Adventure Games–Why Bother?

By Kristian List

Guest writer Kristian List is a writer/developer at Pixeleers,
a Danish company that is developing the upcoming game It
Came for Zog.

Search your soul. Don’t be fooled by all the glossy ads. Ignore the smooth-talking
salesman in his fancy suit. Be honest. Why would anyone play adventure
games? They are boring and completely outdated. That is my initial statement.

Text-typing adventure games have always been boring, but in the early
days of computer gaming, there were no real alternatives. When graphics
entered the scene, action-minded games couldn’t meet the standards of
pre-rendered backgrounds, and so the adventure games were still worth
playing after all. As for today, I probably won’t have to detail the 3D
graphics’ humongous impact on the industry–action-minded games are bigger,
better, and more impressive than ever.

Let’s divide the average adventure game into four parts: story, graphics,
sound, and gameplay.

Stories have been set in all kinds of environments and ages. No big deal.
So, the King’s niece is kidnapped by the purple dragon, guarded by mad
goblins, and you have to find a rusty key at the bottom of a lake? Oh,
now the Scotland Yard has asked you to investigate a mysterious murder
at Tower Bridge? But you’re already busy saving the Earth from an evil
dictator, while trying to infiltrate your sister’s death cult? We’ve heard
it all before …

Yet somehow it seems that storytellers are always able to come up with
something new and unique. It’s often variations of well-known themes like
crime, love, war, and exploding volcanoes, but each story has its own
twists and special characters that makes it interesting and obviously
worth wasting your time on. Perhaps the royal niece is kidnapped by the
King himself and guarded by her own teenage selfishness. Maybe the police
ask you to investigate a murder you yourself have committed, or the dictator
is in fact your evil sister trying to overthrow you. This world will never
run out of good stories.

The visual aspect of adventure games? Give me a break! With the rapidly
evolving 3D technology nowadays, it’s almost embarrassing to look at all
those static, pre-rendered backgrounds. They make me sleepy–and surely
the vapors from the Photoshop airbrush can’t be any good for my lungs
either. When we’ve finally got the tools for making realistic 3D gravity
ball-bouncing worlds, then why even consider playing with paper dolls
and dead billboards?

I’ll tell you why. The graphics support the story. In contrast to fast-paced
action, adventure games let you relax and dwell at each scene. You can
kick back, make a cup of coffee, and enjoy the view. It’s a way of life
really. Nothing disturbs the illusion of a good story like ugly polygons
and box-shaped characters!

When I think of adventure games, all I remember is old, grumpy innkeepers
saying: “Now, what can I do for ya?” out of lipsync … it’s
really the same over and over again. Every single door needs grease, all
the piano bars play the same blue tunes, and the only response I get from
my otherwise intelligent hero is: “That doesn’t work.” The sounds
are running in short, annoying loops that will drive anyone nuts in a
matter of minutes. Why don’t they ship along earplugs for the soundtrack
side of adventure games? I am going insane.

Nevertheless, I wake up sometimes–in bed or at a dull meeting–with
an old adventure game tune in my head. I wake up with a little smile.
Well-composed music does that to me, no matter if I heard in a game or
at a concert. Besides, funny dialogues, one-liners, cracked jokes, and
the taunting from a scurvy pirate are all great quotes for a night out
with your friends. Regardless of the quality from product to product,
intelligent sounds in adventure games will forever outsmart the action
game correlate.

On the issue of surround-sound technology, the obvious has to be an equal
advantage for all sorts of games, though.

The dumbest still is the actual gameplay. You pick up a crowbar in a
Congo jungle hut where it has no relevance whatsoever. Then you carry
it twice around the world in your pocket to finally use it as a golf club
on the North Pole. Hole in one! First prize is an Eskimo lucky charm,
which you take back to the medicine man in Congo … and so on, and so
on. Oh, please? Who’s to believe such an outrageous series of events?
Point and click your way through an untrustworthy story and have your
wrist turn spastic at the same time. No way!

But then again … there is something strangely satisfying in exploring
both Congo and the North Pole and any other place you might think of.
What’s in here? Why are people running around so scared? Wonder what’s
behind that fence? Maybe I can cut a hole in the fence, but all I have
is this stupid crowbar. Oh, that chainsaw looks interesting! How do I
get my hands on that?

Then there’s the whole fascinating aspect of bringing a story onwards,
which is the real catch in adventure games and which action games often
lack completely. Think about it. Don’t you want to see the King’s niece
safe back home by the fireplace? On a bearskin, perhaps?

Keep the adventure games coming. They are still great entertainment and
they cover a large area of the mind that other games can’t reach. I have
changed my opinion. Please do bother!