go for this if you're looking for a good game that wont take up too much of your time.

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Here's some cool adventure game related media that you might be interested in checking out. Various content creators that cover or do entertainment based on adventure games.

Pushing Up Roses
Hands down the best adventure focused content creator on YouTube. Roses does various retrospectives, let's play's and video essays based on adventure games. She has a particular affinity for the classic Sierra games but there's a bit of everything on her channel. Lately she's been branching out to other topics but there's still a massive amount of adventure related content in the archives.

Mostly Walking
A weekly series dedicated to playing and riffing on adventure games hosted (in part) by popular Twitch streamer Day9. This show is part Let's Play series and part podcast. Expect many humorous anecdotes that, at times, are entirely unrelated to the game they're playing. What makes it work is that the three co-hosts Sean Plott (Day9), Sean Bloom and Leigh Graner have really solid chemistry. They're funny dudes. You could consider this as much a podcast as a Let's Play series. For some, the tangents may go on long but it's well worth checking out.

Adventure Game Geek
A series of comedic reviews for classic adventure games in the vein of AVGN or old TGWTG reviewers. The reason why I like AGG's content is because his comedy is absurdly cheesy but he's well aware of that and plays into it for his gags. I find his videos have an early internet like charm to them. How YouTube content used to be before things got so produced. He also plays a lot of obscure ass games I'd never had heard of otherwise, which is cool too. But really it's all about that theme song, tho.

Stu The Adventure Brummie
Similar to AGG, Stu also comedic adventure game reviews, but in his own distinct Brummie style. This is a newer channel without too many videos yet but he's already got some good content under his built and it's been getting better with each video. A good mix of informative and funny.

Grimbeard Diaries
A reviewer that focuses on darker "grim" games. Not exclusively adventure game content but like PUR, they comprise the majority of the reviews. Not only is the comedy on this channel extremely funny (think a more macabre Plinkett review) but Grimbeard Diaries also focuses on more obscure games, primarily, so you can also learn about games you otherwise might have never heard of. One of my favorite gaming channels in general.

YakWaxLips
Chill channel that covers adventure game news, commentates over newly released trailers and does the occasional podcast/interview. Good place to discover some new adventure games that might've flown under your radar.

Assorted Content
Who Shot Guybrush Threepwood? - A 3 part series of fairly deep musings on the adventure game genre. One of the better video essays on the subject I've seen.
War Stories: How Blade Runner Reinvented Adventure Games - Cool mini doc on the making and impact of Westwood's 1997 Blade Runner.
War Stories: How Myst Almost Couldn't Run on a CD-ROM - Another great episode of War Stories detailing the technical challenges behind the production of Myst.
RetroAhoy: The Secret of Monkey Island - Full length, well produced documentary about the history of Monkey Island as well as the adventure genre in general.
The Amazing Story of The Dig - 30 minute documentary video about The Dig's sordid production history.
The Making of Monkey Island (30tth Anniversary Documentary) - In depth behind the scenes look at the creation of SoMI. Be sure to check out the supplementary interviews as well.


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Beautiful Desolation
Members of the AdventureGAF community voted on a list of 2020's best adventure games. The winner of this vote was Beautiful Desolation! The third game from THE BROTHERHOOD, Beautiful Desolation had one of the most unique and arresting game worlds of the year, if not recent memory. So much care and detail was put into the setting, it's inhabitants and it's lore that Beautiful Desolation became a game that was hard to say goodbye to and impossible to forget. A well deserving winner for the 2020 adventure game of the year!
 
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protonion

Member
Following the thread like always.

Adventures is one of my favourite genres since I played Simon the Sorcerer on my Amiga (1994 iirc).
My first purchase this year will be Tohu today.
It has a small psplus discount and it looks a lot like Machinarium. I read it is pretty hard also but a bit short.
 
The Cockatrice The Cockatrice I'm playing through Titanic: Adventure Out of Time right now but after I'm finished with that it's either Encodya or The Medium next. You looking forward to Strangeland? I have a feeling that might be something special.

protonion protonion TOHU looks adorable, interested to know what you think when you get around to it.
 

ShadowNate

Member
Nice new thread!

As far as I know, Swery's game "The Good Life" is scheduled to be released some time in Summer 2021 (probably a tentative timeframe, but still).


