Monkey Island is back, Sam & Max is back, King Quest is ALSO BACK!
In what may be a page taken out of the bag of tricks of Telltale Games. King Quest will release a new addition to the series with the first of a series of Episodes in July with "What Is Decreed Must Be". It was though with the dead of Sierra company and being bought by Activision would be like burying the game, but apparently throughout 2010 we will be receiving episodes of King Quest.
This is like reviving the rivalry between king quest, and monkey island. Which are the reigning adventure game champs of the 90's. Here is the news from Gameinformer.
This is like reviving the rivalry between king quest, and monkey island. Which are the reigning adventure game champs of the 90's. Here is the news from Gameinformer.
New King's Quest Not Dead, Coming In July
by Joe Juba on June 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM
After the sad news that Activision had killed Phoenix Online Studios' fan-made King's Quest sequel, it looked as though adventure fans would never see the royal family of Daventry again. Thankfully, Activision has apparently had a change of heart; The Silver Lining will be released as a series of free downloadable episodes.
The first episode, entitled "What Is Decreed Must Be," will release on July 10. The game's overall story features King Graham trying to save his children from a curse. Along the way, he'll visit familiar places from previous games (the Land of the Green Isles appears to figure prominently in the first episode), as well as meet some new characters.
Phoenix Online Studios hasn't specified the release dates for subsequent episodes in the series beyond claiming they will hit "throughout 2010." That's great news for King's Quest fans; we're glad Phoenix and Activision were able to work out their differences.
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Comments
The "revival" is slower than the resurrection process in Dungeons and Dragons. We are far from the hey-day again. Adventure games will be "back" when:
Basically, adventure games are now like Progressive Rock. They're disgusting, vile, different, liberal and only for those that can't afford the real stuff, but still bloody awesome (I really like prog and adventure games so this comment is biased).
Obviously I'm not saying we need frakking hand drawn Broken Sword masterpieces with cheap 2D graphics, we just need for that classic gameplay to preserved.
A Vampyre Story is the best example I can give you of a "perfect" "modern classic".
I'm sorry, it's the harsh reality. We are impossible far away from the return of the classic adventure era.
I await the deluge of "You're talking shit" comments.
Um... what does film grain effect have to do with PS3?
If you look up "meh" in a dictionary, there's a picture of AVS.
I honestly think they are ridiculous hard in parts and very unpractical and certain puzzles are way out of left field.
Tell me about it. How is any sane person supposed to cross the ocean in King's Quest V without being eaten by the sea serpent? Not a single clue is provided to navigate that damn ocean... And once you get to Mordack's castle, the damn serpent statues fry you because you didn't pick up a specific crystal in the ice capped mountains protected by a yeti you can only vanquish with a custard pie you get at the beginning of the game.
Still love the games though.
Thank you for that example. The games sound too old school, like back when games could take years to beat.
Not all adventure games are like the Sierra Kings Quest games... Lucasarts made some of the best adventure games, very few of them featured dead ends and stupid puzzles.
Monkey Island (ALL five, despite what some people will say) will always be their crowning achievement.
I grew up in the period. Back in the day when we were younger DOTT took us like 2-3 years.
We were younger...or something... Though, it's worth mentioning that other great games like STTNG didn't take us as long.
I really love Simon the Sorcerer, I know that's not LA, but I love that game, the art work, the music, the voice acting, the second game doesn't really live up to it but it's still good.
I still consider Day of the Tentacle a new game... I grew up with the original Maniac Mansion, and it's sister game, Zak McKrackin (sp?)
Monkey Island 2 had the monkey wrench puzzle, Grim Fandango had the sign post puzzle, etc.
That's why I think the adventure games are even better now than they were in the 90's. They stick to logic more, and when they get a little bit out there, there are hints. They don't try to punish the player anymore, which is something I never really liked. The stories were always great, but they were like interactive movies to me then since I mostly used walkthroughs or hint guides to get through them.
Fixed.
