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+--- Thread: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? (/showthread.php?tid=22)
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What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - Jackal - 09-25-2025
You know we're going to debate this question 6,342 times anyway, so let's rip off the Band-Aid right away.
What IS an adventure game to you personally, what isn't, and why?
There are NO wrong answers, only silly ones personal interpretation!
(P.S. Obviously Portal is off-limits to naysayers. It's totally an adventure game, just a very unique one.
)
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - Space Quest Historian - 09-26-2025
I've had this debate multiple times with a lot of different people who all felt I was wrong or too conservative, but I'm still going to maintain that:
* The 7th Guest is not an adventure game; it's a puzzle game.
* Myst is not an adventure game; it's a lever-pulling simulator.
* Survival horror games are not adventure games; they're just action games with puzzles in them.
* Tomb Raider is not an adventure game. Stop calling 3rd person action games "action-adventure games"; it just muddies the waters.
* Walking simulators are a sub-genre of adventure games, so they count as adventure games.
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - Lucien21 - 09-26-2025
Check out my Sig.
Roberta Williams
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - Cressup - 09-26-2025
For me, an adventure game hinges on there being a strong story element and well-developed characters, and that being the forefront of the game, rather than combat or strategy or platforming. It will often have puzzles involved, but that's not essential. Then there are sub-genres, such as point-and-click adventure game, or FMV, etc.
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - NightShiftNomad - 09-26-2025
Games with a narrative focus and some level of agency to push said narratives forward that don't rely on combat/dexterity
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - sjmpoo - 09-26-2025
A game with strong narrative focus. Puzzles are good. Action/arcade is mostly a detriment. But overall you need a well written story, and engaging characters to drive a story forward.
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - LeftHandedGuitarist - 09-26-2025
The adventure genre has grown for me to encompass a variety of things. The main ingredients I look at are: being told a story, exploring environments, dialogue with characters, and puzzle solving. These can all be represented to varying degrees but at least a couple of them should be the focus.
I think adventure games can include combat, as long as its not the primary function of the game, although I do consider action-adventure games to be adventure adjacent.
I honestly love what the genre has evolved to include. Monkey Island, Myst, Phantasmagoria, Firewatch, Life is Strange, The Wolf Among Us, It Takes Two, Outer Wilds, Immortality. I get the same joy from all of them.
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - edgeeee - 09-26-2025
For me, the story (and the sound?) matters a lot!
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - Beau - 09-26-2025
This is more or less my perspective. I include Portal but not The Last of Us. I include A Short Hike but not Stardew Valley. I don't feel that strongly about my opinions, though.
I just hate when a game is called action-adventure and you need the hand-eye coordination of a child to make it past the first ten minutes. And the annoyance mostly comes from having a hard time searching for adventure games on Steam or Epic.
RE: What is an "adventure game" to YOU? - Pluto - 09-26-2025
I must say I like the definition of adventure games mentioned on mainpage of AGH:
Adventure games are interactive player-guided stories of exploration, investigation and discovery whose primary motivation comes from uncovering further narrative and/or solving integrated puzzles.
More simply, the genre is built upon three essential pillars: exploration, story and puzzles. An adventure game can get away with utilizing only two, but any game with just one, or heavily supported by other pillars instead (combat, platforming, stealth, stats, resource management, etc.), has really become something else.