Adventure Gamers - Forums

Even if there are NO new good Adventures there are always the old ones available to satisfy me (from the 90’s especially) to play ;either those i missed or replaying as i had never finished before or even remember.

i have been busy lately playing Simon 1 and 2, Feeble files inherit the earth , I have No mouth….. , Monkey Island 1 and 2 ..etc and i guess that as much as it rewarded my adventuring hunger as much as it caused me a real damage and torpidity toward newly released game, such as SF3 and walking Dead, Hoodwink ...... i can not even keep any of them running for 15 Minutes and i just Quit .

i wanted to share this feeling(call it an adventurer Block, or being Stuck at Past) and see if anyone Had/Have been through this? !

Nah. It’s like listening to The Beatles or Pink Floyd instead of today’s music.

Yes, I hear you. I totally understand what you mean. I have also been doing a lot of old school replays like Broken Sword 1, GK 1 and 2, Tex Murphy (Pandora and Under a Killing moon). I realise how much i love these classics, and every time i start playing a new adventure game I am very sceptical and inpatient if it does not blow me away the first hour or so. There are only a handfull of new AGs that I have truly enjoyed the last years.

I get what you mean, although part of it comes from simply growing older - you get more critical than when you were younger.
It’s a trend I’ve noticed in my movie-watching as well: a lot LESS new titles get high ratings than they would have gotten 10-20 years ago…

And the nostalgia factor enhances this even further.

That’s why I refuse to believe it’s because “they don’t make them like they used to anymore”. Creativity is of all ages. It’s our perception that’s changed…

Thanks Guys for understanding and replying
@ diego as you mentioned Rock and bands you can obviously notice that Adventure Gaming and Rock Music sharing the same fate, and who grew up while the classical rock booming, whatever plays those days he will get back to the roots (imo) i listen to Whitesnake more than i listen to Coldplay!

@ Niclas thanks for feeling me but about those handful of good games i have two Questions for you 1. aren’t they so rare? 2.would the best of them get to any of those classics Notability?.

@ TimovieMan i agree that we are getting old and our perception is changing but that doesn’t mean it is wrong, bare with me here Timothy , when did Adventures became an escaping location matter and where did all the vast exploration of all the classics go, how did hot spot reveler spoil the adventurers as if the Devs stopped making art (yeah adventure gaming is a serious art) and turned it into some merchandises to satisfy a generation that is afraid to get stuck, and add the that the easiness of the puzzles (what happened to secret files games why does every part is worse than the previous for instance)...
i can go one forever but i think i made my point .

Advie, I’m just going to give some examples to counter your arguments:

Advie - 04 October 2012 12:50 PM

when did Adventures became an escaping location matter and where did all the vast exploration of all the classics go,

“Escape the room” has always been a part of adventure gaming since the beginning. There were “escape the room” sequences at least as far back as Maniac Mansion. Easy to understand, too: they offer (sometimes quite a lot of) additional gameplay without the need for many new locations, so they’re easy to make and implement. And they’ve proven quite popular if “escape the room” evolved into a subgenre. You can’t fault devs for making things that have proven both popular and relatively easy to make.
As for the vast exploration, there are still games where you have access to lots and lots of different locations at once (Rhem comes to mind, and L.A. Noire’s sandbox mode to an extent). It’s gotten more rare (with most devs now opting for “enclosed chapters” of 5-6 screens), but it hasn’t disappeared.

Advie - 04 October 2012 12:50 PM

how did hot spot reveler spoil the adventurers as if the Devs stopped making art (yeah adventure gaming is a serious art) and turned it into some merchandises to satisfy a generation that is afraid to get stuck

Before the hotspot revealers were put into games, the most often-heard complaint was “pixel-hunting”. Hotspot revealers avoided the need for pixel-hunting, and in doing so avoided some frustration with some gamers. Plus they’re optional. If you like to pixel-hunt, just don’t use the hotspot revealer…
And I also don’t think it’s purely a matter of gamers “afraid to get stuck”. Time has become a crucial element. When I was younger (as in: still going to school, no girlfriend/wife, no household), I had plenty of time to play games, and when stuck I could easily backtrack to pixel-hunt all locations again or to try everything on everything. Now I don’t have that amount of time, so I actually prefer playing games that are a bit easier, if only to advance faster within them.
Besides, way back when, before the internet was commonplace, it often happened that being stuck meant you could no longer continue the game. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to actually be able to *finish* a game, instead of having it sit on a shelf unfinished because I was stuck.
I’m sure that, as the gaming community gradually got older (more adults gaming), the need to limit the amount of game-time became a concern to most devs as well.

