The 25 best adventure games ever made.

25: Dragonsphere

Developer: MicroProse

Publisher: MicroProse

During the peak of the LucasArts vs. Sierra adventure wars, Microprose decided to
pluckily throw some games into the ring, and this one was a doozy. Dragonsphere was,
and still is, a beautifully drawn adventure, in which you – as King Callash – must put
aside your royal wealth and set off to prevent the evil wizard Sanwe from escaping his
prison.

It’s enormously detailed, with swathes of dialogue for the most minor of items on
screen, and a pleasingly deep fantasy tale to explore.

Notes:

Microprose also offered the adventuring world the extraordinarily named Rex Nebular
and The Cosmic Gender Bender, as well as the far more boringly titled Return Of The
Phantom.
24: Police Quest III: The Kindred

Developer: Sierra Online

Publisher: Sierra Online

The Police Quest games stood out in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. Where adventure games
were either about fairy tales or science fiction, Police Quest was defiantly straight-laced
and serious. Procedural, even. And while it would eventually evolve into the SWAT
license, in its point-and-click days it peaked with The Kindred.

There are those who will pooh-pooh its inclusion, remembering how it would kill you if
you filled in forms incorrectly, or how utterly bloody impossible it was to plot that
pentagram of murder sites on the map, but no! The tale of Sergeant Sonny Bonds,
investigating the stabbing of his own wife and uncovering a Satanic cult, is a properly
good time.

It was a damn site better than all the bloody King’s Quest games everyone delusionally
thinks were great, too.

Notes:

Police Quest writer and actual real-life policeman Jim Walls stormed off in a huff during
development of The Kindred, which saw SWAT founder Daryl F. Gates taking over his
role.
23: Under A Killing Moon

Developer: Access Software

Publisher: US Gold

Right, so picking a Tex Murphy game had to happen. The FMV meets sci-fi meets pre-
rendered monstrosities meets Chris Jones’s ultro-hamming were a saving grace of the
1990s car crash of FMV releases. But are you furious that it’s Under A Killing Moon, and
not The Pandora Directive, or Overseer? Don’t be mad – just write over the text on your
monitor with a biro.

This was the game in the series of noir-ish silliness that pulled me in, not just with its
mystifying technical wizardry, but also a fun, deeply strange tale of norms vs. mutants,
and a doomsday plot from the Brotherhood of Purity.

Notes:

FOUR CD-ROMS! In 1994! That’s the modern equivalent of releasing your game on two
Large Hadron Colliders.

There were two Tex Murphy games previous to UAKM, but their plots were retconned
and the whole series reinvented. For good.
22: Spycraft: The Great Game

Developer: Activision

Publisher: Activision

There is admittedly not a lot of FMV in this list. The format has not aged well, nor indeed
was most of it any good in the first place. But Spycraft was something completely
different, and it’s a proper shame how unknown it remains.

Playing for realism, you are a rookie spy, given materials to uncover a plot to
assassinate the President of the United States (1996-style), engaging with the FBI and
CIA as you do. Oh, and so much intrigue!

It played like you were at your desk, analysing video and audio footage, using all sorts
of tech and contraptions, and coo, it felt so involved. In fact, it still does, as you isolate
particular pieces of background sound and run searches, build photo-IDs, and generally
be an amazing hero spy person.

Notes:

Actual real-life spy people appear in the game, with former CIA director William Colby
and former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin! Also, Charles Napier is in it, so BOOM.
21: Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People

Developer: Telltale Games

Publisher: Telltale Games

Telltale ploughed their way through a lot of crap before they finally hit gold with Strong
Bad. Two awful series of Sam & Max (woefully overrated by a confused press), the
abandoned Bone episodes, and let us never forget their CSI games. But then along
came the Brothers Chap, and suddenly their episodic format made sense.

Using the characters from the now sadly mostly dead Homestar Runner site, the five
episodes were co-written by the Chaps, along with – among others – adventure guru
Mike Stemmle. The result is a collection of truly hilarious adventure games that wholly
capture the peculiar wit of the original Flash cartoons.

For fans of H*R it was a wonderful surprise. For fans of adventures, it was a moment of
relief that Telltale really could do it. Episode 4 is the series highlight, but all are a great
time.

Notes:

There is some hope for H*R. The site has updated twice in the last year, after a four
year hiatus, and there is some possibility of more regular updates.
20: Discworld Noir

Developer: Perfect Entertainment

Publisher: GT Interactive

It’s interesting to note that some people rate the first two Discworld adventure games, in
which you play as Rincewind the wizard, as being good. They’re not! They’re utterly
bloody awful, idiotically hard, and Eric Idle’s voice is like being grated to death.
However, come the third game and a complete change of focus, something rather lovely
happened.

