Adventure Video Games

Types of Adventure Games

Adventure games fall into many categories, a few of which are explained below.

• Puzzle
• Action
• Text-Based (Interactive Fiction)
• Graphical
• RPG
• Rogue-like

Puzzle

A game that relies heavily on reading and deciphering mechanisms and their use is usually called a puzzle adventure game. Many times these games lack characters and present a convoluted story that the user must decipher on his or her own. Examples of this sub-genre are Myst and Schizm.

Action

Action/adventure games feature a mix of puzzles, interactions with the environment, items, and computer-controlled characters to meet. Examples of this genre are the [[Prince of Persia Games]] and Resident Evil series.

Text-Based (Interactive Fiction)

The earliest games in this genre were text-only, using a verb-noun parser to interpret a user's typed commands. These titles always featured a strong story and well-written dialogue, as there were no visuals or other graphics to distract the author. A thriving community of gamers still create interactive fiction titles even to this day.

Graphical

Often called point and click adventures, these games were practically invented by Sierra On-Line with the King's Quest series. These feature still screens with a movable character in the environment. Players use the mouse (or a combination of mouse and keyboard commands) to interact with the world, solve puzzles, collect items, etc. LucasArts also entered the field with the Monkey Island games and Maniac Mansion several years later.

RPGs

This somewhat hazy sub-genre utilizes common RPG-like elements such as character stats, hit points and other ability scores. In order to solve certain puzzles, players must have developed their character to a certain skill level. Examples of this genre are the Quest for Glory series and Fallout.

Rogue-Like

Rogue-like adventure games are another early form that were limited by the computers they were created on. These use ASCII characters to represent graphics. For example, an uppercase letter D represents a dragon. The player character is usually represented with an @ symbol. Movements are with the keyboard and a host of complex moves are available. Rogue-like games most often utilize randomly-generated stages, meaning you'll never play the same game twice. Notables include Nethack and Angband.

A Final Word

The adventure gaming genre dates back to computing's earliest days. While commercially not as successful as action games, they have an enormous following of fans and independent developers. Finding a good adventure game is like finding buried treasure. You'll cherish it for a long time to come.