Adventure Gamers - Forums

I would have thought the last thing people want is for AdventureGamers to become a self-congratulatory place for everyone to exclaim ‘great going guys!’ like some cheer-squad, everytime a developer shows up with their ideas. I want high standards for adventure games once again like the 90s, not the ‘average is good enough for them adventure fans’ attitude of the 00s dominated by The Adventure Company and others. If we want better games we need to let them know only the best is good enough, or we will be served up the same cr*p we got back in the 00s. We all complain about the games in those dark ages but back then, it was also considered rude to complain because an average AG was ‘better than nothing’, and the alternative really was nothing. Now that we have a competitive AG scene again, why settle for less? Besides that, blunt and honest critique can help our developers compete with the best - which no doubt they will want to do.

^
Signing this with a golden pen.

Just bringing Simon’s character back to it’s groots it’s good enough for me.
I think that it’s hard to miss and make something even worst than the last two games. From there it can only go up.
So for that i’m optimistic, and i hope that at least the essence of the series will be restored.
Of course just that alone won’t make a good game, but at least it would be a start.

I think new characters are important.  The majority of characters were either there as comic vignettes, or a means to advance the plot.  We didn’t have any sort of emotional investment in them, aside from liking the jokes that surrounded them.

Sordid works, because you need an antagonist and he does the job, but I’ve always been concerned with the idea that figures like Calypso are anything more than a catalyst to get the adventure going.  He gives you the quest and you’re off - it’s not like he’s a treasured character with a complex personality; his politeness is simply a contrast to Simon’s brash sarcasm, and that’s all there is.

The only ‘signature characters’ that spring to mind, aside from Simon and Sordid, are The Swampling and maybe Gerald and Max.  Most of the other ‘characters’ are pretty expendable.  If there’s some excellent new comedy material for, say, The Woodworm, fantastic, stick ‘em in the game, but if there isn’t, don’t feel compelled to include them just because they were in the originals.

Simon was never about the extended cast of beloved characters - something I’d associate more with Monkey Island, say - or even the story, particularly, but was more concerned with the little comic vignettes Simon travelled through.  In that respect, it had more in common with a sketch show, with the protagonist acting as the only real constant throughout the piece.