Old adventure game recommendations?

[Memfis]

I absolutely love the Gobliiins series. Today to my surprise I also managed to beat Woodruff (VERY hard compared to Goblins in my opinion, in the end you have like 30 items and 30 areas available so brute force doesn't help much). What else should I try? I'm especially interested in games that have this similar colorful cartoon\absurd style with solutions that are sometimes almost impossible to come up with and yet they totally make sense in a weird sort of way. But I'm willing to explore other themes as well. Please feel free to recommend even the most obvious stuff, most likely I haven't played it yet.

[[McD] James]

My favourite game in the genre is Sam & Max Hit the Road. That would easily be my top recommendation. The Monkey Island series goes without saying. 

[snapshot]

Sonic Adventure 1 & 2.

[Gez]

I'd recommend Day of the Tentacle and the first Simon the Sorcerer. The Indiana Jones titles were funny too.

[torekk]

I always wanted to beat Beneath a Steel Sky, but haven't yet.

 

And if "old" only applies to the gameplay style, not release date, check out The Whispered World. I really loved that one.

 

Edit: Oh how could I forget Prisoner Of Ice, another title I'd like to play through. Mainly because there's not much Lovecraft-related games, which have to do with the whole Cthulhu myth.

Edited May 31, 2017 by torekk

[fraggle]

Simon the Sorcerer, definitely. Most of the Space Quest games probably match your description of absurd humor. Day of the Tentacle was recently re-released in a remastered form.

[geo]

Zork. NES version of Maniac Mansion. NES version of Shadowgate.

[Albertoni]

Red Comrades Save The World is pretty great, but it's just a bit more modern than you'd like. The absurdity is definitely there though.

 

Everything Lucasarts made is great. The Dig has some absurd/alien stuff going on.

 

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is uh, quite surreal.

 

Gabriel Knight: Sins of The Fathers is possibly my all-time favorite, but it's quite grounded in reality until suddenly zombies for one tenth of the game, then no more zombies. The remastered version is... Ok. Better voice, remixed music, stupidly hard puzzles toned down, but the original graphics were amazing.

 

The Stanley Parable and Jazzpunk aren't point and click, they're FPS adventures. Still, both are deliciously absurd.

[Tetzlaff]

Sanitarium

 

Zork Nemesis

[Cupboard]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Colossus

[dew]

Sam & Max Hit the Road is easily the most fitting choice given your specification. It's colourful, playful and borderline absurd in both plot logic and problem solving.

 

Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, the Monkey Island series (up to and including 3) and Simon the Sorcerer also fit the bill. Simon2 is absolutely fantastic, but it's a bit darker and some people hate what an enormous turbojackass Simon became, heh. The more ridiculous solutions in these games still feel well within that universe's logic, which also makes them slightly easier than Coktel Vision games. Space Quest games are on the other side of that spectrum, pushing the absurdity a bit too far even for a parody game and making players who are not devoted Sierra acolytes howl in frustration. At the far end lies, of course, Discworld. Pixel hunting and bruteforcing ahoy! I believe Toonstruck also belongs on this pile, but I have not played that game.

 

Indiana Jones, Gabriel Knight, Broken Sword, Full Throttle, Beneath A Steel Sky or Innocent Until Caught are all great adventure games, but they play out a straight, non-comedic and often dark story with the character's wiseass quipping providing the humour. Btw I gotta go on a mini-rant, these games sometimes also use obscure solutions and I feel every time it brings me out of immersion a bit. Like, randumb doesn't belong in such games. *insert grumbling about the mustache puzzle in GK3*

 

Zork games are quirky and rather different. It looks like a serious setting, but it constantly interjects with narrator quips, comedic descriptions and non sequitur absurd outcomes. It's one of those hit or miss things where you sign up for the world's logic and enjoy it, or the entire thing slides off you. Another example would be the game adaptations of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon or Gateway.

 

Prisoner of Ice, I Have No Mouth and Sanitarium are great classic point&click adventures too, but it should be noted that they're all serious creepy horrors with uncomfortable themes, heh.

 

If you don't mind cartoon tittilation, there's Leisure Suit Larry, particularly part 7 is a lot of fun and easily the best in the series. It has a part where Bill Clinton does stand-up and cracks lame jokes for an hour. And if you want max score, you gotta sit through it!

 

I'd also personally recommend The Longest Journey, which may not be particularly humorous or cartoony, but it's simply one of the best adventure games ever and the story is charming and fantastic.

[Avoozl]

Quest For Glory series, Full Throttle Remastered, Grim Fandango Remastered, also King's Quest but only 1 to 6 as 7 and 8 were absolutely terrible, Space Quest is another good series. I am not really so sure if I should also recommend the Discworld games, but I only got into them a week ago and haven't yet finished either of them yet.

Edited May 31, 2017 by Avoozl

[Memfis]

Wow, that's a lot, thanks! I wonder what are some of these remastered versions like? I'm often kinda skeptical about such things because from a historical perspective it's more interesting to check out "the one and true original", and the whole idea that old graphics are somehow inferior and need to be upgraded is a bit... insulting maybe?

[Avoozl]

I know Full Throttle Remastered allows you to turn on classic graphics mode, as with Grim Fandango Remastered it has only got a few fixes to the character textures and models but nothing actually major, it pretty much was a slight improvement over the original.

