Adventures yesterday and today. Part 2. Resurrection

Last time we mentioned the classics of the adventure genre and their decline. But quests have not disappeared, sometimes they return to their origins, and sometimes they discover new forms, proving that a "relic of the past" is still capable of surprising.

Today, the adventure genre encompasses a whole range of games – from classic Point-and-click to interactive cinema, "walking simulators", emotional narratives, visual novels and various hybrids. In this part, we'll look at what the genre has become over the past decade and recall the most striking examples.

Classic Point-and-click today

AA/AAA releases in this subgenre have been missing for a long time, but the indie scene keeps it afloat. Despite all its shortcomings – slow pace, lots of dialogue, and puzzles that sometimes look like a developer joke, the classic Point-and-click still has loyal fans and is finding new ones.

One of the most famous ambassadors of the genre can be considered the German Daedalic Entertainment. In 2012–2016, they gave us the series Deponia, a comedic story about a failed inventor Rufus, who dreams of escaping from a garbage planet. There are enough absurd situations, witty dialogues and puzzles. The four parts of the series form a full-fledged saga, in which even humor does not save from some very serious moments.

Daedalic didn’t stop with Rufus. In 2009, they released The Whispered World, a melancholic tale of a clown named Sedgwick who sets out to save the world, even though he doesn’t really believe in it. And in 2013–2014, they released The Night of the Rabbit and The Dark Eye: Memoria, both of which are fantastical, visually stunning adventures with the atmosphere of the old Brothers Grimm books, but with a modern twist.

I would also like to mention Wadjet Eye Games, an American studio that developed the cult Adventure Game Studio engine. Their Unavowed (2018) is particularly interesting, a noir urban fantasy story where a hero once possessed by a demonic entity joins a secret order to investigate supernatural crimes. Choosing companions not only changes the dialogue, but also opens up different ways to solve puzzles.

They previously released the Blackwell series (2006–2014) about medium Rosa and her sarcastic ghostly partner investigating mysterious deaths.

And this year, in Old Skies (2025), Wadjet Eye took us on a journey through seven different eras with time agent Fia Quinn. From the era of Prohibition and the gangs of the Gilded Age (USA 1870–1890) to the skyscrapers of New York on the eve of September 11, 2001 – here history is literally in your hands, and every intervention has consequences. In general, if you like classic quests – pay attention to the works of the two developers mentioned above.

Czech Amanita Design has proven that it is possible to do without words altogether. Samorost (2003) transports us to the surreal worlds of a space gnome, while Machinarium (2009) tells the touching story of a robot named Joseph who saves his beloved and his city. All this is done through visual style, animation and music, without a single line of dialogue.

It is worth mentioning separately the series The Last Door (2013–2016) from the Spaniards from The Game Kitchen – an atmospheric pixel horror in the spirit of Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.

The seemingly simple graphics here work in contrast, only enhancing the feeling of anxiety and hopelessness, while the plot drags you into a whirlpool of conspiracy and ancient horrors. And there's also an incredible soundtrack.

Thimbleweed Park (2017) is the spiritual successor to Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick's LucasArts. A small town, a corpse under a bridge, quirky residents, and dialogue that pokes fun at everything from genre clichés to the fourth wall. It feels like a lost 1990s hit, but with 21st-century conveniences.

And, of course, Tim Schaefer's Broken Age (2014–2015) is a crowdfunding phenomenon that raised over $3 million on Kickstarter.

Two parallel stories – a boy on a spaceship and a girl escaping a sacrificial ritual – intertwine in a visually striking but classically slow-paced adventure.

Narrative Adventures: Indie Expressions

Point-and-click is more of a control method, but it also requires a certain amount of step-by-step action – stop, look around, find the object.

Many modern adventures feel more like a "walker", and sometimes even like a platformer - the scenes change smoothly, the hero's movement is integrated with the plot, the gameplay is not limited to strict Point-and-click. This subgenre is sometimes difficult to clearly separate from walking simulators (it will be a little later - here we are considering games where there is still some gameplay), but the most important thing is an emotional story and a deep expression of feelings and experiences. Very often, such games are created by a single developer or a very small studio. Let's mention a few examples.

Fran Bow (2015) is a sad, disturbing story about a girl lost between reality and the nightmare of a psychiatric hospital, where every step can be painful.

