Which Adventure Game has Surprised you the Most?
 

A positive spin on Which Game has Left you the Most Disappointed thread, I wondered which games have people played that have actually surprised them? For example I played Still Life thinking that I wouldn't really get into it but was actually very happy to find it's a great game.

Basically adventure games you didn't think would be any good, or games you didn't think you'd like but actually ended up enjoying them.

The flaw with this thread may be that people simply don't attempt games they think would be no good lol, this had occurred to me but I'm sure someone has something to add...

Watchmaker. I'd heard extremely mixed reviews of it but picked it up really cheap off ebay so figured I'd give it a go. hated the controls and the voice acting was so terrible... and the plot? the intro was pretty boring and the story very cliched but I stuck with it and found myself quite enjoying it despite the flaws

also Blade Runner. I must be one of the few people who didn't think too much of the movie, it wasn't bad but it certainly didn't, in my mind, live up to all the hype and glowing reviews. the movie also didn't scream "adventure game" either so I expected it to be more action oriented with a few adventure bits thrown in, especially since you could shoot your gun... but no, I got it as a gift and gave it a try and found it to be one of the better adventure games I'd played at the time, and one I still consider a classic

Darkseed. I thought it's really dated from what I've seen in a trailer and boring from I what I read, but once I got it (instead of Darkseed 2 that I wanted), it proved to be quite good and interesting.

Tale of a Hero. Seemed to be very generic with unimpressive graphics, but instead has become one of my favorite titles of recent years.

Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary. I didn't expect much as I didn't like the Kirk/Spock Star Trek movies, nor space combat sequences in adventure games, but the demo for this game had excellent atmosphere and gameplay and got me interested also in the original TV series.

I thought I wouldn't enjoy Barrow Hill based on the demo alone, but I'm glad I bought it because I wound up really enjoying it. Can't say I've had any other experience like that with adventure games. Usually they meet or fall short of my expectations, but rarely do they exceed them.

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

I had played many Sierra Quest games and some others, but I was absolutely blown away by the storytelling and atmosphere in GK1. As a 13-year-old it really opened me up to so much.

To counter some of the negativity in the other thread, I was very pleasantly surprised by Telltale's Sam & Max series. It took them a couple of episodes to get up to speed and dispel my skepticism about the recycled content, but since then the quality has been consistently high and if anything improved with every season.
Telltale are, in my opinion, the best thing that's happened to commercial adventure games in at least a decade. It's a shame that a lot of people on these forums don't enjoy their games. But that only makes Telltale's success even more heartwarming, since it seems to prove there's an audience for this type of game beyond the hardcore adventure community. Interesting times indeed.

I had mediocre expectations for Return to Mysterious Island, as I rarely enjoy (or play) first person adventures. It blew me away with its beauty and creative inventory puzzles. I haven't played the sequel yet and remain cautiously optimistic.

In my case, definitely "The Lost Crown", as well as the other Boakes' games, including "Barrow Hill". I still haven't played "Dark Fall: The Journal", though.

I must admit that I usually "fall in love" with a new adventure game by looking at the screenshots. I remember when I've first seen pictures of TLC, they didn't looked promising to me. Also, I was somewhat sceptical, considering this was my first time playing the game from an idependent author. But I was so wrong (at least, in Boakes' case).

At the same time, I must say that the game from the same author was one of the bigger dissapointment among the adventures I've played recently. Namely, "Dark Fall: Lights Out". It just didn't hooked me. I've also tried the first "Dark Fall" game, but it's just not designed for the modern widescreen monitor. Luckily, I still have an older 15'' laptop, so I will try playing on that. I enjoyed "Dark Fall: Lost Souls", so I'm even more intrigued by the first DF game, because I've read many ravings about it, and how it's way better than "Lost Souls". Well, we'll see... ;)

Still Life for me too (the first one anyway). I was expecting a regular old mediocre murder mystery, but it was more than that.

Amerzone was another one. I was expecting it to be about a trip to some tropical place and sort of a grind. I wasn't expecting the place to come to life the way it did.

Grim Fandango -- looked like a sort of cartoon from the screenshots, but the characters ended up being more complex and "real" than in many games that strive to be "realistic."

And Myst -- not what I was expecting at all. But once I got over my initial confusion I really got into it.

I guess you might add Obsidian. I was expecting it to be pretty good, but I wasn't expecting it to be as inventive as it turned out to be.

I couldn't agree with you more there.


As for my biggest surprise, I'd probably have to say Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. I never really had any interest in it when it first came out so it kind of slipped under the cracks for me for a long time, but when I did finally get around to checking it out a couple of years ago, I was absolutely blown away. It's still one of the best written video games I've ever played and manages not only to be consistently hilarious, but also really sweet and touching at times.

