[Max Gruber]

I want to play Adventure games. I wnat someone to tell me which one is the best series of Advenrutre games ever. Tell me please!

[Melanie68]

Check out these threads for overall game recommendations and some info on favorite game series of others:

Need game recommendations?

Fave adventure game or franchise

There are also other favorite adventure game threads to look through as you wait for replies. Just use the search function.

Happy gaming.

[Panthera]

That's like going to gamespot's console wars thread asking what the best console is..

Some of the most famous series are:
Broken Sword (1 and 2 reckoned as the best, four games in all)
Gabriel Night (three games)
Syberia 1 and 2
And the old series like Police quest, king's quest and space quest
TLJ and it's sequel Dreamfall are also very popular, but a lot of us either like only the first, or prefer the second..

[Terramax]

Also try looking up the Lucasarts classics. Grim Fandango, Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle.

[Lucifiel]

Try Quest for Glory series too(excellent characterisation and great stories: definitely something which many AGs fail to match these days). Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle are good too. Anything by Jane Jensen rocks. Hmm, oh yes... Monkey Island!

Black Mirror is good. So is Sanitarium(even though the later levels weren't so good). And eh, Sherlock Holmes: Case of the Missing Mummy. Apart from these few commercial titles, I haven't really seen any recent AGs which managed to maintain a strong story and gameplay presence from beginning to end.

Edit: Although, if you're a big fan of concepts, try "In Memoriam" (also known as "Missing: Since January"), its' sidepack: 13th Victim and In Memoriam 2: also known as Evidence: the Last Ritual. Can't say I liked this series that much, though... the gameplay(in exchange for tiny morsels of information and story) was so repetitive that by 13th victim, I gave up halfway.

[Terramax]

Agreed with Sanitarium, but Black Mirror? This person's just getting into adventures! Sure, Broken Sword, Grim Fandanog, Day of the Tentacle and all the favs, but 'In Memorium'? Pretty obscure stuff, right?

[Lucifiel]

Originally Posted by Terramax

Agreed with Sanitarium, but Black Mirror? This person's just getting into adventures! Sure, Broken Sword, Grim Fandanog, Day of the Tentacle and all the favs, but 'In Memorium'? Pretty obscure stuff, right?

Oohkay... lol... you are kinda right about "In Memoriam" but what's so bad about "Black Mirror"?

[papillon]

(I kind of enjoyed missing since january, but I felt let down by the end of it... I suppose I wanted it all to add up to more somehow.)

[Lucifiel]

Originally Posted by papillon

(I kind of enjoyed missing since january, but I felt let down by the end of it... I suppose I wanted it all to add up to more somehow.)

For me, the problem was the premise itself. When you set a psycho killer against modern settings, it usually means that the ending is likely to be disappointing 'cos you will use logic, reasoning, etc. to strip away his veneer and demystify him. Oh it might be acceptable to many but not so fulfilling, storywise and character-wise, since he's always set up to be smarter than the police and the player yet to also be dumb enough to be caught or to leave evidence lying around for you.

Whereas a real psychopath/sociopath is usually not as scary and smart as the media makes him/her out to be. Often, they're so dumb, they're caught before they even commit the crime. And 95% of them are really obscure and most are completely incapable of holding a job for more than a few months to a few years. And most psychopaths aren't interested in murder and blood: instead, they go for non-violent jobs like an ordinary human. The causes of psychopathy are still being debated since it's a question of "nurtured" vs "nature" though inventions like MRI have often pointed out discrepancies in their brains which in turn influence their behaviour.

And in comparison to other forms of crimes, serial killers aren't the deadliest. It's stuff like mugging, robbery, carjacking, etc. which are far more dangerous to the average human.

[papillon]

IIRC some of them do leave clues... the kind that are crazy for attention and want to play around with people's heads. they will probably get caught, but finding them isn't so much a matter of "they're so much smarter than the police!" as it is "there's a lot of people out there in the world, it takes a while to narrow down who did the killin'"

(Also, in some cases, investigators get frustrated and latch onto the first likely suspect and ignore any other evidence. Which can be useful, because MOST of the time the most obvious guy is the guy that did it, but it can be a problem too.)

