The Tough Question:

[Tawmis]

This thread made me think - what SIERRA games have YOU played that YOU don't like? DPX has a general games you dislike thread. But I want this one to be about SIERRA games (and their sub-companies, like Dynamix, etc). Let's hear what games you DISLIKED from Sierra and WHY.

[AndreaDraco]

Aside from the obvious?



I'd probably say King's Quest VII, because it was indeed a bit too childish for my taste, both in graphics and story. I also don't like very much the first Laura Bow, because I find it rather weak as a whodunit (the second one is so much better in this regard). However, my least favorite Sierra game is probably Lighthouse: while I deeply enjoyed the first Myst, 1st person, puzzle-heavy adventures are not my cup of tea and I can't even remember getting past the first few minutes of Lighthouse.

[Collector]

I liked Lighthouse. I despise the Myst games. Lighthouse had a much more involving story line. You had more of a sense of what your goal was. The puzzles were hard, but not so non sequitur. You had more of an idea of why you were trying to solve a particular puzzle. The puzzles in Myst seemed too random and the story too obscured. I can see why some may have trouble getting started in Lighthouse, but I think it is more like a good book that takes a while to grab you.

I remember being very disappointed with KQ7 because it was such a let down after 6. I have since grown to appreciate it more by viewing it in its own light, rather than in comparison with what came before. It still suffers from its dumb downed interface and I generally dislike cartoony graphics. For all of its flaws it comes no where near a "worst of" rating.

MoE is not an adventure game. It can be enjoyable enough to play if you don't expect too much out of it and just want a mindless distraction.

Many hold the PQ games in high regard, but they never really grabbed me. Some here never got into the QfG games and even though I am not that fond of RPGs, I immensely enjoyed them. The other Sierra family companies had more of a mixed bag of good and bad. I am rather fond of some of the Coktel Vision games, but I recognize that they may have turned out some of the worst games in the Sierra catalog. The Last Dynasty is truly horrid. The Inca games are an odd combination of traditional adventure game elements with some poor action sequences.

I think that the thing that will become the most apparent in this thread is that it mostly depends personal tastes than other factors. For the truly awful games we need to look outside of the Sierra/LA games. The good to bad ratio is far lower with the 2nd tier companies. Even the good ones are more likely to have fatal flaws, some more forgivable than others. Sanitarium Would have been a really good game, but suffers for terrible voice acting. The Benoit Sokal games have disappointing endings that always feel unresolved, in spite of wonderful graphics and atmospheres. Then there are the unplayable games, like Draskula with no redeeming aspects.

This is the main reason that that article was BS. Some of the games he listed weren't the best of games, but there are far worse games out there, even taking into account personal preferences.

[Tawmis]

I think that the thing that will become the most apparent in this thread is that it mostly depends personal tastes than other factors.

Oh, most definitely which is why I emphasized "YOU" (by capitalizing it in my original post). But your post is a perfect example, as to why I was curious. You say you don't like RPGs, but liked QFG. You didn't like MYST, but you liked Lighthouse.

So I am curious to see who liked what Sierra game - or more so, who disliked what Sierra game - and why THEY disliked it. Someone's bound to name a game that someone else loves to pieces, and I think it could be some fun conversation seeing why some folks disliked some Sierra games, while others may love the very games mentioned. Maybe the lovers of those games could bring new light and/or appreciation to the games we dislike.

For example, I am hoping someone can defend King's Quest 8 - or MOE.

[AndreaDraco]

For example, I am hoping someone can defend King's Quest 8 - or MOE.

Isn't it beyond defending?

[Tawmis]

For example, I am hoping someone can defend King's Quest 8 - or MOE.

Isn't it beyond defending?

For me, it is. I will write more about it when I have more time (and not having my train of thought derailed by work). But like Collector, I had high hopes for it (the way he felt about KQ7 after KQ6)... and ... despite repeated attempts to go back and beat it... I can never get beyond a specific point... not because I am stuck... but it's like trying to impress a girl, you're having dinner with, and eating something you hate, and I just stand up and shout, "I can't do it! This is crap!" Even when I yank the idea away of tying it to King's Quest - the entire game is just - BAD.

