Time Gentlemen, Please!

"I have.... friends. ....people on the outside who want to see me... eat some cake."

When I think 'point and click', I think 'Oh, no, please, anything but that'. Generally, that is. When I think about it in the context of this 1001 list, I'm reminded that I still need to go back to Broken Sword, Grim Fandango, and even Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Oh, and a few Monkey Island adventures too.

Even though I know I'm awful at finding the often obscure solutions to the many puzzles in these games, their usually humourous stories and strong characters are worth putting in the time for. You can tell stories differently in point and click games. You can get to explore a character's thoughts and attitudes in ways that other games just don't touch.

But the genre had still fallen behind by the time 2010 rolled around. Wouldn't it be nice to go back in time and enjoy them in their prime? That's not the premise in Time Gentlemen, Please!, but this is certainly a love letter to the genre. One written by two foul-mouthed idiots, but a love letter nonetheless.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

"You haven't figured it out yet, have you?"

The Professor and his cockney assistant Luke have returned at last, with a hundred-odd more brainteasers that all come together to tell us the tale of Pandora's box, though it goes by another name here: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - except in regions where it does actually go by Pandora's Box. Hooray for localization!

It was localization into English that took two years for this sequel, but you welcome the efforts, otherwise, you'd be solving everything in Japanese, which would add to the difficulty just a little bit...

Let's get onto this case before the clues all dry up then.

Shadow Complex

"At least the Vice President is safe."

Metroidvania. I have a better time with Metroid than Castlevania, but truth be told, I think I have a better time with games that are inspired by the two, rather than games that have their names attached.

I can remember playing CounterSpy on the PlayStation Vita, set in a fictional, James Bond-like Cold War that has you sneak around huge bases looking for nuclear weapons or something. I liked it because it reminded me of another similar game that I'd watched on YouTube, long before.

That game was Shadow Complex, a Metroidvania game brought to life through the Unreal Engine, starring yet another dark-haired white guy stumbling into the extraordinary, gun in hand but no desire to kill.

That'll probably change in no time...

Machinarium

¯\_d[o_0]b_/¯

Source // Steam

Long, long ago, coincidentally around the time of this next game's release, I owned a MacBook. I then owned a MacBook Pro. One of those two devices, for a short time, had a copy of Machinarium on it, a point and click game about a little robot looking for love.

I have absolutely no idea how I came to have Machinarium. None whatsoever. I didn't like point and click adventures, and gaming on a Mac just hadn't taken off, outside of iOS devices at least, though I do remember getting Steam when it launched on the platform...

Anyway, what is immediately obvious about Machinarium is that it doesn't look like any other game you've played, does it? You might even think it was made for the Mac, but it wasn't, because it's on everything nowadays, and it's still as challenging.

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Not to be confused with Zack & Miri Make A Porno.

Source // Wikipedia

For a game critically hailed as an excellent demonstration of how the Nintendo Wii and only the Nintendo Wii can do this kind of thing, and one that had the potential to change how we all interact with adventure games, there really isn't a lot of Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure out there for us to have a look at.

I've certainly never heard of it, but then I didn't pay much attention to anything that came out on the Wii. Now I've got a copy of this mysterious game, I might as well find out what it seems so many other players never did. Just what is Zack & Wiki?

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

"Cor, what an astonishing village that was, Professor!"

We're in a bit of a puzzle section in the 1001 list here, but to prove that it's not all grids and numbers is Professor Layton and the Curious Village, another Nintendo DS puzzler staring the impressive intellect of Professor Layton and his cockney apprentice Luke.

I must admit to having no prior knowledge of the professor before hunting down a couple of his releases for this 1001 list and haven't bothered checking them out in the many years since. It's time to crack open this Nintendo DS and no doubt find the charger, for how else are we going to solve the many mysteries of St. Mystere?

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

"They haven't beheaded her yet. I think. Can they reattach your head after cutting it off?"

The point and click adventure. According to the 1001 list, it was a genre that went out on a high with The Longest Journey, a game that I thought wasn't bad at the time - certainly not my usual type of gaming experience. It was waffly and new agey, but it had something going for it. Not sure what, because I've not gone back to it since, but there we go. Point and click adventures can still be good. As of 1999.

