Older Game and/or Replays

Since I started the thread here on what you are currently playing , I noticed a trend of either replaying games or playing older games for the first time.

What are the reasons you are replaying or starting an older game? Cheaper? No good new games? Older computer? Other reasons? Please state one or multiple reasons, even if someone already mentions it. I'm just curious what draws you to those games.

Look forward to seeing your answers.

Ana

99% of the time I am replaying an older game; many times it is a Nancy Drew game. I never get tired of playing and replaying that series. Apart from those, with a few notable exceptions in the last 16 years including The Lost Crown, Tesla Effect, and the Longest Journey, I find the even older games more fun. I have come to feel that the 1990s were the pinnacle of adventure gaming thus far. There was so much variety and so much creativity. I can remember in about a 6-month period between fall 1995 and spring 1996 the following games were released: Pandora Directive, Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within, Torin's Passage, Shivers, Phantasmagoria, Shannara, and probably a few more that I am forgetting. None of those games were anything like one another and yet they were all very good - and they hold up very well today. Nostalgia isn't why I feel this way, either.

So, I am constantly replaying the older games because I prefer them and generally find them more entertaining.

Marian,

Gabriel Knight 2 is over 20 years old and I still think it is one of the best games I have ever played.

I got a late and slow start in gaming and did not realize that technology would update as it does and make some of the games unplayable and I felt young and didn't feel the need to hurry and play everything right away. I have many, many, games that I have not played and am now totally focused on trying to play all of the old games that will work. I have also recently felt the strong desire to replay most of the games I already played. There is just not enough time to replay, play the old unplayed, and still trying also to play some new games. I feel I am racing against technology and life to play all my games. Since I had my work hours cut about 2 months ago, I am now home on Wednesday's so that is helping.

Hello all

When I'm looking for a game to play, I look primarily for a game that will give me somewhere interesting to explore with some challenging puzzles thrown in. I prefer first person games, though I'm not too fussy in that respect, but I much prefer to play it using only my mouse. I often find that the more modern games require the use of the keyboard to move you (or your character) around the environment, and too many designers get carried away with the freedom of movement offered by 3D graphics and make you run, jump and climb, etc. A few even include fighting!!!

I often end up playing an older game I hadn't yet come accross because such games were made when having to use only the mouse was viewed as progress!

Long live the point-and-click adventure.
Elen

Amen to that. I just can't do keyboard.

Doreen

I don't mind keyboard games, in fact I'm playing one now - Dead Reefs; that being said I do prefer mouse driven games. I like the story lines of the older games & the puzzles in them. A lot of the new games now are split up into chapters. When I buy a game I want to play it from the beginning to the end without having to wait of the next installment to come out. I'm always visiting GOG to see if they have an old game I can't play anymore. I've been hoping they would redo Amber Journeys beyond & The Black Dahlia, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they do. LOL

I replay old Adventure games because in the main they can be so much more satisfying and enjoyable than more modern releases.
Graphics of the highest order - which seem to be a high priority in a lot of the latest releases - aren't that important to me.
What I like is a good story

Starved for story and character development in a game world, I will go anywhere. I wouldn't even mind being deluged with notes, diaries, transcripts of phone calls, and the like. As a johnny come lately Tex Murphy fan, I restlessly trawl for games as good, which must be a familiar feeling to those who played the Tex games as they were released. I experienced a similar restlessness to the one I now feel after discovering Gabriel Knight seven or eight years ago. I look backwards in no small measure because current developers like Tell Tale with good stories that could be fleshed out (yeah, yeah) into superlative games only cater to the fast reflex crowd; whereas if Tell Tale expanded the exploration of story and character while at the same time incorporating a QTE skip button, the audience for a game like The Wolf Among Us would expand and the games might rival the Tex Murphy and GK series. I want to emphasize that just a QTE skip button would not be enough in and of itself.

Suffering from Tex withdrawal, I recently replayed the Blackwell series because Dave Gilbert has a good grasp of narrative.

I replayed some Carol Reeds fairly recently, too, so I will probably wait a few months to do so again. No, maybe not. Might have to now.

Yes!

Judith, Dead Reefs is a favorite of mine, even though I could have done without the keyboard controls. I liked the game so much that I adjusted to that.

Like others have already mentioned, I enjoy immersing myself in a game with a good story and what I consider to be beautiful locations and/or beautifully rendered details. I enjoy being given the opportunity to wander about at will and enjoy the scenery and look at all those details. (The first time I played Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper, I'm sure it took me three times as long to play as anyone else because I adored wandering around and looking at every little thing in 360, and trying to talk to everyone I met on the street).

While I would love to be able to battle armored foe and battle and/or ride dragons, I'm absolutely Rubbish! at any sort of fast paced action, so all those action and war games don't interest me. I play for enjoyment, relaxation and a well driven immersive story. I won't even replay The Book of Unwritten Tales because of that 'rain dance'. I don't want to be frustrated dozens of times because of my repeated failures.

