Adventure Games of France
France has been a source of unique adventure and action/adventure games for some time. Here's a brief timeline of the most important French developers and publishers of these genres. I only included games developed in France.
- Game company Infogrames was formed in 1983.
- Game company ERE Informatique was formed in 1984.
- Game company Ubi Soft was formed in 1986.
- Infogrames bought ERE in 1986.
- ERE co-founder Phillipe Ulrich formed the developer label Exxos in 1988.
Exxos developed Captain Blood for various computer formats, beginning in 1988. I haven't really put much time into it but it looks really cool. It's a mix of adventure and action from what I gather.
- Game company Delphine Software was formed in 1988 by Mickael Sportouch and Paul Cuisset, the guys who ported Sega's Space Harrier to the Atari ST computer.
U.S. Gold published Delphine's first adventure game Future Wars in 1989. It was a traditional point and clicker with a science fiction/time travelling theme.
Exxos made Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess(known as Kult in Europe) for various computer formats in 1989.
Infogrames released the PC adventure game The Quest for the Timebird in 1989. It was based on the French graphic novel.
Operation Stealth(Delphine, 1990)
Ubi Soft published Computer's Dream's B.A.T. in 1990. The B.A.T. games were very ambitious with their huge living cities and RPG mixed gameplay.
B.A.T. II
-Exxos separated from ERE/Infogrames in 1990 and became Cryo.
Virgin published Cryo's first computer adventure game Dune in 1990. It was later ported to Sega CD.
Cruise for a Corpse(Delphine, 1991)
1991's Out of this World was when Delphine really began to stand out as a developer of truly unique content. First released on the Amiga and then ported to nearly every computer and console format of the time, OotW was a mix of puzzles, Prince of Persia style platforming and stylish cinemas unlike anything made before it.
-Sierra bought developer Coktel Vision in 1992.
I don't consider Coktel that significant of a developer but they are worth noting for this topic. I believe their first adventure game was Asterix in Morgenland in 1987. In the late '80s and early '90s they released some adult adventure games(Emmanuelle, Geisha, Fascination). Their best known adventure games are the Gobliiins games. Their last adventure game was Lost in Time in 1995. Since then most of their games have been edutainment.
Gobliins
-Infogrames formed the developer label I-Motion in 1992.
I-Motion's first game, the Lovecraft-inspired PC game Alone in the Dark was highly influential. It is considered the first "survival horror" game, a sub-genre of action/adventure games popularized and named by Capcom's Resident Evil on the Playstation. Capcom claims RE's influence is mostly from their Famicom game Sweet Home but the resemblance to AitD is likely more than coincidental.
Alone in the Dark was ported to consoles and I-Motion made two sequels.
Delphine's Flashback in 1993 was an excellent continuation of the style of gameplay from Out of this World. It was released on several console and computer formats. Even the Jaguar got a port.
Delphine formed the subsidiary developer Adeline Software in 1993. It was headed by Frederic Raynal of Alone in the Dark fame.
Without Raynal, I-Motion continued their Lovecraft inspired PC adventure games with Shadow of the Comet(1994) and Prisoner of Ice(1995). Unlike Alone in the Dark, these were graphic adventure games, not action hybrids.
Shadow of the Comet
Virgin published Cryo's K.G.B.(later re-released as Conspiracy) for PC in 1994. It was a graphic adventure where you played a K.G.B. agent who discovers a conspiracy within the Soviet Union.
Out of this World got a sequel for Sega CD in 1994 called Heart of the Alien. This time you got to play as your alien buddy from the first game. It's too bad this sequel wasn't anywhere near as memorable as the first. I still liked it though.
http://www.classicgaming.com/thedump..._cd_-_back.jpg
Adeline's isometric action/adventure Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure was released for PC in 1995 and later on Playstation. It was a little awkward to control but overall it was a neat quest.
Infogrames released an adventure game for PC in 1996 called Time Gate: Knight's Chase. I don't know much about it. Maybe it was developed by I-Motion.
Flashback got a 3d sequel in 1996 for PC and Playstation called Fade to Black.
A Flashback sequel in the 2d style of the original was under development for Game Boy Advance. Roms of the prototype exist.
Relentless' sequel Twinsen's Odyssey came out in 1997.
-Adeline was bought by Sega in 1997 and renamed No Cliche.
Developer Kalisto(best known for their horror action series Nightmare Creatures) released Dark Earth for PC in 1997. I have the game but I haven't played it much. The post-apocalyptic atmosphere and adventure parts are cool but the combat isn't very well done.
-Eric Chahi and other Out of this World people left Delphine in 1997 to form Amazing Studios.
Amazing Studios released the Out of this World-ish action/adventure game Heart of Darkness for Playstation and PC in 1998.
Quantic Dream developed an ambitious action/adventure game for PC and Dreamcast in 1999 called Omikron: The Nomad Soul. It was mostly a traditional adventure game except it had fighting and FPS segments. It also had David Bowie as a character in the game and he wrote some music for it. I really wanted to love the game because the cyberpunk atmosphere was great but the horrible action segments brought it down. A sequel was recently confirmed to be in development.
Infogrames had developer Darkworks make the fourth Alone in the Dark game in 2001, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. It was released on various console formats and PC. The old AitD look was replaced by grittier Resident Evil inspired one.
-Sega shut down No Cliche in 2001. They were developing a Dreamcast action/adventure game called Agartha at the time.
It seems they have returned to Delphine back under the Adeline name(at least briefly, I think they're gone now) although Raynal has left and formed a new company, F4-Toys.
-Cryo shut down in 2002.
Ubi Soft released Beyond Good and Evil for various console formats and PC in 2003. This was one of the nicest surprises of that year. I think it feels like a mixture of classic French action/adventure games and Nintendo's 3d Zelda games. It's a damn shame a sequel will likely never surface due to poor sales. It was originally planned as a trilogy according to Michel Ancel who was the head of the projects.
Please add any good French adventure or action/adventure games I missed. What are your favorites?
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Originally Posted by Parodius
