Most Overrated/Underrated Adventure
 

And if you're wondering "overrated/underrated in terms of sales or in terms of public opinion?" Answer: Yes.

Overrated: Syberia 2

Underrated: In terms of sales: Loom. In terms of public opinion: Atlantis: The Lost Tales.

Overrated Adventures:

Syberia 1&2: Personally, I didn't like these games at all. They looked great, but I just didn't get involved with the characters. The story seemed a bit boring to me, as well as the fact that there was hardly anything to interact with.

Underrated Adventures:

Most of Sierra's games: 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.

The Dig: I'm surprised that so many people can talk about how amazing the Syberia games are, yet complete slander The Dig. If you compare them, they're quite similar. Very barren locations, with few interactions and beautiful graphics. However the difference for me is that I actually enjoyed The Dig's characters and plot. Usually people quote that it's "just not as good as the other LA adventures," which means to me that they don't like it because it isn't funny. I wonder, if it was released by another company, would it be getting the praise it deserves?

I haven't noticed anybody doing this. Plus, what does being a fan of Lucasarts games have to do with it? There are many other games by different developers that don't feature deaths and dead-ends. I agree that most Sierra games get a bum rap from their style of gameplay sometimes, but I haven't seen someone do it in a while.

OVERRATED: The Longest Journey. A good game for sure, but it's The Shawshank Redemption of adventure games...it gets far more love than it really deserves.


UNDERRATED: The Last Express. How this can't be in everyone's Top 5 is beyond me. Heh.

I think most Lucas Arts game are very over-rated and people always think their better than Sierra adventure games. I just think almost every Sierra game is more interesting than some Lucas Arts games. Thats just me.

Syberia is over rated because there is no other good game to compete with it these days. :P

I never thought the dig was under-rated? I love that game so much! :)

I enjoyed The Dig, except for the characters - too much egotism there for my liking. I didn't like any of them, but Boston Low was the best. He, at least, acted professionally. Maggie was a biatch, and Brink, I just couldn't tolerate him at all.

Lynsie

Grim Fandango is overrated. And it deserves this :pan: .

Blasphemy!!

No, seriously. Where do you see this?

Most overrated? The King's Quest games, easily.

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.

Overrated

Broken Sword: Shadow of The Templars: Very high production values but no soul in this game.
Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within, falls pretty much into the same category for me. Everything was very much polished but the outcome was somewhat flat for my tastes (Gabe as prince charming, bitchy Grace and some idiotic and baffling puzzles didn't help much there).

Underrated

In terms of sales: Definately Toonstruck, one of my favourite comedy adventures which had its designers fired :\
Also Discworld: Noir. I am not sure of its actual sales but I gather that it didn't go too well (though it certainly deserved to).
If Loom went unnoticed at its time, then I have to agree on that one as well since it is a most excellent game.

In terms of public opinion: Maybe In Memoriam (Missing: Since January) since not too many people seem to have noticed it. Oh and Faust: Seven Games of the Soul, only Cryo game I truly enjoyed.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry...it's my favorite adventure game. ;(

Heh. I pretty much fit this view, in the sense that I dislike the games for the same reasons that you like them, but I'm not quite sure how that equates to LucasArts snobbery. I'll perfectly happily admit that I think LucasArts made some of the best adventure games ever - and in that sense I don't believe that they're overrated - and I do believe that the Sierra games are cut way too much slack for flaws that would be criticised if produced by any other developer (deaths without warning and mazes always feel like bad design to me, whoever the developers are, and are reasons why I hate games like Stupid Invaders and The Mystery of the Druids). This isn't snobbery, though, any more than it would be to think that these games collectively are better than, say, Myst.

You're going to hate me for it, but I'm going to put the fifth and sixth King's Quest games down for the most overrated adventures, and for reasons that I've stated many a time elsewhere. As for underrated games, In Memoriam deserved greater commercial success than it found, and I quite liked Normality. And Loom certainly deserved to do better...

Overrated: Most of Sierra's Games

Underrated: In Memoriam, BS3, Loom

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.

Don't get me wrong, I like LucasArts as well. Day of the Tentacle and the Monkey Island games are amazing. What I'm referring to is situations such as when someone on the forums asks for a suggestion on what adventure to play next. Usually in that kind of situation, if a Sierra game is mentioned, there's at least one person that will post something along the lines of "Don't play THAT, it has dead ends and you can DIE. Play Monkey Island 2 it's the best game ever made I love it."

I've seen plenty of times where people have ragged on Sierra games so much that they've dissuaded newcomers to the genre from even trying one. It just seems to me that a lot of members seem to think that the fact that neither dying or getting stuck in LucasArts games automatically makes them better than Sierra games.

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...

And just so this topic doesn't get TOO off topic... Another underrated adventure, in terms of modern day acknowledgement: The Pandora Directive. This game is so amazing, I don't know why it's not brought up more often. You can't read two threads without seeing a mention of a LucasArts game, but where's the love for good 'ol Tex?

Well, to be honest, I also don't like dying unexpectedly for entering the wrong toilet cabin or picking up a ragged tissue underneath which was a sleeping man-eating caterpillar, but hiting dead-ends can really ruin a game for me. Replaying to the point I touched the wrong doorknob I can stand but scavenging through my saved games for a clean one which won't result to the dead-end situation? No, sir-ee. Let alone that acknowledging the very fact that I am stuck requires endless hours of excruciatingly exlporing all possibilities and eventually resorting to some walkthrough in order to find what went wrong.

So, maybe Sierra games may not be overall worse than LucasArts' but they sure are less entertaining, especially to the newcomer. Lucas games are in general more fun to play, gamer-friendly and have the same- if not higher- production values as Sierra ones. Hence the up thumbing they enjoy in suggestion threads.

As for Pandora Directive, it is my favourite adventure game of all times so shame on me for not mentioning it first. :pan: However, I can see why it also falls behind in people's recommendations as it features a kinda hard to master, yet rewarding, interface combined with some pretty hard puzzles.

Overrated: TLJ

Underrated: Dreamfall

Yeah, chew on that. The sad part is that I'm serious.

Overrated: kings quest series, sure its great that they're using all these old fairy tales and such but seriously.. you gotta get sick of fairy tales being re-done and re-done after a while. especially when batman becomes involved :(

underrated: Loom. Should have been a Loom 2 and 3 apparently from the interview with Brian Moriarty that i read. Should have been but the game was way underrated with both aspects.

GoT