Top Ten Adventure Games

IGN ran this article recently, with some popular choices and a few odd ones. A few absolute classics missing too.

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/781/781665p1.html

The list is a joke...

Wot, no Broken Sword?!

Hello.

I'm surprised that discworld 2 wasn't present as that was a corker.

Also odd that no text adventures were present. No Zork, Hitch-hikers, or level 9 games, etc. Wierd. Oh, wait, they needed you to type so hardly surprising.

Goodbye.

yeah I already posted about this on indygamer.blogspot. Basically there's missing stuff like Beneath a Steel Sky, The Dig, Indy and the Fate of Atlantis, Full throttle etc.

Just out of the stomach, in no specific order and i only thought of graphical adventures: The Dig, Broken Sword I, Monkey Island I, Zak Mc Kracken, The Day of Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Indy and the Fate of Atlantis, Simon the Sorcerer I, Beneath a Steel Sky, Sam&Max II.

Yup, the list is a stinker. My own would go something like this:

1) Quest for Glory II
2) Monkey Island II
3) Quest for Glory III
4) Day of the Tentacle
5) Quest for Glory
6) Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
7) Dreamfall
8) The Hobbit (spectrum version)
9) King's Quest VI
10 Curse of Monkey Island

I've never liked the Broken Sword series, and other obvious candidates (such as the Discworld, Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, or Myst series', or any flavour of Sam'n'Max) seemed pretty poor too. Modern adventure games either take themselves too seriously, are badly translated (because the bulk of new adventures come from non-English speaking countries these days), or full of painfully unfunny jokes. I guess I'm pretty picky about adventure games - it remains my favourite game genre though.

"Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis" should be on that list. And the good old Apple ][ games "The Mask Of The Sun" and "Transylvania". How about "Fahrenheit 451"?

Or the Nick Bounty games by Pinheadgames.com.

And if text adventures would be included, the list should be lead by Infocom's "Trinity", followed by "The Lurking Horror" (also Infocom).

Citing old text adventures is a no-no - this is a top ten of point-and-click graphic adventures, people. ;)

I did used to love playing the old text adventures, though. In fact, composing a top ten of them would be even harder, for me. There were so many great ones, and a load more great ones that a never got around to playing.

Just wondering which of those dislikes put you off Broken Sword? For me, none of them apply to the Broken Sword games. :)

I'd agree with JustLuke's list, except I would swap Kings Quest with Sam n Max (the original 'Hit the Road' - the latest offerings don't quite cut it).

I thought Broken Sword was a shallow, characterless attempt at an adventure game.

Its also not a list of the Top Ten Best its just a list of the Top Ten Piont and clicks they have the most to say about

I'd have to agree that the two biggest standout missing games on the list are Indy and the Fate of Atlantis and DreamFall ( why they chose the inferior prequel, I'll never know. )

I'm also pretty unclear why Kings Quest V and Leisure Suit Larry were picked from Sierra's collection when they could have had Gabriel Knight ( 1 or 3 ) or one of the better Space Quest games. Police Quest 2 was a pleasant surprise though, as I've always rated that very highly. I'd have to agree that any of the first three Broken Sword games would be at home in a top ten.

But hey, at least they got Monkey Island 2 and Day of the Tentacle in there. Few could argue with those.

And Grim Fandando is really good. (I preffered MI2)

Is Sanitarium a point and click? Not really...

Oh yeah and what about Star Trek: A Final Unity.

I'm going with Taumel's list for now.

Shadowgate was pants... Shivers should be on there instead :)

I found shadowgate on the Amiga quite interesting (but too hard) as a Kid, but it's not so hot now.

More or less, yes. A different perspective than normal ( isometric really ) but it played like a point and click adventure in most respects. I never played it until very recently. Pretty good.

My list:

1) BloodNet

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Maybe they should change the page title of "Top 10 Tuesday: Greatest Graphic Adventures", then?

Anyway, my point was that it definately doesn't include text adventures.

