Ranking the Best and Worst Sierra and LucasArts Adventure Games | Cannot be Tamed
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- Today I'm ranking games from another of my favourite genres - point and click adventure games. I'm focusing only on those made by either LucasArts (LucasFilm) or Sierra. I rank 32 of them and it turns into a bit of an overview of adventure game history as well as my own gaming history.
#AdventureGames #Sierra #LucasArts
00:00 Intro
00:50 About the category
02:37 The rankings - 1984
04:11 1987
06:18 1988
08:44 1989
13:03 1990
16:42 1991
18:58 1992
21:27 1993
25:24 1994
27:23 1995
31:39 1997
32:49 1998
37:11 1999
38:33 Final rankings
Here's the template if anyone's interested: tiermaker.com/create/sierra-a...
Video footage is mostly recorded by me, except for some games I didn't have access to.
Music in this video is from The Curse of Monkey Island.
Want to see me on other social media?
Twitter - / jasyla_
Instagram - / cannot_be_tamed
Patreon - / pamd
My makeup channel (Cosmetic DLC) - / @cosmeticdlc
Intro artwork, logo and banner by: @theMagdalenRose
"Cantina Blues" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b... - Ігри
2:39 King's Quest (C)
4:14 Leisure Suit Larry (B)
5:42 Maniac Mansion (B)
6:19 Leisure Suit Larry 2 (D)
7:28 Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (D)
8:47 Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (B)
10:01 Leisure Suit Larry 3 (C)
11:49 Quest for Glory (A)
13:04 King's Quest V (C)
13:47 Loom (B)
14:45 Quest for Glory II (C)
15:59 Secret of Monkey Island (S)
16:46 Leisure Suit Larry 5 (C)
17:41 Monkey Island 2 (A)
19:01 King's Quest VI (B)
20:30 Quest for Glory III (A)
21:29 Day of the Tentacle (B)
22:22 Lost Secret of the Rainforest (B)
23:19 Gabriel Knight (A)
24:10 Quest for Glory IV (S)
25:29 King's Quest VII (B)
26:48 Leisure Suit Larry 6 (C)
27:26 The Dig (B)
28:38 Full Throttle (B)
29:26 Phantasmagoria (D)
30:39 Gabriel Knight 2 (A)
31:42 Curse of Monkey Island (S)
32:55 Grim Fandango (B)
34:06 Leisure Suit Larry 7 (B)
35:31 King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (F)
36:05 Quest for Glory V (D)
37:13 Gabriel Knight 3 (C)
Day of the Tentacle only B tier hurts so much.
But hey, tastes and colours !
I feel that way about Loom. That game was absolutely magical to me and I've lobbied long to get it available on GOG.
Yes and Loom too. Yikes!
Hurts for sure! I bought nearly all of these at actual launch. Day of the Tentacle (No brainer - S Tier) was the one that nailed amazing story, time travel, lots of laughs and great puzzles. Bit tough on Full Throttle and especially Grim Fandango as well. I wonder if it is that she is playing them more recently over the last 5 or so years more so than playing them when they dropped at release? Either way....I don't mind and I enjoy the videos and her opinion! (BTW My 9 year old son finished Full Throttle today on XBOX and loved it.)
also grim fandango... it really messed up my blade... mrs chowchella stole my golden tickets
the flowers on my skeletal configuration represent a horrible contradiction because they are the beautiful representation of death in the land of the dedd
@@LarixusSnydes Masterpiece, wish they could have made the sequels.
If yoy have not playd Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. You just have to play it. Its the best Indiana Jones game ever.
Agreed. I'm shocked you haven't played Fate of Atlantis!
I agree I played that game like 50 times .
It would also made a great Indiana Jones movie.
It’s the fourth Indy movie as far as I’m concerned
@@mars___sumnerabsolutely agree. I played it so many times as 8-9 year old, it’s the only “other” Indy movie.
The Space Quest series is by far some of the best material Sierra has released
We're glad you could play Space Quest! As usual, you've been a real pantload!
Agreed. Miss this series...
Love Space Quest
Energizer bunny lol
Not even close
I haven't finished watching this yet, but I just wanted to say, "Graham, watch out! A POIIII-SON-OUS snake!"
