Adventure Gamers - Forums

Vote Here for Your Top 100 Adventure Games

The goal is simple:  To compile a list of the top 100 adventure games you, as AG members, feel are the best you’ve played. 

Post your list of up to 100 games in this thread.  A list of fewer games is fine.

Please post your lists alphabetically.  (It’ll keep me from losing a game and also my mind.)  If a game starts with The or A, please alphabetize by the second word in the title.

If you decide to add or change a game on your list, don’t edit your original post.  Just let me know your changes in a new post.  For example: “I’m replacing Game X with ________” or “I’m adding Game Y to my previous list.”

Games that are part of a series but are still stand-alone games (i.e. Gabriel Knight, Tex Murphy, Syberia) should be listed separately.  However, episodic games that aren’t complete without all the parts (i.e. Kentucky Route Zero), should be listed as one game. 

I will tally the votes for each game, and then arrange the games in order based on the number of votes.  This list is not intended to replace the website’s existing top 100.  If all goes well (fingers crossed), this can be done annually so that new games can be added.

Types of adventures that can be included:
~First person exploration games
~Third person games
~Light adventure games
~Text adventures
~Puzzle-heavy games with a story

Many adventure games have some elements of action or stealth, but these elements are not paramount in the gameplay. 

Please exclude these:
~Role-playing games
~First person shooters
~Action-heavy platformers
~Stealth-heavy games
~Hidden object games

Let me know if I’ve missed anything here.

You have until Sunday, July 31 to submit your lists.

Does excluding role-playing games mean excluding Disco Elysium?

I haven’t played it, Millenia, but I thought it had enough adventure elements to include it.  Someone else who has played it will have to weigh in here.

Lady Kestrel - 02 July 2022 04:01 PM

I haven’t played it, Millenia, but I thought it had enough adventure elements to include it.  Someone else who has played it will have to weigh in here.

I’ve not played it Lady K but it is the AG Games Database with a 5* review.

Please give an example of what constitutes a Lite Adventure game.

The only two that come to mind are Emerald City Confidential, which is not on the current Top 100. And the Drawn Trilogy, which I believe only has the first game on the list.

Those are good examples, Tim.  Milo and the Magpies might also fall into that category, since it’s very short.

I translated Emmerald City Confidential into Spanish and yeah, it is a very casual game, but it also has dialog-based puzzles and inventory items, so I will include it. Besides, I enjoyed the game a lot so I will take the chance to recommen it. An injust forgotten.

I will also suggest that Hidden Object games be replaced with Casual Games. We all know what they are, but Jack stopped reviewing Casual Games back in 2012, which was why/when I started the Casual Games Thread. However he still continued to review Casual Games that didn’t have hidden object scenes for another three years.

I think it is safe to say that Casual Games are excluded, and everyone will know what that means.

Even though, personally, I think the Enigmatis Trilogy could easily stand toe-to-toe with any adventure in the bottom 20 of the Top 100. 

i will be amazed by those who can gather up to 100 titles, I hardly gathered 50, but I am quite satisfied this way; don’t wanna insert any title bc of any feelings of ‘must’ or ‘should’, it is a pure favorite list by how I feel today primarily!, and secondary by how I remember my initial feeling back then when I played them. I’ll do more digging, then I will post it by tomorrow

I think I need some help in figuring out what’s an adventure game and what isn’t.

I was browsing through the AdventureGamers database and saw Psychonauts there. I’d always thought of it as a platformer, but if Psychonauts counts then it means a lot of games I think of as platformers could be in my top 100 list, possibly knocking out other games.

Help? 

I also feel like 100 is too much for me. But then “up to 100” means people would post 2-5 favourite games and be off with it, which wouldn’t lead to good statistics. At the same time, posting huge lists in alphabetical order will make them uninteresting to read and compare. I’d rather post my “top 10/20"s from time to time and then see how it turns out, I’m in the process of playing/replaying some potential top-list games anyway.

millenia - 02 July 2022 03:56 PM

Does excluding role-playing games mean excluding Disco Elysium?

I think it’s in the same league as Quest for Glory, the RPG elements are non-traditional and don’t require any special skills or reflexes from adventure gamers.

Below the Root (Commodore 64)
Botanicula
Clock Tower I (1995 SNES)
Disco Elysium
Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Gobliins 2
Goblins 3 (original French version)
Loom
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
Neverhood, The
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Return to Mysterious Island
Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Shadow of the Comet
Shivers 2
TimeQuest
Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth

Charophycean - 03 July 2022 06:53 AM

I think I need some help in figuring out what’s an adventure game and what isn’t.

I was browsing through the AdventureGamers database and saw Psychonauts there. I’d always thought of it as a platformer, but if Psychonauts counts then it means a lot of games I think of as platformers could be in my top 100 list, possibly knocking out other games.

Help? 

There was some small puzzle/adventure game for VR that took place in the Psychonauts universe, but the original is definitely not an adventure, wouldn’t even call action-adventure, just a platformer with dialogues.

Doom - 03 July 2022 07:15 AM

Charophycean - 03 July 2022 06:53 AM

I think I need some help in figuring out what’s an adventure game and what isn’t.

I was browsing through the AdventureGamers database and saw Psychonauts there. I’d always thought of it as a platformer, but if Psychonauts counts then it means a lot of games I think of as platformers could be in my top 100 list, possibly knocking out other games.

Help? 

There was some small puzzle/adventure game for VR that took place in the Psychonauts universe, but the original is definitely not an adventure, wouldn’t even call action-adventure, just a platformer with dialogues.

Rhombus of Ruin? That’s in the database too, along with the original Psychonauts.

I think I’ll leave it off the list. If it were eligible I would have included it, along with Out Of This World.