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Point-and-Click Adventure-GAF of LucasArts, Sierra, and hair-pulling puzzles

D

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
Gaspode_T said:
Very happy to see fans of adventure games coming back together, after 10+ years of beeing dumped on...hearing the Retronauts podcast about adventure games was hard because I really do agree with some of their feedback that the games need to evolve.
Click to expand...

That reminds me, they recorded a Retronauts episode with Ron Gilbert about Maniac Mansion, they're supposed to post it later today (Thursday). Should be cool - that old Retronauts podcast was one of the reasons I got back into adventure gaming and booted up all of the old stuff I'd missed out when I was younger.
 
D

disappeared

Banned
It's almost unfortunate that I ever owned a Tandy 1000. Games like Hero's Quest and King's Quest basically set the bar for me (and kept it there) in terms of what a Role-Playing-Game can be. They were entirely ahead of their time. Hero's Quest, namely, featured a skill-set that one-hundred-percent accomodated you as a player. Now sure, new RPGs do that, but we're talking 1989 here. Aside from pen-and-paper D&D (of course), Sierra's Quest series literally let you explore and live in a completely different world. Nearly everything you did had a reaction that was programmed in by the developers. There were so many angles that they had already assumed the player would approach from, and a proper reaction was always in order. Most other RPGs these days, even with their vastly superior technology, still can't seem to compete in that regard.
 
A

Azar

Member
Thanks for making such an awesome thread. I gave HG101 a shoutout on Twitter just a couple days ago as I started reading the guide to classic graphic adventures. Only through Space Quest--just getting started--but it's already been a welcome deluge of knowledge. Wish I had the Kindle edition for on-the-go reading!

I grew up playing some of the Lucasarts adventures, namely Fate of Atlantis, but I was never particularly good at them. Still, that childhood enjoyment stuck with me and has led me to play and write about those games as I've gotten older. Grim Fandango and The Last Express are two of the most creative and important games of the 90s, though for different reasons. Grim Fandango is a peerless example of how to create atmosphere in a video game world, while The Last Express is mechanically brilliant and steeped in history in a way few games can match.
 
R

Ruuppa

Member
Amazing thread, prompted me to grab the Blackwell Bundle and Gemini Rue. Now if I could only find time to actually play them..
 
B

Bebpo

Banned
I've been playing Edna & Harvey for a few weeks now and it's been a really mixed experience (I'm maybe 60% through it in about 7 hours). The art and music and story and acting is charming. I can even get past all the jank like 30 second freezes everytime you save.

But man, the middle section of the game I just finished where you are doing chores for the mental patients is SO TEDIOUS. It's some of the worst adventure gaming I've played. You're constantly running back and forth through the same 9 or so screens to advance 1 min until the next person stops you and you have to do something else. Really soured me on the game.

Hopefully now that I'm past that part the rest will be good. I really want to like it as it has a very nice throwback feel of light hearted yet touching lucasarts games.


Also just want to add to this thread that Gray Matter is the best adventure of the last 2000s and feels like you have warped back in time to 1999 and are playing Jane Jenson's Gabriel Knight 4. It's a bit janky because of the low budget and production problems, but the story and characters and art and music and puzzles are sooooooo good. I've gifted numerous copies of the game to all my friends over the last year during sales. If you liked GK, you need to play Gray Matter.
 
H

harriet the spy

Member
Another one missing: Spycraft!

It was FMV based, but the game segments were very fun (satellite image analysis, sound analysis). It was awesome, even with the super shitty shooting segments.

The creation involved a former CIA director and a former KGB director. The CIA former director mysteriously died after collaborating with the game (ok, it probably had nothing to do with it)
 
mihon

mihon

Member
Lovely thread!! I'm ashamed I didn't know about SCUMMVM. I guess now I'll have even less free time.

Back when I was a kid DOTT was my favorite. Also loved Sam&Max and Monkey Island!
But it's unfair since I didn't have the chance to play the others. I will now!

It would be nice to update the OP with the others' suggestions since it will be a nice resource (at least for me).
 
