Top Ten From Hell: Graphic Adventures

Welcome to another Top Ten from Hell. Today's topic is graphic adventures. Remember the days of yore when games needed a mouse to play them? Okay, PC games still do, but I mean you used the mouse to point and click, grab stuff, open doors, and even sleep with pixelated, doe-eyed honeys. Now, we use "WASD" and "D-Pads" and "Joysticks." Phah, I say! PHAH! That's why we're looking at the top ten graphic adventures of yesteryear.

10: Maniac Mansion: We need to start off right with an oldie. In Maniac Mansion, you played as a team of teenagers who go into a haunted mansion to save a cheerleader from the comet-loving, insane Edison family. It was one of the first games to have characters with differing abilities, multiple endings, and even a hamster nuking. Even more interesting, it was released on the Nintendo as well as PC. It was a little tedious on the Nintendo, but still a classic.

9: Shadowgate: I'm not talking about the N64 Shadowgate. I mean the old school Shadowgate for the NES. A story behind it, my family bought it years ago, but we got stuck right in the first half hour of the game. We noticed a hot line, which we called, that ended up being for a hint book. Out of desperation, we ordered the book. When it came in, we all stayed up until we beat the game. This isn't because we're idiots, it's really that hard of a game. But, it's rewarding too. If you can find this game, play it. It's leaps and bounds better than the N64 version.

8: Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness: Not quite a graphic adventure, but not quite an RPG, either, this game still reigns in my mind of what fantasy games should be like. It has a dark, yet humorous story, beautiful imagery, and atmospheric voice acting and events. It also has some of the best puzzles I've seen in a game. The best part is that it draws from folklore from Eastern Europe. The one that comes to mind is the Rusulka, female spirit that lures men to their water deaths. The game makes me wish I had Windows 3.1 again...

7: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream: This is a weird one for me, being as I never played it. But, what I have seen of it is very interesting. Playing as each of five survivors after the Apocalypse, you have to find a way to escape the control of AM, a robot that's keeping you alive for his amusement. By amusement, I mean he tortures you all. It's based on a Harlan Ellison book, and those of you who know me know I hate his work. For me to say that this is good... that means something.

6: Space Quest 4: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers: For me, this is the Space Quest game. Janitor Roger Wilco finds himself tripping the time fantastic after he is saved from an attack outside of the bar he was telling "war stories" at. Being a lowly janitor, you don't fight anything, you use your wits. If you go in trying to fight, be prepared to hear "Are you sure you want to restart?" and "Thank you for playing Space Quest 4! As usual, you've been a real pantload!" a lot.

5: Missing: Since January (aka In Memorium) and Evidence: The Last Ritual: One of the most unusual graphic adventures I've played, Missing doesn't use a point and click interface. Instead, its a series of videos and puzzles that you'll have to use the internet to solve (as well as in game tools). You'll get emails from other people helping you solve the murder, and eventually the murderer himself. There isn't a game that has done the atmosphere immersion better without this system. Considering what the game is about, and how twisted the emails you'll get are, I doubt there will ever be.

4: Sam and Max Save the World: Most would say "Hit the Road," but the first season brought more to the table. From the cast of bizarre characters, to even more Sam and Max humor, the game doesn't stop. Where were Bosco and (the strangely attractive for a cartoon) Sybil Pandemick in the first game? When did Max run for President of the USA and win in that one? Ha! They weren't anywhere, and he didn't. Not until this game.

3: Full Throttle: LucusArt was at there "A" game with this one. A biker graphic adventure that was funny and varied. Fighting on motorcycles? Here. Throwing fertilizer in someone's eyes to get a chainsaw? Here. Catching on fire to distract an audience in a demolition derby and blow up some bad guys? Here. A final battle on a semi-truck where you can't die, only say "Hmm.... Lemme try that again." It's all here.

2: Sanitarium: This one's a weird one. You play as a man in a mental asylum who drifts in and out of reality, going to different worlds at different times. Each world has its own distinct atmosphere, ranging from creepy mutant children worshipping a "mother" to a cyclops alien planet. While the plot does seem to run thin after a while, its still a really good game. It has a deep storyline (albeit the horror factor runs out in the middle of it), and it never seems to do the same thing twice. Worth a look, a play, and even the price to buy it, even if its just to say you own it.

1: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father: A classic for all adventure games, what makes Gabriel Knight a well developed game isn't the graphics or the sound. It's the characters. Writer Jane Jensen manages to make Gabriel a lecherous, scuzzy, loaf of an ass, yet you still want to play the game. You don't want to play it because you like Gabriel, you play it because you want to see what happens to him. That ends up changing to you actually giving a damn about him and his friends, mainly because he changes gradually. Character development... something that's missing from most games. Seriously, name one that has it? Silent Hill 2? No, James starts of as what he ends up being: an amnesiac jerkass. Infamous? No, Cole ends up being a self-loathing jerk or a plain old murderous jerk (and I even liked Infamous). Not many games have done it lately, and those that have still can't hold a candle to Gabriel Knight. Don't believe me? Go to Good Old Games and try it. Tell them Ben sent you... not that they'd care, really... Just thought that sounded cool.