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The Cold Hotspot: Part 4
Written by Beiddie Rafól
The Cold Hotspot: A critique of the state of adventure games: part 4
The heralds of progress
"Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of the imagination" - John Dewey.
As discouraging as the state of the adventure game genre has been in the past several years, there is actually progress and betterment being achieved, if we stop and look closer. There are some trends being explored, new technology investigated, alternate ways for us to get games, and a gradual increase in games with more personality as well as higher quality. More importantly, there looks to be a hint of designing adventures to be more inviting and attractive to a larger market.
 
Tradition refined: Still Life, Myst V: End Of Ages. The essential gameplay elements may be the same,
but more mature themes and progressive technology imbue these titles with a freshness that those outside
the tight gaming communities should definitely notice.
I recently played the demos of two current adventure games: Still Life (from developer Microïds) and Moment Of Silence (from House Of Tales). While being 'traditional' adventures (2D point-&-click, inventory based, etc.) both games enjoy high production values, quality art direction, and even feature well known voice actors. These two are among the scant high profile titles that customarily create a buzz within the adventure game community and in the mainstream press whenever they're announced. And interestingly, the trend among the games media and the gaming community at large during the past several years has been to throw the mantle of 'savior' onto these games, as if each one upon release is supposed to rescue the genre from its otherwise imminent death (whatever that means, the genre is anything but dying). Such was the fate of Gabriel Knight 3 in 1999, The Longest Journey a few years later, and then Syberia after that. In the end these games didn't so much save the genre as shed light on why people other than its fans think the genre had been languishing in the first place.
But Still Life and Moment Of Silence, with their strengths and weaknesses respective of this genre, represent just one direction in which the adventure game is branching out. In actuality there are numerous games recent and upcoming that are in their own way helping the genre move on, no matter how glacially and grudgingly. Some of them are strengthening the genre's foundations, while others actually defy it. Ironically it is this much needed dynamic tension that should help stabilize the adventure game as we know it while also inspiring it to flourish and branch out in new directions. And I say it's about time.
Diversity seems to best describe what is finally transpiring after the past several years of mediocrity, sameness, and sub-par quality games being released. The one key thing to look forward to is adventures that we can actually tell apart from each other, with each one establishing its identity based on more compelling - if not original - stories and themes, sympathetic, memorable and downright humanistic characters, a mixture of interface and gameplay styles, and even new methods of distribution to us gamers. Indicative of this direction are not only the works of new or recent maverick designers like Ragnar Tørnquist and David Cage, but also veterans like Rand Miller, who keep one foot in tradition and the other foot in innovation, and those that uphold the classic venues of 2D worlds and point-&-click interfaces - in other words, re-definition alongside refinement. Yes, contrary to what your mama told you, they CAN co-exist!
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