Sick Habit

This year’s Sony Party was amazing. Icubus – one of my favorite bands – was the surprise musical act. It was a great show and we were right in front of it.

I finished Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror for the PSP. Overall, this is one of the best games for the PSP. The graphics are quite good, the scripted events are cool, and the duck and gun gameplay works really well. Sticking to different covers and popping off of them for some quick shots felt superb.

The only beef I have with the game is its storyline. The game has some interesting characters that I wish didn’t spew generic and cliché lines of dialogue. However, it is a testament to the game’s quality that, I was able to finish it and I can now pick on its dialogue.

I miss the high day of adventure games. I grew up playing such classics as Sierra’s King’s Quest, Space Quest, Adventure of Willy Beamish, and even Leisure Suit Larry (don’t tell my parents) to Lucasarts’ The Secret of Monkey Island, Sam and Max, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Those are just a fraction of the adventure games that kept me playing glued to my monitor for hour on end.

Nowadays, adventure games have been absorbed into other genres. You mainly see their roots in modern platformers (even our own Jak and Daxter borrows many of their narrative techniques) and RPG’s (especially if you want to navigate through dialogue trees). Except for a few slim pickings (I need to buy Dreamfall and Bone), the adventure game genre is pretty much written off as dead – but is it?

There is an interesting movement of underground adventure game making with some surprisingly good results. Enter the Adventure Game Studio. AGS is an easy to use game creation tool, developed by Chris Jones, that lets novice game makers create some unbelievable adventure games. On the site one can sift through hundreds of indie adventure games and find some true gems. One of my favorite is Emily Enough – a story about a small girl who murdered her family and must escape from a mental institute. Although short (a good thing considering my limited free time), the game has a cool story, thoughtful puzzles, and a unique art style. In other words, I really dug it.

The coolest part is that Emily Enough is just one of many great indie adventure game that live on the AGS website. Sure, not every game is great – but many are. Additionally, once I ventured into the AGS forums, I found a lively community of indie developers helping each other by critiquing artwork and helping script upcoming projects.

Time will tell if an independent movement such as this will transform the game industry like independent films affected cinema, or if it will simply stay as niche, yet faithful, hobby. Either way, I’m getting my adventuring on!