[QuestCollector]

I started playing this game when I bought the King's Quest Collection back when I was in middle school. It was the first time I ever played it. I started the game up and King Graham walked across the screen and bowed. I was like ok he's a King now, why bow? Then the game flashed to Graham sitting on the throne all alone and the mirror tells him there is a woman out there. I played King's Quest VI years ago before I bought the collection and thought "here we go again."

Next thing I know, I'm in Kolyma. I play the game for a few hours a day for about two weeks when I finally get the third key and guess what? I can't get back over the bridge. Playing back through the game was almost torture to me. The game was King's Quest II.

I also have a distaste for the Inca series. I only played it for one night and never went back to it.

[Datadog]

I'll defend "Mask of Eternity." It may not be a real King's Quest game, but I will argue that it's still fun to play. I liked the fighting, I liked the puzzles, I liked the music, and I thought the animation was superb for its time. It's a bare story in itself, but I still liked exploring the levels since there was almost always something interesting around the next corner. There's not many 3D action games where the landscapes were this interactive.

But Sierra games I don't like... that's a hard question. "Box Office Bust" is officially Activision, so I won't bother touching that.

I suppose the most disappointed I've been with actual Sierra games has been with "Codename: Iceman" and "Police Quest 4." One was too challenging/impossible, and the other just fell flat everywhere and was devoid of charm.

[DeadPoolX]

KING'S QUEST
Probably the earliest KQ that I disliked was the third one. I didn't care about the character and that damn wizard kept killing me! I realize part of the story was to find out more about you and kill the wizard (or at least make him edible), but none of it meant a lot to me.

I didn't care for KQ7, mostly because the cartoony graphics threw me. Maybe that's a shallow reason, but I couldn't play a KQ that looked like it was created by Don Bluth.

Despite how much I like action, KQ8 didn't do much for me. It's not a bad game at all, but it doesn't really fit into the KQ setting. I think more people would've liked it (or at least not hated it) if the game had a sense of humor and/or it was marketed as "part of the KQ universe" or something similar.

SPACE QUEST
I don't know why, but I hated SQ6. I loved every SQ game before that, but the sixth turned me off. It wasn't an awful game, but something about it made me want to exit it as quickly as possible.

QUEST FOR GLORY
Probably not a surprise, but I didn't like QFG3. I don't think very many people did. I didn't hate it, but it seemed off -- almost like it was an incomplete game or just "filler" between QFG2 and QFG4.

POLICE QUEST
While I really enjoyed the first three PQ titles, the fourth one was a real let down. Gates did a decent job with PQ4, but it didn't have the same "feel" as when Walls was behind the games. I think PQ4's biggest fault was the main character wasn't interesting. I didn't care about John Carey like I did Sonny Bonds.

LEISURE SUIT LARRY
No surprise here, but I didn't like Magna Cum Laude. It was interesting -- and even a little funny on rare occasions -- but still fell flat against previous LSL games. Yes, MCL counts as a Sierra game, since it was published by Sierra.

The worst game I've played was Leisure Suit Larry 4. There was no meaningful content at all! Just random diskettes in hidden places.

GABRIEL KNIGHT
I have to be honest here and admit that I've never completed a single GK game.

I almost finished GK1 back in the early 1990s, but I had hard drive issue and lost all of my saved games. I tried replaying it recently, but the interface pissed me off too much to continue.

I did play SOME of GK2 and GK3 and they both left me unimpressed.

GK2's biggest problem was the lack of interactivity, poor quality video (even back then that was obvious) and worst of all, bad acting. The story itself seemed like it'd be good, but with those other strikes against it, I had no urge to push my way through it.

GK3... well, the graphics. When GK3 was released, far better 3D graphics existed and it was painful to look at GK3. I couldn't go very far in it because of that.

MISC. GAMES
I despised The Adventures of Willy Beamish. It was too temperamental and far too many choices led to a "game over" situation. I might have slogged my way through it if the characters were at least somewhat interesting, but they weren't. The average sitcom family had more depth than them.