This was an entertaining review list. Couple of recommendations: The Dagger of Amon Ra, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Codename: Iceman.
Fate of Atlantis is an ABSOLUTE MUST
"Laura Bow: Dagger of Amon Ra" was great!
"Alexander pulls out his magic map."
These words will stick with me until the day I die. 😅
Roberta Williams definitely enjoyed hitting a dead end and starting a game over with better knowledge of what to do to avoid it. It's the choose-your-adventure book mindset applied to videogames that a few chosen ones have, and I do not: I want to beat a game in a reasonable time and move on to the next.
Me too. I understand that without all the starting over again the games are quite short, but I'd prefer that to a lot of repeating myself.
The problem is that a lot of the dead ends she designed don't really look like dead ends until you hit them head on hours later. If at all.
@@miguelbranquinho7235 Exactly. You play the game for 4 hours not knowing your run is already screwed.
@@Ghost_Of_SAS It's blatant poor game design, Robert was a hack. I respect the heck out of her, but hate her games.
@@miguelbranquinho7235 I think it was more a deliberate choice to artificially inflate play time and increase perceived value. Callous rather than incompetent.
These games are such a big part of my childhood. Thank you for this. Brings back a lot of memories.
I think the transition from requiring CGA/EGA support in games (and having them fit on disks) was the primary reason for the crisp dithered pixel art style which I also loved too. Great video thank you for the nostalgia!
I got my first computer in 1994 at age 16 and it came with King's Quest VI. I was a Nintendo nerd but this game hooked me AND drove me crazy. It was the early years of the internet and I remember going to Electronics Boutique to try to find a guide for it but to no avail. I finally beat it almost two years later on my own and was absolutely my gateway drug to other adventure games.
Another very nice video! On the subject of missing items, two of them were, back when I played them at the time, probably my favourites that would fit in the category: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam and Max Hit the Road. Also if the category is broadened out to cover similar games from other publishers, the Broken Sword games were great.
Conquest of camelot i enjoyed aswell
I didn't play most of these games, but I remember really liking King's Quest 8. Also Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis seems to be missing from this list, so if you didn't play that I highly recommend it.
I am glad I am not the only one who likes King's Quest 8 (Mask Of Eternity).
Fate of Atlantis should be at the top of this list, for sure... such a great game! One cannot have a proper list of adventure games without it
I thought I was the only player in the world who enjoyed KQ8. We are a clear minority.
Oh yeah. Fate of Atlantis is not only the best Indy game. I'd argue it's the best Indy outing period.
Great video Pam! My S tiers games are Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island 1&2, and maybe The Dig. I am going to play more of Curse of Monkey Island 3 ASAP, but I am unfortunately having trouble with it saving properly. I found your take on Leisure Suit Larry Love for Sail very relatable, I feel it's a hidden gem. One Sierra adventure game I would love to see you cover in the future is EcoQuest. It's an easier game made for younger audiences but still I found it to be memorable.
Hey Pam, enjoyed the video. I would recommend : Sam & Max Hit The Road from LucasArts, a definite classic.
I actually never played Hit the Road, but did play The Devil's Playhouse a few years ago, and liked it a fair bit. Good call.
This. Sam and Max was an absolute joy right from the opening pre-credit scene.
One of the best in its genre imo.
Sam & Max Hit the Road is S Tier, No contest.
I remember Sierra from my childhood as making The Black Cauldron and Donald Duck’s Playground. I spent so much time on those as a six or seven year old.
Monkey Island 1-3 were always the best in my book. I wish more games got art like Monkey Island 3. That was so beautiful. I've rebought most of the Sierra games during Steam sales. You can get them for a few bucks during sales
The QFG2, Trial by Fire remake has an option to simplify the travel. The maze in the original really bogged down the game. I believe it's intent was as copy protection, forcing you to use the map that came with game. Worst part of the game. The remake is worth checking out. For purists, you can select the classic street layout. It's a great remake. Oh, and the import system is compatible.
I absolutely love your content. There’s a severe lack of retro point and click game content on UA-cam and I’m so glad I just found your channel. It’s definitely the best one and I can’t believe I went so long without knowing of it. Thanks so much for making these fantastic videos. I just watched your The Dig and Loom videos and they were so polished and entertaining to watch.
Thank you so much!
