Time for a single-player adventure game

[AvalonXQ]

I don't think any of the above selections covered this -- consider old-school IF games (text-based "go north", "light candle" type games).

A lot of them are very good; this one is my all-time favorite (warning -- you will die and have to re-start a lot; this is expected).

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

If what you are used to are games like MYST don't get Skyrim.

I got a copy and I agree it's too shooter-ish.

If you like adventure game (rather than first person RPG) then the Longest journey is probably for you.

Looks interesting. Should I start with Longest Journey or skip right to the more contemporary Dreamfall?

~~ Paul

 

[Roxane]

I don't think any of the above selections covered this -- consider old-school IF games (text-based "go north", "light candle" type games).

A lot of them are very good; this one is my all-time favorite (warning -- you will die and have to re-start a lot; this is expected).

I died and was greeted with a Tolkien reference.

 

[AvalonXQ]

I died and was greeted with a Tolkien reference.

Try again! You'll get it!

I loved the "AHA!" moment when I figured out what was going on.

 

[Roxane]

Well, I give up. I have no idea why this command doesn't work.

>set panel to 50
The prototype's control panel only accepts between 1 and 500 seconds.

>set panel to 50 seconds
I only understood you as far as wanting to set the control panel to that.

>press silver button
The control panel emits a small beep and the number '0' flashes out at you. Perhaps you should set it first.

 

[BenBurch]

http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/e_downloads.html

 

[AvalonXQ]

Well, I give up. I have no idea why this command doesn't work.

>set panel to 50
The prototype's control panel only accepts between 1 and 500 seconds.

>set panel to 50 seconds
I only understood you as far as wanting to set the control panel to that.

>press silver button
The control panel emits a small beep and the number '0' flashes out at you. Perhaps you should set it first.

Yeah, that first command should work. I don't know the problem.

 

[Stomatopoda]

You absolutely must play Amnesia:TDD if you even remotely enjoy horror.

Also, keep in mind the Steam holiday sale in a couple weeks. Lots and lots of crazy discounts.

 

[Lamuella]

if you're find of point and click adventures, and don't mind things that run in a browser, kongregate.com has a fair number of decent ones. You have to trawl a little to find them, but there are real gems (such at the 3 part film noir murder mystery version of Alice In Wonderland)

 

[malaka]

If you're not opposed to older games, I suggest Ico: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ico

I loved it. There is little-to-no dialog, the controls are smooth, the graphics are beautiful, the soundtrack is calming, and the gameplay is interesting (lots of puzzles to solve).

 

[Molinaro]

If you're not opposed to really, really old games, gog.com now has Ultima 7 Complete on sale for $5.99

I played a good 4 hours yesterday. That game is rightly considered the best single player rpg ever made. And with dosbox (setup automatically by the install), and flagging the icon compatibility as Win98 pack 3 (by me), and tweaking the game speed (ctl-F11 and ctl-F12), it runs perfectly.

 

[This is The End]

If you're not opposed to really, really old games, gog.com now has Ultima 7 Complete on sale for $5.99

I played a good 4 hours yesterday. That game is rightly considered the best single player rpg ever made. And with dosbox (setup automatically by the install), and flagging the icon compatibility as Win98 pack 3 (by me), and tweaking the game speed (ctl-F11 and ctl-F12), it runs perfectly.

Another vote for that being the best rpg ever.

 

[arthwollipot]

What's so great about it?

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

NetHack. The dev team thinks of everything!

 

[BenBurch]

http://rephial.org/

 

[Molinaro]

What's so great about it?

It has a very engaging story. It is very open world, allowing you to pursue that story in whatever direction you choose. The world is fully interactive. All objects can be dragged and dropped, moved, stacked. Some areas are only accessible if you take crates and stack them to build your own staircase.

The npcs have a daily routine. They sleep at night, get up and spend some time around the house before heading off to work. If you want to break into the bank, then you would have to sneak into the banker's home at night, kill them and take the key.

However your party members have their own sense of morality and will complain or leave you if you commit crimes in their sight (theft, murder). Your party members are AI controlled in combat, so that you don't have to micro manage them. You can set their behavior style: attack nearest, attack weakest, attack strongest, run away, etc..

There's a huge number of sub quests that are plots in of themselves. Almost never does it involve anything like deliver this to so and so, or bring me 8 foozles.

Just keep in mind, the game is nearly 20 years old so some thing considered standard in rpgs will not be found in this game. For one, there is no journal for your quests. It's up to you to keep track of what you are doing.

The game also requires you to eat to avoid starving to death. And so you have to carry food along with your items and gold. However even gold has a weight/size. It's a physical object in your inventory like anything else. And since things have a size, you may have your carry capacity showing as 24/40, but when you try and drop a plate mail chest piece into your pack, it will say "Won't fit" instead of "Too Heavy". In that case you have the option of taking your shield out of your left hand, and carrying the armor in your hand instead.

If a character dies (and you don't have the one npc in your party who can res) you have to carry their body and equipment to the king, who will heal or res for you. That involves a great deal of inventory juggling to get all their equipment to fit on the rest of your party, and to get one person's carry weight down low enough to be able to carry the body.

But they eliminate the packrat mentality in this game because shopkeepers sell, they don't buy. So there's no reason to keep pieces of armor or weapons you have no intention of using. The only reason in the early game is if you have not yet filled out your party (8 max) by meeting and inviting the various people who will join, you may want to store some equipment for those later joiners. The only items you can sell for gold coins are gems (to the jeweler), gold nuggets and gold bars (to the mint), and silver serpent venom (to the apothecary).

The entire world is persistent. You can leave anything, anywhere and it will stay there. Containers don't reset.

Also inventory is a container and not a list. Open your pack and you see the little graphical representations of what you are carrying piled up in the container. Your in game map, is a map in your inventory you click. The same thing for a sextant to locate coordinates, or a watch to check the time.

The amount of detail in the game that is just a 29 mb download for the main game and 3 expansions is amazing. You can travel by walking. By a horse and carriage you buy. By ship you buy. By magic carpet you find. And these things are full sized, not just little icons your party disappears inside. You can also use magic to mark a location (on one of 8 magic stones) then later cast recall on one of those stones, to return to where you were when you marked it.

 

[arthwollipot]

Cool, thanks.

Sounds like it used a lot of elements (NPCs having a daily routine, for example) that were reflected in much more recent games like Oblivion and Skyrim.

I remember way back when I was in high school, playing Ultima II. I don't remember much about it though.

 

[This is The End]

Yeah, all that... in 1992. It was simply amazing. Plus it has great cheat codes. After you finish the game you can explore it even further with the cool codes.

 

[lionking]

Cool, thanks.

Sounds like it used a lot of elements (NPCs having a daily routine, for example) that were reflected in much more recent games like Oblivion and Skyrim.

I remember way back when I was in high school, playing Ultima II. I don't remember much about it though.

Zork, King's Quest and Ultima started my obsession with single-player adventure games.

 

[Kevin_Lowe]

Yeah, all that... in 1992. It was simply amazing. Plus it has great cheat codes. After you finish the game you can explore it even further with the cool codes.

I have to say I found Ultima 6+ a real let-down after Ultima V. They were prettier but they were also easier and it felt like much of the world didn't have any point. Ultima V had fairly hard dungeon puzzles, a genuinely scary underworld, lots of things you needed to do before you could win and every zone mattered somehow to the big plot. I felt there was just more game there than in any of the subsequent instalments.

The Avernum series by Spiderweb Software was also quite good, especially the first one. Not as deep in terms of puzzle/story interactions but more tactical depth in the combat than the Ultima series. I thought they were fun dungeon bashes.