[Adventure!] The best PC adventure games?

RenegadeDrizzt

No mention of Torin's Passage? The dialogue is absolutely hilarious, and the puzzles are clever and engaging.

Anyone remember the Bitter Nuts?

Joe K

Adventure? Is that the game with the dragons that look like ducks?

Lindsey Lohan

RenegadeDrizzt wrote: »

No mention of Torin's Passage? The dialogue is absolutely hilarious, and the puzzles are clever and engaging.

Anyone remember the Bitter Nuts?

I owned Torin's Passage but I don't think I ever played it more than an hour total. I think that I reached the point of saturation for awhile with the genre and even though I'd grab them when I saw them cheap I never got into it. I think my mom inherited my copy and played it through though.

RenegadeDrizzt

Lindsey Lohan wrote: »

RenegadeDrizzt wrote: »

No mention of Torin's Passage? The dialogue is absolutely hilarious, and the puzzles are clever and engaging.

Anyone remember the Bitter Nuts?

I owned Torin's Passage but I don't think I ever played it more than an hour total. I think that I reached the point of saturation for awhile with the genre and even though I'd grab them when I saw them cheap I never got into it. I think my mom inherited my copy and played it through though.

I'd make an effort to find a copy, it goes for like 5 bucks on ebay and it's really worth giving it another shot. It's such an amazing game, the animation, the dialogue and voice acting, the puzzles. Quite a bit of depth, too, if I remember correctly. Probably one of my favorite adventure games next to the Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango, and Sam and Max.

Esh

Ooof. Can't believe the Longest Journey/Dreamfall hate. Sure they're, a little pixel hunty and long-winded at times, but the story is incredible. I haven't felt that moved or involved with characters in a long time.

And the graphics in none of these games has aged that well (except maybe Grim Fandango). That's not exactly a very convincing argument.

Hewn

These are the threads I always endorse my favorite game, The Last Express.

Glal

Esh wrote: »

Ooof. Can't believe the Longest Journey/Dreamfall hate. Sure they're, a little pixel hunty and long-winded at times, but the story is incredible. I haven't felt that moved or involved with characters in a long time.

Agreed, I would happily throw lots of monies at Ragnar Tørnquist for the third game in the series. The story, characters and universe are fantastic, I spent several minutes at the start of the first game just chatting with my landlord because she felt like a person (I think Jack from Bloodlines is one of the few other characters in gaming that did that for me).
I'd just play the original TLJ with UHS on the side because getting stuck is not worth missing out on the game for. Dreamfall has no complex puzzles to speak of, it's much more about playing the story than figuring out puzzles.

Igpx407

Thread needs more of this:



It's better than the Crystal Skull in almost every way (the only thing it's missing is Harrison Ford's actual voice) and it's only $5 on Steam.

Sir Carcass

Esh wrote: »

Ooof. Can't believe the Longest Journey/Dreamfall hate. Sure they're, a little pixel hunty and long-winded at times, but the story is incredible. I haven't felt that moved or involved with characters in a long time.

That's not the general consensus. Most people I've heard from list TLJ among the best adventure games of all time. Dreamfall is a little more divisive.

I generally play adventure games with a walkthrough handy. I play them for the setting, characters, and story. The gameplay is just a means to an end, and I think most people feel that way.

GSM

Using walkthroughs too much is kind of like using cheat codes whenever you can't kill a boss. It's probably going to be more fun if you can do it yourself, but even good games sometimes have poorly designed areas.

Lindsey Lohan

Lindsey Lohan wrote: »

RenegadeDrizzt wrote: »

No mention of Torin's Passage? The dialogue is absolutely hilarious, and the puzzles are clever and engaging.

Anyone remember the Bitter Nuts?

I owned Torin's Passage but I don't think I ever played it more than an hour total. I think that I reached the point of saturation for awhile with the genre and even though I'd grab them when I saw them cheap I never got into it. I think my mom inherited my copy and played it through though.

It's funny - my mom just sent a ton of PC/PS2/PS1 games up to us this weekend that she found and I'll bet it's actually in there. I should be getting them soon - if it's in there I'll have to revisit it. I seem to remember the animation being really nice in that one...

