Adult Adventure Games - Recommend Me Some

[Flanged]

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It's not the "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties" type of stuff I'm after, nor some tentacle-romance monstrosity. I'm looking for something like The Black Dahlia, where you start out simply trying to track down distributors of Nazi propaganda - a believable real-world mystery, with a very dark and sombre atmosphere, even if it later goes a bit more extreme and farther-fetched.

There are quite a few adventure games where you have to track down a serial killer, but the problem is that the serial killers are always some Hannibal Lecter-type dick who creates elaborate puzzles for you to solve, and carries on like a Goth who's read too much Neitzche. This strains credibility, and my patience. I want something mundane and banal in my games! They would therefore be much darker than the average fare - are there any adventure games where you are on the trail of a killer who actually acts like a killer? Leaving raped whores in ditches and never contacting you at any point, except maybe through the odd taunting letter to the cops or the press?

I love the atmosphere and character interaction of the Gabriel Knight games, but they start somewhat removed from reality and then just get further from it until a ridiculous ending pops up. Just for once I would like to play a mystery/detective game set entirely in the real world - it would be even better if it was based on a real life case. Has anyone made an AG (amateur or mod is fine) based on the Son of Sam/Zodiac Killer/Dutroux cases? I suppose a Dutroux one would be a bit much, but there must be at least one decent and realistic procedural detective game out there.

Something realistic set in the spy/intelligence genre would be good too, so long as I'm not facing off with a comical Dr. Evil in it.

Any ideas?

 

[Andyman Messiah]

As someone gravely disappointed by the turn adventure games have taken, what with puzzles being nothing more than puzzles in the literal sense, I too would be very interested in this.

I haven't found any myself.

 

[Quilty]

The old Jack the Ripper game felt a little like what you describe, though it wasn't that much fun to play. Can't really think of any others.

 

[Manny]

Flanged:

Right now, I can only think of Police Quest 4: Open Season. Don't know if you've ever played it. In my opinion, it isn't really a good game. It's average at best, specially because some of the puzzles are stupid and the final part isn't very believable; the main character isn't very interesting too. But the plus side is that the game attempts to be realistic and the beginning is in fact very good: you, a detective with the Police Department, have to investigate the murder of your partner. From here on, you have to follow different leads. I don't want to spoil the rest, but, even though I don't think it presents a great characterization of a killer, at least he never "creates elaborate puzzles for you to solve" and don't act as "a Goth who's read too much Neitzche" neither.

If I think of another game of this sort, I'll post about it.

 

[zeitgeist]

As someone gravely disappointed by the turn adventure games have taken, what with puzzles being nothing more than puzzles in the literal sense,

You mean the adventure version of minigames? Where you play pipemania to fix the plumbing, mastermind to open an electronic lock and so on?

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Sherlock Holmes v Jack the Ripper is pretty good and seems to fit the bill of what you're looking for.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

As someone gravely disappointed by the turn adventure games have taken, what with puzzles being nothing more than puzzles in the literal sense,

You mean the adventure version of minigames? Where you play pipemania to fix the plumbing, mastermind to open an electronic lock and so on?

Yes. That's the reason why I quit playing the remake of Broken Sword after like ten minutes. Hey, there's a door. How about a game of chess to open it? It's not for me.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Hey, there's a door. How about a game of chess to open it?

It seems that adventure game designers really love this minigame shit at the moment.

 

[Jaesun]

Sherlock Holmes v Jack the Ripper is pretty good and seems to fit the bill of what you're looking for.

This.

 

[Eyeball]

For twisted insanity and a number of adult themes handled well: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. Some of the situations in the game are genuinely disturbing and the "morality meter" makes it a game you want to replay at least once for each of the 5 main protagonists to try and get the optimal ending. What other game deals with murder, abandonment, genocide, rape and cannibalism and does it well?

Other than that, download this: http://www.bigbluecup.com/games.php?act ... ail&id=646

Indie, but really, really good.

 

[ghostdog]

fuck that sherlock vs jack shit.

The 2 Lost Files Of Sherlock Holmes games are what you should try :
1 - Case Of The Serrated Blade
2 - Case Of The Rose Tattoo.


