The fine folks over at Adventuregamers.com have taken on one of the most herculean tasks in video-game-list-writing: They have assembled a list of not the top 10, not the top 20, but the top 100 adventure games of all time. It’s a really good list, too.
The list was part of a multi-part series they ran, and each game has its own entry along which nicely includes a list of “If you like this, you might like” suggestions. I highly recommend checking it out. Just for fun, I thought I’d assemble the full top 100 list here, just to see how it looks when you can see ‘em all at once.
Personally, I think it looks pretty good! I certainly can’t argue with the #1 choice, which is one of my very favourite games of all time. And not just because of the music, which is both a symptom and a cause of that particular game’s awesomeness.
I dare you to read this list and not want to go back and play at least one of these. For me, it was Tex Murphy, which I barely got to play when I was younger, even though I remember reading printed walkthroughs just so that I could experience the game in some form.
Here’s the list, with links to their respective adventuregamers.com pages:
100. Titanic: Adventure Out of Time
99. Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor
98. The Space Bar
96. Gold Rush
95. Ripley’s Believe it or Not!: The Riddle of Master Lu
94. Faust (aka Seven Games of the Soul)
93. Toonstruck
92. The Dig
91. The Feeble Files
89. The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time
88. Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, The Wizard, and the Wardrobe
86. Dark Fall
85. The Dark Eye
84. Colonel’s Bequest: A Laura Bow Mystery
83. The Black Mirror
82. The 7th Guest
81. Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire
80. Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
79. Gemini Rue
78. Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist
77. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
75. Kings Quest: Quest for the Crown
73. Discworld II
72. Maniac Mansion
71. Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!
69. I Have no Moutn, and I Must Scream
67. Pepper’s Adventures in Time
66. Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon
64. The Book of Unwritten Tales
63. Black Dahlia
62. Obsidian
61. Loom
60. Another Code
59. Myst III: Exile
57. Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit)
56. In Memoriam
55. Syberia II
54. Samarost 2
53. Return to Mysterious Island
52. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
51. Zork Nemesis
48. Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers
47. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
46. The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
45. The Curse of Monkey Island
43. John Saul’s Blackstone Chronicles
42. Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood
41. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
39. Last Window: The Secret of Cape West
38. Full Throttle
37. Stacking
36. Sanitarium
35. The Neverhood
33. L.A. Noire
32. Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
31. Portal
30. Bad Mojo
29. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
27. Discworld Noir
26. Heavy Rain
25. Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon
24. Police Quest 2: The Vengeance
23. Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness
22. The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel
21. Blade Runner
20. Still Life
18. Myst
17. Machinarium
16. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
15. Syberia
14. The Secret of Monkey Island
13. King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
11. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
10. Portal 2
09. Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive
08. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
07. The Last Express
05. Riven
04. Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars
03. Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within
01. Grim Fandango
Some thoughts: Nice to see Amnesia get some love in there, and also nice to see Gabriel Knight 2 above the original. While Sins of the Fathers will always have a place in my heart, I too prefer the second one. Shadow of the Templars really is great, isn’t it? I’m several hours into the iOS version, and while I haven’t played in a while, this made me want to return.
I also like how this list includes current-gen adventure games (it is an “all time” list, after all). There are some great ones, from Gemini Rue to games you wouldn’t necessarily think of as “Adventure Games” like Heavy Rain and L.A. Noire. I don’t know if I’d really call Portal an adventure game, and I don’t know how I feel about putting all of the Infocom text adventures in one category (or about ranking them 50th!) but then again, I think I get it. Otherwise they would have taken up 20 or so spots.
Anyhow, head on over to the site and check out the full write-ups. It’s a well-curated collection of games that are entirely worth celebrating.
Top 100 All-Time Adventures [Adventuregamers.com]
Strange
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:03 PMZork: Grand Inquisitor brings back very happy memories.
So many quotes my sister and I still quote at each other all these years later. :D
Ian
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 5:40 PMHands you a subway token. Which quite naturally is in a bucket at the bottom of a well.
Shane
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:04 PMThe Dig was 9th mentioned.
