[Sone3D]

Hi everyone.

For me:

1) No "point and click". Sorry, at this point I want all mouse controlled.
2) Two or three first puzzles totally absurd an incoherent. No thanks.
3) Die. Although I completed Space Quest saga and enjoyed it a lot.

And yours? Add more than 3 if you want

[Gonchi]

Mazes are pretty much the only thing that will seriously test my resolve to finish an adventure game.

[mataku]

1st person
pre rendered 3d backgrounds (grim fandango is an exception)
cheaply executed cutscenes.

[rayvio]

action elements/arcade games can put me off depending on the type and implementation. I remember an old game named Operation Stealth which I never finished due to them

no subtitles. usually I'll try it but it's generally got to be pretty damn good to get away with this. my hearing isn't too bad but it's not perfect either

not being released on PC. sorry Heavy Rain but I refuse to buy a console for just one or two games

[zobraks]

Off the top of my head:

1. unpatched bugs
2. no subtitles
3. action/timed sequences

Originally Posted by Sone3D

Add more than 3 if you want

4. dying
5. those loops in gameplay that last shortly but you can't skip them and you can't get out of them without trying everything from your inventory
6. bad story (this could be the reason #1, actually)
7. the omission of separate sound controls for speech and surrounding/ambient sounds (like in Morpheus: the wind is howling, the ship engine is roaring, something else is screeching while the character's voice is low and you can't do anything about it (no subtitles there to boot ))

Ascovel reminded me what #8 was:

8. dead ends that force re-playing the whole game

P.S. Many of the adventures I played had these flaws, which didn't make me stop playing them (Morpheus is one of my favo(u)rites), so these are more "the reasons to hate adventure game designers" than "the reasons not to play an adventure game" (if some other game elements are intriguing enough for me).

As far as I can remember the only adventure game I didn't finish so far was Who's Fat Lou? (got stuck with that exhibitionist cat ), I even finished Midnight Nowhere .

[dekaneas297]

1. No subtitles
2. Slider puzzles

[Mohlin]

Third person
Dying
No puzzles/minigames

[Weare6]

3 Reasons that could make you abandon/not play an adventure

1. If I had no Pulse!
2. My arms get cut off
3. My Eyes get plucked out.
(.... and here's a fourth)
4. If I accidentally get jettisoned into outer space.

[aimless]

1. 3D.

2. Image sliders. I'm not sure if they're considered sliders but sliding block puzzles are okay. In fact, I like them.,

3. Timed, arcade or action sequences.

[Ascovel]

1. Good story

2. Engaging puzzles

3. Great interactivity

[Fantasysci5]

1. Mazes. I hate them, I deplore them, I get so lost in them. *cough Myst cough*
2. Sound puzzles. They're okay, but I'm tone deaf, and it's really hard to match music, like in 'Myst' or 'The Lost Crown'.

Man, Myst is getting a lot of hate in my post, and it's one of my favorite games. Needless to say, the puzzles aren't what makes it one of my favorites.

[laffer]

I hope it's OK I don't follow the 'rule' of 3 things to the letter, I find it a bit hard to list it like that as so much is connected and dependant on other factors.
But I'll try to keep the list short, which I assume is the main idea behind limiting it to three.

I'm usually quite forgiving... I'll play a lot of adventure games you wouldn't play if you're picky... if only the game has at least something I like about it.

The number one thing that kills an adventure game for me is lack of atmosphere, and uninteresting storylines... they're obviously related so I'm not mentioning them seperately.

If an adventure game feels bland and boring to me, and I don't care about what will happen later... then I don't care about how good the puzzles might be, or any of that... the game is pretty much worthless to me.
I include good characters, atmopsheric music... all of that is included under atmosphere so I'm not going to point out and say something about all of those things.
Obviously a game doesn't need to have *all* of those things, but they need at least some for me to be able to at all immerse myself in them and have a good time playing.

Regarding controls - while I very much prefer point & click in adventure games, I will still play adventure games where I don't particularly care much for the controls, if the game seems interesting.
However - anything other than point & click (and the old Sierra parser interface, which I also really like) probably means that I won't replay the game in question as much as I do with many point & click adventures.

Another thing, related to the opening paragraph, something that can be important for the atmosphere in adventure games and as such is something I think can be very important - the graphics.
Now, I don't mean how technically good the graphics look... I'm talking about the artistic direction of whatever game in question.
Again, this is one out of many things that I think are important to create a good atmosphere, but not something that is absolutely required... as I already stated, as long as a game has at least some of these things, they can still create strong atmospheres.

But when talking about graphics, I've always found that 2D graphics seemed to create a better mood for me in adventure games... I've always had a thing for really beautifully drawn graphics, and I greatly enjoy pre-rendered backgrounds in certain cases where it's *really* well done.

