Prompted by my last post - I have so far got to nominate Conspiracies - I like the idea of the interactive video and the story seems to be good but it is confusing and it is too vague and too vast and there is a lack of a thread. I have played a lot of games!

What would you consider your worst adventure game and why?

Lighthouse. I was soooooo bad at it. Therefore, it must have been the game's fault.

Obviously, you have never had the displeasure of Forever Worlds. Up until this game came out, I would buy any adventure game that was released. This practice ended with Forever Worlds. I refuse to buy a game without reading several reviews, or playing a demo, ever again.

Mike

I've gotta agree with Chrissie and Becky. "Conspiracies" and "Lighthouse" were two of the worst games I've ever played, and I didn't finish either one of them. However, the award for the absolute hands-down winner goes to "Missing Since January", if it's even considered an adventure game!! It not, "Conspiracies" and "Lighthouse" share the title.

Susan

Hands down - The Daedalus Encounter.

Forever Worlds because it made no sense what-so-ever.

For me there are several, but now don't yell, it is the Myst Series, just awfull for me, but then I also did not like Riven. I think those types of games are great for those who can get arounds in them, I have Myst 3 and 4 here, unplayed except for a couple of minutes, and I always feel I was given a road map with no where to go.

Maggie

I second chrissie's nomination of Conspiracies - remember putting the bra around the lightpost? Enough said.

Andy

For me, it's a tie between Conspiracies and The Watchmaker.

Forever Worlds. Worst. Game. Ever.

I must agree with MrLipid that Forever Worlds wins hands down. A game has to pretty bad for another gamer to give it to you and pay the postage to mail to you just to get it out of their house.

Forever Worlds, without a doubt.

Melanie

Missing and/or Forever Worlds, not my cup of tea. I have yet to finish either one.
Charllotte

I never got Forever Worlds, so I vote for In Memoriam/Missing.

Caroline.

No-one here has ever heard of Cold Case Files? That was so bad it couldn't even be called a game... and I spent a full 40 euro's on it. Finished it in less than an hour (and only because I couldn't believe I had already solved a case and kept on searching for more clues and talking to the same people over and over again).

Forever Worlds is a good runner-up though.

Evidently not a lot of people ever played Koala Lumpur. There was a game stopper (for me) arcade sequence in the game that I never could get a save game for and the solutions were of no help. I checked a few boards and there were a lot of people in my boat.

Anyway, that game tops my list of worst.
I also could not get into or finish Mysterious Journey so it is also right up there at the top of my worst list as well.

Forever Worlds was the only adventure game in my life that I didn't finish.
I always try to finish a game (or a book) even if I don't like it, just hoping that will get better at some point.
With Forever Worlds I just couldn't carry on, was ugly, boring, pointless!

I am now so glad that my copy of Conspiracies would never install properly so I never did get to play it - hooray!

Bernie

Martin Mystere was absolutely awful. Bad voice acting,voice changed to text only,in mid sentence, for no good reason. Nice locations and reasonable story but voice acting even worse than Watchmaker just set my teeth on edge through the whole game.

Conspiracies..hands down! Forever Worlds was bad, but it was entertaining at parts.

Maggie, I agree with you about th Myst Series, Riven and the like..YUCK!

While I agree that Conspiracies & FW were both reallllly baaaad games. My vote goes to The Quivering. Yuck! What a horrible save system. Made me feel too guilty to save.

(You had to kill a cute little monster every time in order to save! )

An honorable mention to Of Light And Darkness for the most boring, yet panicky game. One giant timed sequence of repetitive orb filing.

What about THE SCROLL!!!!

Love, Jen

Hey Jen -- being bored while in a panic must have been a unique experience. Can you still remember the feeling?

Wow--everybody's so down on Conspiracies.... I really had fun with that game. And CBSection, how could you hate The Watchmaker? I really enjoyed that one too!!

Never did get around to playing Forever Worlds...

My vote for the worst game is probably Cold Case Files. It was such an awful game that I totally forgot about it until Pollo Diablo mentioned it. The second runner up for worst game in my book would be Legacy Dark Shadows. That game just was pretty bad.

Dawn :kiss: (playing Remedy and eagerly awaiting Indigo Prophecy)

Well, thanks to GBs I have avoided many of the front runners here. The one game I never finished due to utter boredom was Traitor's Gate (tho' I've had Voyage loaded up and partially played for almost a month now and haven't gone back to it since the first session... looks like we have a runner up!)

Dawn, what happened to your Spike avatar??

