Adventure Gamers - Forums

Hi guys!
Long time no see

What is your opinion of adventure year 2022? I`m seeing some revival of the genre after one or two weaker years and I`m looking forward many new projects.
I still have a long way to decide which ones were the absolute best ones from 2022 but at this point I predict these games are probably going to find their way to my top 5 list:

- Return to Monkey Island
- The Excavation of Hob`s Barrow (just playing this and I love it!)
- Syberia: The World Before
- Pentiment
- Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit

How`s your list looking?

It’s a tough year to rate for me. I think I enjoyed 2021 more to be honest, there was Mutropolis, Ace Attorney, Warp Frontier… The only game I equally enjoyed in 2022 was probably The Case of the Golden Idol (which I have to finish yet). I should’ve played more, but I avoided some titles because of their retro looks and/or anthropomorphic animals, there are just too many of them… That said, Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard is on my “To do” list. My current top would be something like

The Case of the Golden Idol
SpaceVenture (despite all its brokenness)
Voodoo Detective
NORCO (a nice surprise, but only about half of it)
Return to Monkey Island (I guess)

Also this year I played and enjoyed some older titles for the first time:

Papers, Please (lots of fun, why didn’t I play it earlier?)
RAMA (epic, a very nice attempt at sci-fi Myst from Sierra)
Uru (a very nice attempt at platformer Myst from Cyan)
moon: Remix RPG Adventure (lovely “anti-RPG” from the PS times)
Lost Horizon (German Indiana Jones)
Gemini Rue (almost forgot! the best kicking simulator after Full Throttle and Duke Nukem)

I usually don’t play many games in the year they were released, but this time I managed to play 5 of them… Sooo I guess that’s my top 5 for this year?

-Space Venture
In the vain of Space Quest, Space Venture is a comedic, sarcastic space adventure. This time to stop galactic domination by a motherly AI. It manages to pull off the same feel and style of the old Space Quest games, and it does it well. The downside is it’s UI is buggy and they don’t let you know that you can do things outside of a regular adventure game e.g. standing on Rooter the wonderdog. But overall it’s a worthy successor to Space Quest and a great game in it’s own right.

-Kapia
A post apocalyptic world were everyone lives in domes alongside sentient robots. It’s a strange world that is somewhat like a 60s sci-fi movie idea of a future world. It’s fun, cheesy, and has a strange story. The puzzles are usually straight forward and easy but they are fairly unique to this game. The voice acting is hit and miss but not so bad as to be to distracting. Overall I would easily recommend this game. Kapia was a fun sci-fi romp that leaves you wanting more, yet still manages to have a satisfying ending.

-BROK the InvestiGator
It’s a fun, though somewhat drawn out game due to excessive talking in cutscenes. The beat-em-up parts I found mostly easy, but when I did need to replay them it was a little tedious. If you fail a couple of times you are presented with the option to buy heath items or turn the difficulty down. There are many different endings, I actually preferred one of the noncanonical best out of the ones I played. Because there are several ways to go about things: fighting, thinking, etc., it could be a very different experience for a 2nd play through. Overall it’s good fun.

-Return to Monkey Island
No review yet.

-Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit
A straight forward adventure that failed to grab my interest. It teaches a masterclass on annoying puzzle design, from the slow movement to the “try till you get it right” the puzzles just aren’t good. It has the unusual concept of being able to change your clothes whenever you’re at the apartment, for what that’s worth. The ending wasn’t really a let down, because there wasn’t enough build up to be let down. Give this one a pass, pretty graphics doesn’t make it a good game.

I wasn’t a big fan of Crowns or Return. I’m sure Return, because it’s Monkey Island, will end up in the top lists for the year, but I don’t consider it worthy of the spot.

I didn’t play many games last year. Replayed The Witness after many years, which was great but took a lot of time as you can imagine. Replayed The Neverhood in the community playthrough. Fun!

Started Stray and Slice of Sea. Liked both and want to finish them this year.

Played and finished Voodoo Detective. So-so.
Also played Return to Monkey Island. I’m one of the few people who are not really a fan of the MI games. They’re okay in my book, no more than that. This one was no exception. Truth be told, it was too long for my taste. Did I finish it? Eh… I watched the last 30-45 minutes or so on youtube because I wanted to see the ending.

All in all, the only game that stood out for me in 2022 is Immortality by Sam Barlow. Absolutely fascinating, multi-layered story. No puzzles, just piecing everything together.

