Modern trends in graphic adventures

[NeoZeedeater]

Shenmue I and II(Sega/Yu Suzuki, 2000 and 2001)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b223/NeoZeedeater/muep.jpg

Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit(Quantic Dream/David Cage, 2005)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b223/NeoZeedeater/indphone.jpg

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey(Funcom/Ragnar Tornquist, 2006)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b223/NeoZeedeater/dreamf.jpg

What do these games have in common? They're all modern 3d takes on the graphic adventure genre. They all vary from more traditional adventure games with their increased focus on story and cinematics, decreased emphasis on puzzles, incorporation of action elements, and being designed more for a controller than a mouse. Of course, these elements aren't new to the genre but in the past they're weren't many titles taking this route with all of these.

I'm curious what people here think of this evolution of the genre. Would you rather have more traditional adventure games or is this the desired future?

My thoughts:

I'm certainly not a "genre purist". If a game can successfully mix genres I'm all for it. Not all games need to attempt it though. Shenmue wouldn't be the same without some action while Dreamfall doesn't really need it.

Ideally, I would like to see future adventure games meet in the middle between old and new, i.e. have the presentation, story and budget of these modern games, maybe throw in some other genre elements but retain the challenging puzzles of the past. I'm also a big supporter of adventure games having multiple solutions to puzzles. Not enough games do that.

What do you think about this?

[GM80]

What do these games have in common?

The characters all talk on the phone? LOL

In all seriousness, as a fan of the genre since text parser days, I really appreciate a good story and good puzzles that require me to use the old head rather than a particular style of gameplay. I still think the genre really hit its stride during the point-n-click VGA heydays, but I haven't played the newest round of games such as Dreamfall. I haven't really played an adventure game since Syberia II.

[Towlie2110]

I think i want to buy dreamfall. I heard the story was fanatasic.

[PapaStu]

I loved Indigo Prophecy. Once I started it I was commanded to play it to completion non-stop because of the story by my better half. I wish that it had a little less Simon in it, but I liked my actions affecting everything so much.

These things just don't have alot of replay after the've been beaten which is their only downfall. Which is pretty important in todays game especially because of the price of the games and since high scores don't matter anymore (because the games don't have scores) replay is more important than ever.

[Daltone]

I'm all in favour of any game that is primarily story focused, so I'm not a big fan of anything like Myst. I like puzzles that drive the story, not just brain teasers for the hell of it.

My only complaint about the move to 3D has been that sometimes the characters have looked a bit wooden thanks to a lack of animation. Compared to latter 2D games, sometimes what's happening on screen can seem a bit, well, lifeless (Broken Sword 3, I'm looking at you.)

On the other hand, things are improving, so I can live with that. I don't mind increased action elements, especially if they're fun like in Farenheit. I loved the way that that game controlled too (apart from when I had to climb. Struggled there.) The analogue control made things more immersive than if I'd just been tapping "A" a lot to do stuff.

I think a good adventure is like a good book. Sure, you know the story, but eventually you will come back to it. Well, I will. Something like the crazy randomness that we saw in Blade Runner could beef up replay value, or something simple like different paths based on your actions, like in Bioware RPGs.

[njiska]

I think i want to buy dreamfall. I heard the story was fanatasic.

The story is great, the humour is good, the puzzles are fairly simple, but that's ok because it's the feel that really makes a difference.