List of adventure games that innovate

[blueskirt]

The discussion over the new Sam and Max thread and the various list of horror adventure games I saw here in the last months got me wondering, why not a list of adventure games that are worth being played because they innovated and brought new ideas in the classic adventure game genre.

You knows, games like Quest For Glory for adding RPG elements into adventure games.

Maniac Mansion and its multiple characters, a concept which was pushed to the next level with Day of the Tentacle and Gobliins 2.

Loom with its unique GUI, or Full Throttle with its really blunt coin-verb interface.

Monkey Island 1's insult sword fighting.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade's multiple solutions, non-linearity and for castle Brunwald, which was possibly the best evil guys's lair in an adventure game, I haven't seen a concept like that until the Hitman series.

Adventures in a Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment, for adding ressources trading, fighting and subquests.

Did I miss some? (I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface of the list)

[Helm]

Nice thread! I'll contribute when I remember stuff.

KGB for real-time spy-thriller hijinx (could have been done before but hey)

Captain Blood for Alien Space Language

Dreamweb for picking-up-everything. You have to think what will come useful and what not, not just click everywhere.

[MrColossal]

May I make a suggestion? How about listing parts of adventure games that innovate. It seems that's what you did anyway but I think it's easier to find innovative pieces in games rather than whole games that innovate.

Demons Tomb: A text adventure I bought for a dollar. The first part of the game has you trapped in a tomb with a fire raging. You have a few moves to protect as many relics as you can and then find some way of guiding someone to where you hid the relics. The second part of the game [that I never quite got into after that smash opening] was about your son [I believe] and he comes across the tomb not knowing it's where someone died. The played and replayed the opening to this game so many times.

[Helm]

Tex Murphy games: in-game discussions where you could dead-end if you didn't treat your responses well enough. A wonderful break from the 'take the dialogue tree from the top' common.

Deja Vu: open-endedness, BREAK EVERY WINDOW, LEAVE EVERY FAUCET RUNNING, PICK UP EVERYTHING, BECOME A HUMAN, LIVE FOREVER. Um.

Azrael's Tear : first 3d adventure game I played where the 3d extremely enhanced the mood.

Bad Mojo: Along with Gobliiins games, mostly situational, physical puzzles, no 'verb list' to talk of. You're a cockroach.

Lure of the Temptress: Roaming NPCs, giving orders 'go there, talk to this man'. Underimplemented and not really fun to play but still, innovative.

Bioforge : Bionic arm pointer, heh! Seriously, underrated clone of...

Alone in the Dark: Beginning of survival horror. Vector main characters on bitmap backounds, the begigging of 'cinematic' camera placement, for good or worse.

Blade Runner: extreme open-endedness.

Neuromancer: 'net hacking in adventure games. Furthured by Bloodnet and Hell.

Dark Seed: 'shadow' world.

[sergiocornaga]

In Memoriam/Missing added a lot of things previously unknown to the genre (if you can call it an adventure game) and I have no doubt that Experience112 will also show huge innovation.

[MrColossal]

Can you elaborate for those who haven't played? In spoiler tags if need be.

[Nostradamus]

Blue Skirt, Galaxy of Fantabulous Woderment is not an original concept, it's a Star Control clone \ style.

Additions to lists of innovations:
Leisure Suit Larry - 1) sex + adventure game, hitting on girls a concept copyed by various
                                 japanese game makers
                               2) Original concept of copy protections\underage protection in LSL1.

Broken Sword - combining an interesting true historical story as the subject of an adventure game.

Brokwn Sword 3 - keyboard GUI in a PC game that works like a console GUI basically

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Nostradamus, BS 1 wasn't the first. Gabriel Knight did that. And maybe even games before Gabe, though not as high-profile. And even if it is arguable whether the glove fits Gabe 1, it's certainly good with Gabe 2, in which the story of Ludwig II is central to the plot.

7th Guest - first FMV game.

King's Quest 1 - first game where you could move characters around in a graphical environment.

Maniac Mansion - first point and click interface in adventures... I think.

Beyond Good and Evil - an extraordinary mish-mash of genres in which Adventure is the predominant one, and which pulls it off magnificently. Attempted before, but never this well.

The Last Express - to quote Helm, "extreme open-endedness".

