Adventure Gamers - Forums

What do you look for in a game and what method do you use?

Personally, I use Steam tags. Filtering for obvious ones like ‘Adventure’ and ‘Point & Click’ but absolutely will not play a game that includes a ‘Hidden Object’ or ‘Casual’ tag. 

It also needs to have full voice-acting unless it has exceedingly high ratings.  The Last Door series, for example, was exceptional imho.

I have a waitlist set up on isthereanydeal.com to notify me when any of the games I want are 60%+ off, but collecting those is a whole other addiction.

first and foremost for me is I don’t like hidden object/casual games. I also don’t like first person games. I also don’t like terror or scary games. So, I am always looking for 3rd person games that have a story.  After I see some games posted or reviewed, I will look at screen shots and then based on that i might buy them. I knew when I saw Book of Unwritten Tales for sale that I wanted that game. I am getting very picky in my old age.

Criteria:
I can play almost every type of AG, so it usually just depends on what mood I’m in. I always steer away from games with an excessive amount of hidden object scenes, though.

Method:
The first time I hear about an AG is usually on this site (forum/news), or on Eurogamer or Neogaf.

When the game is released I read or watch a couple of reviews, and read user impressions in this forum and/or places like Steam, GOG or Neogaf. I also check meta scores if possible, and if the game only has a few reviews I turn to user scores on Steam or GOG instead. And I always watch at least one gameplay video or video review.

EDIT: Added a couple of sites.

rtrooney - 16 April 2017 09:09 PM

Forgive me, but how is this different from finding a locked door which triggers an HO scene which requires some effort on your part to find the key which will unlock the door?

I think I can try and answer this one. When I walk into a room with a locked door, I am in character, immersed in my surroundings, searching for possible leads. At that moment, being confronted with a HO scene where the task is to find 20 gold coins takes me right out of the game world. Where does this task come from? Who is stepping in and telling me I need to find 20 gold coins? And what for?

This is the feeling I get from the (few) HO games I’ve played. It feels tacked on, unnatural. I want to be completely immersed in my character and the story. The puzzles and tasks, I feel, should come from within the game world itself.

I must admit however that my knowledge of HO games is poor. If there is more to them than my example, then that shows my ignorance of the style. Feel free to correct me.

It’s a good question and one that I’ve asked similarly, what is it that I like so much about adventure games?

I think it ultimately comes down to the right blend of narrative and puzzle-solving that suits my tastes.  A couple of HOG elements are fine, but I want varied puzzles to keep me guessing.

At the other end of the spectrum, I very quickly get bored of what Telltale Games have become.

Too far in either direction and I’d have more fun just doing some programming challenges.

rtrooney - 16 April 2017 09:09 PM

All three, the original poster and the two replyers, set the primary criteria as no hidden objects and no casual.

I personally only stated that I don’t like games with a lot of HO scenes - there’s a big difference I actually like casual adventure games with no or just a few HO scenes

But I pose the following situation: You enter a room. Could be a den, office, whatever. The door closes behind you. You walk across the room and find a locked door. This is, it would seem, to be your only exit. Immediate objective is to find a key to the door.

Current “real” adventures will require either a pixel search for the key, see a “sparkle” where the key might be located, or you can right click and see all the hot-spots in the room, one of which will be the key.

Forgive me, but how is this different from finding a locked door which triggers an HO scene which requires some effort on your part to find the key which will unlock the door?

I think it’s very different. HO scenes usually give you a list of what to search for, and traditional AG scenes don’t.

In your example, the solution could be a key, but it could also be something very different. Just a few examples:
- Searching for a key, as in your example.
- A hidden trapdoor, or similar hidden exit, that you’ll need to find and unlock. Maybe with a code puzzle or similar puzzle type.
- A phone or computer you need to find and unlock/hack to call or send a message/e-mail for help.
- The classic “persuade/trick the guard outside the door puzzle”.

That’s just four very quick examples. I’m sure developers could come up with at least twice as many during the pre-production phase.

The point is, in AG scenes you’ll never know exactly what to look for in advance, and the scene could turn out very differently than expected. All the HO scenes I’ve tried or seen in videos give you a “laundry list” of what to search for. I understand why people like those type of puzzles/tasks, but they’re not for me.

