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Europe (Germany in particular) is also a font of modern adventure gamers. Some popular ones: King Art: The Book of Unwritten Tales (and the semi-sequel The Critter Chronicles) The Raven I haven't played either of these, but I've heard great things especially about The Book of Unwritten Tales The Daedalic games: The Whispered World Deponia Chaos on Deponia Goodbye Deponia (coming later this month) Edna & Harvey Harvey's New Eyes And more Of these I've only played the Deponia games, which I loved, and The Whispered World, which I hated but met a lot of critical acclaim when it came out. Benoit Sokal made Syberia and Syberia 2 which were great and good respectively. I played his next game Paradise which was kind of a disaster and I haven't heard much good about anything else he's done, though I believe Syberia 3 is supposed to come out next year, and I'm hoping for a return to form. Also, I've been really enjoying the Blackwell games from Wadjet Eye as well. I really enjoy the DVD-style commentary they put on their games, excluding Gemini Rue's which was super dry and not very interesting compared to the rest. The game itself is great though. Brain dump over. Edit: Syberia 1/2 came out 11 and 9 years ago respectively, so i guess they don't really qualify as "Modern" anymore...
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Oct 4, 2013 04:12
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Anybody else here use the Universal Hint System back in the day? I found it back in the early 90s as a shareware DOS program, before I even knew about Adventure Games. I think I was looking for strategies for Dune 2, the game that proved to me I was terrible at strategy games and should never play them. Then I bought Full Throttle and got stuck as hell. My parents actually let me call the 1-900-STAR-WARS hint line once (at that god drat water tower) but I got stuck again later and found the Windows Version online. It was kind of perfect for me. I'm real quick to get frustrated when I get stuck on a puzzle and having subtle hints to point me in the right direction without having the whole puzzle spoiled was pretty much perfect for me. New game additions started slowing to a crawl in the late 2000s, to the point now that only a few games have been added since 2011, and most of them seem to be done by an obsessive Nancy Drew fan. It's really too bad, I could definitely use subtle hints for the Wadjet Eye games or the Deponia games instead of having to read a full walkthrough. Man, talk about a first world problem....
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Oct 4, 2013 19:50
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That loving Sned posted:I hate to admit it, but as much as I like the setting, characters, writing, and voice acting in many adventure games, I just can't stand actually playing them. Actually, some of the folks involved in the ScummVM released ResidualVM. It's to the point now that the game is fully playable with only minor graphical issues. Supposedly anyway, I haven't had a chance to play it yet. Would be interested in a trip report for anyone who has played it.
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Oct 7, 2013 23:37
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Tunahead posted:Many people think that, which is why I keep a certain Telltale forums thread in my bookmarks. Within the thread in question, Chuck Jordan, game designer and lunatic, states that they had the Soda Poppers as villains in Season 2 as an attempt to be edgy because they thought everyone loved them, and were surprised at the fan reactions. Sadly the Telltale forums have since migrated and there's 138 pages of Sam & Max threads and a terrible search function, so this is going to take a while. Stay tuned for links. I'm like, 95% sure he was joking.
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Oct 9, 2013 23:52
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Ave Azaria posted:Note that these puzzles are mostly minigame style, not typical adventure gaming. Stuff like sliding tiles and logic puzzles, etc. Still a cute game and some of the minigames are clever and unique. There are definitely a few mini-games in Machinarium, but to say that the puzzles are "mostly minigames" is not really accurate. There's the Arcade games and the unfortunate end-game one, which I didn't like and ruined the finale's pacing but wasn't so bad that it ruined the game overall. Were there others I'm forgetting? The game itself is great. I love Amanita's ability to tell surprisingly deep stories with essentially no dialogue. Hel posted:I bought Tales of Monkey Island based on some goon recommendations, and while I've only played a short while, it doesn't really seem that good. The humour seems a bit off from what the earlier MI games had and the interface is the worst I've ever seen in an adventure game, beating out EMI by a lot. Does any of that get better/change in later episodes? I think Episodes 3-5 are all great, and the interface is better once you get used to it. Be forewarned that I didn't hate the interface to begin with and I liked episodes 1 and 2, though they are definitely pretty flawed.