I know a lot of people enjoyed Conquests of the Longbow, but I never really liked it. Like other games on here, CotL wasn't a bad game -- I just didn't like it. Why? No clue. Maybe it's because I've never really cared for Robin Hood.

Codename: Iceman would've been good if the submarine part wasn't so damn difficult. I couldn't get past it and based on what some people have said, I probably didn't miss much.

Unfortunately, Phantasmagoria was a huge letdown. It was certainly okay, but in the end, the game mechanics ruined it for me.

Finally... there's Thexder. I don't mean to be vulgar, but... what the f*ck!? You can't even control your own character! You turn into a ship and fly in random directions, then hit a wall and turn back into a robot only to die when you've run out of energy because you were killing bad guys.

[BBP]

Willy Beamish. Couldn't play through that.
And when I first played Gabriel Knight 1, it was the floppy version and I was bored out in five minutes, not to pick it up again until I played GK3, for all the wrong reasons.
3D Ultra Pinball. I love pinball. Maybe the owning of an actual pinball machine (Pinbot) has made such games a lot lamer, but this one was only slightly more interesting than the CD-i game Pinball. (Or am I being too harsh now?)

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm... to be honest, the only Sierra game I really loathed was The Adventures of Willy Beamish. I mean, it was fairly charming when I first played it - and that was when I was 13 and had no idea that games could get better. Also, I never finished it, which is a big minus for me.

I also didn't like the Myst games, but at least they were good-looking for their time.

I enjoyed most other Sierra games... with the exception of PQ4 and MCL. (I don't know if Box Office Bust is a Sierra game or not, but I absolutely abhorred it. I thought that putting the "Leisure Suit Larry" name on the box was an insult to everything that LSL stood for).

As for Conquests of the Longbow... I don't know, I actually liked it (but then again, I have a soft spot for the Robin Hood legend). The one I just couldn't get into was the King Arthur game (what's its name again?), which I just found way too hard and esoteric.

These haven't been mentioned yet, but I want to give a big shout-out to the Sierra Hoyle games of the early 90s (particularly the first one) - they were lots of fun. I still run them when I have a few minutes to kill and enjoy a few card games with Larry and Roger Wilco and the gang. Good times. Also, Jones in the Fast Lane is a nice little time-waster.

[AndreaDraco]

GABRIEL KNIGHT
I have to be honest here and admit that I've never completed a single GK game.

I almost finished GK1 back in the early 1990s, but I had hard drive issue and lost all of my saved games. I tried replaying it recently, but the interface pissed me off too much to continue.

I did play SOME of GK2 and GK3 and they both left me unimpressed.

GK2's biggest problem was the lack of interactivity, poor quality video (even back then that was obvious) and worst of all, bad acting. The story itself seemed like it'd be good, but with those other strikes against it, I had no urge to push my way through it.

GK3... well, the graphics. When GK3 was released, far better 3D graphics existed and it was painful to look at GK3. I couldn't go very far in it because of that.

*whispers in the dark*

Maia, we have to find a way to coax DPX into playing the three games...

[Rudy]

So far there's no Sierra games I loath, but there are quite a few which I started and quit after half an hour or so. I do intend to try them again though:

- Urban Runner: The game starts immediately with a dead guy in a sauna and then some hippy chasing you with a gun in an industrial building of some sort. Every time you manage to pass an area, you get dumped in another one, always leaving you a big question: just what the heck is actually going on here?! Then a timer knocks in to complicate things a bit more.

- Outpost: you start the game and immediately get asked to load your spaceship from a large list of possible items. This equipment will be your basis for building a city on another planet. Without a tutorial or explanation about what is what, you can be 99% sure you're doomed before you even started so, after a few attempts: Quit.

Just the first two coming to mind.

[AndreaDraco]

- Urban Runner: The game starts immediately with a dead guy in a sauna and then some hippy chasing you with a gun in an industrial building of some sort. Every time you manage to pass an area, you get dumped in another one, always leaving you a big question: just what the heck is actually going on here?! Then a timer knocks in to complicate things a bit more.

While the beginning is certainly a bit nebulous, I recommend to stick with it and play the game, because it's really fun. I wrote a review of it for Adventure Gamers if you're interested in a more in-depth analysis.