[KasiaD]

What discourages buying a new adventure game for me is:
- first person (exception - CSI games - I love them all),
- keyboard control system (exception - Grim Fandango),
- fighting etc - (apart from Dreamfall),
- Polish voice overs without an option to choose English ones - no exceptions here.
That's basically it - all the other games I like to own and put them together on my shelf in their coulourful boxes. I just sometimes await till some of them get cheaper, especially if the reviews are bad

[theleg]

Yeah polish voice overs. Other AG users may complain about the quality of english voice overs in games, just try a game fully in polish. You will never say "Bad voice acting" again. And slider puzzles i hate those.

[AndreaDraco83]

Myst-like experience
First Person with 360° panning (I can like with slideshows but the 360° makes me dizzy)
Bad writing

[Ksandra]

- Poor reviews from several different sites.
- Disliking the demo.
- Lack of puzzles/gameplay in general.
- Bad controls, especially lack of mouse support.
- Too many action/stealth sequences.
- Outdated graphics (this wouldn't necessarily stop me from playing the game, but it would limit the amount I was willing to spend on it).

[colpet]

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83

Myst-like experience

Sometimes all it takes is to have a new game being compared favorably to a game you hate. I'm like that with cartoony 3rd person games. I really don't enjoy them. God knows I've tried to, in fact I'm trying to play Runaway 2 right now. Chapter one was good where Brian was alone in the jungle. As soon as he made it out he meets other characters.
Conversation trees are so boring - click read, click read, click read.

[nomadsoul]

Bad trailer representing bad game, lack of visual appeal , actually trailer of AGs or even normal games makes my decision.
I don't consider reviews to tell me about gameplay of AGs since according to my definition there isn't any gameplay in any AG.
I only consider reviews when trailer/videos are too vague.

[Fantasysci5]

For me, if there's fighting in it, I won't like it, unless the story is just AMAZING! Cartoony-comedy games, or just comedy games in general, I don't really like. And really hard puzzles in games that have no story plot, no characters, etc. *cough Rhem cough*

[cwapitm]

If I've examined the game thoroughly and see that it appears to be nothing more than a Myst clone, then I'm not likely to buy it. Otherwise anything else is game. 2D or 3D, first person or third person, point-and-click or keyboard control, ect.

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by colpet

Conversation trees are so boring - click read, click read, click read.

One of the many things I love: conversation trees!

[Thirtysomething]

-Being praised by hardcore adventure gamers (the ones who buy a new expensive graphics card every two months)

-Having the word "Runaway n , n>=2" on the box.

[3rdFloor]

BUGS!! Interface glitches, puzzle implementation, crashes... just terrible! If I read somewhere that a game is buggy, then I'll skip it regardless of how good the other elements are.

Second thing I truly hate is third-party software that installs alongside a game. Things like the dreadful PhysX drivers. Curse you, Frogwares! Why do you even need those?! And why can't you just detect my ATI card and skip the whole thing?! HORRIBLE!!

[Terramax]

-Terrible graphics or static screens, or lack of style
-cliched stories and genres (I've had enough of pirates, cowboys, detectives, Egyptian settings, horror)

In other words pretty much all adventures apart from the up-and-coming Whispered World.

Originally Posted by Thirtysomething

-Being praised by hardcore adventure gamers (the ones who buy a new expensive graphics card every two months)

On the contrary, hardcore adventure gamers are the ones that refuse to update their graphics cards, expecting all adventures to stick to dated graphics with high emphasis on puzzles with low-budget animations and little payoffs. That's why most people on these forums with only a PC can't play Tales of MI on full graphic settings.

I have a 'rig' but I wouldn't call myself a 'hardcore adventure gamer'. A 'hardcore PC gamer' maybe.

Not to sound offensive there, but that's the truth.

[SharonB]

I won't buy a game if I know that it requires fast reflexes. Sometimes they sneak one or more of these parts into adventure games.

