No one plays adventure games anymore?

[jthwilliams]

^ this, basically. Does anyone other than Telltale actually make them any more?

by adventure do you mean the "point and click" monkey island variety?

just like "platformers" they arnt exactally the most popular genre

Two rather ignorant comments, which was always to be expected given the negligible coverage of this type of game on The Escapist.

I remember the Sherlock Holmes series, but they are bad enough to warrant obscurity.

So True! I'm not sure weather to like adventure works because they've been one of the few publishers dedicated to creating adventure games for the past decade or hate them becaue in a genre that depends on good story, they have managed to release so many really really bad ones.

^ this, basically. Does anyone other than Telltale actually make them any more?

by adventure do you mean the "point and click" monkey island variety?

just like "platformers" they arnt exactally the most popular genre

Two rather ignorant comments, which was always to be expected given the negligible coverage of this type of game on The Escapist.

When people have these "adventure game" discussions, they almost invariably are referring to point and click games, rather than Uncharted or Tomb Raider.

That is because the central game play for both tomb raider and uncharted or combat and/or platforming. They have story in them, but that isn't the central driving factor. Neither of these are adventure games, they are both action games. This gets confusing because action games are often combined with adventure games in the action/adventure catagory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action-adventure_game

But if you spend a significant part of gameplay trying to shoot things, or trying to jump from one platform to another, you are not playing and adventure game. Though you may be playing an action game with adventure game elements.

Action Games - are about hand eye coordination and performing physical tasks, (jumping, shooting, aming, etc)

Adventure Games - are about intelectual play, puzzel solving, problem solving, dialog

Action Adventure - combines elements of both but tends to be more heavily towards central play of action.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Darkness Within 2 has been defined as a first person point and click on every site I've visited so far.

So, according to you, every game that uses a mouse must be a "point and click" game. Because all FPS, RPG, simulation, racing car and action game that uses a mouse requires you to point it and click it.

 

[BreakfastMan]

And yes, TellTale have been onf of the only traditional point and click series popular enough to garner significant attention.

Telltale haven't put out any point and click games for many years. Their last one was probably Sam & Max about 5 years ago.

WHy do you say most fall under the radar? They don't get articles on The Escapist, (which is the point of this whole thread) but they still sell a lot (especially in Germany) and are popular enough to still get dozens of releases out every year, presumably without financial loss.

Ah, there is your problem. Most Escapists don't live in Germany. Most Escapists live in America, or Canada, or the U.K., so it is very doubtful we enjoy or often play a genre that is popular in Germany. I live in the US and have a pretty extensive knowledge of games, and even I still had to look up 2/3rds of the games on that list you posted a while back (BTW, if you have to fill out a list with Telltale episodes, you are reaching). The genre has just died in popularity on this side of the Atlantic.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

I remember the Sherlock Holmes series, but they are bad enough to warrant obscurity.

So True! I'm not sure weather to like adventure works because they've been one of the few publishers dedicated to creating adventure games for the past decade or hate them becaue in a genre that depends on good story, they have managed to release so many really really bad ones.

Which Sherlock Holmes games do you mean? Because the Frogwares ones were some of the best adventure games I've played - Silver Earring, The Awakened and vs Arsene Lupin especially.

 

[maninahat]

It's funny how you complain about that people don't understand adventure games yet you're unable to provide a definition for it yourself. Give us the list of 1 adventure game released for each month of 2011 since you claim there are so many.

I gave a definition on the last page: A story based game in which you play as a protagonist, with progress based on success in solving puzzles, and with little or no reflex-based actions required from the player.

2011 adventure game releases
Jan: Carol Reed: Blue Madonna
Feb: Stacking
Mar: Aspectus: Rinascimento Chronicles
Apr: The Next Big Thing
May: Last Half of Darkness: Society of the Serpent Moon
June: A New Beginning
Jul: Back To The Future: Episode 5
Aug: Hector Badge of Carnage: Episode 2
Sep: Relics
Oct: Book of Unwritten Tales
Nov: Jurassic Park: The Game
Dec: Dark Star: The Interactive Movie

Interestingly, I've only ever seen a couple of those games advertised anywhere. And don't start saying something about the Escapist ignoring them - these games, if they are really as popular as you seem to be suggesting, should be able to put an ad somewhere. But I haven't seen them advertised here, or on rock paper shotgun, or on shack news. Basically, these games don't get release coverage because even the gaming press are unaware as to them - if they do not advertise their games, how are the us plebs supposed to know about them?

