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Legend Entertainment nostalgia burst and the relation to Myst and its clones
To sum it sup: IMO they were awesome. On the one hand they made games with sleek GUIs that were more accessible than Infocom’s purely text interface games, on the other they still had great puzzles, stories and voice acting.
Regarding Myst: My all time favorite puzzle series, revolutionary indeed. So you can’t blame for being a hater.
However, I do think ever since Myst, a lot of the paradigm has shifted and the sheer volume of clones made people abandon the cool Legend model of first person games
and move to what I call “solitude puzzlers”; I think the name is self explanatory.
Don’t get me wrong, I love many of these lonely games, Myst included.
It’s just that ever since Legend’s brilliant catalog and in parallel Myst and its 90s clones, I haven’t seen many first person adventure games that incorporate a lot of NPCs; characters that you can interact with and make the story more lively, in addition to having the ability to collect items or knowledge (e.g. spells such as in the spectacular Death Gate) that can be used to overcome the game’s challenges.
Come to think of it, I’d love to hear some suggestions for games that are similar to Legend’s games.
I ran into this RPG series: Legend of Grimrock. Purely judging by the screenshots it looks very similar to what I’m talking about, am I right? Of course it’s not a “pure” adventure series and includes a party and combat, but as I like party based RPGs I don’t mind at all.
I can certainly agree that Legend’s games have not had nearly enough influence as they should have had.
Legend of Grimrock is a strange choice for comparison, though. I’ve played it and the only thing in common with the Legend games is the fantasy setting, but maybe that’s what you’re looking for?
As for more games in this style, I would look into Unimatrix Productions/Storycentric Worlds:
Lifestream
Shady Brook
The Filmmaker
Stonewall Penitentiary
Dynamix’s games Heart of China and Rise of the Dragon fit the bill quite nicely. Then there’s the older titles such as Deja Vu, Uninvited and Shadowgate. Unfortunately none of these are particularly great.
Also, you might want to look into interactive fiction. Legend’s heritage comes far more from text adventures than anything else, which is obvious not only when you see that their earlier games were parser-based, but that they are first-person, heavily inventory-based with many NPCs. 2017’s Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way has exactly the mix of NPCs and spellcasting that you are talking about, not to mention it was made by one of Legend’s key game designers. Give it a try - it may surprise you. (Actually I would argue that this is the closest thing to the Legend games that exists, along with the Infocom fantasy titles like Enchanter and Wishbringer)
Both Scratches and Asylum have been influenced by Legend to some degree. They were hands down one of my favorite adventure game companies, and definitely among the most consistently great ones.
In fact, there’s quite a bit of NPC interaction in Asylum that may bring Legend to mind 
Senscape // Founder // Designer | Working on: Asylum | Twitter: @AgustinCordes
I ran into this RPG series: Legend of Grimrock. Purely judging by the screenshots it looks very similar to what I’m talking about, am I right? Of course it’s not a “pure” adventure series and includes a party and combat, but as I like party based RPGs I don’t mind at all.
I’m with Oscar here: I really don’t see the similarities. Legend of Grimrock is more like Lands of Lore, except even more tedious and with less story. (At least LoG 1; I haven’t played the sequel.)
I’d say (some of) the Kheops games are a decent approximation of what a recent(-ish) Legend game could be. Things like Secrets of Da Vinci, Dracula 3 or Nostradamus.
I just love Death Gate and the Gateway series, and I agree Legend never got the recognition it deserved. That said, I think the later Zork games (Return, Nemesis and Grand Inquisitor) were influenced by Legend more than by the original Infocom games. Steve Meretzky also designed The Space Bar - from what I heard, it is quite similar to his Legend games (I never had a chance to play it). For a detailed, well-written adventure an RPG might be actually a good choice - personally I’d recommend Gothic 2. I can also feel the influence of Blackstone Chronicles in many horror games of the 21st century, not just Scratches.
