What I like about Adventures? Simple. I like being caught up in a virtual world (2D/2.5D/3D whatever) that tells an intriguing story.
I didn't say easy, I said simple. What I find most often happens is, the elements of making a game look sexy, making the story playable as a game, and making the story intriguing enough to keep me interested despite what I often find are arbitrary and unexciting gameplay elements rarely balance out nicely. It's different for me with each game.
Some environments are so captivating that I can forgive a paucity of storytelling ingenuity. Some stories are so captivating, I can forgive clunky mechanics and frustrating abstract challenges that threaten to knock me bodily out of the narrative. And some characters are just so fascinating that, regardless of the simplicity of the art direction, I'm sucked right in. Mostly, I just find that, for whatever reason, games either are not made with my interests in mind, or are trying too hard to appease too many tastes, and predictably fail to surmount the challenge accordingly.
But anyway, I usually try to give games a pretty easy grade if they can just catch my interest with a premise and perhaps an atmosphere that intrigue me. I only start marking hard if they tried too tell a complex story in too simple a fashion, hammering stuff together that doesn't really work, as any good writer could tell you.
So yeah, writing is key, followed shortly by art direction. Graphics are part of that, but even modern shiny graphics fail if the story is stillborn. I also like sound and voicework to be well thought out and integrated with the story.
Just make me believe that what is happening can happen in this world, and that I really can affect things. And try not to fall back on conventions of the genre to get around actually doing what I've asked for. Nothing pisses me off more than lazy game design. Make an effort. I know the budget isn't there to do what the Actioners get to do, but you get points for trying.
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