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Oct 11, 2013 22:05
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I see you're working on a new Kickstarter, hope I have some spare money next time, I'll definitely contribute. Also, I can't remember if it was this thread or the last one, but I remember a some people complaining (justifiably) about the bugs in Deponia and Deponia 2, and they just released an update on Steam and GOG (and maybe other platforms?) with bug and performance fixes and Spanish and Italian voice. I'm curious if I can finally complete the train puzzle in 1 or the boxing dummy puzzle in 2 now.
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Oct 12, 2013 02:01
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epmode posted:I hope Amanita tries that kind of game again. Samorost and Botanicula are charming but they're more like toys than adventure games. I believe their next game is going to be Samarost 3, which I saw described as a full length game like Machinarium. I'm really looking forward to that.
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Oct 12, 2013 02:31
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Tunahead posted:When Season 2 was in production, Chuck Jordan and some other Telltale dude were on the Telltale forums a lot, talking about the season and answering questions, etc. One specific word that came up over and over and over was "edgy". They wanted to make Season 2 edgy. That was basically their primary design goal, which already says basically everything you need to know about it. They killed Santa, for fucks sake! Did you think they did that because everyone hates Santa? I'm sure they did want to make Season 2 more "edgy". Season 1 was comparatively tame compared to Hit the Road or the original comics, so by being "edgier" they were actually being truer to the source material. I know the word "edgy" has rightfully gotten a bad connotation over the years due to people overusing and misusing it, so let's replace the word with "more outrageous", which I think qualifies for things like accidentally sending Santa to hell, killing your protagonists and having them come back as zombies for half an episode, having "alien abducters" actually be a time traveling mariachi band, and then making your most obnoxious characters the secret big bad for the whole season so you can gratuitously kill them in a gruesome and very final manner. And I'm still pretty sure Chuck Jordan was just trolling dude, which definitely seems like something one of the lead devs on a Sam & Max game would do. Edit: Though you're right about the Telltale Forums back in the day. They were (and maybe are still) awful. choobs fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Oct 12, 2013 |
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Oct 12, 2013 13:24
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macnbc posted:I don't have Richard and Alice but it looks interesting. Anyone play it? I played it earlier this year and I kind of hated it. For that price though I'd recommend trying it though. The thing about it is it supposed to be a "your choices have consequences" kind of game, but the way the consequences manifested themselves was only at the endgame and as far as I could tell, it was totally random. Essentially if you choose dialogue option A 5 minutes into the game, then you got Ending C with no apparent connection to the earlier choices. I only know about this because of the GOG forums where people were comparing their endings and the choices they made. It's entirely possible that the connections made some sense, but were just too subtle for me to pick up on in one playthrough, but the game is so relentlessly grim and dark that I couldn't bring myself to play through it again. Despite all that, I still would recommend it at such a cheap price. If nothing else it shows a lot of promise.
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Oct 18, 2013 16:49
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There's a teaser out for Samorost 3. It's not due until early 2015 at this point, and there's not too much to the video but I'm still excited: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoNjWEAHQZ0 Here's a little blurb about the game: "One day, the little space gnome will find strange flute (magical, of course) which fell down from the sky. With its help, he'll be able to build a new spaceship, explore five different planets and four moons, solve many mysteries and also find out where the flute came from."
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Oct 28, 2013 21:00
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Just saw this in the Amazon thread and thought I'd share: Metal Dead is on sale at Amazon for $1.25, DRM Free, until 11/30 Despite having no voice acting, this was one of my favorite old-school-style adventure games of the last few years. Every body should grab it and then go vote for the sequel on Steam Greenlight.
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Nov 21, 2013 23:01
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I've been playing the Blackwell games over the last few weeks and finally finished Deception. drat, what a great series of games. I can't wait for Epiphany. Deception was definitely the best in every aspect except visually. The backgrounds all looked good, but man the sprites were mediocre, worse even than the first game. I also really like the updated portraits in the new version that just came out. The originals were well made but the cartoony look didn't match the tone of the game that well. The screenshots for Epiphany don't indicate any similar issues. Dave Gilbert was estimating February/March on the Wadjet Eye boards back last month or so. Hopefully he's able to stick to it.
