Publisher: Dreamcatcher
Developer: index+
Year: 2000
Platform: Windows; Mac; Playstation
Taking place seven years after the events in Bram Stoker’s novel, Jonathan Harker must travel to Transylvania to rescue Mina (who has been bitten by Dracula, apparently reincarnated) and defeat the vampire once and for all. An incredibly easy game that can be won in a day or two, Dracula: The Resurrection is intriguing but ultimately unsatisfying.
Publisher: Strategy First
Developer: Momentum AS
Year: 2007
Platform: Windows
Many in the adventure game community fall all over themselves praising ambitious new games (see: Syberia), seemingly regardless of the quality. Culpa Innata is no exception, an incredibly ambitious game, that while excellent at times, needs to be held to a higher standard if the genre has any hope of reviving.
Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Sierra
Year: 1989
Platform: DOS; Amiga; Atari ST
Sadly, The Colonel’s Bequest is one of the best adventures Roberta Williams created. Returning to the roots she laid down in her first game, Mystery House, Roberta attempts to create a murder mystery that not only spooks but befuddles the player. It is befuddling, but not in the way Williams intended.
Publisher: Tsunami
Developer: Tsunami
Year: 1993
Platform: DOS
Jim Walls, who helped develop my favorite games of all time,Police Quest, had a parting with Sierra (something that would happen way too often during the 90’s with their best designers), and joined a renegade group that formed Tsunami. Somehow, I grew up never hearing about this game. If I had, it would have been the first thing on my Christmas list. Ignorance can be bliss. I had read many negative reviews mixed in with a smattering a positive ones. My low expectations were met in full force during the, oh, four hours it took me to win this one.
Publisher: Red Orb
Developer: Legend
Year: 1998
Platform: Windows
The last adventure game developed by Legend Entertainment was their first attempt at horror, done so with help from one of the best suspense writers in the business, John Saul. The Blackstone Chronicles is a paperback series of six stories, detailing the hell that Oliver Metcalf endures trying to piece together the mysteries of the Blackstone Asylum, last run by Oliver’s father. The game begins where the series ends, the asylum turned into a museum. Naturally, spirits of those who lived and worked in the asylum haunt Oliver. His father, Malcom, pissed that the asylum is being desecrated, and further pissed that Oliver hasn’t done anything to protect his father’s legacy, kidnaps Oliver’s son and threatens terror unless he learns his lesson and obeys orders.
Publisher: Oberon
Developer: Oberon
Year: 2004
Platform: Windows
Murder Mystery and Minesweeper. It took this long for someone to combine the two? Your guess is as good as mine.
Publisher: Infocom
Developer: Infocom
Year: 1986
Platform: DOS; Apple II; Amiga; et. al
Jeff O’Neill’s first game with Infocom pits the player in a circus mystery involving a kidnapping and a cast of crazy characters. O’Neill certainly brings forth his vision of the shady underbelly of circus life, and there are several puzzles apropos to the atmosphere (e.g. getting across a tightrope, taming some lions, etc.). However, the mystery itself is highly convoluted and not all that interesting.
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Cognetics
Year: 1986
Platform: PC; Commodore 64; Apple II
Thomas M. Disch, prolific science fiction writer and reviewer, wrote a game in 1986 that infuriated me as a child. At the time, I felt the game was too difficult, though I liked the premise behind it. So about ten years later, I picked the game back up. It infuriated me. Amnesia just may be the most difficult text adventure ever put on the market. And by difficult I don’t mean that you have to battle mazes and guess what verb the author wants you to use. The game is just damn hard.
Publisher: Hue Forest
Developer: Hue Forest
Year: 1996
Platform: Windows; Macintosh
How do you take a Myst clone and get me to like it? Add a developing story, voice acting, some FMV sequences, inventory based puzzles and a suspenseful atmosphere, and that should do it. On second thought, that doesn’t sound much at all like a Myst clone; rather, it sounds like a promising game.
Publisher: Virgin Interactive
Developer: Revolution Software
Year: 1996
Platform: Windows, Windows Mobile, DOS, Macintosh, Palm, Game Boy Advance
I hate this game. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it!
Death By Troggles 
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