Adventure Gamers - Forums

Now that there’s no e3 anymore game announcements have been spread out over many different conferences and it’s hard to keep track of everything.

I’ve been using this site: E3 Recap 2022 to check out the different trailers.

Of course most games announced are not adventure games, but we did get a few interesting games.

Stray got a release date, but this has been covered by the main site.

Limited Run Games is releasing a physical version of the Blade Runner remaster, but no release date.

A point and click game Birth was announced in the Day of the Devs conference that looks interesting.

And most exciting for me was the new info we got on Sam Barlow (her Story, Telling Lies) new game Immortality at the Tribeca Game Spotlight.

Anything else announced that people are looking forward to?

Immortality does look cool, I like the psuedo-real lore behind the game, and adding P&C exploration by transitioning thru various scenes seems like a neat mechanic. It’s got a lot of unique traits going for it so I hope the core mystery comes together as well.

Monorail Stories was at one of the showcases, I think it looks pretty interesting for as chill as the game is. Adventure games experimenting with multiplayer is interesting to me.

Venba was neat, it has the appearance of a cooking sim but the gameplay is actually based on narrative choices and interpreting missing passages of your mother’s recipe book via lateral thinking. Kinda hope that game’s not too long but it could be cool.

Oxenfree II is another one I caught a presentation for. I know the first one is pretty beloved but I’ve never played it. This new one looks a bit more interesting to me personally. I’m curious to see what they’ll do with the time rifts.

Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate could be extremely cool but IDK. It’s a Japanese VR mystery adventure game with quite a bit going on. You’re solving a murder case in a future city that’s supposed to have no crime. There’s a non VR version coming out on Switch as well.

As Dusk Falls seems like a neat narrative adventure. I like that the choices they’ve shown so far are from high pressure situations. It feels like the visual style has improved from the last time they showed it off, too.

Nice, Venba’s been on my wishlist for awhile too so it was nice to see more of it. Monorail Stories is an interesting concept, but it’s more of a wait and see for me.

The most exciting news so far has been the demo of Old Skies, I wasn’t expecting a demo for it so soon.

Demoing up on this Steam Next fest, there’s a lot of stuff to check out. Hopefully I find some cool hidden gems.

PlanetX - 13 June 2022 04:29 PM

Demoing up on this Steam Next fest, there’s a lot of stuff to check out. Hopefully I find some cool hidden gems.

Maybe I’m just jaded, but I tried out a bunch of games and nothing really grabbed me so far besides Old Skies. Did you find anything good?

Try “Many Pieces of Mr. Coo” - awesome demo, although really short. Stunning animations, and the puzzle that was there I thought was unique. I wishlisted immediately.

Don’t know what you like, but there is also “Loveland” - definitely not for everyone, but it was totally my jam. Horror-esque (no jumpscares or anything like that, just the atmosphere) investigation story with some comedy, cool setting and quite interesting spot where the demo ends. Very indie in every sense of the word. This one will be a “buy on the day of release” for me. But again - not for everyone.

Also found “Unkown Number: a First Person Talker” to be intriguing. The concept is that you talk to a game through your mic, and generally communicating only through a phone with NPCs. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of what the game pretty much forced me to chose at some point (although, there might be an explanation for it - it did seem strange, in a paranormal sort of way), but I just found it to be original, and the potential for cryptography style of puzzles is definitely there. I’m going to be keeping my eye on this one. Not sold but intrigued.

“Monorail Stories” are beautiful, but I found myself not being drawn to games with almost complete lack of gameplay which is what this game was. Although, I’ve played a demo for it a long time ago, maybe this one was updated and added something new?

Starting to go through the demoes I’ve downloaded. I played Many Pieces of Mr.Coo, it’s fantastic. A very short demo (talking like 11 minutes max) but worth checking out for yourself. It’s in that style of adventure game that gives you vignettes of simple scenarios to puzzle through and winds up being like a playable Tex Avery cartoon, specifically Tex Avery because of his knack for surrealism.

I also played through the “Paper Trails” demo, which is a decent Ace Attorney clone. The demo is basically the first tutorial case before you start investigating. IDK it’s alright, stays a bit too close to its inspiration so there’s little reason to play this game unless you’ve played all other Ace Attorney games. But it’s alright.

