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Adventure Games Thread 2019 - The Liveliest Dead Genre There Ever Was
- Thread starter Vampire On Titus
- Start date
- |OT|
TripleSun
Member
Seems this newsletter was put out from Frogwares about the whole debacle
Seems we were right, they were able to retain Crimes & Punishment on Steam and GoG but the console listings were permanently removed. They are trying to get those listings back. They said it could take several months if everything goes according to plan.
So sad that they even have to go through this nightmare in the first place. Hopefully in the future people think twice about using Focus Home as their publisher.
Also here's a quote from the newsletter:
"Downloads of the free digital booklet highlighting memories, stories and art throughout the various Sherlock games developed by the studio can be obtained via:
I guess it's for all the support they've received from fans about the situation. Very nice of them
Seems we were right, they were able to retain Crimes & Punishment on Steam and GoG but the console listings were permanently removed. They are trying to get those listings back. They said it could take several months if everything goes according to plan.
So sad that they even have to go through this nightmare in the first place. Hopefully in the future people think twice about using Focus Home as their publisher.
Also here's a quote from the newsletter:
"Downloads of the free digital booklet highlighting memories, stories and art throughout the various Sherlock games developed by the studio can be obtained via:
- GOG: Use the redeem code SWEETTHANKS at gog.com/redeem
- Steam: As a free DLC on the Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishment store page*
- Direct download from Frogwares http://bit.ly/2VeCWju"
I guess it's for all the support they've received from fans about the situation. Very nice of them
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Vampire On Titus
Member
United Label began putting out a developer diary series for Roki. Fairly interesting background info and a lot of fantastic looking art, especially for such a small team.
Roki continues to be one of the cooler looking in development adventures, imo. I love the look of the environments, characters and creatures. They've been pretty close to the vest with pre release media and was feeling somewhat sketchy about that winter 2019 release date. Thankfully they're showing off some more, now, and it's looking super clean. Didn't even know there was gonna be VA but, hey, that's awesome.
Neat trailer for indie horror adventure game: Purgatory. There's a lot of pixel art retro games these days but the developers for Purgatory have said they're specifically going for a "Gameboy" feel. Or rather a "Gameboy with updated lighting and Vfx" feel. In any case, I do think it stands out somewhat. I also dig the character designs. According to the steam page the game will be released "when you least expect it"
Roki continues to be one of the cooler looking in development adventures, imo. I love the look of the environments, characters and creatures. They've been pretty close to the vest with pre release media and was feeling somewhat sketchy about that winter 2019 release date. Thankfully they're showing off some more, now, and it's looking super clean. Didn't even know there was gonna be VA but, hey, that's awesome.
Neat trailer for indie horror adventure game: Purgatory. There's a lot of pixel art retro games these days but the developers for Purgatory have said they're specifically going for a "Gameboy" feel. Or rather a "Gameboy with updated lighting and Vfx" feel. In any case, I do think it stands out somewhat. I also dig the character designs. According to the steam page the game will be released "when you least expect it"
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hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
https://www.gog.com/promo/20191004_promo_launch_frogwares_games this may be if interest to some here.
Vampire On Titus
Member
New game from Amanita Design (Machinarium, Samorost, CHUCHEL). As with many of their games, it looks like a neat and novel concept. Apparently it's expanding on a one off gameplay sequence in Samorost 3. Good to see them still working in the genre as they're simultaneously developing their first non-adventure game: Creaks. Which looks like a rad puzzle-platformer in its own right.
YouTube Description said:
Vampire On Titus
Member
Newly announced post apocalyptic, isometric adventure game called "Rauniot" from Finnish game developer Act Normal Games. The style seems similar to games from The Brotherhood like Cayne, Stasis and the upcoming Beautiful Desolation. As well as Utopia Syndrome, which I posted about a while back. The running theme with all these isometric adventures seems to be that they're drop dead gorgeous. Details are somewhat sparse for Rauniot right now but I'm already very into the atmosphere evoked in these shots and like the look of the protagonist.
Act Normal Games Website
Rauniot Website
Steam Page
Steam Page said:
Official Website said:
Act Normal Games Website
Rauniot Website
Steam Page
frogmeetsdog
Member
Great catch. Downloaded it to my Apple Arcade account as soon as I read your post and Pilgrims certainly is a lot of fun. The game design is novel plus intriguing and that‘s coming from someone who usually isn‘t the biggest fan of Amanita‘s games (Machinarium certainly isn‘t bad and I get why it was a hit for a lot of ppl but I - at least for the most part - just need my dialogue. Couldn‘t stand Samorost 3 though while I thought Chuchel to be ok but nothing to write home about)
This game though, well, can’t exactly put my finger on it, but it has a lot of charm. Only pity is that it‘s over much too quickly (45 mins to 1h 30 mins MAX) and even though there is a little replay value by earning all of the 45 achievements the game could‘ve become a personal PnC GOTY contender if there‘d been at least triple the content of what there is now.
