Haven't read all the posts in the thread but here's
my opinion about the subject.
I think it's hard to define what is an "adventure" game and i think many people often think of point and click adventure games when they talk about adventure games in general.
If you look up the definition of "adventure game" on wikipedia you get:
Quote:
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An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story that is driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenges such as combat.
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So if we follow this it advocates that the game should formost be about exploration and puzzles but combat can be a part of the game, just not the thing you spend most time with or which progresses the game forward. I don't completely agree because i think exploration could be very much a physical action/challenge in the game and i think games that is only about exploration of the game world is very much an adventure game. So games like
Knytt,Knytt Stories & Within a deep forest,
Blueberry Garden and
Aquaria should count as adventure games in
my opinion. And some of this games don't have a strong narrative and that is not something i think is necessary for an adventure game to have, i don't know how you others feel about this? Because i got feeling that many of you have the opinion that adventure games needs to have a strong narrative? Excuse me if i'm wrong but that's the impression ive got.
There's also a bunch of other subgenres with games as Beyond Good & Evil, ICO, Penumbra Series, Heavy Rain etc. so i think the genre is far from dead. But if you look at point-and-click adventure games they might not be as good as in the past or as mainstream as it was, and that could be the "adventure-games-is-dead-opinion-question-whatever".
I think the problem with point-and-click games is that it is point-and-click only, it don't give much room for any other game mechanics becides some puzzles that is often set a part as a mini game in the game. So i think the evolution
could be to leave the point-and-click part and have the base mechanics/movement from an action adventure game, like Heavy Rain is doing. And then there is the dialog systems, which often is very boring to explore in
my opinion. You just try every dialog choice there is until you got what you wanted, doesen't feel very natural or optimal to deliver an interactive story, so there's one i think you could explore for more interesting solutions.
But this is only
my own opinion, so don't get mad or angry folks.
