Are today's Adventure Games any different from the 90's Adventure Games?

[Robert Perrett]

Hi Everyone,

It's been a long time since I posted on this newsgroup. Are today's Adventure Games any different from the Adventure Games in the Nineties? I have looked at reviews on Adventure Gamers about new Adventure Games. It appears to me that Adventure Games are no different today than they were 20 years ago. It's look like L.A Noire is well worth to buy. With L.A Noire, is the puzzle design different from the old Sierra and LucasArts?

Robert

[Andrew Plotkin]

Here, Robert Perrett <rtpe...@gmail.com> wrote:

> It's been a long time since I posted on this newsgroup. Are today's
> Adventure Games any different from the Adventure Games in the
> Nineties?

Not if you restrict your definition of "adventure games" to "games
that work just like games did twenty years ago".

There are strong retro niches for games that use exactly the same
forms as in the 90s. (I, myself, am currently working on a game in
exactly the same form as the stuff I played in the 80s.) There's
nothing wrong with that, of course -- if you make a game that people
want to play, you win.

On the other hand, there are games that take old forms and build the
next generation of whatever it is they're doing. _Dear Esther_ is
_Myst_, except it's taking a storytelling approach to environment and
pacing that's completely unlike _Myst_. _Botanicula_ (which I just
finished) is a flash casual point-and-click from the 00s -- I don't
recall much like it from the 90s -- except it's scaled up to a
full-length story. _Echo Bazaar_ is a CYOA text game, except it's been
rebuilt with RPG mechanics underlying the text narrative. _FRACT_ is
some kind of musical universe thing, I don't even know what, I haven't
been able to get the demo to run.

And so on.

--Z

--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*

[noman]

Hi and welcome back. You have resurfaced at a good time. Bunch of
adventure games are about to come out via Kickstarter funding, which
include Jane Jensen's Moebius, a Tex Murphy sequel, Tim Schafer and Ron
Gilbert's classic adventure, a game by space quest creators etc. Then
there are indie developers like Wadjeteye
(http://www.wadjeteyegames.com) whose last few adventure titles (Gemini
Rue, Resonance) have been more than decent. An then there are still few
occasional adventure games coming through the traditional
publisher-based channels.

Regarding LA Noire specifically, it's a good game. It somewhat resembles
the old Police Quest titles (especially Police Quest 3). You collect
clues and suspect names, and then question other people about them.
There's even an equivalent to pixel hunting in there. Graphics wise, it
has the best facial animation I have ever seen in a game.
--
Noman