Getting why this was released for AA though. Considering the current App Store athmosphere people would already complain if this had been a standalone title for just 99c.
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frogmeetsdog
Member
Rather bad rviews for Bradwell Conspiracy on Apple Arcade so far. Regarding the available PnCs there’s definitely room for improvement in the catalogue: Jenny LeClue is fun but nothing groundbreaking for now. Personally, Tangle Tower and Murder Mystery Machine rather have turned out to be disappointments so far (out of different reasons).
Don‘t get me wrong, there are still plenty of good to great games on AA and it continues to be a steal - But hope they‘ll step up their game with the PnC genre. Especially in that regard, I can‚‘t wait for Beyond the Steel Sky.
Don‘t get me wrong, there are still plenty of good to great games on AA and it continues to be a steal - But hope they‘ll step up their game with the PnC genre. Especially in that regard, I can‚‘t wait for Beyond the Steel Sky.
Vampire On Titus
Member
3 Minutes to Midnight launched a KickStarter for their game. Fairly lofty goal of just under 60k but a solid start as they've already got 5k and 100+ backers at the time of this post.
frogmeetsdog
I know you've had your eye on this game. You might also be interested to know they're stating a forthright intention of including tons of puzzles and challenging ones at that.
I know this is something that a fair few recent games have been lacking for you. So, there you go, at least in terms of what they're saying this game should have your back.
frogmeetsdog
I know you've had your eye on this game. You might also be interested to know they're stating a forthright intention of including tons of puzzles and challenging ones at that.I know this is something that a fair few recent games have been lacking for you. So, there you go, at least in terms of what they're saying this game should have your back.
Vampire On Titus
Member
So, kind of a weird story... But also pretty cool? Maybe? If it works out? Evidently a previously unknown indie studio named NineZyme Entertainment is making a new Laura Bow game. Which is cool, because despite me only having played the Colonel's Bequest about half way and admiring the Dagger of Amon Ra from afar, I really like Laura Bow. Here's the thing, though, NineZyme Entertainment doesn't strictly speaking have the rights to make the game. Activision is the current rights holder and NineZyme is kinda just winging it hoping to eventually get their approval. So aside from the sneaking suspicion that there's no way this game is actually happening, it seems pretty cool. It's called Laura Bow & The Mechanical Codex. They're shooting for a 2022 release date.
Laura Bow & The Mechanical Codex Official Website
Adventure Gamers article with some more information.
Art Station page with concept pieces for the game.
I like the look of the artwork (although Laura does look a bit young) and respect the teams guts. Hopefully this gambit pays off in there favor because it's not like anyone else is gonna do something with the series.
Laura Bow & The Mechanical Codex Official Website
Adventure Gamers article with some more information.
Art Station page with concept pieces for the game.
Website Description said:
I like the look of the artwork (although Laura does look a bit young) and respect the teams guts. Hopefully this gambit pays off in there favor because it's not like anyone else is gonna do something with the series.
Fuz
Banned
Never played any Laura Bow, they sounded super cool and I always wanted to play them but they ended up in the "I'll play it later" then the "forgotten" mind folders.
Anyway. I don't like the cartoony art style chosen. In any case, I don't think this has a chance to happen.
Anyway. I don't like the cartoony art style chosen. In any case, I don't think this has a chance to happen.
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Vampire On Titus
Member
Yeah, almost definitely. There's about a million ways the project is screwed. I'm actually kinda surprised they haven't been C&D'd already considering they contacted Activision. Probably should have gone the spiritual successor route like Crimson Diamond.
Yeah I'm pretty sure that's how it works in the first game but from what I can recall it actually wasn't too bad. I don't think there are actually very many of those events you can miss. I'll play through them both one day.
Fuz
Banned
Oh right, that too.
This is actually much more interesting to me.
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
Back in the day I desperately wanted to play The Colonel's Bequest - it looked so good in the adverts though weirdly I never saw a review in ST Format - maybe I missed it in the tiny number of issues I didn't buy. I looked at it more recently and it looked like ass (and I'm pretty tolerant of old games - I still fire up ST and Amiga games fairly frequently). That new art style doesn't do it for me sadly.