PMAvers

One more here that likes TLJ & Dreamfall, although it'd be nice if it didn't leave off at a massive cliff-hanger at the half-way point of the story and we didn't have to wait years to find out what happens next arglebargle.

SageinaRage

Oh hey, I love adventure games. I was trying to play through some of the sierra collections, but got stuck on king's quest 3 (the remake actually) because I got sick of the time limit bullshit. I'm not exactly stuck on a puzzle per se, but I might just go ahead and use the guide because I can already see me getting pissed off at it. (I already resolved that I want to play through the old sierra games just to experience them, and told myself it was completely ok to make liberal use of guides, because fuck sierra games)

I've also been playing through Machinarium which was fun, but didn't quite grab me like some others. I love the art and aesthetic, but the lack of humor or dialogue, or characters really, makes all the times I'm stuck feel more dreary. Also I can't beat the old man at the fancy tic-tac-toe.

Warlock82

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Esh wrote: »

Ooof. Can't believe the Longest Journey/Dreamfall hate. Sure they're, a little pixel hunty and long-winded at times, but the story is incredible. I haven't felt that moved or involved with characters in a long time.

That's not the general consensus. Most people I've heard from list TLJ among the best adventure games of all time. Dreamfall is a little more divisive.

I generally play adventure games with a walkthrough handy. I play them for the setting, characters, and story. The gameplay is just a means to an end, and I think most people feel that way.

I don't think I would go that far (regarding TLJ, haven't played Dreamfall). The game definitely has issues. But it's overall a pretty excellent game though.

RT800

My biggest problem with TLJ is getting stuck or not know what I'm supposed to do next.

It's irritating to stand there waving my pointer over everything for the bajillionth time trying to figure out what I missed that's so essential.

lowlylowlycook

GSM wrote: »

Using walkthroughs too much is kind of like using cheat codes whenever you can't kill a boss. It's probably going to be more fun if you can do it yourself, but even good games sometimes have poorly designed areas.

Anyone that can get through Hitchhiker's Guide without a walkthrough is a better man than I.

Krathoon

Here are some more obscure ones:

Bad Day on the Midway
The Dark Eye
Bad Mojo
Ripper
Temujin
Dark Side of the Moon

Lands of Lore 1 and 2 are good. 3... not so much.

I have found the Phantasmagoria games to be a guilty pleasure. Need to finish the second one.

theSquid

If there's one LP I'm going to do it will be of Discworld Noir because its such a forgotten gem. Discworld + film noir? Yes please.

Simon Moon

lowlylowlycook wrote: »

GSM wrote: »

Using walkthroughs too much is kind of like using cheat codes whenever you can't kill a boss. It's probably going to be more fun if you can do it yourself, but even good games sometimes have poorly designed areas.

Anyone that can get through Hitchhiker's Guide without a walkthrough is a better man than I.

> WRAP TOWEL AROUND HEAD

edited to add that I really like the Broken Sword remaster, although there's a really noticeable difference in sound quality in the added scenes from the originals. And, alas, despite my best intentions, I haven't gotten around to the Broken Sword II remaster.

Joe K

Simon Moon wrote: »

lowlylowlycook wrote: »

GSM wrote: »

Using walkthroughs too much is kind of like using cheat codes whenever you can't kill a boss. It's probably going to be more fun if you can do it yourself, but even good games sometimes have poorly designed areas.

Anyone that can get through Hitchhiker's Guide without a walkthrough is a better man than I.

> WRAP TOWEL AROUND HEAD

but how the eff do you get the god damn babelfish??!?!?!?

Simon Moon

Joe K wrote: »

Simon Moon wrote: »

lowlylowlycook wrote: »

GSM wrote: »

Using walkthroughs too much is kind of like using cheat codes whenever you can't kill a boss. It's probably going to be more fun if you can do it yourself, but even good games sometimes have poorly designed areas.

Anyone that can get through Hitchhiker's Guide without a walkthrough is a better man than I.

> WRAP TOWEL AROUND HEAD

but how the eff do you get the god damn babelfish??!?!?!?

Spoiler:

You're not still wearing that robe, are you?

Spoiler:

Now where did I put that stack of papers?

