[Hamham Chan]

Originally Posted by inm8#2

When this is all over it would be great to have a poll in which we can all rank our top 20 or so games from the Top 100 list and get a readers' version.

Good idea. Let's make it happen.

[Datadog]

I'm sad to see DOTT go down so far on the list. Bring back the old list!

Actually, it's funny that they swapped my #3 pick for my #1 pick. Grim Fandango's always been a favorite of mine. The only criticism I have towards it is how obscure the puzzles and objectives get in Year 4.

DOTT will always be the perfect game for me - a perfect balance of exploration and puzzle-solving that serve to make the game both easy and challenging. Both that one and KQ6 are traditional adventures polished to perfection (in fact, I think KQ6 deserves additional cred for being the only adventure game where I LOVE playing the maze.)

KQ4 probably should have had a spot in there for all the ground it break. The graphics, the music, the female protagonist, the day/night cycles, the atmosphere... it would be in my top twenty anyway.

[Agustin]

Originally Posted by iqzulk

Because then you will be also bound to drag in Bioforge, Silent Hill 1-2 and Eternal Darkness.

I could make a very strong case for AITD being better than any Silent Hill and surely Bioforge and others. At any rate, I would consider the title more adventure-y than, say, Penumbra and overall better. It's arguably one of the greatest and most influential designs ever made (I remember one magazine in 1992 claiming it was the best piece of software ever coded).

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by Agustin

I could make a very strong case for AITD being better than any Silent Hill and surely Bioforge and others. At any rate, I would consider the title more adventure-y than, say, Penumbra and overall better. It's arguably one of the greatest and most influential designs ever made (I remember one magazine in 1992 claiming it was the best piece of software ever coded).

Sorry, AITD and Eternal Darkness are both great games, with the exception that Eternal Darkness did everything AITD should of done, especially Lovecraftian-wise. I would of put ED in place of AITD for the sure fact that it is everything that a lovecraft adventure is about. Combat, Psychological Effects, Puzzles, Adventure, and a GREAT story.

[Agustin]

Originally Posted by Monolith

Sorry, AITD and Eternal Darkness are both great games, with the exception that Eternal Darkness did everything AITD should of done, especially Lovecraftian-wise. I would of put ED in place of AITD for the sure fact that it is everything that a lovecraft adventure is about. Combat, Psychological Effects, Puzzles, Adventure, and a GREAT story.

Sorry, you lost me when you said "Lovecraft" and "combat" in the same line

Just kidding, didn't play Eternal Darkness but I would still likely put AITD higher for its historical significance. It's the eternal dilemma, whether you take into consideration influence vs. actual quality or not, but in the case of AITD this is just too important to disregard. This is a game that kickstarted a whole new bloody genre! And at the time of its release, it was the supreme horror game.

[aimless]

Originally Posted by subbi

Ironically though, both number 1 and 2 are the hardest to get working properly on todays machines.

subbi, I had a lot of trouble with Grim on XP until I downloaded the launcher Try that. You shouldn't have to make any adjustments for it although running as admin is a good idea. It works for me on Windows 7, too.

[smulan]

An interesting and overall good list, but there are three games that should have made it also, in my opinion: The PC-titles The Lost Crown and Culpa Innata and the DS-title Flower Sun and Rain.

[inm8#2]

Originally Posted by inm8#2

My prediction for the Top 10:

10. The Pandora Directive
9. Portal 2
8. Riven
7. The Longest Journey
6. The Last Express
5. Grim Fandango
4. Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
3. Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within
2. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
1. Day of the Tentacle

The wild card is Grim Fandango. I could see that being #1.

I was too low on GF and TLJ and too high on MI2 and DotT, but my instinct about GF being the wildcard turned out accurate.

I like these kinds of lists because they spur interesting discussion and help me sort out games that I still need to play. Thanks, AdventureGamers!

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by Agustin

I could make a very strong case for AITD being better than any Silent Hill and surely Bioforge and others. At any rate, I would consider the title more adventure-y than, say, Penumbra and overall better. It's arguably one of the greatest and most influential designs ever made (I remember one magazine in 1992 claiming it was the best piece of software ever coded).

We can always keep pushing the bar a little bit further until eventually everything is eligible. But that's the slippery slope argument and you have to draw some lines somewhere. Alone in the Dark is certainly one of those genre-blenders that could go either way. But since it went on to largely spawn a whole new genre of its own, I see no reason to consider it an adventure now. Certainly the bulk of its influence was NOT on the adventure genre, so it's rather insignficant to this list.

I don't see it as more adventurey than Penumbra (note we nominated the second game, not the more action-oriented Overture) or any of the other games on this list, in any case. I remember dying in the very first room of AITD. Admittedly, that's because I wasn't familiar with the controls, but still.

[Agustin]

Originally Posted by Jackal

We can always keep pushing the bar a little bit further until eventually everything is eligible. But that's the slippery slope argument and you have to draw some lines somewhere. Alone in the Dark is certainly one of those genre-blenders that could go either way. But since it went on to largely spawn a whole new genre of its own, I see no reason to consider it an adventure now. Certainly the bulk of its influence was NOT on the adventure genre, so it's rather insignficant to this list.