WW

Forever Worlds! Never before or since did I have to jump through such hoops to get a game to play. I only was able to finish it it because Mr. Lipid provided me with not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 saved games. I couldn't get rid of the game fast enough.

Cheryl

I'm trying to figure out how I was lucky enough to avoid the infamous "Forever Worlds" if it was worse than "Conspiracies" and "Missing Since January" !

One other game I'd like to nominate for the list is "The Omega Stone". Hated it!

Susan

I agree with ShadowinmyRoom and Maggie, I just don't see the appeal of the myst series, riven etc.

Forever Worlds has a close competitor for worst game ever: Titanic-Dare to Discover (not to be confused with Titanic-Adventure Out Of Time). You see it on Ebay now & then. It could be described as a Myst clone created circa 1998 somewhere in Europe on a budget of what must have been around $20 or so. It really has nothing to with the Titanic and the closest you come to the Titanic itself is the picture on the jewel box. The graphics are putrid, the music nauseating and there are so few individual screen shots/pictures that if you are 100 yards from a building, one click will put you inside it. That results in you're being able to move nice and quick from where you are to where you weren't, it's just that you happened to pass by everywhere you wanted to be in the process!

(One tiny request: Since the thread is entitled 'Worst Adventures' as opposed to 'My Least Favorite Adventures', I hope people will keep that in mind eg. Myst may be your least favorite AG, but that doesn't make it the 'worst' AG!)

Hey WW

I put Spikey away for awhile. I had to give Horatio Caine his turn, since CSI Miami is back on now. There's just something about that guy, and I don't know what it is, cos it ain't his looks!!!

Dawn :kiss:

Good point, Sir Dave. The Myst games are some of my favorites too.

I've been playing Cold Case Files and actually found it rather relaxing. Every so often there's something to be said for not thinking deeply while playing a game. Or thinking at all, for that matter.

Thanks Andy - I wondered what you might eventually do with that!!
I completely forgot about Forever Worlds - I have just got to agree with everyone on that!!

I've just got In Memoriam/Missing - so thanks for the warning!

Hi guys,

Forever Worlds for me also I had a lot of problems playing it even with the good help given by MrLipid, when I bought my new putor it was the first game I installed and play it for few minutes before I decided it wasn't worth the time and efforts, it's back in the box where it will stay. Thorgal come in second for me a lot of technical problems with it.

CU

danyboy

Cold Case Files was just horrible in my opinion. $20 for 20 mins of gameplay isn't worth it. I guess that would have to be the worst for me.


Gamehound

9 last resort....Didn't play Forever World.bad reviews.I really didn't play any of the games that were listed [other then Lighthouse] which i loved.
I am more picky then i use to be when buying games.
I think thats why i don't get the bad ones to much anymore.

Hi, chrissie!

You may enjoy "Missing", but I thought it was a complete waste of time.

What made me so angry was that the premise was wonderful and I really looked forward to getting my hands on it. I envisioned an adventure game where I would solve puzzles, talk to characters, collect inventory items and examine various locations to obtain leads in the kidnapping case while receiving Emails from the kidnapper to give the game a more realistic touch.

What I ended up with was a serious of frustrating arcade puzzles with a few videos thrown in for good measure, and Emails that ended up to be more annoying than helpful. There is NO way I could ever have finished without the walkthru here at GAMEBOOMERS and, even with that, I still had problems with some of the puzzles.

Some games live up to their hype. IMHO, "Missing" isn't one of them.

Susan

I agree with MAGGIE57 that the Myst games are among the worst games,but the all time worst game in my 16 years of playing adventure games would have to be Daugthers of Serpents which came out in 1992 and put out by a company called Millenium

Yes. The Scroll...
The only reason it's not on more peoples' lists is that so few have been able to get it to play at all.

Perhaps you missed Sir Dave's and Becky's posts earlier. Next to last post on the second page.

Quote:

but the all time worst game in my 16 years of playing adventure games would have to be Daugthers of Serpents which came out in 1992 and put out by a company called Millenium

Daughter of Serpents is actually the same game as The Scroll. They reissued Daughter of Serpents on CD and changed the name to The Scroll (I assume so people wouldn't know it was the same awful game)

Yes, it was a VERY unique experience...one that I'm happy is unique. I know you & several others of the Quest Gang enjoyed it. Perhaps I would have not hated it so if I'd played it with you. I suffered through it alone, because I'm stubborn & obviously a glutton for punishment, only to encounter a game stopping bug right at the end. Serves me right.