Fuz
Banned
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
https://www.neogaf.com/threads/scum...oduced-and-now-supports-blade-runner.1506388/ Just in case anyone missed it. Should make it easier to play the greatest adventure game of all time.
Vampire On Titus
Member
Fuz
Banned
Yeah, she's great.
Fuz
Banned
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Vampire On Titus
Member
Charles Cecil's new talk at EGX London: Redefining The Rules of Adventure Writing - How Beyond A Steel Sky Is Breaking Ground. It's actually a quite good talk that covers a lot of ground relating to Revolution Software's history and shows off some cool game play footage for Beyond A Steel Sky. One thing I really appreciate is that every time I see something new from this game the visuals have noticeably improved. The scene they've showed off in every trailer so far -- where Foster is walking up a small hill overlooking Union City -- has really come a long way from the initial Apple Arcade reveal.
Edit: It's up on YT now.
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I've never tried to play that game but it is available on GOG. Is that the version you're playing? Because if so GOG support might be able to help you.
Edit: It's up on YT now.
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I've never tried to play that game but it is available on GOG. Is that the version you're playing? Because if so GOG support might be able to help you.
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Vampire On Titus
Member
frogmeetsdog
Making my way through ToonStruck and it's a really great game. In some ways I almost can't believe it was made. The style of animation and tone of ToonStruck's humor is a total throwback to a particular style of subversive 90's cartoon. The WB & Spielberg collaborative stuff like Freakazoid, Animaniacs or Tiny Toons. Which makes sense, obviously, because it's from that era and there's even a lot of shared voice talent. Still, even for that style, ToonStruck feels like it's pushing boundaries. I certainly didn't expect a wise cracking, tough guy, bowling alley owner dressed in a tutu to launch a bowling ball out of his ass.It really is just a thoroughly weird game. It starts out weird enough being a Roger Rabbit style FMV-ish adventure starring Christopher Lloyd as a struggling cartoonist and only gets weirder from there. And I really appreciate the game for that. The puzzles are good too. So far they're comfortably in the "toon logic, not moon logic" range of lateral thinking. Which is what you wan't for a comedy adventure. There's nothing on the mind bendingly brilliant level of, say, DoTT but it's all good stuff and I'm having fun with it.
So far so good. I'll probably finish it within the week.
Been hearing a lot of good things about this around here and on Twitter. Metascore is surprisingly high as well. When people are throwing out Planescape Torment comparisons, that's nothing to sneeze at. I'm definitely going to give it a look.
Fuz
Banned
Think of a Torment in a different setting with no combat.
I think the devs aimed straight for this - the game starts in the same way and there's a journey to self discovery.
In any case, for me this is the real Torment 2.
Fuck Numenera.
TripleSun
Member
Only thing that makes me hesitant is how political I've been hearing the game is. If I'm wrong, I'll be sure to buy it. I just thought it was about a murder so I was a little set back about that. I don't want to spend $40 for them to preach their politics down my throat is all.
silentstorm
Member
So far, it's only some people talking and you can decide what your character's beliefs are, that's it, but the one guy who wouldn't shut up and insult you was one i could shut up through the magic of punching his face and then spin kicking him while he was down.
I was playing as a pacifist, but damn me if that character wasn't so annoying it felt worth it to break character.
I was playing as a pacifist, but damn me if that character wasn't so annoying it felt worth it to break character.
TripleSun
Member
Cool thanks for the reply. The dialogue I've seen so far seems very far out. Good it is living up to the hype
silentstorm
silentstorm
Vampire On Titus
Member
Finished ToonStruck. The second half of the game was so much fun I just blazed through it without stopping. Nefarious' castle is a good example of ramping up the difficulty for the late game without going overboard. It's open ended enough that you have to think but there isn't so much possibility that it's paralyzing. Some of the puzzles are really creative too. I think my favorites were getting rid of the alligators in the bathroom and the lounge room. Both solutions were the culmination of so many different steps and the payoff for each was perfect on account of those well animated, genuinely funny, cut-scenes.
There's a satisfying wrap up too. I do think the final battle itself between Nefarious and Fluffy Bun Bun could have been a bit more epic than just everyone crashing into each other. I also would have liked a scene where we get to save the real King Hugh and see where he's been. Still, Drew and Flux have their moment and the final scenes with Ben Stein wrap things up nicely. Even with the set up to a sequel that will never happen I think ToonStruck is a great self contained experience. I'd without hesitation call it a classic adventure game. The tone/style of comedy is a lot different than classic LucasArts games but in terms of quality I'd put it up there with many of them.