I read that the Switch-only DP prequel/sequel was a disaster, but this one looks more promising. (Also DP didn't really need a sequel, it just needed a proper PC build that we never really got, since the Director's Cut is some garbage performance wise and has the additional cutscenes that were kind of unnecessary)
 
The Cockatrice The Cockatrice I'm playing through Titanic: Adventure Out of Time right now but after I'm finished with that it's either Encodya or The Medium next. You looking forward to Strangeland? I have a feeling that might be something special.

protonion protonion TOHU looks adorable, interested to know what you think when you get around to it.

I dont know. Primordia had a great atmosphere but thats about it that I enjoyed about it. This looks like it'll have the same kind of atmosphere but hopefully they'll do something a little bit more about the gameplay. In the description they say it's just a 5 hour adventure with multiple choices but guess we'll see. Keeping my eye on it.
 

protonion

Member
The Cockatrice The Cockatrice I'm playing through Titanic: Adventure Out of Time right now but after I'm finished with that it's either Encodya or The Medium next. You looking forward to Strangeland? I have a feeling that might be something special.

protonion protonion TOHU looks adorable, interested to know what you think when you get around to it.

Played around half hour of Tohu. 5-6 screens.
Its beautiful and has a lovely soundtrack.

If you like Machinarium you will like this. Same kind of puzzles. Also every screen has a lot of interactive spots (ie animals that react to clicks or even the presence of the mouse pointer).
The puzzles even this early got really tricky. There is a hint system but I will avoid it.
At 11-12 EUR it is a safe choice.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Yeah I recently discovered Encodya on Steam and it looks brilliant on the screenshots and gameplay footage. I'll probably pick it up.
 
Played around half hour of Tohu. 5-6 screens.
Its beautiful and has a lovely soundtrack.

If you like Machinarium you will like this. Same kind of puzzles. Also every screen has a lot of interactive spots (ie animals that react to clicks or even the presence of the mouse pointer).
The puzzles even this early got really tricky. There is a hint system but I will avoid it.
At 11-12 EUR it is a safe choice.

So it's not as casual as it looks? Some reviewers said it's very easy and that kinda put me off a bit. I need my brain teased a bit.
 

Kazza

Member
Nice thread, it was worth the wait!

Wow, there are a lot of games coming out in 2021. I've already joined the No New Games thread, so won't be buying anything new until Christmastime, but fortunately I already have a few in my backlog:

Beneath a Steel Sky
Broken Age
The Dig
The Longest Journey
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Dreamfall: Chapters
Full Throttle Remastered
Grim Fandango Remastered
Tales of Monkey Island
TechnoBabylon

With the Covid lockdowns still ongoing where I am I should be able to get through at least half of these. Grim Fandango is getting a second chance after I couldn't get into it when the original was released. I think I played a demo of Full Throttle, but never played the full game. I started The Longest Journey last year, but then found out there was a mod that made various improvements, which both made me give up my current game while also making me too lazy to restart a new one with the mod installed (the pitfalls of PC gaming!).

It's a pretty solid list, I think. Thinking about it again, one adventure game per month is a realistic goal, so maybe I will be able to clear my point and click backlog after all.
 

amigastar

Member
Nice thread, it was worth the wait!

Wow, there are a lot of games coming out in 2021. I've already joined the No New Games thread, so won't be buying anything new until Christmastime, but fortunately I already have a few in my backlog:

Beneath a Steel Sky
Broken Age
The Dig
The Longest Journey
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Dreamfall: Chapters
Full Throttle Remastered
Grim Fandango Remastered
Tales of Monkey Island
TechnoBabylon

With the Covid lockdowns still ongoing where I am I should be able to get through at least half of these. Grim Fandango is getting a second chance after I couldn't get into it when the original was released. I think I played a demo of Full Throttle, but never played the full game. I started The Longest Journey last year, but then found out there was a mod that made various improvements, which both made me give up my current game while also making me too lazy to restart a new one with the mod installed (the pitfalls of PC gaming!).

It's a pretty solid list, I think. Thinking about it again, one adventure game per month is a realistic goal, so maybe I will be able to clear my point and click backlog after all.
Grim Fandango is sooo good. My favourite.
Anyways currently playing Detective Gallo. So far so good.
 
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GeorgPrime

Banned
How you guys started playing Adventure games?

I was born 1984 and the first game i played was "Maniac Mansion" on Commodore or Amiga. :)
 
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still no news on


I know... and it hurts. Really impressive demo (that was recently playable again because of Steam's adventure game event) so I always check in for updates but the dev is mostly silent atm.

