Fri 29 May 2009
The Adventure Genre: Mistreated, or Simply Misunderstood?
Posted by Martin Mulrooney under Features, Games & Game Design
[9] Comments
Are adventures perceived as old and rusty?
As a long time adventure gamer, it has constantly amazed me over the years how the genre has gone from being gloriously at the forefront of interactive entertainment in the early 90′s, to now emerge as the downtrodden and shunted, would-rather-be-forgotten cousin of computer games in general. I often wonder why there has became such a sharp contrast in critical opinion of these games?
By no means am i suggesting that an adventure game, by its nature, will be a good one. Certainly, the classics of the genre often seem behind us, with the shift of Lucasarts in particular towards 3D Star Wars and Indiana Jones games indicating that this won’t change anytime soon.
Still, it saddens me to realize that a lot of good adventure games seem to be put down now simply because of the genre they happen to come under. Take, for example, the following review (from a well known British newspaper).
To explain how I am reasoning this line of thought in the first place, please let me place it in to some sort of context. Recently, as a student journalist and freelance writer, I was happy to be able to start writing articles for Adventure Classic Gaming. The first one was to be a review of the newly released adventure game Ceville. And as I read the above text in my newspaper having just finished the game myself, I first became angry, then slightly saddened.
By no means am I suggesting that a reviewer is not entitled to their opinion. Regardless of what people may claim in the name of fairness, I have to argue that a review is in actuality inherently bias anyway, no matter how balanced. It all boils down to personal opinion! However, as I was myself thinking about how to review Ceville, the ignorance of the above review quite frankly insulted me.
Now sure, I am fully aware that overall adventure games haven’t advanced much over the years. It is seldom possible today for a developer to get the kind of money they would have received in the past to make a 2D adventure game, hand drawn and lavishly produced. 3D seems here to stay, and the 3D of the likes of Ceville is never going to match something like Heavy Rain, due out on the PS3 later this year, or the heavy hitters of the FPS action world like Killzone 2 or Bioshock.
Still, adventure gamers know this. Adventure games are arguably not even held in direct comparison to these games. I myself have always been a Playstation gamer. I love sneaking around in Metal Gear Solid, crawling through the rain, shooting guards. I also love escaping from the cops in GTA, my radio blaring, the whole world open to explore.
Still, this doesn’t stop me loving the slow, story heavy experience that is an adventure game. Using the mouse to simply click away, relaxed, absorbed, admiring the little things. The details. The script. The music. I am not the only one. Grim Fandango may have used the keyboard to control Manny, but the main ingredients were all present that I have described, and many fan sites are still going strong over 10 years later to remember this fantastic gaming experience. Also, the graphics still have enough charm and identity to easily still stand out in a world of powerhouse computers and consoles, showing that sometimes, a strong story and great art direction is all it takes to prevail and endure.
The review that sparked this article in the first place begins: “This is billed as an adventure game, though its static screens and point-and-click interface fail to live up to that description.” This in itself is a shock to me. Correct me if I am wrong, but the adventure genre is often known for its static screens and point and click interface? I may as well review Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3 and criticize Konami for not allowing me to be able to speak to the enemies and offer them items from my inventory.
Phrases such as “the patience of a saint” and “dull as dishwater” may sound effective, but they actually do little to expand on the actual reasons why this is the case, beyond the reviewer obviously despising the identity of the game in the first place.
This wasn’t the best game in the world, and I only gave it 3 stars myself, but it is an insult to everyone involved to so flippantly condemn it and destroy it in a major newspaper just because of a view of disdain for the adventure genre in general. The bog standard GTA clone Wheelman got 3 stars on the same page simply because of all the whizz and bang on offer. I have noticed this consistently on many major gaming websites with regards to adventure games over the years. It seems that only specifically adventure-focused websites can address these games for the target audience they were intended for, and give what a review should be in the first place: an assessment of how well something performs, in contrast to what was actually expected of it in the first place.
To conclude this ramble, I would like to say that I truly hope the genre starts getting the respect it deserves. It sew the seeds of gaming way back before virtual shooting and driving was even possible. And I still think the best action games are the ones that incorporate the traits of the adventure games of yesteryear to involve the player on the same level as a good book or film, with story at the forefront of the experience.
I wonder if other adventure gamers ever feel the same sense of loss that I do over these issues? Or perhaps it is better to be part of a select club of gamers who don’t care about living slightly in the past, regardless of the views of the mainstream gaming press. Afterall, where else can you have bottomless pockets, endless walking energy and interrogate complete strangers on a whim?