Kelegacy

Kelegacy

XBOX - RECORD ME LOVING DOWN MY WOMAN GOOD
I only just realized scummvm is available on Touchpad. Jeebus this weekend is going uto be fun!
 
D

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
mihon said:
It would be nice to update the OP with the others' suggestions since it will be a nice resource (at least for me).
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind doing it, but I'd have to finagle around the post character limit. Plus there's a lot more to add still.

A couple more lesser known titles but all worth playing:

Flight of the Amazon Queen

amazonqueen-10.png


Very desperately wants to be a LucasArts game, to the point where the developers reportedly pitched it to them. The atmosphere and tone is similar to Monkey Island, and while the writing is never QUITE as clever as LucasArts' better games, it's still quite good.

The Gene Machine

genemachine-8.jpg


This is the final game by the British team Divide By Zero. Previously they had worked on Innocent Until Caught, Guilty, and The Orion Conspiracy. None of those were very good, but they finally got things right with this one, which is a homage to various British fantasy and science-fiction like the works of HG Wells and Jules Verne. The main character reminds me a lot of Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder, right down to his dogsbody companion.

Harvester

harvester-17.jpg


This game is ridiculously sordid. It takes place in a parody of an idyllic 50s Leave It to Beaver-style neighborhood, which is obsessed with a cult-like organization at the center of town. There's a lot of shocking violence-for-violence sake which was popular in mid-90s gaming, but in spite of the awful last chapter, based largely around the sort of action that adventure games have always been terrible at, it's a neat experiment nonetheless. Sort of hard to say why without spoiling the ending though.

Blazing Dragons

dragon_trap_solved.png


This one is weird, since it's an adventure game that was exclusively released on the 32-bit consoles. It was based off a Canadian TV series, though the game is much better from what I've seen of it. Doesn't quite pull of the Monty Python-type sense of lunacy that the game initially suggests (it was produced by Terry Jones to some capacity), and it's not quite as funny as Discworld, but at the same time less maddeningly designed.

The company that developed this put out a few of decent licensed point-and-clicks, actually. Scooby Doo Mystery for the Genesis and Duckman (which I remember reading about in magazines but I'm not sure if it got officially released in the US.) They also did Beavis and Butthead Do U, which wasn't nearly as good as Virtual Stupidity though. That one was very good - I remember being shocked when PC Gamer awarded Adventure Game of the Year to a Beavis and Butthead game.
 
C

chickdigger802

Banned
After picking up the hector badge of courage trilogy on sale last year, I finally got around to finishing it!

That ending for eps 3 was pretty tough compare to the rest of the game. Gotta love how the hint system ridicules you on every page ;)
 
T

TheNatural

My Member!
I've been playing Maniac Mansion, it's amazing how well this game holds up. I forgot the tricks on how to beat it since I last played it, so I hit the red button in the pool, not a good idea ..
 
J

Jeff Albertson

Member
I love adventure games but don't have a polished history with them I just played whatever I came accross and missed the classics.

I enjoyed even what would be considered bad ones.

Loved a pink panther one about a summer camp and that blazing dragons.

What is there on ios or 360 worth playing? And is tales of monkey island ever coming to live?
 
F

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
discoalucard said:
I wouldn't mind doing it, but I'd have to finagle around the post character limit. Plus there's a lot more to add still.
Click to expand...
Maybe you could make a new post with the new content as a normal reply in the middle of the thread, then just link to it with something like "Link to Part 2 with more games" in the OP. Not as good as adding to the actual OP or using post #2 but it's one way to circumvent the character limit.
 
Kelegacy

Kelegacy

XBOX - RECORD ME LOVING DOWN MY WOMAN GOOD
I didn't realize I had the Space Quest Collection until recently. I forgot I bought it. I fired up IV last night and the narrator's voice sent me back to 1991 (or probably closer to 1995 when I actually played it. :) )

I wish MORE games had narrators. Willy Beamish's narrator is the best I've ever heard. He is all kinds of awesome.
 
S

szaromir

Banned
CecilRousso said:
People just to realize that not every single point&click adventure from the 90´s are made of pure awesome. Overrated is not the same as bad. Well, not always at least. :)
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While you're entitled to your opinions, I had excellent time both with Simon the Sorcerer 1&2 and The Longest Journey (never got around to Sam&Max for some reason).

