Adventure Gamers - Forums

I would add one more:

Intros that go for an eternity. When I’ve just picked up a new game I want to get my hands dirty. I don’t want to sit there watching a movie. I think older games were more guilty of this, but it’s definitely still around.

Veovis - 24 February 2023 09:34 AM

Agree with most here, but I don’t mind “trap” puzzles. And some of my favorite games in recent years could be labeled walking sims, such as INFRA, Ether One and The Painscreek Killings. I want MORE of those!

My main “hate element” in adventure games is the over explaination as part of (bad) puzzle design. I mean when the character constantly has to explain why it’s a good idea to pick up a certain item or why it makes sense to use that item in a certain way later on. Or, in the worst cases, both. It’s in equal parts bad puzzle design and bad writing imo.

100% on board with all of this.

Dealing with the intrinsic rigidity of AG mechanics (compared to other genres) is the most interesting part of good AG design, either by establishing some internal logic or setting up a framework where the specific solution makes sense. That’s risky, complicated and requires a decent amount of mental investment of the player. Moon logic and arbitrary procedural puzzles were called out as the death of the genre, but making everything more or less explicit is a bad fix.

Veovis - 24 February 2023 09:34 AM

And some of my favorite games in recent years could be labeled walking sims, such as INFRA, Ether One and The Painscreek Killings. I want MORE of those!

The Painscreek Killings was my biggest disappointment so far… I was expecting some true open-world non-linear 3D investigation where we could search every corner for evidences and leads, leaving no stone unturned. Instead I ended up slowly walking through an empty non-interactive town full of houses with closed doors. The whole investigation part was basically finding a building, then finding some randomly scattered notes/journals and keys/codes inside to unlock more doors. There was so little to actually do in it. I don’t expect all 3D adventures to play like Shadows of Doubt or Tex Murphy games, but at least some effort could be put into making it a more engrossing experience.

This is an interesting turn of events. The Forest Cathedral which was just announced at AG’s front page is presented as a walking simulator based on the Silent Spring book by the American environmentalist Rachel Carson. You wander around a 3D forest and complete tasks by playing mini-games on the panels you discover, somewhat similar to The Witness. Only instead of solving puzzles you have to complete a series of retro 2D jump’n'run platformers. There are no tricks that turn those arcade bits into puzzles from what I can tell, this is the core reflex-based gameplay. But because it’s integrated into 3D exploration with some story going on, it counts as an adventure game?