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Old adventure games

Makabb

Arcane
Shitposter Bethestard
Joined
Sep 19, 2014
Messages
11,753
So i played Monkey island 1,2,3, Full throttle, the dig.

What else good there is to play?
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
How old are we talking about?

Seconding Grim Fandango - this game is fantastic.

Other than that... there's old classics: Space Quest series, King's Quest series, Gobliiiins series, the Legend of Kyrandia series, Gabriel Knight series, Myst series, Tex Murphy series. Torin's Passage. The Neverhood. Day of the Tentacle.
There's the 'newer' ones: Sanitarium, the Broken Sword (play the 1st one, see if it's your cup of tea, but do not, DO NOT, play the Director's Cut - it's a travesty. GOG sells the original alongside the new one), the Longest Journey (play the 1st one only), Syberia, Discworld Noir, the Last Express (try it, the gameplay is very unique). Blade Runner (another unusual gem).
Then there are new ones that try to imitate the classics. The Blackwell series; Resonance, Gemini Rue and the like; Deponia; the Book of Unwritten Tales etc. Couldn't really muster much enthusiasm for those, but some of them are decent.

Check out this list, and remember that there is no accounting for taste:
https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18643/page22
 
Last edited:

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
Sam & Fuckin' Max would be next on that list I think, then Day of the Tentacle. Then decide if you want to expand to Sierra.
 

ItsChon

Resident Zoomer
Patron
Joined
Jul 1, 2018
Messages
5,381
Location
Երևան
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I've heard both Technobabylon and Primordia get praised, so perhaps you can take a look at those. The Legend of Kyrandia is beautiful, but I haven't played that either so I can't speak for its gameplay. Broken Age is an interesting modern one, and though the ending kind of falls apart, I enjoyed it. The art is very pretty as well.
 

Martyr

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2018
Messages
1,101
Location
Bavaria
I was able to finish these, without constantly looking at walkthroughs (I suck at adventures):
- Gabriel Knight 2 --> glorious FMV, great supernatural story, set in Bavaria!!
- Zork Nemesis --> unbelieveably great atmosphere, not too easy but actually solvable riddles
- Loom & Longest Journey --> innovative story/atmosphere, likeable protagonists

not that old, but should be experienced because of really dark mood:
- Scratches --> Myst-style adventure set in a haunted house. partly inspired by "The Rats in the Walls"
- Still Life --> hunting down a serial killer in present time/ past
 
Self-Ejected

IncendiaryDevice

Self-Ejected
Village Idiot
Joined
Nov 3, 2014
Messages
7,407
No mention of Simon the Sorcerer series yet (though I've never managed to complete the first game even with 2 attempts over many years).
 

Hevnknekt

Educated
Joined
Jul 6, 2018
Messages
81
Quest for Infamy is worth checking out. Basically Quest for Glory, but with a snarky deadpan Blackadder-like protaginist. There's a distinct lack of political correctness in it, too.

Released in 2014... 4 years have passed already...
:stunned:
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
This entire thread has a :notsureifserious: quality to it.

The fact is that there are a variety of reasons to like an adventure game (novelty, puzzle quality, art, story, smooth gameplay, historical importance, etc.). For instance, Grim Fandango looks and sounds great and has a great story, but in my opinion the puzzles are mediocre and the pacing is not particularly good for an adventure game -- way too much dialogue relative to non-dialogue. (The controls were not good at launch, but they have since been replaced if you get the remastered version.) Full Throttle has one of the few well-done protagonists who is not a scavenger/nerd type, it looks and sounds great, and it has generally smooth gameplay, but the puzzles are very easy and the game is very short. The first two Kyrandia games, particularly the second, have spectacular art and they're quite large, but the setting is generic, the story is so-so, the puzzles are frustrating, and the gameplay has a lot of friction (i.e., you can expect to get stuck for all sorts of reasons). They are also relatively unimportant as historical significance goes in comparison to Sierra and Lucas Arts games of the same era.

Recommending Technobabylon (on which I gave some story/puzzle advice), Primordia (which I made), or Quest for Infamy (which I backed on Kickstarter and greatly admire) is absurd -- none of those are "old" and non are comparable to many games that Makabb hasn't played. In my opinion, even games like Torin's Passage or Syberia are ridiculous.

I'd propose something like:

FIRST: Quest for Glory VGA. (I don't think you'll be able to get into the EGA version today.) Probably my favorite adventure game and certainly my favorite on that you haven't yet played. If you like it, by all means continue with the series.
SECOND: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, another tip-top game. Better than the Search for the Holy Grail.
THIRD: The Sierra VGA era greats (King's Quest V, King's Quest VI, Space Quest IV, Gabriel Knight) and the Lucas greats (Loom, DOTT, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Grim Fandango).
FOURTH: The smaller-developer classics (Simon the Sorcerer, Kyrandia, Broken Sword, Discworld Noir).
FIFTH: The "deviate from standard" classics (Last Express, Sanitarium, Gobliiins, Tex Murphy, etc.).

But honestly, it all depends on what you like. If it turns out that you like low-difficulty, low-stress story-oriented games, or dislike the traditional look and feel, then I'd rejigger things. Still, QFG VGA is an easy place to start.
 

Serus

Arcane
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Jul 16, 2005
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6,681
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Small but great planet of Potatohole
So i played Monkey island 1,2,3, Full throttle, the dig.

What else good there is to play?
Not my favourite genre but i've played more than a few back when I played everything and a few classics that must be played if one is interested in adventure games in my opinion:
Both Indiana Jones by Lucas Arts (puzzles of reasonable difficulty, iirc more than one way to solve some of them)
Day of the Tentacle aka Maniac Mansion 2 (really hard, puzzles of the "mix an apple with a shoe to get a rocket launcher" variety but really funny and creative)
Quest for Glory series (brilliant and funny adventure games with stats, several ways to approach many puzzles, first part is rather easy for an adventure game)

Scrap all that, MRY seems to know what he's talking about and the parts I can verify - he's spot on. Just follow his advice.
 

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