Detective/Noir adventures
 

Anyone know any good, serious detective or noir style adventure games? 2D and hand illustrated preferably - SCUMMVM compatible would be divine.

I'm not thinking Discworld Noir tbh, because while I've heard it's a great game, I'm after more or less a direct translation of films like Chinatown into an adventure game.

And good one's ;) I'm hoping there is a classic or two I have overlooked.

CSI series - Nancy Drew series - Law&Order series - Black Dahlia - Mautpiti Island - Noir: A Shadowy Thriller - The X Files - The Dame Was Loaded - Tex Murphy series - In the 1st Degree - SFPD: Body in the Bay - The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo - The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Serrated Scalpel - Ripper - Conspiracies - The Elk Moon Murder - Cruise for a Corpse - In the Dead of Night - Fascination - Byzantine: The Betrayal

Still Life is a detective story set both in modern time Chicago as well as in Prague in the late 20s.

The forthcoming INSECTICIDE, while it has both action- and adventure-oriented sequences, is a noir detective game. It's scheduled to be on the DS and the PC, later this year.

--Josh

Haven't heard of this, might need to look into it.

I love, love, LOVE noir. Man, did I mention that I love Noir? It's so fun! :D I don't know much either though, sadly. I only know of your usual stuff: Blade Runner, Tex Murphy, Discworld Noir as you mentioned. One or two others that don't spring to mind at the moment.

Hotel Dusk feels kinda noirish as well.

I am waiting here for suggestions from anyone else as well, please come forth.

He's asking for Noir , i think the most obvious game would be the PC FMV game "Noir : A Shadowy thriller". ;)

In black and white , early los angeles , detective cases , old jazzy music. It got the whole noir lot. :D
http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/Noir/NoirBF.jpg

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/6276/noirmm0.jpg

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Whoa, Fienepien's list seems pretty thorough. I can only think of one game that's missing from there: Private Eye

The graphics kind of remind me of the Last Express approach to cartooney characters.
Can't swear about its quality though as I have never laid a finger on it myself. I still feel bad for missing it back then and not bothering to look for it later on.

I liked Jack Orlando, an oldie but a goodie! Tex murphy is my absolute favourite detective tho!

Dont forget the Nick Bounty games at www.pinheadgames.com

A Case of the Crabs-AG Review
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The Goat in the Grey Fedora - AG Review
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not sure but was Black Dahlia come under this. I havent played it.

Black Dahlia is definitely noir. Also, don't forget Discworld Noir ;) (which i can't play because it runs at warp speed on my cpu :()

Am I right in saying that there is no known way to play Noir : A Shadowy thriller on XP? This is what I've heard and why I haven't bought it.

Thumbs up for Nick Bounty: The Grey Fedora. hilarious - I'd more than happily pay £30 for a 10-15 hour Nick Bounty. MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 :pan:

I also agree with Still Life. If you want serious, mature, it doesn't get much more mature than Still Life. Even my none-adventure gaming friends were glued to the game.

Thanks for the suggestions guys I will give them all a look.

But do there exist any 3rd person adventures? I much prefer them for first person. I know there's Cruise for Corpse but I recently read the review for that and they were terrible.

Putting in a second vote for Black Dahlia. It's not third person, and it's FMV, but it's really a fantastic and suspenseful game that hits just about every noir tone I can think of except that it isn't in black and white like Noir was. Not having a copy of Noir, I can only conjecture how good that was.

Sadly, the pulp noir genre has largely been used as spoof or as an influence for sci-fi settings in most detective games (Still Live, Grim Fandango, Bladerunner, etc). That said, I'd love to see a modern third person noir thriller AG. The genre has been overdone in TV and movies, but I think video games are still pretty fresh country for a few hardboiled detective stories.

Sam & Max too is an example of how it only seems to be used comically.

In fact I'd love to see any non-comical non-fantasy adventure games. Jesus, it seems like that's all we get, at least on PC, the DS seems to be home to most of the innovation these days.

I'm on the brink of buying one purely for Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk...

Imagine a high res PC version of those games, or an HD PS3/360 version. Damn..

I know it's not Noir, but if you want a serious adventure (3rd person) have you played the Moment of Silence?

And I know you don't really want 1st person but I should have mentioned Post Mortem, the prequel to Still Life. Despite its drawbacks, this is the most fun I had in ages. The story and atmosphere is top notch. I just got into De Allepin's house and it's beautifully eerie. I was slightly tense as I went up the stairs.

BTW what is it that people like from Noir stories so much? They're usually so cliched. Many are fun but I couldn't play/ watch/ read too many of them.

You are correct. Unless you want to install Virtual PC and run it through that. You'd need to install Windows 95 or Windows 98 in Virtual PC, though, first, before it would run.

