[Toefur]

Overrated: Sam and Max, Fahrenheit, Broken Sword, Longest Journey, Monkey Island 2, .

Underated: Loom, Quest for Glory (well, at least it doesn't seem to get discussed all that much around the place ), Pandora Directive. Oh, oh and Conquests of Camelot.

I would add The Last Express to underrated, but as far as it didn't sell well, it seems that most people that are aware of it know what a masterpiece it is.

[GoT]

oh yeah for sure i should have added Conquests of Camelot to the underrated list!!! you're so right!

[Boneho Chane]

Originally Posted by Grey

The controls in both of these games are pretty much the same, unless you used the keyboard for GF. I played them both with a gamepad on the PC.

I loved the puzzles in GF. Not so much in EFMI.

I played GF with a keyboard and EFMI with a PS2 controller. EFMI played super smoothly. And I agree, there were some really good puzzles on GF, (escaping the boat puzzle), but there were some pretty bad ones too, (find the secret tunnle using a sign that spins whenever you place it in the ground. What? This made no sense to me. Completely without any real logic.)

However, it's still a great game, it just deserves an 8 rather than a 10.

[Keregioz]

Originally Posted by BerserkerTails

I love LucasArts games, but personally, I miss the threat of being able to screw up. It just doesn't seem realistic that Indy can get Sophia to distract that guy a hundred times, until you figure out the puzzle, etc...

Yeah, you're right... instead if you saved/restored 100 times it would be so much more realistic.

I could understand why someone would like dying in advenutre games... but liking dead ends... now that's just sick!

Anyway... back to the topic:

Overrated: Syberia (espesially 2), i enjoyed both games a lot but i don't think they are that great as many people make them to be. Neverhood, after hearing people talking about this game i expected it to be at least a good enjoyable game, instead i just found it mediocre.

Underrated: Simon3D, Black Dahlia, Dreamfall.

[Veracious]

Originally Posted by BerserkerTails

I've been getting more and more fed up with the LucasArts snobbery on the boards as of late. Besides the Gabriel Knight series, it seems quite a few people are out to constantly bash Sierra's adventure games, and for the same two reasons: You can die, and you can get stuck. Personally, I like both aspects, as it makes me play the games much more thoroughly. I look at everything, try to pick up everything, etc... And save often.

I don't think that I have actually finished any old Sierra adventure game that I've played. Or even played them more than a couple of hours worth. The reason being the difficulty of the games either by means of dying too often or just having plain too hard puzzles (unsuitable for me).

A few days ago I felt like trying some old adventure games that I had not played before or that I hadn't finished and one of the very first ones I tried was King's quest 1 VGA remake. I watched the introduction and quite liked the mood it set for the game; it got me interested to start exploring the world. However, when the playing started it only took me one mouse click to get myself killed I had to laugh. It all came back to me, the reason why I had quit playing the game before. I watched the moat snake finish the prince and then I quit the game, again.

That type of gameplay just totally kills the fun for me. Then I remembered that I hadn't finished Monkey Island 4 and that you can't die in those games, so I reinstalled the game and enjoyed it from the beginning to the end (apart from the monkey kombat finale). After finishing MI4 I played 5 Days a Stranger, which became the first AGS game that I've finished and liked the mood of it quite a bit. I did die in the game twice before I finished it but it didn't feel like hindrance at all. It is admittedly necessary for a scary game to have that aspect of thrill to it, which is similar to horror movies.

A nice text by Ron Gilbert about why (old, really old) adventure games suck: http://grumpygamer.com/2152210

Well, enough of that off-topic chatter.

Most underrated:

Planescape Torment. Not a pure adventure game but I would rate it as one. You don't really play it because of the character (as an rpg, gaining levels & items & whatnot) but because of the story. You just want to know what will happen next. Has a uniqueness to it parrallelling that of Grim Fandango. Underrated by mass-market, although critics did like it.

A quote from imdb.com:

While praised almost universally, it failed to capture the mass-market imagination in the same way that its predecessor Baldur's Gate did - selling around 400,000 copies. The original Diablo game (albeit a rather different sort of game) reputedly sold approximately 20 times the amount of copies Torment did.

Most overrated:

Old Sierra adventure games (KQ, PQ, QG, ...). I haven't played any Gabriel Knight games, so I can't say anything about them. I think I will still some day try playing at least KQ1 again just to see how it really is and if I can get over the barriers these games present to me. At the moment I feel they aren't that fun to play and thus overrated.

[Gordon Bennett]

The most overrated game I can think of, at least in terms of sales, is The Crystal Key. It's mediocre at best, yet sold phenomenally well. What mkes it even more bizarre is that Dreamcatcher was selling the rather underrated Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy at about the same time and for the same price, IIRC.

Alice: An Interactive Museum is, I think, overrated. It's good, but I think that most of its repuatation comes from its rarity. L-Zone and Gadget were both better.

As for underrated, a lot of that has been addressed in the "obscure yet good games" thread. I'll mention the Mercenary series again here, and point out the existence of the freeware MDDClone for Windows. Play it.

I think that Willy Beamish is underrated. It's a good, classic inventory and dialogue game, with a great cartoon feel to it.

Martian Memorandum is another one that is underrated. As a game, it's every bit as entertaining as the later three Tex Murphy games, but is often forgotten. Mean Streets was a bit lacking, granted, but Martian Memorandum was superb.

[dazsin]

Originally Posted by texallos

Overrated

Broken Sword: Shadow of The Templars: Very high production values but no soul in this game.
.

