Opinions on the BEST/WORST adventure games

[kim_roberts_uk]

I am currently at University and I am going to make a point and click adventure game for one of my units. I’m currently in the process of creating the concept art and wanted to collect opinions on adventure games to help me in my project. Feel free to go into as much detail as possible! The more the better!

What is your favourite point and click adventure game? Why?
Which game do you think has the most appealing artwork? Why?
Which game do you dislike the artwork of the most? Why?
Are there any point and click adventure games where you get very lost into the world created? Why do you think this happened?
Which game do you think had the most impressive scenery/environments? Why?
Who is your favourite point and click adventure game character? Why?
Which character do you dislike the most? Why?
Which character do you think is most “stylish”? Why?
What are you dying to see in a point and click game? Why?

Thank you very much to those who contribute, I really appreciate it

[Jinx1337]

1. Full Throttle (for the hard boiled, balls to the walls atmosphere), Curse of Monkey Island (for that warm and fuzzy feeling I get when I play it), The Dig (for that hollywood sci-fi epic you get when you play it), Grim Fandango (Casablanca influenced noir love tale).

2. Curse of Monkey Island - hand-drawn, beautiful 2D; it's simply stunning, heart-warming and pretty. No 3d objects allowed, they simply ruin the mood.

3. Flight of the Amazon Queen - felt... I don't know... uninspired.

4. Every single one I've mentioned in paragraph 1, also - Freddy Pharkas and Larry 7. Reason? Very 'clear' artistic directions ("let's go for a hard-boiled atmosphere", "let's go for epic sci-fi", "let's do a noir tale of love in the land of dead stylised on Mexican folklore" etc.), amazing music and graphics that go with it.

5. COMI, Larry 7, Full Throttle, The Dig, Grim Fandango, I have no mouth and I must scream. Think I already explained it in 1) and 4). Oh, and Grim Fandango's chapter 1 and 2. Too bad latter chapters disappointed a bit.

6. Guybrush Threepwood and Larry Laffer - they make me laugh - but my thanks go to genius scriptwriters from LA. For the record, I hate TellTale S&M and MI. These game lack the charm/wit of the originals - rely too much on slapstick humor. To me, the feel nothing like their former Lucas Arts parts. Crappy, "whacky acting" whereas older games took their influence from movies (Grim Fandango?).

I don't want wacky humour, I want clever and witty humour. For adults. Not for "both kids and adults", I want Al Lowe dialogues.

7. Don't think there is one I'd dislike.

8. Manny Calavera. Humphrey Bogart turned into a Mexican "Day of the Dead" puppet-skeleton? Yup.

9. Return to the 2D-ONLY graphics, good and well-defined artistic directions, cleverness and wit of the dialogues/storyline.

[Jinx1337]

Oh, and if there's one thing I could add is that I absolutely despise when an adventure game allows you to screw-up without telling you so.

Dying is ok (as long as you can load the game) but wasting objects which leads you to a dead-end is a bad, bad thing.

Take Legend of Kyrandia as an example, the game delibrately tells you that you're hungry, you eat the apple you find - BLAM! - you can't finish the game.

Hate that.

Hope I helped.

[kim_roberts_uk]

Jinx you are a legend! Thanks for your help

[bobdevis]

I'm not going to answer your list, because frankly I have no strong opinion on most questions.
I would want to add some more "mortal game design sins" to Jinx's comment though.

- Allow you to save a game when the game is unwinnable.
Like Jinx said.

- Allow the player to lose track of what it is he needs to do.
In Simon the Sorcerer 2, characters you talk to won't repeat them selfs. If you forgot what it was the 3 witches want from you, you basically have to reload an older save game to be able to talk to them again.

- Too many options.
If you have too many inventory items, too many places to go and too many world objects to interact with all at once in a puzzle-adventure game, the fun is lost very fast. You get hopelessly lost.

- Not rewarding an the almost-correct solution.
If you get the same generic "That doesn't work" comment on everything except the exactly right action, the game becomes very frustrating. If you are on the right track but are doing some detail wrong you should get a hint that you ARE in fact on the right track.
"Good idea, but not just yet"
"I may be on to something here"
"I can't just pick that up with my bare hands"
"I can't just shoot him. There must be a better way to make him let me though"
These kind of comments help the player a great deal and add to the fun.