I rarely get as immersed in adventure games using 3D graphics (characters in 3D is fine, I'm talking about backgrounds)... I just don't think they look good enough to really draw me in, not in adventure games anyway.
Probably because of how adventure games has become somewhat of a niche genre, meaning that developers can't afford creating very good 3D graphics most of the time.
So if a game has 3D graphics I really don't like (which often also means it does not have point & click controls)... then the game needs to be very strong in other aspects I've mentioned... if it's not, then this can sometimes be the final nail in the coffin for me.

As an example - I much prefer the backgrounds in Gray Matter than in any Telltale game I've played. Even though they're quite static in that game, ideally I like to have 2D backgrounds that feel a bit more dynamic than those.

I do play several Telltale games though, but I have to admit - if anything, I'm feeling quite lukewarm about them. Though I don't think I'd fall in love with their games if the only difference was really high quality, highly detailed backgrounds... then I still wouldn't dramatically alter my opinion of these games, but I can't deny that it would help a bit.

EDIT - found myself thinking about this a bit more, and though as I said early on in my post about how a good storyline and a good atmoshere are linked, they can obviously also be seperated in that it's quite possible to have one of these without necessarily having the other.
And that being the case, even though these are probably the most important aspects for me, I think I can say that I find a good atmosphere more important than a good storyline.
A game with a great storyline but lacking in atmosphere is to me less fun to play than a game with fantastic atmosphere but a mediocre storyline.
I'll use Gray Matter as an example yet again - though this game certainly doesn't have a bad storyline by any means, it didn't grasp me as much as I had expected it to... however, I did find that the game had a rich and enjoyable atmosphere... and that is the main reason why I enjoyed the game as much as I did.

[Gonchi]

Originally Posted by ascovel

1. Good story

2. Engaging puzzles

3. Great interactivity

Making sure we're paying attention?

[terhardp]

It's a bit hard to put this in just three categories. But for me, the main three reasons are:

1) Technical issues. This includes instability, weak and / or muddy sound, using low resolutions, too much pixelization, akward navigation, wild movement of camera (especialy in 1st person games), etc;

2) Creative issues. This may be: boring story and / or too slow story development, profile of the game protagonist (boring, irritant, unwitty, beaurocratist, too depressing, trying to be funny etc.), non-inspiring game surroundings, lack of exotism and diversity, poor voice acting (when voice talent sound totally uninterested and / or in total digression with the character he or she is portraying);

3) A matter of taste. There are some themes that simply don't interest me at all, so I may skip the book, movie or game, regardless of the otherwise great review and / or reccomendation.

[skeeter_93]

Mine are more preferences I guess, but sometimes have been bad enough to make me abandon a game...

1. 1st person. I can play some of them, but a lot make me motion sick. I felt ill just watching people play the games.
2. When you can't get an item and assume it's not part of play, only to get stuck later on because you're supposed to go back and now you can get it.
3. Games that give you no clue as to what you're supposed to be doing.

Originally Posted by zobraks

Off the top of my head:

2. no subtitles
3. action/timed sequences
7. the omission of separate sound controls for speech and surrounding/ambient sounds (like in Morpheus: the wind is howling, the ship engine is roaring, something else is screeching while the character's voice is low and you can't do anything about it (no subtitles there to boot ))

I agree with these totally, especially being able to turn down the music, and voices up. I have trouble hearing what they are saying sometimes, especially if there's no subtitles. I also like to be able to brighten the game, but that's because my old monitor was so dark i couldn't see parts of some games.

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5

1. Mazes. I hate them, I deplore them, I get so lost in them. *cough Myst cough*
2. Sound puzzles. They're okay, but I'm tone deaf, and it's really hard to match music, like in 'Myst' or 'The Lost Crown'.

Definately these as well, though I end up using help for these rather than quitting the game...

[rayvio]

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5

2. Sound puzzles. They're okay, but I'm tone deaf, and it's really hard to match music, like in 'Myst' or 'The Lost Crown'.

I forgot that one. luckily it's not too common but I can remember being stuck in ST: Final Unity and Perry Rhodan for ages because of puzzles where you have to repeat a sequence of sounds that all sounded pretty much the same to me

[orient]

1) Illogical puzzles (see: the first scene of Runaway: A Road Adventure)
2) Predictable, overdone plots
3) Sloppy translations & amateur monotone voice acting

Any of these and I'll usually give up before exiting the first screen.

[sarahandus]

For me it's,
action and/or timed sequences.
mature language/actions
mazes.

Or in the case of "Return to Mysterious Island" playing as an animal.

[Fantasysci5]

Oooh, yeah timed sequences I hate too.

And rayvio, I won't always stop playing an adventure I guess, but it makes me put the game down and not start for a long time. I guess things that make me stop playing a game are boring characters, story.

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by Gonchi

Mazes are pretty much the only thing that will seriously test my resolve to finish an adventure game.

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5

1. Mazes. I hate them, I deplore them, I get so lost in them. *cough Myst cough*

Originally Posted by sarahandus

mazes.

At the risk of having a ton of bricks dropped on me (): I LOVE mazes!

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5

That's okay-everyone is entitled to their opinion. I myself like the much-hated slider puzzles.

Me too . *another ton coming down*