She struggles with the loss of her parents and her own sanity, searching for a way out of the darkness while encountering eerie and often tragically comical characters. The unique art style and puzzles reinforce the sense of isolation and helplessness, making the game both beautiful and terrifying, like a memory that hurts.

Sally Face (2016) is a very bloody, sometimes uneven, but surprisingly soulful mystical story with elements of horror and unforgettable music. It became a cult among teenagers in the last decade. The story of a boy with a difficult fate unfolds here slowly, step by step, through the everyday and the supernatural, through childhood fears and adult experiences. The game is a lot about friendship, about how important it is to stick together in the darkest moments, and about ghosts that are not always scary. Sometimes they simply remind you of loss and help you deal with the present.

An interesting musical accompaniment with metallic notes adds a special mood, emphasizing the inner world of the hero, and the plot, which was released in chapters for several years, allows you to feel how the main character himself changes along with the player. Quests, finding objects and small surprises create the effect of a living world, where every step is important and at the same time emotionally rich... all this is told with a special, specific love: the author of the game is Steven Gabry, and he created Sally practically on his own: from the script and graphics to music and programming.

Another solo developer works under the name Stranga Games and has created several excellent games in the genre, albeit less well-known ones. My Big Sister (2018) is a short but deeply emotional adventure where the main character sets out in search of her older sister. She finds herself in a mysterious, slightly mystical world that is somewhat reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell (2001) and Miyazaki's worlds in general. Here, ordinary things acquire symbolic meaning, and each scene breathes sadness and warmth at the same time. Simple controls and easy quests allow you to focus on the plot and atmosphere, and the minimalist graphics, like those of old JRPGs, although simple, create a rather cute world.

Ashina the Red Witch (2022) is the next game by the same author, similar in style and approach. The player explores a mysterious world, interacts with objects and solves small puzzles, gradually revealing the heroine's story. The atmosphere is again in the first place: mysticism, attention to detail and light melancholy. Both works demonstrate how one developer can create several small, but lively and full of emotions worlds.

DISTRAINT (2015) – Finnish indie developer Jesse Makkonen created this psychological adventure almost single-handedly, and the result is something special. The game tells the story of a young, ambitious man named Price, who, in order to partner with a large corporation, takes the apartment of an elderly woman - and it is at this moment that he realizes how much his humanity is worth. The story of remorse and self-justification unfolds in a minimalist 2D style, creating an atmosphere of anxiety and isolation.

DISTRAINT 2 (2018) continues the story of Price trying to find redemption. The gameplay focuses on exploration and puzzle-solving, which are organically woven into the emotional fabric of the narrative. This is not just horror - it is a painful meditation on the price of success and the path to self-forgiveness.

Beacon Pines (2022) is a cute and spooky adventure inside a mystery book. As one press representative put it, Beacon Pines is like Winnie the Pooh in the world of Twin Peaks. Developed by indie studio Hiding Spot.

We follow Luke VanHorn, a fawn boy who lives with his grandmother after the death of his father and the disappearance of his mother. Together with his energetic tiger cub friend Rolo, he investigates strange happenings in an old abandoned warehouse, unaware that it will drag them into a dangerous web of secrets that threaten the entire town.

The most interesting thing about the game is the "charms" system. At certain points, you return to the book and can choose one of the available words to change the course of the story. For example, when a character is dealing with an angry girlfriend, you can choose how they will behave, and each choice radically changes the course of events. Researching one set of events can unlock new charms for use in another branch, forcing you to switch between different versions of the story.

Beacon Pines combines elements of a visual novel with a twist, creating a unique "choose your own adventure" experience where every decision leads to new discoveries in a mysterious world that hides dark secrets beneath a cute facade.

Night in the Woods (2017) is a postmodern masterpiece masquerading as a platformer but not really. It's simply The Catcher in the Rye in game form.

The main character, 20-year-old May, returns to her hometown of a neglected mining town after being expelled from university. She was expelled not because there was something wrong with her studies, but… everything is just not right. At first glance, everything in the town is the same as before… but some shops have opened, some have closed. Someone is hanging around without work, someone is writing unexpectedly good poems, and old friends… old friends are gradually growing up. And May herself seems to be stuck between childhood and adulthood, between who she was and who she should have become.

