The Rise, Fall and Rise of Adventure Games

[Callate]

Sorry to nitpick, but while I love Sam and Max Hit the Road I don't think you can honestly describe one game as "a classic 90s adventure game franchise." Though I am glad Telltale has done such remarkable things with the fellows in the new millenium.

Good adventure games are in some ways like good comedy: the best of it is always jogging along right next to the player, neither running ahead and congratulating itself on how smart it is compared to the feeble intellect of the audience nor walking behind aiming for the lowest common denominator. In both comedy and adventure games, it's the "Oh, I see where you're going with this now- Ha!" payoff that makes it worth the following. It's not the easiest beam to walk, and I'll grant that Telltale (and LucasArts and Sierra before them) have made great strides in making it easier.

 

[swenson]

*puts on elitist hat*

Pshhh. Monkey Island? You call that an adventure game? The heathen creation has graphics! No true adventure game would ever stoop to such lows.

*takes off elitist hat*

Yes, I'm an old-school Zork/ADVENT/LGoP/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan, why do you ask?

 

[Carra]

I used to love games like Monkey Island and the broken sword series. But the golden area ended with Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey.

A few other good adventure games came after. The Runaway series and the new Broken Sword games come to mind.

But these days telltale games are indeed great value for their money. I bought the entire package in a steam deal for ?50. So far I've played the first two Sam & Max seasons. Well worth anyones time and I still have the Monkey Island games to go through.

I would also like to mention that the adventure genre never died. THe genre remained popular in Germany where a dozen adventure games are still being made each year. The quality does vary quite a bit of course.

 

[Zanaxal]

Well monkey island and sam and max are hardly the only great Adventure games out there.

They are more selling on the nostalgia sence of people then anything.

The genres always been around in some way or form so it never died, just something the popular Games media dreamed up imo.

The greatest Adventure game in history according to score reviews seems to be The Longest Journey. All i really know it's massive and has alot of funny dialogue.

Culpa Innata is a game i recently picked up and its just a treat of a adventure game. It's on steam.

 

[Towels]

You could solve that puzzle by just knowing the plots of the plays. You didn't need to know that Kurosawa's Throne of blood was based on MacBeth. I would hardly call Kurosawa an obscure part of Japaneses pop culture.

My bad, I apologize for calling it obscure pop culture. I did not remember what play was quoted, really, and I didn't realize it was by Kurosawa. I would have debated that not many Americans like the main character would know about Kurosawa, but now I realize that's just an excuse for ignorance.

My point should have been that the puzzle was about a British playwright, in an American setting, involving a Japanese clue (according to the offical strategy guide). That's quite a mouthful of culture there, and at first it didn't seem to relavent to Heather. But after giving it more thought, I can see how a grizzly tale of usurpation could be related to her.

And if you really didn't require knowledge of Kurosawa, then I guess my example isn't very good anyways. Thanks for the info.

 

[rabidkanid]

Sam and Max Season One and the first few episodes of Season Two were still pretty annoying since they either didn't have a hint system or when they did and Max was giving you the hint, they made NO sense whatsoever since they were coming from "Max". Also, some of the puzzles were so convoluted (specifically that one with the moai heads and the fountain of youth) even when Max was giving what was supposed to be a hint it made absolutely no sense what you were supposed to do. The newest Sam and Max I've played (never completed it, I was playing it at a friends place on his Wii) was that Vampire one from Season 2 and Telltale had VASTLY improved the hint system. Either that or they stopped making overly convoluted puzzles.

I had to use a guide to complete the very last puzzle from Season One since I had no idea what I was supposed to do and the actual solution made no logical sense. Since this was the culmination of everything in the game, it made the credits sequence and the final resolution mean absolutely nothing to me and watching it made me feel sick.