I have to say that, undisputably, most of my favourite games are adventures. I wasn't really a gamer when the graphic adventure genre flourished(you know, Lucas Arts&Sierra era), but I have bought and played many old classic adventures(they come with great price deals!), and I can't get enough of them. So it's really sad for me that the genre is, if not dead, at least dreadfully stale. That isn't to say there aren't any good new adventures around(say, Machinarium), but there's no comparison to the age where adventures where *the* most prominent PC game genre.

All that is understandable, as the "hardcore gamers" of today are mostly teenagers, who prefer frags than solving puzzles, and people of older age prefer casual games(if those assertions are wrong, I'd appreciate a correction).

So, I was wondering if the genre is ever going to make a strong comeback, and what would be needed in order for that to happen. As much as I love them, I don't think, if it'll ever come back, it'll be in the form of the 'point and click' ones. So, various alterations that can boost the genre would be:


1) So, first and foremost, different control mechanism. What could that be? I have very few ideas here...maybe hand gesture recognition, with special contollers a-la Wii, where you don't just "click" on an object, but you operate on it any way you want. Penumbra did something like this, but it was kind of akward doing it with the mouse cursor.

2) Less rigid puzzles: Instead of "you have to do exactly this and that to proceed or else you stuck looking at the screen for hours trying to figure it out", have some kind of structure that always retains a certain flow: There is no "you either solve it or you don't", but only actions that have certain impacts: Different actions, different impacts and of course different path for the storyline.

3) More interesting dialogues: Have you played Facade? It had lots of flaws, but it seems like a start. But obviously young people, and especially console owners, won't play a game that requires typing to save their life, so what's the alternatives? Speech regognition maybe? I have to say I never felt fully comfortable with the idea.

4) Multiplayer: A multiplayer adventure, is that even possible? Note, it would have to be very different from MMORPGS...most of the 'quests' of those can't be part in any decent adventure game, not in my mind anyway.

5) Episodic content, but quite different from it's present form, more closely to a TV show...Imagine a Lost adventure game for instance, where you gather a team and each one assume the control of one specific character, controlling him during the entirety of the "show"(of course, you can probably have multiple accounts, so be part of several different games at once). One of the many problems I see on this is that, for it to work it would need the players to be quite dedicated...they would need to somehow "finish" the current episode before the next one goes live. Of course there is a no-brainer solution, that the players just purchase the new episodes whenever they want, but that just destroys the notion of having the whole game community rougly on the same page.

So, your opinions and ideas about this? Can we ever have a return of the adventure genre? If no, why? If yes, how?

1) The Nintendo Wii, and now the PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Kinect, definitely allow for a new generation of interaction. Instead of just point and click, our body's physical positions can now affect gameplay. But how do we make the best of this in an adventure game? It feels like our bodies are just becoming more sophisticated pointing devices. Whether we pick up an object by clicking on it or by swinging our various controller batons at it in some sort of scooping motion, aren't we achieving the same result?

2) Less rigid puzzles doesn't strike me as a path towards resurrecting the adventure genre. We have this kind of model already in RPGs with story branching. However, at the end of the day, even branching is still linear; the same outcomes will always happen. I do agree, though, with the sentiment about how the entire adventure can draw to a complete standstill just because you didn't notice some small pixelated feature on the screen the first hundred times you looked for it. Definitely don't like those moments very much.

4) Multiplayer adventures would be interesting, with cooperative and competitive-based puzzles. Maybe something along the lines of Sherlock Holmes, with a lead detective and a sidekick. I'd definitely play that.

One category I would add to the list would be in regards to the passage of time. Every adventure game I've played has always allowed me to sit and think for as long as I want on a puzzle. Introducing a time element to that puzzle, or incorporating one-time events that occur on specific days, could liven the adventure a little. For example, the protagonist's goldfish (and the entire story along with it) will meet an untimely end in one hour unless you accomplish so many tasks before then.

Quote: Original post by Omega147
One category I would add to the list would be in regards to the passage of time. Every adventure game I've played has always allowed me to sit and think for as long as I want on a puzzle. Introducing a time element to that puzzle, or incorporating one-time events that occur on specific days, could liven the adventure a little. For example, the protagonist's goldfish (and the entire story along with it) will meet an untimely end in one hour unless you accomplish so many tasks before then.

You might like The Last Express then. It's an adventure game that works in real time.

As for resurrecting the adventure genre, I don't feel that it's really possible. The thing is, it became the popular genre back then because they were the games that demonstrated the latest and greatest graphics.

Also, a misconception is that the genre died. Until Myst came along, while the genre was really popular on the PC, you need to recognize that the audience was around the same size as it is today. Rather than the genre losing fans, it's more like every other genre on the PC gained fans, making the other genres more profitable.

Really, if you're talking about they hey day of the adventure genre, that was around the end of 1993 through 1995, when Myst became the number one selling game on the PC (although it was released earlier on the Mac, it's popularity came from the PC). But, it was more like a fad, as while it helped increase the PC gaming population significantly, they quickly went onto other games such as Quake, etc.