Glad I played it. Thanks
frogmeetsdog
, for giving me a push in the right direction.
There's a satisfying wrap up too. I do think the final battle itself between Nefarious and Fluffy Bun Bun could have been a bit more epic than just everyone crashing into each other. I also would have liked a scene where we get to save the real King Hugh and see where he's been. Still, Drew and Flux have their moment and the final scenes with Ben Stein wrap things up nicely. Even with the set up to a sequel that will never happen I think ToonStruck is a great self contained experience. I'd without hesitation call it a classic adventure game. The tone/style of comedy is a lot different than classic LucasArts games but in terms of quality I'd put it up there with many of them.
Glad I played it. Thanks
frogmeetsdog
, for giving me a push in the right direction.
silentstorm
Member
So far, i recommend not Save Scumming, since it's a dialogue based game, you can still proceed and solve the case even if you somehow fail all skill checks, and this game isn't the kind where winning is always good, oh no, sometimes failing leads to a better outcome or NPC's liking you more and being more willing to talk to you.Cool thanks for the reply. The dialogue I've seen so far seems very far out. Good it is living up to the hype
Also, your very Skills or emotions talk to you and give you advice, aside from Kim, they are essentially your party and...their advice isn't always the greatest, except for Volition from what i hear, the skill that makes you less likely to lose morale, from what i hear, he is the one and only Skill of yours that always gives you good advice and actively tries to help, but you can just ignore him if you want.
Fuz
Banned
It's very political. On every side. But it's political done right, it doesn't really take a stand and it's not preachy.
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Vampire On Titus
Member
Trailer for the 33rd installment in HER Interactive's quite long running Nancy Drew adventure series. I'm not sure there's a longer running, more prolific series of adventure games. I've never played one myself but I have seen a few streams of them, as well as the recent Pushing Up Roses review for one of the games, and save for clunky visuals they actually seem well made.
This new game is, evidently, a big departure from the rest of the series. The are (relatively) modernized and there's a new voice actress for Nancy. However, from what can be gleaned in a few brief snippets, the sleuthing and puzzling that the series is known for seems to have remained in tact.
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
silentstorm
Member
Heck, one character does mention your ideology at the end, but it's mostly in a way to see if your actions follow your beliefs or if there is a contrast, me, i was a moralist, which is basically a centrist who believes in doing small things and actions to change the world rather that being far right or left.
And then said character says that despite my beliefs, i keep doing crazy stuff that no normal moralist would do, and even sometimes just say weird and irrational stuff, you can even make it so that you things of two wildly different stances in an equal measure which will confuse said character even more, like him saying you are a communist and a fascist at the same time somehow, or maybe noting you being casually pretty racist but then acting like races aren't even a thing.
Makes it more fun to be weird when you know you can talk to someone who will mention your political ideology at the end, sadly, i don't think it's possible to confuse said character to a point where he becames speechless, shrugs off and just says "I guess he believes in something...and maybe he acts on it, hell if i know!" because i would have loved if the developers included that.
Vampire On Titus
Member
New Blacksad gameplay video. First one with a substantial uninterrupted length of gameplay. Im about 10 minutes in and there are some rough edges (a few subtitles dont match and choppy lip sync from certain characters) but overall it's looking quite good. I hope there's a way to turn off some of the notifications the game gives you because being alerted every time you have enough clues to make a new deduction is a bit too hand holdy for me. Even the TellTale games had an option to turn stuff like that off so I'm hoping Pendulo included it as well.
Looking forward to playing the game next week. November 5th is right around the corner.
Edit: Watched the rest of it and the quality fluctuates noticeably. The one cut-scene where O'Leary is holding the dog hostage looks great and even the lip sync is good. Then immediately after when Blacksad is being questioned (which seems like an odd bottleneck to show off in your gameplay demo) O'Leary's mouth literally does not move while he's talking. There's also certain scenes that seem oddly quiet and would benefit from some music added in.
Despite this stuff I do think I'll still really enjoy the game but some of it is jarring and I can imagine other players not being so forgiving. It looks like the Pendulo could stand to get another 2 or so to keep polishing things up.
'
Also, Afterparty is out tomorrow and it's been getting very good reviews so far. I still need to play through Oxenfree and I did get it for free on EGS so maybe I'll actually play one of those games I downloaded, for once.
