Adventure game

An adventure game is a genre of video game or computer game.  Gameplay in adventure games is mostly exploration, solving puzzles and finishing stories.  Some adventure games also have combat systems so the player can fight enemies like in an action game, beat 'em up or role-playing game, but many adventure games have no fighting in them at all.  The first adventure game was Colossal Cave Adventure in 1975.

In adventure games, the player usually acts through a character in the story.  This character sometimes has a history. For example Roger Sams in Bad Mojo is a sad insect scientist and Alexander in King's Quest VI is a prince trying to rescue a princess.  Other player characters have almost no history.  In Myst and Zork, the game does not even give the player character a name.  Other characters and the game's voice call the player "you."

Adventure games can be played on computers, for example PCs and Macs.  Adventure games can be played on consoles, for example Playstations and Xboxes.

Many adventure games are called point-and-click adventure games because the player uses a computer mouse to click on things on the screen.  Not all adventure games do this.  In the 1996 game Bad Mojo, the player can only use the computer's arrow keys.  In the 1977 game Zork, the player must write commands using the keyboard.

Because they are about exploration, adventure games usually have an interesting world setting.  Some games have art with painted graphics.  Others show off the newest image-making technology, for example Myst.  Other games, like the early Zork games, had no graphics at all.  The Zork games told the player what was happening using words.

Some famous adventure game series are Myst by Brøderbund, Monkey Island by LucasArts, and the King's Quest and Quest for Glory series by Sierra on-line.

References

Category:Video game genres