So many adventures I don't know where to start!
 

Hi everyone!

As the old timers know I'm an old forum member that comes and goes every few years. It's hard to explain, but I tend to shift wildly between interests; One month I might be watching tv-series all day, another month I might be playing casual games, one month it might be MMOs, or films, and now I've swung back to Adventure games, having just completed both Gray Matter and Black Mirror 3 (liked both, miffed with both endings).
I can't say how long I'll stay or be interested in playing AGs this time, but at the moment at least I'm really interested in starting up a new game, I just don't know which one! I've bought so many over the last year(s) that I have a huge backlog and not sure where to start.

I was hoping you AGers could give me some tips or recommendations where to start. I'd like to try one of my Sherlock Holmes games, but I'm really unsure what to start with.
In general I prefer dark over light, 3rd person, strong story and inventory puzzles, 2,5d point and click, prefer realistic style over cartoony, but still love Broken Sword. I don't mind late-90s/early-00s graphics (Like TLJ) but have a problem getting into older games.

My games:
Started but not finished:
The Whispered World (not sure I'll ever get back to this one)
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (I do not understand what I'm supposed to be doing)
Mata Hari (might deserve a new chance, got lost in pc upgrade)
Sanitarium (so many bugs I had to give up, have not tried my current GOG version, or on this pc. Has gog fixed the crashing?)
Sinking Island (I'm not sure why this one never grabbed me)
And not an AG but Fallout, started, got stuck, never came back to it

Not played:
Alter Ego
AlternativA
A Vampyre Story
Art of Murder - Hunt for the Puppeteer
Big Brain Wolf
Jolly Rover
Memento Mori
Monkey Island 2: Special Edition (have to play the first one first though)
Nikopol
Sam and Max season 3
Scratches: Director's cut
Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper (going by the order Steam has listed them)
Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened - Remastered
Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy
Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Persian Carpet
Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Silver Earring
Still Life 2

I see I've also bought but not downloaded (ops): The Gabriel Knight series (tried nr. 3, never got past the disguise puzzle), Beneath a Steel Sky (Think I got half way sometime) and Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption

Considering replaying:
Still Life (for Still Life 2)
Culpa Innata
Portal/2

Yeesh, that is one long list.. :crazy: :frusty:

I've just finished The Awakened Remastered Edition, and you can see what i thought of it here

If you've played Art of Murder 1 then you know what to expect with Hunt for the Puppeteer. Memento Mori is a typical mystery/conspiracy, not on level with Broken Sword but still above average. Still Life 2 tried some interesting ideas, but lacks the polishing of the original. GK series comes without a question, GK2 is my fav, i've played it even before the first one.

I didn't know there was an Art of Murder 1!
Now I know what to do with the "free game" coupon I have from Big Fish Games.. (I keep buying collector's editions of HOGs, so I never figure out what to use my free punch card reward on)

I'd finish Mata Hari. I enjoyed that game start to finish.

:9

i don't know if it's the same Art of Murder in big fish games but there are three Art of Murder games that are not HOGs..It's Art of Murder FBI Confidential,AOM Hunt for the Puppeteer and AOM Cards of Destiny.They are exactly like Still Life in terms of style.graphics or otherwise.I know there is a HOG AOM hence the doubt about big fish.:P

Also Sinking Island I finished recently.I think there is one major flaw in this game.When double clicking on a transition to another area it doesn't fast forward to the next area.In fact you watch Jack Norm jog to it.Other than that it was a classic Sokal experience with a bit of ingenuity in helping you get organised by introducing a kind of Personal Organiser.It was really helpful.I liked it and i'm sad there's not gonna be a sequel since White Bids doesn't exist anymore.Kind of tedious at first but gets a lot better after completing two pieces of the puzzle.

I also liked Alternativa.It was really easy for me to get into the game.Hoping for a sequel.

Nikopol was great in it's own right.You're gonna hear a lot of opinions on this.I for one really liked it(a fan of Sokal no doubt everyone has picked up on this by now).The story and visuals are really gripping.I also really liked the gui you had to work with.really simple and subtle.Great atmosphere.

Beneath a steel sky is one you should definitely finish.great story and fun dialogs mostly between the dynamic duo,Robert Foster and Joey.

Last but not least,you can't go wrong with Scratches.It's a great game and many of the guys are gonna back me up on this.