Daughter of the Serpents AND The Scroll....doesn't Syd own & love them both?

Love, Jen

There are two on my list, Forever World and Wanted. The first one made no sense at all. The second one was just plain stupid.

There seems to be growing consensus about Forever Worlds' place as maybe the worst adventure game ever. One thing to be said about it however, is that it knocked off Jazz & Faust as the previous holder of that title!

Conspiracies and Harvest.

I absolutely agree that Conspiracies was the most poorly designed games to ever come out on the market.

I still shudder when I think about that one.

Cold Case Files was the worst I ever played with Missing a close second. Actually, there's a whole bunch of really boring and forgettable games from dreamcatcher like Forever Worlds, Thorgal's Quest, Egypt...the list goes on. Also I never enjoyed the Myst series and Myst clones but I wouldn't call them the worst.
Finally, I nominate Alfred Hitchcock's The Final Cut for most wasted potential and ruined franchise.

I think the reason why we do not like certain games are for many reasons. For me, Even though I thought the Myst games were beautiful, I just had too much trouble trying to get around in them, I don't know if that is real dislike or me. I have played part of Forever Worlds and the part I have played I like, but it is only such a small part. I can't quite figure out what makes a game in total that I love, except Postmortem, Syberia and Syberia 2, all the Dungeon Siege, The Black Mirror are those I really love. So I do not know the difference between those and Myst, I just know for myself it is too difficult and I gave up.

Maggie

You don't know how many times I had that game in my hands - I'm glad I always put it back now

I hope it is not good old conspiracy you are talking about here...also known as KGB. Espionage, adventure, gathering clues, conspiracy theories left and right...what more could you ask for? I remember a friend of mine and me used to sit up late and play it when we were 12 or so...and you had to have a block of paper next to you, noting appointments, names and phone numbers.

Info about the game I am talking about...

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/kgb/screenshots

I think it's important that we keep in mind when we say 'worst adventure game' that we differentiate between those we disliked or couldn't get into and those that are badly designed, glitchy, pointless games.

Whether or not you like games like Myst, (I'm not a fan of them myself) I think we do have to agree that they were well designed with beautiful graphics and a decent story. Definitely not in the same class as Forever Worlds or Conspiracies or the Stroll.

Melanie

Oh, come on. Jazz & Faust was slow, some of the puzzles were irritating and the story didn't follow our earth morality, but the graphics were lovely and the 2-POV concept was quite interesting. I liked it fine.

WW

Worst game ever is a big call. I am not sure I have played it yet.
Harvester would be way up the top of such a list. And The Scroll/Daughter of Serpents certainly was awful.

I think I'll still give it a play (after all, I did play and finish Myst *groan*)

I loved Jazz & Faust! But, I'm weird anyway.

Rusty

I didn't "love" Jazz and Faust, but I did enjoy parts of it.
It was nowhere near the worst I've played.
Too bad the sea captain's voice acting was so bad.

Like I said, I'm weird anyway! Yes, it was too bad about the captain's voice acting. I was able to overlook it though.

Rusty

I enjoyed Jazz & Faust in spite of the voice acting also, so count me as one of the weird ones. It was fun getting to play the game over from the other person's perspective.

Melanie

the Ring and Forever Worlds....ugh!!

I think that the worst adventure ever is Outcast 2.

I was dying to have it and then they cancelled it.

This also applies to other games I so much wanted to play and then they came with this "you will never lay your hands on it"

But now seriously, it's really sad what one sometimes finds as a "worst adventure ever" by gamers. Maybe some one room game with graphics made in painbrush (pun intended), illogical puzzles full of bugs and missing hotspots would have been, but many games mentioned are in fact pieces of love and hard work. So maybe the thread could have been called "The worst adventure I played" or "The adventure I never get into". Although I am not friend of this kind of political corectness, sometimes I find it very unfair to put such a harsh mean label to average or even decent games.

For me the game I that I would not play ever again was the Isle of Capri. I found it to be boring and without a real story. It was more of a travel log showing pictures of someone's trip to Capri. It was not at all what I expected.

Crystal Key 1 comes to mind. I am sure there are others that I thought were worse, but luckily my brain has blotted out the memory of them. I never played Forever Worlds, but from what I have heard, it is the worst ever: impossible to install and stupid to play.
I was not enchanted with A Quiet Weekend in Capri. The pics were beautiful, but there was just too much territory to cover. I never finished it, even with a walkthrough.

Paul

Paul

I completely agree. These "worst adventure game" threads always seem to turn into "game I disliked the most" threads. It's certainly not the same thing.