Other than that :

Police Quest I - In Pursuit of the Death Angel
Police Quest IV
Cruise For A Corpse
KGB

 

[Crooked Bee]

Case of the Rose Tattoo was pretty good indeed. Hmm, now I realize I've never played the Case of the Serrated Blade. Hmmm.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

I haven't played Cruise for a corpse, is that a mistake I should correct, ghostdog?

edit: Scalpel is better than Tattoo IMO, definitely play it.

 

[Gragt]

What other game deals with murder, abandonment, genocide, rape and cannibalism and does it well?

Dunno, but it isn't IHNM.

 

[Crooked Bee]

edit: Scalpel is better than Tattoo IMO, definitely play it.

Thanks Mr. Horsie! I will.

 

[ghostdog]

I haven't played Cruise for a corpse, is that a mistake I should correct, ghostdog?

It's not a masterpiece, but it's definitely a pretty good detective themed adventure in Agatha Cristie style.


PS: Indeed scalpel is better than rose (even though rose is still damn good)

 

[Manny]

Ghostdog:

What do you think of The Serrated Scalpel? Do you think it is a a great game? Because I played it when it came out and I remember that I really liked it and that it wasn't an easy game; I couldn't even finish it back then (now I think it was because it has a lot of text and so it was difficult for me to read english). But I replayed it two years ago and, well, the game was only ok this time. The graphics, the music, are great: they create a really good atmosphere and you can feel like you are in "holmesian" London. The fact that you can go to some locations when you want is another good feature of the game. But the problem to me were the puzzles. At the beginning they were very good, but as you advance they begin to decline. I will try to explain this.

In the first scene, for example, you have to observe really well the dead body and the enviroment, to look for various details that are important because later you have to remember some of them in order to look for more leads. But this aspect of the game is lost at a point and doesn't reappear. From the middle to the end you advance as in many recent adventure games: without thinking too much (I'm exaggerating a little: at least in this game you have to think which verb to use).

 

[ghostdog]

Ghostdog:

What do you think of The Serrated Scalpel? Do you think it is a a great game? Because I played it when it came out and I remember that I really liked it and that it wasn't an easy game; I couldn't even finish it back then (now I think it was because it has a lot of text and so it was difficult for me to read english). But I replayed it two years ago and, well, the game was only ok this time. The graphics, the music, are great: they create a really good atmosphere and you can feel like you are in "holmesian" London. The fact that you can go to some locations when you want is another good feature of the game. But the problem to me were the puzzles. At the beginning they were very good, but as you advance they begin to decline. I will try to explain this.

In the first scene, for example, you have to observe really well the dead body and the enviroment, to look for various details that are important because later you have to remember some of them in order to look for more leads. But this aspect of the game is lost at a point and doesn't reappear. From the middle to the end you advance as in many recent adventure games: without thinking too much (I'm exaggerating a little: at least in this game you have to think which verb to use).

Scalpel is one of my favorites. Granted the quality of the puzzles varies, but there are some pretty good puzzles in there and the atmosphere is just great, exactly as it should be for a sherlock holmes game. Nostalgia may be tinting a bit my view, because I loved playing it back in late nineties and I spent a huge amount of time trying to figure it out. It can be unforgiving, since you can reach dead ends in the game (I know I did) but all and all I found it a very satisfying experience.

 

[Flanged]

As someone gravely disappointed by the turn adventure games have taken, what with puzzles being nothing more than puzzles in the literal sense, I too would be very interested in this.

I haven't found any myself.

One that might interest you, if you're looking for a semi-adult AG, is Spycraft: The Great Game. I loved that as a youngster, although it suffers from pretty much every failing identified in this thread - ultra-evil omniscient supervillains, minigames up the wazoo (mostly in context, though - no "game of chess to open a door"- type stuff), clunky UIs, and some truly shitty action sequences. Yes, it's got shooting sections. It's FMV too. But it IS kind of grown-up, by the standards of the genre - you get to torture a woman to death in a CIA holding cell, if you want, and have to solve a Kennedy-style assassination by triangulating the bullet trajectories to find out where the shot came from.