 

[jthwilliams]

I remember the Sherlock Holmes series, but they are bad enough to warrant obscurity.

So True! I'm not sure weather to like adventure works because they've been one of the few publishers dedicated to creating adventure games for the past decade or hate them becaue in a genre that depends on good story, they have managed to release so many really really bad ones.

Which Sherlock Holmes games do you mean? Because the Frogwares ones were some of the best adventure games I've played - Silver Earring, The Awakened and vs Arsene Lupin especially.

honestly, I can't remember since I played like two and gave up on them. I found the dialog to be badly voiced and the story to be unconvining. It just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It may be that I just had a bad experience, but I hadn't tried any of the more recent ones.

 

[maninahat]

I remember the Sherlock Holmes series, but they are bad enough to warrant obscurity.

So True! I'm not sure weather to like adventure works because they've been one of the few publishers dedicated to creating adventure games for the past decade or hate them becaue in a genre that depends on good story, they have managed to release so many really really bad ones.

Which Sherlock Holmes games do you mean? Because the Frogwares ones were some of the best adventure games I've played - Silver Earring, The Awakened and vs Arsene Lupin especially.

I thought they were lousy. I remember in the demo of the Arsene Lupin game. Within a minute, I figured out that Arsene Lupin was hiding in a conspicuously over-sized box by the front door of the national art gallery. Holmes however, would simply say (on seeing the box) "that is an unusually large box, I wonder what it is doing here?" Not a good start when the greatest detective in the world is slower witted than even myself. No, I had to mess around with a damn sliding tile puzzle instead. Not much to do with deductive reasoning, I find. Better than those terrible quizzes they had in previous Sherlock Holmes games though. I kind of liked the forensic style approach in Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper because that felt more like what Holmes would really be doing. Shame that the cut scenes show the murder and make Holmes subsequent discoveries a tad redundant.

 

[Felstaff]

I have a tendency to classify 'adventure games' with games that require lateral and abstract thinking in order to progress, rather than hand-eye coordination, digit-dexterity, and fast reactions. Cerebral, rather than visceral. The kind of game that you don't need to pause if you were to step away from your screen.

Also; that the protagonist goes on an adventure.

I'm currently playing City of Secrets on iOS, which is a harmless and humorous (and cheap!) Tim Schaefer/Sam & Maxesque game with nifty graphics. Alongside Amanita Design, iOS/Android has re-opened the point 'n' click/Tap Adventure genre, as you can get your Broken Monkey Myst fix (and to a lesser extent, Flashback, which requires Gamin' Skills) and lots of indie studios can develop this style of Adventure! in their own basements with minimum budgets.

 

[jthwilliams]

point and click is a distinction from text-based both of which could be considered sub-genres of the adventure genre, but .... action/adventure is a hybred used by lazy reviewers who decided there weren't enough adventure games anymore to give them their own catagory. That might not be fair, but it is a hybred not a sub genre.

If combat or reflex based gameplay is a central part of the game, it simply isn't an adventure game.

Here before you tell me I wrong:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_adventure_game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action-adventure_game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_based_adventure_game

What's funny here is the wiki page for "Action-Adventure" denotes this:
"The first known game in this genre is the Atari 2600 game Adventure (1979)"

So, the origins were to bulk up the genre with more titles, and has been a mainstay for 31 years, but this is not enough for action-adventure to be considered in the adventure category!?

Get over yourself sir.

The page goes on to further explain the action-adventrue is a hybrid genre and further has a large section on the difference.

I also want to point out that I didn't say a game was better than the other or that action games players or adventure game players were X, Y, or Z.

I'm very sorry that you have taken exception to me pointing out that there is a difference between action, action/adventure and adventure games and providing links that show that information. Please believe me it was not meant to be a slight against anyone.

My only statement here was like the OP, I really good adventure game when it comes out and I find that is rare that someone publishes one. Further that saying well adventure games evolved into action/adventure is both incorrect and somewhat insulting to people who like adventure games as it suggests that action/adventure games are better.

Again, I'm sorry to have anoyed you. I do recommend that if you are interested in the topic of adventure vs. action adventure that you continue to read the links I provided as there is some quite interesting informaion beyong the first paragraph.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

I remember the Sherlock Holmes series, but they are bad enough to warrant obscurity.