Seven years later, there's a sequel trying to prove that the genre didn't go out on a high note. It didn't go out at all. The point and click adventure is still here, even if it has to be tweaked and mixed with third-person combat and other mechanics more casual players enjoy. That sequel is Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, and I've absolutely no idea how it connects to the first game.

Truth be told, The Longest Journey was out of my mind for so long that I didn't connect the two until reading this Wikipedia entry...

Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress

"All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead..."

Source // Wikipedia

Do you like Rogue but want more? NetHack not enough for you? Do you want all the empty, black spaces on your terminal screen to be full - absolutely crammed full - of characters you didn't even know were in the ASCII standard? And do you then want that fantasy world to be staggeringly huge, span a good few hundred years of simulated history, and be incomprehensible, nonsensical, yet insanely detailed, all at the same time?

Then you might - might, mind - be looking for Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress, or Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress, or better yet, Dwarf Fortress, the game that is almost literally like no other.

There are games you dread to start up, games you fear setting eyes upon, and then there is Dwarf Fortress, as impenetrable to new players as a good fortress should be. This post is going to be something, alright, but I know for sure it won't be useful.

Chibi-Robo!

Plug into adventure!

Everyone likes robots. I think. Obviously, some robots are nasty pieces of work. We don't like them. But little robots who just want to help out around the house? They're alright, aren't they? Slaving away on tasks we can't be bothered with. Good little robot.

Chibi-Robo!, then. A dinky little robot who just wants to pick up trash. Tiny scraps of paper and crumbs and whatnot - I don't think he's going to be hauling the trash bag out anytime soon. Every little helps, however, so let's roll up our robo-sleeves and get stuck in.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

I thought you were the blue one.

The formula for a Legend of Zelda game is well known by now. You know not only what you're going to get in a game, but who you're going to get as well. Characters may share a name, signature costume, role in life, and so on, but they're not identical from game to game. Each title is different from the last. Except for all the similarities.

You'd think, then, that The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures would be similarly filled with Links, and Zeldas, and Hyrules, and Hyahs!, and you'd be right. You'd think it would have swords and shields, and puzzles that require the use of an item or two, and you'd be right there as well.

But you'd never guess the form the game would take. Semi co-operative. Four players. Multiple gaming systems working together.

What's going on in Hyrule this time?

Cave Story

Flap off, bats.

Not long after the supposed greatest game ever comes the alleged greatest free game ever, in the form of Cave Story, a Metroidvania style platformer through some caves, I'd imagine.

I've come across the title before on my RetroPie, of all things, but never gave it a look. I knew it was pixel-y in appearance and probably involved a cave and a story, and that was about it. I don't know anything about this one.

Nothing new there, then...

The Longest Journey

"is the journey inward, for he who has chosen his destiny has started upon his quest for the source of his being." - Dag Hammarskjöld

Source // LongestJourney.com

The 1001 entry for this game calls it the end of an era; point and click graphic adventure games as a genre have fallen by the wayside, but not before a last great story about the mix of magic and technology in the form of The Longest Journey.

We are 18-year-old Art student April Ryan, and we're the mother of the future. Whatever that means. Must be true. Dragon hologram told us in our dream.

Source // GOG

Let's see what's going on here...

Outcast

By Yod Almighty, what is this?

Is there a more fitting title for Outcast? A game so ahead of its time that you absolutely had to have the latest PC of the era to run it, running code that modern systems would struggle to run for the longest time should players have wanted to go back and find out what they were missing in late 1999.

Ignored by consumers for games that they could actually run, Outcast is one of those titles where I suppose you just had to be there to understand what all the fuss was about.

So here I am, twenty years later, trying anyway.

Grim Fandango

Can I borrow your hole punch?

 

When I look back at the long list of point and click adventure games to have come from the 1001 list so far, I see a fair few titles that I actually want to play again. By 'play again' I mean 'carry on playing', and by 'actually want to' I mean 'have been surprised by and should ignore the fact that I groan when I come across the words point and click because there are now many more games I should'.

That's a long-winded way of saying that even with the ease of having a remastered version on two platforms, I still somewhat hesitated to get around to playing yet another LucasArts point and click adventure game, in the form of Grim Fandango.