Nice thread. I would say Samorost actually, had no idea what it was and kind of stumbled upon it accidentally, but man was I hooked. Played it straight through to the end. Also Scratches, grabbed it for cheap caus there was nothing else to do but loved it.

None. With so many previews. screenshots etc I already know what to expect from each game. Good or bad.

Oh yeah I was really surprised by The Lost Crown, I bought it on a whim and actually ended up really enjoying it, the atmosphere had me feeling creeped out. I never finished it though as my PC got wiped half way through but I must re-install it sometime. The only downfall was obviously the voice acting but let's not mention that in a positive thread lol.

Shivers

I picked this up in the 90's just because it was Sierra and without much further thought, having loved most of their other stuff. This was the first 1st person adventure game I played and at first it really put me off, having no one to talk to and apparently dead locations. However I'm really glad I stuck with it as I ended up really enjoying the game, exploring the museum and even the puzzles! A new expeirence in adventure games for me.

Gilbert Goodmate suprised me. It was funny, well written, and visualy pleasurable. I thought it would be an underproduced kids game.

I'd only played one other Sierra game (to my current recollection) previous to Shivers, and as well, I was never big on horror stories of any kind, so I definitely didn't think I was going to enjoy Shivers when my buddies Gary and Wendy put it in the computer for me to try. I was amazed at how engrossed I became with the game in a relatively short period of time, and despite a somewhat frustrating GUI. To this day, it's one of my favourite adventure games, not least of which because of the amazing soundtrack... except the basement cavern music. I still can't listen to that track without getting all tensed up and agitated. I had to play that section with the sound off.

Myst was a pleasant surprise. I hadn't played any games of that nature before, and wasn't really all that interested when Gary handed me the box. I figure it took me all of two minutes alone with the game to get completely hooked, though.

And to be honest, I didn't think I'd enjoy Broken Sword pt. 1 as much as I did when I finally tried it on the Wii.

Sounds like I haven't had any pleasant surprises with modern games, does it? Well, I will admit that it's been a few years since I came across a game I hadn't read about beforehand, so it's a little hard for me to be truly surprised by an AG. Maybe I should take a chance on something I haven't already vetted, just to see if it works for me.

Scratches.

I went in with cero expectations, turned out to become one of my favorite games to his day :)

I just have to agree on Scratches. Not only because there is so much in it, story-wise and atmosphere-wise, something you don't see that often anymore in newer adventure games.

Though the main reason it surprised me, was the fact that it is first person and it actually worked for me. Usually first person perspective just fails to grab me, but in Scratches it worked, it got me comletely immersed into the game-world, and made me value first-person perspective.

At the risk of being tarred and feathered:D, I didn't think I'd like The Lost Crown. I just have little patience with dialog I can't terminate, repeated explanations, slooow walking sequences and other niggles I've read about this game. Besides I'm usually a first person do-it-myself player. But you folks who love it had me curious enough to try it and now I'm also a fan!

The storyline, pacing and execution have me hooked. I've resorted to a walkthrough more than once though because I just couldn't face the slow slog back and forth without knowing I was on the right track. An interactive map would have been so helpful.

I actually laughed when I first saw the "rollerskating" walking action, but got used to it after a while. It's rare when a game can so overcome these problems with its quality otherwise. Excuse me, but I have some herbs to collect.

I know I am the only person in the world to think this, but I liked how Nigel walked in "The Lost Crown". It gave it a dream-like quality, which is one of the theories about the game. It made it feel eerie, like he was a ghost, and I just thought it was a cool way of walking. But enough of me defending it...

I can't really say a game surprised me too much. I either have really high expectations that don't get met, or have sligh expectations that do get met. I don't really try games if I hear they're "bad", and if I hear a game has a plot I would like, I try it no matter if it has a lot of negatives.

This is going to be a VERY obscure reference. But I just finished playing Adventure A: Planet of Death, a 1981 text adventure from Artic Computing for the British Spectrum computers, and was pleasantly surprised by it. There was more content to the game than I expected, and even though the parser was obstinate, there were spelling errors galore, and several of the puzzles felt unfinished, as though details were planned but not implemented... I still had a lot of fun with it.

Just wandering around the game world was pleasant; the puzzles were sensible and not overly difficult, but there was enough to experiment with that I felt free to enjoy the sense of discovery. As poorly executed as some aspects of the game were, I ended up having a lot more fun with it than I thought I was going to a few turns in.

Myst. I had already played AGs - like Fools Errand and Uninvited - but Myst was so totally different.

It was mid 90's, and my (then) boyfriend gave me a mac-CD and said I think you will like this. I had no idea what so ever what this game was about, I just ended up on this island, not knowing what to do.
I loved every second, and I don't think I will ever feel the same way again. Nothing like the first love.

Overclocked has surprised me the most. The way the story is told is a refreshing take on now narratives in games can be told. Post Mortem and Still Life are close runner ups with the Art of Murder games close behind.