[Marduk]

Well... I think the obvious answer to the title question (these days) is to look it up on AG, but without AG... how do you spot one?

I have noticed that very few of the Adventure Games I've purchased in the past have said anywhere "This is an adventure game". But then, saying that isn't very clear to all of those gamers who aren't familiar with the genre (which is a depressingly high demographic), which is probably why so few of them will say this.

I have noticed that many games in the genre will have bullet points on its description, listing an estimated number of its locations and other features that set it apart from other types of game (though still rarely anything to really indicate it's an AG).

I guess a lot of other developers don't want to be pigeon holed into a genre, either. Nobody would to be associated with one when they're trying to make games that either don't belong to one or have features which break away from the "defining characteristics" of that type of game.

But then in a lot of Games' shops, Steam, Amazon and other online retailers included, you might find games arranged by category. You look at the "Adventure" section (if there's one there) only to find that many of the titles are platforms or games such as GTA (maybe not GTA specifically, but ones which may fall into the same group, as I don't know how to classify GTA).

A day or 2 ago (at this time in the morning it's really hard to tell ) I was out shopping in a local supermarket and decided to stop and browse a small stand full of games because every title on it looked familiar; several of them were game's I'd been looking at online to try and determine which whether or not they were AGs or not. I got about 2 thirds of the way through (of reading the back of every box, I was pretty close to the floor by the end and must have been getting some odd looks) and was about ignore the rest because it seemed that they were all hidden object games continue my shopping when I noticed a box of the Broken Sword Trilogy. Because of this I continued to look at the back of every box on display, only to find (with the exception of Broken Sword) they were indeed all HOGs and that I'd wasted a good 10 minutes or more of my life.

Oppinions?

[kadji-kun]

To me its quite easy. Any game that has item manipulation to solve a puzzle can be considered an Adventure game, by definition that is. Not to mention, the game doesn't have to be point and click to be an adventure.

[MoriartyL]

But you can't tell that from the box! And even if you could, the Zelda games use items to solve puzzles. I don't think those are what he's looking for. For that matter, some puzzle games have items in them! The bottom line is, it's pretty hard to tell what you're getting from a box. I'd helpfully suggest that every game-box ought to have written on it what kind of game it is, but since no one can agree on the categorization of anything that wouldn't be too enlightening. You'd have lots of Zelda and GTA types, and platformers, and straight action games, labeled "adventure", and then you'd have some actual adventures labeled "interactive drama" or "puzzle". And then you'd have some action games labeled as puzzle games... let's just say it wouldn't work. Often the makers of the game themselves don't exactly know what they're making.

[Little Writer]

Like in literature, cross-genre makes labelling very difficult. I think in the end they all want to reach an as wide as possible audience.

It's a good question. I've always made decisions based on screenshots. If you're lucky enough they actually show a gameplay screen instead of a cutscene, that is. The bullet list is sometimes helpful but my experience is they're usually so vague they become meaningless and applicable to any title.

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by kadji-kun

To me its quite easy. Any game that has item manipulation to solve a puzzle can be considered an Adventure game, by definition that is. Not to mention, the game doesn't have to be point and click to be an adventure.

I was actually asking how do you tell if a game is an adventure game before buying it. To see if a game has 'item manipulation' puzzles or even if it's point and click you need to be able to play the game, unless it states it clearly on the box or somewhere else.

I've even read reviews for games that weren't clear on this at all.

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

But you can't tell that from the box!

Sadly, this is something I have come to realise. But you can almost always tell what kind of genre (like FPSs and RPGs mentioned above, and RTSs which stand out more clearly for what they are than any other type of game) any other game is by simply looking at the box. Why is it different for adventures?

Hell, even Hidden Object Games are easy to spot by looking at their back covers. (I was about to start writing about an experience I had the other day only to find I've already mentioned it in the original post ). Once I identified one of the games on the stand as an HOG there were some pretty distinctive patterns in the screen shots and surrounding text. (Not that this was strictly necessary; many of them clearly stated that there were 'hidden object' puzzles within them.

I'd helpfully suggest that every game-box ought to have written on it what kind of game it is, but since no one can agree on the categorization of anything that wouldn't be too enlightening.

I think that this is something that most consumers would quite like to see but you're right about categorisation. This is what I meant by developers not wanting their games pigeon holed.

A developer probably won't want RPG stamped on the back of every copy of one of their games when they've tried to make it something different than other RPGs. A publisher, who probably has more say over things such as packaging and marketing, wouldn't want to label a game incorrectly, either, as they wouldn't want thousands of gamers returning it the next day because it's not what they were looking for when they purchased it.


The only other way I can think of is 'Try before you buy', which usually means either demos or rentals. Since most AGs are for the PC that throws rental out of the window (I don't know a single game or rental shop that allows you to rent a PC game. This probably goes back to the time you didn't require a disk in the drive to make the game actually work). And I don't even know where you get demos for most adventure games as they're almost never included with in PC gaming magazine demos.

