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: 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: 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.
Death By Troggles 