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It fits the forum. Why not?

1. If you have a rope, a shovel, a crowbar, some matches, a knife, a skeleton key, and a few pieces of paper, you can do anything.

2. Everyone you meet has either one of two goals in life: to kill you, or stand around waiting for you to bring them something.

3. Before venturing into a strange, hostile, uncharted world, it is tradition for the hero to empty their pockets and relieve themselves of anything that even resembles a weapon.

4. Most epic quests can be completed over the course of one day, often before night falls.

5. There's always a maze around here somewhere.

6. Anything of notable terror or fantastic origin is always within a minute's walking distance from your home. You just didn't know it was there until now.

7. Every coastline comes with sharks.

8. Nature never calls. You can walk around for several hours, drinking all the water you want, and not once need to stop the game because you "can't hold it in anymore."

9. No one you meet will ever ask why you're carrying around a table lamp, two rubber chickens, a footstool, one magic eight-ball, a potted cactus, one half-eaten pizza, a crippled chihuahua, a board with a nail in it, and a book on how to cook swordfish.

10. So here we are - the final showdown. I'm cornered, about to be eaten, and I start to panic. So naturally, I click every item I have on the monster, hoping to at least throw something at it. A brick in the face sounds logical, right? But wait - wait - there's a problem. The player says "I don't think I can do that." He doesn't try. He just thinks he can't do it. Great defeatist attitude. So what DOES he think he can do? He thinks he can duct tape the cat to the pool stick and use it to scratch behind the monster's ear long to calm it down and feed it a taco laced with spicy hot peppers, causing it to explode. You know what, Mr. Smarty Pants Adventure Hero? I don't think you can do THAT!


Got more?

The cliche in older adventure games was the ubiquitous maze, as you mentioned. There was only one maze that I actually liked. The labyrinth in KQ6 as so in keeping with the story that the narrative would have been diminished without it. Most other mazes were just arbitrary random road blocks that you simply wanted to be done with.

the cliche in modern adventure games is the clumsy mechanical lock puzzles that have no earthly reason to exist. Like the maze puzzles of old, they rarely have anything to do with the story at hand.

<rant mode>I detest meaningless puzzles that are nothing more than just filler to pad out a game to make it longer than it needs to be. I love long games, but not by "filler. I almost don't even like the idea of arbitrary "puzzles" to be solved, per se, but prefer problems to overcome. That is, problems that are a key part of and well integrated into the plot.</rant mode>

No hero worth his salt will go ANYWHERE without - ta-da! - pocket lint!

Excellent idea, Datadog! I do have one request, however. That we change the title to "Cliches in Games." That way it'd include all types, since every genre has a ton of cliches to mention.

Since I can't think of any Adventure Game cliches (aside from the ones already stated), I'll rant on about First-Person Shooters and Role-Playing Games.

First-Person Shooters
1. If something moves, kill it.

2. Your teammates are only there to give the enemy another object to shoot.

3. If your teammates are AI-controlled, they'll run directly into enemy fire, run into walls and over mines, eventually getting themselves killed. Sometimes this necessitates a restart.

4. If your teammates are real players, they'll run directly into enemy fire, run into walls and over mines, eventually getting themselves killed. Inevitably, they'll blame you for this and at the next available opportunity, kill you if team damage is on.

5. If you kill someone online with a shot took some degree of skill, the player who died will yell out that you're a "hacker" or "using cheats/exploits."

6. There's no such thing as "friendly fire." If you're in the way of a teammate's shot, you will be taken down along with the enemy. The only time this isn't true is if team damage is off or the firing player (and potentially the entire team) will be penalized for shooting teammates.

7. If audio taunts are available, they will be spammed over and over again during the game.

8. If vehicles are available, players will drive off cliffs, over mines, flip over and get stuck somewhere they can't move. If the vehicle in question is a plane, players will crash on the runway, crash immediately upon take-off or just crash after the next available opportunity shows itself. If the vehicle is a helicopter, the player will be lucky to even get it off the ground -- usually they'll crash within seconds of taking the controls.

9. Players will find the most powerful weapon and/or effective class of character and use only those during the game. It's rare to see people choosing classes that might actually help their team in a support role (such as a medic or engineer).

10. The player will most likely find themselves in World War II. After all, who gets tired of storming Normandy Beach?

Role-Playing Games
1. The hero will start with few relatively decent skills, lack weapons beyond a short sword and buckler, and wear armor that has the same protective qualities as a sheet of paper. Even if the game is a sequel or an expansion, somehow the hero will still lose his skills and weaponry.

2. The main character will usually be a young man or woman (a teenager if it's a console game) who never wanted to be a hero, but is thrust into a life of adventure.

3. In the start of the game, physically-oriented characters are far better off than spellcasters. As the game progresses, those who rely on armor and weapons will have to constantly upgrade while magic users become increasingly powerful (sometimes to the point of achieving demi-god status).

4. Expect to take part in numerous "FedEx" quests and simply accept that backtracking is a way of life. Side quests are usually optional, but if the hero doesn't take them, he'll miss out on some items, skills, spells and experience.

5. The villain is described as an "all-powerful being," yet the best he can do is muster up some rats and rock-tossing octopi at the start of the game. In addition, animals --unless specified -- will always be aggressive and attack the player.

