Top Ten Freeware Graphical Adventure Games
Dec 01 '03 (Updated Sep 18 '07)
The Bottom Line The "point and click" adventure game is far from dead...
Top Ten Freeware Graphical Adventure Games
(With all known bad links fixed.)
Remember the original Monkey Island game? Zak McKraken? The “Quest” series by Sierra On-Line?
Well, apparently the commercial software developers have decided that no-one wants “point and click” adventure games anymore. I beg to differ. So does the amateur game developing world. The sheer number of freeware adventure games out there is staggering. And when the freeware remake of “King’s Quest” by Tierra Entertainment was released, it got more than half a million downloads in the first year (despite the basic game weighing in at 25mb!).
So much for the commercial developers. I hereby present the best in amateur adventure gaming – but the quality of the games is not always so amateur…
I present ten of the best in order – but I would like to point out that each of the ten is well worth playing, and choosing the order was extremely difficult, with the most games being only marginally edged out by the ones above.
At Number Ten…
Permanent Daylight - by Intoxicated Little Bunny – you wouldn’t get an imaginative name like that in the commercial world! (created with AGS)
The puzzles and graphics are pretty simple in this one, but the humour in this game is great. It involves the obligatory maniacal, megalomaniacal Scientist trying to destroy the world etc… Great fun but not too demanding!
http://www.bigbluecup.com/games.php?category=100&action=search&sterm=permanent+daylight&action=download&game=19
At Number Nine…
Breakdown - by (created with AGAST)
This is quite a small game but has very nice graphics, reasonable music, and some great humour and puzzles. You play a guy who’s car has broken down… fortunately right next to a petrol station… unfortunately the owner is not inclined to be very helpful…
http://thebreakdown.adventuredevelopers.com
At Number Eight…
Conspiracy of Songo by (created with AGS)
Nice graphics and interface, decent music, some devious puzzles, and an inventive plot make this one stand out. Again there is some great humour. You play a woman trying to clear her lover’s name when you crash-land on a remote (but inhabited) island…
http://llsoftware.cjb.net/
At Number Seven…
Zak McKraken 2 - by Lucasfan (created with AGS)
Zak McKraken is one of my all-time favourite adventure games. In it you played a journalist who gets pulled into an alien plot to take over the world by sending a pulse through the phone line to turn the people of the world stupid. Along the way you enlist the help of an Archeologist, a bum, a Witch Doctor, a Guru, a broom alien, and many others…. To complete the game you have to control four different characters (not at the same time, obviously), and solve some truly mind-numbing puzzles.
You only control Zak in this game (one of several unofficial sequels being made since LucasArts themselves seem to have no interest in doing this, but this is to date the only completed effort) in events set immediately after the end of the first game. It doesn’t reach anywhere near the brilliance of the original but is a good effort and still very enjoyable. It does help to have played the original though, and a lot of the humour relies on having played it.
http://www25.brinkster.com/lucasfangames/
(Lucasfan’s site also has links to the other Zak2 projects)
At Number Six…
Aftershock - by? ? (created with AGAST)
This is a truly bizarre game, but I loved it. You live in one of only 2 towns to have survived the nuclear war initiated by a bloke called Hatler (who lives with his assistant Igor in a bunker in Iraq – see I told you it was strange!). When he realised that some people are still alive he decides to build another missile and finish the job off.
Of course, when you find out about this, you can’t just let it happen. There’s a mad scientist in this game too, but this time he’s on your side! Very surreal, very funny, with nice graphics, good sound, and some tricky puzzles among the easier ones. The only downside is the large download size – about 46mb! Sadly this means narrowband users are unlikely to ever play this game.
(There’s nothing really bad in it but this one’s not recommended for youngsters – it’s more twisted than anything…)
http://madgames.adventuredevelopers.com/after/aftdownloads.htm
At Number Five…
A Better Mousetrap - by Dave Gilbert (created with AGS)
Dave Gilbert is one of the best AGS (Adventure Game Studio) programmers around, and has produced my two favourite RON (Reality On the Norm) games so far. RON is a set of games by different programmers based around a common location – and each time someone creates a new background graphic or character, that can then be used by anyone in a future game. The chronology gets a little confused since so many people create games without a “master plan”, but it’s pretty coherent and the characters are usually consistent in different people’s games.
There are two RON games in this list, both by Dave Gilbert, but there are many nice games there worth playing and a lot of talented programmers. It’s just that Dave’s games have, for me, the best blend of humour and gameplay, always with nice, colourful graphics, and great puzzles.
“A Better Mousetrap” is about local magician Davy Jones and his inventor girlfriend Elandra. (This is one of the few – or perhaps only, I can’t remember - RON games that allows you to control more than one character). Her new invention (the mousetrap of the title) naturally sends them hurtling across time and space onto an inhospitable planet, from whence they must escape… Fantastic stuff, but not quite the best RON game…
http://ron.the-underdogs.org/games/trap.zip
At Number Four…
King’s Quest Remake - by Tierra Entertainment (created with AGS)
I was never a great fan of the old Sierra games myself – you could get killed far too easily, and they persisted in using a text parser for ages following the introduction of the “point and click” interface with the release of the groundbreaking Maniac Mansion.
