Adventure games have been an important part of this industry for as long as the industry has been around- right from the days of text adventures, to developers like LucasArts making further strides with games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. There was a period of several years where it felt like the genre had not only stagnated, but died out, but starting with the twilight years of the previous generation, we’ve seen an explosion in the popularity of adventure games once again. Thanks to the efforts of developers like Telltale Games, Quantic Dreams, Dontnod Entertainment, and many others, as well as the massive surge of the indie scene, adventure games are better and more varied than they have ever been.
In this feature, we’re going to take a look at what we feel have been the fifteen best adventure games so far this generation. Given how many of these there are to choose from, missing out on a few great ones was unavoidable on our part, so if one (or some) of your favourites got left out, let us know in your comments. With that out of the way, let’s get this started.
DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN
Adventure games are largely the domain of indie developers or studios with smaller budgets, but not exclusively so- David Cage and his team at Quantic Dreams have been making masterful adventure titles for several years now. And with Detroit: Become Human, they truly hit the ball out of the park. With a story that was meaningfully branching, choices and consequences that truly made the player stop of think, and excellent setting, and some of the best visuals we’ve ever seen in any video game, Detroit: Become Human ranks among the best of the best of this genre.