Myst and Riven were the best (adventure) games I've ever played on PC. Of course they were also novel at the time, "Oh! A game on a CD-ROM?" Honestly though, Riven still has some of the best modeling and subtle environment based story telling ever.

But of course the best game ever is HalfLife 2.

Gabriel: I downloaded it a while ago when people were talking about it on the forum but still haven't played it!

Blueapples, it's not often that I disagree with absolutely every statement that a person makes in his or her post, but I do with yours. My opinions regarding Myst, Riven and even Half Life are almost exactly the opposite of yours.

It's like you're some sort of spooky anti-luke.

It's like you're the Moriary to my Holmes; the Lore to my Data; the Saruman to my Gandalf; the Captain Hook to my Peter Pan; the, er, Zod to my Kal-El.

*shudder*

I enjoyed the first Myst when it first came out - a lot of that had to do with the novelty value, though. I'd probably throw-up if I went back and played it now. :P

I guess it depends what you're looking for in an adventure game. If you are attracted by puzzles and ambiance then stuff like Myst and Riven will appeal. On the other hand, if you like plot, story, characterisation and dialogue then stuff like Monkey Island II or Quest for Glory will seem more appealing. The latter qualities are most important to me.

Has anyone noticed that the baddie from Myst III: Exile is the doctor in the Deadwood TV series?

I liked broken sword 3 and farenheit better than all the games on their list.

What if you want to be a cyborg vampire?

@just luke... no.8 cool.

I haven't played many, but it should have Zork1.

It might have Zork 1 if Zork 1 was a point-and-click graphic adventure game, which is what this is a list of.

But apart from that...

For some reason I can't see the list but one of my favourites was "Loom".

Ok... Here's the list:
1. Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
2. Myst
3. Police Quest II: The Vengeance
4. Shadowgate
5. Sam & Max Hit the Road
6. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
7. King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder
8. Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle
9. The Longest Journey
10. Grim Fandango

Except that the numbers are back to front.

Just today I ordered Grim Fandango off Amazon - thought it was about time I played it... hopefully it'll still stand up against recent titles.

BladeRunner, BioForge and Beneath a steel sky aren't in there?!

Yeah, I've got Grim Fandango but didn't get too far with it. I might dust it off again.....

Drat... someone just had to mention Sanitarium and now I am playing it all over again. Fantastic adventure BTW.

And IGN should have named it 10 best graphical adventures. As it stands now and without the grand daddy of them all - The Colossal Cave - the list just does not feel right.

Barney

Yeah, but there is a big difference between a game being significant and influential and being one of the best games in its genre. I'd argue that The Colossal Cave fits into the former category rather than the latter one.

Think I'm going to have to search out Grim Fandango - been meaning to give it a bash for years, now. Wonder if it's still available cheap in shops?!

[edit]Hmm. Having just read about the control mechanism I'm having second thoughts - it sounds horrible. Not a point-and-click at all.

Yeah I played Grim when it came out, neat game, weird atmosphere, tricky puzzles.

Rob Farley: Bioforge was great, played that on my DOS PC yonks ago. But it has combat and stuff in so not sure it's really a point and click adventure at all.

Beneath a Steel Sky should be on there too

Grim Fandango is brilliant. It's one of the few adventures I've played over a few times. Based on that I'd have to put Monkey Island 1 and 2, and Day of the Tentacle up there too. Loom was great, but far too short.

I never liked Myst type games.

Fate of Atlantis should've been on there. There's also too many Sierra games. If I had to put one of their games on there it'd be Kings Quest III. If they must have a Larry game, make it Larry III.

Throw in Sam and Max and Broken Sword 1 or 2. Add in a Simon the Sorceror game to give people something to complain about.

If there's any room left, add in all the LucasArts games I forgot about (ie. Zak McKraken, Full Throttle, Maniac Mansion) except for the Dig and Escape from Monkey Island.