Agreed, the influences of AITD resulted in a very different genre. But, as I see it, the game came out during the so-called golden age of adventures, and in a sense you could say that it was a classical adventure that introduced combat elements; by the same logic, most of us agree that Quest For Glory is an adventure with lighthearted RPG elements.

Admittedly, the beginning was very unforgiving with the wolf hunting you, but for the vast majority of the game you're solving puzzles. Let me put it this way:

Portal is a game clearly divided into sections or levels that feature puzzles which are an increasingly more complicated variation of the same mechanics, and are of no consequence to the overall story. That is, when you solve those puzzles, you do not care about the story.

AITD allows the players to explore a house in a non-linear fashion, solving puzzles that require use of an inventory and are related to the story (especially near the end), as well as reading documents that help uncover mysteries. It has a very distinct element common to most adventures which is not present in Portal: exploration.

Yes, yes, very lose definitions but I'm trying to make a point here: I'm not saying that Portal is a better game than AITD or vice-versa, but AITD is more adventure than Portal, for sure. Hence why I think it should have been (at least) considered a candidate for this list.

[Lucien21]

Wot!! No Scratches in the top 100 and DOTT is outside the top 5.

This list sucks

[Martin Gantefoehr]

Wow, some impressive list work! Lots and lots of stuff to agree with.

There's really only one thing that I feel is very wrong: Riven's slot in the list.

To me, Myst is the far more influential and creative game. Highly distinctive in its surreal art style, enigmatic, even creepy, beautifully simple and intuitive to play, but hard (-- yet not impossible --) to master.

Riven, on the other hand, is beautiful to look at, but it has a very repetitive kind of beauty. The design is overcomplex and confusing, the game is way too hard, too math-y and too, uh, bureaucratic.

Sure, Riven is still an impressive achivement as a game -- but I think it's really misplaced in a slot that high.

[thejobloshow]

For me, Sam and Max Hit the Road will always be the greatest adventure but Grim Fandango is a ballsy but understandable choice to carry the mantle of...

BEST

ADVENTURE GAME

EVER EVER ever ever eve....

Plus, only in the adventure genre can you have an FMV game score so high! But Gabe Knight deserves it, it's amazing.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by Agustin

Yes, yes, very lose definitions but I'm trying to make a point here: I'm not saying that Portal is a better game than AITD or vice-versa, but AITD is more adventure than Portal, for sure. Hence why I think it should have been (at least) considered a candidate for this list.

I agree. I thought Portal was a strange choice for a top 10 game, let alone being in the list at all. But if you considered AITD you would then have to also consider Time Gate: Knight's Chase, another Infogrames game based on the AITD engine, but more adventure than AITD.

There were a lot of those kind of multi-genre games that could have been looked at. Little Big Adventure, Outcast, Veil of Darkness. Maybe even platform/adventures like Another World, Flashback or Limbo.

I also thought Cruise for a Corpse was pretty great for 1991, despite its bugs. Perhaps it could have replaced one of the many DS games on the list.

And yes, Death Gate needed to be in the top 100.

Even more importantly: Where was The Lost Crown? It definitely should have replaced Dark Fall. It's probably the best traditional horror adventure I've played.

[Kurufinwe]

In honour of GLaDOS being in the Top-10, let's do some Science! Using the Top-100 as the Absolute Truth about the adventure genre, let's see what we can learn...

Best designer of all time

I've actually given up trying to do this rigorously, since the results are going to depend on how you count people having co-designed games. So, based just on the number of games on the list, the top-10, and the #1 game, I'm going to say that the King of Adventures is

Tim Schaffer

But since many of his games were collaborations (MI1, MI2, DotT), one could also make a case for Jane Jensen. Science is powerless to settle this question.



Best adventure company in the Universe

Looking at the number of games on the list, there is no competition:
Sierra: 15
LucasArts: 11 (out of only 14 published adventures!)
Activision, AdventureSoft, Cing, Microids, Presto: 3

If you take quality into account, giving 1 point for game #100, 31 points for game #70, etc., the picture is slightly different, with the following top-10:

Sierra wins, but only by a hair's breadth. Seriously, what was the point of doing a Top-100 if doesn't even manage to unequivocally settle the rivalry between Sierra and LucasArts?!

Bonus question (left as an exercise to the reader): out of these 10 companies, how many are nowadays still in business and still making adventure games?



The homeland of adventure games

We all know that the list is full of American games. But can you guess what other countries are represented?

And how huge is the US domination overall? Let's look at the top-5:

Adventures may not be selling as much in the US anymore, but with almost 2/3 of the games on the list, there's no doubt that the US is the homeland of adventure gaming.

I thought there were two surprises in this Top-5. (1) Japan ranking at #3, with 7 games, 6 of which are on the Nintendo DS. Clearly this little console has made quite an impression. (2) Canada at #4. Who might've known... I originally suspected that Jack had tipped the scales, but The Riddle of Master Lu, Myst III, Syberia 1 & 2 and Still Life are all legitimate games. So next time you hear about Canada, forget about the reindeer and Celine Dion, think "adventure games"!