So True! I'm not sure weather to like adventure works because they've been one of the few publishers dedicated to creating adventure games for the past decade or hate them becaue in a genre that depends on good story, they have managed to release so many really really bad ones.

Which Sherlock Holmes games do you mean? Because the Frogwares ones were some of the best adventure games I've played - Silver Earring, The Awakened and vs Arsene Lupin especially.

I thought they were lousy. I remember in the demo of the Arsene Lupin game. Within a minute, I figured out that Arsene Lupin was hiding in a conspicuously over-sized box by the front door of the national art gallery. Holmes however, would simply say (on seeing the box) "that is an unusually large box, I wonder what it is doing here?" Not a good start when the greatest detective in the world is slower witted than even myself. No, I had to mess around with a damn sliding tile puzzle instead. Not much to do with deductive reasoning, I find. Better than those terrible quizzes they had in previous Sherlock Holmes games though. I kind of liked the forensic style approach in Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper because that felt more like what Holmes would really be doing. Shame that the cut scenes show the murder and make Holmes subsequent discoveries a tad redundant.

I must not have played the demo because that scene wasn't in the full game (thank god). And no sliders either. I think it's safe to say they upped the difficulty significantly, because that is one very tough game.

I disliked the quizzes too, forgot about those. The next game, Testament of Sherlock Holmes looks like a significant makeover of the series so I'm hoping it's for the better.

 

[Yopaz]

It's funny how you complain about that people don't understand adventure games yet you're unable to provide a definition for it yourself. Give us the list of 1 adventure game released for each month of 2011 since you claim there are so many.

I gave a definition on the last page: A story based game in which you play as a protagonist, with progress based on success in solving puzzles, and with little or no reflex-based actions required from the player.

2011 adventure game releases
Jan: Carol Reed: Blue Madonna
Feb: Stacking
Mar: Aspectus: Rinascimento Chronicles
Apr: The Next Big Thing
May: Last Half of Darkness: Society of the Serpent Moon
June: A New Beginning
Jul: Back To The Future: Episode 5
Aug: Hector Badge of Carnage: Episode 2
Sep: Relics
Oct: Book of Unwritten Tales
Nov: Jurassic Park: The Game
Dec: Dark Star: The Interactive Movie

Using that definition visual novels that you have dismissed are adventure games. Also Portal 2 could also be classified as an adventure game since it contains few puzzles where you need to use reflexes.
Amnesia The Dark Descent is also an adventure game seeing there is no combat and the whole thing is about solving puzzles and hiding.

Now that I have a list of adventure games and a proper definition I am able to voice my hypothesis for the decline in popularity and ammount of games.
The titles you mentioned have not been marketed a whole lot, I have only noticed a few of them before this so they have managed to slip completely under my radar. Same thing happened to the newest Tony Hawk game. No-one heard about it before it was announced to be the worst selling Tony Hawk game ever. Duke Nukem Forever is hardly a good game, yet everyone has at least heard about it.
Adventure games also don't have a lot of replay value since when you have solved the puzzles once and experienced the story once there's little new the game can throw at you.

Edit: there's also the Ace Attorney games and Professor Layton games.

 

[maninahat]

I remember the Sherlock Holmes series, but they are bad enough to warrant obscurity.

So True! I'm not sure weather to like adventure works because they've been one of the few publishers dedicated to creating adventure games for the past decade or hate them becaue in a genre that depends on good story, they have managed to release so many really really bad ones.

Which Sherlock Holmes games do you mean? Because the Frogwares ones were some of the best adventure games I've played - Silver Earring, The Awakened and vs Arsene Lupin especially.

I thought they were lousy. I remember in the demo of the Arsene Lupin game. Within a minute, I figured out that Arsene Lupin was hiding in a conspicuously over-sized box by the front door of the national art gallery. Holmes however, would simply say (on seeing the box) "that is an unusually large box, I wonder what it is doing here?" Not a good start when the greatest detective in the world is slower witted than even myself. No, I had to mess around with a damn sliding tile puzzle instead. Not much to do with deductive reasoning, I find. Better than those terrible quizzes they had in previous Sherlock Holmes games though. I kind of liked the forensic style approach in Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper because that felt more like what Holmes would really be doing. Shame that the cut scenes show the murder and make Holmes subsequent discoveries a tad redundant.

