I’m in the mood for a good old fashioned “adventure” style computer game. My absolute favorite in this genre was Thief 3, a franchise that is alas, no more. I’ve also liked others of this type, but it’s been so long that I can barely remember the titles.
What I’m looking for:
first person / one main character. I don’t want to control a whole group of people.
something not too shooty. I don’t mind some fighting, but I liked the subtlety in Thief 3.
I’m not so much into the realistic games, like Splinter Cell. I like medieval or sci fi or whatever. Magic and technology, that kind of thing.
I like a bit of free form tied in with a good storyline.
No on-line games. I have on-line games, I’m trying to find something that I can play by myself, in 5 minute sessions if that’s all the time I have.
Games I’ve liked and played in the past:
Morrowind
Oblivion ( haven’t finished, though. Maybe I should finish it.)
I’ve played a lot of MMORPGs - EQ, WoW, etc
Neverwinter Nights
The aforementioned Thief 3
(insert a gazillion more that I can’t remember right now)
I’ve considered Syberia, but was a bit put off by the demo when it came out because it had a bit too much structure and not enough storyline. I particularly remember things like not being able to use a cell phone and being told simply “you don’t need to use that right now.” C’mon, guys, come up with something a little more interesting. However, I’ve heard really good reviews of it since I played the demo, and if people like it I could be convinced.
It’s times like this that I wish Tex Murphy adventures were still being made. I’d certainly recommend them to you, but that was Windows 95 era gaming.
Nothing that good has been out since.
Typical Tex Murphy monologue: “Since the building inspector has only one eye and no depth perception, the landlord painted fire extinguishers on the walls. Saved him a bundle.”
Very intuitive interface, wonderful setting(s), little-to-no violence, and a great storyline. My only complaint is that I thought the ending was a little weak. Nothing’s perfect.
There’s a mod for Oblivion called Thieves Arsenal that lets you buy things like water arrows to shoot out light sources, a sap to disable guards, and grease arrows that will make guards fall down stairs.
King’s Quest, Space Quest, and Police Quest were amazing games when I was younger. You can probably by an entire collection (I think they made 6 or so King’s Quests) for a real cheap price now, since they are “older” games, but they will give you hours of tremendous gaming fun with all of the features you mentioned.
I think you’d really, really like Gothic (and Gothic 2, which my computer won’t run). Over the shoulder 3rd person action/RPG with a distinct, engrossing world and really cool battle system, though it takes a while to get used to. It really gets the atmosphere right; more than a few times I gasped as I tried to sneak through an area and one of the beasts noticed me.
Also, I’ve started playing Divine Divinity, an RPG which promises to be quite good, as well. It’s isometric, not 3D, but you’ll only be able to directly control your main character, kinda like Diablo, but with a much deeper world that you can interact with fairly well. For instance, a lot of things you see (like chairs, rocks, etc.) are manipulatable, and you often have to move or combine objects to solve quests or open new paths to explore. Already I’ve faced a quest which can be completed one semi-decent way, and later discovered (through a book lying on the ground in an unrelated shack) that there was a way to do something to an item that would allow me to finish the quest in a much better way.
I came into this thread looking for tips on games I might like, but I have to second the Tex Murphey games. I LOVED these games when they first came out, paticularly Under A Killing Moon and Matian Memorandum.
Indigo Prophecy is the answer - a great neo-noir adventure and mystery game with Lovecraftian supernatural elements. The best game of this type since their heyday in the early nineties.
I thought it was an interesting game, but a bit abrupt. Quite a few things felt undeveloped. Overall it was fun. Played like a demo version of a really great game.
Looking through my games, I see a strong lack of adventure types. There’s a couple of humdingers though. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are brilliant games. Ico is adventure, but puzzle heavy. Shadow of the Colossus is flat out beautiful raising video games to a level nearing art, but it’s short with only so-so replay value.
