I have a confession to make. I don't spend all my gaming time playing adventures. In fact, it would be fair to say that the majority of my gaming time is spent playing non-adventures. That said, I still have a leaning towards games that at least try to have a plot and challenge the brain as well as the reflexes. Through an eclectic mix of games I've come to the conclusion that, far from being dead, the adventure genre has been disseminating itself in all the other genres for years. In fact, with many games coming with editors to create your own scenarios, I've found many home-brew modules that are adventure games in all but name.

To illustrate what I mean, I'd like to draw your attention to a pair of modules for Neverwinter Nights I've recently completed. I present to you the psychological horror duology that is elegia eternum and excrucio eternum.

The first, "elegia eternum", starts off as pretty standard RPG fare: a character on a quest for a famous relic of awesome power. (To destroy or use for yourself. No one said you had to be good.) But there's a very strange body on the road, a mysterious light that thinks you "could be useful" and an inn whose inhabitants are acting oddly. You soon find your own fate locked into that of the inn's owner and her children. You must free them to free yourself.

"excrucio eternum" begins soon after the completion of the first module. An apparent chance encounter on the road results in you blacking out. A series of visions of death and mayhem, always with you at the centre, follow. You then wake to find yourself in a mental asylum, apparently on the staff. Why is everyone calling you "agent", what do your nightmare visions mean, and who is the mysterious stranger that apparently brought you here?

A good sword arm will only get you so far in these modules. It would be wrong to say there isn't any fighting (more in the first than the second) but killing monsters won't advance you, as there aren't enough experience points available to level up. In fact, most of the time, using the sword means you've failed to find a better way.

excrucio eternum : The linking device.

This means that you have to use that puzzle-solving brain you've been honing on adventure games for years to get on. The big centrepiece puzzle of the second game involves a device the lead villain has created to link him to eight people in a way that grants him immortality. To defeat him you must find the eight (a challenge in itself) and then find a way to sever the links. Yes, killing them works (it's hard to stay linked to a dead person) but freeing them from the links instead is infinitely more satisfying.

The plotting is also top-notch with well-rounded characters. This is especially apparent in the bad guys who are not pantomime villains but have real depth (though at times I thought they were merely evil personified).

So if you want to give something with an adventure game feel outside the bounds of the genre a try, you could do worse than download these two modules. "elegia eternum"only requires v1.30 of the original Neverwinter Nights. "excrutio eternum" requires the expansion Shadows of Undrentide and v1.61. If you like these then browse the vaults in the links provided. There are a lot of adventure games masquerading under another name to be found.