Hi,

due to thyroid related problems (overwhelming tiredness, memory problems) I had to quit playing adventure games couple of years ago. Now that I've got the right diagnose and medication those days are happily over and I've been able to step into the world of adventure games again.

After a long break I started with "Baron Wittard: Nemesis of Ragnarok", "The Testament of Sherlock Holmes" and "Eleusis".

Then I remembered I had one game left unfinished back then. It was "Still Life". I had just barely started it, near the end of the first chapter still happening in Chicago. I continued the story by climbing up to the attic and finding Gus's journal from the chest and jumped to Prague of late 20's. The story grapped me totally like a good book. It was easy to forgive a bit outdated graphics. The game had a good logic and I never lost the clue what to do next. All the puzzles were logical and offered just enough challenge. Except the lock picking, must have spent 5-6 hours with it on three nights. But never wanted to give up. I believe I'm currently close to solving the whole case and game.

After finishing a really good game it's always a problem where to find the next one that doesn't disappoint in any way after such a good experience.

I have played over 100 adventure games in total and there is no sense listing them here, but in general I like mysteries and crimes to be solved in environments of past decades or even centuries, not any sci-fi stuff. I still have couple of games on my shelf not started yet but it's always a good idea to have some stock.

I turn to you dear friends of adventure games and wish you could recommend me such games you've liked.

Timo

Timo,

Have you played Post Mortem, the first game in the series?
If not, it's totally about Gus.
Here is the Gameboomers review.
To me, this is the best of the Still Life games.

Gil.

I'd recommend the Agatha Christie adventure games: And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express and Evil Under the Sun. They are older games, and you might have already played them, but they meet your criteria. The first of these is my own particular favourite.

I'm guessing you want detective-type games from the past two years.
You might check out Face Noir. Unfortunately the ending is a cliffhanger
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Ff/FaceNoir/FaceNoir.htm

Another one to look at is Cognition. It does have a supernatural element though, and it has some "adult" content.
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Cc/Cognition/Cognition.htm
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Cc/Cognition2/Cognition2.htm
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Cc/Cognition3/CognitionThe%20Oracle.htm
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Cc/Cognition4/Cognition4.htm

The Raven is an Agatha Christie type
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Rr/TheRaven/TheRaven.htm
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Rr/Raven2/Raven2.htm
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Rr/Raven3/Raven3.htm

Secret Files 3 is a continuation of the earlier Secret Files games.
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Ss/SecretFiles3/SecretFiles3.htm

Nicolas Eymerich: The Inquisitor: Book 1
May not be what you're looking for since it takes place back in the days of the Inquisition. He does poke around trying to solve mysteries, but things were quite different back then.
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Ee/Eymerich/EymerichEpisode1.htm

And of course there have been Nancy Drew games released.
Of the recent ones, I'd say Ghost of Thornton Hall was the best.
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Nn/ND28/NancyDrewGhost.htm

And there have been 2 Carol Reed Mysteries published in the last two years
Carol Reed 8: Ambers Blood
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Aa/AmbersBlood/AmbersBlood.htm
Carol Reed 9: Cold Case Summer
http://www.gameboomers.com/reviews/Cc/CarolReed9/CarolReed9.htm
There is also the soon-to-be-released (maybe next week) Carol Reed 10: Bosch's Damnation
http://www.mdna-games.com/Bosch/about.htm

Hi,

thanks for your recommendations. I never gave up my faith that some day I would be able to play adventure games again. So I kept on buying interesting ones every now and then. It doesn't matter if the games are old or new as long as the story is gripping and the graphics look acceptable on a 1680x1050 screen.

Gil, I have "Post Mortem" installed but I didn't know it was a predeseccor for "Still Life". It might well be so that I have bought it in some download pack after "Still Life (1) and 2" which I have as boxed versions. So I started from the middle of the series! Must turn clocks back and head to Paris next.

Rushes, "And Then There Were None" was actually the first adventure game I ever owned. A bit difficult for the first one and it almost crushed me but also waked my interest to this game genre. I looked those other two lately at Amazon UK where I used to buy boxed versions but they have raised their postage and packaging costs to clouds. It used to be 1.99 £ or 2.99 £ can't remember but now it's 8.99 £! There is no sense buying 2-3 £ games from there any more. I must keep my eyes open for those games though.

Jenny, I have already played "The Raven" which I liked as a game but what I don't like is the current way of selling games in chapters one by one. One chapter is quite inexpensive but when you buy the whole game it costs 1.5-2 times it had cost as one game. In case of "The Raven" the third chapter was much less polished than the first two and even contained traps where you could stuck and the only way out was to terminate the game. Why bother putting much effort for the last chapter because everyone with firt two buys it anyway. I must take a closer look at other games you mentioned, haven't played any of them. I have always thought Nancy Drew games to be some B-class casual games but after having read couple of reviews I think I must change my opinion. At least some of them are real adventures worth a try.

Thanks for your recommendations and opinions with even links to them. I'm still open for more recommendations for adventure games with gripping stories.

Timo

Timo,

Have you ever been to http://www.gog.com?
Ignore this if you have but you were talking about how much games cost and, boy, I can relate.
GOG's games are usually a reasonable price and it is adjusted to be fair worldwide.
If the price of a game you want is too high at the moment, they're always having sales so keep going back!

GOG (Gee-O-Gee) originally meant Good Old Games though they carry newer to new games now as well, but the old ones are remastered to work on modern computers so that some which were unplayable not long ago are back with us again.
(It's always wise to check to see which OS they will work on though.)

