The greatest Adventure Games of all time... as voted by YOU!

[Stupot]

I haven't played any Broken Sword game...

You should rectify this situation... soon.

[Anym]

I can see the point for MI2 being liked better, because it was larger. It probably offered more value for you money back in the day. I stand by statement that it sacrificed plot development and pacing for puzzle depth, so it's probably down to which of those aspects of an adventure game one deems more important.

I agree that MI3 seems overrated at fifth place. Maybe because people were lumping it together with the rest of the series (although many explicitly excluded MI4), but I wonder if availability is a factor, too. Is MI3 the most easily available game of its series? Are people more likely to have played MI3 than Indy 4 or GF?

I don't think I can attribute LSL1's (relatively) strong showing as the highest rated AGI game to anything but nostalgia. If it's just the "mature" humor LSL6 or LSL7 from the same series seem to be superior in almost all aspects and the best that can be said for LSL1 is probably that it's better than KQ1. It's short, deaths and dead-ends are gratuitous and the puzzles are a bit on the unimaginative side. I have very fond memories of LSL1, dating back to the time when my English was so bad that the age check questions were a serious obstacle, but among the greatest of all time it isn't.

While I expected The Dig to be one of the less popular LucasArts games, I can't say I really understand it. I know that many people and some reviewers didn't like it, but personally, I much prefer it to S&M, for example. I think it has a though stand as LucasArts' most serious adventure game, but that can't really be the gist of it, seeing that serious titles by other companies also did respectably, despite (or maybe even because) the dominance of humorous titles in the genre as a whole.

Blueskirt, I'm sorry to say, but I don't think AITD even got a single "vote". Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and the non-existing LSL4 (two "votes" each) got more than that! It probably didn't feel enough like an adventure for it to be considered by most people. If we extend the genre beyond what's commonly accepted, though, I really would have liked to see Star Control II (The Ur-Quan Masters for you open-source types) on the list as well. Come to think of it, what do you call adventures, which clearly are adventures, but are neither parser-driven, nor point-and-click? What's GF? A walk-and-click?

I totally agree with the list insofar that I think Revolution Software was the second best adventure game maker, ahead of Sierra and Adventuresoft and the others.

[blueskirt]

I agree, CMI probably scored so high partly because of the hype behind Monkey Island and partly because it was actually a good game, it's not the still awaited Ron Gilbert's MI3, but I think the persons behind it did more to keep the quality, humor, feel and atmosphere than any fangame makers will even dream of. EMI's 8 votes on the other hand were only because it had "Monkey Island" in the title.

LSL1 is out of place, as I can see nearly every games with 8 votes taking its place, even LSL6 & 7 could have. I suppose it was just lucky to get one more vote than the rest.

Blueskirt, I'm sorry to say, but I don't think AITD even got a single "vote". Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and the non-existing LSL4 (two "votes" each) got more than that!

It's rather strange, if you go on any abandonware websites, there's a kind of general agreement that AITD is simply one of the best abandonware title out there. It got a complex story, inventory, puzzles, exploration... I suppose people are just quick to shun or rate as "action game" any adventure game with a bit of action in them. But with the popularity of spooky AGS adventure games in the last year, I think it's about time someone start taking bit from AITD to put them in their games.

Coktel Vision did some pretty good games too, Lost In Time, Ween, the Gobliiins series, but it's true that Revolution is hard to beat with BASS and the Broken Sword series.

[bspeers]

No RL&BAT = No list.

[Snarky]

Access may only have one series worth mentioning to its name, but The Pandora Directive alone puts it up there with the greats. (To me, this is the most glaring omission from the list, though from the relatively homogeneous selection it's clear why it's not on there.)

Also, Westwood, of all companies, has a respectable catalog, what with Hand of Fate and Blade Runner.

[Domino]

*cough* I like myst.

I have played 2 Myst games and i am afraid i don't have the IQ required to beat the damn games. Even jotting down notes in a notebook couldn't help me solve any of them.

[The Ivy]

Did anyone else ever play "The Riddle of Master Lu" starring Robert Ripley? The puzzles were fantastic, and  it had FMV characters and photorealistic (for the time) backgrounds. I'll bring it to the next Mittens if I can wrestle it away from my little siblings.