I must not have played the demo because that scene wasn't in the full game (thank god). And no sliders either. I think it's safe to say they upped the difficulty significantly, because that is one very tough game.

I disliked the quizzes too, forgot about those. The next game, Testament of Sherlock Holmes looks like a significant makeover of the series so I'm hoping it's for the better.

In fairness to the games, they have been gettin progressively better, both in terms of production value and puzzles. Subsequently, I think the public interest in them has increased with each game too. Here is hoping the next one does well.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

It's funny how you complain about that people don't understand adventure games yet you're unable to provide a definition for it yourself. Give us the list of 1 adventure game released for each month of 2011 since you claim there are so many.

I gave a definition on the last page: A story based game in which you play as a protagonist, with progress based on success in solving puzzles, and with little or no reflex-based actions required from the player.

2011 adventure game releases
Jan: Carol Reed: Blue Madonna
Feb: Stacking
Mar: Aspectus: Rinascimento Chronicles
Apr: The Next Big Thing
May: Last Half of Darkness: Society of the Serpent Moon
June: A New Beginning
Jul: Back To The Future: Episode 5
Aug: Hector Badge of Carnage: Episode 2
Sep: Relics
Oct: Book of Unwritten Tales
Nov: Jurassic Park: The Game
Dec: Dark Star: The Interactive Movie

Using that definition visual novels that you have dismissed are adventure games. Also Portal 2 could also be classified as an adventure game since it contains few puzzles where you need to use reflexes.
Amnesia The Dark Descent is also an adventure game seeing there is no combat and the whole thing is about solving puzzles and hiding.

I agree!

Now that I have a list of adventure games and a proper definition I am able to voice my hypothesis for the decline in popularity and ammount of games.
The titles you mentioned have not been marketed a whole lot, I have only noticed a few of them before this so they have managed to slip completely under my radar. Same thing happened to the newest Tony Hawk game. No-one heard about it before it was announced to be the worst selling Tony Hawk game ever. Duke Nukem Forever is hardly a good game, yet everyone has at least heard about it.
Adventure games also don't have a lot of replay value since when you have solved the puzzles once and experienced the story once there's little new the game can throw at you.

Edit: there's also the Ace Attorney games and Professor Layton games.

Again, I agree! But we have to look at why they aren't discussed on sites like The Escapist. Look at a game like Hard Reset - an indie FPS which was reviewed by dozens of generalist websites and Zero Punctuation even reviewed it, despite it having zero advertising. The Escapist could easily have drawn some attention to Gray Matter, Black Mirror 3 or Book of Unwritten Tales this year. So is it that The Escapist doesn't mention them because it doesn't think they're popular enough?

 

[NiPah]

As you said 2 decades ago they were what everyone was playing, technology progressed and adventure games were left to die. They may sell well in small limited releases, but the gaming public has no interest in them, just a small crowd of retro fans and apparently Germans.

You're better off looking for interest from websites catering to that genre, the Escapist reflects the general gaming public which has no interest in the genre.

 

[DeltaEdge]

So, by your definition, what is an "adventure game"? You said you could name some.

If we knew what was covered in that genre, maybe we'd talk about it?

Not trying to be a smartarse here, just trying to understand your viewpoint.

I would say having a character-based story, with progress based on success in solving puzzles, and little or no reflex-based actions required from the player.

So Myst, Longest Journey, Syberia, Monkey Island, Sam & Max, Broken Sword, Gabriel Knight, Ceville, Jack Keane, Drawn etc.

I think the reason why adventure games apparently aren't popular anymore is because people like action in their games. I personally don't think what you described sounds very fun(Not saying that it isn't though, just IMO). The only game I remember playing that fit that description was Professor Layton and the curios village. And I didn't enjoy really the game much, except for the story. The story was exceptional, but the gameplay, didn't really much feel like gameplay at all. Also, I found that some of the puzzles were pretty difficult. I enjoyed this game though, and I, by no means, mean to say that this is a bad game, but rather, that it is somewhat lacking in game part of the game. I think that it was more popular back in the day when games were a bit simpler and you couldn't really do much with them, except increase the amount of monsters that fly at you simultaneously, or change the objective away from monsters. But now, games are capable of much more complicated actions, and frankly, I wouldn't really care to play a pure adventure game, when I can play an action-adventure game or an rpg or jrpg. The reason games like COD and Halo and GOW are so popular is because people like intense action, and since pure adventure games don't deliver action without becoming action-adventure, most people have no intent of buying them. I think Professor Layton games are the only pure adventure games, that I will ever bother with. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though, as I feel I didn't communicate my point as clearly as I could have. EDIT: I, and most people on this forum didn't even know what constitutes an adventure game. How can we buy it, if we don't even know what it is?