I think it's a really subjective question, depending on individual standards for what makes a successful game or not. I think you can't really even judge by something that might seem to be an objective standard, like graphic quality or logic of puzzles. I know personally that I've heard/seen gamers complain about pixilated graphics that I never noticed, or illogical puzzles that I had no problem with. So, maybe the only relevant standard of a successful game is whether or not you liked it. Like Frank Zappa said about how to tell whether music is good or bad: "If you like it, it rocks. If you don't, it stinks."

WW

I have to agree with mjartisian about distinguishing between games that you can't get on with and those that just don't overall work for whatever reason. The Myst games I think fall into the first category - I have played the original one and got some way through the third -I don't have the right sort of brain to work them out without a walkthrough so they are not really my scene - but can appreciate that they are 'well put together'. I can also agree with metamorphium that a lot of hard work and love may have gone into what we consider the worst games- but - sorry when we are paying out good money for our entertainment - I do expect something that makes sense to me! and not just in the head of the developer. The game that started this off Conspiracies -apart from flaws in the graphics etc could have been vastly improved with the inclusion of some sort of journal and slight hint system.

There's no doubt in my mind that that reference to Myst was for my benefit! How the 'ell are ya' Inland?

Doing great SirDave! Yup, I couldn't resist the reference to Myst again - Aya would have done the same

Yes Chrissie you are so right: I was going to go on about Voyage being just not my sort of game as I find the puzzles by and large too obscure for me; but then I thought that maybe I am just not flexible for that sort of game. I can sail through a linear adventure game, but Myst type leave me in tears. Sad thing is that I still buy them and I do get about half way and then I realize that there is no enjoyment and I am having to check the walkthrough. What I would like to ask Gameboomers is: how many of you really complete the Myst type, or Voyage type games without any help.

I'm gonna throw in my 2 cents...Schizm was absolutely awful! It made no sense to me whatsoever. Even using a booklet of cheats, it didn't help. Capri was pretty bad too...I don't want to look at a bunch of vacation pictures and call that a game!

Someone change the title of this thread.

I was lucky enough to miss The Scroll, Forever Worlds, and Missing all three.

I'm a little surprised no-one has mentioned Chateau d'Or--it certainly got panned when it came out. A ridiculous price for practically no game.

And I'm with you, Rusty, I liked Jazz & Faust too...

Have got to agree with you Jenny about Chateau D'or!- I couldn't believe how bad it was!- very short and a waste of a few good ideas and effects.

I never played Chateau D'or or the Scroll but did play Forever Worlds & Missing.

I didn't think Missing was as bad as FW. It did not have glitches and had a decent story. The puzzles were definitely not the type I like, but I could see others possibly enjoying them. From my experience with FW and what I've heard about The Scroll & Chateau D'or, they are just bad games and not subjective to different opinions like some of the others mentioned.

Melanie

I totally agree. There are quit a few games I didn't like, though they were OK to play at the time because I didn't have another game to play. A few of these games have already been mentioned.

For absolute worst I would vote Forever Worlds. While playing it most of the time I didn't have a clue as to what I was supposed to be doing or what was actually happening when I did something.
It was all so vague, as if there was no story line.

Where's Syd??? Oooooooohhhhhh SSSSSyyyyyyyyyydddddddddd!!!

I always thought our Sydders was the Scroll expert --- I unfortunately had a run in with it as well --- singularly a nightmare of a game.

But my all time --- throw this game away and not use it enen for a coaster was ----- Midnight Nowhere ------ this one really went nowhere for me.

Inferno

I think Forever Worlds was a gem compared to A Fork in the Tale.

Grim Fandango. Never liked that one.

Well, the really bad one for me was Alice interactive museum. But i will not going into that. It was a terrible experience for me. Yahhhck!!!

And i only whent in 2 rooms. HAhhh!

(I most be from anothe planet).

Did you dislike Grim Fandango because of the story, Cathy, or because it was a keyboard game? This was one of the first keyboard games I ever played, and I had a terrible time moving around (I spent more time spinning in circles than anything else ), but the story was so enthralling that I kept bumbling around until I finished.

I LOVE GLOTTIS...

Hi

My most nightmare game - because of a trillion bugs - was "The Sacred Mirror of Kofun" ]

On another side though, I DID play The Scroll through to the bitter end

Hey cat --

I agree with you on Alice. Spent some time goggling at the screen, then never finished it.

I'd actually forgotten about it!

