Activision-Blizzard takes on adventure games??????

[Rudy]

I didn't see it in any major gaming site (Gamespot, IGN,...) yet, but today Activision-Blizzard released "Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst", a game (actually the 5th part of a series) developed by "Big Fish Games", which is supposedly a mystery Adventure in the style of Myst. Here is a linky:
http://www.mysterycasefiles.com/

Anybody of you ever heard of this? They supposedly sold over 3 million games of this series already. Here's a screenshot. Looks intriguing:

[misslilo]

Yes, I've played all the Ravenhurst games.
They are catagorized as Casual games, but this one has some adventure in it
Don't get me wrong... it's much about Hidden Object, but with the adventure twist to it.

I wouldn't put it in same catagory as Myst though!

[DeadPoolX]

No thanks. Finding hidden objects is an entirely separate game than Adventure.

[Tawmis]

May be different - but at least it looks somewhat nice (the screen shot). And you have to find hidden stuff in Adventure games ALLLLL the time.

[DeadPoolX]

May be different - but at least it looks somewhat nice (the screen shot). And you have to find hidden stuff in Adventure games ALLLLL the time.

Sure, you do need to find hidden objects in an Adventure Game. However, an Adventure Game also has character interaction. I've seen these types of games before -- it's all about clicking on items within a static environment.

[Rudy]

So what exactly are we looking at here? What's the concept of the game?

[Maiandra]

They appear to have an hour-long demo of some sort. Although the phrase "in the style of Myst" is a turn off for me, I shall try it and report back.

[DeadPoolX]

So what exactly are we looking at here? What's the concept of the game?

The concept is "find the hidden puzzle in each screen" by clicking on it to progress the paper thin storyline.

This is not an Adventure Game -- at least not one in the classic sense of the word. Myst had more of a story than this. In fact, the majority of FPS games have a much more in-depth storyline than this. I suppose the real difference is that there's no action in this game, but if there's no story, why bother?

[Collector]

Where's Waldo?

[Maiandra]

I was only able to play for an hour, but so far it seems to be a combination of inventory, mechanical, and "find the item" (aka Where's Waldo) puzzles. Story and character-wise not much happened in the time I played it. The atmosphere was kind of spooky and magical at the same time, but not terribly dark. It actually looked quite nice on my display, given the type of game. Not cutting edge graphics, but not painfully dated either. As a casual, puzzle game, it seems fairly good.

I prefer to jump into the story and have more characters to converse with fairly early on in the game. Having the story revealed through notes, journals, and letters lying around isn't very involving for me. Given my experience with puzzle games in the past, if it doesn't say anything about characters to converse with in the description, it won't have any in the game. Now, if someone who's opinion I trusted told me it had a great story and characters to talk with later on in the game, then I'd be willing to try again. However, from what I've seen so far, it's not something I would personally spend a lot of money on.

[misslilo]

Sorry, but there really is not much character interactivity going on in these kind of games

[Tawmis]

So you're not a fan of King's Quest I or II, eh?

Cuz come on - there's NO story there. Well get these items before the king dies or whatever.

[Maiandra]

So you're not a fan of King's Quest I or II, eh?

Cuz come on - there's NO story there. Well get these items before the king dies or whatever.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I said I prefer games with more story and character interaction. I didn't say I hate games that have less of it or less of one. Besides, the early Kings Quest games had some characters to interact with, even if the story was pretty sparse. Without other characters, the world feels empty. I'm playing the new Sam & Max: Season One right now and I don't consider the story particularly stirring, but the game is still fun because the world and the characters are very interactive and it's amusing. A game can be fun without being deeply moving.

I guess you haven't been following the "Mass Culture" discussion on the GK board, since I stated in there that I didn't think that most early adventures had a well-developed story.