Point n Click adventure games are fairly mediocre at the being a game part. The puzzles are fucking abysmal half the time in even the well received point n click games. I like Grim Fandango here n there, but speaking as someone who loves puzzle games. I'd much rather be playing a proper fucking puzzle game like The Swapper or Antichamber or Talos Principle or The Witness or Infinifactory or Snakebird or even something as middling as QUBE over what Wadjet games (and I like the characters of the Blackwell series) or what I've played of Kathy Rain, or old Lucas Art joints, or Gabriel Knight's puzzles.
Which I'll at least appreciate that the old point n click format, is at least a fucking game, unlike Telltale's shit, but Telltale's method has made a level of sense to me. Besides just playing to their own strengths, their games are one giant indictment on this mediums ability to tell a story. Because when Telltale is good, they are actually pretty freakin solid, right down to them having more interesting cinematography in their game to go along with their writing to carry a production. And as a result, they are actually able to tell a more coherent linear story. The biggest problem is they did it by making the gameplay as close to non-existent as possible while still having the pretense of being a game of some kind.
And even bouncing off cloud's post, I used to think they have diversity, but now I just think they benefit from having a certain story type that action games flat out just can't do. And that's mystery/detective shit, becasue on balance, they all end up on some level being some mystery shit. Be it Blackwell, Kathy Rain, the broken sword games (which admittedly I'm at least sort of digging the lead, she's my kind of sassy). Would love try the Deponia games tho.
Plus more to it, they replace action gameplay, with puzzle gameplay. Which goes back to my thread of gaming's biggest hurdles, with one of them being, at some point you have to let me play a game. And a game is fundamentally at odds with telling a story, a game is a series of rules, that will get more n more elaborate to continue to test the players understanding of the systems going forward. So by its very nature, it asks for set ups that are contrived, because Grim Fandango yeah on one hand the puzzles themselves are a problem in Chapter 3 of that game, but also it's because the stories momentum comes to a screeching fucking halt. Where as Rubacava's puzzles never got in the way of the momentum of the story during that chapter, also happens to be among the many reasons it's the best chapter in that game.
Too long; didn't read - Adventure games have certainly told better stories, maybe, at least by benefit of having a range of characters who aren't serial killers for starters, so there is some genuine dramatic weight to those games. But, even the well received games, aren't actually that good as games or puzzles if held any scrutiny. They often try to get away with complexity, without realizing a puzzle benefits from clarity. And any other sort of mechanics in those games, is usually way too shallow.
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