Even the newer games that I have recently played like Baron Wittard, Ethan Carter, Eyes of Ara and Haven Moon meet those qualifications of older point and click games, and the newer ones on my watch list like Xing, Quern, Anamedia and Asylum still resemble to some degree the games I played when I first got a computer. I was recently able to find "the fix" that would enable me to play Riven again. It was the first game I ever played on a computer and is still my all time favorite. It was a joy to revisit that world again and must have surely forever influenced the style of games I enjoy playing. Many of the newer games just can't compare, as least in my eyes.

My frustration and disappointment at seeing so many problems with the different operating systems in the newest casual games have me on a binge of playing older games. So I've played half a dozen older point and click games in the past few weeks. Time well spent for me.

I enjoy the older games more because the stories are better and have more depth. I feel that a lot of the new games are hurried, Also, I agree with Marian, graphic are not my priority.

Give me the older games anyday. I can't do keyboard games either. I think the older games were more interesting and exciting. I have many many games that are not playable with Windows 10. Sad!

Hi Marian; I finished Dead Reefs yesterday - and !! I was so frustrated that I deleted my saved games & thought I'd move on to something else. Now it's eating at me, I messed up on that last puzzle somehow. I think I'm going to play it again but this time save before I start that last puzzle because I have a bad habit of not saving enough. LOL

I think it is because of my age and I am starting to get dementia that I am finding that I enjoy playing my old games. Right now I am playing Woodruff and Schnibble. I can't remember a thing about it from playing it before. I have played Day of the Tentacle zillions of times - whenever I am bored or just want something to do. I have played my Simon the Sorcerer games at least 100 times each (well, not #3). Other than Book of Unwritten Tales, pretty much I play my old games.

Woodruff and Schnibble !! Ages since I replayed that one. But it's a goodie

Judith, ouch on Dead Reefs. It's easy to get engrossed in a game and forget to save. Good luck on the next play.

Hi Marian; When I went back to start the game over, I checked to see if I may have missed deleting some of my saved games - nope - but I noticed for the first time an autosave. duh. I clicked to see where it would send me. It was the start at the very beginning of the final part in the game, yea. This time I checked MaG's walkthrough & got through it thanks to you MaG.

I didn't remember there being an autosave in this game as well - nice!

THat's great judith!

I've always liked "lonely" games where I wander by myself. At least once a year, usually on some cold and rainy winter day, I reload and play URU and MYST V again. They're not very difficult anymore because I have them nearly memorized, but love the visuals in both and I think the conclusion of MYST V is simply a perfect end to the series.

I am sticking to the older ones as I cannot get used to the keyboard oh I do have The Witcher 3, it is not difficult but wish they had left them as the first it seems that I play it so often but I never tire of it nor Dungeon Siege, but I have Windows 10 so it is not accepting many of the older games. :-( Maggie

Someone has probably already mentioned this, maggie57, but have you looked at the list of playable games in Win10 on the Glitches Board ?? Some of those may be Mouse control.

I definitely would agree with this. All three Gabriel Knights are some of the best games I've played, but 2 stands out for me as well. I replay the entire series quite a bit.

The Longest Journey is my favorite (along with Dreamfall Chapters now, though that's new ), and I replay this a lot as well to experience the story all over again.

I don't mind keyboard controls at all, as it relieves my RSI, which will act up occasionally if I use the mouse too much. When Grim Fandango first came out, I was annoyed at the controls, as they felt like a step backward to me. Now, though, I'm glad I played this game, as it prepared me for other keyboard games, which I'm much better (well, at least somewhat better ) at working with now. Also, more importantly, had I not played it, I would have missed out on what I consider one of the best games I've played.

So, generally for me, I play older games to experience the story and setting all over again. I already know how to get through them, but sometimes I enjoy the replays even more, as I know the characters and locations and can notice and appreciate the details more. For some reason, this never gets old, though I do space out my replays to give the playthroughs breathing room.

It delights me to read this post and we agree with all of you. Lela and I have especially loved the older funny or as some would say silly games like Monkey Island, Flight of the Amazon Queen, 3 Skulls of the Toltecs, Discworlds, Touch', etc. I have just learned how to use ScummVM so we can replay them once again. Laughter is good for the soul. We have also loved the games with a great story like The Longest Journey and others mentioned here. The Story and graphics were both wonderful in the Syberia games.

Take care everyone and remember the old ones.

Mr. Bill

Hi There, Mr. Bill, It's been a while. Hope all is well.

Well for myself I replay games
that are really good.I tend to replay them after aprox ten years and by then I do not remember much of the story and gameplay. I've just seen the end of Dreamfall for a second time partly to get back in its story due to the upcoming playthrough of Dreamfall Chapters

With my stinky memory, it only takes about 3 years before I've pretty much forgotten everything!

I forget huge chunks after only a few weeks because in that few weeks I've played something else !!!!

It's an advantage of sorts though as each replay can then stump me as much as the original play did