Drake

Just played a bit more of Normality. It's pretty fun whacky dystopian stuff, if you can get that. The first person perspective is handled well, and the puzzles are nice and logical, in that adventure game logic anyway. Nothing too crazy yet at least. It has some decent humor going on, I cracked some honest grins and even chuckled out loud a few times. The art holds up well if you like don't mind pixel art 2D textures in a 3D environment, like Doom or Blood.

I'd say it's worth a look if you are into the genre. It can be found over at GoG.

Andytizer

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Esh wrote: »

Ooof. Can't believe the Longest Journey/Dreamfall hate. Sure they're, a little pixel hunty and long-winded at times, but the story is incredible. I haven't felt that moved or involved with characters in a long time.

That's not the general consensus. Most people I've heard from list TLJ among the best adventure games of all time. Dreamfall is a little more divisive.

I generally play adventure games with a walkthrough handy. I play them for the setting, characters, and story. The gameplay is just a means to an end, and I think most people feel that way.

The 'combat' gameplay in Dreamfall was really really awful and made me stop playing it completely, which is such a shame. I don't understand why they tried to inject third person brawling into an adventure game, it's like they completely misunderstood their demographic.

Esh

Andytizer wrote: »

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Esh wrote: »

Ooof. Can't believe the Longest Journey/Dreamfall hate. Sure they're, a little pixel hunty and long-winded at times, but the story is incredible. I haven't felt that moved or involved with characters in a long time.

That's not the general consensus. Most people I've heard from list TLJ among the best adventure games of all time. Dreamfall is a little more divisive.

I generally play adventure games with a walkthrough handy. I play them for the setting, characters, and story. The gameplay is just a means to an end, and I think most people feel that way.

The 'combat' gameplay in Dreamfall was really really awful and made me stop playing it completely, which is such a shame. I don't understand why they tried to inject third person brawling into an adventure game, it's like they completely misunderstood their demographic.

Except it only happens a couple times and is ridiculously easy.

Krathoon wrote: »

Here are some more obscure ones:

Bad Day on the Midway
The Dark Eye
Bad Mojo
Ripper
Temujin
Dark Side of the Moon

Lands of Lore 1 and 2 are good. 3... not so much.

I have found the Phantasmagoria games to be a guilty pleasure. Need to finish the second one.

Lands Of Lore are RPGs.

Lalabox

So, I just found out about this:

I've always wanted to get into these guys' games (runaway trilogy, next big thing), but I just never had the time, and I just missed out when all their stuff was last on sale on steam. At any rate, a new point and click adventure game.

Mr_Grinch

I completed Hitchhiker's without a walk through as a kid. I've gone back to it since and got stuck almost immediately, clearly this means I have become dumber with age.

Another series I'd recommend is the Goblins series. Goblins, Gobliins 2 and Gobliiins 3 (I think that's right). I never go to the third game, I'm still stuck on the second. I bought it around release in 1992, which would have made me ten. I refused to use a strategy guide and eventually got stuck, I put it away and brought it out a year or so later, got a little further, got stuck and put it away. I kept doing this year on year till I eventually got a PC, even then I'd occasionally set up my Amiga to play it.

Last year I dug out my Amiga and played it again, I got a bit further and again got stuck so I've put it away. I cannot believe it's taking me over 20 years to beat this damn game. I still love it too.

Krathoon

Esh wrote: »

Andytizer wrote: »

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Esh wrote: »

Ooof. Can't believe the Longest Journey/Dreamfall hate. Sure they're, a little pixel hunty and long-winded at times, but the story is incredible. I haven't felt that moved or involved with characters in a long time.

That's not the general consensus. Most people I've heard from list TLJ among the best adventure games of all time. Dreamfall is a little more divisive.

I generally play adventure games with a walkthrough handy. I play them for the setting, characters, and story. The gameplay is just a means to an end, and I think most people feel that way.

The 'combat' gameplay in Dreamfall was really really awful and made me stop playing it completely, which is such a shame. I don't understand why they tried to inject third person brawling into an adventure game, it's like they completely misunderstood their demographic.

Except it only happens a couple times and is ridiculously easy.