[Little Writer]

I don't think I've ever encountered the term HOG. Can you give some game examples, perhaps?

[gray pierce]

Agatha Christie's Peril at End House/Death on the Nile
Dr Lynch : Grave Secrets
Margrave Manor

just to name a few

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by Little Writer

I don't think I've ever encountered the term HOG. Can you give some game examples, perhaps?

"Hidden Object Game". There's far more of these games around than I ever realised, a few of them even reviewed on this site

[gray pierce]

Yeah, aren't the Women's Murder Club games HOG games ? I haven't played them however so I could be very wrong but the screenshots certainly suggest so.

[Trunkyo]

More than a few people bought Death on the Nile thinking it was the follow-up to Evil Under the Sun. For some reason, Death on the Nile was released in North America by Dreamcatcher/The Adventure Company! (It does say "Hidden Object Game" on the box, though.) I vaguely remember someone posting about this a while back, warning us about DotN and CSI: NY being HOGs.

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by gray pierce

Yeah, aren't the Women's Murder Club games HOG games ? I haven't played them however so I could be very wrong but the screenshots certainly suggest so.

I haven't actually played either but I read the review of the latest and apparently it's more of an closer to an AG than any previous titles (I don't know how many are in the series) which were (apparently) definitely HOGs.

One of the Women's Murder Club games happened to be on the stand with all of the other games I was perusing.

[ozzie]

Hm, I never encountered this problem before.
Maybe because I'm not only interested in adventures or because I barely find a title in a store that I didn't read about online before or maybe because boxes in Germany scream more "ADVENTURE!" than in other countries?

No idea, but, interesting.

[cwapitm]

I guess I can see how HOGs can look like adventure games. I think it's easier to tell them apart by looking at the screenshots on the box. Also look at the company. If it's by The Adventure Company, then it's usually an adventure game (Death on the Nile being an exception).

[kadji-kun]

Originally Posted by cwapitm

I guess I can see how HOGs can look like adventure games. I think it's easier to tell them apart by looking at the screenshots on the box. Also look at the company. If it's by The Adventure Company, then it's usually an adventure game (Death on the Nile being an exception).

Yeah. Usually an adventure game doesn't have a panel on the side with names of items on a list.

[gray pierce]

Yeah and if they do they make sense. I mean I've never played an adventure game where you have to find a number without any meaning. Or a lizzard in a flowergarden for that matter.

[kadji-kun]

Originally Posted by gray pierce

Yeah and if they do they make sense. I mean I've never played an adventure game where you have to find a number without any meaning. Or a lizzard in a flowergarden for that matter.

That is the product of HOG that were rushed. I've played plenty of well done games that have a lot of thought put into everything you collect. Sure, they might include items you don't use, but at least they fit the environment.

Samantha Swift was one of them. What a fun game that was.

[rtrooney]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

But you can't tell that from the box!

And neither can you tell system requirements if you buy the game online. For example, Scratches/Directors Cut requires a specific graphic card capability that appears on the box, but appears nowhere on the Amazon site, nor any other site I know of.

[rtrooney]

Originally Posted by gray pierce

Yeah, aren't the Women's Murder Club games HOG games ? I haven't played them however so I could be very wrong but the screenshots certainly suggest so.

The second had many more adventure elements than did the first. It also has a few frustrating action sequences. I'm currently playing an EAP "casual game" from BigFish that has many Adventure-style puzzles. including a few slider puzzles.

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by ozzie

Hm, I never encountered this problem before.
Maybe because I'm not only interested in adventures or because I barely find a title in a store that I didn't read about online before or maybe because boxes in Germany scream more "ADVENTURE!" than in other countries?

No idea, but, interesting.

Are you saying all games in German scream adventure or that adventure games in Germany are clearly labelled for what they are?

I suppose the whole thing has become a non-issue because I can now just check up here on AG and if, for some reason the AG isn't clear as to whether something is an adventure game or if it doesn't have any pages relating to that title then I can simply come and ask on the forums.

But assuming AG didn't exist and there was no alternative site... Reviews rarely seem to say if a game is an Adventure, the advertising and packaging don't say anything... How the hell do you find out?

[Little Writer]

Looks like the adventure genre is still very popular in Germany, of such a level that they even promote the games however they can. I see this in my search for "Overclocked". Apparently this was never released in Belgium (I asked the company by mail and they replied in a kind of arrogant and pompous way (very close to saying "Belgium? Are you serious? Why'd we want to release in Belgium?") , and all copies I can find on eBay or German.

Thanks for explaining HOG. I don't think I've ever played such a game except online, and then only in a variety where you have to find the hidden button to proceed to the next room (the game was actually an art project, I can't seem to find it again though ...) I think I also had a "Cluedo" variety once where you had to search rooms to find evidence of the murder.