DCast - 14 June 2022 07:03 AM

Try “Many Pieces of Mr. Coo” - awesome demo, although really short. Stunning animations, and the puzzle that was there I thought was unique. I wishlisted immediately.

Don’t know what you like, but there is also “Loveland” - definitely not for everyone, but it was totally my jam. Horror-esque (no jumpscares or anything like that, just the atmosphere) investigation story with some comedy, cool setting and quite interesting spot where the demo ends. Very indie in every sense of the word. This one will be a “buy on the day of release” for me. But again - not for everyone.

Also found “Unkown Number: a First Person Talker” to be intriguing. The concept is that you talk to a game through your mic, and generally communicating only through a phone with NPCs. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of what the game pretty much forced me to chose at some point (although, there might be an explanation for it - it did seem strange, in a paranormal sort of way), but I just found it to be original, and the potential for cryptography style of puzzles is definitely there. I’m going to be keeping my eye on this one. Not sold but intrigued.

“Monorail Stories” are beautiful, but I found myself not being drawn to games with almost complete lack of gameplay which is what this game was. Although, I’ve played a demo for it a long time ago, maybe this one was updated and added something new?

I tried Many Pieces of Mr. Coo and Loveland, but I don’t really like third-person games with silent protagonists for the former and I’m not really into horror for the latter. I also share your opinion on Monorail Stories and was not too impressed from the demo I played before.

But in terms of games I played in the Steam Next Fest and games covered in the conferences that I am excited about, I have the following (not all of which are adventure games):

Steam Next Fest Recommended Demos:
1. Old Skies (Wadjet Eye Games, Time travel point and click, already mentioned but it’s my most hyped game)
2. Sokobond Express (Draknek & Friends, puzzle game combining Sokobond + Cosmic Express, I loved Sokobond)
3. Terra Nil (Devolver, reverse city builder about ecosystem reconstruction)
4. Cursed to Golf (Thunderful, a kind of roguelike version of the Switch game Golf Story)
5. A Little to the Left (Secret Mode, relaxing puzzle game about organizing items that can get messed up by a cat)
6. Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer (No More Robots, Old School FPS from the edgy Linkin Park loving teen Zane in Hypnospace Outlaw)

Games I want to play:
1. Microsoft Flight Simulator (One of the few AAA games that looks good IMHO, I’m going to sign up for the Game Pass trial and hopefully my computer will be able to handle the cloud version)
2. Immortality (I was stoked to see that they revealed a release date of next month and also on Game Pass)
3. Blade Runner Remastered (Already mentioned)
4. Stray (Already mentioned)
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (I haven’t played a beat’em up in a long time, but this one is definitely tapping into my nostalgia so will check out on Game Pass)
6. Neon White (Stylish speedrunning focused FPS with a Paradise Killer aesthetic made by the creator of Donut County)

Games that are more wait and see:
1. Arctic Awakening (I like the arctic setting, I’m just hoping there’s no survival elements)
2. The Plucky Squire (The mix of 2D and 3D gameplay is striking so I hope they nail the execution)
3. Arkanoid - Eternal Battle (Yeah, this is just the old arcade game, but I’m hoping it’s a good version of it)
4. Shashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography (I’m always interested in trying language learning games)
5. Birth (Mentioned above)
6. Venba (Mentioned above)
7. The Invincible (This could be good if the action elements aren’t too difficult)

@TheLongestJourney

I will continue my demo journey today, and, hopefully, will find more cool ones.

There were a few demos that I found interesting. Not full-blown excitement, but they caught my eye:

1. Unknown Number: First Person Talker - mentioned above

2. WORDLAND - Let’s Travel - if you like casual puzzles (I rarely go for it), try this one. Mix of geography trivia and tetris. Starts off deceptively easy, but by the end of the short demo, I saw the potential for it to become rather challenging.

3. Alice is Dead - apparently, this is a remake of some Flash game from like a decade ago that managed to get enough attention that people are actually waiting for it.
Point’n'click. 2D. First person. Macabre take on Alice in Wonderland.

4. Frank and Drake - this one is the most “ehhhh” out of all of them for me because it is very uneven. It tries really hard to be “artistic” but coming out more confusing. And at the very beginning it seems like puzzles in the game are more like “click on this spot and pull it there” kind of thing. On the other hand, it has rotoscoping graphics going on (I’m a fan), and after I played as Drake, puzzles became more than just click-and-drag. Ultimately, I ended up intrigued. I just thought it was a wrong part to put as a demo (the start of the game rarely makes a good demo anyway).