Nice thread, it was worth the wait!

Wow, there are a lot of games coming out in 2021. I've already joined the No New Games thread, so won't be buying anything new until Christmastime, but fortunately I already have a few in my backlog:

Beneath a Steel Sky
Broken Age
The Dig
The Longest Journey
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Dreamfall: Chapters
Full Throttle Remastered
Grim Fandango Remastered
Tales of Monkey Island
TechnoBabylon

With the Covid lockdowns still ongoing where I am I should be able to get through at least half of these. Grim Fandango is getting a second chance after I couldn't get into it when the original was released. I think I played a demo of Full Throttle, but never played the full game. I started The Longest Journey last year, but then found out there was a mod that made various improvements, which both made me give up my current game while also making me too lazy to restart a new one with the mod installed (the pitfalls of PC gaming!).

It's a pretty solid list, I think. Thinking about it again, one adventure game per month is a realistic goal, so maybe I will be able to clear my point and click backlog after all.
A lot of fantastic games on that list. Grim Fandango is a for sure classic and the remaster's new controls might help you enjoy the game. It is one of those games with some straight up walk-through bait puzzles (like 4 of them imo). Still in my top 10, though. Tales of Monkey Island is super under rated imo and I think my feelings on Technobabylon, at this point, are pretty clear. I'd go for TB next, especially if your in the mood for Sci-Fi.

One adventure game a month is a pretty reasonable backlog gameplan. A lot of them are 10 hours max, then there's cases like DoTT or Full Throttle that are more like 5~7, so it's very doable. Look forward to seeing your thoughts when you play through some of those games.

How you guys started playing Adventure games?

I was born 1984 and the first game i played was "Maniac Mansion" on Commodore or Amiga. :)

That's awesome. Having gone back and played a lot of older PC games in the past two or three years (mostly 90's adventure games) I appreciate that era deeply. There's so much creativity in that time period and things felt a lot less "focus tested."

I got into the genre around '06-ish through the wave of games that came out on the Nintendo DS. First one I played through was Trace Memory (adore that game), next was Ace Attorney and from there it was off to the races. Not too long after, the Monkey Island remaster in '09 came out and from there I got more into the classic LucasArts games... Years later I'm 100s of adventures deep and nothing stops this train!!!
 

Kazza

Member
How you guys started playing Adventure games?

I was born 1984 and the first game i played was "Maniac Mansion" on Commodore or Amiga. :)

I was very young at the time (I'm an 80s kid too), but my first ones were probably the Lucasarts games, such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Monkey Island. I used to play them on my older brother's Amiga, and they made a nice change of pace from the more arcadey experiences on my Master System and Megadrive. I even used to create my own adenture games, drawing different scenes on paper and thinking up puzzles, stories and characters.

As GAF becomes more and more active, I find myself appreciating these community-style threads more and more. It's nice to escape from the console wars and politics and just talk about the games we enjoy. Here's to a good 2021 in adventure gaming!
 

GreenAlien

Member
Just playing Mists of Aiden (formerly House on the Hill) right now. It's a horror themed walking simulator where you "explore" a spooky house to steal a trinket. I say "explore" because you are guided through most of it by a voice via walkie talkie. You can sometimes deviate from that guidance, but I'm not sure it makes a difference. Like right at the beginning I triggered the house alarm on purpose but I think I just got a short alternate dialogue.
There are multiple short stories (five!?) that you get to play in order. After each "end/escape" from the house time reverses (or something) and you get to follow a different path.
The first run was pretty scary. The second run was alright, the third was boring.. All three were very different from each other. I haven't done four and five yet.

Average play time seems to be ~3h so it's a pretty short game.
 
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Photo development puzzles are following me from adventure to adventure. If Encodya has a photo development puzzle I'll officially consider this a haunting.
 

e0n

Member
I wonder if Terrible Toybox is going to announce a game soon. Thimbleweed was in 2017 and it was quite good.
 
e0n e0n

They kind of "announced" a game informally back in August by putting out a call for new pixel artist for an adventure game.


How does it hold up? I remember picking it up at Price Club (Costco) back in the day and loving it. I never got very far, but I loved just wandering around the Titanic.

