Need list of "recent" good adventure games

[Syn]

I'm sure there's a list somewhere on these forums but I can't find a search phrase to come up with it. So, I'll ask:

Could some of you suggest some recent (like within the last 5 years or so) adventure games that could satiate my bloodlust for the Lucas Arts/Sierra games of yore (Like Monkey Island 3, Grim Fandango, and such).

These new Sam and Max Episodes have reawakened my adventure gaming demon and he's just craving a little more meat. You know, like lots of puzzles/items deal with. No adventure games that I've seen on shelves since those days have caught my interest or have garnered poor reviews and I just need a little assistance in my search.

[numble]

Consider The Last Express; it's an old one but very original in the gameplay and story department. If these Sam and Max games can be considered cartoon TV episodes, the Last Express definitely plays like a movie drama.

There's also the two Bone games from Telltale.

[shadow9d9]

"The longest journey, syberia 1-2, barrow hill, dark fall 1 and 2, runaway, return to mysterious island, voyage, agon, myst 4 and 5.
Keepsake, Al Emmo, Ankh, Samorost 2, The Moment of Silence, Still life, myst 3, Faust...

[ShaggE]

It's not out yet, but a fan group is making a new sequel to The 7th Guest series called The 13th Doll. It won't be a cheaply made fan game either, the media released so far looks VERY professional. They're even trying to get the original actor who played Stauf in the first two games :D (Can't recall his name at the moment)
Best part? It'll be free!

[Oilers99]

Consider The Last Express; it's an old one but very original in the gameplay and story department. If these Sam and Max games can be considered cartoon TV episodes, the Last Express definitely plays like a movie drama.

There's also the two Bone games from Telltale.

Playing The Last Express is one of the greatest ideas I've ever heard. It's a classic all the way through, and it's also desperately underappreciated. Also manages to look extremely good, despite being a decade old.

[Jake]

And I'm pretty sure it's available on gametap!

[numble]

And I'm pretty sure it's available on gametap!

It is! Not the greatest documentation/instructions though (either that or when I played I just jumped in) but I didn't figure out the save and rewind functions correctly until after I had beaten it--and I would probably have been a lot more impressed since it also is very innovative.

Besides the real-time scripting of everything, the whole "international flavor" of the Orient Express riders at the time was really done amazingly well, and I've never seen a better non-Bosco use of many foreign languages in a game.

[matan]

Not very new (1998), but I played Sanitarium a few years ago and I couldn't believe I never heard about it when it came out. It's definitely the best adventure game I've played in a while.

(It's extremely easy, though, but the story and atmosphere are incredible, and it's also pretty long)

[Mel]

You know, like lots of puzzles/items deal with.

If you like inventory, you might like the Kheops (http://www.kheops-studio.com/) games. Two of them have been mentioned already - Return to Mysterious Island (http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,457) and Voyage (http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,571) (also known as Journey to the Moon in Europe/UK). Their most recent release is Secrets of DaVinci (http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,650) (which has nothing to do with the book or game). I enjoyed all of those. They are first person perspective but there are other characters to interact with and dialogue. Their use of inventory is a lot of fun. :)

[Mishakun]

Well... there are games made by adventure game fans in AGS. http://new.bigbluecup.com/games.php

My favorite being the LucasArts inspired adventure game The Apprentice which can be found here: http://www.herculeaneffort.com/

[ShaggE]

Not very new (1998), but I played Sanitarium a few years ago and I couldn't believe I never heard about it when it came out. It's definitely the best adventure game I've played in a while.

(It's extremely easy, though, but the story and atmosphere are incredible, and it's also pretty long)

Sanitarium was amazing, the second area in the game was by far the most disturbing. (The town with the deformed children) The "Don't go near the pumpkin patch" chant still haunts me :p

[axelkothe]

Games you should play:

Runaway: The game that started the adventure-comeback a few years ago, at least in europe.

Runaway 2: released recently (not sure about an english version though), fantastic 2D graphics!

