I bet this discussion was already made, but what better words we can use to define adventure games?

"Story Driven" is Being use to all games with good story, even RPGs. Besides, It also include "walking simulators" that have next to none puzzles (don't get me wrong, I love many walking Sims!) . If I've not mistake, the first Alone in the Dark had the "Adventure game" tag, but today it would be a survival horror.

I've hear "plot and puzzles" that could be a good fit. Helps to make a difference from the "walking simulador" and shows a little bit of the main mechanic in the game.

Many people say that Visual Novels are not "adventures", well if this is true so neither are multi-choice text-adventures from the old. 

What do you guys think?

That's a good question. Whenever I'm asked what type of games I like and I say adventure games, I usually get the reply "what do you mean by adventure?". Then when I describe what I mean they'll say "oh you mean point & click?". It's hard to describe what I like in just a few words.

People say the term "adventure games" is outdated as a genre but I'm glad it is still used in places like AGH. "Plot and puzzles" covers a lot of ground but doesn't cover walking simulators or pure puzzle games (like The Witness) which I also enjoy on occasion. It's nice to know I won't miss being informed about those types of games here and elsewhere.

I can't type much rn due to repetitive strain injury and a visitor but I made this video/framework for this issue.

https://youtube.com/shorts/HK7GVY3_BzM?i...k2dCrJ1Ekt

Also its less about story more about theming.
questions are welcome as this is for an upcoming full essay

Hi, very interesting question. I've been thinking about this lately too, also trying to find a fitting label to describe my own game, so people are not disapointed expecting something else 

What I arrived at is rather simple:

• "Adventure" is the very broad main genre. Zelda, Battle of Olympus, Shadow of the Colossus, Monkey Island, maybe even Lolo 3 (debatable), Guardian legend or Blaster Master (also debatable). In My view all can be called "adventures", as they all have elements of story, exploring, and different levels of puzzles and/or action.
  
• Adventure has several Subgenres. "Action Adventure" means your (finger) skills are probably as important as, or more important than, puzzle solving skills. "Puzzle Adventure" is the other way around, puzzle is dominant (I'd probably call my own game like that). "Point and Click Adventure" is in my view a subgenre of Puzzle Adventure which focus on steering with the mouse and object/item interactions and different kind of action (take, talk, look, etc.). 
  

Maybe I see it to simple