I stayed out of this whole topic because I think it's very harsh to call a game "the worst adventure" game just because someone doesn't like first person games, or puzzle games or whatever. That doesn't necessarily mean they're terrible games. But since that point has now been brought up, I would have to vote for 9, The Last Resort, since I absolutely couldn't get it to stop crashing to the desktop for me, and Chateau D'Or because it was a ridiculously short game which involved a "quiz" you had to study for and PASS before you could continue. Worst Adventure Games? I don't know, but for me, waaaayy down on the list.

I'm just curious, what people would consider an objective standard for judging game quality? EG, I wouldn't consider 1st person or 3rd person or inventory vs. mechanical puzzles an objective standard because those are places where different things appeal to different people. But whether or not the game runs, presence of bugs & glitches, length vs. price, graphic standard, sound quality, and suchlike all might be considered objective standards. (Of course even some of that might depend on how the game functions on individual systems.)

Just wondering.

WW

Hi Jenny.

I don`t remember the reason i din`t like the game. it wasn`t about the keyboard. Back then my hands were fine. I think it was the story. But i din`t go far enough. I should give another try, one of this day. Maybe i will understand better and will enjoy. I will post if i will play again.

You hit the nail on the head, wysewomon. Plus, I think innovation comes into play too. Also, a little more subjectively, how it measures up to others in that sub genre. For instance, I would never expect the same of an indie game vs a big budget production.

Good question WW. There are lots of games out there that I didn't like, and even a few that didn't like my computer system setup.

I chose the game Forever Worlds as the worst. Never before or since have I had to jump through such hoops to get a game running. Although I already had the most current versions of DirectX and Windows Media Player I had to download them again. Then I could install the game. Once installed before I could begin playing (each gaming session) I had to start one of the movie clips through Media Player, then close it. Now I could play the game. Once into the game I felt the story was missing quite a bit of info so I used the walkthrough book that was included with the game. I found that the book had parts of the story that was not in the game itself. Navigating through the gameworld was a nightmare. Many times throughout the game when you would move forward along a path the game would spin you around 180 degrees so that when you clicked forward again, you were right back where you started. There was one particular room where the game would freeze up each time I entered it. Unfortunately that room needed to be entered 3 times and I needed 3 different saves to get through that part. There was another area of the game that would freeze up and I needed a saved game for it.

If it had not been for a lot of hard work and diligence by Mr. Lipid I would not have been able to play it. I know that there are many of us who were only able to play because of his hard work.

Cheryl

I remember Chateau also, didn't take me long to quit that one out of boredom.

Hi, WW!

I didn't enjoy "Conspiracies" because the graphics were extremely grainy; when I was interacting with other characters, they were nothing more than cardboard cut-outs; I found the puzzles to be extremely difficult; and, after playing games that allowed unlimited inventory items, the inventory slots were limited so it was necessary to dump excess items in one location and return for them when (or if) they were needed. I shelved the game halfway through because I felt it was more trouble than it was worth.

I absolutely hated "Missing Since January" because, IMHO, it was nothing more than a series of arcade puzzles with a few videos thrown in for good measure. I did manage to finish, but only with the help of a walkthru.

Both games were huge disappointments for me because I was really looking forward to playing them, and they didn't live up to my expectations.

OTOH, I was really looking forward to playing the Gabriel Knight, Tex Murphy, Shivers or Syberia sequels, and they DEFINITELY lived up to my expectations.

Susan

This thread is so interesting to read! I think we need a Flotsam list of "The 10 Games I Love to Hate Most" or something like that. For buying purposes, knowing both sides of the best/worst coin is equally important.
Certainly glad I never bought Forever Worlds. Guess I have to nominate Conspiracies, Of Light and Darkness, and Midnight Nowhere.

Some of those games I have not played such as Conspiracies and Missing, but I have played Lighthouse and Forever "Exaspirating" Worlds.

I pick the latter in case you couldn't guess.

joe

I must be really weird because I loved Conspiracies. It intrigued me. One of the games I really dislike is Journey to the Center of the Earth. There was entirely too much unnecessary walking for me and I got bored playing the game. The character's movement was difficult to manage because hotspots did'nt always show up in the direction you wanted her to go.
Peace and Balance
Kim

It's weird,because actually there isn't any adventure game I have that I dislike.But if I really had to vote(I know I don't) it would have to be either Mystery of the Druids or Schizm.The first one because it didn't have anything worth mentioning and the second one because-although it had very nice graphics-,the scenario,the ending and the irritatingly hard puzzles made it unbearable for me!!!