Thank You All...For your opinions on what is an Adventure Game vs Puzzle Games...

Everyone has a different view on the subject.

To me an Adventure has to be more then Hard core puzzles. If a game has only puzzles to get from point A To point B..That is not in my opinion an Adventure Game..That is a Puzzle Driven Adventure... Oh Well...

Thanks, Again

"Puzzle driven Adventure" is not the same thing as "Puzzle game." It's fine to prefer one type of adventure game over another, but it's important we're all speaking the same language or readers will get very confused about what you're talking about.

Say everyone used their own personal definition of "Adventure game" based on what they liked or didn't like in a game --
Player 1 doesn't like dialogue, so no game with dialogue in it is an adventure,
Player 2 doesn't like fetch quests and chores, so no game with fetch quests in it is an adventure,
Player 3 has no sense of direction in games, so no game with a complex gameworld is an adventure,
Player 4 doesn't like managing large inventories, so no game with a large inventory is an adventure,
Player 5 doesn't like keyboard control, so no game that isn't point-and-click is an adventure,
etc.
Nobody would know what anyone was talking about.

Apologies for being overly simplistic but to me any game that offers an adventure is an adventure game.

But on a more technical level i would say that for me the defining aspects of the genre are an emphasis on exploration and storytelling and the absence of typical 'arcade' game elements. Any game that offers the former without (or with very little of) the latter is an adventure game.

Msyt offers thsoe two things and therefore to me would be an adventure game. The Ravenhearst games (as an example) don't offer them, and so would not be.

This is an "Adventure Game" to me:

(1) Story..Doesn't have to be a good story.
(2) Interaction. Whether it be characters or trees or plants or fish or a book or a phone conversation.
(3) Inventory. Big or small.
(4) Investigating places. Finding things..Discovery, to me is an "Adventure"
(5) Puzzles of any kind through out the game.

This is an "Puzzle game" to me:

(1) Puzzle after puzzle with beautiful scenic views. It should be label "Puzzle Adventure Game" because some might say you are on an Adventure Solving puzzles

Very similar to Darleen03 above.
I doubt that there is any simple definition of Adventure games since there are so many different types which are all Adventures. There are of course some exceptions which aren’t Adventures but are puzzle games and Action Adventures.
I actually prefer 3rd person games but I have no doubt that very many first person games are Adventures and that includes Myst and its several sequels
I think its ok for an adventure game to have 1 or 2 limited action sections or sections that need some speed or manipulation. Most adventures have a little of this but not too much or too difficult.
If they do have a lot of action sequences or several difficult ones then in my opinion it is an action-Adventure and not a pure Adventure.
I think that there are basically at least four aspects which determine whether a game is an adventure.
---- It must have a narrative of some sort. It does not necessarily have to be a very long story or a complicated one but it must be a decent one and not just an excuse for a story. Whether the narrative is carried forward mainly through dialogs or reading or inventory etc is not fundamental they can all be adventures of different sorts
---- The story must have some sort of definite ending to which the player strives to achieve. I does not have to be an absolute clear cut ending and can be somewhat ambiguous but it must have a definite end and the player must be tempted in whatever way to get there.
---- It must be basicly interactive and more than just a series of walkabouts admiring the scenery and locations etc
---- It must have some puzzles. Whether they are inventory based or individuals puzzles and what sort is again nor essential. But there must be a reasonable selection of puzzles for the player to overcome

There are some games which are just a series of different puzzles which are generally of different types not integrated into the game in any serious way and often of completely different types eg sliders, music puzzle. mazes. cryptograms, safes, torn up papers, codes, jig saws, etc etc.These games have no story at all or the flimsiest of stories just to create the feeling that it’s a game and not just a collection of puzzles.
Jewels of the oracle is a good example and Seventh Guest, Eleventh Hour although they have flimsy stories are nonetheless just a series of a couple of dozen different individual puzzles to overcome one by one , sometimes without even needing any order.
These and other such games are not Adventures but Puzzle Games.
That is not the case for Myst, Riven, Uru, and so on which inn my opinion are Adventures although of a different sort than many others

You've just described Myst, though the inventory consists of a single object.