I liked it a lot. More than I expected to, actually. I sort of went into it thinking it would be a fun, off the beaten path, 90s adventure akin to Heart of China but looking past the meme worthy character portraits (and they're amazingly meme worthy) there's a legitimately engaging pulp political espionage story. Design wise it's really strong, too. Which is really good because even half a pixel hunt in an adventure game with an area this big would have been a worse disaster than the real Titanic. It's actually pretty forward thinking, there's even fast travel. So it ended up being a satisfying middle ground where I never felt lost but I didn't feel as though my hand was held either. At this point I feel like I could make my way around the real Titanic lol.

I've read there's multiple endings, in the one I got Hitler becomes a famous art dealer but communist take over Europe and kill you at the end of the game lmao. But I liked the game enough that I'll go back eventually and try to see the rest.
 
So I started playing Encodya and I'm bouncing off it for now. It's got some of the worst pixel hunting I've encountered in a long time, certainly in a modern adventure game. It reminds me of early Pendulo games that seemed to regard pixel hunting as a core pillar of adventure design rather than an unintended flaw of some classic games. I'd give a generous estimate and say that roughly 100% of the times I've been stuck on a puzzle it's because I'm missing an intentionally obscured object and not because of lateral thinking. There's an easy mode with a hint system and hotspot highlight but it's basically pointless. The hint system only gives you obvious advice you'd already have considered if you're stuck enough to want a hint and the hotspot "highlight" isn't so much a highlight as a hotspot dim glow. Plus, it only highlights items you can pick up rather than all interactable objects. So if an item you need is contained within something else (like a box or a trashcan) you can't pick up, it won't highlight that.




Another, less frequent, issue is that Encodya is one of those games where it feels like there are multiple extremely valid solutions to certain puzzles that the game just won't recognize. Not fringe solutions that could possibly work if you're reaching hard enough, common sense solutions where the character doesn't even offer an expository line explaining away why it wouldn't be valid.

It seems like an okay enough game overall. It's gorgeous without a doubt. The story seems decent so far(despite inconsistent VA) and the writing can be funny when it's not trying so hard to be meta and referential (occasional groan worthy 4th wall breaking) but I don't have the patience to put up with its design issues right now, especially with The Medium right there for me to play.

I intended to pick it back up later on, maybe I'll be feeling more patient and these issues wont weigh so heavily. For right now, though, not too impressed with it.
 

Fuz

Banned
So I started playing Encodya and I'm bouncing off it for now. It's got some of the worst pixel hunting I've encountered in a long time, certainly in a modern adventure game. It reminds me of early Pendulo games that seemed to regard pixel hunting as a core pillar of adventure design rather than an unintended flaw of some classic games. I'd give a generous estimate and say that roughly 100% of the times I've been stuck on a puzzle it's because I'm missing an intentionally obscured object and not because of lateral thinking. There's an easy mode with a hint system and hotspot highlight but it's basically pointless. The hint system only gives you obvious advice you'd already have considered if you're stuck enough to want a hint and the hotspot "highlight" isn't so much a highlight as a hotspot dim glow. Plus, it only highlights items you can pick up rather than all interactable objects. So if an item you need is contained within something else (like a box or a trashcan) you can't pick up, it won't highlight that.




Another, less frequent, issue is that Encodya is one of those games where it feels like there are multiple extremely valid solutions to certain puzzles that the game just won't recognize. Not fringe solutions that could possibly work if you're reaching hard enough, common sense solutions where the character doesn't even offer an expository line explaining away why it wouldn't be valid.

It seems like an okay enough game overall. It's gorgeous without a doubt. The story seems decent so far(despite inconsistent VA) and the writing can be funny when it's not trying so hard to be meta and referential (occasional groan worthy 4th wall breaking) but I don't have the patience to put up with its design issues right now, especially with The Medium right there for me to play.

I intended to pick it back up later on, maybe I'll be feeling more patient and these issues wont weigh so heavily. For right now, though, not too impressed with it.

 

XD when you're right, you're right. Gonna play through the rest of the game at some point and see if it picks up some.
 