As mentioned, it comes down to the audience. I feel personally before the PC became popular (and I'm probably wrong), and a must own for every house, it was mainly for business and education uses, and the gaming audience was what you might consider more intellectual than the PC gaming audience today. There will always be an audience for adventure games, it's just that I doubt it will be the dominating audience it was in the past.

What about the adventure games Telltale has been producing? Sam and Max, for example.

There was no internet. This means it was hard to find solutions and walkthroughs. There were hint books (printed) one could purchase.

Today - 7 walkthroughs on the day of release as top hits on Google.

One could choose to ignore them, but it's simply not how it works anymore. Whenever an average person is confronted with slightly more difficult challenge, they'll Google it.

The gamer goals also changed in general. It's all about achievements, regardless of cost. There's guides on best games to gather achievement points on XBL, Zynga and MMOs are all about achivements and optimizing the gameplay.

Considering that full adventure walkthrough with a guide takes ~1-2 hours, that's a poor fit. And increasing this would mean that legit gameplay would be way too long.

It's dead Jim.

If anything, adventure genre has been absorbed into MMOs, with quest chains and such. Unfortunately, the difficulty level there is negligible. But if looking for a viable ressurection of the genre, it would need to be presented in such form, where story is part of larger world, along with multi-player aspect.

Titles like Mass Effect also have many adventuresque elements, just presented differently. That would be another possible way. While mostly FPS or TPS, emphasizing on interactive storytelling with puzzle solving.

I really hope so :(

theres quite a few point and click adventures on DS

japanese developer Cing made the best ones, before going bankrupt :(

The adventure genre has already been resurrected. Where were you the last few years? Can't go five minutes without Telltale announcing yet another franchise.

Or maybe you just didn't notice because - surprise - it wasn't really a big deal. A few old-school gamers were happy and a few new people gave them a shot. If you're holding onto some pipe dream of adventure games dominating the market like in days of old then that's insane.

The gaming industry is too big and diverse for a "comeback"; no one genre is ever going to be the focus of the industry ever again. The flip side is that since it's so big and diverse there has been a place for new adventure games for a while now. Again, where have you been? Sam and Max? Monkey Island? Penny Arcade? Strongbad? Deathspank? I don't even play these games and it takes all of two seconds to think up a bunch. Head into the indie and flash market and you can find a bajillion more.

Quote: Original post by LockePick
The adventure genre has already been resurrected. Where were you the last few years? Can't go five minutes without Telltale announcing yet another franchise.

Or maybe you just didn't notice because - surprise - it wasn't really a big deal. A few old-school gamers were happy and a few new people gave them a shot. If you're holding onto some pipe dream of adventure games dominating the market like in days of old then that's insane.

The gaming industry is too big and diverse for a "comeback"; no one genre is ever going to be the focus of the industry ever again. The flip side is that since it's so big and diverse there has been a place for new adventure games for a while now. Again, where have you been? Sam and Max? Monkey Island? Penny Arcade? Strongbad? Deathspank? I don't even play these games and it takes all of two seconds to think up a bunch. Head into the indie and flash market and you can find a bajillion more.

Whoa there buddy, relax :) I did write just that in my first post, didn't I?

Quote:
That isn't to say there aren't any good new adventures around(say, Machinarium), but there's no comparison to the age where adventures where *the* most prominent PC game genre.

My point is that those releases are sporadic. To put it simply, there isn't really an adventure game "community", if you will. Just as you said it, some old-school gamers mostly. You mention a single company(Telltale) producing adventures like that's a proof or the 'resurrection' of the genre...doesn't it seem like a proof of the opposite actually? Anyway, I was not referring to the adventure genre "coming back" in its old form, obviously. I was wondering if the genre could again gain a sigificant portion of the 'pie', not using old formulas, but simply retaining its core: That is, importance of story/dialogues and characters and use of logical thinking.

Quote: Original post by mikeman
To put it simply, there isn't really an adventure game "community", if you will.

There is. You're just not part of it.

Quote: Original post by mikeman
Anyway, I was not referring to the adventure genre "coming back" in its old form, obviously. I was wondering if the genre could again gain a sigificant portion of the 'pie', not using old formulas, but simply retaining its core: That is, importance of story/dialogues and characters and use of logical thinking.

Nope.

Adventure games are actually a pretty "hardcore" genre. The growth of the gamer pie has been due to massive expansion on the "casual" end and continued tapping of the "plenty of spare time" demographic (FPS junkies). The casual market is getting even more casual, with less narrative emphasis and more focus on "pure" puzzling - everything from Bejeweled to Diner Dash to Plants vs Zombies to Wii Sports Resort. Adventure games are imperfectly aligned with overall trends in either mainstream or hardcore sub-markets, and as such will likely remain respectable also-rans.

Did anyone mention Professor Layton?