YASSSS. This may be my favorite subject of yours yet. The very first computer games brought home by my older brother was a Sierra 3-pack with Police Quest II, Manhunter 2, and Hoyle's Book of Games. And some of my best memories as a kid are of flipping through a Lucasfilm catalog and reading about games such as Full Throttle, Sam & Max, and one of the few I was actually able to play back then (and still one of my all-time favorites), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Love love love this video.
Some games and locations in games have REALLY affected my subconscious, regarding so much of what I look for in games, as well as anything creative I do.
These are from just the games I have played. Most of these are not LucasArts or Sierra games…
1.) Loom: the whole game, but in particular, Castlegard and the nearby forest, plus the space area toward the end of the game. Castlegard is the #1 area here (big green tower). The starting area was pretty cool too.
The opening area is mysterious, Castlegard is a very uplifting, calming type area, and the last space area is kinda “mind blowing”…. 😁😁 SCUMM engine, yes…
2.) MadMaze: A Prodigy/AOL game. I liked any part with a still animation of a place, because it was so EXCITING to get to a unique place this way, instead of “more maze”. Plus the obstacle/puzzle/riddle/character interaction deal…. I never finished the game, but still loved it…
3.) Legend of Kyrandia: Westwood Studios. Also never finished it. The COLORS…. Just. The COLORS…. I loved the temple area at the beginning, the big willow tree near Brandon’s home, the whole gem collecting deal, Malcolm (he’s kinda milquetoast, to be honest…), the dragon’s mouth entrance to the cave, the different colors and “vibes” of each location-the roses place, the fountains, the well, the wizard’s hut with the purple dragon who was sleepy, the talking sunflower, etc.-and then the confusing cave area, the glowing gem area in the caves, the fire berry whole deal-something along these lines, dying if the berries get too dim/can’t find new berries to replace the old ones, etc. After the cave area, the rest of the game wasn’t QUITE as good-and the alchemy/Zanthia’s deal was too random of a quest, so it kinda “broke” the game at this point…. But the colors, point and click puzzle deal-YES. 👍
4.) The Wheel of Time (Legend): The whole game is AMAZING. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Every area was a GEM. Literally. Every. Single. Area. SO exciting, SO dreamlike/dream fuel…. 👍👍
5.) American McGee’s Alice: YES. 👍 Trippy, YES.
6.) King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity I have played, and I do remember the skeletons, the sylph, etc., but yeah, even though I beat the game, it was not THAT great, yeah…
7.) Baldur’s Gate I/II/TOB: This is the game that was kinda the main “gateway” game for me to the 2000’s and beyond REALLY big fantasy adventure games. I really, REALLY loved Candlekeep, the Carnival area to the east of Nashkel, Durlag’s Tower (HARD), Firewine Bridge/Halfling village, Beregost, the High Hedge Wizard’s abode, the Cloakwood/Iron Mines, Bandit Camp, The Friendly Arm Inn, in Baldur’s Gate: Sorcerous Sundries, High Hall of Wonders, the Ducal Palace, the Iron Throne, pillaging from Entar Silvershield/escaping the guards, the catacombs under Candlekeep, and of course the final battle under Baldur’s Gate. In BGII: Athkatla: Aerie/circus area, The huge market area (where the circus is), The Copper Coronet Inn, the cemetery, The Shadow Thieves, the travelling sphere deal with Valygar, and the bridge area/evil tanner, mixed feelings about the culty area, etc. Elsewhere-Firkraag/that whole area, Spellhold, Suldanesselar, Nalia’s estate, Watcher’s Keep, the Shade Forest area/deal with Mazzy, and Trademeet was ok. The final battle(s) were great too. 😁 In TOB: Eh, the final battle, basically.
8.) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
9.) Fable-kinda
10.) Dragon Age: Origins-kinda
Great and fun video. It would be nice to hear what you think about Sam and Max and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis as well in another video 😊
Keep up the good work! Cheers!
I remember when my buddy got Full Throttle, we played it all the time. Pam you always do a great job with your reviews, thank you. Looking forward to future videos!
Love this video! Glad to finally hear your thoughts on the 2nd and 3rd Monkey Island games as well!
Thanks!
I can still remember playing the original King's Quest on a Tandy 1000. The 160x200 graphic adventure blew out my 10 year old mind.