A game about how hard it is to return home when you've changed, and home has changed too. About the economic depression of small towns, about mental health, about friendships that stand the test of time. And how sometimes the scariest monsters aren't the ones hiding in the woods, but the ones living in our heads or running corporations.

And also. Don't be surprised that everyone here looks like an animal. This story is about people. Too much about people.

Interactive stories

In fact, attempts to bring elements of cinema into adventure games have been around for a long time. However, the first attempts were not very successful. At first, they were the most compressed videos with actors who acted as if they had just been woken up in the middle of the night and asked to portray emotions. But the genre of interactive cinema continued to attract developers - the idea of combining the best of both worlds was too tempting.

The true pioneer of modern interactive cinema was the French studio Quantic Dream, led by David Cage.

It all started with Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy (2005), a psychological thriller with QTE and a branching plot. Heavy Rain (2010) showed the dramatic depth of interactive cinema, Beyond: Two Souls (2013) experimented with non-linear storytelling.

And in 2018, they created their true magnum opus – Detroit: Become Human, a story about androids striving to become humans.

Detroit is not just a game about robots. It is a serious conversation about freedom, equality and the right to one's own destiny. The three main characters - android detective Connor, revolutionary Marcus and "mother" Kara - experience a crisis of self-awareness when the artificial intelligence begins to feel real emotions.

The game's greatest strength is the complexity of moral dilemmas with no right answers. Should Marcus kill to save hundreds of his fellow humans? Should Connor betray his human partner for a "higher purpose"? Each decision shapes not only the character's fate, but the future of an entire race.

QTEs aren't just there to test your reaction. They're a way to immerse yourself in stressful situations. When you have seconds to decide whether to shoot or not, your heart races, just like the hero on the screen. And the branching plot means that characters can die forever, changing the entire story.

American company Telltale Games came a little closer to classic adventures. The idea was simple and, at first glance, smart – to make inexpensive serial games that run on almost any hardware and are released in episodes, like a TV show.

In The Walking Dead (2012) series, instead of Point-and-click, players were given moral choices, branching dialogues, and quick decisions under time pressure.

The story of Lee and little Clementine in a zombie world made even skeptics cry. The gameplay was reduced to line selection, periodic QTEs and simple puzzles - this is what made the games accessible to everyone.

But over time, the limitations of Telltale's approach became apparent: "the game will remember your choices" was often an illusion, and key plot points remained unchanged. With each new series, the feeling of déjà vu only intensified: one engine (and a very limited one at that), one dialogue system, the same limitations, even if the setting changed from zombies to fairy tales, as in The Wolf Among Us (2013) (according to many critics, this is the studio's best game), from "Game of Thrones" to "Batman".

Despite this, Tales from the Borderlands (2014) was simply a masterpiece: a space comedy with perfect stylization, absurd humor and an incredible soundtrack. But even that did not hide the main problems - an inconvenient engine, limited gameplay and the illusion of choice. It is a pity that the sequel New Tales from the Borderlands (2022), to which Telltale no longer had any involvement, turned out to be so faceless.

Ultimately, Telltale couldn't handle its own ambitions, releasing too many projects at once. The studio closed in 2018, although it was later partially revived. And it laid off some staff again last year.

Life is Strange (2015) by French studio Dontnod became a phenomenon thanks to its combination of teenage drama, supernatural elements and social themes. The first game (2015) tells the story of Max Caulfield, a girl who can rewind time, and her attempts to save her friend and reveal the secrets of the town of Arcadia Bay. The gameplay combines exploration, interaction with objects, dialogues and the use of abilities that affect the plot. There is a branching of the plot, but it is often limited to local events, rather than global changes. The strength is the emotional story of friendship, loss and growing up, although some are annoyed by the excessive "teenage" sensitivity or accusations of "agenda".

Subsequent games in the series, such as Life is Strange: Before the Storm (2017), Life is Strange 2 (2018), Life is Strange: True Colors (2021), and Life is Strange: Double Exposure (2024), continued to explore themes of identity, inequality, and trauma, while maintaining the signature style with a strong soundtrack and cinematic presentation.