Anyway, what I can remember from my playing of Missing Since January was that I felt so detached from the story, since most of the time you're sitting around playing these little minigames that don't really add up to anything, and then occasionally watching a (slightly cool) video... I would have been happier if you could have somehow 'jumped into' the game more effectively in the endgame. The game tried, with all the email stuff, and it's neat that it tried, I like the idea... it just didn't quite add up to be a really involving experience at the ending, for me.

[Lucifiel]

Originally Posted by papillon

IIRC some of them do leave clues... the kind that are crazy for attention and want to play around with people's heads. they will probably get caught, but finding them isn't so much a matter of "they're so much smarter than the police!" as it is "there's a lot of people out there in the world, it takes a while to narrow down who did the killin'"

Interesting. Never knew that!

(Also, in some cases, investigators get frustrated and latch onto the first likely suspect and ignore any other evidence. Which can be useful, because MOST of the time the most obvious guy is the guy that did it, but it can be a problem too.)

Yeah, gotta agree with that... sometimes, the "real" suspect walked away 'cos of negligence on the police's part.

Anyway, what I can remember from my playing of Missing Since January was that I felt so detached from the story, since most of the time you're sitting around playing these little minigames that don't really add up to anything, and then occasionally watching a (slightly cool) video... I would have been happier if you could have somehow 'jumped into' the game more effectively in the endgame. The game tried, with all the email stuff, and it's neat that it tried, I like the idea... it just didn't quite add up to be a really involving experience at the ending, for me.

Well the story was pretty cool at first but the problem was the mini-games: many of which were completely frustrating to solve and required you to somehow figure things out by yeah... randomly looking at stuff. And there was so little story, that by the end of the game, I was sick and tired of solving things, just to get 3 to 4 morsels of data. In the end, I just cheated my entire way through the endgames.

And you're right. Many of the mini-games had no relation to the game whatsoever except for the information you'd receive after solving them. They were fun but they also served to place a barrier between the game and the player.

And finally, the videos were kinda cool but... after a while, it became kinda boring 'cos the game appeared to be more about concepts than substance. I don't mind concepts but they're just not as immersive as having a real story or great gameplay.

[Terramax]

Originally Posted by Lucifiel

Oohkay... lol... you are kinda right about "In Memoriam" but what's so bad about "Black Mirror"?

Oh there's nothing 'wrong' with it as a game. But with beginners I believe in games that are pretty mainstream and are most likely to please and, as some would argue, 'look down' on their players.

Like if you want to get someone to buy an album, you release one of the most mainstream/ easily identifyable and pleasing songs rather than obscure one to convince the listener to invest with the [arguably] deeper and complex songs.

Sanitarium and Myst III: Exile are great examples. Great atmosphere, almost the best level of quality all around in their field, distinctively 3rd/ 1st person, and puzzles that are logical, complex, but don't throw you in the deep end.

[Lucifiel]

Originally Posted by Terramax

Oh there's nothing 'wrong' with it as a game. But with beginners I believe in games that are pretty mainstream and are most likely to please and, as some would argue, 'look down' on their players.

Like if you want to get someone to buy an album, you release one of the most mainstream/ easily identifyable and pleasing songs rather than obscure one to convince the listener to invest with the [arguably] deeper and complex songs.

Sanitarium and Myst III: Exile are great examples. Great atmosphere, almost the best level of quality all around in their field, distinctively 3rd/ 1st person, and puzzles that are logical, complex, but don't throw you in the deep end.

Hmmm... you might have a point about the puzzles and nature of these games. Many of the less mainstream games tend to be pretty tough on your brains.

But then again, some of the puzzles in mainstream games rely more on "pixel-hunting" than on really working out a puzzle, which could really put a player off.

Myst 3, huh? I've never played it before.

[Terramax]

Contrary to Riven and Revelation, Exile is pretty darn easy, even by my low standards of intellect. Only one puzzle stumped me and that's because the clues were in another age.

Apart from that the resolution is a little low compared to today's standards, and there isn't as much movement as that in Revelation, this game appears to be as perfect as a 1st person AG goes [for me].

And the soundtrack-- oh, Jack Walls' beautiful soundtrack...