That might describe certain casual games, though some of them have ugly views of dumps and decrepit buildings instead of scenic views.

Umm... hate to bring this up guys... (okay... well maybe I just want in on the fun)...

But is the adventure door securely shut on something like... say... 3 Cards to Midnight?

I know that hidden object games are certainly squarely in the "Casual" corner, but I was *so* excited to run out (or would that be "on" as in "on-line"?) and buy the NEW "Tex Murphy" game that I went and bought it even before I realized I was buying a download (I never did that before).

Anyhow, imagine my surprise to find a hidden object game!

As it just so happens... I *love* hidden object games and have since I was a kid with my mom finding all the hidden pictures in the "Highlights" magazine at the dentist's office. (I kid thee not!)

SO...

I loved playing 3 Cards to Midnight. I was disappointed that it was only hidden object puzzles (though I liked them), but the biggest thing to me was...

THE QUALITY OF THE WRITING!

Not only is the plot very good, but when you combine that with all of the intricacies of the story as revealed by the cards and their symbolism and meaning... the game is of very high quality in the fun that adventure gamers hold dear.

SO... sure... casually speaking... 3 Cards to Midnight can't be an adventure game because it's hidden object game (although, to be fair, there are some other nice puzzles too).

But... ya know?... sorry I can't find a better way to put this... but for writing?...

BEATS THE HECK OUT OF A LOT OF ***ADVENTURE*** GAMES I'VE PLAYED!

Sorry for shouting but I had to get that out of my system (or it would crash for sure).

And so finally, my fellow gamers, my humble point is this:

Dig down deep.
What do you feel when you are playing an "adventure" game?
I feel like I'm saying, "Mommy, tell me a bedtime story-- and let me guess and figure out how it goes at parts along the way."

Shaherezade was truly the mother of all adventure games, and she used a thousand and one puzzles.

I think that many HO games are not at all good but some are really excellent and very many folk love them.
But I don't think that they can be rated as either Adventure or puzzle games.
I would say that they are in a third category namely Hidden Object or Casual games.

I suppose some of the more sophisticated could be called Hidden Objec Adventure or Hidden Object Puzzler or something just as some games are called Action Adventures.

Hey everyone,

Remember this discussion? Already while it was going on I was thinking about writing a larger article on this topic, but only now have I finally done it. If you decide to read it, hopefully you'll find it an interesting addition to this thread.

Be warned though: I'm rather strict in my view about what an adventure game is.

Thanks, Ascovel

I did enjoy the read..Many good points made

Adventure Game defintions are certainly subjective. When I first got into gaming (2001) I did so with Riven and Myst and played only similar games. I didn't even know that 3rd person games existed, never mind that they were considered adventures.
I think the difference between puzzle games and puzzle-centric adventures is the exploration and interaction. Hence, I wouldn't consider games like Pandora's Box or Jewels of the Oracle an adventure, but the Professor Layton games would be.

Ascovel -- is there an example of a game that most people would think is an adventure game, but that the puzzles are of a logical-self-contained type that would put it outside your definition of an adventure game?

Does this make sense?

Sentinel might be such a game, Becky. (Though I think quite a lot of people would agree with me in this case)

By my definition Sentinel is a puzzle game rather than an adventure game. It has a story and great looking locales, but the puzzles are purely puzzle game style.

But overall the definition was meant to be broad and inspire innovation in puzzle design.

Interesting. Ascovel, have you ever played Big Brain Wolf? I'm still trying to figure out if it could qualify as an adventure game -- you can click on items in the environments to get information about them, but you can't pick anything up. And all the puzzles are stand-alone mini-games.

I haven't played Big Brain Wolf. Again, it would depend on the puzzles in my opinion.

I'd love to see more of new kinds of puzzles that tease the same parts brain regions that the typical inventory puzzles do.