And that's it for now! I'll post more stats from the top-100 in an upcoming post, including the disturbing truth about the most important element in adventure games!

[subbi]

@Aimless,

Yes, I did try the launcher, but this must have been a while ago.
I remember that the game did freeze/lock frequently on a computer with a multi core processor.
I think I'll try it again with the latest version and see if this is still the case.

For The Longest Journey, did anyone ever fix the AA issue when applying the hardware rendering mode?
I know the character models look quite poor in software rendering mode. But also with hardware rendering enables ik kind of looks bad if you cannot use some AA, especially on bigger screens.
A final option is to play in windowed mode using only the orginal resolution. Then you won't notice the AA issue that much.

[thejobloshow]

Originally Posted by Kurufinwe

Best adventure company in the Universe

Looking at the number of games on the list, there is no competition:
Sierra: 15
LucasArts: 11 (out of only 14 published adventures!)
Activision, AdventureSoft, Cing, Microids, Presto: 3

If you take into account ratio of listed games to adventure games developed then LucasArts beats out Sierra easily.

For LucasArts to constantly create such top shelf games is really impressive. They're the Kubrick of adventure.

P.S. Has anyone started looking through eBay?

[AnneS]

A great list, and since I've only played a quarter of the games on it I have some serious catching up to do.

And yaaaaaaaaaay Grim Fandango! My favourite adventure game of all time (quite possibly my favourite game of all time) and a worthy holder of the crown.

Speaking of crowns, though, here are the games that I'd have put on a top-whatever list that missed out on a slot ...

Gray Matter: I know it wasn't particularly well-received after all the anticipation, but I file this under 'games the internet found disappointing that I adore' along with Dragon Age 2. I've played better adventure games, but none that was so perfectly on my wavelength. I loved the characters, story and puzzles, and especially the magic trick interface. Yes, it probably helps that I've never played Gabriel Knight and had no particular expectations, but I'd still have liked to see it on the list.

The Lost Crown: To me, this is the list's most shocking omission. It's a great ghost story with one of the most immersive and fascinating environments in the genre, and I can't wait for the sequel.

Scratches: Hands down, the scariest game I've ever played. (Admittedly, I have never played Amnesia. I know my limits.) A dozen times I wanted to stop, but the compelling story drove me onwards to the finale. Here's hoping Asylum is even better. (I cannot really hope it is scarier, because then I would have to play it in broad daylight with all the lights in the house switched on.)

[Agustin]

Originally Posted by Oscar

I agree. I thought Portal was a strange choice for a top 10 game, let alone being in the list at all. But if you considered AITD you would then have to also consider Time Gate: Knight's Chase, another Infogrames game based on the AITD engine, but more adventure than AITD.

Here's what I think: yes, Time Gate is even closer to a traditional adventure, but definitely not Top 100 material. It's a cute game but nothing to write home about.

As for the others: LBA, Outcast, Another World, etc... I believe you're crossing a line there. I'd say those are RPGs, platform or action games with adventure elements (and terrific titles alright).

Cruise for a Corpse was strong but, if I had to pick one game that represents Delphine adventures, it would be Future Wars. One of those rare instances where the "charm" factor outweighs everything else. In other words, it's a game that doesn't excel in any particular area, but the overall feel or experience, whatever you want to call it, is really, really good.

[diego]

And the winner is...

GF might have got it, but the real winner is the team behind the list - it's a painstaking business where you must be prepared for heavy critics and various "pain in the #@$@%", like myself. But wait, not just yet. Seriously, great job to everyone involved, i think it's the first Top 100 of this sort.

The strongest impression:

The early 90s might have been named the "golden age", but how do we call the second half of the decade then? 7 out of Top 9 games are 95-99 titles.

Madre de Dios!

"Curse" at #45

They forgot the onions!

The Legend of Kyrandia - Hand of Fate. It has to fit in there.

Runaway: A Road Adventure - I absolutely agree third one is the best. However, and looking from the perspective of historical significance - The first Runaway is, more than any other game, a metaphor of genre in "Dark ages" still being capable of producing something which its followers will get a tight grip on, raise in the air and yell to their enemies right into the face: "Mine is prettier than yours!" Not a bad game, too.

Also, a little shocking only TBOUT made it of German developers. Daedalic for example, deserves at least one spot somewhere for everything they've done in last couple of years.

Indy, and especially AGS games, aside from Gemini Rue, could use another mention. They've been the most constant source of games for years and quite possibly one of the main factors of keeping the genre recognition.



Outcast didn't make the list probably because the team didn't consider it, and games like these, to be an option. Like Realms of the Haunting, for example. But, looking at some titles that did make it, the questions arise once more - where is the boundary, and what makes the difference?

But, if one of the goals of Top 100 was to show diversity and vast richness of the adventure genre, AND that adventure games are expanding its territory or maybe - "mainstream" is coming to adventure once more, it succeeded.

I wouldn't further comment top choices. GF is smart and safe choice in a sense that few people really HATE it. I mean, you can attach Myst to the fishing hook and get a good catch. Or Dean Erickson.