New Adventure Games

Hello everyone!

I haven't been playing pc games much the past few years, but I want to start getting back into it. I'm just wondering what are some good adventure games to come out in the past few years??

I'm getting a new pc soon, and want to start building up a collection of new games to play. I've started getting back into gaming a little recently, just replaying some old favs mostly- The Journeyman Project games, The Longest Journey, Tex Murphy (oh I did play the new one Tesla Effect- loved it!!), Gabriel Knight, etc. I also did play the remastered version of GK1. I've bought Edith Finch and a game called Perception, but have yet to play those ones yet. What else is good out there in the world of Adventure Gaming??

Thank you for any input!

Tristy, have you played the sequels to The Longest Journey, Dreamfall and Dreamfall Chapters? Dreamfall has action sequences, but Chapters (thankfully) doesn't. Both are really good. Chapters is actually my favorite now, although it does have keyboard controls. You move the character(s) with a keyboard and control the camera with the mouse while moving. I actually found it more intuitive than the "original" Dreamfall once I got the hang of it, but I know not everyone is comfortable with controls like this.

Jane Jensen (who wrote the Gabriel Knight series) made two more games since then, Gray Matter and Moebius. I really enjoyed both, particularly Gray Matter. You may have already played these games, as a few have been out for a while now.

Personally, I'm really enjoying an episodic game called The Council right now. Two episodes are out at this time. The first is very choice heavy, and events can change dramatically based on the choices you make. Episode 2 has less of this, but it does have a much stronger emphasis on puzzles, and many of them are challenging. It has the same type of controls as Dreamfall Chapters.

If you're looking for something with point and click controls specifically, Pillars of the Earth is a fantastic new story based game. It's not challenging at all, but it has an excellent story and cast of characters. It's choice based, which seems to be a trend in many adventures now.

Hi Venus, yes I played Dreamfall. I was a little disappointed, didn't like to fighting and it just didn't have the same feel as the first game. Never tried Chapters though. May check those out. It's just a continuation of the same story?

I did download Gray Matter a few years ago, but it never ran well on my old pc. So I will definitely try again on new pc.

I'll look up Pillars of the Earth. THank you!

Chapters continues where Dreamfall left off. I liked it more than Dreamfall. I thought Zoe and Kian had a lot more character depth than they did in Dreamfall, and I really enjoyed the cast of characters in general as well as the story. There is no fighting/action at all. It has better puzzles than Dreamfall did, though they still aren't TLJ level. It also has Crow and Abnaxus from the original TLJ. It is quite a bit darker than TLJ.

What was it about Dreamfall that you felt was too much of a departure besides the fighting? Was it the change in protagonists? The tone? Something about the story itself? Chapters oddly felt like a mixture of the two games for me, as it was more in depth and "novel like," as TLJ was, but it had the cinematic feel and the main characters from Dreamfall. Depending on what it was specifically about Dreamfall that disappointed you, your reaction could go either way. I've seen those (who didn't care for Dreamfall) that like it a lot more and some who feel just about the same. Dreamfall is my least favorite of the series, but I still loved it, so I'm not sure if that helps you at all. Maybe you could check out a YouTube video and see what you think?

Yes, you should definitely give Gray Matter another try. It's no GK, but it's still really great.

Great, hope you enjoy Pillars of the Earth!

It's been a few years since I played Dreamfall, so I can't quite remember what exactly I didn't like. I think a big part for me was the fact that April was so different, so angry and cynical. But like you say, maybe if Zoe has a little more depth in this other game, that might make things more interesting. Maybe I can learn to love her like I loved April in TLJ. And I just didn't like the fighting scenes in Dreamfall. I'd be willing to check out Chapters though, just because I love that world. TLJ is my #1 favorite adventure game, pc game, any game.

If you like adventures with a lots of puzzles and beautifull surroundings, first person adventures with point& click also with WASD controls the I can recommend the following games:
The Eyes of Ara
Quern, Undying Thoughs
Haven Moon
The Painscreek Killings
Xing, The Land Beyond
The House of Da Vinci
Roonsehv Neterra
Lake Ridden
Rhem I SE, II, III, IV SE.

For some of them you need a good videocard and enough memory.
There are more very good games but this is enough for now.

Happy gaming Lion_1251

Hi Tristy

Not sure of your tastes in newer games - or how long since you played Adventures - but a few I would recommend are :-

Black Sails - Ghost Ship

Carol Reed Series [Latest Editions]

Kathy Rain [Available from GOG]

Thimbleweed Park [Available from GOG]

Fabulous oldie "Lighthouse The Dark Being" [Now available tweaked for modern machines from GOG]

Thank you Lion! I'll have to check those out!

And Mad, I've heard of the Carol Reed games, and I'm curious to try them. Thank you! I'll look into all these. 😁

The Council and any of the Carol Reed series are great.

Also really enjoyed Painscreek Killings and Syberia 3.

Tristy, based on what you've said, you may like Chapters more, but it's hard for me to predict or say for certain without spoiling certain things. There is definitely no fighting and no action, so you don't have to worry about that at all. Hope you enjoy it if you do decide to give it a try. I know sometimes it goes on sale for very cheap prices, so maybe you can get it then, when you have nothing to lose. Also, you have very good taste in favorite games.

Since Mad mentioned Kathy Rain, I'll go ahead and add Technobabylon and Shardlight to the list. If you don't mind "retro" graphics (and these are some of the most beautiful of that type,) these games are really fantastic. The upcoming Unavowed also looks especially good, possibly the best yet by Wadjet Eye, though we'll see for certain when it comes out.