Remembering that a game could be more than a pastiche of the books, Noir is a parody
of hardboiled fiction, with you playing as Lewton – a former member of the City Watch,
now turned PI. In an original story, co-written by Pratchett, you investigate a murder and
get dragged into peculiar underworld of vampires and werewolves.

There are some fantastic jokes in there, as well as lots of lovely spoofs of Lovecraft,
Chandler and others.

Notes:

The voice cast is great. You’ve got Rob Brydon, Robert Llewellyn, Kate Robbins and
Nigel Planer doing a heck of a job.
19: The Walking Dead: Season One

Developer: Telltale Games

Publisher: Telltale Games

Based on the comic books, rather than the enormously popular TV series, Telltale’s
most successful endeavour is without doubt the most brutal adventure gaming
experience created. (Unless you count suffering through Myst, of course.)

An unrelenting tale of misery, loss, failure and impending death, it never lets up on its
characters, least of all poor child Clementine. Over its five episodes, happy endings will
not trouble you. Everything else will.

Telltale’s extremely stripped-down approach to adventure often leaves things feeling

hollow, but it worked in the Walking Dead series. It just left the player feeling hollow
instead. It’s about conversation and decisions, rather than puzzles and inventory items,
and your actions have significant short-term impacts on the story.

How much brutal despair you can take will dictate your connection to the episodes, but
there’s no question The Walking Dead has proven a smart, intriguing reinvention of how
to approach adventures.

Notes:
One of the series’ writers, Gary Whitta, used to edit PC Gamer. There’s a thing. He
rather brilliantly said of The Walking Dead, “All choices are equally wrong.”
18: The Blackwell Series

Developer: Wadjet Eye Games

Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games

Dave Gilbert has long established himself as the king of independent adventure
development. Using the Adventure Game Studio engine, since 2006 he has consistently
produced extremely high-quality games, from his first short, The Shivah, to publishing
some of the most interesting science fiction stories of recent times like Gemini Rue and
Technobabylon. But his reputation is truly earned by The Blackwell series.

Beginning with The Blackwell Legacy, the run of games tells the stories of a spirit guide
called Joey Mallone, and the two women he’s appeared to, Rosangela and Lauren
Blackwell. They’re murder-mysteries, family sagas, poignant commentaries on mental
illness, and ghostly business.

Each episode improves on the last, the stories bursting with character and care, and the
puzzles rather decent too. The arc is complete now, so there’s no better time to play all
the way through.
17: Gabriel Knight: Sins Of The Fathers

Developer: Sierra Online

Publisher: Sierra Online/Activision

In 1993, Sierra set out to show that adventure games could go to darker places. While
the Police Quest series had already created a more serious, less comedic run, Gabriel
Knight would take the genre into a more grim, horror-led area. It has a lot to answer for.

However, the misery of horror adventures that followed can’t be allowed to influence
Gab Knight’s quality. And it has rather a lot. The titular chap gets involved in
investigating a spate of murders involving voodoo, and eventually his own familial role
as a Schattenjäger – a shadow hunter.

Story-heavy, enormously deep, and while humorous, far more severe than adventures
had been up to that point, it paved the way for “serious” adventures. And a lot of
copycat dross.

Notes:

The floppy version of Gab Knight 1 came on eleven discs, which was a real pain in the
arse.

A remake of the game was released by Pinkerton Road last year, with new graphics,
music and improved puzzles.
16: Fahrenheit

Developer: Quantic Dream

Publisher: Atari

Fahrenheit isn’t anywhere near as good as people say it is, but it’s much better than
other people say it is. What it is, is a primer from which all other adventure developers
should take ideas. It’s a giant mess of a game, and it’s a great time. It’s novel, intriguing,
peculiar, and ultimately extremely silly.

That David Cage keeps being heralded as the great cinematic gaming developer is
cause to want to abandon the pursuit altogether. But throwing this nonsense “auteur”
notion aside, Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy if you’re foreign) is a fascinating collection
of ideas thrown against a wall.

But then, add in a score by Angelo Badalamenti, some genuinely good acting, ignore
some really tired racism, and embrace the INTERNET AS A PERSON, and it’s packed
with superb moments. Mad as a fruit tree, but so endlessly inventive, it still offers so
many good ideas for other people to run with.

Notes:

One of the nicest details in the game is its use of multiple camera angles on the same
event, which really needs to be copied more often.

The US release of the game had the sex and boobies removed, to avoid getting a
deathly AO rating. Not a lot was missed.
15: Broken Sword: The Shadow of The Templars

Developer: Revolution Software

Publisher: Virgin Interactive

The Broken Sword series has been running from 1996 to the present day, and while it’s
had some splendid entries (the woefully underrated Broken Sword 3 included), it never
got better than this first entry.