Regarding to your Sokobond Express recommendation. I’ll check it out, but have you ever tried MacGuffn’s Curse?? The demo is available on Steam, older game. It was recommended to me here - on the Casual Adventures thread, and I really enjoyed my time with it. Another one I’m anticipating is Lab Rat. Unfortunatly, it seems that their demo is no longer available, but I highly recommend to check out even their trailer - really cool story (AI gets your feedback from playing the game (while holding you hostage) and completely misinterprets everything you say), sweet graphics, comedy, and puzzles were pleasantly challenging.

Slayers X appeals to me right away, I’ll check it out today. I have another demo in similar vein I want to play - My Demon Wife. I haven’t yet.

I watched gameplay for Stray, and it felt a bit too platform-ey for me, and more on the simplistic side. I like platformers, this one just seemed very minimalistic somehow… I mean you do play as cat which limits what you can do. Although the story might be good. It’s gonna come out soon.

Shashingo looked interesting, and while looking it up, I realized that I have this game - Learn Japanese to Survive! Hiragana Battle in my library. I should probably start with that one.

Birth looks cool.Venba doesn’t seem like something I’d go for, but I’ll try to fit in the demo if I can.
I’m yet to try Old Skies - I was saving it for this weekend.

I was thinking about making thread about demos for awhile now, to share something cool we came across, and, unlike the full game, anyone who’s interested can always try it.  I have a few promising ones I played within past 3 months or so that I want to share, but they aren’t part of any fest/conference, so I feel like it won’t fit in this specific thread. Considering though, that we went onto Steam fest and Game Pass, I feel like we’re doing a great job sharing info on the demos from everywhere, so if you’d be interesting in renaming the thread to something more demo-generic, that’s the place I’d like to add mine to. If not - no biggie, I’ll make a new one.

EDIT: The Invincible is also on my wishlist, just like IKO 39 and Lifeless Moon

DCast - 18 June 2022 10:44 AM

@TheLongestJourney

I will continue my demo journey today, and, hopefully, will find more cool ones.

There were a few demos that I found interesting. Not full-blown excitement, but they caught my eye:

1. Unknown Number: First Person Talker - mentioned above

2. WORDLAND - Let’s Travel - if you like casual puzzles (I rarely go for it), try this one. Mix of geography trivia and tetris. Starts off deceptively easy, but by the end of the short demo, I saw the potential for it to become rather challenging.

3. Alice is Dead - apparently, this is a remake of some Flash game from like a decade ago that managed to get enough attention that people are actually waiting for it.
Point’n'click. 2D. First person. Macabre take on Alice in Wonderland.

4. Frank and Drake - this one is the most “ehhhh” out of all of them for me because it is very uneven. It tries really hard to be “artistic” but coming out more confusing. And at the very beginning it seems like puzzles in the game are more like “click on this spot and pull it there” kind of thing. On the other hand, it has rotoscoping graphics going on (I’m a fan), and after I played as Drake, puzzles became more than just click-and-drag. Ultimately, I ended up intrigued. I just thought it was a wrong part to put as a demo (the start of the game rarely makes a good demo anyway).

Regarding to your Sokobond Express recommendation. I’ll check it out, but have you ever tried MacGuffn’s Curse?? The demo is available on Steam, older game. It was recommended to me here - on the Casual Adventures thread, and I really enjoyed my time with it. Another one I’m anticipating is Lab Rat. Unfortunatly, it seems that their demo is no longer available, but I highly recommend to check out even their trailer - really cool story (AI gets your feedback from playing the game (while holding you hostage) and completely misinterprets everything you say), sweet graphics, comedy, and puzzles were pleasantly challenging.

Slayers X appeals to me right away, I’ll check it out today. I have another demo in similar vein I want to play - My Demon Wife. I haven’t yet.

I watched gameplay for Stray, and it felt a bit too platform-ey for me, and more on the simplistic side. I like platformers, this one just seemed very minimalistic somehow… I mean you do play as cat which limits what you can do. Although the story might be good. It’s gonna come out soon.

