Title Suggestions for new adventure gamers?

[Leftie]

Hello all!

I have not, in the past, been much of an adventure gamer. In fact, Leisure Suit Larry was about the closest thing I ever played to an Adventure game before last week.

I am typically a wargamer. I enjoy hex and counter PC and boardgames. I am very active on a few other message boards that cater to that sort of interest. I also play RPGs a bit for the consoles and on PC if I get a chance.

To be honest though, I have been in a bit of a slump here lately when it comes to playing games. I just can't seem to get enough motivation to actually sit down and play. I am a bit burnt out on my typical genres.

That led me to pick up Myst V the other day. I installed it and have been slowly working my way through some of the puzzles. I am absolutely terrible right now and have had to use the "Universal Hint System" a few times just to get out of the cave and up the ladder with my slate. I am hoping that with time, I will get better at deciphering the puzzles but am enjoying the change of pace while I try to learn.

I enjoyed the game enough to order Syberia online and am waiting for it in the mail. I was curious to see if anyone had recommendations of titles for those new to the genre. I feel a bit dim witted while playing Myst and was wondering if it was normal for someone to feel so lost? I have put a good 4 or 5 hours over the last couple of days and I barely know what the heck to do with these slates. The only thing I know so far is that if I draw the sybol of the pedestal on it and drop the slate, the aliens will take it to that pedestal.

Is there some reading or tips for beginners that I could look at to help get me in the right mindset because this is something so far removed from what I normally play that I want to make sure I am approaching things correctly.


Thanks a million

Ben

[Solid Snake]

I recommend Veil of Darkness if you don't mind playing old games.It has action,adventure and rpg elements in it so it's a good place to start for you. Other than that I recommend Sanitarium,Blade Runner,Bermuda Syndrome,Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis and Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Fathers

[Crapstorm]

Hi, Leftie! Welcome aboard the good ship Lollipop. You're absolutely correct in your observation that adventure gaming requires a totally different mindset from other types of video gaming. I'm a turn-based wargamer, primarily, but I love what many adventure games have to offer as well. Adventure games tend to progress more slowly than games from other genres. You have to ease up and savour the details. There are no quick payoffs for fast flurries of intense activity. Concentration and tenacity are the key attributes of a successful adventure gamer.

So, get yourself a good adventure game (not Syberia!), make yourself a nice cup of tea (from real leaves, not in a bag) and get comfortable! Take your time, explore and really figure out the mechanics of the game. You're going to be confronted with puzzles of all kinds. Sometimes, you won't even know you're in a puzzle until it's solved. Investigate. Scratch your head. Be creative in your approach to challenges. This is what adventuring is all about.

Okay, particular games... since you liked Myst V (which I've never played) you may also enjoy Myst III, Myst IV, Dark Fall, Dark Fall 2: Light's Out, and/or Aura: Fate of the Ages. These are all fairly contemporary examples of the first-person format.

[Ninth]

Myst 5 is a tad overcomplicated (to no avail).

If you want to try a Myst game (which I recommend), Exile or Revelation (3 and 4) are probably the best game to start.

Otherwise, well, it all depends on whether or not you like Syberia. If you do, then you'd probably like Syberia 2, Amerzone, Paradise (obviously, because they were made by the same guy), or the Black Mirror, or perhaps Dark Fall (first persongame, unlike Syberia, which is third person).

If you don't mind older graphics, then there's a heap of great games out there that you should probably try out, among which Grim Fandango, Monkey Island (1, 2 or 3), or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

You could also download Beneath a Steel Sky or Conquest of the Longbow, which are now freeware.

[I Love Cookiemonster]

Try the broken sword games, best games i ever played. Puzzles are logical and especially part 3 is pretty easy.

Bladerunner isn't to difficult either. And i resently finished Full Throttle which the easyest lucasarts adventure that i ever played.

[Jelena]

The Longest Journey is a great game as well as Still Life. They're 3rd person format and two of my favourites.
I'm currently playing Syberia. It has a very slow pace but the puzzles are really easy and probably a good game to get to know the genre from.

[Ninth]

The Longest Journey is a great game as well as Still Life. They're 3rd person format and two of my favourites.
I'm currently playing Syberia. It has a very slow pace but the puzzles are really easy and probably a good game to get to know the genre from.
Ooh, yes, Still Life. Amazing game.

And The Longest Journey is quite good, albeit a tad long. The sequel is also worth a look.

[Rattsukrabe]

You could also download Beneath a Steel Sky or Conquest of the Longbow, which are now freeware.[/QUOTE]

I know Beneath a Steel Sky is freeware, but I Conquests of the Longbow is Sierra and they have been pretty fierce about hanging on to their copyrights. If it has become freeware, I would love to know where it is available.

[Solid Snake]

As a game filled with ridiculous and hard puzzles I wouldn't recommend Still Life to a beginner unless I want to discourage him to play adventure games

[Melanie68]

I know Beneath a Steel Sky is freeware, but I Conquests of the Longbow is Sierra and they have been pretty fierce about hanging on to their copyrights. If it has become freeware, I would love to know where it is available.

It's not exactly freeware. It's on Christy Marx's website.

See this post. (http://forums.adventuregamers.com/showpost.php?p=310390&postcount=1)

Also see this post (http://forums.adventuregamers.com/showpost.php?p=315422&postcount=182) for ATMachine's theory on why she may have it on there.

[Ninth]

As a game filled with ridiculous and hard puzzles I wouldn't recommend Still Life to a beginner unless I want to discourage him to play adventure games
Well, I played it with a beginner. Apparently they aren't as dumb as you supposed they are.

Plus there are really only two very difficult puzzles in Still Life, for which I had to use a walkthrough, and I'm hardly a beginner.

[Solid Snake]

I didn't write anything about being dumb for not to be able to play the game I just criticized the game's structure I don't care if you are a beginner or not so and I didn't mean anything related to that either but you had to say "I'm hardly a beginner" to satisfy your ego so I suspect you are the dumb . If you are unable to interpret what I say go buy glasses or read more carefully Mr. "know-it-all"

[Jelena]

As a game filled with ridiculous and hard puzzles I wouldn't recommend Still Life to a beginner unless I want to discourage him to play adventure games
I can agree that there were one really hard puzzle in Still Life: the lockpick puzzle. I think a lot of experienced gamers have taken a sneak a peak in a w/t or at hints to solve it.
None of the puzzles were ridiculous though. If you're refering to the cookie puzzle I'd say anyone who has baked cookies can solve that without trouble.
Being a beginner isn't a problem for those puzzles anyway.

[Solid Snake]

When I mean ridiculous puzzles ımean teh out of the place puzzles like the chest puzzle or the puzzle at the club etc. These puzzles seem to put here and there just to say "hey look we put a puzzle here" if the puzzles are there to help to advance the story it would be okay but otherwise they are annoyances and they feel as if the have been put just to block the way

[Ninth]

I didn't write anything about being dumb for not to be able to play the game I just criticized the game's structure I don't care if you are a beginner or not so and I didn't mean anything related to that either but you had to say "I'm hardly a beginner" to satisfy your ego so I suspect you are the dumb . If you are unable to interpret what I say go buy glasses or read more carefully Mr. "know-it-all"
Yeah, how self-conscious of me to say that I have experience with adventure games...

I have misunderstood your point, you've got that right, but the bottom line was: "I played it with a beginner.", to which I should have added: "who enjoyed it immensely, as I have heard other beginners on this forum also have". So I would recommend Still Life to a beginner as a way to bring him into the adventuring world.

As a side note, you might want to take a deep breath next time you're about to insult someone for no good reason, and think better of it.

[Ninth]

When I mean ridiculous puzzles ımean teh out of the place puzzles like the chest puzzle or the puzzle at the club etc. These puzzles seem to put here and there just to say "hey look we put a puzzle here" if the puzzles are there to help to advance the story it would be okay but otherwise they are annoyances and they feel as if the have been put just to block the way
Who cares?

That's a serious question. Some people, like me, don't really care about the whole "organic puzzles" (puzzle emerging from the story) thing. I like puzzles for the sake of puzzles, as well as puzzles that are completely integrated within the story. Other, like you, obviously care about it.

My point is: Black Mirror has a hundred "open the closed door" puzzles, and they start to get redundant in regard to the story pretty soon. But then, the atmosphere got a grip on me, and the puzzles in themselves were fun, so that I couldn't care less about their integration. The same was true for my girlfriend. So it could very well be true for Leftie.

That's why I'm curious about what he thinks of Syberia, in which many puzzles feel really unnatural.

[Leftie]

I appreciate everyones comments and suggestions so far. I downloaded the demo of "The Longest Journey" and it looks like it will be a great deal of fun. I am going to see if I can find a copy of it somewhere online. Coming from a wargaming background, the graphics don't have to be top of the line in order for me to enjoy the game. I do however think that if the game looks nice, the immersion factor is a bit greater.

I hope that I can get my wife to play a game or two with me. I don't know if people regularly sit down with their significant other and try to solve the puzzles together but it seems like it would work out well.

I will check out some of the titles suggested.

Thanks again

Ben

[Lee in Limbo]

The Longest Journey (and to a lesser degree its controversial 3D sequel, Dreamfall), is the only games my wife has ever happily joined me for. Finest gaming experience of my life. I have yet to find a game that draws her to my side like that one did, though I keep hoping.

I would recommend older games, but it would be best if we got to know what war games you've played, just as a frame of reference. I would say that, if you enjoyed the immersion of Myst V but found it hard to figure out what to do next, you might enjoy a game I used to have called Buried in Time: The Journeyman Project 2. It's searchable on Google, though sadly it's not easy to come by at this time. The development company sorta went under.

What was great about it was, you played in first person, and in-game interactions were sparse and relatively cut-scene cinematic (like in Myst V), but you had plenty of different environments to explore, loads of information to discover and sort through, past civilizations and events in history to experience first hand (so to speak), and a very humourous AI computer to offer helpful suggestions and amusing and insightful commentary on the places and things you were seeing.

The visuals are primitive compared to modern offerings, and the screen resolution and visual field are quite small compared to how things are designed now. This may seem quite off-putting at first, but I have played it a few times, and I can honestly say that the interface vanishes for you after you've gotten focussed on the view in the window for more than a couple of minutes.

Another brilliant game in the first person variety that is heavy on immersion and detail is an old Sierra game I pimp regularly, called Shivers. This too is not easy to find anymore, but it was a truly immersive and thrilling supernatural horror of the haunted mansion variety. Very puzzle heavy, as most of these games were at the time, but I suspect the ambience and the challenge of solving the mystery and saving yourself in the process might prove to be a great game for you.

Both of these games wer released in the early to mid nineties, and both are more Earth-based, but still have that eerie flavour of exploration and sleuthing that few similarly-designed games have achieved lately (without a horse doctor dose of adrenaline and a trigger finger, anyway).

I hope Syberia and The Longest Journey prove to be to your liking. Still Life is also a great modern example of the genre. But even if they fall a little short, there are still a great number of modern games in the genre that dispell the myth that Adventure Games are dead. I hope you (and your wife) find a few titles you too can cherish, as so many of us do.

Just don't start any arguments about Tomb Raider being an Adventure Game. It makes some folks around here cranky ;)

And welcome aboard, Ben.

[Ninth]

I hope that I can get my wife to play a game or two with me. I don't know if people regularly sit down with their significant other and try to solve the puzzles together but it seems like it would work out well.
Yep, with friend or girlfriend. Note that in my experience playing together works better with games that are focusing on puzzles, like the Myst games, or Darkfall. Darkfall is a hoot to play in duo; especially since it's pretty scary. :)

[Leftie]

I would recommend older games, but it would be best if we got to know what war games you've played, just as a frame of reference.....


I play a lot of hex and counter wargames as well as some of the latest real time wargames out there. Some examples of games I play are:

The Operational Art of War 3
HPS's Panzer Campaign Series
HPS's Napoleonic Battles Series
HPS's Civil War Series
Conquest of the Aegean
War in the Pacific
Steel Panthers World at War
Combat Mission Afrika Korps
Battles in Normandy
Battles in Italy


I also dabble in the board wargames if you have ever heard of any of the following.

Advanced Squad Leader
The Burning Blue
Great Battles of Alexander
A House Divided
Under the Lily Banners

There are quite a few more but I figure that the above should be sufficient to give you an idea of what my interests are.


Thanks
Ben

[Stain]

Longest journey is a great game, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone who is burnt out on some games and is looking for something new. Don't get me wrong, it is a good game, but it is long and kind of slow. I found I had to really push my self to keep playing. If I was you I might focus onsome of the other, shorter title that were suggested.

If you do make it thtough the Longest Journey, more power to you. That game's success help rejuvinate adventure games a few years back.