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Nov 25, 2013 04:21
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Octorok posted:That looks great, thanks! It looks like it was part of the Daedalic humble bundle that I picked up too, sweet. I'm pretty sure The Dark Eye that they were referring to was this one from 1995, not the one Daedalic put out a few years back.
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Dec 4, 2013 02:20
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I already mentioned in the GOG thread, but I really liked Still Life, but the sequel was so bad it retroactively ruined the first game.
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Dec 6, 2013 17:35
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Just finished Goodbye Deponia after replaying the whole series so I figured I'd just post some thoughts. I loved that Rufus was basically the archetypical Adventure Game Protagonist taken to the Nth degree. Constantly stealing things and screwing people over to help himself. He was just more blatant and unapologetic or clueless then you usually see. People often say the second game is the weakest and boy is that right. The puzzles seemed far more obnoxious and obtuse, not that the first and third didn't have plenty bizarre adventure-game-logicky puzzles, but they felt way less irritating and artificially difficult than in Chaos. They definitely ramped up the "inappropriate humor" in the third game, mostly successfully. I definitely laughed out loud at the creepy guy with the "petting zoo" and everything that happened with that, but the bit where you have to trick a black girl into acting like a monkey for an Organ grinder felt unnecessarily racist without being very clever. The subtle slavery joke that went with it didn't help either. I also really disliked that you lost two of the kids in the sewer and they implied that they were eaten or something otherwise horrible happened, and then you just abandoned the other one. Maybe its just the father in me, but that REALLY rubbed me the wrong way. I was hoping we'd run into them or find out they were OK at least. I like to think that when Rufus, Oppenbot and Goal landed on the burrito stand, it freed Goon from the mind control of the Burrito lady/whatever-she-was and he re-united with June, and they found the kid Rufus left and then went on an adventure finding the other kids while Rufus was up on the Highboat saving the world. I realize I am putting an unhealthy amount of thought into this... As for the ending it kind of bummed me out. Rufus was always an rear end in a top hat but I was still sad to see him go. By the way, what was the point of having Cletus dress up as Rufus for the council? It seemed like they made it pretty clear that Goal knew Rufus had sacrificed himself.
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Jan 26, 2014 22:45
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Tiggum posted:I know I played at least part of the way through Runaway but I can't remember anything about it at all. Even Googling it and looking at some screenshots isn't bringing anything back at all.
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Feb 10, 2014 16:36
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Oh man, Escape from Monkey Island was such a disappointment. I loved Curse so much and then Grim Fandango was amazing, I had high hopes. I remember downloading the demo and playing it and thinking... "These graphics must still be getting polished, no way they'd release such a crappy looking game". Nope. Those were the final graphics. Everyone who isn't Guybrush looks awful, and he was only just barely passable. I could have given the terrible graphics a pass though, if they hadn't proceeded to take a dump on the entire history of the series. They ignored so many major plot points and then focused on so heavily on the "Insult fighting" to such a bizarre degree. "Insult Sword Fighting" was funny but always dragged on too long, then they took out THE ONLY GOOD PART by removing the actual insults/jokes. So bizarre. And Ozzy Mandrill was an interesting villain they decided to squander by just retconning him into the backstory without any need. I don't remember the puzzles being that much worse than Curse or Grim though. Am I remember wrong?
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Feb 10, 2014 23:06
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Hakkesshu posted:I actually never liked the puzzle design in Grim Fandango, so I'm kind of with you there. Curse is mostly awesome, though. Yeah, voice acting and music are the only good points, and the music was probably about 1/3rd from Curse.
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Feb 11, 2014 00:09
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The final chapter of Blackwell is ready for pre-order: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/pre-order/blackwell-epiphany/ If you want a Mac version though, you will want to hold off until GOG offers it though. The pre-order will give you a Steam Key and a Humble Download, but if The Shivah: Remastered is anything to go by, neither of those will have a Mac version.
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Mar 14, 2014 18:57
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Dorkly made a Hit the Road/Freelance Police mashup with True Detective and holy hell it is amaing. Click the pretty GIF to watch (video autoplays, watch out for saucy language at the end).
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Mar 26, 2014 16:43
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Nobody Interesting posted:Is the video meant to be completely black? I hear sound but no video. No, definitely not. It's working fine for me.