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More writings from the article’s author – Martin Mulrooney – can be found at his own Alternative Magazine Online and at Adventure Classic Gaming. And if you’d like to check out his famous Grim Fandango tattoo you should see here.
Well, I think that when you say “adventure”, you mean the genre, which really often boasts static screens and point-and-click interface (though, are the screens in Ceville really static?).Well, and the reviewer just meant an adventure as “an exciting journey”.
In my opinion, the flaws of the adventure genre are that it often presents a great story, but you play a non-significant role in it, even if you are a king, prince or a dictator, your choices are not choices per se, but just some guesses about what the game creators want you to do. When the developers also employ “humorous” logic, it becomes unbearable.
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Thanks for your comment on Martin’s article, Ilya.
You’re certainly right about what the reviewer meant. And he has full right to have this kind of opinion. However, I agree with Martin that the problem is the reviewer clearly didn’t have any idea about the adventure game genre in general. Similarly, you could give an action game to a reviewer who would complain that he is forced to kill other characters in it. It is rather pointless.
The “flaw” you mention of not having choices with far-reaching consequences is inherent into creating a game with a linear story. I know many people prefer non-linear stories in games, but they their own limitations and, most importantly, higher budget requirements.
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Ilya, thank you for you comments! Whilst I agree the reviewer probably referred to the term ‘adventure’ as the journey undertaken in the game, its usage here, especially with regards to a game from within this specific genre, in my eyes showed a certain level of ignorance.
As Igor also kindly pointed out, I would not consider a linear adventure game inherently ‘flawed’. I myself love a wide variety of games, but I know when I play an adventure game what to expect, including the genres strengths and weaknesses. As a reviewer, I feel therefore that to condemn a game such as Ceville for being simply faithful to its generic aspirations comes across as lazy journalism.
I may as well complain that I don’t like the latest Grand Theft Auto because you can’t solve puzzles in it!
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Well, maybe the author was telling what’s the game worth for the majority of people which the newspaper is made for. I imagine it’s not a gaming paper, right?
Also, speaking of linearity, there are ways to keep the story linear AND give the player some freedom with it.
For example, take my least liked puzzle from the demo (as I haven’t played Ceville in its entirety), where Ceville has to disguise himself as a chief to pass by the guards. You have to do some ridiculous preparations, all in hope that, when falling into the cellar, the chief will leave behind his hat (which would be enough of a disguise). Of course, that being an adventure, the cook does leave the hat behind, and Ceville manages to fool the guards, but for me that isn’t a satisfactory turn of events, as it works not in “real reality”, or “Ceville’s reality”, but in “adventure reality”.
Why, for example, Ceville can’t just ask the cook to give him the hat (and the jacket as well)? He’s the king, and the cook is still his loyal servant! it won’t change the general plot, but the player will be satisfied as he filled in some details the way he wanted.
I highly recommend you to have a look at a game called Rise of the Argonauts. It gives you probably hundreds of choices at different situations, most of which have no effect on the plot, but you still feel good as you were given an opportunity to choose (also, each choice somehow aligns you with one of the four gods, which in turn give you some benefits – sadly, for battle only).
One such example is when your hero is saying a burial speech for his friend. He can choose from the variants:
“Argos was…” – “a crafty shipwright”, “a good friend”, “a brave man”, “a loving father”. And, though your choice will only give you some “points of favour” and won’t change the course of the adventure, it makes you think how you related to this character.
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I think it would be beneficial to separate the issue of the reviewer’s fairness in Ceville’s case and the general question which you raise if there’s something inherently silly in the usual solutions to puzzles in adventure games.
In my opinion it’s just that the puzzle design in adventure games can be very uneven. There can be brilliant puzzles between ones that can make you angry because of the assumptions you are required to make for them to make sense as a concept. Similarly many games of other genres offer well designed levels and lots of content in some places (usually in the first half of the game), but they are unimaginative and repetitive in other parts. Games that are well-thought-out all the way through are very rare.
I never played Rise of the Argonauts, but dialogue variants such as you give an example of are nothing new to adventure games – in fact that’s the genre that invented them (you could even use this system to create your own poems in Grim Fandango). However, there’s currently a strong tendency toward simplifications in that and other areas of adventure games connected to budgetary reasons and the hope of reaching the casual market (which is a different topic).
