Best Underground Adventure

Forget the expression “you get what you pay for”. Every year, dedicated amateur developers treat us to a variety of high-quality adventures that are absolutely free. Some even rival their commercial game counterparts, and these Underground adventures warrant every player’s admiration. (No complete list of eligible games available, sorry.)

Barn Runner “Season” 5
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator – Case 7: The Cardinal Sins
Quest for Glory II VGA Remake


Best Indie Adventure

Not to be confused with Underground freeware adventures, some independent studios release their games commercially, but with no external publisher backing or mainstream distribution channels. These self-published titles rarely get the attention (or sales) they often deserve, and the best of them merit a closer look from anyone who’s overlooked them to date.

Carol Reed: The Colour of Murder
Casebook: Episode I – Kidnapped
The Tales of Bingwood: Chapter I – To Save a Princess


Best Console/Handheld Adventure

The home console and handheld platforms haven’t quite championed a genre resurgence like we once hoped they might, but there were still several quality titles released in the past year, many of them exclusive to their non-PC platforms. Ports are not deemed to be original releases, and are therefore ineligible.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People
Time Hollow


Best First-Person PC Adventure

For many adventure fans, the visual perspective is a crucial criterion for enjoying a game. Though both first- and third-person are perfectly legitimate design options, some prefer the immersiveness of viewing the world through the player character’s eyes. The best of these games succeed in making players feel like they’re experiencing the adventure themselves.

Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon
Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
Penumbra: Black Plague


Best Third-Person PC Adventure

Contrasting first-person perspective is the ability to control a playable avatar onscreen. Often used in story- and character-driven adventures, this allows the game’s protagonist to play a more active role in the narrative. The top examples draw players out of themselves to focus attention on the visible participants.

Sam & Max: Season Two
So Blonde
Overclocked: A History of Violence


Best Adventure of 2008

Need we say more? From the winners of the above categories will emerge the crème de la crème of adventures: the first, and for now only, winner of the soon-to-be-highly-coveted Aggie Award as Game of the Year for 2008. Who will the finalists be? What will be the last game standing? Too early to say!

Rules and Regulations

All staff nominations were submitted privately, seen and verified only by two awards administrators. Final voting will be done following the same procedure.

To ensure total impartiality, no staff member was permitted to nominate any game in which they were involved in any way outside of official Adventure Gamers press coverage. For the purpose of final voting, no staff member will be permitted to vote in any category in which a game they were involved in (outside of official Adventure Gamers press coverage) has been nominated.

To be considered, a game must have had its first release in a major English language market in the calendar year 2008. Major markets include North America and the United Kingdom. Alternatively, any game first made available through digital distribution or self-published online during the year is also eligible.

For the sake of administrative simplicity, Sam & Max: Season Two and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People have been listed as a single entity.

Complete list of eligible games

1112: Episode 1 (iPhone/iPod Touch)
AGON: The Lost Sword of Toledo
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (DS)
Art of Murder: FBI Confidential
Belief & Betrayal
Carol Reed: The Colour of Murder
Casebook: Episode I – Kidnapped
Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual
Diamonds in the Rough
Dracula: Origin
Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon
Everlight: Of Magic and Power
The Experiment
Flower, Sun and Rain (DS)
The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (Wii, PS2)
The Immortals of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure
Insecticide (PC, DS)
Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (DS)
The Lost City of Malathedra
The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure
Lost: Via Domus (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Murder in the Abbey
Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst
Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals
Outcry
Overclocked: A History of Violence
Penumbra: Black Plague
Penumbra: Requiem
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)
Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches
Sam & Max: Season Two (excludes 2007's Episode 201: Ice Station Santa)
Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens
Sinking Island
So Blonde
Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (PC, Wii)
The Tales of Bingwood – Chapter I: To Save a Princess
Theresia (DS)
Time Hollow (DS)
Undercover: Dual Motives (DS)
Unsolved Crimes (DS)
A Vampyre Story