Steam Link Adventures
Recently I started to make more use of the Steam Link and Controller I bought about a year ago in the Summer Sale.
The Steam Link is a little box you connect to your TV via HDMI and which then allows you to stream Steam games running on your Windows machine to the TV.
The Steam Controller is a very very configurable game pad with some track pad like controls in addition to more conventional game pad controls like buttons and analog sticks.
It turns out that both together are the perfect way to play adventure games (my favorite genre) and share the experience with my wife.
It started a few months ago by accident. I was sick and had to stay in bed, so I hooked the Steam Link up to the bedroom TV and started playing Broken Sword 5. Using the controller as a mouse works fantastic. In the evening, Kaddi came home and joined me. She really liked watching me puzzling through the game and at the end we where both exchanging ideas on how to solve the puzzles.
After we finished, Kaddi wanted more. We played through a whole bunch of adventures by now, so here's a list and what we thought of them (in the order we played them):
Broken Sword 5 - The Serpent's Curse
Andi: a worthy successor to the series. The end felt a little rushed.
Kaddi: I liked the look of this game, and I like games where you combine things in your inventory to create new tools to solve puzzles.
Andi: I had played this one before, but it was still a challenge sometimes.
Kaddi: I can not really remember which Broken Sword was which. I liked them all.
Broken Sword 2 - the Smoking Mirror: Remastered
Andi: I had also played this one years ago. On par with the first one
Day of the Tentacle Remastered
Andi: one of my favorite adventure games ever. The remastered version was quite good, though I missed the verb interface
Kaddi: the puzzles were too absurd sometimes, but the game was very funny. surprisingly short though.
Andi: A new one to me and I absolutely loved it. Interesting Neuromancer inspired story and some innovative concepts.
Kaddi: this one was great. I liked all of it, the story, the atmosphere. It might be my favorite of all the games.
Andi: Same studio as Techno Babylon. A solid adventure with an interesting story, but overall I didn't enjoy it as much as Techno Babylon.
Kaddi: This was nice. I liked the design. I also liked that there were different possible endings you could try. I was happy Crispin was alive again at the end.
Andi: A very cute game, but not a talkie. Generally a bit on the easy side but fun.
Kaddi: I was a bit disappointed. I liked the design and the idea, but the sudden end right with achieving the goal was a bit off putting. Maybe it was a bit too easy.
Andi: this could have been better. The humor is a bit too predictable and the lack of an inventory makes it less interesting (the main char automatically uses the right item when you picked them up before)
Kaddi: I didn't really like this. I had to laugh about the jokes and pop culture references, but overall I didn't like the objective I think. I am not really sure what I didn't like about the game, but it wasn't good.
Andi: very interesting premises, but in the end a relatively short murder mystery.
Kaddi: I liked this. The story was surprisingly short and straightforward though. I liked that it was something different and you could learn a little about Jewish religion. I liked the voice of the protagonist. This one had multiple endings too. Too bad it was so short.
That's what we played so far. I did a bit of research and it seems the adventure game genre has quite the (underground) revival. So there are quite a few games I wanna play next (in no particular order):
- Adventures of Bertram Fiddle
- Anna's Quest
- My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant
- Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller
- Message Quest
- The Wardrobe
- Tales
- The Darkside Detective
- Blackwell Epiphany
- A Golden Wake
- Gray Matter
- Kentucky Route Zero
- Yesterday Origins
- Agatha Knife
- Four Last Things
- Milkmaid of the Milky Way
- The Inner World
You can find the games listed above on my Steam wishlist. If you have any more tips on good point'n'click adventures, please let me know.