PC means personal computer
Legend made great games. No argument there. But it also made some seriously bad business decisions, such as aligning itself with Take2 Entertainment. No better example than the mis-marketing of Callahan’s Crosstime Salloon.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
I just love Death Gate and the Gateway series, and I agree Legend never got the recognition it deserved. That said, I think the later Zork games (Return, Nemesis and Grand Inquisitor) were influenced by Legend more than by the original Infocom games. Steve Meretzky also designed The Space Bar - from what I heard, it is quite similar to his Legend games (I never had a chance to play it). For a detailed, well-written adventure an RPG might be actually a good choice - personally I’d recommend Gothic 2. I can also feel the influence of Blackstone Chronicles in many horror games of the 21st century, not just Scratches.
Curiously, I only played Blackstone Chronicles after Scratches. Even after writing Asylum!
Senscape // Founder // Designer | Working on: Asylum | Twitter: @AgustinCordes
Curiously, I only played Blackstone Chronicles after Scratches. Even after writing Asylum!
Maybe it was influenced by some other games influenced by Blackstone? But then it was my first horror adventure, so I’ll probably compare everything to it. Shivers, while obviously Myst-inspired, also seems like a direct inspiration for later 1st person horror games, probably including Blackstone.
PC means personal computer
I ran into this RPG series: Legend of Grimrock. Purely judging by the screenshots it looks very similar to what I’m talking about, am I right? Of course it’s not a “pure” adventure series and includes a party and combat, but as I like party based RPGs I don’t mind at all.
Legend of Grimrock is a pure blobber RPG through and through. You control a party around the locations filled with monsters and some environmental puzzles and traps. As a whole, it’s related to games like Bard’s Tale and Might and Magic and has very little in common with adventure games.
The second game in the series has outside maps, as it takes place on an island filled with all kinds of dungeons and what not. I never did finish that one, as it was just a tad too much in comparison to the nice compactness of the first.
Curiously, I only played Blackstone Chronicles after Scratches. Even after writing Asylum!
Maybe it was influenced by some other games influenced by Blackstone?
Scratches was definitely influenced by Dark Fall, which in turn was influenced by games from the era like Amber: Journeys Beyond. But Jonathan never mentioned Blackstone Chronicles (to my knowledge). In fact, Amber was released before Blackstone.
Maybe Blackstone simply wasn’t that influential by itself. It’s a good game, but not among the best by Legend.
Senscape // Founder // Designer | Working on: Asylum | Twitter: @AgustinCordes
Scratches was definitely influenced by Dark Fall, which in turn was influenced by games from the era like Amber: Journeys Beyond. But Jonathan never mentioned Blackstone Chronicles (to my knowledge). In fact, Amber was released before Blackstone.
Maybe Blackstone simply wasn’t that influential by itself. It’s a good game, but not among the best by Legend.
He did actually
I never played Amber, and it always seemed like another underrated adventure to me, but either way it was Jonathan who started the horror boom of the 2000s, can’t deny it.
PC means personal computer
He did actually
Then I will happily admit that Scratches was indirectly influenced by Blackstone Chronicles 
Senscape // Founder // Designer | Working on: Asylum | Twitter: @AgustinCordes
Maybe Blackstone simply wasn’t that influential by itself. It’s a good game, but not among the best by Legend.
Wasn’t Blackstone released exactly the minute adventure games went out of fashion in the late 90’s? I don’t think it sold many copies and was probably a massive commercial failure. Pretty good game though. It deserves to be better known.
Amber, Dark Fall, Scratches… This thread reminds me it’s time for a replay of some of my favorite games.
Yeah, Blackstone was released at the worst possible moment for the genre. It didn’t help that design-wise it was more straightforward than other Legend titles. The watered-down interface was a far cry from previous efforts. Then again, that was the trend in the genre. It was probably dismissed as your average Myst-clone.
Also, keep in mind it faced stiff competition from huge titles like Grim Fandango and Sanitarium. I don’t have any figures but it’s safe to say Sanitarium was a far more successful title (DTP claims a range of 10-50k units sold in Germany alone).
Had Blackstone been released in the mid-2000s, I’m positive it would have fared better.
Senscape // Founder // Designer | Working on: Asylum | Twitter: @AgustinCordes
Fun fact: I was once offered the chance to turn Scratches into a spiritual sequel of Sanitarium. The rights holder even suggested calling it Sanitarium 2: Scratches.
I said no.
Senscape // Founder // Designer | Working on: Asylum | Twitter: @AgustinCordes
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