High Dynamic Range Lying

In recent years, the once flourishing adventure genre has died a slow an agonizing death, with games like Syberia being the last bastion of hope for those in love with the genre long after its demise. Despite the popularity of titles like Capcom’s Gyakuten Saiban series (逆転裁判) and Nintendo’s Hotel Dusk, the genre remains a shadow of its former self. There are many reasons for the genre’s demise: a lack of player interest, a lack of talented developers looking to develop in the genre, and even a shift in game design philosophy.

What gamers now thirst for, for the most part, is not what adventure games used to offer: brain-teasing puzzles, interesting characters to speak with, and a wealth of atmosphere. Adventure games primarily offered no action elements, except in rare circumstances to break up the heavily cerebral gameplay.

Some adventure games also suffered from nonsensical puzzles. Players had to perform unusual tasks, and use items in unusual ways to advance. While earlier titles in the genre were merciless in punishment for failure, later games in the genre did away with a death penalty, simply leaving players stuck if they were unable to discern the next mystery.

The genre’s general lack of constant visceral action and violence prevented it from catching on to a strong degree when gaming started to become more and more mainstream. Titles began to metamorphose to fit popular genres (Police Quest slowly but surely became the SWAT series), while others simply died out (Space Quest, Snatcher/Policenauts, Famicom Detective Club).

When Tim Schafer left Lucasarts to form Doublefine Studios, his first game, Psychonauts, was a departure from his previous adventure titles, incorporating more battle and platforming elements to cater to the changing audience. Is that the only way to break back into the mainstream? Has the traditional face of adventure gaming really died? Will we never see a third Famicom Detective Club from Nintendo?

There’s no question that the adventure genre needs to make a return, and this may be the best time for its revival. Gyakuten Saiban is increasing in popularity, and the impending release of the third and fourth installments as well as titles like Hotel Dusk and Lost in Blue on DS might be exactly what the genre needs in this critical time. What can the industry to facilitate the genre’s revival? It might be more complicated than we think.

There’s no question that the American gaming audience values visceral entertainment. Speed, violence, detailed and malleable environments as well as good music have become required aspects of a best selling game. Why not capitalize on those aspects? Adventure gaming could benefit from current technology to a great extent. An adventure game’s fully realized world has spoken volumes about the story, far more than any conversation.

There’s no question that adventure gaming is based largely around using items, talking to local denizens, and exploring a new environment. That doesn’t mean there can’t be any combat, as long as it doesn’t become the main focus of the game. Games like Blade Runner showed that an adventure game can have a compelling action element seamlessly introduced to the player. In addition, the game also offered breaks from the detective work, in the form of Voight-Kampff tests, that players could administer on virtually anyone.

Along with additional elements to break up the main gameplay, future adventure games could work on improving replayability. One of the major problems with the adventure genre is that many times, the game has only one path the player can take, leaving the game unplayable after finishing the first time, especially in circumstances where much of the allure of the game was mystery.

Blade Runner solved this to some extent, by randomizing who in the game was a replicant, as well as how NPCs would react to the player’s various questions. Modern adventure games could go a step farther, by randomizing responses within a dialogue tree, NPC locations, and even their mood when the player encounters them. Include multiple endings that either diverge greatly from each other, or offer slight differences in the way multiple events unfold, creating a slightly different experience each time.

Two of the biggest problems with older adventure games were dialogue, and puzzles. Not only would some games require that you exhaust every dialogue option (twice!) before revealing a new option, but some of the item based puzzles were downright nonsensical, requiring that players guess-and-test everything at their disposal, ruining much of the game’s fun. Modern adventure games would have to eliminate both of these problems to make the games less frustrating, and more accessible. Instead of stumping players with nonsensical puzzles, instead require that they do research in-game, by reading books or talking to other characters, which would be far more fun, and would draw them farther into the world.

If we were to use past games as examples of where to take the genre, what better place to look than at the most successful modern adventure game: Gyakuten Saiban? While the game is a murder mystery like many, the game takes the unique attorney stance, making the game unique in its own right. Why not set games in unusual environments, like hospitals, or schools? Additionally, offer gameplay that is not necessarily a murder mystery, or even a mystery of any kind. Such change is just crazy enough to work.

The gaming industry has changed, and those who play games have changed their minds multiple times about what they wish to play. This doesn’t mean developers cannot offer a gameplay experience the audience never asked for. Developing experimental titles on a system like the DS would be the best course of action, as it would allow developers to use limited resources to work on a game that could likely make quite a bit of profit, provided the game is actually worth playing.

It’s merely a question of making a title that will turn some heads, and get people asking questions. Adventure has become an untapped genre. Its revival is imperative.