Best and Worst in Adventuregaming history
 

Inspired by the grammy award thread I want your nominations for the best and worst game elements in adventuregames's history. I'll post several best and worst categories, and if you feel something is missing, just write it in your post, with or without nominations, and I'll add it.

Best puzzles overall in one game:
Worst puzzles overall in one game:

Best single puzzle:
Worst single puzzle:

(With puzzles I mean all additions to the game that somehow hinders your story development, either integrated into the story or otherwise. Examples of puzzle types are: logic puzzles, word puzzles, slider puzzles, mazes, inventory puzzles, etc)

Best utilization of action sequences:
Worst utilization of action sequences:

Best death scene(s):
Worst death scene(s):

Best overall voice acting in one game:
Worst overall voice acting in one game:

Best single voice actor in one game:
Worst single voice actor in one game:

Best translation of a foreign game:
Worst translation of a foreign game:

Best end scene:
Worst end scene:

Best control scheme - game or studio:
Worst control scheme - game or studio:

(I'm aware that point and click is often undistinguishable in different games, but with an overall view on menus, controlling your character, save menus, exiting, skipping dialogue/videos, etc, it should be able to find one that you prefer over all others)

Best developed "object finding" in one game:
Worst developed "object finding" in one game (pixel hunting):

(having trouble writing that in a way that you can understand what I mean, but I was thinking which game made searching for objects best/horrible)

Best game on interaction with the game world:
Worst game on interaction with the game world:

Best puzzles overall in one game: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Worst puzzles overall in one game: Broken Sword 3

Best single puzzle: Le Serpent Rouge, Gabriel Knight 3
Worst single puzzle: The Inflatable duck, The Longest Journey

Best utilization of action sequences: Conquests of the Longbow
Worst utilization of action sequences: Dreamfall

Best death scene(s): Leisure Suit Larry and the Sierra's industry of characters
Worst death scene(s): Tex Murphy and the Great PI in the Sky (I hated him :D)

Best overall voice acting in one game: Dreamfall
Worst overall voice acting in one game: Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened

Best single voice actor in one game: Robert Raines as Crow
Worst single voice actor in one game: Vittorio Buchelli in Gabriel Knight 3 (he sounded everything except Italian)

Best end scene: Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within
Worst end scene: Monkey Island 2

Best control scheme - game or studio: Gabriel Knight 3*
Worst control scheme - game or studio: Shadow of the Comet*

Best developed "object finding" in one game: I really have no idea :D
Worst developed "object finding" in one game: Space Quest II

Best game on interaction with the game world: Gabriel Knight 3*
Worst game on interaction with the game world: Shadow of the Comet*

* The two issues are so correlated, in my opinion, that they are quite the same thing.

All I can think of is worst voice acting -- for The Watchmaker, and especially for the Jude character (I think the voice "actor" also played the part of the maid).

You cannot say any game is worse until you've heard The Watchmaker -- except maybe for Legacy: Dark Shadows.

Best death scene(s): Monkey Island 3

Best overall voice acting in one game: Grim Fandango, Monkey Island 3

Worst end scene: Still life, Dreamfall

Best puzzles overall in one game: Riven
Worst puzzles overall in one game: The Ward

Best single puzzle: Le Serpent Rouge
Worst single puzzle: end game puzzle The Ward


Best utilization of action sequences: no such thing IMHO
Worst utilization of action sequences: Uru

Best death scene(s): Secret of the Luxor
Worst death scene(s): any game wherein the game ends when you die

Best overall voice acting in one game: Black Dahlia
Worst overall voice acting in one game: Watchmaker

Best single voice actor in one game: Mephisto in Faust
Worst single voice actor in one game: Jude Roberts in the Watchmaker

Best translation of a foreign game:
Worst translation of a foreign game: Martin Mystere

Best end scene: Syberia 2
Worst end scene: Black Dahlia

Best control scheme - game or studio: Gabriel Knight 3
Worst control scheme - game or studio: Grim Fandango


Best developed "object finding" in one game: Mysterious Island
Worst developed "object finding" in one game (pixel hunting): Gabriel Knight 1


Best game on interaction with the game world: Myst 4 Revelation
Worst game on interaction with the game world: Grim Fandango

Best single puzzle: All inventory-based puzzles in all games. I just love them.
Worst single puzzle: lockhacking in Still Life. It was horrible.

Best utilization of action sequences: Let's keep action out of adventure genre ...okay?
Worst utilization of action sequences: All.

Best death scene(s): There isn't such a thing as a death scene that would be good. Really.
Worst death scene(s): All.