Police Quest - possibly the first adventure game to actually simulate something (like playing F15 games makes you simulate flying) that required you to learn how to behave. Which is to say, you had to think like a cop, instead of thinking like a game player.

Normality - can it have been the first 1st-person 3D game evah? Not sure.

Grim Fandango - first unanimously sucessfull of keyboard usage in the mouse/point&click era.

[GarageGothic]

Rui posted while I was writing, but nevertheless:

Broken Sword - combining an interesting true historical story as the subject of an adventure game.

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993)
Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within (1995)
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (1996)

Conclusion: Derivative piece of crap

And my own contribution:

Gold Rush - Multilinear, three distinct paths through middle part of game. City of Boston as a "living world" where characters move around and events happen independent of the player character.

[ManicMatt]

Police Quest - possibly the first adventure game to actually simulate something (like playing F15 games makes you simulate flying) that required you to learn how to behave. Which is to say, you had to think like a cop, instead of thinking like a game player.

But then punished you severly by ending your game if you so much as forget to have a shave. (Okay I doubt that was in there, but it's an example)

I get your point, however.

What was the first adventure game to include speech?

[Helm]

YOU DIE OF SHAME in Police Quest if you go out in a towel, from the showers. THAT'S what I call police work simulation. Of course I agree PQ is more a 'think like a cop' than a 'be a gameplayer' all the way through, just had to say this.

[SSH]

er... Loom, anyone?

[Mikko]

SSH:

- - Loom with its unique GUI - -

[GarageGothic]

What was the first adventure game to include speech?

Mean Streets?

[m0ds]

The Dig: 2D ILM-animated artwork (to a degree)...intense! It's not really a factor of gameplay but the complexity of the visual aspect of these games is definitely something to admire. Especially because of the industries money in bringing 3D to life nowadays, where as just watching this kind of artwork was as innovative as hell to me back in the early days of adventuring.

[hedgefield]

In Memoriam/Missing added a lot of things previously unknown to the genre (if you can call it an adventure game)

I absolutely loved the concept. In Memoriam is a pretty recent game that uses internet and email to immerse you into the story. The game's disc is supposed to be a copy of a disc full of riddles that a serial killer handed to the police. When you solve all puzzles, you'll know where the killer keeps his two hostages. To solve the puzzles you'll have to search on the internet. They made a lot of special sites that have info for the puzzles hidden somewhere within it. You also get emails from NPC's with hints and such. Faxes and phonecalls are also possible I believe. It really requires a lot of thinking, and some puzzles can be quite hard and eventually repetitive, but the mood is very appealing.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

The problem is, once it's over, it's really over. ZERO replay value, and most adventures have SOME replay value. In Memoriam has ZERO, because of the very thing it does - it simulates a real-life situation. And if it's done once, really, it should be really done, right?

Also... faxes and phonecalls? First I heard of it...

[InCreator]

KGB for real-time spy-thriller hijinx (could have been done before but hey)

SO seconded!

Dreamweb (too) - but I see it more like a superb atmosphere creation and cyberpunk beginner's manual.

Countdown - "How to do horror in simple steps"

Amazon: Guardians of Eden - "How to hint player"

Police Quest 4 - Reality might be the best setting, if atmosphere is built well

Fascination - A way to make an enjoyable game out of total mess. and how to ruin it with very final puzzle

[Nostradamus]

Leisure Suit Larry 7 - The first and to my knowledge ONLY game ever to use a THIRD sense in the gaming experience with the genius Cybersniff 2000 the Scratch-N-Sniff, scratch the page with your fingernail and SMELL the scenery 



LSL7 I believ was also the first adventure game where the narrator was joking and ripping on the player character.

And for all the people who pointed out I was wrong about BS and historical subject saying GK did that before OK you were right, I never played GK.
HOWEVER Gabriel Knight wasn't the first adventure game to use a historical story either, the real first game ever to use a historical story was Conquest of Camelot (1989). SO THERE ! 

[Helm]

Conquest of Camelot is based on realistic locations and time-period, but is invented faux-history in the subject at hand. Arthur going to conquer the heathens and find the holy grail? But perhaps I'm wrong.

LSL7 I believ was also the first adventure game where the narrator was joking and ripping on the player character.

I think sierra games started doing that from the first space quest or something. A lot was 'oh poor roger' but I think earlier games made the player-playing-adventure-game breakage quite sooner than LSL7.