Adventure games are a dying breed, but that hasn’t stopped game developers from pouring their heart and soul into the development of new, creative titles or remaking classics of old. We take a look at five free adventure games for the PC worth playing.
Knytt Stories
“Knytt Stories” is an indie platformer with support for new games and stories. The base game comes with a story called “The Machine”, which stars Juni–a Knytt, which is Swedish for “tiny creature.”
Like many other games, you start out with zero abilities at the beginning. You can run and jump but you can’t do much else. A device known simply as The Machine has drained the world of all its vibrance, and it’s up to you to make things right.
As you progress, you pick up new abilities that allow you to overcome obstacles. You can run faster, jump higher, and even manipulate parts of the environment. These abilities and the challenges they allow you to conquer serve as the game’s locks and keys.
More than just a game of challenges and obstacles, “Knytt Stories” is one of exploration–its visuals are its heart and soul. Drawn entirely in the form of pixel art, it puts most commercial efforts to shame with its simplicity. The minimal visuals are complimented by an ambient soundtrack that give it subtle definition.
I found myself entranced by what “Knytt Stories” had to offer, playing through it in a single sitting. With further adventures already available and even more on the way, “Knytt Stories” is a game you can’t afford to ignore.
Samorost 1 & 2
The Samorost games were developed by Czech-based Amanita Design, better known as the creators of Machinarium. The two games take place in a surrealistic landscape, mixing technological and organic elements.
Players take on the role of a white-clad humanoid who wears a little cap and brown boots, resembling a gnome. The goal of the games is to solve a series of sequentially linked puzzles that form an adventure story.
With neither dialogue nor an inventory, the gnome must interact with the environment around him to solve puzzles and proceed to the next area.
The objective of the first game is to avert a collision between the gnome’s home planet and an incoming spaceship. The gnome must find a way to enter the spacecraft and divert its course. In Samorost 2, the gnome goes on a quest to retrieve his kidnapped dog.
Both games are minimalistic in design, but they manage to tell a story worthy of any adventure gamer’s time.
Cave Story
Cave Story is the brainchild of Japanese designer Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya. Developed as a freeware platform-adventure game for the PC, Cave Story features classic 2D platform mechanics in the same vein as the classic Castlevania and Metroid titles. Much like the “Metroidvania” games, the player must collect a variety of weapons and items to overcome obstacles and progress through the game.
The game begins when the amnesiac protagonist awakens in a cave with no recollection of who he is. After making his way out of the cave, he discovers that an enigmatic figure known as the Doctor is planning to enslave the inhabitants of the world. With no one else to stop the Doctor, the protagonist must step up to defeat the Doctor and save the world.
Cave Story is a uniquely rewarding experience, mainly due to its compelling story. The player interacts with a rich and interesting cast of characters who populate the floating island upon which the game takes place, each of whom has a story to tell.
Due to its popularity with adventure gamers, Cave Story has since been ported to the AmigaOS 4, Linux, and Mac OSX operating systems, as well as the Nintendo Wii.
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire
Developed by AGD Interactive, Quest for Glory II is a remake of Sierra’s phenomenal adventure game, originally developed by Sierra in 1990.
The story takes place in the Arabia-inspired land of Shapeir, following the events of the first game, when the newly proclaimed Hero of Spielburg travels by flying carpet to the kingdom in the desert sands. Upon his arrival, he discovers that the kingdom is threatened by elemental spirits. Taking the role of the Hero, the player must defeat the elementals and save the kingdom.
The game’s entire plot happens over a span of 30 days, and much of the game runs on a tight, linear narrative. The player must perform various tasks within that time frame to overcome puzzles and obstacles as the days pass.
Designed for a modern audience, the Quest for Glory II remake features hand-drawn backgrounds and reworked character portraits and animations. It is free to download and play on both Windows and OSX platforms.
King’s Quest Remakes (I, II and III)
Roberta Williams and her team at Sierra created some of the earliest adventure games, propelling PC gaming to new heights with great storytelling. King’s Quest was among the first of her creations, which went on to spawn an entire series that lasted well over a decade.
The first three titles of the King’s Quest series have been remade by AGD Interactive, updating the games with new visuals, dropping the text parser in favor of a point and click interface and adding full speech for all the characters in the game—updates essential for a modern adventure experience.
In all three games, the players takes on the role of Graham, a young man who would be king. In the first game, Quest for the Crown, Graham must journey throughout the kingdom to recover three legendary treasures and end the troubles that ail the kingdom of Daventry. The second and third games take place after the events of the first, with new quests to accomplish and new villains to defeat.
Without a doubt, the remakes give the King’s Quest series a new lease on life, and they’re sure to steal as many hours from today’s gamers as they did to gamers back in the day.
Download:
http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/kq1/
