How's the Playstation 2 for adventure games?
 

Greetings. This is my first post on these forums. I grew up with SQ, PQ, KQ, etc...and then took a break from gaming for a while. Now my wife and I have been playing adventure games together for the past few years. With work and school both being crazy, my game time is extremely limited. As such, I like to play games that my wife enjoys watching. She's loved the following games:

XBOX - Dreamfall (ouch.....what a frustrating ending to a fantastic game!)
XBOX - Indigo Prophecy
XBOX - Broken Sword 3

Up next after the holidays, we're going to play
XBOX - Syberia
XBOX - Syberia II

I've never played Playstation 2, but I was wondering if you guys think there are enough adventure games to make it worth the purchase of the system. I know there's a Monkey Island game. Are there any other quality PS2 adventure games? (The less fighting the better...no RPGs please.....those are great in my book, but not my wife's!)

Also, she enjoys platformers, but not as much as adventure games. Examples:
GC- Zelda: Wind Waker
GC - Metroid Prime
XBOX - Sphinx
XBOX - Beyond Good and Evil
XBOX - Psychonauts

She almost got into Fable and Morrowind for XBOX, but they got a little too involved and she lost interest.

Anything good for us on the PS2, or have our adventure gaming days come to an unfortunate end? (I do have a modified XBOX though - I know SCUMM games are playable on that, but my wife likes to see good graphics)

Thanks for any advice!

I've enjoyed the following on the PS2. They're all pretty non-combat intensive:

"Echo Night" (PS1 game, but since the PS2 is backwards compatible you should still be able to play);
"ICO";
"Disaster Report" (aka "SOS The Final Escape" in Europe, or "Zettaizetsumei Toshi" in Japan).

If you get to try out "ICO" and enjoy it, I would recommend you follow up with "Shadow of the Colossus". It's more combat oriented than "ICO", but it's a game that shouldn't be missed, IMO.

The "Way of the Samurai" series is also rather adventure like, but since you are playing the part of a samurai there will be a few fights.

I highly recommend you try out "Okami", too.

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll definitely look into those, along with Broken Sword 1 + 2 (if my wife can stomach the janky PS1 graphics)

Is it related to that SNES game, "SOS"?

Shadow of Destiny (Shadow of Memories in Europe) is pretty good. There are also Glass Rose and Lifeline, but they got mostly mediocre (Lifeline) to bad (Glass Rose) scores.

Haunting Ground for PS2 is excellent. Much in the same vain as the Clock Tower games, you control a girl who, with the help of her dog, must survive after waking up in a creepy mansion. Thing is, you can't fight, other than ordering your dog to fight. So while figuring out puzzles, you have to always be on the lookout to run away/hide from the inhabitants.

Don't know if your wife likes scary, but this game has a lot of neat little Sierra style moments, such as cool death scenes and lots of descriptions (You can look at more things in this game than Still Life, Syberia and Syberia 2 combined).

Don't forget about Still Life to add to your Xbox adventure collection.

I don't think so.

The game I was referring to is this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster_Report

I remember playing Discworld 2 (?) on it. At that time, I thought it was awesome playing it on a TV... but then I figured out we could just use a video out card on your computer :P

Awesome at the time, but yeah....

Don't forget - Escape from Monkey Island is on PS2!!!

I don't actually have anything to contribute to the thread, but I can't help but argue with this. Out of those five, only Psychonauts is technically a platformer.

discworld noir, i played in my room in the dark on a tv.
wouldntve wanted it any differently

If she likes Zelda, Metroid Prime, Psychonauts etc, you should definitely read some reviews on one or more of the Sly-series, Primal, ICO and Kya.

Adventure-games on PS/PS2
Discworld
Discworld II: Mortality Bytes!
Discworld Noir
Egypt Heliopolis
Beyond Atlantis II: The New World
Echo Night: Beyond
The Glass Rose
Largo Winch: Empire Under Threat
Shadow of Memories

I quite liked Glass Rose on the PS2 actually - ok it wasn't perfect,
but still strangely intruiging.

And like someone said before - shadow of memories is terrific.

You have played Indigo Prophecy and Syberia, which are also on the PS2.
Of course, you can play any of the old PS1 adventure games, if you can get hold of them.

Broken Sword 1+2 are must plays - ok they are old - but the drawn graphics still look nice to me - they are beautiful in their simplicity.

Discworld 1,2 and Noir are all not bad choices too.

Can't think of more off the top of my head.

Shenmue 2 on the Xbox? Very adventure-like, but fighting too

I would go the other way with that. The "combat" in Shadow of the Colossus isn't really the traditional twitch combat that you think of in video games; it's more about finding the right spot and hitting attack. It only seems like combat to me like selecting a sword in your inventory and clicking an enemy would in a traditional adventure game. Technically, you're using a sword to vanquish an enemy, but it just doesn't really seem combat-y to me. There are some exceptions, notably some of the bow and arrow parts, but that's my opinion on the game overall.

In Ico, on the other hand, you're constantly needing to fight off those damn shadows. Much more combat in that game from what I remember.

Really good PS2 adventures:
Beyond Good & Evil
Broken Sword: Sleeping Dragon
Alone in the Dark 4: New Nightmare
ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Escape from Monkey Island
Myst III: Exile
Syberia I & II
Okami

I didn't recommend Shadow of the Colossus because it's so reflex-intensive, but that is truly an ASTOUNDING game. I'm sure I'll never play anything like that again.

I had no idea Myst III, Syberia and AITD were on PS2... poor marketing!

The X-files game was also ported to the PSX. I'm not certain how well it ported, though. I played it on a PC, and I think it's better with the higher resolution of the monitor, and the use of the mouse. Still, it's another one to try, and might work better if there are problems running the PC version on newer hardware.

Also, I'm almost certain there's a Playstation version of Myst, and a more traditional point-and-click comedy adventure (with a few arcade sequences) called Blazing Dragons which was only ever released on consoles. I played a bit of it on the Saturn, and thought it was pretty good.

Actually - yeah I have the X-files game on PS1 as well,
and its a pretty good port - I enjoyed it when I played it through a couple of years ago.

I have the "other" X-Files game for the PS2... the one called "X-Files: Resist or Serve" ... it's a poor copy of Silent Hill / Resident Evil type games. But it's out there...