Shashingo looked interesting, and while looking it up, I realized that I have this game - Learn Japanese to Survive! Hiragana Battle in my library. I should probably start with that one.

Birth looks cool.Venba doesn’t seem like something I’d go for, but I’ll try to fit in the demo if I can.
I’m yet to try Old Skies - I was saving it for this weekend.

I was thinking about making thread about demos for awhile now, to share something cool we came across, and, unlike the full game, anyone who’s interested can always try it.  I have a few promising ones I played within past 3 months or so that I want to share, but they aren’t part of any fest/conference, so I feel like it won’t fit in this specific thread. Considering though, that we went onto Steam fest and Game Pass, I feel like we’re doing a great job sharing info on the demos from everywhere, so if you’d be interesting in renaming the thread to something more demo-generic, that’s the place I’d like to add mine to. If not - no biggie, I’ll make a new one.

EDIT: The Invincible is also on my wishlist, just like IKO 39 and Lifeless Moon

Of the ones you posted, the Wordland one definitely appeals to me as does Lab rat, which was already on my wishlist.  I haven’t heard of MacGuffn’s Curse so I’ll give that one a shot too. Well I’m not sure if I’ll have time because Nightmare Frames and Born Punk both just released so I’ll be splitting my time between them. I share your reservations about Stray though, which is why it is more of a wait and see vs must play now.

I agree that with the summer conference season “ending” soon and the Steam Next Fest also ending, it would be nice to keep the thread relevant. I like reading impressions of games where there’s no barrier to entry like demos, so I’ll change the tread title to Demo Discussion and Recommendations.

I finally tried the demo for Old Skies! Man, what a great experience. I can’t wait until the game comes out- Wadjet know their stuff. Just awesome.

Some more demos I find interesting (out of maaaaany, I also didn’t have that much that grabbed me in the way of Old Skies). First two are something I definitely want to play, the other two are “wait and see”.

1. The Last Worker. You’re the last human worker in the super factory that is staffed by robots now. Obviously, there is a shady side to the big corp, and you’ll be a part of it. I thought the writing was well-done, and the voice-over is also on the level. As far as gameplay - feels very Portal-ish. Which I liked

2.Mothmen 1966 Choose your own adventure IF. Horror. I thought retro graphics were spectacular, and the writing is top-notch, got me feeling very uneasy.

3. a pet shop after dark. This a rather casual “cutesy horror” meta game. There’s something paranormal going on, and you seem to be stuck in the loop of the same night/day, but if you keep playing - things will start change around you someone will try to reach out… Simple and cute.

4.Toilet Chronicles. Another meta game but with more pathways and branching endings. Horror comedy. Like if you were in Stanley Parable, but your goal was to get out of public restroom. Humor is appropriate to that situation I didn’t expect much, but had fun with the demo.

Just in case, want two share two games that I immediately wishlisted that are only part-adventure. These two are definitely “buy upon release” for me.

1.SIGNALIS Survival horror adventure. Think Resident Evil in terms of gameplay - you do have to shoot enemies and survive, but there are also puzzles to solve, and I really liked what I’ve seen so far. Felt very close to STASIS as far as atmosphere goes.

2.Foretales Adventure card/board game. Story-driven deckbuilder in a way.Beautiful and sunny fantasy universe reminded me of a Disney Robin Hood. Playing was fun, choices mattered, branching paths were aplenty, and the plot was intriguing. I had a blast with that one.

I know that there’s only half a day of this Steam fest left, and majority of games will pull their demos, but there is always a small portion that will stay, so, hopefully, I can keep checking out huge pile of games that I added to my wishlist.

TheLongestJourney - thanks for renaming the thread, I hope it will be a regular here. Tried and played Slayers X - loved it, added to wishlist.

PlanetX - 14 June 2022 07:22 AM

Starting to go through the demoes I’ve downloaded. I played Many Pieces of Mr.Coo, it’s fantastic. A very short demo (talking like 11 minutes max) but worth checking out for yourself. It’s in that style of adventure game that gives you vignettes of simple scenarios to puzzle through and winds up being like a playable Tex Avery cartoon, specifically Tex Avery because of his knack for surrealism.

