[millenium]

Guys, is it just me or have there been no truly great adventure games for 10 years or so? Seriously, it's been ages since I last played something as sweet as Gabriel Knight, Grim Fandango or Monkey Island. Yes, some games have been ok, i.e. Black Mirror, Still Life, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy etc, but they're still miles away from being great, not to mention hundreds of others which are nothing but cheap drivel. The only exception, in my opnion, would be Dreamfall which had a solid story, cool characters, top class voice overs and decent graphics, both from the artistic and tecnical point of view. Syberia games were ok, but I'd still say they are somewhat avid, especially the second one which I couldn't be bothered to finish (multiple times). Runaway was horrid in my opinion, but I know there's a bit of divide over this one.

Still haven't played the Monkey Island Episodes as I'm waiting for the whole thing to available at once.

So, what do you think? Have there been any trully top class adventures games in the last 10 years or so?

[AndreaDraco83]

After Gabriel Knight 3?

Uh...

I'd say The Longest Journey (the original game from which Dreamfall spawned), even if I certainly liked the sequel more. Aside from this, I'm with you

[millenium]

Longest Journey was released in 1999 - 10 years ago...

[Gamegirl]

I thought Syberia was an excellent game.

[Ascovel]

Return to Mysterious Island
Voyage (aka Journey to The Moon)
Tale of a Hero

all are top class IMO

There were also dozens of very good, very interesting indie/amateur productions, including interactive fiction.

Originally Posted by millenium

Longest Journey was released in 1999 - 10 years ago...

The international version. The original came out a year or two earlier.

[Fien]

Hm... for me: Discworld Noir, Sam&Max Season 1 + 2, Dreamfall, Shadow of Memories. But there were many other good games, like Dark Fall, Barrow Hill, Overclocked, Myst 3/4, Return to Mysterious Island.

PS: The best indie game: Psychiatry for cuddly toys
http://www.parapluesch.de/#

[millenium]

Return to Mysterious Island
Voyage (aka Journey to The Moon)
Tale of a Hero

all are top class IMO

Well, forgive me, but I'll be harsh. None of those games could be classified as top-class purely on the basis of their graphics. The first two look barely ok, and Tale of A Hero looks absolutely awful for a game that is only 3 years old (that being said, I really like "Future Games" games).

Secondly, RTMI, as a 1st person adventure, is nowhere near the class of, say, Riven. It has neither the artisitic quality nor the general creativity or what I would simply describe as the magic touch... I haven't played Voyage, but a single look at the screenshots made me question your claims.

Now, although I do believe that a top-class game has to shine across all departments, I'd still say the games you mentioned are not that amazing even if we ignore the quality of graphics. Just think Grim Fandango, The Dig, GK or Riven and you'll see what I mean.

[Citizen Arcane]

Originally Posted by millenium

Well, forgive me, but I'll be harsh. None of those games could be classified as top-class purely on the basis of their graphics. The first two look barely ok, and Tale of A Hero looks absolutely awful for a game that is only 3 years old (that being said, I really like "Future Games" games).

Secondly, RTMI, as a 1st person adventure, is nowhere near the class of, say, Riven. It has neither the artisitic quality nor the general creativity or what I would simply describe as the magic touch... I haven't played Voyage, but a single look at the screenshots made me question your claims.

Now, although I do believe that a top-class game has to shine across all departments, I'd still say the games you mentioned are not that amazing even if we ignore the quality of graphics. Just think Grim Fandango, The Dig, GK or Riven and you'll see what I mean.

Having played RTMI and Voyage... I mean... they're pretty good. But are they "top class?" Only when compared to other adventure games of the past decade. They're well-made, with good puzzles, and relatively interesting stories. But they're not Riven or Grim Fandango.

There's a lot of pretty good out there, but not a whole lot of brilliant.

[millenium]

Hm... for me: Discworld Noir, Sam&Max Season 1 + 2, Dreamfall, Shadow of Memories. But there were many other good games, like Dark Fall, Barrow Hill, Overclocked, Myst 3/4, Return to Mysterious Island.