 

[jan david Obciana]

i do not play adventures anymore, most games invented are Simulations and time management.

 

[scyther250]

The Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright games sound like what you're looking for. People still play such games.

 

[Haz88]

Strangely, just like economy simulations (like Settlers, Anno, The Patrician and such), the genre is rather popular in germany.

There are at least two companies that almost exclusively make their money producing a number of adventure series (Deck 13 Interactive and Daedalic) - sadly, most of those are only available in german.

I have a couple friends who are really into board games, and they talk about "games for germans" or german style where players can't attack each other directly, making the games more about resource management. For some reason that really gels well with german designers. Go find Reiner Knizia for some great examples.

OT: It seems you are looking for puzzle games or just non-combat story based games really. I think the reason those aren't popular is because some of the older ones just weren't any fun, single threads of impenetrable designer logic making them just short of impossible to complete.
I liked Stacking well enough, especially that there were more than one solution to all the puzzles making it more fluent to drive the story forward, but making the argument that a game like that should be able to compete with Crysis 2 on a level playing field is a bit unreasonable. I can't talk about how my experience with the Nancy Drew series was unique when discussing with mates, because it wasn't. The solutions always remain the same, which just isn't true with RPGs or shooters, or even racers.
Go check out Gemini Rue for a great but short adventure with a cool story, but really... Single thread logic just isn't fun.

 

[Yopaz]

It's funny how you complain about that people don't understand adventure games yet you're unable to provide a definition for it yourself. Give us the list of 1 adventure game released for each month of 2011 since you claim there are so many.

I gave a definition on the last page: A story based game in which you play as a protagonist, with progress based on success in solving puzzles, and with little or no reflex-based actions required from the player.

2011 adventure game releases
Jan: Carol Reed: Blue Madonna
Feb: Stacking
Mar: Aspectus: Rinascimento Chronicles
Apr: The Next Big Thing
May: Last Half of Darkness: Society of the Serpent Moon
June: A New Beginning
Jul: Back To The Future: Episode 5
Aug: Hector Badge of Carnage: Episode 2
Sep: Relics
Oct: Book of Unwritten Tales
Nov: Jurassic Park: The Game
Dec: Dark Star: The Interactive Movie

Using that definition visual novels that you have dismissed are adventure games. Also Portal 2 could also be classified as an adventure game since it contains few puzzles where you need to use reflexes.
Amnesia The Dark Descent is also an adventure game seeing there is no combat and the whole thing is about solving puzzles and hiding.

I agree!

Now that I have a list of adventure games and a proper definition I am able to voice my hypothesis for the decline in popularity and ammount of games.
The titles you mentioned have not been marketed a whole lot, I have only noticed a few of them before this so they have managed to slip completely under my radar. Same thing happened to the newest Tony Hawk game. No-one heard about it before it was announced to be the worst selling Tony Hawk game ever. Duke Nukem Forever is hardly a good game, yet everyone has at least heard about it.
Adventure games also don't have a lot of replay value since when you have solved the puzzles once and experienced the story once there's little new the game can throw at you.

Edit: there's also the Ace Attorney games and Professor Layton games.

Again, I agree! But we have to look at why they aren't discussed on sites like The Escapist. Look at a game like Hard Reset - an indie FPS which was reviewed by dozens of generalist websites and Zero Punctuation even reviewed it, despite it having zero advertising. The Escapist could easily have drawn some attention to Gray Matter, Black Mirror 3 or Book of Unwritten Tales this year. So is it that The Escapist doesn't mention them because it doesn't think they're popular enough?

Actually Hard Reset's release was quite visible for anyone using Steam. It was among the reel of games being advertised for quite a while and it got a news announcement about a week before its release. Back To The Future and Jurassic Park also got the news announcements and thus I have heard about those.

However you might be right when you say that they don't mention them because they don't think they're popular enough.

 

[jan david Obciana]

i do not play adventures anymore, most games invented are Simulations and time management.