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Quantum Conundrum - adventure or not?

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There’s been a lot of discussion here in the past about Portal and Portal 2 and whether those types of games are adventures. Some people said it was a puzzle game. Others said it was an ‘action platformer’. AGers has decisively answered the question in the ‘affirmative’, posting news and reviews for both games and including them in their various halls of fame.

Quantum Conundrum can be seen as the spiritual successor to Portal. I only recently heard of the game and have researched it a bit. Created and developed by the same person as Portal, it’s based around the same basic features: a series of rooms with a set of unique physics and rules, devious puzzles that you have to manipulate the environment to solve, first-person graphics, all wrapped up in a central story.


More info here: http://quantumconundrum.com/
Trailer:

Seeing as it has just been released a few days ago and there’s been no mention of it on AGers and no review, what do you think? Have any adventurers played it yet? Is it an adventure? Should it be on AGers? I’m a Portal fan so I will be buying this but I’m interested to hear your views.

     
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QC is a game we have our eye on, for those very reasons.  So I too am interested in feedback from those who have actually played it.

     
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http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-quantum-conundrum/17-6251/

HAvn’t played it, but it looks ok.

     

An adventure game is nothing more than a good story set with engaging puzzles that fit seamlessly in with the story and the characters, and looks and sounds beautiful.
Roberta Williams

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I just beat it and I liked it. It’s a first person puzzler with lots of jumping. Pretty much like Portal, so definitely not an adventure game.

Like I said I found it pretty fun and I liked the “Team Fortressy” atmosphere but it was a little on the easy side. The constant hints from the professor didn’t help that fact either. Overall it was worth the reasonable price.

     
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If Portal’s an adventure than this is one too. (Although I personally don’t consider Portal to be one at all but I respect if you do. Tongue) I thought the game was decent. I didn’t appreciate the constant hints, though—just because I’m taking my time doesn’t mean I’m stuck damn it. Grin

     

Right or wrong, weak or strong.

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I think “Adventure” has become a bit of a misnomer in terms of adventure games because what does it really mean these days? There are plenty of adventure games where you’re not really having an “adventure” in the literal sense of the word, and games like Portal 2 which despite being primarily a physics based puzzle game, does take you on a pretty wild adventure.

     
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marcd2011 - 27 June 2012 07:51 AM

I think “Adventure” has become a bit of a misnomer in terms of adventure games because what does it really mean these days? There are plenty of adventure games where you’re not really having an “adventure” in the literal sense of the word, and games like Portal 2 which despite being primarily a physics based puzzle game, does take you on a pretty wild adventure.

That’s what this thread is for. The site has supplied the definition here and it’s up to us to take a look at the game to see if it fits.

I think if the word “adventure” was taken literally, almost every game would be an “adventure game”. So you’re right - the words are meaningless and the genre might as well be called “inside-out floating marshmallow jelly cake game”. Still, it’s a website for a certain type of game and as such, it needs to decide which games it wants to cover on it.

     
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It’s as much of an adventure game as Portal.

Which is to say not at all, but since AG has already let Portal in, I say why not.

     
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marcd2011 - 27 June 2012 07:51 AM

I think “Adventure” has become a bit of a misnomer in terms of adventure games because what does it really mean these days? There are plenty of adventure games where you’re not really having an “adventure” in the literal sense of the word, and games like Portal 2 which despite being primarily a physics based puzzle game, does take you on a pretty wild adventure.

Games like Halo or Diablo also take you on a wild adventure, but nobody calls them “an adventure game”. They have their own genres, as well as Deponia or Amnesia. There’s no need to redefine it, so that certain games will fit the description (although I myself practice it sometimes).

     
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The genre definition has absolutely nothing to do with the real-world definition of adventure.  Never did.  (And certainly doesn’t here.)

I see that once again all the “not an adventure” complaints (about Portal) make no attempt to explain why not, despite fitting our age-old definition to a “T”. (Or you could use Wikipedia’s, if you prefer.)  If some people think it’s too “actiony”, I can at least accept that as an argument.  Everything else just seems to boil down to being too different than what we’re used to. And to that we simply say vive la différence! Wink

Anyway, to those who have played QC, how integral is the story?  That’s the part that people love to ignore about Portal, though it’s an absolutely essential component of the game.  Portal wouldn’t be Portal without its ongoing, fully integrated narrative.  I’m curious to know if that’s the case with the new game as well.

     
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Schneckchen ^.^ - 26 June 2012 07:01 PM

I just beat it and I liked it. It’s a first person puzzler with lots of jumping. Pretty much like Portal, so definitely not an adventure game.

From what I’ve played, this game has a few more timing puzzles and more mouse & keyboard skills required than Portal. For the most part it’s still your brain you need to use most, but that’s not to say there isn’t quick thinking and jumping onto small platforms involved. Of course, you get unlimited chances, but I’ve seen a lot of adventurers complain about puzzles like the rain dance in Book of Unwritten Tales so those people won’t be able to do some of the puzzles here. There have been quite a few times where I knew what I had to do but it took many tries to execute it, which didn’t really happen to me in Portal more than a few times.

So that’s another tough question: How much action is allowed in an adventure game?

     
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Jackal - 27 June 2012 10:47 AM

I see that once again all the “not an adventure” complaints (about Portal) make no attempt to explain why not, despite fitting our age-old definition to a “T”. (Or you could use Wikipedia’s, if you prefer.)  If some people think it’s too “actiony”, I can at least accept that as an argument.  Everything else just seems to boil down to being too different than what we’re used to. And to that we simply say vive la différence! Wink

It’s a puzzle game, simple as that. One concept used to solve one-room problems. You don’t list Lemmings or Braid or DROD as adventure games. Portal might be more user-friendly and have more advanced graphics, but that doesn’t make it an ag.

     
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I just finished addressing that argument, AT.  Story is absolutely integral to the Portal experience.  It’s secondary or non-existent in pure puzzlers.  And obviously, stories are an essential element of any adventure.

By the way, here’s a brand new game in a similar style to stew over.  Grin

     
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Jackal - 27 June 2012 11:54 AM

I just finished addressing that argument, AT.  Story is absolutely integral to the Portal experience.  It’s secondary or non-existent in pure puzzlers.  And obviously, stories are an essential element of any adventure.

Story is integral to many games today. It doesn’t mean you have to call everything “an adventure game”  Tongue

     
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Portal is a puzzle game. If the only reason some people consider Portal an adventure game is the story (which I found totally over-rated anyways), then we might as well consider any game with a story an adventure game. Bioshock, Gears of War, Doom, Postal…

Gameplay defines the genre. Not story.

     
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That’s a total scarecrow argument.  An adventure game is the integration of puzzle solving within a story, as our definition makes perfectly clear.  Obviously other genres share some of those elements, but not both, and certainly not as their primary focus, so they aren’t adventures.  Just as adventures can share elements from other genres and not become them.  Portal has “platforms”, but the challenge isn’t to physically traverse them but to solve puzzles.  You carry a gun and shoot, but that’s entirely incidental (could be a laser beam that comes out of your forehead and it wouldn’t change the game at all), so it’s not a shooter. 

EDIT: Schnecken, didn’t see your post before mine.  The same answer applies, but to further that, if “gameplay” alone defines genre, then an adventure game IS just a puzzler.

     

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