The genre still sees many worthy releases and is definitely not 'dead' but the volume of really engaging games is much lower than in the 90s.
 
C

CecilRousso

Member
szaromir said:
While you're entitled to your opinions, I had excellent time both with Simon the Sorcerer 1&2 and The Longest Journey (never got around to Sam&Max for some reason).

The genre still sees many worthy releases and is definitely not 'dead' but the volume of really engaging games is much lower than in the 90s.
Click to expand...

I also had an excellent time with those games, well not The Longest Journey, but the rest. The only thing I´m saying is that they aren´t without flaws, and it´s not as impossible as some seem to think that there have been better games after their release.
 
P

Pakkidis

Member
Some of my favorites:

Beneath a steel sky
Leisure suit Larry 6,7
Police Quest 4
Space Quest 5,6
Kings Quest 6,7
The longest Journey
Full Throttle
Grim Fandango
Myst
 
Y

yogloo

Member
I still remember the day I got a soundcard for my PC. The sierra logo boot up was magical. And the music for all the games was out of this world. God how much I love sierra.
Quest for glory, police quest <3 <3 <3
Pure joy.
This is the best thread of forever.
 
D

Dog Problems

Banned
CecilRousso said:
I also had an excellent time with those games, well not The Longest Journey, but the rest. The only thing I´m saying is that they aren´t without flaws, and it´s not as impossible as some seem to think that there have been better games after their release.
Click to expand...

But what are those flaws? For example, what do the newer Sam & Max games do better than Hit the Road? While I like the newer games, they were incredibly easy and offered almost no challenge whatsoever.
 
F

FateBreaker

Member
I am in no way a pro when it comes to adventure games, nor am I its biggest fan (but I do indeed like them). That being said, I immensely enjoyed Axel and Pixel. I don't think this was very well-received, but I think it should have gotten more recognition. It was so absolutely charming and beautiful to me with great puzzles.

reviewaxelandpixelxbla-2.jpg
 
J

jimi_dini

Member
CecilRousso said:
I also had an excellent time with those games, well not The Longest Journey, but the rest. The only thing I´m saying is that they aren´t without flaws, and it´s not as impossible as some seem to think that there have been better games after their release.
Click to expand...

I like the new Sam&Max games, but imho they don't even come close to Hit the road. I also personally don't like Telltale using 3D graphics. They should have made their games 2D (and still using a 3D engine, I wouldn't care). And for Simon the Sorcerer. Yeah, Simon 2 beats it, but that's just a great game being better than another great game. And after that Simon 3D - yuk.

Even if there were "better" games afterwards, why would that be the reason to call those 2 classics "overrated"? It's like saying Monkey Island 1 is overrated, because Monkey Island 2 was released afterwards. Or Maniac Mansion 1 would be overrated, because of the superior Maniac Mansion 2? All those games are great and still hold up (if you can accept the pixelated graphics).
 
D

Dog Problems

Banned
I didn't see this mentioned in the topic and thought people might be interested. Retronauts did an episode dedicated to Maniac Mansion this week and have Ron Gilbert on as a guest.

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9095542

Also, there's a couple of links on there to two great articles. An article Ron wrote over 20 years ago on why adventure games suck and an article from over 10 years go on the death of adventure games.

The article on the death of adventure games sums up my biggest problem with Gabriel Knight 3 and is a large part of why I could never bring myself to finish it. That, and it has aged horribly in the graphics department.
 
C

CecilRousso

Member
jimi_dini said:
I like the new Sam&Max games, but imho they don't even come close to Hit the road. I also personally don't like Telltale using 3D graphics. They should have made their games 2D (and still using a 3D engine, I wouldn't care). And for Simon the Sorcerer. Yeah, Simon 2 beats it, but that's just a great game being better than another great game. And after that Simon 3D - yuk.
Click to expand...

And there you go, being a bit to old school. :p

jimi_dini said:
Even if there were "better" games afterwards, why would that be the reason to call those 2 classics "overrated"?
Click to expand...