Ankh: Available here at telltale as a download. funny 3d adventure hich reminds me a lot of the lucas arts classics

Ankh 2: see above. but i think not yet available in english

the longest journey: now thats a game that does the title justice. very long an epic adventure game that switches between a futuristic and a fantasy world. great story, great game. graphics are still nice, despite the age of the game

secret files tunguska: one of the best adventure games of last year imo. at least the german original, i've heard some complaint about the english translation.

the black mirror: bad english translation as far as i know, but otherwise a good game.

undercover operation wintersun: once again, i liked the german original, but i don't know anything about an english translation

the moment of silence: and another lacking english translation. has a great story, but some gameplay issues. hopefully they will be removed in overclocked, the next game by house of tales (another german adventure game developer)

broken sword 1-4: i like em all. 1 is the best, but you porbably know it, it's quite old. 3 has too many crate moving puzzles and some control issues (i had no problem with it, but others had). 4 returns to point'n'click but still some people hat control problems... and the graphics are a bit bland. still a nice game though.

maybe you should also try
Syberia 1&2 and Still Life: few items, few conversations and a lot of empty screens (=there is nothing you can do, only watch the beautiful graphics) but beautiful designs, a great atmosphere and nice stories.

fenimore filmore in wanted: okay funny adventure game which was one of the first to utilize 3D graphics in combination with a point'n'click interface like telltale does. has some issues but i still liked it.

is that enough?

[Harald B]

AdventureGamers.com's list of reviews (http://www.adventuregamers.com/reviews.php) should prove useful. You can sort by release date as well as by star-rating. You'll want to click 'all' first though (or you'll only be sorting the starts-with-A list).
I would say that at this point adventure gaming is going through its Silver Age, and there are definitely plenty of modern adventure games worthy of being checked out.
Most of my personal favorites have already been mentioned, but here's another one: Sherlock Holmes: the Case of the Silver Earring. Very classic-feeling interface and superb writing. It does have a single timed sequence and sneaking sequence (both skippable by downloading savegames from the developer's site), and a few logic puzzles. The difficulty is also quite high at times, especially when you have to answer questions to show you're keeping up with Holmes.

[Mel]

The Moment of Silence has an English translation. I'm playing it right now. :)

[axelkothe]

The Moment of Silence has an English translation. I'm playing it right now. :)

Yes, I know. But I've heard the translation is really bad...

[Mel]

It hasn't bothered me. There are a few phrases that are a little out of place but overall it seems pretty well done to me. :)

Here's the demo that way Syn can try it out and not be out anything if he/she doesn't like it:

http://www.gamershell.com/download_7396.shtml

[Yohmi]

I don't have any good recents adventure games to suggest... Syberia and Runaway are for me very very flat, even if runaway has good graphics, it's not very funny, jokes and ambiance are so boring...
Of course older you have lots... Nightlong (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/nightlong1.jpg) (not humoristic but very cool, very... calm ^^), Sanitarium (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/sanitarium2.jpg) (very disturbing, I made nightmares of it when I was younger, and it has great puzzles and a very well written story), I won't talk about LucasArts one, you surely already know them, so I'll just talk about Down in the dumps (http://www.cordoleani.com/cordo_jeux/dos_boite/did_dos.html) (totally absurd... but buggy, I wasn't able to finish it :(), Neverhood (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/neverhood9.jpg) (a game made of clay, designed by the one who made Earthworm Jim, and with a very funny soundtrack), and also Normality (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/normality1.jpg), the first Adventure Game I played, funny, in 3D and first-person. Don't forget also the two first broken sword (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/baphomet27.jpg), funny and clever, and there is an other, only for the fans of the cartoon, Stupid Invaders (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/stupid2.jpg). It's a game a bit empty, but if you like the cartoon, you're gonna love it, just for elevator musics (La Marseillaise in tchatchatcha) or exploding chickens.

Hyper bonus : three tracks from the nerverhood game ^^
The Neverhood Theme (http://yohmi.free.fr/Neverhood/17%20The%20Neverhood%20Theme.m4a)
Dum da dum dum doi doi (http://yohmi.free.fr/Neverhood/14%20Dum%20Da%20Dum%20Doi%20Doi.m4a)
Olley Oxen Free (http://yohmi.free.fr/Neverhood/02%20Olley%20Oxen%20Free.m4a)

(Except for the music, links shows a small screenshot of the game)

[Jake]

The Neverhood soundtrack is great. I never got more than half way that into the game despite trying to play it through many times, but I own the soundtrack and listen to it fairly often.

