The Adventure Game: A Dying Genre?

A large percentage of the first video games for the PC were adventure games. "An adventure game is defined as a computer-based game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge." (Wikipedia.org) These games spearheaded the computer game movement. This genre includes some of my favorite games growing up. The genius of these games was the story. They did not have remarkable graphics or game mechanics to keep players engaged but what they did have was well written and intelligent stories as well as witty humor. Titles like Kings Quest, Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion, Gabriel Knight, and many others.  


Two titles that I would like to focus on, being two of my favorites, are Monkey Island by Lucas Arts and Quest for Glory by Sierra Entertainment. These two games series had amazing stories as well as new and innovative game techniques. There is too much for one entry, however, I'll give you the first one this week, and the latter I'll save for another week.


The Secret of Monkey Island is an excellent example of the adventure genre. In the game you play as a young pirate named Guybrush Threepwood, who is called upon to save his love, Elaine Marley, the damsel in distress. This story really follows Joseph Campbell's hero's journey but it's done in a whimsical way. The protagonist, is an average person who is called to action. He must then go through a series of challenges to become a true pirate before assembling a crew for a journey to Monkey Island to save the girl. Through each challenge he has to master a skill and on completing it receives  a t-shirt. It plays a joke by following this method to a tee. There are three tests and these can be seen as the "road of trials' in the hero's journey. This comes as no surprise that the story follows this formula as it was made by Lucas Arts and George Lucas is known for sticking strictly to this formula as seen in Star Wars. Star Wars is considered as a prime example of the monomyth. Naturally he would carry that over to his game development.  The story isn't only well structured it is also very funny. Even the game play is geared around humor.  One aspect of the game is sword fighting but instead of controlling the character as he attacks, you only control how well you insult the opponent.

Insult Sword-fighting

A rubber chicken?

One thing that a game like this can teach us is that we can create a game with a well written story but it doesn't have to be a depressing drama. Most games today go for a heart wrenching plot to show that it is well written (GTA 4/Red Dead Redemption), but a well written comedy can still have meaningful story. In summary this is a well written, well designed game. We need to see more games like this today to bring the adventure genre back to its former glory.