They are overrated in the sense that they are not as good as the best of the classics, but people still can´t be critical of them, since they were made in the golden area of the genre.
 
D

Dog Problems

Banned
CecilRousso said:
And there you go, being a bit to old school. :p
Click to expand...

Some people actually prefer the look of pixel graphics over polygons. Like, completely outside of the realm of video games and pixel graphics being an artform. You seem to be confusing personal preference with nostalgia glasses or something.
 
M

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Tim Schafer's adventure game fund made me remember one sad thing: I had one of those triangle-shaped tentacle boxes of Day of the Tentacle, and it's in a landfill with all the other empty boxes I got rid of when I moved away. He's giving away the last sealed ones and it sounds like they're incredibly rare, mine was opened but I still want to cry for tossing it...
 
C

CecilRousso

Member
LastWindow said:
Some people actually prefer the look of pixel graphics over polygons. Like, completely outside of the realm of video games and pixel graphics being an artform. You seem to be confusing personal preference with nostalgia glasses or something.
Click to expand...

No, I´m just being a bit realistic. If one of the main complaints about Telltale are them doing 3d games, you are bit to old school. :)
 
D

Dog Problems

Banned
CecilRousso said:
No, I´m just being a bit realistic. If one of the main complaints about Telltale are them doing 3d games, you are bit to old school. :)
Click to expand...

Well, my biggest complaint is how dumbed down their games are compared to older ones. I know they're trying to appeal to a larger audience but the lack of challenge that's always in their games, and seems to be increasing, is disheartening.
 
T

Turfster

Member
My main problem with the Telltale games I've played (so basically, the monkey island games) is that they contain too few rooms that take ages to walk through and you need to keep going back and forth for no valid reason except game length padding.
 
V

Versipellis

Member
I can vouch for the quality of The Book of Unwritten Tales.
Ok, the references are quite annoying after some time, but the rest of the game is very enjoyable: it's very long (12h+), its logic is easy to follow and even if it's not a difficult game (the interface is helping the player a bit too much), the puzzles are good and there are a lot of them (you always have something to do). I think it's a bit too derivative, maybe (it follows the formula almost to the letter), but still one of the best modern games in the genre.

sp3000 said:
Also has anyone here played Mission Critical, because it seems I'm the only one who even knows that it exists.
Click to expand...
I really liked that game. It's a bit on the easy side, puzzles-wise, but the final part is very good.
I still prefer Legend's hybrids, but their take on point&click adventures is praise-worthy and it's a pity they are not as famous as they deserve.
 
C

CecilRousso

Member
LastWindow said:
Well, my biggest complaint is how dumbed down their games are compared to older ones. I know they're trying to appeal to a larger audience but the lack of challenge that's always in their games, and seems to be increasing, is disheartening.
Click to expand...

Well games like Back to the Future is, and I don´t think it´s helping them. But Sam&Max: The Devils Playhouse isn´t really more dumbed down then Hit the Road. I thought they hit a good spot with Tales and Devil´s Playhouse which they then strayed away from. I hope they rethink.
 
J

jimi_dini

Member
CecilRousso said:
And there you go, being a bit to old school. :p
Click to expand...

Like I said, I wouldn't have an issue with them using a 3D engine to create a 2D scenery for example. I prefer 2D, because they want to create adventure games with point+click mechanic. And point+click works best on 2D graphics. They could still use a 3D engine, but just show the graphics in a 2D-way (like New Super Mario Bros for example). I got nothing against 3D in other genres, but adventures work best in 2D.

Also I prefer this (released 1990)
8OhMx.jpg

over this (released 2001)
7Rito.jpg


Especially because of the hand-drawn art. And you just can't do hand-drawn art that way in a 3D engine. It's incredible that Sierra managed to do this at a 320x200 pixel resolution. 2D art combined with 3D models would also be fine. Like Syberia
PzsA9.jpg

Or full 3D, but still show it in a 2D way - like for example that little part of the MI2SE trailer:
VRIiy.jpg


also Telltales 3D engine sucks. It's incredible how they managed to not get a stable framerate even on PS3
 
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