Sense of Adventure?

verbmusic · 08-03-2007, 02:12 AM

Since I was a kid I have loved adventure games. Zork was probably my first and since then, from text based games to text and picture, to text and moving pictures, to animated and then 3d animation, the love affair has continued. But now my precious adventrue has left me and I can't seem to find her.

Why do you think that these sorts of games are not popular these days? Is it because our current generation of consoles and gamers are so graphics driven and 3d based that a game like Myst seems boring to the users? How about a 3d game with a story that was enthralling enough to hold its own without it being a shooter? Is it that hard to find a good story and that much easier to redo Doom again?

I'm interested in your thoughts.

Also, What have been your 3 favorite adventure games?

Pepper Jack · 08-03-2007, 04:30 AM

i dunno about them releasing any more of those, i think you might be right about the graphics thing, there might just not be a large enough target audience for these kinda games. i guess they might release some of the older versions on the arcade or something

Blasterpez · 09-03-2007, 01:16 AM

I know they still come out, but very seldom. One just was released, but on PC, something about orient express, think there was a couple last year too, but all PC. Most reviews mock adventure games, probably because they are generally simplistic, just point and click, with some puzzles (think that is all i did in diablo 1 and 2....hmmmm). But, yeah, i used to love adventure games back in the day, like roger wilco, rex nebular and the cosmic gender bender, and lets not forget lucasarts domination of adventure games in the early 90's with the monkey island, sam and max, and day of the tentacle. would be nice if some of them were remade and re-released.
Don't see many of them on the consoles though. and they are a dying breed on the PC, but it's still the place to find them. I am sure you can find a site somewhere to buy them or download them or something.

Pepper Jack · 09-03-2007, 01:19 AM

some of those games would be perfect candidates for the XBLA in my opinion

Eazy_D · 09-03-2007, 02:14 AM

Erm ever heard of a little game called Oblivion?

Pepper Jack · 09-03-2007, 02:16 AM

all of my friends love that game but i cant stand it, not to say that its not a good game becuase i dunno but i'm not big on adventure games period. i much prefer war games and stuff, which reminds me i'm getting graw 2 today

...but i gotta say, eazy d has a point, oblivion is adventure so if you dont already have it you should probably get it because it sounds like your kinda game

krynnmaliki · 09-03-2007, 04:05 AM

I agree. I have said for years that games have gotten more graphics and less substance. I find most games I can pretty much complete in a couple days. I remember logging hours and hours of time over the course of months on some of the old rpg's. I still remember physically mapping dungeons because of their complexity. That seems so far fetched these days it's laughable. I would like to see games with the thought given to actual game play, setting, and look at them less as a sell copies then come out with a sequal. A quality game that you can play and enjoy over a long period of time.

Maybe it's because of the speed of technology upgrading. Maybe developers figure they should design for the short term because the next line of faster comps is around the corner. What ever the reason it seems the quality of games has been given a back seat so that software companies can keep churning out the same games with a few changes. Just think about how many first person shooters their are, and think of what really is different about them.

verbmusic · 09-03-2007, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eazy_D

Erm ever heard of a little game called Oblivion?

No, when does it come out? It sounds cool.

Just kidding. Oblivion is similar but doesn't have the same feel as the old games. Oblivion has a mechanic that feels like: Go find a person to give you a quest. Do the quest, which probably revolves around fighting. Get something in return. Repeat. And it has a nice open world feel. Cool game but not quite an Adventure game in the classic sense.

The old adventure games are more like movies that you live/play through, not settings with quests and things to kill. It not really about fighting, if there is even any fighting at all.

But when you reference Oblivion, it reminds me of Resident Evil 1. That was a pretty good combonation of action and adventure. I think it created so much mood that it began to feel more like a movie.

Pepper Jack · 09-03-2007, 12:08 PM

yeah when you mention resident evil i definately can relate to that movie thing, i like that feel to the game, when they released the resident evil movie i was hoping that it was just gonna be almost like a 2hr version of the game being played in the sense that it has the same cctv type camera views etc but instead it was just another cheesy action movie with poor special effects

iFester · 09-03-2007, 12:17 PM

That seems to be the common adventure of the 21st century that it has to have some violence in it. Resident Evil, Silent Hill have the story driven film feel to it but there aren't many adventure like games that aren't horror based these days. The Tomb Raider games helped and the new Indiana Jones game might spice things up. Would the Prince of Persia series count as adventure. God of War had the epic feel to it. That would be a good question for the podcast. What constitutes as a modern adventure game for console gamers?

Sharky · 09-03-2007, 03:18 PM

I would like to see remakes of many of the Classic Sierra games... i.e. Space Quest series, King's Quest series, Gabriel Knight series, Phantasmagoria & Shivers series, Quest for Glory series, and Lighthouse: The Dark Being... etc.

OK... that's a big list, but a person can dream can't they!?!

Ohira34 · 09-03-2007, 03:28 PM

get a wii and the new zelda....or wait any of the kotors....or wait for mass effect.....but honestly the majority of people don't have the patience to do those games anymore(myst type games) they like the 30 second sound bite and the get in get out multi player type games...good luck with your "quest" for a good adventure game.

Blasterpez · 10-03-2007, 04:47 AM

I think adventure game refers to the old move your mouse around the screen to find stuff then combine it with other things, movement of your character was almost and option. Like the space quest games mentioned below. You had to find something to do something, sometimes combine 2 things to do that something. You didn't level, just directed your character to a room to sweep it with your mouse. I suppose an RPG could be a subsection of adventure, but it is kind of its own beast...just barely related.
Anyone remember tex murphy games made by access? mean streets, martian memorandom, under a killing moon, overseer, and the pandora one? those were pretty sweet at the time, good ole real person acting and all.
But like i said, there are some new ones out, that are pretty similar to the old school rules of finding stuff to get stuff to go on.