Are there any Sierra games without dead ends?

Lotus Gramarye · Post by **Lotus Gramarye** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:03 pm

I'm curious as I want to play a Sierra game without having to save every five seconds or check a guide to make sure I didn't somehow screw myself over.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:30 pm

Except for KQ5, the dead ends that are there are hard to get anyway. But I don't believe KQ7 has dead ends. You'd be hard-pressed to get yourself permanently stuck in SQ5 as well. SQ6 has no dead ends. Ummmm....I can't think of any that I know for sure have none because I never run into them anyway.

Graxer · Post by **Graxer** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:07 pm

Ecoquest 1 and 2 have no dead ends either. Unless I am mistaken neither does Torin's Passage.

LogicDeLuxe · Post by **LogicDeLuxe** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:21 pm

Larry 5-7 don't have any dead ends, as far as I remember. And if you die, you are not forced to restore a savegame like in previous games either. You can just continue where you were.

I guess, other Sierra games of that period got the same user friendly treatment.

envisaged0ne · Post by **envisaged0ne** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 11:50 pm

While many of them have dead ends, you're missing out on a lot of great classics just because you don't want to save that often. Personally I think that's a silly reason not to play them.

balpat · Post by **balpat** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:07 am

Gabriel Knight 2 and 3 also don't have any dead ends.

Gabriel Knight 1 has one at the very end.

King's Quest VI has one or two real dead ends but you are usually warned before you are thrown into a location, where there is no exit (for now).

I don't remember any real dead ends for the Conquest games, right now.

In general, I don't think you have to save every five seconds. Just make sure you use different savegames and you'll be fine. Bein able to die actually adds (at least to me) another layer to the game - besides, most of these deaths are quite funny.

LogicDeLuxe · Post by **LogicDeLuxe** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:07 am

balpat wrote:Bein able to die actually adds (at least to me) another layer to the game - besides, most of these deaths are quite funny.

I agree on that.

Dying and dead ends are a completely different thing, though. It is no fun realizing that you missed something earlier in the game and there is no way to correct this other than restore a savegame (if you are lucky and they are not already all overwritten with unsolvable situations, which you didn't know at the time) and replay a huge part of the game. Larry 2 and 3 are full of such show stoppers.

md5 · Post by **md5** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 12:26 pm

It also depends on how each game handled deaths.

For example, the deaths in SQ1, while very funny, were awfully annoying as you had to restore (so you pretty much had to save all the time).

In LSL6 however, the game just allowed you to retry the same scene if you died. This still made the "death" very funny, albeit not frustrating at all. Lucasarts even made a joke out of these "sudden deaths" that Sierra put in its games (the infamous "rubber tree" joke in MI1)

bobdevis · Post by **bobdevis** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:00 pm

You can die in all Kirandia games, however in the 2nd and 3rd game you get a waring first if you are about to do something stupid.

The 1st game has a couple of show-stoppers that LogicDeLuxe described.

grim107 · Post by **grim107** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:41 pm

md5 wrote:Lucasarts even made a joke out of these "sudden deaths" that Sierra put in its games (the infamous "rubber tree" joke in MI1)

I was hoping someone would make mention of that

. Actually, the main reason I've never really played any Sierra games is because it's so easy to die or get stuck in an non-winnable situation. Just how many save games should I have? I'm used to saving LucasArts games after completing one or two puzzles, but I only typically create three save files, and mostly only save to one of them. Surely, this method wouldn't work for Sierra games. I don't want to create a save for every puzzle I've completed...

A bit off topic, but I remember playing the original "Alone in the Dark" with my brother a few years ago. We'd made it to the way end, got stuck in an non-winnable situation, and saved over all the games. It wasn't until the WAY END that they decided to throw something like that in the game! We had to watch the last five-ten minutes on YouTube.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:45 pm

It's not that easy.

LordHoto · Post by **LordHoto** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:15 pm

bobdevis wrote:You can die in all Kirandia games, however in the 2nd and 3rd game you get a waring first if you are about to do something stupid.

The 1st game has a couple of show-stoppers that LogicDeLuxe described.

You don't get any real warning before you die in kyra 2 nor kyra 3. The only thing kyra 3 offers is an extra restore before you died possibility after you died.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:37 pm

Just bite the bullet and play them. You'll find it's not as bad as you're fearing and you'll get enjoyment out of it if you're any kind of adventure fan at all.

envisaged0ne · Post by **envisaged0ne** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:55 pm

Exactly the point I was trying to make musicallyinspired. I think this whole thread is rediculous. Just play the games and enjoy them. Some can be frustrating, but that's the point of adventure games. Being clever and getting through them. No fun if they're to easy.

nathanel.mori · Post by **nathanel.mori** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:37 pm

I never minded dying in games. It's dead-ends (or non-winnable situations) that scare me. The notion of having to go back to an unknown point at the game, possibly the beginning, in order to solve something at the last level just makes me nauseous.

I recently started playing older Sierra games and loved them. However, I used walkthroughs way too many times, just because I wanted to make sure I didn't forget to pick up any objects that would turn out to be vital at the very end of the game.

I'm about to start KQ6, and for this gem I really don't want a walkthrough. Therefore, you'd be doing me a big favor if you just told me in advance about all the actions I mustn't forget so I wouldn't have to fear getting stuck in a dead-end. (I already heard someone mention something about a clown, an action that if not taken, the player regrets it much much much later)