Also, bad reviews. I read reviews on every game before I buy it and read the forums for other players opinions. A lot of times I will end up buying a game I originally had no intention of buying because forum reviews and opinions were good and made the game sound more interesting.

Also, puzzle intensive games or Myst-like games. I need some people interaction in my games and I like to continue the story rather than be bogged down every few minutes with another puzzle. Which is not to say the game should be all story and no puzzle. However, I like both Scratches and the Darkfall games, so I guess a game doesn't HAVE to have people interaction, though I do prefer it.

[giga]

There's a lack of really good blockbusting adventure games, combining an involving story with good puzzles and nice graphics. The last that I can think of that came very close was Dreamfall (which at least had the story and the graphics).
At this point I stopped buying all these mediocre adventure games at full price, as they are piling up unplayed for at least half a year. Runaway, Vampyre story, Sam and max, ..., they are not bad but they simply don't get me wanting more. When I finally get to start, I see them listed for 3 euros at play or amazon! Now there's secret files 2 on play for 6.5 euros incl. shipping only two months after its release!

Give us that new classic, Jane Jensen, and we'll buy it massively...

[gray pierce]

Story !

Despite the fact that they're not movies I stll think the story is the most important part. If the story doesn't interest me I don't buy it.

A trailer might help, games with an mediocre and uninterresting story usely have a common trailer.

If the game's from a developer that disapointed me in the past I will also be reluctant to buy.

And finally of course action, A little bit of action is annoying but not to tiresome, in fact my all time favorite : Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon has got a few of them, but if there's to much I usely won't buy as was the case with for instance Fahrenheit

Reviews are a good help to but only to a certain extend. I agree mostly as to whether it is a good or bad game but as to how good ar bad it is I tend to disagree

This goes as far as for most genre's. However I should add that I'm not a fan of the fantasy genre though if the story's really good like for instance with TLJ I might buy anyway.

Also I don't like horror to much except for when you call Still Life of The Awakened horror wich I don't

[millenia]

Originally Posted by gray pierce

Story !
----
Also I don't like horror to much except for when you call Still Life of The Awakened horror wich I don't

I'm with these lines. The story is everything. When I play adventure games I am actually just watching a movie or reading a book with the exception that I'm participating in it myself. So an adventure game with a great story can be a mindblowing experiment and much better than my favourite books or movies.

And I don't like horror either. Lots of people mix up thriller and horror. Thrillers are good, they have a enthralling story that will suck you in and it can be scary at times - while horror seems to be mostly just someone chasing you and breathing on your neck. Still Life 1 is a great example of an amazing thriller and its sequel is equal example of (bad) horror.

[AndreaDraco83]

Just a clarification. For the sake of a genre categorization, both SL1 and SL2 are considered thrillers, and - particularly - crime thrillers. At least, one can argue that SL1 is more of a psychological thriller, but a thriller nonetheless.

[millenia]

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83

Just a clarification. For the sake of a genre categorization, both SL1 and SL2 are considered thrillers, and - particularly - crime thrillers. At least, one can argue that SL1 is more of a psychological thriller, but a thriller nonetheless.

Yes they may be categorized as such but in all honesty Still Life 2 is leaning towards survival horror and it's not a subtle lean .

[gray pierce]

man ! I wanted to play Still Life 2 real badly but now... Seriously ?

What a shame !

[Aubstopper]

bad story and bad voice acting are usually the things that makes me avoid most games like the plague.

I don't really care about whether or not a game might have action in it...i thought that it really actually added to Fahrenheit, though i do wish that i could have simultaneously watched the action going on at the same time i was performing it. Action didn't take away from Dreamfall neither.

bad graphics i can DEAL with, though i'd rather not. bad puzzles i can deal with, but i'd rather not have to...

ideally, i think, if you're going to spend all that money investing in a game, you might as freaking well spend a little bit of time on the story part of it.