Point-and-Click Adventure Games

[Tonberry]

Which ones are your favorites? Any cool classic/obscure/essential recommendations?

It's a genre I love the idea of, but I'm a super casual fan and haven't explored as much as I would've wanted to, and I've mainly just played Monkey Island and Grim Fandango (never got far though), since it's what I grew up with. I'm currently playing the King's Quest 1 VGA remake and having a good time though.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I have always loved The Legend Of Kyrandia series. It's really fun and well-done.

And even though they both make you tear up your hair due to their BS, moon logic puzzles... Laura Bow and Discworld are excellent games, too.

 

[thanonyx]

The Sam & Max and Monkey Island games are pretty fun and great for when you need a laugh.

 

[Octopus]

So many good ones, it's almost hard to narrow down. Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis is a classic, Maniac Mansion and Day of The Tentacle, the Broken Sword games. The last point and clicks I played were the FMV Sherlock Holmes games, they were pretty great if a little simple. Next I think I'm going to get into the Gabriel Knight series.

 

[fake-kun]

To be honest, I never liked adventure games that much. I'm way too stupid for them.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis

I always thought that it was a bit BS that Indiana Jones and The Fate Of Atlantis gets a free pass and is lauded as one of the greatest games on the genre despite requiring vast amounts of trial-and-error just to solve its puzzles when other games were completely demolished for requiring the same thing. I even had a magazine back then calling it "a game so hard, only experts will ever beat it without consulting a guide".

Love it, though. And I have tons of stories to tell.

 

[Stingy Perry]

Does Myst count?

 

[fake-kun]

Does Myst count?

Yes.

 

[Octopus]

I always thought that it was a bit BS that Indiana Jones and The Fate Of Atlantis gets a free pass and is lauded as one of the greatest games on the genre despite requiring vast amounts of trial-and-error just to solve its puzzles when other games were completely demolished for requiring the same thing. I even had a magazine back then calling it "a game so hard, only experts will ever beat it without consulting a guide".

Love it, though. And I have tons of stories to tell.

That is BS, no idea why it got a free pass. Its been awhile since I played it but I don't remember any truly terrible puzzles like some other point-and-clicks definitely have.

Also, incoming Waffles Fate of Atlantis article?

 

[Tonberry]

To be honest, I never liked adventure games that much. I'm way too stupid for them.

Yeah same here, mostly. I just want to get into them more. I love how they feel like an interactive storybook and movie at the same time, and it's fun to play games that are usually entirely devoid of combat, but still being an exciting adventure, and not just a life-sim (though I love life-sims too).

The Legend Of Kyrandia

I've read about these. Someone else recommended them to me long ago but I completely forgot to check them out!

Also, thanks for the recommendations everyone else, too! Lots of good stuff.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

That is BS, no idea why it got a free pass. Its been awhile since I played it but I don't remember any truly terrible puzzles like some other point-and-clicks definitely have.

Also, incoming Waffles Fate of Atlantis article?

Nah. I haven't touched it since the early aughts. I would probably mix it up with The Last Crusade at this point XD

I guess it depends on which route you took, too... It's far simpler with Sophia by your side.

 

[SwordBreaker40]

Discworld
Sam and max
Day of tentacle
Maniac Mansion
Blade Runner

Are my favorite and the ones I have played.
I have played myst and riven but no fan.

 

[tropicalavera]

Riven is certainly unconventional, and not really aiming at the same audience that enjoy lucasarts or sierra adventures. Closer to a walking-sim, with maybe only 3 or so real puzzles to solve. Still, such a deeply fascinating, surreal, and atmospheric experience. I treasure the notes that I kept during my first playthrough - they're like the scribbles of Robinson Crusoe.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Wild take, but you know me.

Maniac Mansion... on NES! It's a vast improvement, even with Nintendo's censorship firmly in place.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

I liked Beneath a Steel Sky, a sci-fi game that I think took place in a post apocalyptic setting. I remember the puzzles being reasonable and I loved the robotic sidekick Joey.

The Broken Sword series was also solid, especially the writing, and I didn't recall running into too many BS puzzles.

The Dig is a game that I always thought looked interesting, but I admit that I haven't played through it yet.

 

[What's His Face]

Let's go with the classic "NES ICIM/Kemco trilogy" and a few extras:
Deja Vu
Shadowgate
Uninvited
Maniac Mansion
Deja Vu 1 & 2
Sword of Hope I & II
Scooby-Doo Mystery
Clock Tower

 

[psvitaforever]

"The Longest Journey" for PC, set in a futuristic American city (but with problems not so distant than current days) and also in a fantasy world. I loved it. I hope it's not a problem if I insert a link directly to steam, so you can easily see how the game is.

Save 60% on The Longest Journey on Steam

The Longest Journey is an amazing graphical adventure, where the player controls the protagonist, April Ryan, on her journey between parallel universes.

store.steampowered.com

 

[elehayyme]

Here are some which pop into my mind (although some folks have mentioned them already):

Maniac Mansion
Day of the Tentacle
Grim Fandango
Tex Murphy series (eg, Under a Killing Moon)
Kings Quest series
Edna & Harvey series
11th Hour/7th Guest
Gabriel Knight series

These aren't as old but are suggestions:
999/Virtue's Last Reward/Zero Time Dilemma
The Cave
Deponia series

 

[Cu-Neo]

- Grim Fandango

A point and click so good, that @Waffles did a great article about it.

Also "I have no mouth and I must scream", a point and click game where it is a bit difficult to know what you have to do, but the story and the antagonist are really good.

 

[elehayyme]

- Grim Fandango
View attachment 19576
A point and click so good, that @Waffles did a great article about it.

Also "I have no mouth and I must scream", a point and click game where it is a bit difficult to know what you have to do, but the story and the antagonist are really good.
View attachment 19578

Oh I have that one (I have no mouth but I must scream) but haven't played it yet. I should give this one a shot. Thanks for the reminder, friend!

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

I'll be honest most I got are the freebees from GoG. But Grim Fandango has the best soundtrack that I found and bought the game solely based on hearing it in playthrough I slept to.

 

[middler]

Dont forget about Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender.

Campy fun from the early 90's!

 

[dropsmegamega]

For puzzles, I really like og Myst. It's short, but I feel all puzzles are extremely well designed and doable, no weird item mixing and unlike Riven, no huge amounts of backtracking. Be prepared to READ in the beginning though.

For story, The Longest Journey still wins. But since someone already recommended it, I will say Still Life.

Also if you're looking for more obscure and esoteric ones, my favorites are Eastern Mind and Cosmology of Kyoto. Very dark and surreal experiences, they are closer to interactive midia than games though. They are a bit hard to run, but hopefully scummvm will eventually fully fix then.

 

[Lazar Kaganovich]

Space Quest series.

 

[ciro64]

Chasm