This remake improved the graphics and sound, while generally retaining the same storyline and puzzles as the original. This resulted in a great game, though the ability to get yourself killed was still annoying. You play the part of Sir Graham of Deventry, off on a quest to recover the three magical objects that could make Daventry great again…
It’s a big download (25mg basic game with MIDI music, the optional digital music pack is about 15mb), but it’s worth it!
http://www.tierraentertainment.com/KQ1.php
At Number Three…
The Uncertainty Machine - by Ratracer (created with AGS)
The graphics in this game are great, a big step up from your average amateur adventure game. The puzzles and interface are good too, but the script (as in dialogue not programming!) is downright superb. The game style and some of the puzzles are inspired by the Broken Sword games (well the first two anyway) but it stands up on its own – it doesn’t try to imitate them.
The plot is so complex I couldn’t do it just in a couple of sentences so you’re just going to have to find out for yourselves!!
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=4372
At Number Two…
Purity of the Surf - by Dave Gilbert (created with AGS)
This is such an enjoyable game to play! There’re loads of characters (and of course, being a RON game, if you’ve played some of the others they’ll all be familiar to you), great graphics, tremendous and varied puzzles, and Dave’s superb humour.
You play Josh Beachcomber, a simple Aussie with the dream of winning the surfing competition... there’s only one tiny problem… you can’t find your surfboard…
Oooops………..
http://www.junk.dk/reality/index.asp?foo=details&bar=132
….
….
….
And at Number One…
It’s a joint decision because both of these games, though very different in style, are a pure joy to play.
Kings Quest II remake - by Tierra Entertainment (created with AGS)
This time Tierra didn’t go in for a straight remake (after all the original game was not exactly thought of as highly as the first anyway), this is approximately half as big again, with more characters, more puzzles, more storyline… and even a 3D intro! They’ve also changed some of the more annoying puzzles to make them more logical.
Graham is now King of Daventry but things aren’t going completely your way… the lack of a bride is the worst part… but than a mysterious vision sends you on a voyage to a distant isle…
The end result is a fantastic game, which could easily be commercial software I think. Tierra’s next project is a remake for “Quest for Glory 2”, which promises to be even better! (It’s an adventure with an RPG element – never played the original but I’m looking forward to playing this version!) Again it’s a big download, but well worth it. Oh, and the animation is superb – over 14,000 frames of character animation definitely deserves a mention!!
http://www.tierraentertainment.com/KQ2.php
Out of Order - by Hungry Software (created with SLUDGE)
This game is pure genius. Initially started as a University project (in fact many freeware games start out this way – proof positive that University courses are good for something!), it’s in the style of my favourite adventure game of all time – The Curse of Monkey Island (MI3). But this time it’s set in space.
A seriously whacked-out job, excellent graphics, puzzles a-plenty, and jokes galore make this one of the most enjoyable games of any type that you’re ever likely to play. Don’t miss this one. It’s quite a big download but you’ll thank me for it!
http://outoforder.adventuredevelopers.com/
Interview with the game author: http://www.justadventure.com/Interviews/OutOfOrder/OutOfOrder.shtm
~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_~_-_
You may have noticed that 8 of the 10 games were created with AGS (programmed by Chris Jones). Amazingly, this is also freeware. I did make one (very sloppy) attempt at writing my own game ages ago… it bombed. But I still have a dream of writing a half-decent adventure game one day, and am working on one (slowly) that if completed will become part of the RON series.
New games (obviously of varying quality!) are being added to both of the below all the time.
URL for AGS website: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/
URL for RON website: http://ron.the-underdogs.org/news.htm
AGAST is commercial - er no it's not, my mistake! It is actually freeware (as long as you don't want to sell your game) and is available at www.allitis.com. Many thanks to Rodeoclown for the heads-up on that! :-)
SLUDGE is Shareware – you can get to it through the Hungry Horse Software site. (Along with other games made with / being developed with SLUDGE.)
And finally, in case you get stuck on one of the games (you will!):
URL for AGS Walkthroughs:
http://www.agagames.com/AGSwalks/
URL for Out Of Order Message Board:
http://www.hungrysoftware.com/forums/go/?group=outorder
There are plenty of other nice games that I haven’t mentioned yet, two that I don’t want to leave out completely are The Journey Home (on the AGS site) and Defender of RON (on the RON site). They’re the last one’s I’ll mention, but I’m sure you’ll find more that I haven’t mentioned that you enjoy on these sites. If you’ve made a game that I haven’t mentioned at all, it may be because I haven’t even played it yet – so please don’t hold it against me!!!! There are also one or two ex-commercial games out there (Under a Steel Sky is pretty good), which are worth searching out as well.
Thanks for reading! If you play any of these games and enjoy them, please email the authors telling them so. They spend a lot of time developing these games for people to play for free (and some of them pay for web-hosting out of their own pockets), so they deserve every bit of encouragement that’s available.
Dave
Links to my reviews of commercial graphical adventure games
Bladerunner (Westwood)
Grim Fandango (LucasArts)
Monkey Island Archives – MI 1-3 (LucasArts)
Escape from Monkey Island – MI4 (LucasArts)
Discworld Noir (Perfect Entertainment)
See also: Top 100 Games of All Time
------------------------------------------------------------
There is an updated version of this list here: My Top Ten Freeware Adventure Games (September 2007 Edition)
CaptainD
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.