Incline Trash’s adventures in adventureland

[Trash]

Adventures. A genre that was nearly as dead and forgotten as the crpg since their heyday in the 90’s. For over a decade you only had the occasional fan project like AGD Interactive's remakes, Scummvm and zero budget indie games to keep the flame burning. Recently however adventure gaming seems to be back on its feet. With small time indies consistently cranking out quality games and several of the developers of 90's fame being back and working on their own new titles.

The bigger studios in the meantime have seemingly become infatuated with turning games into interactive movies. Something I didn’t ever expect to see again after the short boom of that genre with the introduction of the cd-rom and torrent of fmv games that came with it. Still, that they are making adventure-like games again after years of nothing is worthy of note in itself.

So, what’s the big deal? Well, I grew up with adventure games. I fondly remember playing Leisure Suite Larry and not understanding one bit of it as a small child. Staring at an amiga in a shop that was running Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis and being amazed at those graphics. Laughing my ass off with Sam and Max. I absolutely adored those games.

Yet, for years now I have not played any.

Sure, I got Scummvm installed and with it a healthy dose of classics. I bought quite a few of Wadjet Eye’s games. My gog account is brimming with classics. Those new Sherlock Holmes games look fascinating. Did toy around with Telltale’s games and got Life is Strange collecting dust on my Steam account. Check out every trailer when a new game is announced and then look forward to it. And yet I haven’t taken the time to sit down and play all the way through an adventure.

Let’s change that, shall we? So, here’s where I need your help. I want to start out with a nice, short adventure to get back into things. Then I’ll write down my thoughts on the game when I finish it and pick a new one. Will I start with an old classic I know and love? Shall I try something new? I dunno, so help me choose. And do tell me why I should pick your pick.


Well, the first I played was The Blackwell Legacy. Really enjoyed that one.

Now, help me pick out another one. What will you guys have me play? A classic? Telltale's take on a popular comic? Or a cyberpunk indie effort? Help me out, people.

A: Beneath a Steel Sky

B: The Wolf Among Us

C: Cypher: Cyberpunk Text Adventure

 

[dumdum]

A.

 

[Darth Roxor]

For "nice and short to get back into things", I'd say go with C.

 

[Infinitron]

How rusty of an adventure gamer do you think you are at this point?

If you need an easy time at first, start with Gemini Rue. Otherwise, go straight to Beneath a Steel Sky.

IMO, the Blackwell games are a somewhat different sort of experience that might be best experienced as a variation on the more traditional baseline. Which might also be something you're looking for. It's your call.

 

[Trash]

Thanks for the recommendations so far.

How rusty of an adventure gamer do you think you are at this point?

Well, it's been over a decade ago that I played through my last entire adventure game. I did play a shitload of them in the 90's though, so the experience is there. I'm now looking to start again, play through an extensive backlog and have fun with the classics. I'll be more than happy to try out any of the three I named, so I'll wait to see how the thread goes before I start.

 

[ghostdog]

Start with Primordia, it's the best new-retro adventure I've played.

 

[Thor Kaufman]

Blackwell Legacy is great till at least part III, havent played after that.
Didn't really get into Gemini Rue at all, just seemed fuckin tedious.

 

[evdk]

C fills your requirements for nice and short at least. Personally I would second ghostdog and advise you to go with D: Primordia

 

[FeelTheRads]

Beneath A Steel Sky, no doubt. Great, fun game

Spoiler

Have not played the other two.

 

[Barbarian]

BaSS for sure. It will likely get a sequel soon too, so you will be ready for even more joy when it happens.

It is a great little adventure.

 

[Trash]

So far it's pretty even with 2 votes for Gemini Rue, 2 for Beneath a Steel Sky and 3 for Blackwell Legacy. Nice to see all games I picked seem to be widely and almost evenly liked.

I want to start out with a shorter but still fun adventure to get back into them. It's really been ages since I played through one. From just looking through various 'best of' lists and my own scummvm folder it seems like I've got my work cut out. Played through a lot of the big classics from the 90's but the output was so big that I actually have missed a few. Looking forward to remedy that. And in the meantime there have been quite a few decent adventure games I never tried out. Looking forward to remedy that as well.

But for now, let's see what adventure I'll start with.

 

[Barbarian]

Well BaSS is certainly the best one on the list, after all it is a classic and you can't really replicate the atmosphere of the early 90's adventures(although Wadjet Eye does a nice job at trying it). It is the longest one on the list and the less "lite" one on the puzzle side, though.

If you have an iphone or ipad get the remastered edition. I hear it is worth it, even though Revolution Software has the original for free download(that is another bonus, you don't have to pay for this one in order to play).