Here's the page for Adventure Games.
Click on the image of, say, Sanitarium and it will take you to information about it as well as reviews by people who've played it.
You can always come back to Gameboomers Reviews if you're still not certain if you want to buy or not.

(And speaking of Sanitarium, which you've probably played, it's a great game. I've never been able to get through the boss fight at the end but I don't really consider it a loss since I can watch the ending on YouTube and the rest of the game is well worth the price.)

Did I mention that GOG's games are DRM-free?
That you can burn copies for your own use though you have a shelf at GOG where all your games are stored for download any time you want them and as often as you like?

You'd never know I love GOG, would you?

Gil.

Could you tell me more about GOG?

I went to the site but I'm not sure if what I
would buy are stand alone games or if I have
to have GOG software (like BigFish Manager) on my
computer to run them.

I ask because I saw all 3 Gabriel Knight games and
it said compatible with Windows 7. Does that mean
I won't have to tweak them or run a DosBox or other
patches?

Cheers

That's exactly what it means, mignonne.
You don't have to do anything but play the game.
If DOSBox is required, they've already added it and you're good to go.
Btw, GOG updates games whenever an update comes along.

Occasionally, some people run into trouble and when they do, there's a link to the forum for that particular game at the bottom of the game shelf which you'll see once you've selected it; people post solutions to the problems in the forums.
If you don't see a solution, ask away and someone will help you.
Failing that, you can always put in a support ticket at GOG.
I have never had to put in a support ticket and I've got more games than I'm going to admit to on my shelf.

They are standalone games.
You can download them in your browser if you want to but I use the GOG installer.
It speeds up the download a lot.
If you use it, just download the installer then when you want to download a game go to your start menu and open the installer.
Click on the game you want to download and say Yes when it asks if you want to use the installer.
But unlike BigFish, you do NOT have to use it and the games will play just fine if you don't have it on your computer.

Oh, and I like this a lot: checkout is FAST and they do NOT keep a record of your method of payment.

Gil.

Gil,

yes, I know GOG and I bought my "The Raven" pack there. Their download speed amazed me, by far the fastest among the game dowload sites I've used, almost the nominal speed of my connection. And what in GOG is so great that they even make many old games work on Mac OS X which they originally did not! No wonder you love it. I too can recommend their services to everybody.

"Sanitarium" makes me interested and those first few user opinions I read makes it sound even more promising. I may well give it a try.

I have also bought some games from Steam lately because there have been so good special offers, for example "Eleusis" 1.99 € and "Alternativa" 0.99 €. I know they won't work forever perhaps but with such a low price I'm willing to accept that. So far I have never played any game more that once. It is possible to play a Steam game without connection in offline mode which I have also tested but I haven't studied if it is possible for limited number of days only and then you have to come online. Does any of you know?

I like boxed versions but unfortunately they raised the postage and packaging costs at Amazon UK on insane level compared to the game prices. Some older games cost there only 1-2 £ but when they charge 8.99 £ on top of that for each CD or DVD it's simply robbery! I think I must make a list of game titles I want, send it to my English friend, ask him to order them and then send them to Finland in one package.

Timo

Timo,

There's one really odd thing about Sanitarium...well, about the gameplay.
There's a lot 'odd' about the game itself.
You have to hold down your right mouse button and move the cursor onscreen to make Max walk.
It's awkward at first but you get used to it and it's a weird and interesting game despite the old graphics.
Which is to say, where else do you get to play an alien superhero, a little girl and an Aztec chieftain?

Gil.

Gil, Im a GOG "lover" as well. I buy and play MANY games via GOG, and as you stated, their games are DRM free, which is a "biggie" for ME. Happy Gaming!
Sandy

Hi,

thanks for recommendations you all gave. I made some shopping at Amazon UK. First boxed versions for a long time. All 9 games £25 in total plus £9 for postage. That makes under £4 per game.

- "Agatha Christie: Murder On The Orient Express"
- "Agatha Christie: Evil under the Sun"
- "The Lost Cases of 221B Baker Street"
- "Nancy Drew Triple Threat 1 ("Treasure In The Royal Tower", "The Final Scene", "Secret Of The Scarlet Hand")
- "Nancy Drew Triple Threat 2 ("The Haunted Carousel", "Ghost Dogs Of Moon Lake", "Danger On Deception Island")

I'm looking forward having dozens of hours of interesting gameplay with them in future, currently playing "Still Life 2".

Timo

You've got some good ones there, Timo! Hope you enjoy them.

I like the Nancy Drew series

Hi, Mignonne.
I HAVE put in support tickets to GOG SUPPORT on various occasions, and I've NEVER had a problem getting a reasonable reply from them. They "bend over backwards" to please their customers. I recommend that you buy games from them. (BTW, I DON'T get a commission from them) LOL HAPPY GAMING!
Sandy

Hi,

against my prejudice I found Nancy Drew games quite entertaining.

Following your recommendation I bought two triple boxes including Nancy Drew games #4 to #9.

Those two games I've already played "#4 Treasure in the Royal Tower" and "#5 The Final Scene" were not very long nor individual but offered decent gameplay for couple of nights and a weekend. It was refreshing to be able to play a game through without taking any peek to the walkthrough. Thanks for recommending these, there are many more of them to play.

Timo

Timo, I'm glad you liked the Nancy Drew games. Nancy Drew game #30 is releasing this month, so yes, you have many more Nancy Drew games awaiting you. Enjoy.