Adventure Gamers - Forums

Greetings

I have played many games over the years that sit on the grey lines when it comes to defining adventure. Take Heavy rain, I read an article on this very site that explained how adventure games are pushing forward the bounderies of what is classed as an adventure game.
I came across another game recently called Song of Horror. The game looks like a survival horror very similar to alone in the dark and silent hill. However there is no combat and much of the game is centered around story, which you uncover from picking up documents around the mansion and reading the various observations from the charecters. There is a supernatural force you need to try and avoid but for me I really want to place it in the adventure genra because of the cinematic focus on story. Here is a link to their site if you are curious: http://www.songofhorror.com/
So I conclude with this question: What are the bounderis for what is considered an adventure game and who defines them?

It’s broad genre, but I think this site’s definition is pretty good:

“Adventure games focus on puzzle solving within a narrative framework, generally with few or no action elements”.

The rest of it can be read here:
http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17547

Dean&Kate; - 12 June 2015 06:50 AM

who defines them?

Gamers in general, slowly, over time. And sometimes genres mean very different things to different people. A modern example:

To many gamers that didn’t grew up with traditional adventure games, an adventure game is a game where the player is on an adventure - as in Indiana Jones, etc - and not closely related to gameplay, as long as you control one character at a time (e.g. opposed to a vehicle).

EDIT: Added ‘traditional’ in the last paragraph.

My thought is that I’ve played many AGs that have amongst them infuriatingly included timed, stealth & combat/shooting sequences but I couldn’t categorize those games in any other genre other than Adventure as those aspects in my experience are a small part & incidental in those games.

Where I draw the line is when those aspects which include timed, stealth & combat/shooting sequences are either a focus within the game-play or are so recurrent throughout it to result in dominating & therefore distracting from the flow of unravelling a story through exploration, puzzle-solving + dialogue if relevant.  It doesn’t really matter who sets the boundaries as if a game fits that criteria I’m just not interested!

Song of Horror does look interesting & it would be great if it is a game that doesn’t fall into the path of survival horror as we know it & has more interesting dominant features than others that fall within that sub-genre!