Hi Pam,
I’m pretty excited about the list of games you had ranked there and can’t wait to play some of them on my new laptop. Solid video!
Thanks!
I can't tell you how much your video touched on my childhood. I'd even bring the Sierra Online magazine to school to read over and over again haha. I would play these all the time, and whenever I talk to a gamer who hasn't played them growing up, I can't believe it. My favorite series were Monkey Island and Space Quest. Thank you! :)
You're welcome :)
Pam, every time I watch one of your videos I learn something new. I never even heard of that rainforest game. I'll have to check that out.
Yay! so happy to not feel so old thinking about all these memories:) awesome video, Pam!!
Personally would have shoved "it's a poisonous snake..." game with it's moon logic MUCH much lower...
My favourites are Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island games! Thanks for this Pam, It is cool to see other adventure games that i knew nothing about. Good to find out more just like i did with the CRPG ranking video.
No problem, glad to introduce some new (old) games.
Great informative video as ever. As for the avatar walking around the screen Valhalla on the ZX Spectrum came out in 1983 a year before King's Quest.
Regarding Day of the Tentacle, the different time periods are not just different locations like in Monkey Island 2, they actually have a unique mechanic where some puzzles are dependent on thing done in certain time periods affecting other time periods and items left in one time period changing on other time periods and then can be sent back to be used in puzzles
Really enjoying your videos - thank you x
I've just found your channel. Loving all of your videos...I'm Watching them all! Keep up the good content!
Welcome to the channel
Oooooo! A "D" for Zak! I can't remember if the copyright stuff was as intrusive on the C64, but it was present in some form for sure. I definitely enjoyed it more than you did when I played it back in 80'-90', but can appreciate the frustration with it's implementation as you described it.
Considering the crack available for Maniac Mansion, i would think there was one for Zak as well. But failing the code in Maniac Mansion was funny to see the mansion blow up...
for anyone interested- the Grim Fandango soundtrack has recently been released on vinyl, it has great artwork and remastered tracks with live orchestras. Also, the Curse of Monkey Island soundtrack is Hi res on UA-cam, and its really good. I personally have lots nostalgic memories attached to both of these games, and I think the music played a big part of that connection.
That's so amazing Pam, thank you for ranking them for us! 😊
No problem 😊
My all-time favorite was The Dig, it was short, but very memorable
Same here, that art style and music made a sense of wonder and exploration I’ve not encountered in any other game.
Lucasarts only real adult adventure imo.
Nice video. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a must play. The story is great and there are three diferent paths. Lots of replay value
@ I agree
This was fun Pam. A few games to check out. I've played lots of adventure games but now realize very few of them were Lucas arts or Sierra (e.g broken sword series, Deponia series, beneath a steel sky, Discworld series, Silence etc plus the kings quest and leisure suit Larry reboots). Would enjoy watching a ranked video of these and others. I have played monkey island series and would agree that they are classics deserving top ranks.
Nice video! Would be intresting to see a part 2 with games from other developers. And i agree about Grim Fandango.
Love this and would love to see more retro game rankings.
I was hyped to see this video in my game. But you broke my heart right off the bat with "I don't like text parsers" and "this will have an impact in the ranking" :( Text parsing was my childhood and when point and click interface kicked in... it was a major step down for me. Still... great way to spend 40 minutes this morning for me. Thanks for the video!
It is funny she skipped KQ2, 3 and 4, she would have learned what real pain was and valued the other games a bit more. Also original HQ/QFG was better than the VGA point and click edition, it had the full ending transition to HQ2/QFG2 which was removed from the remake, it was a blast to watch it back then because it felt you were about to start the second game right away! (you could export/import your character but needed to actually have the second game, still before the rename from Hero's Quest I/II to Quest for Glory I/II.
Also that text parsing helped my younger self to learn more about that foreign language that is English, useful when you are not born in an English speaking country...
Great video. A very belatedThanks for posting. 😊
You're welcome!
Another great video Pam. You are a delight, I say with the utmost respect!
Thanks!
Personally I would out Day of the Tentacle a rank higher. LSL 6 I would recommend playing again if you don't recall it well. I actually go back and forth on it and 7 being my favorite of the series. I am shocked and appalled (not really lol) at the ranking of Grim Fandango. I really enjoyed that game so much so I actually bothered to buy the remaster edition even though I still own the original which is something I normally wouldn't bother to do.