[matan]

Yeah, the neverhood is a great game!

Stupid Invaders I've never played, but I remembered something really strange regarding this game - I once found a review on the internet that really criticized this game for having very bad humor. The thing is, for some reason to illustrate how bad the humor is, they compared it to an interactive fiction Space Quest fan game I made when I was 11... I was shocked to see a mention of my interactive fiction in a review, since even though it was released on the net, I just assumed no one ever played it. Also, it's funny that someone compared a commercial game to a silly game an 11 years old kid wrote in a few days...

[matan]

The Neverhood soundtrack is great. I never got more than half way that into the game despite trying to play it through many times, but I own the soundtrack and listen to it fairly often.

Really? If that's because of the cruel endless corridor puzzle then just keep walking, it ends after about a thousand screens :)

[Jake]

No, I just keep starting the game, then getting distracted by shiny things elsewhere. I'll get through it eventually :) Thanks for the heads up though.

[Yohmi]

Stupid Invaders I've never played, but I remembered something really strange regarding this game - I once found a review on the internet that really criticized this game for having very bad humor. The thing is, for some reason to illustrate how bad the humor is, they compared it to an interactive fiction Space Quest fan game I made when I was 11... I was shocked to see a mention of my interactive fiction in a review, since even though it was released on the net, I just assumed no one ever played it. Also, it's funny that someone compared a commercial game to a silly game an 11 years old kid wrote in a few days...

Well... maybe because Stupid Invaders is a french cartoon, french reviewers has not criticized too much this game... I think it's a very special humour, with cow factory to reach poo, snail races and rabbit dressed pervert, and it can not make laugh everybody. As a fan of the first season of the cartoon, I loved the game (even if it was for me too empty). I gave lots of critics by mail to the developers, we discussed a lot about it (and about the soundtrack) because they would make a sequel... then... the creator died, and now it's useless to hope. But it's just a funny game, with jokes that sometimes can appears a bit "hmm... ok" but it's not a bad game at all... there was a demo on the net, you can try it if you find it, just to have an opinion ;)

And about neverhood, it can also be because of the wall labyrinth (when you're on a capsule ship) with lot and lot of possibilities and you never see the end too :p

[Maratanos]

Depending on your tastes, you may or may not also like Myst Online: Uru Live. I know I like it, but it's pretty different in a lot of ways to your classic LucasArts adventures, so...

[Marvin]

There's a rather gorgeous special edition of Dreamfall (the sequel to The Longest Journey) just out in the UK, comprising both games, the Dreamfall soundtrack, and a lovely art book. I'd urge any adventure fan to get it.

If you're feeling cheap, The Longest Journey has been re-released on budget at last, after spending a long time missing from the shelves.

[ShaggE]

The Neverhood soundtrack is great. I never got more than half way that into the game despite trying to play it through many times, but I own the soundtrack and listen to it fairly often.

I'm near-obsessive about all things Neverhood, and even I couldn't finish the game lol, there's a puzzle late in the game that reeeeally tested my patience... Doug TenNapel remains my personal god though :D

(And the soundtrack is indeed amazing, I'd kill to find a copy of Imaginarium, it has the soundtracks for Neverhood, Skullmonkeys, AND Boombots)

[fhqwhgads]

The Neverhood was the first game I bought with my own money. I even overclocked my Pentium 75 to 90Mhz to smoothly play the game! I still have my original CD and it was the first game I completed without any outside help, no hints or help from friends as the game was brand new and no one else had it.

It is still one of my favourites.