Prince of Persia lacks the free form elements you want, but games 1 and 3 are good. PoP: Sands of Time is entertaining, but the combat is simplistic. Two Thrones is probably the best of the series. The combat is challenging without being too difficult and the jumping puzzles fall about the same. I’d avoid Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. They tried to make the Prince more X-TREME (!!!)by making him swear, adding more girls in thongs, and letting Godsmack do the music.
Spider Man 2 is a fun little adventure game. You can either attend to the missions as they are prevented or just webswing around town beating on purse snatchers and car jackers.
Is there a way to make Fallout playable on a modern rig? I’ve tried it on my XP machine and it won’t run; from what I’ve heard, it’s not compatible with the DirectX WinXP uses or something.
Anyway, if anyone knows the magic, I’ve kept my Fallout! disc just in case the day comes…
Fallout works for us on XP. Mr. Clawbane was just playing it last night. Maybe a patch is needed? I don’t think so, though. Have you tried installing it? Mr. Clawbane says you do have to turn off sound acceleration in order for the sound to work properly, but it does run fine after that.
Athena have you considered trying American McGee’s Alice? What about Clive Barker’s Undying? Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura? Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines can be very sneaky if you play a Nosferatu. Dungeon Siege 2, maybe? You do have a whole party to control for that though. Have you ever played Plancescape: Torment? If not, do try to track down a copy and play it. It is well worth it. ETA: I second The Longest Journey. That’s a really wonderful game.
Actually, I just re-installed and found out that I can use the Program Compatibility Wizard to “scale back” my Windows version. Setting it to Win 95, 256 colors and 640x480 mode allowed me to visit Shady Sands once more!
I remember the fuss made about Martian Memorandum because it was the first computer game featuring digitized images of real people for all of the characters (this would have been about '92 or '93). Oh for the days when we thought using real people in games was a cool idea.
I do have to give some love to the original Mean Streets, too.
You want Bioshock, but that’s not out yet. Okay. You want System Shock 2, made by the makers of the Thief series.
Very Sci-fi, not so realistic. You awake as a guard who “voluntarily” (because you can’t really remember volunteering) had a computer uplink installed into your head when the ship you were on (the 1st FTL drive in human history) encountered some… thing that threw the ship into chaos. The surviving humans are being taken consumed by some sort of hive-mind biomass, and the shipboard AI has turned against you. You’re all alone, except for the single voice of an engineer who locked herself away in a hold and needs to direct you into retaking the ship, or at least figuring out what the hell happened to it and fleeing.
Don’t like shooting? Sneak around, hack security cameras, or teach yourself to be psychic (ok, it’s not that easy) and throw balls of fire around at everything that moves. It’s not online, and while the story isn’t great, it’s told in an incredibly immersive fashion.
“But it’s ooooold…” you’re whining. Psh! Some kind folks whipped up HD textures and there’s been some updated models floating around for a while, but I tend to think they make the Midwives look more goofy than ghastly.
And after you’ve played that, and have wept and gritted your teeth against the horror and cursed my name unto a thousand generations for introducting you to SS2, go find Deus Ex (the original, not the sequel).
I don’t know how well they fit with your preferences, but have you looked at the Myst series? Myst, Riven, Exile, etc. No fighting but lots of puzzles.
Loved Mean Streets and got it when it came out. Some of the first digitized voices in a game ever – didn’t use a sound card because nobody had one (that long ago, yes!) but managed to make realistic if very tinny voices come out of the PC speaker.
The other games were well-written and very enjoyable but suffered from having an engine and design motif that didn’t stay stylish. A game consisting entirely of, basically, non-shooting FPS interspersed with FMV that hadn’t been digitally rendered – well, the alternative was using the 3D technology of the time, and it wasn’t good enough that the fanbase trusted it.
But then Microsoft bought them and proceeded to do nothing with the license. The last “What’s New” on the unofficial site looks to be 2 years old and the forums are basically dead.