I feel ill.....I need a lie down. Please tell me your joking??!?!?!?!?!?

[dazsin]

Overrated -
The Longest Journey. Flawed controls, boring characters and diologue, just seems really cheaply made.

Underrated -

Runaway : A Road adventure. Never really seems to get the credit it deserves.
Gilbert Goodmate and the mushroom of Phungoria : Again, a fantastic adventure which always seems to go under the radar.

[Kurufinwe]

Most overrated

DOTT: Awful and unrewarding puzzles that only make sense long after you've solved them, no story.
GK2: By far the weakest of the series, with some terribly uninspired parts (esp. the whole chapter 4) and really awful acting.

Most underrated

The Pandora Directive: But I guess it's just that people haven't taken the time to explore the various paths, especially the dark one.
Conquests of the Longbow: I can't see how anyone could think this game is anything but perfect.
The Dig: People keep saying that the puzzles are hard, or don't make sense. Yet, it's one of the only game that never frustrated me, while never being awfully easy. I got stuck a lot, but I'd just stop for a while and always return with new ideas and figure out the solution -- which is a feeling I love when playing adventure games.

[maladroid]

Originally Posted by texallos

Overrated

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars: Very high production values but no soul in this game.

About the production values? No man, this one is really polished. Honest.

[MdaG]

Overrated (not bad, but overrated)
The Longest journey
Syberia
Grim Fandango
Still Life


Underrated
Dreamweb
Sanitarium
The Dig
Black Mirror
Torment (more "adventure" than "RPG")

[KriD]

Originally Posted by jelly3

Grim Fandango is overrated.

I agree.

*runs*


Underrated:

Broken Sword 3

[dazsin]

Originally Posted by texallos

About the production values? No man, this one is really polished. Honest.

HaHahaha...*cough*.

[littleguybrush]

Overrated
New games are all overrated but if I have to make a choice..
Broken sword 3 (crates & ending)
Still life (non-interactive)

Underrated
Conquests of the longbow
Runaway

[Solid Snake]

Overrated: Dreamfall,TLJ, Still Life,Syberia 2,Fahrenheit, Grim Fandango,Sam and Max,Dig
Underrated: Sanitarium,Blade Runner,Bad Mojo,Willy Beamish,Road to El Dorado

[Dasilva]

Conquests of the Longbow, QFG, Willy Beamish are SERIOUSLY underrated, those games were amazing.

Road to El Dorado, is an okay game, not over-rated or under-rated.

TLJ is slightly over rated but its good out do its flaws.

[Once A Villain]

Originally Posted by Kurufinwe

Most overrated

DOTT: Awful and unrewarding puzzles that only make sense long after you've solved them, no story.
GK2: By far the weakest of the series, with some terribly uninspired parts (esp. the whole chapter 4) and really awful acting.

Heh, there goes 2 of my Top 5 Adventure Games.

I thought GK2 was the strongest of the series, and frankly, I loved Chapter 4 because without it, the whole story wouldn't be as excellent. I didn't always love Chapter 4 though. I first got GK2 on Christmas day 1995. I was only 15 years old. My friend Kevin got the game a few days later, he was 14, and we were both playing it. At that time, I remember we would both say, "The Beast Within is such a great game! Well...except for the Grace chapters..." Ha ha. We particularly hated Chapter 4 because it was all about research...clicking around the screen in old castles. However, these days I love all the chapters, and I love how much story and depth is added to the game in Chapter 4.

As for the acting, I think it compares favorably with most television acting over here. Not feature film, but that's ok...

[Spiwak]

Originally Posted by Boneho Chane

Grim Fandango actually is overrated. I enjoyed the story and the characters and everything, but it's flaws really stick out, making it hard to believe it's the greatest adventure game ever, or even so best game ever. Terrible controls and very, very few logical puzzles easily drag down the experience down, especially towards the end. That's not to say it's bad game.

Underrated? I don't know. I guess Escape From Monkey Island gets a lot of crap. I found the game itself to be an all around enjoyable experience and the technical aspects seemed perfect running on a Playstation 2.

Wait wait wait....let me get this straight. You think Grim Fandango is overrated because of the controls...and you think Escape from Monkey Island is underrated?

[Boneho Chane]

Originally Posted by Spiwak

Wait wait wait....let me get this straight. You think Grim Fandango is overrated because of the controls...and you think Escape from Monkey Island is underrated?

Play EFMI on the PS2, and then you'll see how good the controls are. And GF's controls wasn't the only reason.

[BerserkerTails]

However, when the playing started it only took me one mouse click to get myself killed I had to laugh. It all came back to me, the reason why I had quit playing the game before. I watched the moat snake finish the prince and then I quit the game, again.

To me, it seems that clicking the walk icon on the moat with the evil looking snake things would obviously result in death. People tend to criticize Sierra games because "You can walk off a cliff and die" or other deaths such as that.

...Isn't that common knowledge? You wouldn't walk off a cliff in real life, or go swimming in a dangerous moat, so why get annoyed when doing so in a game results in death?

And I know eventually someone will bring up the puzzle in KQ1 where if you push the rock from one side, you die, and if you push it from the other, you live. Yes, this is a bad puzzle. Yes, it doesn't make sense. But you have to remember that it's in the game to showcase the fact that the game recognizes whether you're IN FRONT OF or BEHIND something. KQ1 was the first game that allowed "3d" movement of that sort, so you've got to remember that.