 

[Explorerbc]

Both Gemini Rue and Beneath a Steel Sky took me about 7-8 hours to finish. Apparently from what I read in the web Blackwell is shorter, but I tried to play it in a time I wasn't in a mood for adventures and it felt kinda slow at the start.

All these games always felt kinda similar to me so just pick what genre you want I guess. Tech-noir, dystopian or psychic detective?

 

[Berekän]

If you want to start with something short and easy I'd say go with Gemini Rue, if you start with Blackwell you might want to continue and finish the series, which will make it significantly longer.

 

[Trash]

Gemini Rue and Blackwell Legacy got a tie. Which surprised me, as I was expecting people to go for Beneath a Steel Sky. Well, since I never played Blackwell Legacy and it's supposed to be a short and sweet one...

'Ere we go.

 

[WhiteGuts]

Gemini Rue, men. Always.

I mean I love the Blackwell series very much (second one is my favorite I think), but GR is kinda unique for its setting, atmosphere, writing...etc.

 

[dumdum]

are you going to stream it?

 

[ghostdog]

I couldn't finish Gemini rue. Story and characters annoyed me, the puzzles were meh, action parts were bad. If it has to be one of the 3, my vote goes to BASS and Blackwell. But really do yourself a favor and start with Primordia.

 

[WhiteGuts]

I'd say start with Resonance. It's the best initiation to the WEG style of games.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Except that Resonance is terrible.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I found Resonance to be pretty bad/mediocre, too. Didn't particularly like Technobabylon or Gemini Rue either. Have yet to play Shardlight.

I'd recommend Primordia and the Blackwell series; the latter is more of an adventure game-lite though.

 

[Infinitron]

I think Resonance is great and one of WEG's best, though after playing the Blackwell series recently I also realize it's not quite as unique as I thought it was.

 

[Trash]

The Blackwell Legacy is the first Blackwell game and was released by Wadyet Eye Games in 2006. The producer, Dave Gilbert, was an active member in the AGS community who started WEG as a means to publish his own games. The Blackwell Legacy was his second commercial release and seemed to have done fairly well. Considering we got a whole series of them and WEG has expanded quite a bit.

Well, there went my first one. And yeah, it is short and not too difficult. Took me all of two hours. Time well spend, I might add. The Blackwell Legacy is quite an interesting take on the adventure game genre. As someone who was used to adventure games in the 90’s it also holds quite a few differences to what I was expecting of an adventure.

The protagonist for instance. The snarky, often annoying, main hero that was a mainstay of so many adventures is missing here. Sure, Joey might fit the bill a bit, but even he has more to him than that. And then the real protagonist. A shut-in, awkward girl who isn’t exactly like-able but felt all the more real due to her having flaws.

The strong start only attributed to the positive impression. The art in the opening scene is great. Not to mention the scene itself. Spreading ashes? As a game opener? Bold. The entire game felt like that. The little dramas of life. The little details. I enjoyed that. And what certainly helped was the strong soundtrack that came along with it.

The art felt, well, serviceable to me. I like the pixel art easthetics. I do. Some scenes even looked splendid. You can however notice that this game did not have the team and art talent that some of the big titles from the 90’s had. Yeah, I’m looking at that demon in the final scene.

What I like in adventure games are the stories and the puzzles. The genre convention was all about combining the right item with another item, pixel on the screen or character and voila. The Blackwell Legacy did try to shake that up a bit. I really enjoyed the addition of the notes. Combining them was intuitive and then using these notes to go on felt just right.

The puzzles felt mostly logical, although I do have quite a niggle with the diuretic pills from the mental hospital. Having to visit a character twice for a plot essential item that you won’t get hinted at, can see or aqcuire? When the first visit to that character makes you get all the info you need from that one and essentially means you won’t need to see that character again? It was frustrating and poorly done. Still, my bitching about one particular puzzle shows that there was little else that frustrated me. Still hey, another niggle? How about sitting down before you pull that tie.

In the end I can honestly say that I had quite a blast. Wadyet Eye Games goes for an oldschool feel and easthetic and succeeds for the most part. Let’s not forget that crummy voice acting was a staple back in the early day of cd-roms as well.


So, on to the next. What will you guys have me play? A classic? Telltale's take on a popular comic? Or a cyberpunk indie effort? Help me out, people. And do share why you would have me play your chosen pick.

A: Beneath a Steel Sky

B: The Wolf Among Us

C: Cypher: Cyberpunk Text Adventure

 

[dumdum]

A.

 

[WhiteGuts]

A