Adventure Gamers - Forums

I liked the Secret Files games back then. Surely they weren’t very good, but yeah, it wasn’t exactly the golden era of adventures, so they were decent disposable entertainment. I remember the cat puzzle, and there definitely were other puzzles like that.

I don’t think I would bother playing the games today, as there are tons and tons of great games to choose from (I’m not limiting myself to point&clicks;) but I don’t think they’re horrible.

I’m also one of those people that never understood the harsh criticism for the Still Life baking puzzle. I certainly didn’t exactly enjoy it and I had no clue about American measurements, but it never stood out as horrible. I’d think even detectives hunting serial killers have some time off and might actually do something mundane. And there was some kind of nostalgia trip included with it. Now, I don’t mean to exactly jump to the puzzle’s defence, as I don’t recall it very well, but cat hair moustache certainly was memorably bad to me, and this one wasn’t.

I didn’t mind the cake baking puzzle either. As I recall, it was a kind of an attempt of bringing more depth to the main character by showing her trying to balance her work with her personal life.

The only thing I really remember bothering me with the puzzle was, that I didn’t think the cake baked with that particular recipe would turn out to be an actually well-baked cake. Not that I ever tried that recipe in real life, but I have baked my fair share of cakes that have turned out pretty well.

Charophycean - 28 April 2022 07:32 PM

It’s pretty amazing how much of a role perspective and time play here.

I played these during the 00s and yes, we were starved of games back then but I really enjoyed playing them! I knew they weren’t the top of the line games or comparable with the classics but when there’s not a whole lot to play then somehow something new has a kind of shiny glow to it.

I have no idea how much I’d like them if I played them now for the first time and most likely I would be in the ‘hater’ group. I just find it interesting how much what we bring to a game influences our enjoyment of it, maybe even more than the game itself.

This is interesting to ponder in 2 directions.

1: Would adventure games that are considered really good today (Darkside Detective, Detective Di, Whispers of a Machine, Primordia) have garnered such positive attention back in the alleged Golden Age of adventure games?

2: Call the Golden Age what you will, fact is that there are many more adventure games readily available and coming out on a frequent basis today than there were back then. In the current market, would those Golden Age games have garnered as much attention as they did back then, if they were released today? I don’t doubt they’d be well reviewed in circles such as ours, but would Monkey Island have achieved even a fraction of its cultural importance within the adventure game community (as opposed to the gaming world at large, where it certainly would not have) if it were released in 2022?