Take 2 Interactive’s first FMV adventure was highly touted and had a high-profile cast as one of its selling points. Scott Cohen stars in this cyberpunk thriller as Jake Quinlan, a reporter for a virtual tabloid in 2040 New York City. A mastermind has been committing gruesome murders in the vein of Jack the Ripper, and has been anonymously contacting you in order to get himself some attention in the papers. Your girlfriend and fellow reporter has become the fourth victim. Luckily, she managed to survive the attack and is resting in a coma. Now the case has become personal. You must seek out the Ripper in order to help to save your girlfriend and prevent more pointless murders.
A rare adventure game by Sanctuary Woods, The Riddle Of Master Lu does a decent job of capturing atmosphere and flavor while sadly being mediocre in many game elements. You play as Robert Ripley, the real-life entrepreneur and collector of oddities. Chinese terrorists are on your heels to stop you from discovering the secrets of Master Lu (and also use those secrets to take over the world, naturally). You’ll travel to many exotic locales, including Peiping, Easter Island, and Sikkim trying to unravel the mystery, save the world, and save your neck. All the while, of course, collecting rare artifacts to help profits for your Odditorium back in New York.
Publisher: Freeware Developer: Legend Year: 1998 Platform: DOS
I’m stretching this by calling it an adventure game, as it is more of an edutainment title. But it was developed by Legend Entertainment and written by Bob Bates, so I’m going with it. This game is actually an ethics training program designed by the U.S. Government and used as an ethical training tool for its employees. As it was fully funded by the government, the game is freeware, and worth a play by anyone who is interested in ethics.
Publisher: Sierra Developer: Sierra Year: 1993 Platform: DOS; Windows; Mac
Sierra hired Daryl F. Gates to help design the fourth installment in this best-selling series. The former LAPD chief and founder of SWAT has a good sense for tension and has a breadth of knowledge regarding police procedure and office atmosphere. However, his ability to design an adventure game is not readily apparent.
Publisher: Sierra Developer: Sierra Year: 1992 Platform: DOS
Out of the many remakes that Sierra released of their original adventures, this one probably fared the best. But as is the case with most of them, they failed to actually improve the game. Of course, the production values are much better. The point-and-click interface also works as well as that in The Kindred. And surprisingly, Sonny has become a funnier guy.
Publisher: Sierra Developer: Sierra Year: 1995 Platform: DOS; Windows; Ma c; SEGA Saturn
Never before has Roberta Williams, or rather any game designer, integrated horror and humor to such monumental proportions. Of course, the humor derives itself from the George Lucas-type dialogue and poor acting, and much of the horror comes from the realization you had spent quite a bit of money to play this mess.
Publisher: LucasArts Developer: LucasArts Year: 1991 Platform: DOS; Amiga; Mac
While equally as lauded by most to the first game in the series, I didn’t get quite as excited about Monkey Island 2. It begins well, with our hero pirate Guybrush stranded on an island in search of the means to discover the treasure of Big Whoop. But about a third of the way in (pardon me) it jumps ship, and barely gets on track in time for a raucous ending.
Publisher: Access Software Developer: Access Software Year: 1991 Platform: DOS
On the successful heels of Mean Streets, Access Software released a sequel, attempting to build off their charming private investigator Tex Murphy, thrusting him into another save-the-world case filled with beautiful women, ruthless villains, and post-apocalyptic mayhem. From a technical level, they improved the game in nearly every imaginable facet. Unfortunately (but not as a direct result), the story and characters themselves take a bit of a downturn.
Death By Troggles 
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