EDIT: Heh. I did finish Stray. Alzheimer Lite again.

Karlok - 07 January 2023 12:51 PM

No puzzles, just piecing everything together.

That is what one does with puzzles. But I know what you mean. Just trying to be cute.

Most of the games I played this year were, as usual, not released this year, but here are a few that I played an liked a lot.

Lucy Dreaming - Very funny. Very good story. Lovely characters, script, acting. Satisfying puzzles. It’s a comedy horror murder mystery and more.

Norco - A serious game that did a good job not taking itself too seriously. Kind of like a Legend-lite experience, in terms of challenge and interface (referring to Legend, the publisher of Gateway, Eric the Unready, etc).

Return to Monkey Island - A worthy entry into the series.

The Rewinder was pretty good, but couldn’t live up to the high expectations it set for itself in the opening couple of hours. Definitely worth playing, though.

I didn’t realize they made the Broken Sword fan game (I haven’t played it). Crowns did seem to be trying to for a Broken Sword type of adventure, but just didn’t get there.

I like to add Gerda - A Flame in Winter to the new games above,a tough game with good writing and non-linear storytelling intent to finish this year.

I still need to play a few games but I think these will be my Top 5:

Not For Broadcast: Annoying gameplay, brilliant concept and humor which reveals a great deal of insight into the broadcasting era.
NORCO: One word: Atmosphere. Dark, dank, deep and festering. Lovely.
Perfect Tides: A real personal journey of heartbreak and growth which the dev clearly put a lot of her vulnerable self into.
Syberia 4: Probably my favorite of the year in overall enjoyment.
Pentiment: I’ve been yearning for a historical game which qualifies as entertainment and edutainment, so this was a no brainer.

Special mentions: Gerda: A Flame in Winter, Attentat 1942, BROK, Beacon Pines, The Spirit and the Mouse

Mild disappointments: Return to Monkey Island, Immortality, Crowns and Pawns

Still to play: Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard, Lucy Dreaming, Stray

Ahenobarbus - 07 January 2023 03:59 AM

Hi guys!
Long time no see

What is your opinion of adventure year 2022? I`m seeing some revival of the genre after one or two weaker years and I`m looking forward many new projects.
I still have a long way to decide which ones were the absolute best ones from 2022 but at this point I predict these games are probably going to find their way to my top 5 list:

- Return to Monkey Island
- The Excavation of Hob`s Barrow (just playing this and I love it!)
- Syberia: The World Before
- Pentiment
- Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit

How`s your list looking?

Thanks a lot for including Crowns and Pawns on your list, I (and the team) really appreciate it! It’s not perfect, but I’m glad to see there are fans out there. Hopefully, our next project will be even better!

I noticed someone mentioning that Crowns and Pawns and Broken Swords 2.5 were made by the same team, but only the composer and I worked on both. Crowns and Pawns was made by a different team mostly

Šarūnas Ledas - 12 January 2023 09:43 AM

...It’s not perfect, but I’m glad to see there are fans out there. Hopefully, our next project will be even better!

No disrespect intended. Crowns was well made, looked great and had a likeable protagonist. The puzzles and story just didn’t do it for me. As well as some other elements. But I’ll definitely keep an eye out for your next project what ever that may be.

Šarūnas Ledas - 12 January 2023 09:43 AM

I noticed someone mentioning that Crowns and Pawns and Broken Swords 2.5 were made by the same team, but only the composer and I worked on both. Crowns and Pawns was made by a different team mostly

That’s interesting, crowns really does have a Broken Sword vibe about it. Just with less past tense thought from the protagonist.

No worries, no disrespect taken. I understand that games are a matter of taste and I also understand that, as mentioned before, our game is not perfect. I’m super glad to see some people love it, but it’s also useful to read about what we could improve in the future. Either way, I’m hopeful that even those of you who didn’t enjoy it that much will give our next game a chance. And if not, no pressure, haha!

As for Broken Sword 2.5, most of us were just passionate youngsters trying to pay a tribute to the series that we loved. Hell, I was probably 16 when I became the art director in that project and 20 when we released it. You live and learn.

But I’m sorry for getting into all the random detail, I really don’t wanna take over the top 5 games thread

Well, although I played 25 adventure games last year (I’ll cheat a little bit and I will include the one playing right now in the CPT), only two were released in 2022, so I guess my top five is (and I loved both):

-Nightmare Frames
-The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow