The Rise and Fall of "Point & Click"

[Emperor Leo]

I remember days when point & click adventures were a mainstay of the PC gaming community with LucasArts producing proably the best of the bunch, with titles such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Full Throttle, etc. There were also other greats such as Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword and Discworld.

The modern point & click seems to focus on creating 3D puzzles or desperately trying to be funny and failing (Sam & Max Episodes). My most recent experience comes from Broken Sword 4. I had heard that this game goes back to it's point & click roots, so I was interested in re-aquainting myself with Broken Sword's intrigue, beautiful landscapes, NPCs with character and fun puzzles. I was met with dull, hateful characters, boring locales, illogical puzzles and crate pushing.

I think that last fairly good 3D adventure I played was Monkey Island 4.

Did point & click adventures peak too soon? Have expectations moved on so much that mainstream developers can never go back to 2D?

Discuss!

[blank]

Did point & click adventures peak too soon? Have expectations moved on so much that mainstream developers can never go back to 2D?

Yes. People want shiny explosions and big robots.
Syberia 1 was pretty good though. The sequel was crap.

[Cluny the Scourge]

Yes. People want shiny explosions and big robots.
Syberia 1 was pretty good though. The sequel was crap.

Oh, dude...are you serious? I'm "playing" that -fest Syberia right now, and it's the feeblest piece of trash gaming I've ever been contaminated with.

Syberia is in an exploration of exactly how tedious and devoid of challenge an adventure game can be. A total failure.

Oh, what fun, to wander aimlessly from one hand-drawn static picture to another back-and-forth, back-and-forth searching for a hotspot to click on (what irony in the protagonist's name, Kate WALKER - get it? - she's named after what she does all game long).

Oh, the thrill of listening to the wooden, flaccid characters explaining their uninteresting, empty lives to the equally insipid heroine. A storyline as bland as an unspiced meatball, and "puzzles" that involve no application of problem-solving or thought; Syberia was a cripplingly painful nail into MY coffin as an old-school fan of this beloved genre.

"Benoit Sokal" as the game's opening sequence proudly proclaims it to be the creation of, whoever on Earth he might be, is clearly a pretentious fool of the worst kind to produce such rubbish.

Conversely, I don't get EmperorLeo about Sam and Max (Episodes) - I really enjoyed that and laughed at plenty of it too. Maybe he's just getting jaded. Broken Sword 4, I admit, was pretty "meh".

:hmmm:Erm...what?

If you are asking about Full Throttle, I thought it was pretty good. Very short (could be completed in an afternoon), but very good.

Yes, but then all of the Lucasarts adventure games - all 13 odd of them - were great. They were an assured stamp of quality. It just doesn't make sense that they've stopped producing them.

[blank]

Oh, dude...are you serious? I'm "playing" that -fest Syberia right now, and it's the feeblest piece of trash gaming I've ever been contaminated with.

Syberia is in an exploration of exactly how tedious and devoid of challenge an adventure game can be. A total failure.

Oh, what fun, to wander aimlessly from one hand-drawn static picture to another back-and-forth, back-and-forth searching for a hotspot to click on (what irony in the protagonist's name, Kate WALKER - get it? - she's named after what she does all game long).

Oh, the thrill of listening to the wooden, flaccid characters explaining their uninteresting, empty lives to the equally insipid heroine. A storyline as bland as an unspiced meatball, and "puzzles" that involve no application of problem-solving or thought; Syberia was a cripplingly painful nail into MY coffin as an old-school fan of this beloved genre.

"Benoit Sokal" as the game's opening sequence proudly proclaims it to be the creation of, whoever on Earth he might be, is clearly a pretentious fool of the worst kind to produce such rubbish.

Conversely, I don't get EmperorLeo about Sam and Max (Episodes) - I really enjoyed that and laughed at plenty of it too. Maybe he's just getting jaded. Broken Sword 4, I admit, was pretty "meh".

Yeah the pixel hunting was horrible i agree. I don't know, maybe why i liked it was because i hadn't played a similar game for a long time...

[Emperor Leo]

Conversely, I don't get EmperorLeo about Sam and Max (Episodes) - I really enjoyed that and laughed at plenty of it too.

It was fun enough, but the jokes feel forced. As if the new developers were trying too hard to create a comedy masterpeice, rather than letting the jokes surface naturally.

[Wibbler]

Broken Sword 3 was pretty good, minus the bizarre end-boss fight.

[Tischdecke]

no, they didn't peak to soon...but the mainstream moved far away from Adventures and other Old Games.

Adventures themselves are no more that popular like they have been in times of Monkey Island.

You can't make real money with them and most of the good studios who made Adventures died out or turned to other games in other Genres (LucasArts)
A few remain (Beneath the Steel Sky 2 is currently planned)

It's the same effect with old Tactical/RPG Games

The normal Consumer doesn't want a 2d Jagged Alliance 3 with good story and gameplay...they want graphics, effects and that with a easy difficulty.
They don't want a Fallout in 2D or from that perspective, they want a Oblivion-Clone without PIPBoy.

They don't want complex and long RPGs anymore, they want Arcades like Kotor or JRPGs were the complete story is more of a movie then a game with choices and the most important is graphic graphics graphics.

Guess you could say, Players are turning more and more dumb

[blank]

They don't want complex and long RPGs anymore, they want Arcades like Kotor or JRPGs were the complete story is more of a movie then a game with choices and the most important is graphic graphics graphics.

Guess you could say, Players are turning more and more dumb

Are you really calling KOTOR and FF "dumb"? Considering the nonsense that made up the majority of 2D p&c plots, i don't see why :hmmm:

[ComnenusTheOne]

Full Throttle......you had full throttleeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

[Emperor Leo]

Full Throttle......you had full throttleeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

:hmmm:Erm...what?

If you are asking about Full Throttle, I thought it was pretty good. Very short (could be completed in an afternoon), but very good.

[dwringer]

Full Throttle was a true work of art, IMO.

Nowdays there are very few adventure games made, tis true, but you can make your own now... it's a program called AGS (adventure game studio, I think) which makes it very simple to make a lucasarts style adventure game with all your own artwork, scripting, animations, etc. Well, as simple as it can be that is

Their site has a lot of independent free adventure games that were made with it, too. Some of them are really great, others (the vast majority) are pretty much trash. Google it and check it out, it certainly never hurt anyone.

It was also used to create remakes of King's Quest I, II, and i think now III which are infinitely superior to the original - all pretty much King's Quest V quality, and KQII includes practically a whole new third to the game.

I've always wanted to make a game with it, but I'd have to collaborate with at least one or two others (don't ask, I'm not interested ) and it's a lot of work.

[Rex Invictus]

The last good adventure game I've played was Discworld Noir. I wish i could turn back the time and play it again. lol.