Advie - 04 October 2012 12:50 PM

, and add the that the easiness of the puzzles (what happened to secret files games why does every part is worse than the previous for instance)...
i can go one forever but i think i made my point .

See my earlier point regarding the easiness of puzzles.
Regarding Secret Files 3: not every sequel is worse than its predecessor. In fact, the gaming industry is probably the only one where sequels are on average better than their predecessors.
Especially if you consider the entire body of work of developers (because not every game has a sequel): most improve. Secret Files 3 is more an exception than the rule, imo.

What I’m basically trying to say is: it’s all in the eye of the beholder…

inm8#2 - 04 October 2012 01:51 PM

That’s not a knock on current games, but I think that more or less adventure game mechanics and styles have been polished and stabilized within a certain range.

And then a game like Heavy Rain comes up, and pushes the genre in a new direction, or Portal, or L.A. Noire, or Botanicula. Heck, even Resonance tried to do something new, and they did so with the point-and-clickest engine of all point-and-click engines…
And that’s without mentioning the DS, even.

That “certain range” you mentioned is still adjustable, imo.

inm8#2 - 04 October 2012 02:59 PM

I hope you visit a doctor if that happens.

LOL

Advie - 04 October 2012 12:50 PM

@ Niclas thanks for feeling me but about those handful of good games i have two Questions for you 1. aren’t they so rare? 2.would the best of them get to any of those classics Notability?.

Yes, this kind of games are very rare in my opinion. Now that I think about it all the games that I mentioned above (GK 1 and 2, BS 1, Tex Murphy, etc) are according to my 5 out of 5 scale between 4.5 and 5. The games that I played lately that are new that I actually enjoyed never reached above 4.5. The games that I played “recently” that I actually enjoyed a lot were Black Mirror 2 and 3, Lost Horizon, Resonance, and Runaway 3. All these games scored according to my scale 4 out of 5, and therefore never actually lived up to the old school games of the past. Games from instance Daedalic are OK, but according to me they are only 3’s.

By the way the I actually never played GK2 and the Tex Murphy games in the 90’s. (Reason being that I for some reason did not think that I would like FMV games back then) These games I played quiet recently for the first time, so they don’t have any nostalgic value to me. However, I still consider them much better than today’s Adventure Games.

For some reason, when it was released I never played “Flight of the Amazon Queen.” Years later I downloaded a copy and played it on SCUMM - loved it—a great experience. Old adventure games have quite a bit of charm and are a joy to play.

TimovieMan - 04 October 2012 01:20 PM

“Escape the room” has always been a part of adventure gaming since the beginning. There were “escape the room” sequences at least as far back as Maniac Mansion.

i think escaping a room as a puzzle itself like escaping a prison its quit nice feature, but i can not go one playing a whole Adventure with 5-6 screens (sometimes one as well) just to move on.

TimovieMan - 04 October 2012 01:20 PM

As for the vast exploration, there are still games where you have access to lots and lots of different locations at once (Rhem comes to mind, and L.A. Noire’s sandbox mode to an extent).

Surely you can not make a Myst type Game with that escaping Location feature plus L.A Noire i do not consider it an Adventure Game.

but if want to mention some of Autumn Moon Adventures or Daedalic’s they had nice limited vast locations which were satisfying enough so i can not disagree with you, they have not dsiappear but they just became an exception.

TimovieMan - 04 October 2012 01:20 PM

I also don’t think it’s purely a matter of gamers “afraid to get stuck”. Time has become a crucial element. When I was younger (as in: still going to school, no girlfriend/wife, no household), I had plenty of time to play games, and when stuck I could easily backtrack to pixel-hunt all locations again or to try everything on everything. Now I don’t have that amount of time, so I actually prefer playing games that are a bit easier, if only to advance faster within them.
Besides, way back when, before the internet was commonplace, it often happened that being stuck meant you could no longer continue the game. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to actually be able to *finish* a game, instead of having it sit on a shelf unfinished because I was stuck.

if are thinking i am craving for the “Order a Hintbook” days , then i must tell of course not but lets not get carried away. adventuring had always been about being satisfied about yourself and feel reward after each Puzzle , but never a walk at a park .

TimovieMan - 04 October 2012 01:20 PM

What I’m basically trying to say is: it’s all in the eye of the beholder…

and that explains it all