In addition to what's been said...also some of these might be in production, as well as might not be pure adventures:

Grim Fandango
L.A. Noire - consoles - in development
Sadness - Nintendo Wii - in development
Hotel Dusk - Nintendo DS - brilliant game
The Disenfranchised - my own game, I haven't announced it yet but it's a black and white non-comic Noir game - PC only
Adventures in Purgatory - in development and made with Torque: http://www.garagegames.com/mg/snapsh...w.php?qid=1040
The Late Call - in development and made with Unity: http://www.bydesigngames.com/tlc/index.html

There's also a new Phillip Marlowe film set in the 40s (starring Clive Owen and complete with narration) and a TV series set in modern times. There's supposedly some movement on the games with the Marlowe character, and it's perfect for a series of games ala Nancy Drew or Agatha Christie. That might be a potential one to look out for.

The two "Noir-est" I've ever played are Black Dahlia and Still Life. The former is much more puzzle oriented, and, at times will drive you to distraction. There is an excellent WT for BD. At times it is necessary just to move on.

SL is very good, but a bit easier on the puzzles. And let's not forget Scratches, which I think fits the genre as well.

Great Thread! I'm a huge noir fan.. looking forward to insecticide..

Just played a game called 'Snatcher'. If you like noir, or more cyberpunk noir, this is for you guys.

Man, this game's good. It's not third person, but I think you'll forget that very quickly. It's about as expensive as games come, but with a bit of research, you can find out how to play the game for free.

Here's a recent article on how adv. games get Noir right but how most non-adv. games that call themselves Noir are nothing but tourists and posers:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/arti...rs-Don-t-Shoot

In fact this entire issue of this online magazine tackles the issue of Noir in gaming this week:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/features/issue/107

Hey Noir lovers, check this out:

http://www.fatebynumbers.com/


FMV lovers too of course. ;)

Thank you Fienepien, will check it out since I'm big Noir-stuff fan. :devil:

are there more of this game style? i'm considering seeing other examples of this multimedia type ag.

Deja vu for the Nes. Now thats a great noir adventure game :D

And also Hotel dusk is awesome

Blade Runner I consider noir. And a new one being made right now is Face Noir http://www.facenoir.com/

I second "Jack orlando" awesome point & click 2D adventure.

Damn! Remember seeing that on the shelfs, didn't try it out though. Is it one of those DARK noir types or just a detective adventure? :)

Jack Orlando is one of the games I loved while playing demo, but did not strike me after all these years when I finally got them and played them... Sadly.

Its not dark really. But its a good detective adventure anyway. I'd say its noir because its in the 1930 decade.

Jimsta, I'm not sure if it would work for you, but there is a utility on the net that I'd found called MoSlo. It allows you to slow down CPU performance for certain applications. It may help you out with your WARP speed games.

In search of good games :D
 

Hello everyone , i just registered in AG forums and i am very excited i found a site/forum like this !!
i am 30 y.o gamer since 1985 or so (good ol' Amstrad 6128) and never stopped
gaming till today .i am very fond of action games and rpg's , but i allways appreciate a GOOD adventure game !
sadly i cannot find anything too good after Still life , that game thrilled me -it was awsome- atmosphere , puzzles , difficulty , graphics quality and variation of gameplay , not to mention an excellent scenario.
Other games i enjoyed all most as much were : runaway , runaway 2 , a Vampyre story , still life 2 (not even close to still life 1 though :/ ) , Syberia and the Monkey island sequels .
Now i am on Alter Ego and thinking about Lost Horizon.
i have to say that Still life is THE KING of adventure games for me
So , having these in mind is there something similar you'd recommend to me ?
P.S. - please exclude FMV's and manga-style games
P.S.2 - really glad i found AG community :D

The Last Express is highly recommended. Also fits with the topic of being a noir game.

Thought I played a demo more than a year ago. Has it taken that long to bring the game to fruition?

Chinatown is my favorite movie. With that said, I'd recommend Private Eye (based on an actual Raymond Chandler novel). Grim Fandango, my favorite AG, has strong connections to Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, making it a must for noir lovers. For a more cyberpunk feel, you can't go wrong with Fate by Numbers or Blade Runner. And while Still Life is, imho, the best adventure of the 21st century so far (though as a Chicagoan, I'm biased), its prequel, Post Mortem, is far more noir, with a femme fatale, more of a "shadows from venetian blinds" atmosphere, etc.

My $0.02.

Episode 1 (of 2) for the PC got released (it's really great!) and the full Nintendo DS version of the game too, but then the publisher went bankrupt and... :\

I'm attempting to make a short 1st person noir in AGS at the moment. I don't really want to talk much about it until it's done, because I've had bad luck with game projects recently :-/

Another thread reminded me of the Casebook trilogy, which should be pretty good.