Gabriel Knight 1 anything but S rank, whaaaaat?! =O
That's it! Sick the dogs on her, boys! We got us a non-believer here!
(Just kiddin'!)
I LOVE all the Sierra/LucasArts content you do! These games will never get old to me. One of the most awesome parts of watching your videos about them, is that back when we were all kids playing them, we didn't have the internet yet to talk about them. If you were lucky, a local BBS might have a message board where someone might strike up a conversation about one but... that was pretty rare. So, it's like we've all got YEARS of excited discussion in us, to make up for those internetless years.
Myst and Shadowgate were my jam. Indeed, that is a nice bimodal distribution. Good to see Lily and thanks for the vid.
@@Joseph-xe1ry Your recommendation is much appreciated sir~
One of the very specific design goals for Lucas Arts was to avoid not only the deaths but the unsolvable endings mentioned by her. In fact they made a joke of Sierra games in Monkey Island I where they simulate the typical Sierra death and later say "just kidding" of sorts (falling of a cliff). However Maniac Mansion didn't really apply these concepts to the full, no idea about Zak, never played it.
Great job with this video and the reviews. For me, Day of Tentacle and Grim Fandango belong in the S category. It's interesting, and very cool, that you loved Monkey Island (and rightfully so) but then considered DOTT and Grim at a B level. I will check out Quest for Glory 4 soon. Thank you for posting this video.
Fun video! I think this is a hard genre to rank, so many promising games held back by unfortunate choices, and notorious moments abound. I've been discussing these games over and over throughout years of being a developer in this genre and have heard plenty of cases for and against, but still enjoyed you explaining why you feel the way you do about these games. It's fun to hear your frustrations with the bits that I remember being annoyed at myself, and also hearing your reverence for some of the best titles. Great stuff!
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it. I'm curious what your favourites from this category are.
@@Cannotbetamed1 Good question! In terms of my own work I drew the most inspiration from Full Throttle & The Dig - particularly when I was painting Unavowed, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what made those games look so good, and that was kind of my goal aesthetic! In terms of all around favourite game, The Secret of Monkey Island is just super hard to beat as a game that does everything right! Quest for Glory is probably the most rewarding Sierra game I've played, although I love the art in many of them (even if I like the gameplay less).
Well, Unavowed looks beautiful! What a great game.
@@Cannotbetamed1 Thank you so much! Dave and I are working on another title together right now, really cool to be working on something else with him again. :)
Thank you for your input. Found it real interesting
I would love a list again of these but this time from other developers. I remember games like Kyrandia, Simon the sorceror, beneath a steel sky, Broken sword to name a few.
This is a really good idea. Especially Simon the Sorcerer series has a different place in my heart along with Monkey Island series. My nickname is Simon just because of Simon the Sorcerer series. :)
The reason why KQ1 was so iconic is that its the first PC game that used hacked graphics.
Prior to KQ1 PC games looked like.. S***. What KQ1 used was to hack the text mode to use all the available colors making it look more like, if not better, than other games of the day.
So despite popular belief, KQ1 is actually CGA. (just like original larry)
KQ4 and LL2 was in EGA... or rather PCjr/tandy graphic (there was very few game in true EGA). KQ1 was later remade with this engine.
Later when VGA games came around, there was a similar situation. IBM first launched MCGA as a 128kB 256 color grapics mode. This later evolved into VGA, but a lot of games, specially early once, was made for MCGA (that could also be shown on VGA).
This was a fun video Pam. It flew right by!
Thanks!
Hero's Quest aka Quest for Glory series was my ultimate favorite!! I do intend to play all of these games and/or finish what I have started. My brother loved Maniac Mansion on the NES.
The quest for glory series wa also a favorite of mine.
You should read the rant about the guy who ported Maniac Mansion to the NES, after you read it you will never want to talk about it again. TL;DR Nintendo (of America) censorship.
