Where Have All the Adventure Games Gone?

People have always looked to escape into fantastic worlds and stories. This facet of the human condition has produced story-driven entertainment in the form of books, films and story-centered video games. But before the World of Warcraft, there were the countless worlds of Final Fantasy, and even before that there was the kingdom of King’s Quest. Despite the long history and pedigree of quality games, it seems that the adventure genre has run out of steam.

There was once a time, not too long ago, when point-and-click adventure games were some of the strongest titles on the market, with Sam and Max, Monkey Island and King’s Police/Space Quest setting the standard for the fledgling medium. Nowadays, most of these franchises have fallen into nostalgia, while only a scant few new titles on the market could be considered of the genre, such as the Wii’s recent attempt, Zack and Wiki. Adventure games were defined by their simple point-and-click or textual interfaces, and a focus on a character’s interactions with the environment. Many of these elements are present in other, newer titles, though rarely are they considered pure adventure.

Action-adventure titles like The Legend of Zelda or God of War do have an emphasis on character progression through a narrative and interacting with their world via items and equipment, but their fast-paced gameplay caters to fighting-oriented adrenaline seekers rather than puzzle-centric fans and adventure questers. Modern day RPGs have also drawn considerable inspiration from adventure games, but since their focus is primarily on character development throughout the narrative rather than the character’s subtle interactions with the environment, they are also considered an entirely different genre (though the audience does tend to overlap).

With the focus of gaming shifted, you might not hear about too many pure adventure games at E3 or Comic-Con, but they’re still alive and well, if in a different form. The simple user interfaces of adventure games were left on the back-burner by the industry around the time that 3D graphics came to the fore, but hobby game developers that focus their efforts on free online products have latched onto the genre. Open flash portals like Newgrounds.com have entire sections devoted entirely to user-created adventure games–an awful lot of them. Be warned though, as with all user-created content, the subject matter isn’t always the most…tasteful.

Despite their waning popularity by the gaming masses, a few companies have still invested in the classic point and click adventure. One such company is Telltale Games, the developer behind Sam and Max Season One/Two, as well as the upcoming Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. So don’t fret, adventure gaming purists, while your beloved genre has certainly changed over the years, it is still alive and well. Just keep out a sharp eye, because it’s in different packaging.