[Joseph DiPerla]

I figured we should start a real poll. Pass this info around and choose your favorite Adventure Game on my website.

PLEASE NOTE THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW:

THERE IS A QUICKER POLL HERE: http://energon-plant.com/ehome/index.php?option=com_pollask=results&id=16&Itemid=124

PLEASE: Dont vote on each poll. Rather, find your favorite game and select it and vote and then leave the other polls alone. You can see the results on the page itself.

I will close the polls at the end of October. So start voting now. Only vote once please for accurate results. Thanks.

[blueskirt]

If I can comment on your poll, Quest For Glory and Hero's Quest are the same game and there's a few titles I'd vote for that aren't included.

I'd prefer a forum thread with some rules or restriction to avoid people from voting for all LucasArts games, half of the Sierra library, and every other games they liked in their lifetime because they can't decide which one they liked best. Two or three games (not series) top should be enough.

Then again, unless if we makes one strictly for LucasArts, one for Sierra, one for lesser known companies, and one for AGS games, I don't think a second free-for-all poll is necessary, as the AGS games library shows, the AGS forums mostly gather fans of clean, third person and point and click adventure games, a second poll would give the same results: 70% of LucasArts titles occupying the top positions with Monkey Island 1-2 on top and the others good games fighting for the last 30%.

[Anym]

While not all that popular, RLBAT was the highest-rated non-Trilby, non-remake AGS game (with three "votes").

AITD certainly has some adventure elements, but I'm still hesitant to call it an adventure, rather than an action-adventure or a survival horror game. Of course, the definition of what constitutes an "adventure" is vague at best, but a definition that includes AITD would IMHO also have to include games as diverse as Another World, Planescape: Torment and Legend of Zelda.

Joseph DiPerla, sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, but if you wanted your polls to be taken seriously, you might have wanted to put a little more effort into them, like using a script that allows for more than twelve different options in a single poll and that allows users to suggest additional options, especially as the current selection of games is a mixed bag. There are redundant entries (The Dig), misspelled (Phreddy Pharcass) and mis-titled entries (Secret of Monkey Island 2), non-existing entries (LSL4), arguably non-adventure entries (Cyberia), lots of missing entries (for example any of the adventures by Coktel Vision, Cryo or Yahtzee, but also many Sierra titles) and no discernible (alphabetical, chronological, by company) way of ordering the options to find what you'd want to vote for. Also, good luck with getting anything near 280 votes by the end of October.

[LimpingFish]

While not all that popular, RLBAT was the highest-rated non-Trilby, non-remake AGS game (with three "votes").

RLBAT is shite. Always has been. Get over it, people.

Coktel Vision...

Yes, I want to see more votes for Emmanuelle: A Game of Eroticism, Geisha, and Fascination! I wish people still made bad europorn-esque adventures. :'(

Bargon Attack wasn't that bad, though. And Ween: The Prophecy. Never liked Gobliins. Woodruff and Scnibble was okay. Can't remember any more.

[Joseph DiPerla]

Joseph DiPerla, sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, but if you wanted your polls to be taken seriously, you might have wanted to put a little more effort into them, like using a script that allows for more than twelve different options in a single poll and that allows users to suggest additional options, especially as the current selection of games is a mixed bag. There are redundant entries (The Dig), misspelled (Phreddy Pharcass) and mis-titled entries (Secret of Monkey Island 2), non-existing entries (LSL4), arguably non-adventure entries (Cyberia), lots of missing entries (for example any of the adventures by Coktel Vision, Cryo or Yahtzee, but also many Sierra titles) and no discernible (alphabetical, chronological, by company) way of ordering the options to find what you'd want to vote for. Also, good luck with getting anything near 280 votes by the end of October.

Actually, I already got 12 votes on my page already in just one day and my web statistics point that those came from this forum. :p

But you are right. I was doing this at work during lunch and didn't have much time to make a proper poll. So I have added a new component to the site and I am editing the polls as we speak.

There are a few things I am going to do that you suggested and not others. I am not going to put this in Alphabetical order or in Company order. If you know your favorite game, it should come to you and you could do a ctrl-f and search for it.

I will make the corrections. Also please state any other games that are not on there that you would want to see.

[Wellington]

Yes, The Riddle of Master Lu was BRILLIANT. Some superb puzzles there.