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GreenAlien
Member
Not a new game, but Dracula 4 and 5 are free on steam right now. For a few hours anyway.
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Vampire On Titus
Member
During Dave GIlbert's Adventure X's talk this morning he announced that Technobabylon 2's development is being halted indefinitely due to health complications with James Dearden. Apparently James is chipping away at it when he can find the time but there's no projected date or milestones as of right now.
All I can say is I wholeheartedly hope James gets well ASAP. I love his work and I hope he's healthy and creating again like I'm sure he wants to be.
All I can say is I wholeheartedly hope James gets well ASAP. I love his work and I hope he's healthy and creating again like I'm sure he wants to be.
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hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
Hope he's ok - I absolutely loved Technobabylon.
Vampire On Titus
Member
Roki's live presentation from Indies Uncovered at EGX Berlin. First proper gameplay demo of Roki that I've seen and it looks really good. This seems to be the brief, early, puzzle chain that's been written up in most of the game's previews. The visual design and setting really steal the show. All the locales look great and the creature designs and animation are brimming with personality.
I'm starting to worry about the game. Not the design but if the gameplay trailer they just dropped is where they're at, currently, then the game should be delayed. The sound design is barely present and there are noticeable glitches (audio dropping, missing animations) which just shouldn't be the case for a video the publisher is choosing to show off a week from release. Oddly enough the French version of the same gameplay demo has more sound effects and music, but still not as much as you'd expect.
Someone on the Steam forums speculated that the footage might be from back before they delayed the game a few months to finish polishing it up. That the publisher had those videos ready to go for the initial September release and just used them? It would explain why certain versions are more finished than others. But why wouldn't you just cut new trailers?
I'm hoping for the best and I'll find out in a week. They pushed it back to November 15th from the 5th. I'm pretty sure just to have everything align with the physical release of the game.
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frogmeetsdog
Member
Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack looks pretty cool. Gotta check out the demo, If done right especially time travel mechanics can lead to many great puzzles (Hi DotT).
Hope it‘ll get funded, still 26 days left and goal is not too high.
Hope it‘ll get funded, still 26 days left and goal is not too high.
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frogmeetsdog
Member
Looks as if Blacksad release is getting delayed for a few days yet again (now it‘s 14th according to their Steam page, after 11th and 5th (and September) before). Looks as if they’ve got to iron out some issues. The PS4 version seems to have dropped accidentally on November 5th but the Publisher strongly recommended waiting for a patch - Looks as if their November 5th version still lacked the last polish (no idea if this is fixed yet, I’ll rather wait for the PC release).
Even though the game looks a bit “Telltale-y” I‘ve got faith in Pendulo that it’ll be more than a storydriven choice game. Just finished Yesterday Origins and it was really good. Especially the puzzles. Also liked the Runaway trilogy a lot (except for some of the 2nd part maybe) - Guess they’ll try a bit of a new approach with Blacksad (with more choices and a few branching storylines) as they nearly went out of business before they found Microids as new publisher and I don’t think Origins sold very well but hopefully at the heart they’ll stick to what they do best: A good story combined with strong puzzles. Anyway, looking forward to the game’s release, hope 14th it is this time.
Even though the game looks a bit “Telltale-y” I‘ve got faith in Pendulo that it’ll be more than a storydriven choice game. Just finished Yesterday Origins and it was really good. Especially the puzzles. Also liked the Runaway trilogy a lot (except for some of the 2nd part maybe) - Guess they’ll try a bit of a new approach with Blacksad (with more choices and a few branching storylines) as they nearly went out of business before they found Microids as new publisher and I don’t think Origins sold very well but hopefully at the heart they’ll stick to what they do best: A good story combined with strong puzzles. Anyway, looking forward to the game’s release, hope 14th it is this time.
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Vampire On Titus
Member
frogmeetsdog
From the gameplay videos it looks like the main puzzle mechanic is very similar to Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishments or the Ace Investigations adventures. You're going to be going around looking for clues and then combining evidence in a menu to make deductions. There may be some other one off logic puzzles here and there (as in C&P) but I'm assuming that's the bulk of the puzzling in Blacksad. So yeah, more exploring and thinking than you're typical post-2012 TellTale adventure.BTW Here is Microids' statement on the leak and what the day 1 patch is supposed to fix:
So despite the use of the word "musics" not boding extremely well for this games translation (mostly joking), I'll temper my expectations until I get my hands on the game. The list of improvements covers a lot of my complaints at face value. Hopefully the polish is better at launch than that gameplay video suggests.
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