[Yohmi]

Wow fhqwhgads, I don't know how old you were, but Neverhood is a very big labyrinth, you wold deserve a medal ^^

ShaggE, if you're seeking for The Neverhood soundtrack, just let me know and I'll sent it to you ;) I never heard skullmonkeys and AND Boombots's soundtracks, but if it' also from Terry S. Taylor, it must be huge and nonsense (in a good way ^^) ^^

[ShaggE]

Terry S. Taylor did indeed do all three soundtracks :) (And sure, I'd love to have that soundtrack again :D)

[tredlow]

I don't have any good recents adventure games to suggest... Syberia and Runaway are for me very very flat, even if runaway has good graphics, it's not very funny, jokes and ambiance are so boring...
Of course older you have lots... Nightlong (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/nightlong1.jpg) (not humoristic but very cool, very... calm ^^), Sanitarium (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/sanitarium2.jpg) (very disturbing, I made nightmares of it when I was younger, and it has great puzzles and a very well written story), I won't talk about LucasArts one, you surely already know them, so I'll just talk about Down in the dumps (http://www.cordoleani.com/cordo_jeux/dos_boite/did_dos.html) (totally absurd... but buggy, I wasn't able to finish it :(), Neverhood (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/neverhood9.jpg) (a game made of clay, designed by the one who made Earthworm Jim, and with a very funny soundtrack), and also Normality (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/normality1.jpg), the first Adventure Game I played, funny, in 3D and first-person. Don't forget also the two first broken sword (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/baphomet27.jpg), funny and clever, and there is an other, only for the fans of the cartoon, Stupid Invaders (http://www.planete-aventure.net/shot/stupid2.jpg). It's a game a bit empty, but if you like the cartoon, you're gonna love it, just for elevator musics (La Marseillaise in tchatchatcha) or exploding chickens.

Hyper bonus : three tracks from the nerverhood game ^^
The Neverhood Theme (http://yohmi.free.fr/Neverhood/17%20The%20Neverhood%20Theme.m4a)
Dum da dum dum doi doi (http://yohmi.free.fr/Neverhood/14%20Dum%20Da%20Dum%20Doi%20Doi.m4a)
Olley Oxen Free (http://yohmi.free.fr/Neverhood/02%20Olley%20Oxen%20Free.m4a)

(Except for the music, links shows a small screenshot of the game)

Yay! somebody who knows The Neverhood!

[ShaggE]

Yay! somebody who knows The Neverhood!

Yay! Another person who knows The Neverhood! :p

[Murray the Chao]

Hey, I love the Neverhood too!

[glenfx]

Stupid Invaders, I love the cartoon, found the game too easy and you could loose the game just as easy (it wasnt really balanced), but i got anoyed by the unchalenging straight gameplay.

I found it disturbing right when they got to get the fuel for the ship and there are these "child porn" odd scenes with candy and the morbid "bunny guy" and the whole thing about candy being a boy and wanting a sex change

But found it amazingly hilarius when candy "catches" the poo from the cow with the bucket, simply the most hilarius gaming moment ever IMHO.

Too sad the creator died (didnt know about it), though resently i saw an adventure game from a french company where the character had a similar design to those of Stupid Invaders, but it was 3D and the character's arms draged behind the character while it moved (cant remember the game, dont know if it was released either >_<)

[Linque]

Wow, I went and bought Runaway from the adventure shop. Have played the first couple of chapters - what an incredible game.

[Linque]

Okay, finished the game ( Runaway ). Beginning and ending were fantastic, the middle parts adequate. Superb theme song, too.

Definitely glad read this thread and got the idea to buy it. Even with the flaws ( I had to use the UHS system quite a few times because of pixel hunting & some seriously flawed puzzles ), I'd say that was probably the best adventure game released since 2002.

[r00tb33r]

Really? If that's because of the cruel endless corridor puzzle then just keep walking, it ends after about a thousand screens :)

Actually its plenty shorter than that. However if you want more gameplay time, you may want to consider reading the stuff on every wall.
Sadly I got close to finishing but it crashed, and kept crashing and each time it was taking too long to reach the spot it was crashing to try new things to fix it... But yeah, the soundtrack is amazing. Would be nice to dig it up sometime.

[glenfx]

Here is another good adventure game. Its amazing that it was made in flash

http://www.genereavventura.com/eng/index.asp

[patters]

some i dont think have been mentioned

hotel dusk and another code(both on the DS) Japanese point and click which i enjoyed a lot

dreamfall the longest journey didnt like it at first but i got into it eventually and enjoyed it