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The top 100 adventure games ever... ever! (Ever!) 30 Dec, 2011 / 24 comments

The venerable Adventure Gamers is counting down the top 100 adventure games of all time. They did, of course, do a top 20 way back when, and quite "controversial" it was (or "wrong" as most would say, seeing how it didn't include LeChuck's Revenge), but that was then and now is now and now they're doing a top 100.

Keep checking it out over the next few days to see who'll be the winner. The Dig has already hit #92.


CLONE2727 UPDATE: They've finished the list and apparently King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is better than The Secret of Monkey Island and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers now. Forget December 2012, this is the real apocalypse! Of course our buddy Tim still grabbed the top spot anyway.
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24 Comments

  • Avatar
    SurplusGamer on 03 Jan, 2012, 11:06…
    I remain baffled as to why The Longest Journey is considered a good adventure game, let alone the best of all time.

    Conversations that go on forever and were in my opinion not particularly interesting.
    A plot that is a mess, especially in its latter half, with threads that end up going completely forgotten and unresolved.
    Some of the worst examples of puzzle design I've ever seen in an adventure game, that also completely clashed with the atmosphere the game was trying to convey.
  • Avatar
    Remi on 01 Jan, 2012, 00:57…

    elTee

    I knew we should have made this list ourselves.



    You're just saying this to spite me, aren't you? Or did you completely stop reading your own admin forum threads? >:
  • Avatar
    clone2727 on 31 Dec, 2011, 22:15…

    Jason

    Because we're not an adventure game site?

    With just the LucasArts/Double Fine/Telltale games, of course! That ought to be around 100 games. There aren't any other adventure games anyway, right?
  • Avatar
    Jason on 31 Dec, 2011, 18:53…

    clone2727

    elTee

    I knew we should have made this list ourselves.

    Why don't we? :P



    Because we're not an adventure game site?
  • Avatar
    clone2727 on 31 Dec, 2011, 16:46…
    It almost seems like AG purposely chose games in an order that would cause more controversy in the adventure game community than ones they actually thought were the best.

    elTee

    I knew we should have made this list ourselves.

    Why don't we? :P
  • Avatar
    elTee on 31 Dec, 2011, 10:10…
    I knew we should have made this list ourselves. Gabriel Knight 2 is a complete trial... I mean, interesting ideas etc. but just awkward to play and badly acted throughout. There's a homoerotic undertone to the whole game (The Beast Within = homosexuality) but you mostly mistake it for accidental innuendo, which tends to make it quite hilarious.

    Anyway, very happy to see Machinarium on the list - but Broken Sword is also way too high up.
  • Avatar
    Ascovel on 31 Dec, 2011, 08:30…
    @Jason Personally I strongly agree about TLJ's mediocrity, but you can't deny many of the genre's fans are obsessed with that game and it's nothing unusual to see it rated that high.
  • Avatar
    Jason on 31 Dec, 2011, 01:45…
    Not to be a dick, but naming The Longest Journey the second greatest adventure game of all time is such an F minus it could threaten your graduation.
  • Avatar
    Remi on 31 Dec, 2011, 00:14…
    Sad not seeing TMI or TDP (season 2 placed over it?!) included, yet dreck like Syberia and Freddy Pharkas making it. It's hard to make a top 100 like this, and it could be worse, but there are some obvious flaws here.
  • Avatar
    Ascovel on 30 Dec, 2011, 21:39…
    Grim Fandango is perfect as it is - don't anyone dare to mess it with it. Unless only to make it compatible with all available systems.
  • Avatar
    Kroms on 30 Dec, 2011, 21:05…
    I love Grim Fandango, but I often think it could use an SE - a proper one - for it to be top dog. Not that I can think of any replacements, but it has some issues a bit of tuning could help with,
  • Avatar
    movieclockstar on 30 Dec, 2011, 20:58…
    At least Grim Fandango is in its rightful place.
  • Avatar
    Kroms on 30 Dec, 2011, 19:23…
    Adventure Gamers: Where Gabriel Knight 3 is Better Than Portal.

    Any website which puts King's Quest in place of TMI or TDP on a top adventure games list is worthless in my book. *shrug*
  • Avatar
    clone2727 on 30 Dec, 2011, 17:43…

    Zaarin

    They have a quality pagination system over there. No back button and you can only visit pages 1-4 and the last one.

    Their comment pagination works great though!
  • Avatar
    Zaarin on 30 Dec, 2011, 17:39…
    They have a quality pagination system over there. No back button and you can only visit pages 1-4 and the last one.
  • Avatar
    Ascovel on 20 Dec, 2011, 18:06…
    On the topic of Portals... well, to me adventure games are not simply logic puzzle games with a little bit of story put in between the puzzling. The adventure game genre has its own way with puzzles - more integrated with the world and quests, while solving Portal challenges (and those in other puzzle games) is like solving mathematical equations.

    Udvarnoky

    Speaking as a huge fan of the genre...are there even a hundred good adventure games?



    I can name 5679 magnificent ones off the top of my head.
  • Avatar
    Remi on 20 Dec, 2011, 13:36…

    Udvarnoky

    Speaking as a huge fan of the genre...are there even a hundred good adventure games?



    Good lord, no.
  • Avatar
    clone2727 on 20 Dec, 2011, 13:06…

    Kroms

    I consider them adventure game-y enough to be included on a list like this.

    It's a story-driven puzzle-based game, with little combat. I was just describing CMI, by the way, but since you were thinking I was describing Portal: it's enough.

    I completely agree with what wikipedia says: it's a "Puzzle-platform game". There are adventure elements, but that doesn't make it an adventure game. CMI's "little combat" is a far cry from Portal's interaction with enemies.
  • Avatar
    Kroms on 20 Dec, 2011, 03:53…
    I consider them adventure game-y enough to be included on a list like this.

    It's a story-driven puzzle-based game, with little combat. I was just describing CMI, by the way, but since you were thinking I was describing Portal: it's enough.
  • Avatar
    Udvarnoky on 19 Dec, 2011, 23:15…
    Speaking as a huge fan of the genre...are there even a hundred good adventure games?
  • Avatar
    Udvarnoky on 19 Dec, 2011, 23:15…
    (duplicate)
  • Avatar
    Ascovel on 19 Dec, 2011, 22:05…
    Portals are cool, but I wouldn't really call them adventure games - not that kind of puzzles. Braid is already way more an adventure game than those two.
  • Avatar
    clone2727 on 19 Dec, 2011, 18:51…
    Nah, Portal or Portal 2 will be the top one and everyone will cry havoc.
  • Avatar
    Kroms on 19 Dec, 2011, 16:14…
    Best games of ALL TIME. Past, present, *and* future.

    Ten bucks says, Indigo Prophecy or Heavy Rain are going to be in the top 20. I want to see if they still insist those games have any merit to them, besides the character switching in Prophecy.

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