6. If there's a tavern, there will be rats to kill in the basement.

7. Skills, abilities, weapons, armor and magic will be renamed if the game is science-fiction. However, the basic idea will remain the same (i.e. lightsabers instead of swords, guns instead of bows/crossbows, implants instead of magical items, the Force instead of magic, etc).

8. The hero has to talk to everyone. If he doesn't, he may miss the old crippled man in the alley who just happens to have a piece of the "magical glass orb" or "doomsday device" after he won it in a poker match.

9. If you can name your own characters, NPCs will refer to you by whatever name you enter, even if means stating your whole name every time they speak to you.

10. There are never enough options when creating a character and in the end, your character will look like a dork (or a dorkette, whichever the case may be). If you do somehow create a character you like, at some point in the game, you'll want to change the character somehow (i.e. hair style, eyes, facial structure, etc).

I'll add one for action games (single player):

Because the door to the next room is jammed, you have to climb and jump through an obstacle course of areas in the most convoluted way possible just to get there.

Talk about adding obstacles just to make the game longer.

Not to mention these buildings are the most complicated structures in existence. Every hallway eventually leads to where ever you're going in a crazy maze-like fashion.

On top of that, before the game started, somebody went out of their way to lock every single fire exit in the building. And it's not like they were expecting to get attacked. They intentionally locked the fire exits before the crisis started. That indicates a very disgruntled employee right there.

I'll add some more for RPGs...

It is just as easy to walk and even run in heavy full plate armour as it is in light, supple leather armour - and without any kind of training.

If the game starts off your character at level 1, you will probably have to fight rats, kobolds and goblins to begin with.

If the game allows you to pick a monster as a companion in your party, it will always be cute but annoying. (Deekin, anyone?)

Someone you trust will play you for a sucker. This always happens. (e.g. Aribeth, etc.)

If you're playing any of the Elder Scrolls games, you always start out in jail.

Even if you're playing a weakling who would have a hernia if he tried to lift an orange, you can still have as much gold as you want without hampering you.

Dragons are always in the mood for a quick chat and a cuppa. (Well, all right, maybe not the cuppa).

Getting involved with dragons would probably mean that you either have to slay them or undertake a quest for them. Either way, it'd be the most difficult thing you have to do, bar the actual BBV (Big Bad Villain) at the end.

The BBV always tells you their Ultimate Supreme Plan for the Universe, and you can't do anything about it! Mwahahahaha!!! Ahem.

DeadPoolX wrote:
6. If there's a tavern, there will be rats to kill in the basement.

LOL, been playing the Bard's Tale recently ?

Rudy wrote:

DeadPoolX wrote:
6. If there's a tavern, there will be rats to kill in the basement.

LOL, been playing the Bard's Tale recently ?

I was wondering if someone would notice that! I haven't played it in quite some time and unfortunately, I have the game for the PS2. It played fine, but I don't have my PS2 here with me.

Lovable or Maddening, here they are... Clichés in Adventure Games

1. You are a lousy thrower, even if your background is that of a farm boy who's been playing Knock The Apple Off The Tree for years.

2. Some characters seem to have no life other than raking the garden. Don't they ever relax?

3. If there's a chance to cross-dress, for some insane reason you will take it.

4. Most dwellings have relatively few rooms.

5. No matter how good a thief you are, there are many doors you just cannot open.

6. Getting up and down stairs is a major undertaking. You should write your will before venturing one little foot on the steps.

Towns or cities with more than about 100 people don't exist (except in a game like SimCity). In fact, the whole world has a very low population of non-evil creatures.

Almirena wrote:5. No matter how good a thief you are, there are many doors you just cannot open.

I hate that. Not only in adventure games, but in RPGs as well. I love being a thief partly because you get to (theoretically) explore everything and uncover every secret. However, they always have annoying messages like "you can't open this door at this time" and such. GAH. I don't even care about the loot so much as finding out what's hidden behind the door or lock.

More cliches in games...

1. Any good arch-villain ALWAYS escapes by some ingenious escape route, usually involving teleportation spells.

2. Anything that is not easily explainable is obviously magic.

3. Any good arch-villain always gloats and cackles at all times, including when he escapes. (This also applies to movies). Sneering coldly is a good optional extra.

4. YOU are the last hope for a world gone mad, blah blah blah, fill in the details yourself.

1. Magic can do virtually anything. This occurs in movies too. But magic can create elemental creatures or allow you to take over someone's mind. To be fair, however, most of us have the ability to form a "stinking cloud."

2. The hero in the game is a master engineer or blacksmith. Whatever item they pick up, they can combine it with another item or create an entirely new. The one time this may not be true is if you need a "special weapon or device" created, in which they'll be one person in the entire world who can do it and you need to find/rescue them.

3. The "evil choices" usually revolve have you acting like a bully or some two dimensional villain.

4. Very few people actually care if you enter their home without permission, open all of their drawers and cabinets and take whatever you want. In some games they'll get hostile if they spot you, but this isn't the norm.

Corollary to #4...

4a. Even if they spot you entering their home, they will give you more than enough time to get away by warning you that you have stepped into a 'forbidden area'. If you stay well beyond - say - 90 to 120 seconds, then and only then will they call the guard.

Of course, if they observe you picking locks, they might get even more upset...