Keepsake's unforgettable adventure

Boy the voice acting in this game sucks.

Apparently, they left the original voices in the European version, but got new actors for the North American release. Vazel, which one did you hear?

I played the demo. I'm going to get the full version as i'm an adventure game fanatic. Bad voice acting won't stop me from enjoying a good game but i still hope what i was hearing in the demo were the European voices.

I'm glad this was pointed out here. TLJ was a great game that reintroduced me to the genre. Searching for other games led me to a few, Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was good, but I haven't completed due to an annoying bug, and Syberia.

That this game is said to be Myst/Syberia actually worries me bit, because, in my own opinion, Syberia was trite, tedious cr? I played almost to the end of the game and got so fed up with the story, the feel of the game, the character development, and its utter failure to convince me to suspend disbelief, that I gave up entirely and have again lost interest in the genre.

I'm going to be trying the demo, and I hope that it's not like Syberia.

(This rant brought to you by the number 3 and the letter ?

"It's more a symptom of the industry's tendency to focus on the myriad shooters, RPGs, and strategy titles that dominate PC gaming."
-------------------------------------

I was about to post a witty retort to this, but then I actually looked at the Dreamfall website. The sequal to the Longest Journey, one of the greats in the adventure genre, is an action adventure?

I am saddened.

This game is made using the open source engine Crystal Space.

Its nice to see Joystiq continue to plug games that are off the beaten path. I would have never played Beyond Good and Evil(not quite as off the beaten path I know) if it wasn't for a plug from this site. Keep up the good work. I am going to be trying this genre again with Dreamfall, if that goes well I will be sure to check out Keepsake.

It's a shame adventure games don't get better promotion by the games industry. I think there's still a substantial audience out there for this genre, because it isn't action oriented and doesn't rely on quick reflexes. Adventure games are perfect to get non-gamers into gaming, people who like exploration, puzzles, good stories and great visuals.

Myst showed there was an audience for this genre. The reason why the Myst sequels failed was because they felt and looked far too samey: telling the same story with slightly different graphics. Games like The Longest Journey are fresh and could be just as big as Myst, if only people knew about them. But unfortunately the games industry and retailers don't trust the genre so they don't publish new games and when they do appear the lack of advertising kills them. Adventure games should be marketed differently and not focus on hardcore gamers. Try to get the ads to a different audience and watch the sales grow.

I *want* to like the pure adventure genre more than I actually like it. I played some of the Longest Journey and thought it was pretty fun, but I think so much more is possible from these games.

I remember playing Sanitarium a couple years after it came out because I had heard such good things about it. The story was intriguing, but I stopped playing very early on because of stupid, contrived gameplay limitations. This is a big annoyance of mine in games in general and is epitomized in many adventure games. Here's the best example from Sanitarium that has stuck with me this whole time:

I'm in a creepy town. There's a small creek that I need to get across, but the bridge has been destroyed. *All around me* are things that I could easily use to get across. I think I even had a long board or something *in my inventory*. So what was it that finally allowed me to get across? A broken-off spring-mounted plastic animal thing from the playground. Apparently that's the perfect thing for sticking in the ground and vaulting over a creek. It took me at least an hour to figure this out.

I'm sure adventure game afficionados would get it in no time, because they've become fluent in the subtle language of the genre's worlds. I, on the other hand, foolishly expect my games to have...anyway, you get the point, and I'm just ranting now. Adventure games have certainly gotten a lot better, but I just plain do not enjoy any amount of this kind of frustration that is brought about by a gameworld not working like a believable world should work.

It just so happens that action adventure games tend to ease up on the aforementioned arbitrary frustrations because the action aspects of the game can fill the void with their own challenges. But I have nothing against pure adventure games as such, and I think they're going in the right direction these days anyway.

"...you have only a talking wolf and a series of magical clues to assist you."

And people wonder why the adventure genre gets no respect.

Anyone who mentions Myst should be beaten with a stick. The only good it did was give some much needed publicity to the adventure game market. The game from a technical standpoint was a piece of art (or as much as slideshow prensations can be), but gameplay wise it was horrible. Way too difficult and repetitive for all but the most hardcore puzzle lovers... and if you look up the definition of 'milking the cow' in the dictionary there is a picture of Myst and the different boxes for all the times they've re-released it.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is looking like something I'll have to check out based on early word of mouth. I haven't been following Keepsake and I admit to not evening knowing about it before this article. However if either of them can be as compelling as Indigo Prophecy then I'm sold.

Thanks for providing some info on this game. I've been looking at it sitting on the shelf at my local game store, but I haven't really touched it since some of these games really stink. I'll be sure to check it out now.