The image and the title may not have much in common, except for the genre and that both were among the first adventure games I played and they might be one of the reasons why I got hooked. The title is actually one of the many ways you can die in the old MacVenture-game Shadowgate. The version I played was the NES port, which was in color, had great music and doesn’t have a limited inventory. They had to change the interface a bit as you don’t have access to a mouse while playing it on the NES, and at times it’s a bit inconvenient , but most of the time it works just fine. Another thing with that version is that it was translated to Swedish, which is my native language. The problem with the translation is that they misspelled some of the words, and they’re quite common too. But as mentioned earlier, I think it’s a great game and it got me to appreciate adventure games, even though you can be stuck for weeks just because you didn’t think of the one far-fetched solution that one of the developers thought about when he tried to figure out how to be as mean and unforgiving as possible.
The picture above is from another great game. Simon the Sorcerer. The first two games are great and Simon the Sorcerer 2 was the first point-and-click adventure I played. It’s not my favorite series in the genre but I still think you should check it out if you want two good adventure games. I’m not too fond of the later games in the series, mostly because of the 3D-graphics. Point-and-click-games should be in 2D, if you ask me at least. Another great series that you probably heard of is Monkey Island. And it’s the same thing there. The 3D games are inferior to the 2D games. Although the fifth game of the series, Tales of Monkey Island were pretty good. Mostly because the controls were a lot better than part four; Escape from Monkey Island. Just to add some more recommendations, try the first three games, the special editions of the first two are also great, especially the second game. Other good SCUMM-games from LucasArts are Sam n’ Max: Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, The Dig and LOOM.
But not all 3D games are bad. As I mentioned earlier, Tales of Monkey Island is worth playing, and so is Escape from Monkey Island if you can stand the awkward controls. But the best of those games might be Grim Fandango, which is also made by LucasArts. It’s a lot different in theme and story, and the controls are as awkward as they are in EMI, but it’s still worth a shot if you want a great Adventure Game.
I tend to prefer the SCUMM-games from LucasArts over the SCI-games from Sierra. The Sierra games (like King’s Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry) got some great games, but the thing I don’t like is that you can die if you make a small misstake. Sure it makes the games more challenging, but it can also be a bit tedious to replay large portions of the game just because you forgot to save. Good game to try are Space Quest 4 & 5 and King’s Quest 6. I haven’t played all of them but those are the ones I enjoyed the most of the ones I’ve played.
A newer game that I still haven’t beat, too many games to play and too little time, is Machinarium. The graphics are great and the puzzles are challenging enough. It shouldn’t be that expensive if you manage to find it, I got it from one of the Indie game bundles from humblebundle.com a while ago. I might do some more recommendations later as there are way more good adventure games and I think my next post about this might be about two games inspired by a world created by one of my favorite authors, Terry Pratchett.