[negke]

Samorost and Machinarium come to mind as somewhat related to Gobliiins in terms of simple click-and-combine type of gameplay, although they are more cute than goofy.

As for cartoon-style adventures, apart from the classics, there are a couple of newer ones, for example the Deponia series and the Runaway games.

 

And for anyone who's into oldschool P&C adventures, there are several very well-made free ones out there. Quoting myself from another forum:

 

Quote

 

I discovered these games accidentally and found them to be quite compelling for some reason. It's a series of four short and easy adventures created by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, centering about a family curse and ancient gods:
1) 5 Days a Stranger
2) 7 Days a Skeptic
3) Trilby's Notes
4) 6 Days a Sacrifice
First, second and fourth game have traditional p&c controls, third one requires commands to be typed in like the old FF/SQ games (sounds annoying, but one gets used to it quickly). The plot is interesting - nothing groundbreakingly new but I liked it, especially the way it's tied together and expanded throughout the games - and the there's plenty pixel gore.
If anyone's in the right mood and has some spare two hours for each game, I recommend giving them a try. Just make sure to play them in the intended order.

 

There are numerous nice amateur P&C adventures based on AGS. Well worth checking out - there's a list on http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk.
Apart from Yahtzee's John DeFoe series, I can for instance recommend The Infinity String (medium length, scifi setting), The Apprentice 1 and 2 (short, medieval/fantasy), and A Tale Of Two Kingdoms (medium, medieval/fantasy). ATOTK is especially cool because there are optional side quests, many puzzles have multiple solutions and there are several endings depending on how you solved them, all of which fairly unusual for an adventure game.

 

 

[geo]

56 minutes ago, negke said:

Samorost and Machinarium come to mind as somewhat related to Gobliiins in terms of simple click-and-combine type of gameplay, although they are more cute than goofy.

As for cartoon-style adventures, apart from the classics, there are a couple of newer ones, for example the Deponia series and the Runaway games.

 

And for anyone who's into oldschool P&C adventures, there are several very well-made free ones out there. Quoting myself from another forum:

 

 

I knew Zero Punctuation was here somewhere all these years.

 

I just wanted to go to space!!!!

[Doominator2]

I'd recommend all the leisure suit larry games from 1 to 7.

Also beneath a steel sky is pretty good and you can get for free on GOG.

[ReX]

This is a gem of a thread. So many recommendations for old games (some of which I've played - Zork, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.) The one that seems to be getting the most love is Simon the Sorcerer, but others sound very interesting as well.

[pavera]

2 hours ago, geo said:

I just wanted to go to space!!!!

As ridiculous as that ending was in retrospect, it totally blew my 14 y/o mind when I first played it.

[[McD] James]

You should also definitely check out Dropsy, which I played through a few months ago. It's worth playing just for the incredible soundtrack alone. The Room (based on the movie) is also a really good hidden gem worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of the movie. 

[DMPhobos]

3 hours ago, negke said:

I discovered these games accidentally and found them to be quite compelling for some reason. It's a series of four short and easy adventures created by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, centering about a family curse and ancient gods

Yeah the Chzo mythos games are awesome, while the first game is a bit simple and short, it's quite good, not to mention that with every game the series just kept improving, they really are great adventure games, and have a fascinating storyline, i fully recommend them too.

[Urthar]

Collossal Cave, Snowball, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and Hampstead, if you're into the whole text thing.

[Maes]

Leisure Suit Larry (the original) and Loom, the only ones I have finished (and remember how to).

[Reisal]

Castle of Dr. Brain and Island of Dr. Brain. Very puzzle (and education) oriented but otherwise very colorful. Some of the things I could not solve as a kid later in the games.

[Tracer]

https://www.giantbomb.com/shelley-duvalls-its-a-birds-life/3030

[Benjogami]

9 hours ago, dew said:

I'd also personally recommend The Longest Journey, which may not be particularly humorous or cartoony, but it's simply one of the best adventure games ever and the story is charming and fantastic.

I came in to recommend this as well. Not cartoony or absurd and the puzzles aren't particularly good, but the story and world building are what make it great. The sequels aren't as good, but they benefit from that great world building, so they're worth playing too if you liked the original.

[Albertoni]

2 hours ago, Urthar said:

Collossal Cave, Snowball, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and Hampstead, if you're into the whole text thing.

Colossal Cave is genius, but absolutely requires a walkthrough.

Spoiler

> kill dragon

With what, your bare hands?
> yes

Congratulations! You just vanquished a dragon with your bare hands!  (Unbelievable, isn't it?)

Tell me you'd figure that one out by yourself.

 

I'd recommend anything from the Xyzzy Awards if you're into text adventures. Some are insanely surreal.

[Urthar]

A walk though would be too much for Collossal Cave, since it's primarily a game of exploration. Maybe a hint sheet would be okay for the obscure stuff.

[torekk]

I just realized I could've posted this link: http://scummvm.org/games/

 

You'd need ScummVM anyways for most older games if you plan to play them on a newer platform, if you didn't knew already.

[Negostrike]

Day of the Tentacle is my absolute favorite for its comedic content alone. The Dig and Full Throttle impressed the shit out of me back in the day as well.