If you can keep a straight face through this, you might like it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ63E8R8kd8

Actually, not sure why I'm recommending that at all, except that I enjoyed it, and I'm really looking for a more modern version of this kind of thing.

I hear Floor 13 is something special as well, though it shades into management/text adventure territory.

Flanged:

Right now, I can only think of Police Quest 4: Open Season. Don't know if you've ever played it. In my opinion, it isn't really a good game. It's average at best

I played a Police Quest many moons ago, can't remember which one, on Amiga - played the early Jack The Ripper game too way back then. i liked them both, but have to admit I'm a bit more of a graphics/UI/sound whore now than I was then. Especially sound. An AG's atmosphere stands or falls on it's sound design for me a lot of the time.

Is PQ 4 the one with a Night Stalker-style murderer in it? (Fake Edit: No, that's In Pursuit of the Death Angel that ghostdog mentioned). I think I'll give it a try anyway, can't do any harm. Thanks mate.

Jimbob and Jaesun, I will definitely give Holmes vs Ripper a try. Checked it out on Youtube, looks pretty sweet to me.

Eyeball, I've DLed Mind's Eye, will give it a go as well.

I'm kind of reaching a point where I might try and make something myself in AGS. Made a shit game for it years ago, but I might be better at it now. There are so many good settings for AGs, but there doesn't seem to be anything exactly as I want it.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Spycraft: The Great Game.

Played it, didn't like it. I still remember the torture scene, though.

Floor 13 is pretty awesome.

The Police Quest games are pretty hit and miss, more specifically PQ1-3 are hit and PQ4 is miss. The games are designed as cop simulations so there's a lot of rules you have to follow unless you want a game over. Most of it isn't so bad, but when it gets bad it's never as bad as in Police Quest 4. While the first three games designed by Jim Walls had a clear and fun Sierra adventure game design to them that made the cop simulation parts fun (or at least worth getting through), the Daryl F. Gates game (or games if you count the SWAT series) abandoned that completely. Open Season is dark and riddled with paperwork. If you're going for realism I guess it's alright but I just wish they'd stuck a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle somewhere just to lighten things up a bit.

But yes, I suppose PQ4 is the closest we get to a game that matches the criteria. I remember the killer only shows up like five minutes before the credits roll.

 

[asper]

KGB.

Bad Mojo.

 

[ecliptic]

Haven't played it, but Alter Ego might fall under this category.

 

[Flanged]

double -deleted.

 

[Flanged]

Floor 13 is pretty awesome.

It is. Playing it now. It's got nods to quite a few real-life cases in the missions (murders of Robert Calvi and Jonathon Moyle among others) and a really evil sense of humour. Pretty grown-up stuff. Virtually no sound at all, which would normally be a problem for me, but actually works in it's favour given the type of game it is. You can listen to documentaries about spooks and conspiracies and numbers stations while playing it, and just immerse yourself in the dark side.

KGB is along similar lines I gather, so I'll give that a go for sure. I wouldn't say Bad Mojo counts as being realistic, but everybody seems to agree it's "adult" and a great game.

Alter Ego is... weird. Is this web-questionnaire going to turn out to be an online Scientology auditing or something? Interesting, though, I'll definitely give it a bit of time.

The Daryl F. Gates game (or games if you count the SWAT series) abandoned that completely. Open Season is dark and riddled with paperwork. If you're going for realism I guess it's alright but I just wish they'd stuck a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle somewhere just to lighten things up a bit.

But yes, I suppose PQ4 is the closest we get to a game that matches the criteria. I remember the killer only shows up like five minutes before the credits roll.

It sounds pretty good to me. Mundane workaday drudgery is exactly what I'm looking for in games these days (though I might think different once I see what it consists of). I'm the type who thinks that the turnip-picking, crop-harvesting, and floor-sweeping quests in the Gothic series are among the best bits. Wouldn't want a whole game consisting of only that, but it's enjoyable to NOT play as the god-like mass murderer all the time.

 

[zeitgeist]

You can listen to documentaries about spooks and conspiracies and numbers stations while playing it, and just immerse yourself in the dark side.

Speaking of, has there ever been a game that prominently featured numbers stations in some way?