I'd recommend to start with Scratches, even though it's 1st person. The game is well-written, well-designed, VERY dark, made with love and care. Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper is also a nice detective/thriller and the best ag by Frogwares for sure.

EDIT Oh, I didn't notice The Gabriel Knight series in your post! You should most definitely try them, all three games are brilliant examples of what you are looking for :)

Please, don't let GK3's disguise puzzle deter you from completing the game! It's a fantastic, multi-layered game that checks almost all the boxes you are looking for: dark, 3rd person (technically), strong story (arguably the strongest, most well-crafted story of any adventure game ever), (blockily) realistic, and from an appropriate time period. It's in (clumsy but totally workable) 3D but you can't have everything! :)

Also, that puzzle has been widely acknowledged to be extremely unfair (in fact, it's been cited as, more or less, the death rattle of adventure games as a genre) so you shouldn't feel bad looking up a hint for it in UHS, for example.

EDIT: As far as must-play games on your list go, IMHO those would be BaSS, the GK series (each more amazing than the last, true gems), and Sanitarium. They're also all very much along the lines of what you are looking for. The Monkey Island games (at least the 1st two), while not dark, are definitely also a must-play.

And, please, for all that is holy, do NOT even think about Still Life 2! Never have I played such a buggy, plodding, unimaginative, stupid, plot-hole-riddled, awkwardly-controlled (that inventory!) mess of a game.

P.S. Also you have to play more Fallout, and Fallout 2! You will thank me later! ;)

AlternativA as jhetfield21 is something nice to start with if you are not into quite difficult game

A Vampyre Story is a must with all the humor , gameplaying and the characters in it

Art of Murder 1 is the best of the trilogy and i guess you shouldn't brother with 2nd and 3rd though that latter offers some decent game playing than than 2nd which was a big disappointment

Still life 1 and 2 and are different games .... if you played the 1st even 5 years ago it will make to difference to start the 2nd anytime but i must tell its a hell frustrating Adventure,over-usage of the inventory and its own style is a tiring that you can spend hours into it alone (inventory) as it has alone 3 or 4 interfaces/sections within from your messenger ,to some items the can be separated up to three or four others,and some notes , diaries analysis.. i tell i spent more time in the inventory section more than play with Mcpherson herself one of the most annoying main reason i didn't want to continue finishing it plus the camera's view and akward avatars movements and some timed sequences ... i wished they just sticked to the original style of the 1st as it was a real GEM.

Start at the start:

Zork
Colossal Cave Adventure
Mystery House

are serious you want him to ride the time machine ... that is the funniest post i read in weeks ..:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEQLc...feature=relmfu
or maybe we can bring him the time back and he just sits and watchs

I just want him to play good games. Alternativa, Art of Murder, Vampire Story sucked, as well as some of the other games people are recommending.

it seems though that his games are based on that art style....as much fun as many others can be i think they should be left back for another time when there won't be alternatives.i'm not saying they're not good but when he is talking about 2D/3D games and you tell him to play Zork(unless i'm mistaken you mean the first one which was text based).....

I second the Gabriel Knight recommendation; they are awesome games. The disguise puzzle in GK3 is ludicrous but don't let it put you off because the rest of the game is so awesome - personally I used a walkthrough for that particular puzzle.

Spoiler:

I mean seriously - making a moustache using tape, maple syrup and the hair ripped from a cat you have to scare with a water spritzer. Its so stupid; especially when obviously the most logical way to get the bike is to construct a new one using a used tissue smeared in grease paint, a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle, and a hamster in a sweater shrunken by hundreds of years in a dryer.

The irony about that puzzle is it's still nowhere near the worst/most obscure puzzle seen in an adventure game! What a weird genre to love; at times it seems to want to frustrate and be unloved! :)

Big fish games has a lot of adventure games too actually. I have Nikopol and Scratches from them (as well as Syberia 1 and 2), as I said, I never know what to use my free game cupon on, so I keep buying AGs that do not have a collector's edition. I picked up Art of Murder FBI confidential, will pick up the third one if I enjoy the first two.

I might give it another try. I really do not like timed games where you have only one chance to do something, so I think I have to play it on the "casual" setting. If it picks up, I can handle a few hours tediousness first.