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Mar 26, 2014 16:51
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I really liked Night of the Rabbit. It's not perfect, they crammed 90% of the plot into the last 20 minutes of the game, but it just oozes charm and has a super cute  atmosphere to it. The art is fantastic and it has none of the localization problems that Deponia and The Whispered World had.
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Apr 11, 2014 01:54
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CrookedB posted:Memoria is definitely on par with the Deponia games (or better, depending on your perspective). It's a bit on the easy side difficulty-wise, but as far as storytelling goes it's arguably the best Daedalic game of all. Did you play the other "Dark Eye" game Daedalic did a few years back? Was that good?
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Apr 11, 2014 15:34
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Unbound was really good but the production values were a step down from the rest of the series. It just didn't look as good as the rest of the series. It's understandable since as has been said it started out as a flashback and ended up it's own game both due to the size and the fact that Wadjet Eye needed some income ASAP. In terms of writing though, it was just as good as the rest of the series. It would be great if in a few years Gilbert were to return to Lauren some time. Epiphany was so good. The ending was pretty rough though. I was pretty bummed that Rosa died, but it made sense in the context of what had happened in the story up to that point. It didn't rub me the wrong way the way that Rufus' death at the end of Goodbye Deponia did. I do hope that Joe might make a cameo appearance in some future Wadjet Eye game. It might end up kind of cheesey though. I dunno. This is why I'm not a game writer....
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May 8, 2014 00:43
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So, GOG's big Insomnia sale reminded me of The Last Express. I missed it, and while looking it up afterwards I see that Steam has the "Gold" version, rather than the Collector's Edition that GOG apparently has. The Gold version boasts the following addtional features: • Advanced hint system • New more intuitive UI & improved inventory • Challenging achievements to test your sleuthing skills • Cloud Saving (Steam) • In-game bonuses (unlock characters biographies and more) What's the general consensus on the Gold Version? Are the additions actual improvements, or are they just extra crap tacked on that takes away from the original experience?
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May 16, 2014 22:06
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I played the first game about 5 years ago and I absolutely hated it. The characters are obnoxious, the writing (or translation? or both?) is terrible, the story is ridiculous and it had some of the worst adventure-game-logic puzzles I ever remembered. I also really dislike the visual style Pendulo uses. I would give some examples, but I apparently disliked it so much that my brain didn't bother to commit any of it to memory. Of all the dozens of adventure games I've ever played, it was the only one that I ever didn't finish, and I made it about 3/4 of the way through or more. I've heard the sequels are pretty much more of the same. That's my two cents anyway. EDIT: Lichtenstein posted:It's a bit like spending cash on shitsenders.com, except the delivery is addressed to yourself. Yeah, what this guys said.
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May 19, 2014 13:22
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Initially I was annoyed at the Sony Exclusivity, but I've come to terms with the fact that without them, the probably would never have happened at all. Hopefully the wait for other platforms won't be too long. I hope it sells great and it convinces Disney to re-release other Lucasarts classics.
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Jun 10, 2014 17:30
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As long as it all comes out eventually I'll be happy. It would be great if they could follow a schedule like Telltale did with Season 1 of The Walking Dead and get it all out in 6-9 months. It'll be rough if it goes the Kentucky Route Zero route though. (KRZ has been amazing enough that I haven't been holding the delays against them though) It's been nice this time around not seeing a bunch of "sky is falling!" panic about the change like there was with Broken Age. I realize the situations are different but I was expecting a bunch more of the same wailing and gnashing of teeth. Glad I was wrong.
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Jun 27, 2014 22:08
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Mokinokaro posted:Deponia is weird in that the first game is the best of the lot. I'm going to second all of this. They kept ramping up the difficulty of the puzzle without regard for any sort of consistency or logic. They also ramped up the offensive humor in the last one and while I love a good offensive joke, it has to be good and also a joke, not just offensive. That said, I'd say it is worth it next time the whole trilogy goes on a steep discount. The art is good and there is some really funny stuff in there before it goes off the rails.
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Jul 2, 2014 14:59
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Tiggum posted:You should play Hector: Badge of Carnage. Oh I have. And I loved it. Forget Deponia, go get the Hector games!