So I started playing Encodya and I'm bouncing off it for now. It's got some of the worst pixel hunting I've encountered in a long time, certainly in a modern adventure game. It reminds me of early Pendulo games that seemed to regard pixel hunting as a core pillar of adventure design rather than an unintended flaw of some classic games. I'd give a generous estimate and say that roughly 100% of the times I've been stuck on a puzzle it's because I'm missing an intentionally obscured object and not because of lateral thinking. There's an easy mode with a hint system and hotspot highlight but it's basically pointless. The hint system only gives you obvious advice you'd already have considered if you're stuck enough to want a hint and the hotspot "highlight" isn't so much a highlight as a hotspot dim glow. Plus, it only highlights items you can pick up rather than all interactable objects. So if an item you need is contained within something else (like a box or a trashcan) you can't pick up, it won't highlight that.




Another, less frequent, issue is that Encodya is one of those games where it feels like there are multiple extremely valid solutions to certain puzzles that the game just won't recognize. Not fringe solutions that could possibly work if you're reaching hard enough, common sense solutions where the character doesn't even offer an expository line explaining away why it wouldn't be valid.

It seems like an okay enough game overall. It's gorgeous without a doubt. The story seems decent so far(despite inconsistent VA) and the writing can be funny when it's not trying so hard to be meta and referential (occasional groan worthy 4th wall breaking) but I don't have the patience to put up with its design issues right now, especially with The Medium right there for me to play.

I intended to pick it back up later on, maybe I'll be feeling more patient and these issues wont weigh so heavily. For right now, though, not too impressed with it.


Damn it. Guess visuals cant really carry a game. This is why I dislike a lot of p&c adventure games. Instead of actually giving users creative, brain-teasing puzzles they cheese it with ridiculous nonsensical item combinations and pixel hunting bs. I love the genre but man it needs to evolve and I'll never stop saying it. I want to try the Medium but it looks boring as hell and overpriced. My only hope is in Saint Kotar, Strangeland and Mutropolis and maybe some other surprises but so far I'm kinda meh. I need an adventure in similar scope to Broken Sword, going around the world, solving a huge mystery and stuff like that.
 
Damn it. Guess visuals cant really carry a game. This is why I dislike a lot of p&c adventure games. Instead of actually giving users creative, brain-teasing puzzles they cheese it with ridiculous nonsensical item combinations and pixel hunting bs. I love the genre but man it needs to evolve and I'll never stop saying it. I want to try the Medium but it looks boring as hell and overpriced. My only hope is in Saint Kotar, Strangeland and Mutropolis and maybe some other surprises but so far I'm kinda meh. I need an adventure in similar scope to Broken Sword, going around the world, solving a huge mystery and stuff like that.

Just to be entirely fair to Encodya I want to make it clear I only played through the first part of the game. I can't speak to the quality overall. If I had to guess, my assumption would be that not much changes design wise throughout the game but I don't know.

About evolving, I see your point and agree, I always like it when adventure games try new things. I actually think there's a lot of them that do. It's just that typically their innovations don't scale across the entire genre because they're too specific to a particular game's scenario for that. That being said legit all of Encodya's issues are things that games had already done better in the 90s. So my issue with it isn't stagnation, it's just sloppy.

A few recent (and upcoming) games that I felt did cool new things have been: Heaven's Vault (amazingly deep lore & unique language translation puzzles), Beyond a Steel Sky (minOS hacking puzzles), Chinatown Detective Agency (incorporating real world research into puzzles) and Twelve Minutes (time loop mechanic).

And if you're looking for an adventure game to scratch the Broken Sword itch, frogmeetsdog frogmeetsdog had just recently gave some glowing remarks for The Hand of Glory in the 2020 thread. It's a game that I had overlooked since the art style didn't jell with me but because of Frog's impressions I'm going to check it out soon. It's supposed to be just the globetrotting mystery adventure you're after.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
So Beneath a Steel Sky 2 ended up being a damp squib, ShenMue 3 didn't meet the hype, and apparently there is a Full Throttle movie script out there....but still to this day we've never got the sequel for that game as we should have done..who's to say the next Indy game by Bethsesda will be as good as Fate of Atlantis?
 

GreenAlien

Member
Small Update about Mists of Aiden. The last 2 routes are only a little better than the third one, so not great. It might be worth it for 60% off.. or maybe just do the first route and return it within the 14 days 2h playtime period.
----
I played A short Hike in the last hour, it's tagged as an adventure game on steam, though it plays a bit like a jump n run collectathon. Movement is way more fun than in point&click adventures or usual walking sims.
You collect feathers for jumping power and some other stuff to get feathers and money (for more feathers) and the goal is to get to the top of a mountain. You can also fly increasingly long thanks to being higher up and having more feathers..

