Telltale finally admits to cancelling King's Quest

[DeadPoolX]

I agree with you that bad puzzles can ruin a game, but I would not call a game an adventure if it did not have puzzles. Perhaps an interactive movie, but not an adventure.

Yeah, I wouldn't call Jurassic Park an "Adventure Game." The Walking Dead has far more interactivity, but it's still mostly cinematics with QTE, adding in dialogue decisions. The latter can make a difference and add replay value, although I hated being given a limited amount of time to make a dialogue choice.

But then, any bad key element can ruin a game, be it a bad story, bad interface, bad puzzles or other parts.

I think a bad interface is the worst one for me, regardless of the game's genre or content. I wanted to replay GK1, but the clunky interface kept me from doing it.

Hopefully the remake will have a better interface.

I can be more forgiving of the graphics, but there is no excuse for that to be at least close to on par with modern games, these days, even if not top tier.

I've been saying for years that Adventures need better graphics. For most of that time I've been met with resistance (not here on SHP, but the old Sierra WebX boards) from those still clamoring for VGA or FMV. For some reason or another they equated modern graphics with First-Person Shooters, despite the fact an action game's engine could be retooled.

Amazingly enough, up until relatively recently, Adventures had been stuck with extremely antiquated resolutions and visuals. I recall an Adventure from a few years ago having a maximum resolution of 1024x768, a resolution that was common in the late 90s.

[MusicallyInspired]

I can definitely agree about graphics. There was a guy making a remake of SQ1VGA with Doom 3. He was adamant that an adventure game in first person with cutting edge graphics was the wave of the future and the boost it needed to get popular again. I was excited about it. But eventually he canceled it in favour of another project he had more passion for, sadly.

I can also agree with logical puzzles, but not to the point where they're too easy or non-existent, which is Telltale's stance. And EVERYBODY else's stance it seems. I've long since given up on that place. I no longer visit their forums or follow their news. Especially with that new horrid mid-90s bulletin board design they're moving to (which requires Gravitar). They're just not what I want anymore. The people there have all changed as well. Just not a fun place to be around anymore. I'm glad they dropped KQ, though. I can leave without being too bummed at least. But back to puzzles...

It seems like every game is abandoning being challenging and focusing more on giving the player a sense of accomplishment by making it easy to figure out and progress. Making the game extremely short and underwhelming. Seems like an oxy-moron to me. What's the point of achievements that are impossible not to get? See my point? Maybe some other games can benefit from this little-challenge design philosophy, but not adventure games. Adventure games were ruined the moment they turned their back on puzzles. I don't agree that narrative is the single most important aspect of an adventure game. I don't even believe story is the single most important aspect. I don't believe that puzzles are either. I believe that puzzles AND story have to be equally balanced and treated equally as the most important aspects. I don't understand this "one or the other only" reasoning. There's room for both.

[Collector]

Where is there any sense of accomplishment from a puzzle that is too easy or obvious? Back before ready internet access and ubiquitous walkthroughs, if you encountered a tough puzzle, it could take you long time to solve it. If a game is not too linear, you could leave it until you had some new insight. You could feel some sense of accomplishment for solving a puzzle that has had you stumped for quite a while.

[AndreaDraco]

On the subject of puzzles and what constitues an adventure, I really recommend this article by Jack Allen. I don't agree with everything, but I think it's pretty spot-on. The bottom line for me is this: to me, what matters the most in any game - of any genre - is the story. The gameplay must support the storytelling and never hinder the natural flow of the plot; however, it must also be engaging, and maybe even challenging. Puzzles are certainly challenging, or at least they can be; unfortunately, often they also hamper the story.

[Collector]

Puzzles are certainly challenging, or at least they can be; unfortunately, often they also hamper the story.

This annoys me, too. A random non sequiter puzzle that merely is nothing more than a roadblock for padding out a game that is otherwise too short, is inorganic to the narrative. It just makes me resentful to its distraction. The recipe puzzle from Still Life comes to mind.

On the other hand, a puzzle that is woven into the narrative can be a fun conundrum to crack and make you feel more involved with the story.

[MusicallyInspired]

A game that sacrifices gameplay for the sake of story is not worth playing in my book. Illogical puzzles and puzzles used to pad out the game are bad too. I've come to realize that story-centric games bore me to tears. I think if I had to choose I'd ultimately rather play a game that makes no sense and has decent gameplay than something that'll cutscene and dialogue tree me to death.