The 25-year history of the (graphical) adventure game genre
Sadly, The Dig gets no love...
There’s little more than needs to be said, apart from the fact that you — all of you, good Dragons and Dragonettes — need to read this article at Ars Technica in its entirety.
Not surprisingly, Sierra On-Line features prominently throughout the article, which chronicles in detail the advancement in its game engines and the wit and heart that characterized its games. LucasArts begins to appear about mid-way through the article, which culminates with The Longest Journey and a few other games which drew inspiration from it. Even the Discworld games get a mention! (That’s how you know it’s almost thorough enough…though I didn’t notice a reference to The Dig in the article.)
What I find rather interesting about the article is that it kind of singles out Myst as the game which, in its own way, actually started to kill off the adventure genre. Now here’s a little truth: I really don’t like Myst, Riven, or almost every game which follows that general model of play. Indeed, I have a hard time thinking of such games as being adventure games; I think of them as puzzle games. The idea of an adventure game implies a plot, I say, and Myst and its many clones are often quite lacking in that department.
But to be fair, Myst — or, rather, the flood of cheap imitations thereof — was only the first nail in the genre’s coffin, as the article goes on to explain.
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25? You didn`t counting I-Fiction.
Well, they aren’t, no.
They start their count from the first Ken & Roberta Williams titles, it seems.
Wasn’t The Dig kind of a disappointment? They tried to create something cinematic, but it ended up pretty boring (though I loved seeing what the crazy/creepy German guy would do next).
By the title of the article, it’s clearly only about graphical adventure games.
Editor’s note: Thanks for pointing that out…I should amend my title.
You want to fix the link on this page. You link directly to an article about Space Quest 1 (a fantastic game), instead of the first page of the article. Man, I loved Space Quest 1 – 4 as a child.
Editor’s note: Duly noted, and corrected. Thanks.
I don’t know…The Dig was, and remains, one of my favourite LucasArts games ever. It was definitely a slower pace (in no small part due to the fact that the environments you walk through are almost entirely empty for the vast majority of the game), but I love the story, the voice acting, and even the animations and graphics.
It’s not an action game, and it’s not a fast game, but I would argue that it’s still one of the best adventure titles out there.
What they really should have mentioned and didn’t was the awesome adventure/RPG hybrid series, Quest for Glory.
Actually, they do, and in those terms. It doesn’t get a picture, but it gets a mention. As, I think, does its original name: Hero’s Quest.
What memories of the good old days. Sierra what a company. What games 🙂
I stumbled apron this project which looks amazing. I will definitely be getting myself a copy.
http://www.artofsierra.com/
My thoughts about Sierra is that they were very much a “high risk, high payoff” company in terms of game design.
In retrospect, many of their games were sort of meh, compared to Lucasarts’ consistently high-quality output.
But when they were good, they were damn good, and more interesting than LA’s games.
Actually, they do, and in those terms. It doesn’t get a picture, but it gets a mention. As, I think, does its original name: Hero’s Quest.
True, but it deserved more than a mention since it brought something unique to the table, and perhaps, heralded the future.
Some feel that story-heavy RPGs have usurped the place of adventure games in the gaming public – that those who would have been adventure gamers in the late 80’s and early 90’s, are now playing RPGs (of the story-heavy, Bioware variety).
The current state of the RPG genre could be considered to be effectively adventure/RPG hybrid, if you compare it to the RPGs of the 80’s. I know that some of the hardcore purists who gather at RPGCodex are not happy with that at all. (I wonder what they thought of Storm of Zehir, which was very much a Gold Box throwback? Probably not good enough for them.)
Much like Interactive Fiction, graphical adventures may be all but dead as commercial mainstream items, but they’re still very much alive. If you want remakes, there’s AGD Interactive or Infamous Adventures. There’s also The Silver Lining, and not to mention the Blackwell series, The Journey Down, Tale of Two Kingdoms, Chzo Mythos etc. And there’s a lot to look forward to, too. Journey of Iesir, Death Wore Endless Feathers and Gemini Rue for example. Sure, I doubt you’re going to find the commercial titles (like Gemini Rue and the Blackwell games) at your average Wal-Mart, but they are being sold and doing well enough for themselves.
And part of this is cultural, too. I understand adventure games are still pretty big in Germany (where they’ve made two (admittedly lacklustre) Simon the Sorcerer sequels, for example).
Infinitron: I quite agree that it merited more of a mention; I was looking for a screenshot from either version of the series. But I was still impressed that they correctly identified it as having RPG elements as well; that would have been an easy oversight to make.
A few notes: Kings Quest 6 needed a mention, and King’s Quest 7 as well…the former because it was awesome, and the latter because it was very, very not awesome.
Sslaxx: They made Simon the Sorcerer sequels? Sweet! I loved that game (although the bit with Swampling always made me sad).
Thanks for the info on those other projects. I’d heard of a couple of ’em, but…hunh, I guess I’m going to have to check those out.
Yeah, but as far as I’m aware they’re fairly lacklustre efforts by a German company who brought the rights from the Woodroffes (who were bust after Adventure Soft went under).
As for the other projects, the Blackwell games and Gemini Rue are by Wadjet Eye Games – http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/ – and the others can be found out about at the AGS forums. http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/
There’s another breed of adventure game that was left unmentioned – Legend Entertainment’s collection of graphic/text adventure hybrids. Some of those games were totally awesome.
Ex-Infocom people set up Legend, and you can see the start of where Legend was coming from with Infocom’s Journey.
I just love it when a post inspires a good discussion.
That reminds me of Eric the Unready. That was an excellent adventure game.
Looking at my Dig CD now….
Good times. I think i’ll boot up wing commander