Also, it's a bit older now, but have you tried Culpa Innata? Although the story is very different, it reminds me a bit of TLJ in that it's "novel like" and has very strong world building. It may not work on your computer, though, if it's too new. I have a dual boot and play mine on Windows 7. I haven't tried it on 10 yet, so I'm not sure if it would work or not.

And if you like mystery and exploration, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is excellent. It requires a fairly hefty computer because of the beautiful graphics.

http://ethancartergame.com/

Venus, I have not heard of Culpa Innata, but I am definitely intrigued if it has a good story. And if it's too old school for the new pc I'll be getting, I can try it on my current Windows 7.

Thank you everyone. So many good suggestions, the list is growing. I'm excited to get back into gaming.

Tristy,

I started playing games from GOG and have finished most of the ones that I would recommend, a couple I'm still working on.

One game I found that was very unique was 'Gorogoa' which has great graphics and is predominately a puzzle game,
but a very different type of puzzle game - at least I think so.

Others I would recommend are:

Firewatch
Last Day of June
Obduction
Oxenfree
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
The Raven Remastered
The Witness - (This game I haven't finished and there is one part that is rather difficult as it is timed.)
What Remains of Edith Finch

As someone previously mentioned you could probably get previews of most or all of the games on Youtube.

Happy gaming.

Robert

I have played most of these games, and I would like to try and play "The Painscreek Killings", but without a decent text\image WT,I won't even attempt it. I just did a Google search but they only offer some video walkthroughs now.
Sandy

CORRECTION: Just found the walkthrough on Louis's site.
I guess I ran out of excuses now. LOL

So I was reading reviews for Culpa Innata on Steam, and it seems that their version of the game is censored, or doesn't have subtitles, or something? Where can I purchase the uncut, uncensored version?

So I downloaded the "Painscreek" Demo from Steam and it was unplayable on my PC, so I deleted it (4.3 Gigs of space). I'm glad now that I didn't purchase the full version.
It would be fair if ALL of the game developers would offer a demo of their game as well. Any comments, my fellow Boomers?
Sandy

I loved Oxenfree... great little game. They had it for free one day and I snatched it up.

Tristy, the uncensored version is no longer sold, unfortunately. However, I'm using this patch on Steam that a user made, and it seems to work perfectly - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=697262043. I only tested it a little bit, so I haven't gotten to the extra nightmare scene that's in that version, but the opening logo belongs to the uncensored version, so I'm pretty confident that it's correct.

It's a bit complicated to set up, and it's been a while since I've done it. The subtitles aren't important to me, so I only included the first patch, but if you want them, you will have to use both. If downloading the files feels too complicated (which I would understand, as I had to jump through some hoops), I can at least send you the patch I downloaded if you want. It's just the part without the subtitles, so you wouldn't get subtitles for Phoenix's internal thoughts. Everything else should be subtitled from what I remember, but I never use them, and it's been a while since I tested it. You'd have to read the instructions carefully for setting up the patch files, but I don't think that part is too difficult. Let me know if you're interested.

Draclvr, I loved Oxenfree also. Really great game, and you get some slight changes if you play it a second time. That's great that you got it for free!

Sanford, do you know why the game wouldn't play on your system? I bought the game some time ago but haven't tried to play it. I never looked at the specs until now. Very hefty! I don't have enough Ram for even the minimum specs. Next year I'll be buying a new computer with Windows 10 on it and will have to make sure I get more Ram and maybe one of those SSD drives.

Oldbroad,
That's exactly why it wouldn't work for ME, not enough power under the hood. LOL
Sandy

And a nice big video card, oldbroad!

I usually do try to go for the nice big video cards. I've got a Radeon R9 390X GDDR5 in this computer that I bought 3 years ago. I think it's good enough for The Painscreek Killings but not the Ram. Minimum Ram is 12GB, recommended is 16GB. I had 16GB Ram in my Dell computer but when I bought this one I downsized to 8GB. I didn't think I'd need more but a few times now, I've wished I went for at least 12GB.

Maybe it is an option to upgrade your Ram, you can use it also in your new computer next year.
I played Painscreek Killings last year on my I-5, 6 years old computer.
I have upgraded my Ram to 16 GB and bought a good videocard, nvidea GTX 1060. I also put in an SSD.
I played that game very nicely on that system.

It is a very good game, you have to reed carefully all the letters and the diaries to find the solution.

Louis and I have made a walkthrough for this game, I am now translating it to English.
The English walkthrough with lots of screenshots will be on the website soon.

The Dutch walkthrough is already on the site.


Happy gaming Lion_1251

RAM is very easy to upgrade, oldbroad!

Thanks Lion_1251 and Draclvr. I understand that I can add Ram but that would probably require me finding someplace to bring the computer. I've still been looking for a place I'm comfortable with. I will still need to get a Windows 10 computer anyway though for when I have to take the Win 7 off-line. I don't want to upgrade the OS as I prefer to keep Win 7.

I do intend to play the game but there is no hurry for me. I have a thousand other games to play.

Venus,
Yes I would greatly appreciate the patch you downloaded. Thank you so much! Subtitles are nice, but not as important as the extra content.

You can get the two-part patch from the links at Steam

Note that the links on the Steam forum have spaces inserted, and you have to remove the spaces after you copy/paste the links into your browser.

Since the Patch part 1 is 1.25 GB in size, don't expect anyone to be able to email it to you. It is way too large for that.

Tristy, it looks like Jenny is right. There is something I could try for you, but it would probably be better to use the link. I've sent you a PM.