Korgoth of Barbaria
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2015
- Messages
- 1,261
The first computer games I ever played were Sierra On-Line adventure games, notably King's Quest and Space Quest. I got a bit older and in my teens for a time was big into RPGs like Baldur's Gate, and Diablo, and then action-adventure games like Kingdom Hearts.
As an adult I began earlier this year to revisit CRPG's, and I played Oblivion, Morrowind and Skyrim for the first time, and then also began playing Baldur's Gate I and II again for the first time in over a decade; I plan to soon start Fallout for the first time, and also lately have been getting into classic shooters like Quake.
And after this, I find going back to adventure games hard.
I came across a blog on CRPGs, and the blog writer stated this:
Fallout was an adventure game, but it came complete with stats, reactivity and combat system as well: a pure cRPG.
And cRPGs are inherently superior to adventure games. There is nothing adventure games do better than cRPGs.
Adventure games only exist post-Fallout because of ignorance, inertia and the casual demographic that loves on-rails narrative and cinematization.
Fallout was like the best adventure game you had ever played, multiplied by 100.
Anyone can program adventure games; as a rule, their code-bases and mechanics are basic. But hardly anyone can make cRPGs like Fallout.
And three decades of history attests to that being fact. There is only one Fallout game. Two if we admit Fallout 2. Three if we admit Arcanum. But there are thousands of copy-pasta adventure games influenced by the soulless slop scribbled by Sierra in 1984.
I do not agree with her in totality, of course, but I do wonder:
1) What do adventure games offer that other genres like the classic Western CRPG cannot?
2) Why did adventure games remain popular for a few years even alongside the original Diablo (1996) and Baldur's Gate (1998)?
3) Can there be anything more done to the adventure genre to modernize it without ruining it?
For example, as a start, making an adventure game fundamentally replayable? Adding an element of a party to an adventure game? Adding skills and leveling without adding combat? Multiple solutions to every puzzle?
As an adult I began earlier this year to revisit CRPG's, and I played Oblivion, Morrowind and Skyrim for the first time, and then also began playing Baldur's Gate I and II again for the first time in over a decade; I plan to soon start Fallout for the first time, and also lately have been getting into classic shooters like Quake.
And after this, I find going back to adventure games hard.
I came across a blog on CRPGs, and the blog writer stated this:
Fallout was an adventure game, but it came complete with stats, reactivity and combat system as well: a pure cRPG.
And cRPGs are inherently superior to adventure games. There is nothing adventure games do better than cRPGs.
Adventure games only exist post-Fallout because of ignorance, inertia and the casual demographic that loves on-rails narrative and cinematization.
Fallout was like the best adventure game you had ever played, multiplied by 100.
Anyone can program adventure games; as a rule, their code-bases and mechanics are basic. But hardly anyone can make cRPGs like Fallout.
And three decades of history attests to that being fact. There is only one Fallout game. Two if we admit Fallout 2. Three if we admit Arcanum. But there are thousands of copy-pasta adventure games influenced by the soulless slop scribbled by Sierra in 1984.
I do not agree with her in totality, of course, but I do wonder:
1) What do adventure games offer that other genres like the classic Western CRPG cannot?
2) Why did adventure games remain popular for a few years even alongside the original Diablo (1996) and Baldur's Gate (1998)?
3) Can there be anything more done to the adventure genre to modernize it without ruining it?
For example, as a start, making an adventure game fundamentally replayable? Adding an element of a party to an adventure game? Adding skills and leveling without adding combat? Multiple solutions to every puzzle?