Re-installed Grim, actually progressed to the point where we needed to use the red and blue balloons.... Last time didn't manage to find the lift to the left of the 'normal' lift.... Nice atmosphere.

I've only played one on that list, Myst. Of the handful of point-and-click adventures I've played, Myst was the one I stopped playing the fastest.

Yeah the list is shite, leisure suit larry 1 was pap! you couldnt even see yourself getting dirty (big black censored box)

While its totally down to personal taste, i mine would be:

1) All things Ultima (every one was excellent for its day, underworlds included)
2) Monkey Island 1,2 AND 3 (IT WAS THAT DAMN MUSIC!!!)
3) Most of the forgotten realms games (inc. neverwinter nights and baulders gate)
4) Day of the tentacle
5) Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
6) Space quests
7) Most other lucasarts games ive actually played)
9) Kings quests
8) Silent hill
10) The legacy

Wow! You really must like that Indiana Jones game. :P

LOL - Ahem. fixed it

I'm always surprised that some people really vote a Sierra adventure under a top ten list. In my opinion they were all a lot worse than any LucasArts product.

I've never played a Sierra game, personally. Don't think I have, anyway.

But, comming from a speccy and playing spacequest, kingsquest and policequest, in glorious b&W CGA monocrome on my dads 'work' computer was something of a treat.

Sentimental i guess

CGA was prolly better in B&W. The colour palettes were horrendous! :)

I've played around 350 of those and it's hard to chose the favorites... But any list of pretty much any list of the greatest -whatever- games ever sucks...
Adventure gamers also tend to favor different things - some like character development, some like inventory puzzles (that's me!), other like puzzles of more logical type...
But regarding that list, I always thought that the Longest Journey was a pile of sh!t, in the whole Police Quest series only 1st one (in its ega incarnation) and the 3rd one were worthy, Kings Quest never attracted me, Myst was the most boring game ever and Sam & Max is my least favorite adventure game of all time...
Concerning something like Leasure Suit Larry - it's a tough one as I have all six installed on my laptop right now and it certainly played a big part in my adventure gaming and I love it to death I really can't see how it fits in the greatest games... I mean t would be on my PERSONAL top, but as an adventure game it's pretty average... Same with Day of the Tentacle which is my favorite adventure of all time...

It's looks pretty good and is tons of fun, but unfortunately it also has many, many bugs -- I'm actually in the middle of replaying it right now, and I've run into several dead-ends that required me to go back to older savegames.

(one of many examples: you get across the pyramid, notice the mummy, and steal the ring it is wearing. too bad that the dwarf hadn't told you at that point that she's looking for jewelry, and that part of the story line won't get triggered. Because of that it also won't allow you to go to one of the other cities, which means you're dead in the water -- restore. when I played it the first time I ran into a couple of dead ends like that, but it has at least happened half a dozen times to me now on the replay, which can be extremely frustrating)

As far as their top 10 list is concerned: The most glaring ommision in my mind is Monkey Island 3.

Monkey Island 3 is quite good, but most adventure gaming purists don't acknowledge it because Ron Gilbert wasn't involved.

Was Monkey Island 3 the 3D one? I've got that but gave up with it because it just kept crashing all the time. Rubbish.

Nope, Monkey Island 4 was the 3D one. Monkey Island 3 was the 2d cartoony one. Well, this one :

Oh - don't think I've played that one. How did I miss this?! :/

Be happy then!

Yep, you had the choice between 320x240 4 color from 3 palettes, either:

palette 0 magenta cyan white black
palette 1 red green yellow black
palette 2 red cyan white black (tended to be machine specific, otherwise it would use palette 0)

OR

16 shade dithered hash monocrome @ 640x240
Which was the prefered option for sierra games because if you stood far away enough from the screen it looked very 'good' in fact ive got a lot of respect for those artists who could make a scene from such crap limits :)

Yep. Horrible! :)

I played all the monkey islands including one on the PS2.