I love adventure games (also known as point-and-click games). I would dare to say I love them more than any other type of game out there. Where other really wonderful game genres struggle to hold my attention, adventure games can do so with little effort.
And so, when I found Gemini Rue, I was in bliss, and that bliss continued all the way to the end of the credits.
I'm not going to go into detail about what the game is about. There are plenty of reviews and summaries out already that you can look into that can do a much better job than I can. Just know that it's really great and you should check it out.
In fact, if you're not experienced with point-and-click adventures, you should check out quite a few titles - I'll list them at the end of this post.
You see, there's something charming about adventure games. Something that I think a lot of people miss out on and could appreciate if they gave them a chance.
These aren't high adrenaline, high speed games. Point-and-clicks are the kinds of games where you can sit back and have a cup of evening coffee while playing. They're thinking games, where instead of trying to gather skill points or headshots, you try to come up with ways to get into or out of situations. They challenge and change your perspective. You play one of these games long enough and suddenly you're looking at your own rooms in real life for possible items to use in escape plans or thinking up corny and witty responses in your conversations with friends.
You play adventure games for the stories and the puzzles - they're all about the characters/situations and logic (or lack of logic, in some cases).
Unfortunately, adventure games are not exactly the hottest things on the shelves. In fact, it's a little difficult to find any on the store shelves if the name Nancy Drew isn't included in the title (actually, these Nancy Drew games are pretty fun). In our fast-paced, short-attention-spanned society, people want games that move just as fast as they do or that can be played easily in random chucks on the go without a whole lot of commitment.
But Gemini Rue is solid proof that this is not a dead genre. The game has gotten some amazing responses so far. People are still making these games, and people are still playing them. It helps that wonderful companies like Telltale Games are re-releasing and producing new adventure games based on well-loved series such as Monkey Island, Back to the Future, Sam and Max, and (soon) Jurassic Park. And the DS has proven to be a nice platform for adventures, as well.
Many have thought adventure games were permanently put to rest after the Myst boom, but I think they've just gone into hibernation for a while, waiting for a time when the next "different" thing in gaming actually turns out to mean something classic.
If you're a veteran adventurer, don't worry, I think there's hope for us yet. And if you're a novice to this genre, well, keep your inventory bag close by, brew yourself a pot of coffee or tea, and check out some of these titles below (and the ones linked above). You're in for a different kind of gaming night.
- Beneath a Steel Sky (Free)
- The Last Express
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
- Blade Runner (Might have to treasure hunt around to find this one. Absolutely worth it.)
