[tsampikos]

IGN describes Portal 2 as a "puzzle shooter". And they are actually right. This is a first person shooter with puzzle and action elements.A hybrid shooter not a "non traditional adventure game". Look at the following video....It definetly shows how much of an "adventure" this game has in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9aG2qU9okk

And here is the review. Not once is the word "adventure" mantioned in there.

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/1..._cmpid=ign1161

Mobygames: Genre:Action.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/portal-2

It surely looks good,it might be considererd as a masterpiece, no problem with that.It's actualy quite so. But hey this is not an adventure game and if somebody wants to qualify this as an adventure game, give it at least a place between 90-100. it is far much easier to compare this game with Crysis 2 than with Monkey Island or Riven.

A general comment. I think that this top 100 is somehow subjectievly thought and not objectively. If you ask 100 people about the top 100 adventure games you will receive 100 different answers.

[Kurufinwe]

Apart from the final boss fight, (the single-player mode of) Portal 2 doesn't have a single action sequence. How does that make it an action game?

[Oscar]

There is quite a lot of fast-timing and precision required with the mouse and keyboard. You have to react fast. The gel puzzles especially. Whether that's what we all understand as 'action' is a different story.

[TimovieMan]

Originally Posted by Kurufinwe

Apart from the final boss fight, (the single-player mode of) Portal 2 doesn't have a single action sequence. How does that make it an action game?

^ This.

My stats say I have a bodycount of over 200 in L.A. Noire (at least 175 of which were headshots - a stat I'm rather proud of), and I've disabled over 30 vehicles. While I agree with anyone who calls L.A. Noire an action game, I'll disagree with everyone who DOESN'T call it an adventure game...

The Portal games are even less action-oriented and more puzzle-based. It's an adventure game and nothing else. Just because it doesn't use traditional point-and-click gameplay mechanics, doesn't make it any less of an adventure game...

Originally Posted by Oscar

There is quite a lot of fast-timing and precision required with the mouse and keyboard. You have to react fast. The gel puzzles especially. Whether that's what we all understand as 'action' is a different story.

A lot of adventure games have timed sequences. Is Heavy Rain not an adventure game? How about Jurassic Park? Heck, even the first Monkey Island game had one!

While a lot of people have difficulties with timed sequences (how many have requested that famous Raindance-save from Book of Unwritten Tales?), the sequences don't turn adventure games in something else...

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by tsampikos

IGN describes Portal 2 as a "puzzle shooter".

Ah yes, the the famous "puzzle shooter" genre, comprised of exactly ONE game. Allow me to quote myself:

Clearly it's not a traditional anything, so if it makes you feel better to call it a story-driven, first-person, physics-based platforming puzzle shooter, go right ahead. We call it a game that "focuses on puzzle solving within a narrative framework". You know, like an adventure.

You can keep complaining all you want, but until you actually tell us why it does NOT fit any reasonable definition of an adventure, you're really not making an argument.

And here is the review. Not once is the word "adventure" mantioned in there.

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/1..._cmpid=ign1161

Since I'm automatically redirected to the US review, what I see on that link is "First-person shooter". As IGN is apparently the paragon of genre definitions, I guess it must be so.

A general comment. I think that this top 100 is somehow subjectievly thought and not objectively. If you ask 100 people about the top 100 adventure games you will receive 100 different answers.

That goes without saying. There's no way to objectively critique anything remotely art-based. There isn't even any one of AG staff who would list this 100 in this order.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by TimovieMan

A lot of adventure games have timed sequences. Is Heavy Rain not an adventure game? How about Jurassic Park? Heck, even the first Monkey Island game had one!

While a lot of people have difficulties with timed sequences (how many have requested that famous Raindance-save from Book of Unwritten Tales?), the sequences don't turn adventure games in something else...

I specifically used the words fast-timing and precision to avoid the words 'timed sequences'. The puzzles are more than that in Portal. While timed sequences in adventure games refer to puzzles where you have to think fast, you don't usually have to execute physical maneuvers with your body like running and sliding then jumping into a portal you've shot in the wall in mid-air. A lot of people actually have trouble with this kind of thing, while knowing what they have to do cannot execute it. If you know the solution in an adventure game puzzle, there should be no physical barrier (action) to completing it.

What about those other games like Jurassic Park and Heavy Rain? Well, what about Doom? Shooting a monster before it shoots you is just a timed puzzle, isn't it? In fact all combat is just a timed sequence, which makes Mortal Kombat an adventure game too (yes, it does have a story). Mario is an adventure too since it doesn't have anything adventure games don't. Everything is an adventure game.

[TimovieMan]

Originally Posted by Oscar

What about those other games like Jurassic Park and Heavy Rain? Well, what about Doom? Shooting a monster before it shoots you is just a timed puzzle, isn't it? In fact all combat is just a timed sequence, which makes Mortal Kombat an adventure game too (yes, it does have a story). Mario is an adventure too since it doesn't have anything adventure games don't. Everything is an adventure game.

Doom and Mortal Kombat aren't focused on puzzle solving within a narrative framework (as Jackal so brilliantly put it), hence they're not adventure games.

You kind of twisted my words there: I said that having timed sequences doesn't turn an adventure game into something of another genre. That doesn't mean that everything with timed sequences is an adventure game...

[ozzie]

I feel more comfortable calling Portal 2 an adventure game than I do with Portal.
Pretty much because of the reasons mentioned: Portal requires much more fast reflexes than its sequel.
With Portal I wasn't really sure what it was, it just was a game of its kind. It wasn't a violent game, yes, and it contained lots of puzzle solving, but was this all that united it with adventures and differentiated it from other genres?
For me an adventure game requires generally very little in the way of reflexes. If an adventure does require more, then it mostly borrows elements from other genres, like The Nomad Soul or Dreamfall do.

I don't know and I don't really care. You might call them both adventures, you might call none of them, but the truth is that both contain plenty of the elements that adventure fans enjoy: story, puzzles and exploration. Not to forget, it's also funny like the best of the comic adventures.

[Gabe]

Unfortunately Holmes Case of Rose Tattoo is forgotten,one possible reason not much people get chance to play but deserves a place between Awakened and S.Scalpel for sure.

[Adventurere No.1]

Originally Posted by Gabe

Unfortunately Holmes Case of Rose Tattoo is forgotten and not any review available too

i see you can review it gabe, i havent played it and i hope to read something that can make me want to

[Gabe]

There is a review at L actually first says "Long and non-linear plot,outstanding writing" than criticises "More reading than War and Peace" http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,64
Here there is an old review http://www.adventureclassicgaming.co...te/reviews/41/

[iqzulk]

Portal is puzzle-platformer. Plain and simple. Period.

Lemmings is also puzzle-platformer. Ballance is puzzle-platformer. Ico is puzzle-platformer (with occasional bits of combat though). Against The Wall is puzzle-platformer. QUBE is puzzle platformer. Braid, for God's sake is puzzle-platformer too!

Is there any crucial difference between Ballance and Portal (except Ballance being a game about rolling ball and Portal being a game about, you know, portals though space)? I think "not so much". Both are the games with linear progression through levels, momentum preserving mechanics, platforming, arcade elements and intensive puzzle-solving throughout all the game. Sounds pretty similar, huh? Guess, that's for a reason.

Stop needlessly complicating the matters already, will you?