Pam, like so much your videos and comments. I've been a persistent adventure games player back in my teenagehood. Loved both Indiana Jones, the Legend of Kyrandia ones, Cthulhu Shadow of the Comet... Awesome! Love also Sam & Max! It'll be great to hear your thoughts on the latter ones
I enjoyed the three Kyrandia's. Westwood's quite unique take on the genre.
lsl3 at 7 being your intro adventure game by your aunt is wild lol. that was quite a difficult game, and i'm curious how many of these you beat. quest for glory was my favorite series as well, i started with 3 then went back from 1 (vga) importing characters forward. my favorite was a thief who i gave magic abilities to. i wasn't a huge fan of typing but really enjoyed qfg2 as well in the end. my first sierra games were actually police quest 3 and space quest 4, then i think king's quest 5. i didn't play agd's vga remake of qfg2 - but it's supposedly one of the best ever fan remade games. thanks for the video, fun watch to bring me back 20 years for a lot of games i sunk a lot of time into. you might like laura bow 2.
I beat all of these games. Though I didn't beat LSL at 7.
This video gave me tiers of joy 8) TY Pam
haha
Awesome video ‼️ I always loved CPU adventure games and point and click games as a kid ⌨️🛡⚔️💾💽🔦🔮
Ah really glad to see this video mentioning some of my old favourites.
I just haven't found the same connection to a lot of modern games.
🙂
That EGA style from the late 80's is so memorable. While you didn't rank any of the Laura Bow games I just wanted to bring up The Colonel's Bequest because it might be one of the best looking games ever. Even in the days of the "retro revival" you just don't see a lot of that style anymore. It's really evocative and time warp-y.
I still need to play the LauraBow games, they seem like something I'd like.
At the time, many people didn't yet have color monitors, myself included, and had to play some of these games in black and white. These games often had a monochrome setting. My first memories of the early Sierra games were all in black and white.
@@PCGamingGoodies Either that or people had to play in CGA which wasn’t great but now has nostalgia attached to it. I remember being a kid and enjoying full color experiences as well as some of the more limited stuff. Shoutout to Skullduggery: Adventures in Horror.
Hi Pam, great job on all your videos.
Great little vid and got me into the mood for a little point n clicking. Gonna have to fire up Indy Jones and the fate of Atlantis though. Def an S on my list!
Excellent video and a great trip down memory lane. Suggestion for a future "rank 'em" series - PC FMV Adventure games outside of Sierra and Lucas Arts (i.e. Tex Murphy, Return to Zork, etc.).
That is one of the ranking videos I plan on making.
Great vid Pam! Brought back lots of fun memories - loved playing adventure games with my friends as kids - the Monkey Island games on my Amiga 500 & King Quest (esp 3) series & Manic Mansion on my best friend’s dad’s PC! 😉 Would love to know your take on more recent games - Thimbleweed Park / Jenny Le Clu / Tangled Towers / Darkside Detective series. Hope that you and Lilly are well n grand!
Try as I might, I've never really been able to get into adventure games, even though I feel like it's a genre I should like. Still though, I really enjoyed listening to you talk about your favorites and will likely use this as a reference if I decide to dip my toe into the genre again. Great video, these tier lists are always fun!
Thanks!
Have you since been able to enjoy them?
Great video, these games really take me back - point and click adventures and CRPGs were my obsessions back in the 80s and 90s. Personally, I wasn't as bothered by the text parsers since I got my start with the old Infocom text adventures but I can see how they could be annoying. Totally forgot how some of these games could get you stuck in a no-win situation, that was the absolute worst. Funny how at some point along the way, game design seems to have shifted from an adversarial relationship with the player to more of an almost co-operative relationship - providing challenge certainly, but not outright kicking you when you're down. Thanks for the memories!
Glad you enjoyed! I'm certainly happy at the more player-friendly designs in games now.
Weird, I didn't get a notification for this, and seeing how point & click LucasArts (primarily) adventure games is my favorite "genre"...
Neat list, was a little surprised to see you put CMI above MI2 though!
S: Grim Fandango, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Day of the Tentacle, and...
I knew some were missing; Sam & Max Hit the Road (S) and Fate of Atlantis (S/A)!
3:10 - I have a sentimental attachment to AGI games through Peter Kelly's editor. I remember how my brother changed the gun and the cruiser in 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 into those from 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳, and even I was good enough an artist with the huge pixels and the limited color palette to be able to draw the refitted 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 with a starfield background and a working red alert graphic from 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘬 𝘐𝘐.