I also played through the “Paper Trails” demo, which is a decent Ace Attorney clone. The demo is basically the first tutorial case before you start investigating. IDK it’s alright, stays a bit too close to its inspiration so there’s little reason to play this game unless you’ve played all other Ace Attorney games. But it’s alright.

The Mr. Coo demo was great! Definitely got the Tex Avery vibes. Also reminded me a little of UPA and Spumco cartoons.

I want to highlight a few demos that I found interesting. Two of the games are coming out in August, so if they seem right up your alley - it’ll be a good time to check them out!

1. Lost in Play
Judging by how sleek-looking, well-animated, sweet-sounding this game seems to be - I’m expecting it to score quite a few points amongst adventure players everywhere. I thought that the puzzle element was rather clever and showed some variety as well - a very promising start. Really looking forward to this game that comes out on August 10th. Highly recommend checking out the demo on Steam. I can see some awards for this one in the future.

2. Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack
I’m going to be honest - I didn’t expect much from it. I wasn’t particularly grabbed by the art, and the trailer didn’t do a whole lot for me either, but then I played the demo and ended up having fun with it! I liked the time travel premise and the silly undertone to everything. I think this might be a quality indie worthy of notice, if they truly deliver. I’m going to attach a trailer here, but again - it’s better to check out the Steam demo instead, as the trailer isn’t particularly successful in showing the game’s potential.
The game’s page currently says “August”, so it might change, of course.

3. The Bookwalker
I found the concept of this game absolutely fascinating - you are a writer who can travel through book worlds, and you’re on the hook with “very bad people” who’re now forcing you to steal famous artifacts from the books and bring them to the real world, just so you have the ability to write again. There’s a mix of realities and POVs going on, mix of visual styles and a very engaging story, comprised of vastly different worlds. There’s a bit of crafting, a bit of fighting the evil with ink (very easy), a bit of puzzles, exploration, mystery within a mystery, and a service called “writer’s police”... Essentially, I liked just about everything in this game, but I can see how this one won’t be for everyone. That’s where the demo comes in! See if this one floats your boat.

Post your feedback if you happened to play any of the demos we’re talking about in this thread, and, of course, offer new demos for everyone to try.

Time to throw some more demos in this extremely active thread. Today I present to you two entirely different experiences I enjoyed and some of you might also find enjoyable. Or not. And then take that game out of your already hefty wishlist.

1.  Beacon Pines

This game has an array of tags on Steam that is quite a sight - “casual”, “RPG”, “story rich”, “visual novel”, “horror”... Oh, boy. I don’t know what is this all about, but I do know that I played a demo for a fantastically drawn game where you manipulate gameplay with words. In a way, you write a storybook here, and the game will progress according to the words you choose. I really liked the mechanic, thought the story was quite intriguing, and, again, - the visuals are fantastic. Do give it a try (available on Steam) and, maybe, share what you think.

2.Justice.exe

I’m just going to leave Steam description here because I will never be able to explain things as succinctly.

Justice.exe is a dialogue-heavy dystopian legal drama in which you defend sentient AI in court. Discover key story elements in dialogue, build your case by studying arguments, and engage the opposing counsel in wits, charisma and skullduggery. Small choices might alter the fate of your clients.

This one really goes in depth when it comes to building a case, and I though the demo was really cool. Check it out if it seems like it’s up your alley (also available on Steam). This game just went into early access and devs are actively working on it.

Bringing this thread back to life because, personally, I play a lot of demos which allows me to get excited over a game or scratch it off my wishlist, so maybe someone is reading this and is interested as well. Feel free to contribute!

Here are two interesting demos I’d like to highlight this time:

1.I Doesn’t Exist – A Modern Text Adventure

A game where the screen is divided in two – the bottom part is where you operate like in your regular text adventure, typing commands, and the top part – where the little shadow guy executes everything you type graphically. I really enjoyed this one. I thought the puzzles in the demo were a good way to show what to expect of the game, and straight on my wishlist it went from there.

2.10 Dead Doves

This one is slightly different – part adventure, part walking sim, part horror with surrealism mixed in for good measure. I thought that atmosphere in the demo was one of the most impressive I came across in a while. The writing is outstanding, and voice-over is even better. This became one of my most anticipated games of the year. I highly recommend this to anyone who isn’t directly opposed to anything “horror”. This veers more on very spooky, chilling side rather than outright scares. I’m pumped for this game!