I hesitated not because of the cast of characters who are nothing but skeletons and monsters, but because I didn't want to get frustrated by getting stumped on a puzzle, of which there seem to be many in this genre.

Despite the developers constantly saying that there are no fail states, and no ways to lose, I'm never filled with enough confidence to get stuck in and find out, frankly, what I'm missing. Because I've clearly been missing the likes of Grim Fandango.

The Last Express

Anyone want my ticket to ride?

The 1001 list write up for this rotoscoped point and click adventure suggests that The Last Express could be the greatest game never played.

A tale of murder on the Orient Express, characters who go about their daily routines in the background, multiple options and endings to make this express your express. Is it the first express of many?

The Curse of Monkey Island

The Monkeys are listening.

Would you look at that? Another point and click adventure game finds its way onto the 1001 list - my favourite genre, don't you know?

LucasArts adventures have been cropping up in this list frequently, and they tend not to disappoint so it would seem that the third Monkey Island title, headed by those who were behind Full Throttle, is more of the same and then some.

The Curse of Monkey Island is, so I read, not as fondly remembered as the first two titles, but still has plenty to offer players, especially in the looks department. This twenty-year-old game has not been given an HD re-release of any kind, and it looks like it could have been released twenty minutes ago.

But how does it play? Like a twenty-year-old point and click adventure title? What's going on? Should I have played and completed the previous instalments? I should get going and work towards answering these questions, really.

Blade Runner

Give me a hard copy of that.

Games based on movies. They've got quite the stigma, haven't they? Notorious for being a swing and a miss in the vast majority of cases, it's a rarity to find one worth talking about in a positive light. On the overcast streets of a (now near) future Los Angeles are neon lights and signs of hope - hope that Blade Runner plays as good as it looks because it looks bloody fantastic.

Set parallel to the movie of the same name, Blade Runner follows Ray McCoy on the hunt for Replicants in a point-and-click adventure that weaves in and out of the plot from the movie, but still exists as separate from it.

Get your Voight-Kampff tests ready, because we're going to retire some Replicants.

Star Control 3

Daktaklakpak!

"Picking up roughly where the second game left off, you must lead an alliance in the fight against the Eternal Ones, a mysterious race who consume the energy of all sentient life every eon. To protect themselves from such a fate, the Precursors genetically modified themselves into six-legged cowlike creatures, but were trapped in this form when the robots they built to return them to their original form malfunctioned. Humans, in their quest to locate the legendary Precursors, have discovered this tasty beast and, unbeknown to them, are consuming their goal."

That sounds interesting, doesn't it? That's how the 1001 list sets up Star Control 3, a mish-mash of genres that form a space sim, I suppose, in the vein of Mass Effect, via Frontier: Elite II, only played through interfaces and menus.

It's going to need to be seen to be explained.

Donkey Kong Country 3

Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!

There's a lot of love for Donkey Kong and there was little doubt that it wouldn't make the 1001 list. The Donkey Kong Country series was the game series to show the world that sprites didn't have to be constructed from scratch - that pre-rendered animations could be cut up, frame by frame, spritified, and stuck into a 2D platformer in order to be replayed back through direct interaction from the player.

It's not the original Donkey Kong Country that makes the list, though, nor Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, but the final entry, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, with your favourite characters nowhere to be seen.

The 1001 list calls this the biggest and most fully featured, but does that mean it's better?

The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery

When the point and click fans go marching in...

Do you think I'm the kind of person to know of the Grabriel Knight series of point and click adventure games? I'm not the kind of person to know that Gabriel Knight is a name that is even associated with video games, let alone that it's the name of the lead character in a bunch of point and click adventure games.

If I don't know that, then there's no chance in Hell that I'd know that The Beast Within, the second game in the series, went down the full motion video, interactive movie route, putting blue-screened actors inside digital photos where, somewhere, there exists the thing you need to click on to progress the plot.

After reading that it was indeed a point and click with real people, I was interested in playing it. The introduction movie gives me no ideas as to what's going on, but what's new there? It's got fire and German folks in it, that's about all I gathered before being introduced to Gabriel Knight himself.