Choose to believe this is a good thing :)
Dig is 9th :P
D.C.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:27 PMI’ve never actually finished The Dig. I always seem to get up to the same part too. I loved it, though. Something completely different from LEC.
Matthew K
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:08 PMI’ve only played about a quarter of these games, my list mostly padded out by Lucasarts and sierra games. :P
It’s a good list, but I’d argue with the order (which is basically the point of lists, am I right?). The Dig at #92 when Grim Fandango takes first place? Grim Fandango was great, but The Dig barely even made the list! The Dig is top ten material!
Glad they mentioned The Riddle of Master Lu though, if I think waaaay back that’s probably the game that got me into PC point-and-click adventure games. I didn’t play the text entry titles like the old Sierra ‘Quest’ games until later.
Shane
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:31 PMCheck the write-up for The Dig. They gave it 3 stars, but it still made the top 100. Definitely a sign this list should have been top 20 or fewer :)
D.C.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:34 PMThe site’s editor mentions in the comments that they didn’t consult their reviews at all when constructing this list. I think the editorial staff has changed so much over the years too, that the original reviewers aren’t even on staff any more…
NotAbbott
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:11 PMThe import of this list and others like it, is completely lost in being 100 long. Much like filling in an election form below the line, the middle 80% is complete filler and waters down the rest of it.
Who gives a toss what came where in that section of the list?
Also, I feel as though I read this list weeks ago, but I guess it was only a few days ago. Someone must have tweeted it to me… My timeline is all broken this first week back to work :S
muzzington
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:12 PMGlad to see Pandora Directive in the Top 10.
Akra
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:16 PMThe Longest Journey, good game but god; some of those puzzles defy logic.
D.C.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:24 PMTo this day, I long to explore Stark with April Ryan again. Come on, Funcom. You know you want to…
alex effing
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 4:30 PMapparently they are going to wait until they’ve finished the MMO the secret world or whatever, then it’ll be another 18 months til Dreamfall: Chapters and then, and only after that will they do the longest journey 2. Boo.
D.C.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 4:58 PMIt’s been so damn long since Ragnar Tornquist announced Dreamfall: Chapters (and secured a grant from the Norwegian government), the I’m not even sure it’ll happen any more. :(
Barry
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:17 PMSierra and LucasArts should have more of their titles higher in the list as these two companies were the best at adventure games but why isn’t Full Throttle from LucasArts higher on the list? The music was a big part of that game and the voice talent that they had (Mark Hamill) was all great
D.C.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:22 PMI kind of lost faith in the list when my favourite adventure game of all-time (Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned) didn’t make the top 20. I guess the thing with these lists is that it’s all subjective, just making the list means a lot.
Jaded_Buddha
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:25 PMspace quest 3 didn’t even make it? wtf?
Paul
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:28 PMNo mention of one of my favourites – Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender
D.C.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:30 PMI was all kinds of pleased to see Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain and L.A. Noire make this list. Often in the forums over at Adventure Gamers there’s constant battle on whether these can be classified adventures. If they don’t want them, I’m sure some other genre would. ;)
c
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:31 PMWhat the heck? What is Portal 2 doing on that list? And I would petition ‘To The Moon’ to be on there as well.
Akra
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:35 PMYeah Portal 2 doesn’t really make sense, sure its a puzzle game; but not quite an adventure game.
By that logic, Half Life 2 should be on the list because you had that seesaw puzzle in it.
alex effing
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 4:31 PMTo the moon’s great, but its not really a game
Lone Wolf
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:34 PMI think this is a pretty fair list, although I feel toonstruck should have been higher.
Biggest omission in my eyes is Ghost Trick, but looking down the list I would have been hard pressed to pick one to remove.
Maybe just slide in front of Still Life.
Badger
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 10:06 AMGhost Trick is number 41 :-D
I’ve been doing the same thing. “Ha! They didn’t mention… oh, wait… yeah they did”.
The one game missing for me is Zak McKracken, which I absolutely love.
NegativeZero
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:35 PMThe Dig at 92? I’m sorry, that’s just incorrect. And Portal is not an adventure game in any way.
Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor make the list, but Return to Zork doesn’t? :(
Cameron
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:19 PMI was thinking the same thing, I felt Return to Zork to be far superior than it’s sequels.
Ian
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 5:44 PMObviously you two guys need to go back and replay all three of those games. :D Of course if you replay them and still maintain the same opinion that’s totally acceptable…I just think maybe you’re nostalgia is taking sway since Nemesis and Inquisitor are imho leagues above Return. And I’m so glad to see inquisitor at number 12. That’s definitely one of the best all time…I’d possibly rate it at number one on my personal list.
D.C.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:35 PMI suddenly realize how many comments I’ve posted in such a short amount of time, mustn’t let people know I’m a gushing adventure game fan boy… :p
light487
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:38 PMNo.. Dark Seed…?
There’s a lot of games missing that were revolutionary and pushed the genre forward.
Ian
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 5:57 PMimho, Dark Seed wasn’t actually a very good “game”. It had really good art thanks to HR Geiger, but the puzzles were pretty terrible. It could give the game credit for the interesting idea of having to get things done in a certain time, but that’s certainly not a completely new innovation introduced in Dark Seed.
Emblurr
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:49 PMQfg4 shouldnt be so high at 22 was about the worst of the series and a buggy unfinished mess
Travman
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 4:14 PMGah, Emblurr, don’t bring up old wounds. I can’t… I just can’t take that disappointment again. I miss you Ken and Roberta.
I miss you.
Ty
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 4:01 PMGrim Fandango might be a great game, but it’s got horrible controls. Machinarium is also a sordid affair with linear progression, I think it made it onto this list by graphic appeal.
Actually, looking over these games, a majority of them only have cult appeal. Even if it’s at the bottom of the list, Toonstruck shouldn’t have ranked at all.
McGarnical
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 8:47 PMYou dissing Machinarium?
Get out.
Ty
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:57 PMNot saying it was a bad game, just that it doesn’t best a good amount of games below it on this list.
Ian
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 6:00 PMThe controls are irrelevant to me. The game hit so many high notes. From a great story, to a completely unique world, fantastic score and audio, amazing characters, clever puzzles, incredible subtext. There is probably more that I’m missing but I think it definitely deserves it’s place at number 1 (even if I would personally rank Grand Inquisitor as my personal favourite).
Agitator
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 4:15 PMI got Shadow of the Templars as a Christmas present when I was 9. I had never heard of it or played any point and click adventure game, but grateful little gamer that I was, I played it from beginning to end and it sparked a life-long love-affair with the genre.
Also, as upsetting as The Dig’s low ranking may be, we can surely all agree that Tim Schafer deserves his domination of this list.
jamesmacusedmyhandle
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 4:34 PMOnly one Sierra title in the top ten!! And a mediocre one at that!
FOR SHAME!!!! The entire Top 5 titles should end in Quest!! I don’t care which ones.
And the first GK made the top 20!!!!
Was fun for the first half then it feels like they had to wrap it up too quick.
That last section is one of the WORST examples of adventure games in history.
Stephen
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 4:50 PMRiven, Zork Nemesis and Myst all have a special place in my heart I never played Grim Fandango.
PMac
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:37 PM*scrolls down to top 5 *
*closes tab* (detour past comment box)
redartifice
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:47 PMGrim FAndango: Great game, Or GREATEST Game? You decide.
Sp4nKy
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 6:31 PMPortal an adventure game? righto…
My opinion the top 20 “should” be filled with lucas arts, sierra, myst..etc.etc (all the old classics…) + Toonstruck should be in the top 20 aswell…
The newer adventure games are good but they dont have the same touch as what the old ones do…
This may be why i was like a little 5 year old kid on x-mas when i heard they were doing the telltale games (S&M and Monkey Island) and the Monkey Island remake come out.
Sp4nKy
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 6:33 PMAlso Grim Fandango is the GREATEST Adventure game, replay it more than another other game i have..
Scruffy
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 7:21 PMIf Portal’s an adventure game, then Metroid Prime should surely be on this list too?
McGarnical
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 8:48 PMGood call.