Until Dawn (2015) by Supermassive Games is an interactive horror game in the vein of teen slasher films. A group of young heroes find themselves in an isolated mountain cabin, where danger and mystery haunt them.

The gameplay is based on a "butterfly effect" system, where the player's choices determine who survives and who doesn't. QTEs, quick decisions, and location exploration create tension, and the cinematic presentation with actors like Rami Malek adds Hollywood charm. While the game skillfully recreates the atmosphere of horror films, the emotional involvement is weaker than in Life is Strange or Quantic Dream games, due to the very clichéd characters. However, the replayability and branching plot make it a hit with fans of interactive cinema.

Walking Simulators: The Art of Atmosphere

A separate subgenre is "walking simulators", where the gameplay is minimal, and the atmosphere and emotions come to the fore. One of the first such projects was the Source mod, and then the separate game Dear Esther (2012). After that, the developers were unstoppable.

Firewatch (2016) tells the story of Henry, a lone ranger who has come to a national park, fleeing grief. He meets his colleague Delilah, and they gradually become friends, although they communicate only through walkie-talkies. Henry and Delilah try to understand the strange events in the park. What seems like a mystery or a conspiracy turns out to be a simple, but very painful personal story, and the silence of the forest becomes a silent interlocutor.

What Remains of Edith Finch (2017) is a poetic story about a cursed family, where each death of each of its members is told in a unique form: from interactive mini-stories to small gameplay experiments. Each episode reveals the tragedy and beauty of the life of an individual family member, forcing the player to experience their fates together with the heroes.

Journey (2012) is a silent journey through mysterious lands where players meet each other without words, only through presence and movement. Every step, every gust of wind and sunlight creates an emotional resonance that is difficult to put into words, and the moment of togetherness with other travelers makes the experience incredibly emotional.

These projects prove that even without classic gameplay, video games can impress with deep stories and artistic expression.

Puzzles: Evolution of Mechanics

Another modern subgenre of adventure games is story-driven puzzles. These games are fun to play on smartphones, so they probably have a future.

The Rusty Lake series (2015–2018) immerses you in a surreal world where puzzles are intertwined with horror elements and a mystical atmosphere. Each room hides strange symbols and riddles that slowly reveal the dark and absurd stories of the characters.

The Room series (2012–2020) features tactile 3D devices that the player uncovers by carefully rotating and pressing pieces. The mystical plot of mysterious artifacts makes you feel tense and excited at the same time.

Baba Is You (2019) is a revolutionary puzzle game where the rules can be changed on the fly. Each new combination opens up unexpected paths and solutions, turning classic puzzles into a real creative process.

Mixing genres and new horizons

Finally, there are games that clearly have "adventure" roots, but they are difficult to identify unambiguously. For example, Disco Elysium (2019) is primarily a role-playing game, because there is character building and development. But the system is so specific, plus a lot of philosophical reflections, plus brilliant texts... It's a real and very successful mix.

Kentucky Route Zero (2013–2020) is a postmodern adventure with elements of magical realism, where a journey along imaginary roads is intertwined with strange and deep stories of characters.

Outer Wilds (2019) offers a space journey with time loop mechanics, where each step reveals new secrets of the universe and forces the player to think cyclically rather than linearly.

Blue Prince (2025) is a recent hybrid of adventure, puzzle, and roguelike. The player explores a mysterious mansion with procedurally generated rooms, where each choice shapes a unique path and new challenges. The combination of strategy, logic, and adventure elements creates a fresh gaming experience with high replayability.

Where to go next?

If the history of the adventure genre teaches us anything, it's that the most interesting discoveries often come unexpectedly. But there are also patterns.

VR seems like the perfect technology for finding objects. Imagine Myst (1993) in virtual reality or the ability to touch the mechanisms of The Room. But so far, there are few truly impressive VR adventures. Artificial intelligence is also opening up horizons: quests with NPCs that truly react to your actions, or stories that adapt to your playstyle in real time.

Mobile platforms are blurring the lines between "real" games and casual puzzles. Monument Valley (2014), 80 Days (2014), Florence (2018) show that adventure games live quite well in the player's pocket, finding new audiences.

One thing remains constant: the best adventure games have always been about stories, emotions, people, and exploration. Technology changes, but the need for good storytelling has not disappeared. And as long as it lives, the adventures are just beginning.