[KuroShiro]

What is your favourite point and click adventure game? Why?

Almost impossible to answer with one game. If I had to give just one though, I would say either Gabriel Knight 1, or Grim Fandango. The former has probably the best writing, characterization, and atmosphere of any game, maybe ever. The latter is just awesome, and stylish, and hilarious. Aside from the clunky interface, Grim Fandango was the ultimate evolution of the adventure game genre before they largely died out.

Which game do you think has the most appealing artwork? Why?

I always loved the art in King's Quest 5 for some reason. I don't think it was really the best of the era, but for some reason the style really worked for me.

Which game do you dislike the artwork of the most? Why?

There aren't many professionally released games that I found to have gfx that actually detracted from the gameplay. That said, the 3d graphics in Gabriel Knight 3 were pretty horrendous. I also never really liked the graphics in the SAGA games. They seem stuck between pixel art and higher res painting. It's best to choose a solid graphics style and stick to it.

Are there any point and click adventure games where you get very lost into the world created? Why do you think this happened?

Only Gabriel Knight 1 and 2. Can't say any other adventure games have ever drawn me in that much.

Which game do you think had the most impressive scenery/environments? Why?

Pretty similar to the graphics questions. I guess if you're talking about just scenery, I would agree with The Dig, also King's Quest 6 had some pretty spectacular environments.

Who is your favourite point and click adventure game character? Why?

#1 Gabriel Knight. Best written, best developed. If you can't tell I love those games. #2 Guybrush Threepwood (of the first two games). I loved him back when he was wry and witty rather than slapsticky (i.e. when Ron Gilbert stopped writing him).

Which character do you dislike the most? Why?

Cedrick the Owl. F*ck that guy.

Which character do you think is most “stylish”? Why?

Yeah, Manny Calavera. No argument there. Not from a graphics design standpoint. From a graphics design standpoint, all the stuff from Day of the Tentacle.

What are you dying to see in a point and click game? Why?

Good writing in adventure games. This is painfully rare, and was even in the old days. Only do 3d if you have the budget. Avoid excessive backtracking and wandering around blind. Concise game design -- i.e. focused and not aiming to do too many things at once.

That's about all. Hope it helps in some way.

[Nikioko]

What is your favourite point and click adventure game? Why?

Definetely The Longest Journey. It is a beautiful game with a nice and long story, characters with believable backgrounds and for 1999 standards nice graphics.

Which game do you think has the most appealing artwork? Why?

Lately I liked the artwork of The Whispered World. Nicely drawn artistic 2D backgrounds I haven't seen for long. Not as nice as 3D graphics, though, but a high artistic standard. I also liked the artwork of Syberia.

Which game do you dislike the artwork of the most? Why?

Do I actually have to have played the game? There are games that are an obvious cruelty to mankind, such as Dr. Khotabich which I never played and will never play. Apart from that, from what I really played, Drascula was very poor. But that applies not only to the artwork, but also to the rest of the game.

Are there any point and click adventure games where you get very lost into the world created? Why do you think this happened?

Well, quite sometimes. This happened in games with a high degree of immersion. That definetely applies to TLJ, of course, but I also liked the Victorian Age London in The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes 2. Other really beautiful games were Discworld Noir and The Book of Unwritten Tales.

Which game do you think had the most impressive scenery/environments? Why?

I liked the Labyrinth of Crete and Atlantis in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. And I also liked Stark and Arcadia in TLJ. And, of course, the Autumn Forest in The Whispered World is really nice.

Who is your favourite point and click adventure game character? Why?

Gee, that's a hard one. Probably Archibald in Runaway 2 or Stan in Monkey Island. They are very odd characters which make me laugh all the time.

Which character do you dislike the most? Why?

Tricky. I guess, I really hated Martin Holan in Nibiru. For a protagonist, he was just boring.

Which character do you think is most “stylish”? Why?

Most stylish. In some kind of Fashion definetely George Stobbart. But I also liked Guybrushs outfit in Monkey Island 2. Oh, and Lewton in Discworld Noir, of course.

What are you dying to see in a point and click game? Why?

Back to the roots: good old non-time-critical inventory puzzles within a realtime 3D rendered game with a nice story and beautiful screens. Or short: a real successor to TLJ, since Dreamfall had too much action. Or another Lost File of Sherlock Holmes which continues the story of the Tattoo Rose.