Adventure Games making a comeback?
What do people think? It seems like the true "adventure" games from back in the day started to split out to other genres like the action-adventure (Tomb Raider) or the RPG field and I feel like straight adventure games sort of went dormant for a while.
It seems like these days these more straightforward "adventure" games with exploration and point/click interfaces are seeing a bit of resurgence. From their arrival on sites like Steam and GOG to multiple fan projects releasing games lately to new commercial products coming into play it certainly appears that they're gaining some popularity again.
This forum alone appears to be growing faster than any other Telltale forum ever has. And this is before there's even a single screenshot or shread of story to speculate on.
It seems like these days these more straightforward "adventure" games with exploration and point/click interfaces are seeing a bit of resurgence. From their arrival on sites like Steam and GOG to multiple fan projects releasing games lately to new commercial products coming into play it certainly appears that they're gaining some popularity again.
This forum alone appears to be growing faster than any other Telltale forum ever has. And this is before there's even a single screenshot or shread of story to speculate on.
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AKA, they're close minded and don't want to do anything differently than how it was done in 1990. Which doesn't work in 2011.
I think this is the greatest danger.
I also don't think, MI, that the genre is locked completely, and it cannot take elements from other genres. I think it actually can, and should, but making sure it's still an adventure game, and making sure it's not overdone. I can see Heavy Rain style sequences working greatly in some Sierra Adventures (And it would have done a lot of good to them), as long as they didn't base the whole game on it.
QfG is another example of a weird marriage between RPG and Adventure. It may be just because it's disguised with a Sierra interface, but to me, that game has always been an adventure with heavy RPG elements to it.
In the same way, other genres just take a few concepts from adventure game but the game still feels like an action game --I've always found the concept of "action-adventure" a little ridiculous because moving a few blocks to solve a simple puzzle doesn't really make it anything adventure like.
I just think the few experiments out there hasn't been done in the right way. Or maybe it's too expensive to experiment in these games. I for one loved working in the action sequence of TSL EP3 and I think it was very well received. As long as you don't overdo it, there is room for these kind of things.
It's true that action-adventures (I'm not going to put quotes around it -- Lara, Indy, Prince of Persia FTW!
I've also had fun with some of the physics-puzzlers or platform-puzzlers that seem to be real popular. Where do they fit in?
It seems that so many genres are taking gameplay elements from other genres, pretty soon there aren't going to be any clear-cut distinctions among any of them. I don't think that's a bad thing at all -- I enjoy many genres and hybrids, and I can't ever see myself saying, Gee I wish I could play a pure shooter that didn't have any pesky RPG or strategy elements. Yet I still crave the pleasure I get from a traditional pure-adventure adventure game.
I agree with you Cez! Adventure gaming hit its all time low in the early 2000s. I think we're doing better than we were then.
It might also depend on if one considers Telltale games as true "adventures" or not?
On the other hand, gotta plug "The Whispered World" once again. Loved that game.
For the same reason they did it back in the 90s. They can make much more money with the SW-crap.
Where the genre certainly can stand to improve is graphics. Adventure gamers love to sit on their high horses and proclaim that "story and characters" (and a smaller subset add "puzzles") are the only important aspects of the genre. Graphics can be 5-20 (literally) years behind the times in commercial games because that stuff just isn't important to us cultured adventure game players. Those "pimply-faced joystick jockeys" (a phrase literally used by Just Adventure) who just like to "run around shooting things" can have their modern graphics - we'll stick with our intelligent stories and characters with 1991-2005 graphics thank you very much.
(For the purposes of this post I will ignore the fact that stories and characters are no longer limited to adventure games, and will not question the questionable assumption that "strong", linear, entirely developer-planned stories are what games should strive for.)
So as for the mainstream. I would not consider Heavy Rain an adventure game. It's close in many ways though - if you removed the QTE's and anything involving reflexes and beefed up the investigator aspects, would the sales drop through the floor? I doubt it. And there you'd have a pure adventure game selling like gangbusters.
Take the Leisure Suit Larry license and make a "pure" adventure out of it using 3D Heavy Rain quality graphics (presumably with a stylized/cartoony spin) and that thing is going to sell through the roof, mainstream and all.
Graphics in adventure games are an inconvenient truth, and I've been wanting to write more about the history of graphics and their role in the genre's initial success for a while now.
Yep.
Some fans go even so far, that they think upgrading graphical style or gameplay is a sin towards the genre, while they ingnore the fact, that all companies that did adventure games back in the day evolved with the tech.
I know what you mean about the Just Adventure crowd, but please do not confuse those who oppose innovation in adventure games with those who oppose turning adventure games into interactive movies. They are two very different views.
I'm all for upgrading gameplay -- where do I sign? I will not, however, support gameplay downgrades.
You guys are poking at straw men, though, because I haven't really seen many posts here that have taken a hard line against innovation in adventure games.
Agreed - I'm all for innovation, all against interactive movies.
Yeah, there is a huge difference between "upgrading" and "dumbing down," "oversimplifying," "removing all challenge," etc. Telltale has been consistently doing the latter, and we don't want to see it happen to King's Quest. It's as simple as that.
I'm surprised by the number of people who are sometimes near-angry about the fact that adventure games are no longer in the old school pixel format.
Haha good one!
Go to hell.
He already is in hell since he is on this forum with you.
Some people want things to be exactly they were in 1990. They have this delusion that if Sierra was still around making adventure games, they'd be doing things the same way as they did in 1990.
The fact is, Interactive Movies and simpler puzzles (ala TT's games and Heavy Rain) are the future of the adventure genre.
He's right. You're being completely and unfairly exaggerative.
Anyway, the point of the topic. Adventures making a comeback? Heavy Rain being the future? I hope it doesn't stay that way. I always considered it a sign of things to come. That it would improve. Things always need to improve. I enjoyed Heavy Rain but I would love a Heavy Rain style game with wider areas and an inventory system, for instance. That would be a nice expansion. What we need is people (other than just Telltale, and no that's not a jab) to really think about new ways to innovate the adventure medium. New groups that really focus on the adventure genre and how to better it.
Isn't Pinball like Pong?
Pinball is an mechanical game with steel balls and flashy lights!
Pinball was based on old Bagatelle game from 1700s! No flashy lights
And there I was thinking Pinnbal was a game where you try to score points by shooting a ball away from a place you need to defend.