[bigjko]

Sorry about the non-descriptive title, folks.

I have something to confess. I haven't played and finished a new adventure since back in the days of Escape from Monkey Island.

What's the reason behind this? Sure, it's been discussed many times before, but adventure games have done nothing but bore me the last five years. Broken Sword 3 was indeed a sleeping dragon. It had a mildly interesting story, but blew it completely with a very annoying interface, and puzzles that really drew attention to the horrible interface. On a whole, the puzzles were mediocre at best.

And Syberia? I only played the demo, and it promised nothing but very beautiful, yet very shallow gameplay. Gone were the days when developers would spend hours thinking up something smart for the protagonist to say, when doing something impossible, instead of a rehashed "Nope." or "I can't go there."

I could go on about how many of the games released lately never, in any way, interested me or how I was afraid to actually try some of them, due to my experiences with other new games. But there's no point. The genre is far from dead, it's just stuck. Stuck in this image of the golden age, where everything was great, and 2D, and point-and-click. And why is it stuck? Because everyone (including consumers) are too afraid to move on.

Everytime an adventure brings something new, something fresh, it's boo-ed down for shamelessly farting on their favorite genre, even before the game is to be released. Dreamfall tries to press on the player a bit, by adding timed sequences. "Blasphemy!" everyone shouts, before even considering the fact that the developers say that failure at these timed sequences is just "another fork in the road." So, even if you suck at these timed sequences you just get a different path than those who are trigger-happy. This just means more puzzles for you, more timed-sequences for them.

I hope games like Dreamfall and Fahrenheit will somehow break the oh so stale mold of adventure games, and stir things up a bit. Because if they don't, the genre may not be dead, but it would still be completely devoid of life. To me, at least.

[squarejawhero]

OI!

Don't TAKE the MICKEY. MY TITLE for MY thread ACCIDENTLY GAVE my ENTIRE POINT away WHICH WAS NICE as I DIDN'T HAVE TO WRITE a lot IN THE maIN BodY OF The TExT.



See here.

[Swordmaster]

Originally Posted by bigjko

"Blasphemy!" everyone shouts, before even considering the fact that the developers say that failure at these timed sequences is just "another fork in the road."

> take fork
You have now got a fork.

(A mushroom pie for the first one to point out the game.)

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by bigjko

I hope games like Dreamfall and Fahrenheit will somehow break the oh so stale mold of adventure games, and stir things up a bit. Because if they don't, the genre may not be dead, but it would still be completely devoid of life. To me, at least.

I still like today's games, but it's true that there's an overall feeling of laziness (mostly in 3rd person). So a slap in the face might do the genre some good.

[Tramboi]

Originally Posted by Swordmaster

> take fork
You have now got a fork.

(A mushroom pie for the first one to point out the game.)

Magnetic Scroll's Wonderland?

And this one?

*Fork*
You stand at a point of decision on a road which makes a wide fork to the northeast and southeast, circling the base of the Lonely Mountain, which looms high overhead to the east. A very long and winding road starts here and stretches out of sight to the west through low, smoky hills.
The sun is rising over the lands to the east.

[Royal Fool]

I'll have to agree with bigjko, adventure games from the last few years haven't caught my interest aside from a select few (The Myst games in particular).

However, I haven't noticed a lot of negativity towards games like Dreamfall, Fahrenheit and the like on these forums...

Oh, and also:

> stab puzzle with fork
You stab the puzzle with your fork. As the puzzle twitches in pain, it quickly and quietly dies.
You now see a new exit to the SOUTH.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Royal Fool

However, I haven't noticed a lot of negativity towards games like Dreamfall, Fahrenheit and the like on these forums...

That's exactly what I was thinking. It's quite the countrary, really.

Originally Posted by Tramboi

*Fork*
You stand at a point of decision on a road which makes a wide fork to the northeast and southeast, circling the base of the Lonely Mountain, which looms high overhead to the east. A very long and winding road starts here and stretches out of sight to the west through low, smoky hills.
The sun is rising over the lands to the east.

Infocom's Enchanter...?

[Tramboi]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

Infocom's Enchanter...?

Yep. You definitely deserve not to be cleeshed!

[squarejawhero]

That's exactly what I was thinking. It's quite the countrary, really.

It's nice, people like to talk about the positives whilst adknowledging the negatives but not over-emphasising them. Which is why I'm posting here more now. I find just picking apart such titles for the sake of it or general worries negates discussion, whilst here there's more discussion about the opportunity offered by the titles. It's just "upbeat".

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by squarejawhero

It's nice, people like to talk about the positives whilst adknowledging the negatives but not over-emphasising them. Which is why I'm posting here more now. I find just picking apart such titles for the sake of it or general worries negates discussion, whilst here there's more discussion about the opportunity offered by the titles. It's just "upbeat".

Somehow, all those discussions about Dreamfall, how adventure games should evolve, etc, have dramatically increased the last few weeks. That would be...since you're posting here. Thank you very much for bringing the seeds of discord.

Originally Posted by Tramboi

Yep. You definitely deserve not to be cleeshed!

It's a long time ago, but Enchanter stands out because it was the first and the easiest of the trilogy. The only one I could finish. The other two were way too hard for me and I don't remember anything about them at all.

[Tramboi]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

It's a long time ago, but Enchanter stands out because it was the first and the easiest of the trilogy. The only one I could finish. The other two were way too hard for me and I don't remember anything about them at all.

Lucky you, I would have *never* thought you could order a turtle to fetch an object
Interaction with the characters was always the weak point in these IF games, and (trying to) talking to them was so frustrating, so I was always astonished when you were able to actually obtain something from a NPC!

[Jake]

Bigjko I agree with you 100%. Though maybe I completed a game or two more than you since Escape from Monkey Island, it was more laborious than fun. Sigh.

[bigjko]

The negative chat about Dreamfall and Fahrenheit came mostly after they were announced. It's been going slowly silent lately.

[squarejawhero]

Dreamfall sucks! Farenheit.... uh... sucks!

Death to 3D! Death to action!

Viva la non-revelucion!

Or something.

That better?

[bigjko]

That's actually a more reasonable argument than usual, when Dreamfall or Fahrenheit are the topic, believe it or not.

[Swordmaster]

Originally Posted by Tramboi

Magnetic Scroll's Wonderland?

Correct! Off with your head!

[Metallus]

Syberia was the last adventure game I played. I didn't enjoy it at all, but have been genuinely afraid to say it around here. To me, Syberia revealed what the basic gameplay of the adventure genre has evolved into if you strip away a compelling story, perhaps humor, and do away with likeable, memorable characters with funny names. It ended up being a lot like doing chores, I guess. Perhaps action elements in games aren't everyone's cup of tea (I know some probably think that the action/arcade/old mine road sequences are a bit chore-ish, for instance); perhaps that's not what adventure developers should be turning to to spice up their title. But ... there needs to be something there.

I guess I think that the sparse adventure titles that are coming out these days should not be automatically heralded as the rebirth of the genre, no matter how desperate the gaming populace wants it to be. Releasing an adventure title at all I guess seems to be a remarkable feat these days, so I can't fault the community for being excited about a release, but I just don't anticipate post-90's adventure games being the best ever just for making it out of the gate.

In any case, "no need to go down there."

[squarejawhero]

I'm getting flashbacks now. Thanks.

Luckily my girlfriend played it with me watching the good bits. She loved the design but didn't enjoy the story and found it "too easy". She doesn't play games often too.