Thank you for the video. I'd definitely recommend Sierra's 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 series. The caveat there is that the UI is even more unforgiving, and the games themselves require multiple playthroughs to test everything. The reward, however, is beautiful writing by an author who's far better than Jane Jensen, elegant graphics, even in 16 colors, and a believable enough real world intersecting with a unique magical world.
Christy Marx has balanced characters with distinct personalities, and the story leads them to gain an even stronger advantage over their adversaries. Jane Jensen, on the other, relies heavily on the exploitative "seemingly a bad boy, but actually with a tortured soul" main character known from every romance novel for the past centuries and the simplest technique of just having the story or the narrator butter them up; e.g., yeah, he rides a motorcycle in a dark trench coat and lives in a bookstore.
Additionally, I'd recommend at least 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘝, playing the other titles from there to the beginning and attempting to stomach - puns are the so-called height of its wit - 𝘚𝘘6 only after surviving the rest. 𝘚𝘘5 is even more relatable if you like 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢.
These video's are one of the reason's I love this channel. Pams beautiful voice and the way she remembers these games from the past so well. I played Police Quest but, can't remember it well at all but, I'm glad you left it off. Enjoy the memory lane. ID Softare was something I did like in the 90's great company. Cheers to you Pam
Thank you for this walk down memory lane lane. I can almost hear the hard click of my old 286's big red power switch and whirr of the sub- 1gig 5.25 inch hard drive.
I love Mask of Eternity so much. I feel like it's greatly underrated. For people who haven't gotten far in it, it really does have puzzles (lol) and it uses them in often-times creative and non-arbitrary ways. But it's not perfect and I'm not surprised where it landed.
Yeah, it's one of the best games on this list. She's just a casual who said it looked bad for some reason. It literally has some of the best graphics on this list. She's acting like it's a Ecstatica or something lmao.
@@StudioMod I think people blame it for the decline of point and click adventures, even though it wasn't one. It being an action adventure, instead, was more of a sign of the times than anything that caused the shift, itself.
@@Cannotbetamed1 Yeah, adventure games AKA mom games. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Siberia, Longest Journey, Full Throttle, Still Life, Grim Fandango, Dark Fall, and especially Scratches. But to compare them to actual 3D, action-adventure games that hearken to the modern stylings of gaming is completely crazy. To give a game that is borderline a proto Dark Souls styled adventure game (sorta like Ecstatica, Dark Earth, or King's Field) an F rating, is completely and utterly WILD.
Hey Pam! That is a rad stop skeletons from fighting shirt! Great video!
Thanks!
Great stuff, Pam. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching!
I didn’t had a pc in my childhood, so I missed out all these click & point classics. And you always make me very curious about these. Btw Pam, your presentation is so much more relaxed since the last couple of months. It’s really good! 👍🏼
Thanks, I'm liking making these less scripted videos.
@@Cannotbetamed1 I think you have found your style
Kings Quest V was the first graphic adventure I remember playing, will never forget getting my ass killed in the desert over and over
The first game I ever bought with my own money was Conqueror A.D 1086, a medieval strategy game by Sierra back in '95. Man that game was just the full package to me as a kid, great memories. Thanks Pam, for reminding me : )
I recently ran across your interview on Smash JT discussing the Vampire the Masquerade video. Your nuanced thoughts on the matter really impressed me.
Your eyes are amazing! Thanks for doing your eye makeup like you do, because its so lovely watching you blink and look around and think about stuff.
Thank you
Fun fact: King's Quest was revolutionary also not just for featuring graphics (when an adventure game previously only featured text) but by having 'arcade style' character control, ie being able to actually walk your character around the game enviroment, behind and in front of scenery, etc. That stuff was mind-blowing on the PCs of the early/mid '80s.
And Sierra used King's Quest as their platform for this kind of thing for decades. Every new KQ game brought with it a new enhancement or technology. The fourth introduced sound cards and a full musical soundtrack (other games like Space Quest 3 employed actual rock stars to compose the soundtrack). The fifth game in the series was one of the earliest with full speech for every character and the sixth featured major musical set pieces with established broadway stars providing the voices/singing in massive multimedia sequences. King's Quest 7 used cell drawn animation and felt like an interactive cartoon. Every game was a step forward for not just the genre, but gaming in general.