Best overall voice acting in one game: I have to say Black Mirror.
Worst overall voice acting in one game: Legacy: Dark Shadows.

Best single voice actor in one game: Many will disagree, but I liked very much of The voice of Samuel in Black Mirror. Joe King from the Flight Of The Amazon Queen is outstanding too.
Worst single voice actor in one game: All equally bad in Legacy: Dark Shadows.

Best translation of a foreign game: Teen Agent
Worst translation of a foreign game: I'm not sure...

Best end scene: There's two equally good games from which I can't decide: Broken Sword 1 & Flight Of The Amazon Queen
Worst end scene: This trophy goes to Still Life. Definitely.

Best control scheme - game or studio: Unkown Identity.
Worst control scheme - game or studio: Razor Studios.

Best developed "object finding" in one game: Secret Files: Tunguska.
Worst developed "object finding" in one game (pixel hunting): All games that do not have hotspot names.

Best game on interaction with the game world: Black Mirror
Worst game on interaction with the game world: Still Life.

Discworld Noir must surely come a close second. :D

Best puzzles overall in one game: Riven
Worst puzzles overall in one game: Runaway

Best single puzzle: The crazy-hard one in Riven with all the animal symbols.
Worst single puzzle: Probably something in Runaway. :P

Best utilization of action sequences: Fahrenheit!

Best single voice actor in one game: The player of Manny Calavera, Grim Fandango. Mmm, smooth.
Worst single voice actor in one game: The female lead in Secret Files: Tunguska (English version). What the heck were they thinking??

Worst end scene: Dreamfall and Still Life, without a doubt. (Dracula: Origin is pretty high up there on the list as well, but I was so bored with the entire game that I didn't care what happened in the end.)

Best developed "object finding" in one game: Secret Files: Tunguska (along with any other games that use the same system)

Hmm... Am I right, if I bet that you have not played Legacy: Dark Shadows? Nina Kalenkov's voice is like heaven on earth when compairing to LDS. It really sucks.

Ooh, ooh! Just thought of another one. Best death scene - has to be where Alexander accidentally steps off a cliff in KQ6, goes "Oops" in a silly voice and promptly falls off screen. That was hilarious. :D

I haven't, no. And now I'm pretty glad for it. ;)

Best puzzles overall in one game: Day of the Tentacle
Worst puzzles overall in one game: Runaway

Best single puzzle: The gold tooth puzzle (CoMI)
Worst single puzzle: Getting past the demons in Simon the Sorcerer II

Best utilization of action sequences: Final scenes of Space Quest III
Worst utilization of action sequences: Simon the Sorcerer 3D

Best death scene(s): Discworld Noir (Thanks for reminding me!)
Worst death scene(s): Space Quest II (Okay, the text is funny but waaay too omnipresent...)

Best overall voice acting in one game: Curse of Monkey Island
Worst overall voice acting in one game: Jazz & Faust

Best single voice actor in one game: Man... that's a tough one. I might go for Brian Bowles (aka Simon the Sorcerer) With apologies to Gary Owen (Space Quest narrator) and Dominic Armato, natch.
Worst single voice actor in one game: Pat Farley (Stan in Escape From Monkey Island)

Best end scene: Secret of Monkey Island
Worst end scene: Escape From Monkey Island

Best control scheme - game or studio: Curse of Monkey Island
Worst control scheme - game or studio: Drascula

Best developed "object finding" in one game: Simon the Sorcerer II
Worst developed "object finding" in one game (pixel hunting): Runaway

Best game on interaction with the game world: Day of the Tentacle
Worst game on interaction with the game world: Drascula

No time to do the whole list right now, but wanted to nominate a few that jumped out at me.

Worst single puzzle: The cookie baking puzzle in Still Life (Pointless and stupid).

Best Single Voice Actor: Chris Jones as Tex Murphy in Under a Killing Moon/Pandora Directive/Overseer. Dunno if this counts as the games are FMV, but he also does a lot of narrating during the actual game play which is great.

Worst Single Voice Actor: The lady doing the narration in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. Its even worse compared to the rest of the voice acting, which is superb. Thankfully Sierra gave us the option to turn off narration but keep everything else talkie.

Best puzzles overall in one game: Any of the Tex Murphy Games
Worst puzzles overall in one game: The Feeble Files (ggrrr)

Best single puzzle: The pointless frankenstein thing in escape from monkey island.
Worst single puzzle: The Mustache puzzle in GK3

Best utilization of action sequences: Fahrenheit
Worst utilization of action sequences: Not sure..

Best death scene(s): Falling off a cliff in MI1
Worst death scene(s): Falling off a cliff in MI1

Best overall voice acting in one game: Curse of monkey island/GK1
Worst overall voice acting in one game: Can't remember..