Krathoon wrote: »

Here are some more obscure ones:

Bad Day on the Midway
The Dark Eye
Bad Mojo
Ripper
Temujin
Dark Side of the Moon

Lands of Lore 1 and 2 are good. 3... not so much.

I have found the Phantasmagoria games to be a guilty pleasure. Need to finish the second one.

Lands Of Lore are RPGs.

Whoops. Yeah. Lands Of Lore are RPGs. Their light RPG nature and fancy presentation made me throw them in the adventure pile.

timspork's ghost

No mention of the Space Quest series? 6 will always have a special place in my heart. The best part about 6 is the game's narrator who constantly breaks the 4th wall with Roger Wilco as well as the liquor store where every bottle of alcohol is a reference to a scifi writer.

Mr_Grinch

Which was the time travel one? I enjoyed that one. I just disliked how punishing a lot of the "Quest" games were. If you neglected to pick up an item an hour back the game could be over. I recently tried to replay Space Quest 1 and just couldn't really get in to it.

How was that recent point and click...something to do with vampires?

Jam Warrior

Vampyre Story? I played the demo and the gameplay seemed good stuff but the main character's voice actress was atrocious to the point if killing my interest in the game. How on earth they started with a brief of 'sultry French vampiress' and ended up with what they did is utterly beyond me.

Mblackwell

Lalabox wrote: »

So, I just found out about this:

I've always wanted to get into these guys' games (runaway trilogy, next big thing), but I just never had the time, and I just missed out when all their stuff was last on sale on steam. At any rate, a new point and click adventure game.

I repped them on the previous page and will go ahead and say buy their games! If you don't want to invest in the Runaway Series at least get The Next Big Thing which is ridiculously charming. (Note that the "adventure pack" on that link includes all of the Runaway games)

Mr_Grinch

Jam Warrior - That's the one. Damn, that's a shame, I was debating giving it a go.

Also if anyone has a Wii I'd highly recommend picking up Zack and Wiki. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was really let down there weren't more point and click games released for the Wii.

Lindsey Lohan

timspork's ghost wrote: »

No mention of the Space Quest series? 6 will always have a special place in my heart. The best part about 6 is the game's narrator who constantly breaks the 4th wall with Roger Wilco as well as the liquor store where every bottle of alcohol is a reference to a scifi writer.

I had SQ4, but I never beat it. The cheap Sierra deaths just got too much for me in my youth and I moved onto something more forgiving. I loved the sense of humor and there was a crossdressing scene that was really funny - but I find that Sierra games I often just never finished.

anoffday

I think the potential of the Wii, sadly, was never even realized. Even Nintendo couldn't get it right until Skyward Sword.

SageinaRage

People liked the Runaway games? I tried the first one and it irked the shit out of me, both in terms of the boring story/characters, and some of the puzzles requiring ridiculous external knowledge of random science facts.

RainbowDespair

Mr_Grinch wrote: »

Which was the time travel one? I enjoyed that one. I just disliked how punishing a lot of the "Quest" games were. If you neglected to pick up an item an hour back the game could be over. I recently tried to replay Space Quest 1 and just couldn't really get in to it.

Space Quest IV was the time travel one. SQ5 was my favorite (all just one huge Star Trek parody).

Sir Carcass

RainbowDespair wrote: »

Mr_Grinch wrote: »

Which was the time travel one? I enjoyed that one. I just disliked how punishing a lot of the "Quest" games were. If you neglected to pick up an item an hour back the game could be over. I recently tried to replay Space Quest 1 and just couldn't really get in to it.

Space Quest IV was the time travel one. SQ5 was my favorite (all just one huge Star Trek parody).

Yeah, SQ5 was always my favorite. Really loved commanding the ship and just walking around it.

C2B

Overclocked: A History of Violence



From german "House of Tales" who made some great adventure (Including "The Moment of Silence") games and a few "not so great" ones before dissolving with the main heads leaving the industry. Miss them

carmofin

I remember Bladerunner leaving an especially good impression back in the day.

Drake

I really love Blade Runner. It's my favorite Adventure game of all time. I still hold out hope that GoG will put it up for sale one day since I lost my discs in a move.