With so many deserving candidates still left to choose from, even paring down each category to its top contenders proved difficult. (Hey, maybe the snub will inspire more adventure-style gameplay! And if not, well… did we mention 115?!) We love all those titles, but at least for Aggie purposes, they don’t qualify as adventure games proper. No choose-your-own-adventure-style story games (sorry Telltale), no dexterity-challenging puzzle-platformers (we’re looking at you, Candle), and no purely exploratory experiences (afraid not, Firewatch and ABZÛ). So we’ve drawn it the same place we do in our reviews, recognizing only those games that include puzzle-solving within a storytelling framework and without an excess of action. It’s a direction we thoroughly applaud: Vive la differénce! And yet, we still need to draw the line somewhere. Disappointed at times too, like any year, but with Aggie Awards season upon us once again, this is a time to celebrate the successes.Īs usual, trying to determine “what is an adventure game?” provided an ongoing challenge too, as developers continue to push the envelope, test boundaries, and defy traditional conventions. #Samorost 3 interactive elements plus#From the many small-team indie projects to highly-anticipated new installments in the beloved King’s Quest and Dreamfall series, plus a spiritual successor from the creators of Myst, we were pleasantly surprised time and time again. Quantity alone never ensures quality, of course, but there was no shortage of excellence on display either. This year? A ridiculous 115! And that’s with stricter parameters than ever before for what games are actually eligible, disqualifying unfinished episodic serials, ports, remakes, and more. Without doing an actual head count, previous years usually ended up in the 60-70 eligible game range come year-end. This was a thoroughly unprecedented year for new releases. We’re thankful it’s behind us, not because it was a bad year for the genre, but the exact opposite. There are only two words to describe the year-that-was for adventure games: In.
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