Yeah Dreamfall and Discworld Noir are both truly top-class adventure games, but the latter was released ages ago - in 1999 (heck, it was a good year for adventure games). I would probably put Myst 3 and 4 into the same category, although I don't rate them as much.

SnM (the computer games I mean) are probably pretty good, but as I've never been been a big fan, I really won't comment on this one. Besides, I'm not entirely thrilled by the whole concept of episodic adventures, especially when those episodes are not directly related to each other, which - though I may be wrong - is the case with SnM).

As for the other games you mentioned, I will agree that most of them are ok, but they're not top class... I mean, just look at some of the acting in Overclocked, i.e. when the guy smashes the hotel mirror after the conversation with his girlfriend. The writing's just poor... very poor. The game itself, though, isn't too bad as you've said.

[millenium]

Having played RTMI and Voyage... I mean... they're pretty good. But are they "top class?" Only when compared to other adventure games of the past decade. They're well-made, with good puzzles, and relatively interesting stories. But they're not Riven or Grim Fandango.

Well, the thing is, Games like Mass Effect or Metal Gear Solid series will offer better graphics, a more captivating and better written story, more polished gameplay as well as well polished gameplay. It sometimes seems to me that we're only playing games like RTMI, because we're in love with the genre. If we weren't, we'd probably be playing something else...

[Ascovel]

Originally Posted by millenium

Well, forgive me, but I'll be harsh. None of those games could be classified as top-class purely on the basis of their graphics. The first two look barely ok, and Tale of A Hero looks absolutely awful for a game that is only 3 years old (that being said, I really like "Future Games" games).

Secondly, RTMI, as a 1st person adventure, is nowhere near the class of, say, Riven. It has neither the artisitic quality nor the general creativity or what I would simply describe as the magic touch... I haven't played Voyage, but a single look at the screenshots made me question your claims.

Now, although I do believe that a top-class game has to shine across all departments, I'd still say the games you mentioned are not that amazing even if we ignore the quality of graphics. Just think Grim Fandango, The Dig, GK or Riven and you'll see what I mean.

OK I also think Riven is a stronger title than RTMI, but Riven is one of my favorite adventure games of all time. Grim IS my favorite adventure game of all time. GK is up there as well. We can wait a long time for new titles of this level of greatness.

However, I must defend RTMI and Voyage. Their visuals are superb - they had some of the best uses of prerendered graphics since Riven. Much better than in Riven's sequels where the game worlds were too flashy and cheesy. Also, those games offered new gameplay ideas, innovations I really enjoyed and were actually very captivating.

I can easily compare Tale of a Hero to The Dig. They're both great, even if Tale has simple graphics.

[ozzie]

1. Syberia
2. Edna bricht aus
3. The Book of Unwritten Tales

These are the three titles that I would consider as brilliant when I think of 2000 and later.

[crabapple]

For puzzle-adventure types, I'd say

Myst III: Exile (2001)
Schizm: Mysterious Journey (2001)
Uru (2003)

For 3rd person adventures, only The Longest Journey (1999) and Syberia (2002) really stand out -- mainly because of their stories and characters, though you could make a case for their art design as well.

I hope to see The Book of Unwritten Tales published in English some day. It's been years since I've played a really good fairy-tale adventure.

[potan]

I think that latest:

Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

is pretty good, don't you guys think so ??

[orient]

If we can count The Longest Journey, then it definitely belongs in the short list of "top class" adventure games of the past 10 years. Dreamfall, Syberia, Syberia II and Fahrenheit are all no-brainers for me, but I also think that Still Life just scrapes in there - and Hotel Dusk if we're counting DS games.

So that's 7 absolutely great, top-notch adventure games from the past 10 years in my opinion. They're not perfect, but neither is The Secret of Monkey Island. I think it'd be a struggle for most people to list 10 or more, though. Maybe there are more options for the puzzle-orientated adventure gamer? I'm not sure.

[inm8#2]

The Lost Crown and Scratches were top notch story telling experiences, and of course amazing games as well.