There’s no doubt that the “unknown” factor in traditional AG puzzles is partly an illusion of choice, but it’s just a more fun process, to me, deciphering a traditional AG puzzle than a HO scene, even when the former has a bit of “fake” choices thrown in.

Oscar - 16 April 2017 09:36 PM

rtrooney - 16 April 2017 09:09 PM

Forgive me, but how is this different from finding a locked door which triggers an HO scene which requires some effort on your part to find the key which will unlock the door?

I think I can try and answer this one. When I walk into a room with a locked door, I am in character, immersed in my surroundings, searching for possible leads. At that moment, being confronted with a HO scene where the task is to find 20 gold coins takes me right out of the game world. Where does this task come from? Who is stepping in and telling me I need to find 20 gold coins? And what for?

This is the feeling I get from the (few) HO games I’ve played. It feels tacked on, unnatural. I want to be completely immersed in my character and the story. The puzzles and tasks, I feel, should come from within the game world itself.

I must admit however that my knowledge of HO games is poor. If there is more to them than my example, then that shows my ignorance of the style. Feel free to correct me.

That’s exactly the problem I’ve had with HO scenes I’ve seen before. It breaks immersion.

But, pixel hunting is actually my least liked element of adventure games. That’s why I like having a hotspot highlighter and wish there were “walkthrough” which would just list all objects to pick up and where they are located. My list favorite part of an adventure game is when I spend an hour trying to solve a puzzle and find out that I just missed picking up an object that was hidden in the background somewhere…

There are some really good casual games however. Emerald City Confidential is an amazing game for example.

Genre and design preference
Bad art design and art in general can totally stop me from playing
(bad art for me)

Decent art

Once these 2 filters are passed then some videos

rtrooney - 17 April 2017 09:32 PM

Aside from Glom participating in a conversation regarding Emerald City Confidential, I don’t recall either @Oscar or @Glom participating in any casual playthrough. So, I’m thinking that the bias is based, to a certain degree, on things they have not experienced.

I have played it. I liked it. I don’t recall it having any obligatory HO scenes? I’m not sure I would call it casual, light adventure perhaps.

I am not against playing casual. Drawn is another lovely series regarded (I think) as casual.

Hidden Object.

Advie - 18 April 2017 06:14 AM

whats HO?

Hidden object

I guess Tim(rtooney) is as much of lover of HO as Oscar loves Textbased (no graphics just words)

So for many that also kills immersion because one can read books or digital wordplay through so called game without any graphic output or art of anykind

so i wonder why he doesnt understand Tim’s love of finding 10 objects to progress screen since a screen or picture has Chinese proverb

One picture is worth ten thousand words

Thats basically 10,000 words in one screen that Oscar reads and types
I think both can get immersive

mbday630 - 16 April 2017 11:50 AM

first and foremost for me is I don’t like hidden object/casual games. I also don’t like first person games. I also don’t like terror or scary games. So, I am always looking for 3rd person games that have a story.  After I see some games posted or reviewed, I will look at screen shots and then based on that i might buy them. I knew when I saw Book of Unwritten Tales for sale that I wanted that game. I am getting very picky in my old age.

We appear to have very similar taste in games (and thank you for reminding me I need to go back and finish BOUT - and its successors).

You might find this link useful:
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Reviews_DESC&tags=-1738,-597,-19,21,1698

It’s the best point and click games on steam with HOG, Casual and Action filtered out.

You can just add ,-3839 to the end to filter out First-person games too.  Or remove ,-19 to add Action games back in.

nomadsoul - 18 April 2017 06:57 AM

so i wonder why he doesnt understand Tim’s love of finding 10 objects to progress screen since a screen or picture has Chinese proverb

One picture is worth ten thousand words

Thats basically 10,000 words in one screen that Oscar reads and types
I think both can get immersive

So if graphic adventures are so superior why have we never had a Lovecraftean graphic adventure as good as Anchorhead? And why do text adventures contain some of the best AG puzzles and stories?

In the beginning was the Word.