It's very fun, cute, short and was free on epic game store some time ago, so you might already own it.
There is an option to reduce the pixelation, so give that a try if it looks too blocky for you.
 

D.Final

Banned
Small Update about Mists of Aiden. The last 2 routes are only a little better than the third one, so not great. It might be worth it for 60% off.. or maybe just do the first route and return it within the 14 days 2h playtime period.
----
I played A short Hike in the last hour, it's tagged as an adventure game on steam, though it plays a bit like a jump n run collectathon. Movement is way more fun than in point&click adventures or usual walking sims.
You collect feathers for jumping power and some other stuff to get feathers and money (for more feathers) and the goal is to get to the top of a mountain. You can also fly increasingly long thanks to being higher up and having more feathers..

It's very fun, cute, short and was free on epic game store some time ago, so you might already own it.
There is an option to reduce the pixelation, so give that a try if it looks too blocky for you.
Cool
 
And if you're looking for an adventure game to scratch the Broken Sword itch, frogmeetsdog frogmeetsdog frogmeetsdog frogmeetsdog had just recently gave some glowing remarks for The Hand of Glory in the 2020 thread. It's a game that I had overlooked since the art style didn't jell with me but because of Frog's impressions I'm going to check it out soon. It's supposed to be just the globetrotting mystery adventure you're after.

yeah I know of it but the art style is...
No GIF
of all the things they could'ce gone for, even pixelated would've been better, they picked the ugliest possible cartoon style ever. I just can't..
 
Discovered this cool looking indie adventure called Octopus City Blues. It's got a really appealing SNES esque pixel art style with a distinct, surrealistic, night time color palette and macabre sensibilities that remind me of Dropsy.

Ghost in a Bottle is redefining the Octopus City Simulation genre with the announcement of Octopus City Blues, a bizarre adventure about everything and nothing.

What is Octopus City Blues?

The authentic Octopus City Simulation Software, of course! To be precise, it’s an interactive experience in which you get to explore the titular Octopus City, a human settlement built around a giant octopus.

So it’s a game?

It’s game-like at best.

What kind of game?

One of a kind. We draw inspiration from many sources, including games. If it were a game, it’d probably be described as an adventure one. You make difficult decisions, meet weird people and interface with the substance of OCTOBLOOD. The citizens of the city have their own daily schedules, and can interact with the player using the revolutionary GOSSIP and GUILT systems.

What is it about?

You are Kaf Kafkaryan, a cowardly middle-aged Octopus Blood junkie who trims tentacles for a living. Kaf is haunted by bizarre nightmares about a world populated by twisted creatures. To aid the inhabitants of his dreams, he must explore the underside of the towering metropolis and learn more about the seedy lives of its citizens. Along the way he becomes entangled in a conspiracy with far-reaching implications for Octopus City.

The simulation was funded by a Kickstarter campaign in 2013. A playable demo for Windows, OSX and Linux was released in 2014. There’s also a Greenlight campaign to feature the simulation on Steam.

Tell me about Ghost in a Bottle.

We’re a team of Octoblood addicts composed of designer and developer Firas Assaad, artists Marina Navarro Travesset and Sabrina Cámara, and composer Aaron Eason.
Where can I learn more?
This website has plenty of articles and resources for the simulation. You can check the screenshot tag for visual stimulation. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

There's a demo on the game's itch.io page. All the ancillary materials for the game are really charming, written in character as if Octopus City really exists, so it feels like strongly like a passion project. Gonna check the demo out soon and see what it's like. Worth checking out the trailer and some of the media on the website for the art style alone.


Another cool looking game is Mindcop. The announcement trailer shows off an appealing, clean art style with good animation and voice acting. Similar to AI: The Somnium Files or Oniria Crimes, you play as a detective who peers into peoples minds to solve mysteries. Investigating items has a time cost so unlike typical adventures you have to be careful with what you choose to look at.

 

TheMooMan

Banned
I hate that this is the style for the new Wadget game. I'm sure it will be good, but fuck, they nailed the pixel style and I want them to keep doing it :(

Plus Technobabylon 2 is going to be 3D as well.

Hurts my soul.

SI8hckr.jpg
 
I think the environment art we've seen from Old Skies is really gorgeous but the character art is pretty mid. That old guy could really use some contrapposto, his stance is so stiff. I really like the Studio Ghibli-esque colors Ben's been using, though.
 
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