[Henke]

Of course there have been top notch adventures made in the last 10 years. Granted that the best adventures of all time may be older then that but there are still newer ones that are top notch. Like for example The Sam & Max series, The Lost Crown and The Ace Attorney series.

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by orient

[...] and Hotel Dusk if we're counting DS games.

Agree!

[L-Jazz]

Originally Posted by millenium

Guys, is it just me or have there been no truly great adventure games for 10 years or so?

Between you and me, it's only you.
Broken Sword 3, Fahrenheit, Still Life, Overclocked, Sinking Island, Syberia 1 & 2, Dreamfall, Runaway 1 & 2, Hotel Dusk and Shadow of Destiny are all games of greatness according to me.

[millenium]

Originally Posted by orient

If we can count The Longest Journey, then it definitely belongs in the short list of "top class" adventure games of the past 10 years. Dreamfall, Syberia, Syberia II and Fahrenheit are all no-brainers for me, but I also think that Still Life just scrapes in there - and Hotel Dusk if we're counting DS games.

Well, I wouldn't include 1999, because, IMO, it was the last year of great adventures (GK3, TLJ, Discworld Noir). That's where I got the whole idea of 10 years of no brilliant adventures.

Still Life, I'd say, isn't a top-class adventure, because it didn't have any massivelly memorable characters, such as Glottis, Grace or April Ryan. Besides, it didn't have a conclusion, and that's a no no if we're talking brilliance.

Syberia, well, I don't know. The first one is top-class: it did have great characters, top-notch voice acting, beatiful graphics, decent puzzles and loads of charm. As for the second one, it had the same quality as Syberia, but something was missing. On quite a few occassions I felt like there was no good reason to continue and I really didn't care what would happen to the characters. Basically, I got bored.

I would rate Fahrenheit as a good game, but not an excellent one. Again, it had good graphics, relativelly interesting characters, good voice acting etc. At the same time, there was a few cliches in the plot as those who have played it know. Certain aspects of the story were underdevloped and some parts fell masivelly flat

Spoiler:

The intercourse part near the end was laughable

.

What I mean by top-class is a game that is perfect whichever way you look at it. Games like Grim Fandango, TLJ and GK3 arguably have no flaws. There's not a single line of dialogue or a cutscene which makes you think "what the heck...". Besides, all of them had decent graphics for their era. If we take RTMI for example, yes it's graphically ok, but it's far from being great. It uses pre-rendered graphics in times when real-time rendering alredy looks awesome (Look at Assassins Creed or Mass Effect). I know it's expensive to implement, but that does not change the fact that the genre is behind...

Originally Posted by ozzie

# Edna bricht aus
# The Book of Unwritten Tales

Uhh, sadly their in German only.

Originally Posted by L-Jazz

Between you and me, it's only you.
Broken Sword 3, Fahrenheit, Still Life, Overclocked, Sinking Island, Syberia 1 & 2, Dreamfall, Runaway 1 & 2, Hotel Dusk and Shadow of Destiny are all games of greatness according to me.

BS3? How can a game be top-notch and have absolutely awful control schemes (I remember that timed sequence where you had to run away from the badass lady - boy was that a pain in the ***). And all that crate pushing? What was that all about?

Runaway? Honestly, the only good thing about Runaway series is graphics. The first one was not funny, had an absolutely awful lot of stupid puzzles and an even more horrifying amount of pixel hunting. And the same goes for Runaway 2 (

Spoiler:

Welding an iron key with a magnifying glass in a game that is not funny is NOT COOL

)

Overlcocked top-class? Common... Although I have to say House of Tales will prolly release a really great adventure some day. Overclocked is a pretty good game, and the guys have certainly learned from their mistakes in Mystery of the Druids and Moment of Silence.

Sinking Island? No....

Again, what I mean by top-class is perfect, not just good.


My list of past 1999 top-class adventures so far: Dreamfall, Syberia 1, Myst3/4 (not Uru though) and probably SnM, even though I'm not a big fan of the series I do agree it's good. That being said, I'd still say none of those games are legendary, with Dreamfall being closest to that status.