I have heard so much good about Scratches, and I do want to try it, but I'm afraid I'll scare myself too much. I can't handle horror movies, but I have no problem with horror HOGs, so I'm not sure where Scratches will fall.
I did scare myself playing Myst several years ago, but I have played several first person games since then, and might be less timid now.

It's an admirable suggestion, but I do not have the patience for text-based input. I'm a story nut, so I have a tendency to walkthrough through tough puzzles, and the only way I'll ever get through the olden games would be to walkthrough the whole thing (I hate dying!). I walkthroughed half of Black Mirror 1 for gods sake!

I have played more AGs than my list, I didn't bother to list all my played games, but you're right that I have a tendency to go for the gritty, dark styles. Note that I've picked up several of my games on sale and through bundles, so I haven't bought every single one specifically because of the style.
It will always be a matter of opinion and taste, but because I started playing AGs around 2004-2005, my favourite games and styles are coloured by the first games I played.
My favourites are still TLJ, Syberia 1 and 2, Still Life, Broken Sword 1 and 2 and Secret Files: Tunguska (though I agree that Tunguska was very easy and had a simple story). Might also include Culpa Innata and Lost Horizon, but both dropped the ball on the ending.. hmm.. I seem to have that complaint about most of the AGs I've played..


And please guys, I'm a girl, it says so in my description *points at profile picture*.

hello there :)

Print out your list. Find the largest marker you can find. Draw a line through Still Life 2. Whatever is left looks fine.

I agree with the Scratches posting. I played the demo, but when I made the purchase, the "Director's Cut" was all I could find. Turns out that the video card requirements were different than those of the demo and the original Scratches. I just got a new PC and it meets the requirements. I am VERY much looking forward to giving it a try.

I did walkthrough the puzzle, I just tend to become really, really annoyed at games where I keep getting stuck. I'll try to explain: When I'm stuck and don't know what I'm supposed to be doing I go check up on that exact spot I'm stuck, figure out how I'm supposed to do it, and then continue playing. If I go from one "I'm stuck" directly into another "I'm stuck" I just feel like the game isn't giving me enough information and it just takes the fun out of it.
I gave up on GK3 because I felt I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing.
I should probably give it another chance, there are some games where I just need to spend some time getting to know the game, control system and progression before I understand how the game works, and I might not have given GK3 the benefit of the doubt.

I'm a bit stuck on the GK series because I feel I should start with the first one, but I'm scared of old games, and of having to deal with DosBox and set up. It just seems like so much effort when I have other games that do not require any work.. :pan: [me]

I do want to continue Sanitarium, but as I said last time I tried it was so bugged I couldn't progress or play without frequent crashes. (Was the same with my version of Faust) I hope GOGs Sanitarium version has been fixed, but I got no answer from people about it. Has nobody played the GOG version?

Been very skeptical to Still Life 2 as it was continued without the original creators, you guys are not helping me change my mind! :P

should we have tried!!,
i thought you were just seeking an advice/opinion about that looong list you 'd posted

It was meant as a joke, another way of saying "you confirmed my fears, thank you for the advice". :)

It wasn't exactly my point that you only play that kind of games,what i said was purely based on the list of games you wanted to play.I do this myself.The games I play tend to be of a certain type every now and then.After I picked up Scratches for instance,I also played Dark Fall 2 and 3 next and had amnesia and a couple more games in my list at the time.Afterwards my mood changed because I got Yesterday.Then I got Stroke of Fate Operation Valkyrie(not the same with Yesterday in art style but 2D with 3D models...).And then there was Alternativa(again 2D with 3D models).I just thought that it would be best for you to play those you wrote in your list first and then try for the rest.

Sorry about that.....:P

Lastly...about SL2....the guys are right.If you play it with SL1 in mind it's disappointing.If you play it like it's different then it's another story.Then it's ok,another adventure.Though there are more timed events and deaths in it than Sinking Island so between them I'd choose the latter.Which reminds me....the timed events in Sinking Island are more like checkpoints in the overall time.I didn't really have a problem with it.A couple of times I was having a conversation and he interrupted it to go have a snack(damn......let's go through all those flloors again to the 21st) but other than that it was ok.I only had to use a walkthrough a couple of times because I would find answers to the puzzle pieces more believable when they weren't the right ones.You could only progress with specific materials,declerations,prints and pictures.So finding those you needed was kind of difficult at times.Sometimes other declerations seemed to be enough for the puzzle piece but weren't.