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Jul 2, 2014 15:27
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Tiggum posted:The third one must be really appalling then. I just finished part one of the first game today, and with two parts remaining it's already worn out its welcome. The puzzles are really heavy on the adventure game logic, none of the characters are likeable, and nothing about it really stands out in any way. It's not the worst adventure game I've ever played, but I really can't see anything to recommend it. The characters remain unlikable (or get even worse), the puzzles get far more ridiculous. If you didn't like the first one, don't get the rest. I'm glad to hear Journey of a Roach is good. It looks pretty neat. choobs fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Jul 6, 2014 |
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Jul 6, 2014 02:10
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Nice, now I just need a release date so I can obsessively count down to. I hope this game is a huge success and we get COMI, DOTT, Sam and Max special editions.
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Jul 9, 2014 18:59
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Everybody hating on Full Throttle is making me sad. The puzzles are simpler and more straightforward, and the Mine Road combat section is awful (unless you figure out the Fertilizer->Chainsaw trick). I'll definitely agree that the "biker=cool" aesthetic is dated as all hell, but I can't not love that game.
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Sep 9, 2014 15:34
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I believe they said there is going to be an introductory piece that will refresh the story of at least Dreamfall. Hopefully I'm not imagining that...
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Sep 30, 2014 16:22
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Oh absolutely. I replayed them both right after the Kickstarter finished 18 months ago. It took drat near a month and a half to play them both though (I don't have tons of time to play games) so I'm glad I was remembering right. Dreamfall's gameplay was not nearly as bad as I remembered. Even the underground "maze" section wasn't so bad once I printed out a map and found the hiding spots to get a way from the monster. The most frustrating part by far was the stealth section at the Wati core but even that only took three or four attempts.
choobs fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Sep 30, 2014 |
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Sep 30, 2014 20:46
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Austen Tassletine posted:I never actually tried Dreamfall due to being put off by the seemingly universal dislike for the gameplay. Every time it's on sale I consider it, but decide against it based how bad people say significant chunks of it are. What is striking is that this post is probably the most supportive I've ever read for it, and yet even then it rings enormous alarm bells. The game apparently has a maze section (with enemies that require hiding from) that is bad enough for it to be suggested to print out a map, and God help us a sodding stealth section. Is there an escort mission and a shoddy driving segment as well? No thankfully, none of that. The stealth section at WatiCorp in the actual core room is awful but short. The "maze" is kind of long but if you have the map and no where to go, you can get past it pretty quick and painlessly. There are a couple of terrible combat sections but they're pretty easy, just obnoxiously terrible. There's one early on that is literally sparring in the gym that is probably the hardest fight in the game but you don't have to win to get past it. It's a great story attached to a mediocre game for sure, but it's definitely worth playing. If you really can't stomach the idea though, the LP that Mira posted really is excellent and gives you the full experience of the game.
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Sep 30, 2014 21:40
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Metal Dead just hit Steam at 66% off for the first 6 Days 6 Hours and 6 Minutes  It was definitely one of the funniest games in recent memory, as long as you like your humor jet black. There's no voice acting and the metal music is all lo-fi Midi. The lo-fi sound really matches the whole DIY aesthetic pretty well, but the sequel that's coming next year has "full metal soundtrack".
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Oct 7, 2014 03:53
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Business Octopus posted:Yeah that chase section was particularly bad. I finished the whole game and something about it just felt ... stilted. The frequent time jumps and overall lack of emotional resonance with the characters makes it the weakest in the Wadjet Eye library so far IMO. I have heard nothing good about "Da New Guys". Has anyone even played that?
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Oct 14, 2014 00:06
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I specifically remembering getting my parents permission to call that to find out how to get gas from the tower. I was sure I just wasn't clicking fast enough or something. I remember being shocked and kind of bullshit when they told me I had to hide behind the tanks in the back. WTF?!?! I didn't even know you could do that!!! 
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Nov 16, 2014 04:51
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Metal Dead is less than $2 on Steam right now. It's awesome, assuming you like a game where you have a severed zombie head for a sidekick and a midi metal soundtrack. Seriously one of the funniest adventure games I've ever played. GO GET IT!
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Nov 27, 2014 01:05
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