Adventure Gamers - Forums

I’m obviously not the only person to notice we’ve gone a bit off topic . Thanks all for the comments (even if I won’t be convinced re Rincewind ) - it does sound like Discworld Noir, Riven, & Zork Grand Inquisitor could be worth me giving a try to. Day of the Tentacle I’ve actually never played - it came out just before I got my first PC. Thought I’d wait & see if Lucas Arts produce an updated version a la Monkey Island. The Neverhood I don’t know much about - Fien?

Fien - 28 January 2013 07:02 AM

If you don’t like 1st-person games, then don’t play Obsidian, Callahan’s (not downloadable AFAIK), Riven, Zork GI, Dark Fall 1, Tex Murphy. I love Riven with a passion (Zork GI too, my type of humor) but there’s no shortage of Myst haters. So play it at your own risk.  You don’t have to play Myst first, although it IS a series.

I’m not totally anti-first-person, just find the faceless non-speaking main character (a la Myst) not really my thing, and it’s easier to get disoriented with first person. But 1st person/ 3rd person hybrids a la Tex Murphy & GK3 are certainly Ok…as indicated below.

Fien - 28 January 2013 07:02 AM

I’d love to see your top ten/twenty!

Your wish is my command  
It’s something I’ve done from time to time over the years, so guess it was time for an update . It’s always difficult to know whether to stick series together or seperately - putting them seperately allows more options, but it’s hard to put games like GK1, 2 & 3 (with their totally different engines & therefore styles) all together. I have done with Monkey Island though, as there the similarities are much closer for me…

1. Gabriel Knight 2 (What do you expect from someone who lives in Munich )
2. Longest Journey
3. Gabriel Knight 1
4. Gabriel Knight 3
5. Dreamfall
6. Broken Sword 1
7. Monkey Island 1-3
8. Grim Fandango
9. Resonance
10. Tex Murphy - The Pandora Directive
11. Machinarium
12. The Last Express
13. Fahrenheit
14. Grey Matter
15. Gemini Rue
16. Syberia
17. Tex Murphy - Overseer
18. Sam & Max Hit the Road
19. Blade Runner
20. Still Life

With honourable mentions (just outside) to Full Throttle, Moment of Silence, & Botanicula. As you’ll see, I’m quite happy about the recent Kickstarter trend

TimovieMan - 28 January 2013 04:32 PM

I wouldn’t count on that. The Monkey Island Special Editions were a one-off thing. Being bought by Disney isn’t going to change that at all.
Besides, DotT still looks great. For graphics, think Full Throttle or Sam & Max Hit the Road. Especially Sam & Max Hit the Road…
Plus it’s an awesome game. You’re missing out if you’re not playing it…

Not sure you can say for sure that the Special Editions were just a one-off…clearly a 2-off at least ;-). And the potential for doing others must be there…just a matter of how successful MISE was I guess. But your point is taken - that’s why I’ve been pondering it for a couple of years. Always a bit worried with old games (especially those made for WIndows 95/98) how easy they are to get running on a new PC. Any knowledge there? Hence my preference for GOG or similar if possible.

TimovieMan - 28 January 2013 04:32 PM

One day, this thread will be about Resonance again.

I think I’ve mentioned Resonance in every single post of mine…and look, I’ve done it again But very happy to discuss Resonance some more, just me & Fien were the only 2 doing it. As I said, for variety & intergration of puzzles, I don’t think I’ve played an adventure that does it so well.

Fien - 28 January 2013 08:23 PM

Aaaahh… the Neverhood. Such a lovely and unique claymation game… Getting it to play on modern machines is another matter. I think I replayed it on my XP, but I’m not entirely sure. (I now have 5 computers because I keep the old ones: win95, win98, XP, win7, win8). Never tried it on win7 and win8.

Thanks for the info. Problem is as above - I still have my old XP PC (from 2002) but not 95 or 98 any more. But setting it up just for one game would be a lot of hassle - hence Bad Mojo is still unplayed as I couldn’t get that going on 7, and though I thought about trying it on the old XP PC, it’s never actually happened…

Fien - 28 January 2013 08:23 PM

About your top twenty. I loved most of them, with some exceptions. The MI series is fun, but I’m not a devoted fan. I found both Syberia and Broken Sword seriously overrated. Didn’t finish Fahrenheit because of the complicated controls and gameplay.

Curse of MI was one of the very first adventures I had, & that’s partly why it stays so high I think. But we also recently (re)played MI 1 & 2 with the special edition, & they were still v. good…even if the ending didn’t exactly grab me . It was nice to know what it actually was though, having heard so many comments over the years.

Broken Sword 1 I really liked, fun & with good puzzles, looking forward to the new one. Syberia was fundamentally for the atmosphere - the game was flawed (& Kate Walker as wooden as Oskar   ) but Sokal certainly does know how to design scenes.

The start of Fahrenheit was just amazing - I can’t think of a game that grabs like it does. And the cinematic direction & sound/music are also very professional. As you say, the controls are a pain (don’t think I could have played it on my own), it gets very repetitive & the game definitely goes downhill, but the positives are enough to put it in my top 20. Dreamfall is similarly flawed, but gets 5th due to similar reasons. Shame I can’t play Heavy Rain…but I’m not buying a PS3 just for it!