I’m eagerly waiting to see what Tales of Monkey Island will bring to the table (or bring back from the old days), because it could influence the direction the genre will go from the point where we are now.
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I understand in some ways where you are coming from. Indeed in Ceville there is much twisted logic. However I doubt the game would be very long if everything was reality based, for example if he simply asked the chef for his hat, etc. Whereas I quite liked the humourous puzzles and enjoyed their twisted logic, it is obviously something that you are not partial to, and that is of course personal preference, which is fine! Again though, the nature of the game, of course deriving from slapstick and sillyness, should have hinted that the puzzles were never going to match the maturity of a more seriously toned game, for example Syberia.
The game you descibed sounds very interesting and I shall definately check it out. I am fully aware as a Playstation 3 gamer that more choice is available in other genres. Right now I am playing the new release Infamous, where I am an electrically powered super hero. As I am being good, and protecting the people, they chant my name and ask me to pose for photographs. If I had chosen to be evil, they would have thrown rocks at me and tried to mob me.
Still, as I previously mentioned, adventure games and their method of telling a more linear plot have always appealed to me greatly. What is sacrificed with regards to variety and player input can be more than made up for if the story and characters are up to scratch. Sometimes puzzles can be frustrating if all logic is lost. I think Ceville has enough of its own established logic to make the puzzles relatively accessable. Again though I did only give the game 3 out of 5 stars myself!
http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/reviews/482/
The article here of course was less out of love for Ceville, and more out of love for what is in my eyes a constantly misunderstood genre in the mainstream media.
You even hit the nail on the head yourself!
“Well, maybe the author was telling what’s the game worth for the majority of people which the newspaper is made for. I imagine it’s not a gaming paper, right?”
The author was reviewing the game, on the games page, in a small supplement that covers books, cinema, theatre etc, that comes free with the newspaper. The fact that the paper is not a specifically gaming orientated one does not excuse a mainstream mentality that automatically downgrades anything more niche market. As an adventure gamer, I may have read that review and decided not to buy the game because it sounds so awful! If there is a football game that gets 5 stars, but you don’t like football, should it be 1 star? A game should be reviewed with the target audience in mind, as should anything else. Again, this writer neglected his duty as a reviewer when he condemned the game for having an identity it so obviously thrived to attain in the first place.
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>I understand in some ways where you are coming from. Indeed in Ceville there is much twisted logic. However I doubt the game would be very long if everything was reality based, for example if he simply asked the chef for his hat, etc. Whereas I quite liked the humourous puzzles and enjoyed their twisted logic, it is obviously something that you are not partial to, and that is of course personal preference, which is fine!
Well, there’s two things:
1) The game haven’t to be long to be good.
2) The puzzles haven’t to be twisted to be humorous. Imagine if he asked “Your clothes… give them to me, now” in the Terminator’s robotic tone, and maybe also with a red glint in one of his eyes, or measuring the cook in “Cevillevision” parodying Terminator vision. The puzzle would be simple, but enjoyable because of unpredictable outcome. It’s much more fun than pulling your hair while chasing a wild goose, if you let me mix my metaphors.
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I think you misunderstood the comment I made about length, I simply meant that for this game, the logic is twisted on purpose: that is the very nature of the satirical fantasy genre that was chosen. If the game broke away from this and used bog standard logic for the puzzles already present, it wouldn’t be a very long game simply because it would be overly straight forward.
The example you gave for a self-made puzzle put forward a fair point, yet again though I think we have moved off topic! If you read the review I gave Ceville, I never praised the puzzles or said it was the best game ever made. I just meant that the review used in my article so blatently focused on all the negatives, and non of the positives, either due to an ignorance or indifference towards the adventure, that it simply wasn’t fair on the creaters of Ceville. (Nor fans of the adventure genre, who, believe it or not, are gamers too!)
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I’m with you guys on this one. I’ve been playing adventure games since they were invented (text only), and reviewing them in a semi-professional capacity for over 12 years now.
The mainstream press consistently marks adventure games down a good 10% below games from other genres simply because the reviewers just don’t ‘grok’ adventure games. They always seem to be comparing apples to oranges.
Of course, there is the occasional reviewer who does ‘get it’. Then the game gets a fair review (not necessarily positive, mind you. Just fair). Otherwise, you can just feel the bad vibes coming through from the very first sentence of the review :-\
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