Best single voice actor in one game: Dominic Armato - Guybrush in CMI & EMI
Worst single voice actor in one game: I wasn't too fond of moseley in GK3

Best translation of a foreign game:?
Worst translation of a foreign game:?

Best end scene: GK2
Worst end scene: MI2

Best control scheme - game or studio: Grim Fandango
Worst control scheme - game or studio: Broken Sword 3

Best developed "object finding" in one game: GK3
Worst developed "object finding" in one game: BASS

Best game on interaction with the game world: GK3
Worst game on interaction with the game world: Shadow of the comet

I totally disagree :D

I find her voice charming and captivating: she sound like an old, wise woman with a lean toward sleazy wisecracks. And her accent... I love her accent!

;)

While posting my votes, I got thinking about voice actors... and we really were blessed with some of the great talent in the games of the 90s weren't we? Just thinking of any of the actors who could have gotten my best-of vote, and I really think that Rob Brydon and Kate Robbins deserve a namecheck in this thread for voicing 90% of the Discworld's population between them..

Best puzzles overall in one game: Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (best adventure, too)
Worst puzzles overall in one game: Culpa Innata

Best single puzzle: Tripod on pedestal puzzle, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
Worst single puzzle: Candles puzzle, Aura 2: The Sacred Rings

Best utilization of action sequences: Fahrenheit
Worst utilization of action sequences: Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade

Best death scene(s): Murder of that hacker in Broken Sword 3
Worst death scene(s): Red, Penumbra (you have to kill him, although he is your friend)

Best overall voice acting in one game: Grim Fandango
Worst overall voice acting in one game: Drascula

Best single voice actor in one game: Rolf Saxon (George Stobbart)
Worst single voice actor in one game: Archibald, Dean Grasick, both Runaway 2

Best translation of a foreign game: Secret Files: Tunguska (I think it firstly came in German??)
Worst translation of a foreign game: Don't know!

Best end scene: Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
Worst end scene: Culpa Innata

Best control scheme - game or studio: The Sinking Island
Worst control scheme - game or studio: Drascula (I hate this game)

Best developed "object finding" in one game: Secret Files: Tunguska, Art of Murder: FBI Confidental
Worst developed "object finding" in one game (pixel hunting): Sherlock Holmes (when you are looking for clues with magnifying glass)

Best game on interaction with the game world: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Worst game on interaction with the game world: Drascula

Well, let's just give it a try (I may disagree with myself on my decissions again tomorrow though :P)

Best puzzles overall in one game: Day of the Tentacle (The cross-time puzzles just work great!)
Worst puzzles overall in one game: Discworld...It was all just a tad too illogical to be playable (to me that is :P)

Best single puzzle: Rescuing the widdow's sons in Conquests of the Longbow (so many ways to solve it:))
Worst single puzzle: The lockpick puzzles in Dreamfall...got so pointless in the end

Best utilization of action sequences: Avoiding the sheriff's men in Conquests of the Longbow (if you can call it action, dunno for sure :P)
Worst utilization of action sequences: The fighting in Dreamfall

Best death scene(s): The deathscenes in Conquests of the Longbow (great comments :D, then again, great ways to die :P)
Worst death scene(s): the ones in which you get no comment whatsoever :P

Best overall voice acting in one game: The Longest Journey
Worst overall voice acting in one game: Day of the Tentacle (the few bits there are, that is :P)

Best single voice actor in one game: April Ryan from The Longest Journey and Dreamfall
Worst single voice actor in one game: Laverne from Day of the Tentacle

Best translation of a foreign game: None. translation ruins the sentences. Nothing can be translated with every small nuance still being intact.
Worst translation of a foreign game: Runaway 2 to Dutch....horrible, and soooo many typos :S

Best end scene: The Longest Journey (got me staring at the screen for some time :P)
Worst end scene: Escape from Monkey Island

Best control scheme - game or studio: All games written in SCI
Worst control scheme - game or studio: Discworld

Best developed "object finding" in one game: Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Father. Although there were some small (very) objects, they were all well discernable, and the pixel on the cursor indicating with which part you clicked surely helped :)
Worst developed "object finding" in one game (pixel hunting): All those in Runaway (adding here also the "I don't need it now so I will not even say it is in here yet" stuff)

Best game on interaction with the game world: King's Quest VI. You can even talk to inventory objects :P
Worst game on interaction with the game world: Dreamfall....waaay too little

Eheheh... It seems quite appropriate :D

I have to agree with Luna, who also is a Longbow fan, and thus have all my regard! :)

That's true. And good point, by the way... :9