Yeah, I mentioned the character control.
The first computer my family ever bought had King's Quest 7 pre-installed on it. I was like 10 years old.
I remember being really intrigued by it and wanting to progress in the game, but I got stuck right off the bat and never figured out how to get past the scorpion haha.
I remember there was some wandering guy in the desert who seemed extremely annoyed by you talking to him. His voice pleading "What do you WANT" is something that has stuck with me for 20+ years haha.
I really need to check out Monkey Island. I recently played through Blazing Dragons and started Rise of the Dragon on Sega Saturn and Sega CD respectively
That pained "what do you want?" line has also stuck in my mind over all these years.
Great video! Another good one from 1989 is Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail.
I love leisure suit larry. Remember playing it the first time when I was around 8 years old. Had to memorize all the age check answers lol.
Wonderful vid! Thanks so much!
Glad you liked it!
Great video, would love to see your thoughts on other adventure/point-and-click games
Cool rating video :) I played much of the games you talked about myself, so I think I could agree with you most of the time. :) "The Curse if Monky Island" was one of the first P&C-Adventures i ever played and it is my absolut favorite. I finished it 10-20 times and still love this game.
Did anyone ever played a strange game called "Normality"? It was developed by Gremlin Interactive. Its absolutly ugly(it even was when it first came out in 1996) but it has a great and funny story that was highly inspired by George Orwells 1984(my favorite book) and it was absolutly great! Great puzzles, hilarious humor, great characters. But nobody seems to know this game anymore today. I think its very underrated. Maybe because it wasn't a LucasArts or Sierra-Adenture and so it was just overlooked.
Really like your rating videos tough. Hope you will make more of it in the future :)
I appreciated this video a lot and thanks for putting it together.
I think I have a different view of many of these games, and not at all clear-eyed about them. Except for the very earliest examples, this was a great era of games because they finally became playable cartoons (especially true of the Lucasarts games). Lucasarts and Sierra were at the top of the list, but you are absolutely right that many examples had real playability issues. I look back to this time with rose-colored glasses. We now look at games being generated with Unreal Engine and we're now at fully playable movies. That's fine. It's really about gameplay and great storytelling. But I'll admit I miss that 2D feel.
Ha! LSL3 was my first adventure game too! Dad brought the discs back from the Sunday markets so we had a crack.. I don't think he expected it to be so risque! :P
(You know what, I think I learned the word 'risque' from that game!)
As much as the Monkey Island series is my favorite, I was laughing at the “Sanford and Son” reference you had playing for QG III.
"I went to my Aunt's house and Leisure Suit Larry 3 was the only game she had on her computer." I have many questions.
Monkey Island among my favorite games ever! Nice to see them ranked so high.
Day of the Tentacle I really enjoyed it.
Oh! I forgot to mention the Laura Bow mysteries! I liked the second one better (Dagger on Amon-Ra), but Colonel’s Bequest was fun too.
Adored both of them tremendously. So well done.
I need to play those.
@@Cannotbetamed1 The voice acting alone makes playing Dagger of Amon-Ra worth it (spoiler, it’s hilariously bad)
I loved Maniac Mansion...it had enormous replay value. You could play it again and try so many new things...even things that had nothing to do with the outcome. My favorite was recording the tentacle mating cry and sending it to the record producer...his window shattered and I couldn't stop laughing...they actually thought of that.
A game that was developed by Sierra that I didn’t see on your list was Torin’s Passage…which was a pretty fun one if I remember right. I think that one was 1995 or 1996 if I remember right. I agree with almost all of your choices though. Great video!!
That stop skeletons from fighting shirt tho! Hype for uncle Derek!
The Dig I still need to play.
The cinematic opening is still thrilling. Good game too.
Is that a stop skeletons from fighting tee? Great video!
Thanks!
I really miss Sam & Max in all of this. On another note, by just seeing the list i would highly disagree on some parts but your explanations make really sense even i cant argue with and all the nuances between S and B teers can be a difference in taste. The Dig for example is a very devisive game, i remember some game critics in 1995 hated it but i LOVED and still do that game. You respecting Gabriel Knight 1-2 makes me tolerate the other differences we have in taste. lol. Great video overall. Great explanations.