Cool adventure games

[Kloreep]

It really is all in semantics. By the standards of adventure genre "purists" as the wiki article calls them, it's definitely not an adventure game, because it's very action-oriented and is very much defined by reflexes and time. (I do think it was very reflex based, or at least required certain skills I wouldn't associate with "traditional" games. You had to figure out where safe spots were, time the planning and execution of your routes between them, etc.) By more loose definitions, though, it could certainly be considered adventure. Playing it is an adventure I'd say.

BTW snoopy, couldn't you kill people? Just not on the highest difficulty level that true thieves played at. I'm pretty sure head-on attack was sometimes viable at the lower levels, both because you'd have more health and because the game would actually let you murder.

Whatever Thief "was," it was great, it was different from most other first-person experiences out there, and even though I'm paused somewhere in the second, they should make a fourth.

[Nostromo]

Yeah, its all fuzzy.

I don't think I ever played Thief, but from what I've heard, its closer to 'Splinter Cell' than 'Myst' or 'Grim Fandango', if you ask me. So I would say its basically a stealth game, maybe with adventure game elements thrown in.

[snoopy369]

Timing, not reflexes. Not nearly the same thing; it's not a reflex game in that you don't need to quickly change from attacking one guy to another

You could kill people, but even on the normal level you often were banned from it. You sometimes couldn't be discovered at all

[snoopy369]

nostromo: Go play thief

I'd love to see a Thief 4 btw, but with LGS gone it's not the same. Thief 3 was good but not great.

[Maquiladora]

The last adventure game I played was Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DS, pretty good, worth £5-£10 if you already have a DS. I still need to pick up the sequel at some point.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Sn00py
3D is nice, like Syberia, Dreamfall and TLJ (...)

TLJ was not 3D, it was all in a 2D world (but the graphics was made in 3D yes)
And I wouldn't even consider Dreamfall an adventure game, the game contains more action elements than it contains puzzle elements. But then it's not an action game either as there's not enough action elements in it to be called an action game...

[DrSpike]

Thief is not an adventure game. Nor is Psychonauts or BG&E.

[FrostyBoy]

Adagio, you're right that TLJ is not 3D, but what I was saying is that if you use 3D models to make your backgrounds, then it lowers the value of it, I prefer hand drawn/painted, it has more depth.

Well that's how I feel about it anyway.

and yes, I agree that Dreamfall was too action based, made it boring.

[Adrian Hon]

The Longest Journey is great. While uneven at times, I thought the story and characters were very well done, and it really was very funny. Dreamfall, on the other hand, was slightly disappointing; I'm glad I bought and played it, but the story was nowhere near as compelling, and the gameplay was frequently irritating. I played them practically back-to-back, and even though Dreamfall's graphics were far superior, I found myself turned off by them due to the whole uncanny valley effect (kissing in Dreamfall... ew...)

Syberia was a nice game, but I thought a little too cold (ha ha) and soulless. I wasn't tempted to buy the sequel - it seemed like more of the same, and I wasn't that interested in the mystery.

Phoenix Wright is *fantastic*. This is a game that could've literally been made 20 years ago and yet is still one of the best games I've played in the last few years. It just goes to show how valuable good writing can be in a game like this. I often think that the developers could earn a lot of money by releasing Phoenix Wright eps over the internet, downloaded to the DS or done via Flash.

I've ordered The Last Express, which is arriving soon - I've heard good things about it...

[Kloreep]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Thief is not an adventure game. Nor is Psychonauts or BG&E.

By strict definitons, yes.

Haven't played Psychonauts. I have played Beyond Good & Evil, and while it comes close in certain places, it's much more in the mold of Zelda than in the classic Sierra or LucasArts games - very action oriented.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Adrian Hon

Phoenix Wright is *fantastic*. This is a game that could've literally been made 20 years ago and yet is still one of the best games I've played in the last few years. It just goes to show how valuable good writing can be in a game like this. I often think that the developers could earn a lot of money by releasing Phoenix Wright eps over the internet, downloaded to the DS or done via Flash.

Nice to see another PR fan here.

I've just started Justice For All, I read they didn't include any unique touch screen elements like print dusting, blood spotting etc in this one, which is a shame, it's one of the things I liked from the first game.

[self biased]

one of my favorites was the ancient 'quest for glory' (originally hero's quest) series. i just wish they'd gotten around to updating the second one from the text based interface.

that and space quest, though i didn't play SQ6. it's sad that the genre had something resembling a severe stroke in the late ninties.

[Kloreep]

Originally posted by self biased
[i]one of my favorites was the ancient 'quest for glory' (originally hero's quest) series.

Originally posted by self biased
i just wish they'd gotten around to updating the second one from the text based interface.

I hope you have http://www.agdinteractive.com/ bookmarked. If not, you should.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Hueij

If you like Still Life (too many machine puzzles for my taste) you should try Post Mortem. The protagonist is Gus McPherson, Still Lifes' Victoria's grandfather. Paris in the 1920's.

sounds interesting, I'll see if I can find it somewhere

[self biased]

i do now, kloreep.