Also i remember back then when SOMI took me 5 yrs to finish, just because i didnt knew how else to buy the ship. That is until i started bugging a store keeper. Whats a kid to know about credits, buying ships etc? I somehow though i could reach the money with the grog machine or something else! Back then games where senseless.
About returning to the glory days of adventure games i really dont know, but i feel like adventure games are seen in the industry as something not profitable, and not attractive. TTG and some other companies are working on that. Lucas Arts turning its back on adventure games and giving up didnt help either since LA was considered a juggernaut of adventure genre and Sierra. Seeing em give up on adventure games must have left some bad stigma on the genre.
Hopefully this is a new era of making games, TTG is really doing a great thing introducing some like rules, to puzzlemaking and indirect hints.
What a surprise that they had hint books you could buy too...or a phone line you could call for help. :rolleyes:
G.byrne, I remember the PC when it could only play coloring games, PC monopoly version one.
I didn't grow up with maniac mansion, never had a copy, no one bought me one, we did play Hugo, Jungle of Doom. LOL
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
That picture cracks me up.... it looks like he is saying "Wheres my DINNER?!" and Graham is all "Whoa dude too far.... TOO FAR."
There has not been a truly top-quality, full-length original adventure game released since Grim Fandango, frankly (this does not count Telltale, as those are based on existing IPs). There have been plenty of good efforts, mostly by studios in Europe, but none of them are anywhere near the level of quality of the old Lucasarts games, or slightly later Sierra games.
That said, the situation is still a hell of a lot better than it was just a few years ago.
Nice! My immediate thought about that picture was, "this is definitely caption contest material". Not that I was fast enough to come up with a caption myself.
As for the revival of adventures games, well the genre certainly seems to be more successful than it has been in a long time! And the newer adventure games are helping to make the classics popular again. Seriously, the amount of people I've heard of who first discovered Monkey Island through that TOMI ad that kept popping up on the Wii for a few months! Adventure games aren't exactly the way they were twenty years ago, but I have no complaints really.
I largely agree with Joe's post ... I think Telltale are nearly there but they should be spending around 50-100% more time/budget developing their games. The new Sam & Max is groundbreaking but all the episodes have felt like they need a bit more work to make that level of gameplay and graphics truly work (and remove all those pesky bugs!)
Bill Tiller would be glad to hear someone thinks so.
I really think that is nostalgia talking right there.
What about Runaway, The Whispered World, The Book of Unwritten Tales, The longest Journey?
All games seem to have a VERY high place in the heart of adventure gamers.
The old LA and Sierra games where fun, but those games just weren't focused on storytelling and character development as much as today. And at least to me, this makes adventures so appealing to me.
I am not a sentimental or nostalgic person. I can see a quality game for what it is regardless of when it is released. I confess I haven't played The Longest Journey so you may have me there. Runaway (and its two sequels) were fun and all, but broke nothing resembling new ground. Would you honestly say that is as good as, say, Indy: FoA or KQ6? The Whispered World was massively overrated in my opinion -- a flat, frankly uninteresting game with pretty drawings and poor puzzle design. The Book of Unwritten Tales still hasn't been localized, so I can't really comment on that.
If you honestly think that games such as Gabriel Knight, Grim Fandango, KQ6, Beneath a Steel Sky, etc. were not focused on plot or character development then... I really don't know what to tell you. I could not disagree more vehemently.
Edit: let me explain myself a little better. I'm not trying to say that the adventure games that have been released recently are bad. They are not all bad. But when I think of a top-quality adventure game I think of a few things: great writing, interesting characters, solid plotting, and inspired puzzle design. To me, there has not been an adventure that I've played since Grim Fandango that combines all of these into one great game. Some have had aspects that they have done very well, but none that capture them all.
Except, you are talking shit. If you want adventure games to have same treatment at those at retail and by game journalists, you have to realize "other games" can be whole other genres. And likewise, some people don't like adventure games, and some of those people might be GAME JOURNALISTS.
To me, it sounds like you just want LucasArts, Sierra, etc. to just take the original copies of their games and ship them.
It had some problems, glitches but yeah...it was a good game. My brother and I who grew up with adventure games both enjoyed it.