Quote:
|
Originally Posted by AudioSoldier
Clichéd plots, inane puzzles, woeful visuals, poor audio… Many just smack of games gone by. I'd rather not play a title created by a less-talented team that simply borrows ideas and rehashes it all in an amateurish mess.
|
I see that you're not repeating the claim about "badly written English and piss-poor dialogue", having been called on it. Let's see if we can deal with this new nonsense:
Clichéd plots?
No-Action Jackson is about a D&D nerd who has to use his geek powers to clear his friends' schedules for some roleplaying action. Don't think I've seen that before.
Two of a Kind is set in a city where every person has a different super power (and you have to take them into account in the game). That may not be completely original (Jackson could no doubt cite precedents in comic books and SF novels), but I'm pretty sure it hasn't ever been used in an adventure game.
Grr! Bearly Sane is about an amusement park employee who has a nervous breakdown and goes on a homicidal rampage. Not exactly
King's Quest.
Inane puzzles? All of the above games feature a good mix of solid puzzles. Just consider the final puzzle in
Two of a Kind:
Spoiler:A demon is about to open some unpleasant portal. You have to draw a pentagram on a sticker (using a pink crayon), then levitate over and pin it on his back. When the ritual is complete, the demon gets sucked into the pentagram instead of what he intended to happen.
It makes sense in context of the story, it builds on a previous puzzle and can be figured out, but it requires some lateral thinking. It takes advantage of the unique skills and personalities of the characters you play. It's not too hard and not too easy. It's a great puzzle.
Woeful visuals? That's how you want to describe the
Apprentice games?
No-Action Jackson, woeful visuals? Even
Enclosure made good use of its AGI graphics.
Poor audio? Listen to
Apprentice II and
Ben Jordan 3 again, will you? BJ3 has some of the most striking, atmospheric and memorable music of any adventure game I've ever played. It not only rivals commercial games, it surpasses most of them.
5 Days a Stranger and
Stranger By Midnight used sound effects very effectively to similar ends, while the weakest spot in
KQ2VGA's voice acting is arguably Josh Mandel, the original voice for Graham. (Sorry, Josh!)
As for
smacking of "games gone by", that's kind of the point of a fan game. It's
retro. Also, a lot of people feel that the adventure games in those bygone days were superior to the commercial adventures on offer these days. All games build on what has been done before; if your inspiration is the best that has been done in the genre, and those games happen to be ten years old, your game is going to have a classic feel. That said, there are games that break away from the traditional mold. In
META you have to actually go in and edit the code for the game you're playing, deal with a windows application and an annoying desktop assistant. Pretty unique gameplay, you'll have to admit.
In fact,
none of the best amateur adventures can in fairness be described as an amateurish mess or a rehash of borrowed ideas. They each have their strong points and their weak points (I wouldn't play
Cirque de Zale for its puzzles, or
Ben Jordan 3 for its originality), but overall they're damn good adventure games with a lot of personality, and a clear testimony of the talent of the people who made them.