The will-they-won’t-they leads of American tourist George Stobbart and French press
photographer Nicole Collard had an immediately brilliant chemistry, as they attempted
to solve a conspiratorial mystery that takes them from a terrorist café bombing in Paris
to a Baphomet-based Templar-related underworld.

Despite the nationalities of its main characters, it has a distinctly British tone and sense
of humour, thanks to its creators Charles Cecil, Steve Ince and co. Packed with an
obvious love for history, and always wearing a wry grin, it remains splendid fun to play
today.

Notes:

The Goat Puzzle, that is so often used as a reference point for bad puzzles, appears in
this game. It’s still rubbish, but much improved in the current version of the game.

Disclaimer: In 2009 I, rather oddly, wrote a whole bunch of content for the Director’s Cut
of BS1. Please apply this information to your Corrupt-o-Meter.
14: To the Moon

Developer: Freebird Games

Publisher: Freebird Games

But isn’t it an RPG? No. It’s an adventure. So shush. To The Moon is the completely
compelling and ludicrously moving ADVENTURE game about changing the memories
of an elderly, dying man.

You’re dying, and you never quite lived your dreams. What if someone could jump into
your memories and change things such that you remembered achieving all your
ambitions, finding happiness? That’s the ethically dubious position Dr Eva and Dr Neil
find themselves in, as they set out to change the elderly Johnny Wyles recollection until
he achieved his goal of going to the moon.

The result is a game that asks difficult questions about morality, love and death. Also,
you will cry exactly three times.

Notes:

A sequel should appear one day. The rather disappointing A Bird Story appeared as a
stopgap between the two games, but the two minisodes released so far tease a much
more interesting game to come.
13: Machinarium

Developer: Amanita Design

Publisher: Amanita Design

Amanita have never released a game that isn’t worth playing, including their Samorost
games (part 3 could well be, when it comes out, the game to tip Machinarium from their
top spot), and the gorgeous Botanicular. But it’s Machinarium that stands out as the
strongest adventure game in their collection.

The heart-breakingly sweet tale of a small robot called Josef focuses on his efforts to
save his city’s tower from some bad mean robots. BAD MEAN ROBOTS! This involves
a combination of point-and-click and slightly more traditional puzzly puzzles, but most of
all staring and gawping at how unrelentlessly pretty it all is. And indeed ear-gawping too
at its soundtrack.

It’s a bit like being cuddled by a game.

Notes:

Microsoft are such big stinky fatheads that they didn’t allow Machinarium to publish on
Xbox. Who even remembers who Microsoft are, now?
12: Full Throttle

Developer: LucasArts

Publisher: LucasArts

This Schafer-led LucasArts adventure was woefully overlooked for so long. In fact, it
was pretty woefully overlooked at the time of its release, rather unhelpfully convincing
LucasArts that the time for 2D adventures was over.

What a mistake by everyone. Full Throttle remains just the most superb game, a
combination of wonderful cartoon graphics and a story about a motorcycle gang of the
future. It’s a game about nostalgia, aging, and murderous tycoons, and the only time in
a LucasArts SCUMM adventure where you could die.

The relationship between biker Ben and mechanic Maureen is beautifully subtle, and
the Ride of The Valkyries meets Duracell Bunnies on a minefield remains the best fail
sequence in a game ever. A touching, albeit short, point and click adventure that is too
easily forgotten when celebrating LucasArts’ masterworks.

Notes:

The voice of Ben, Roy Conrad, very sadly died in 2002. LucasArts described him as
“one of the sweetest guys you’ll ever meet.”

Mark Hammill voices baddy Adrian Ripburger. He, incredibly, is still alive.
11: Kentucky Route Zero

Developer: Cardboard Computer

Publisher: Cardboard Computer

So often, when there are attempts to further minimise interaction in point-and-click

adventures, it can lead to frustrating, distancing experiences. Not so at all in the
astonishing Kentucky Route Zero series of episodes.

The dream-like surrealism, the bewilderingly wonderful minimalist graphics, and the
precision in the writing create an atmosphere like little else. What is, technically, the
story of a trucker attempting to deliver something to an address on Kentucky Route 0,
becomes something that can only be harmed by describing in text.

Three of its five acts have been released so far, and while we’re desperately hungry to
play the rest, there’s also a strong sense of not wanting to hurry Cardboard Computer
as they complete their project. But even at 3/5ths, it’s already one of the best adventure
games ever made.

Notes:

It’s oft forgotten that this game began life with a Kickstarter, asking for just $6,500, and
making a mere $8,583. That’s an awful lot of game for not much money.

They’ve recently added gamepad support to the first three chapters, for those who want
to sit farther away from the screen.
10: The Dig

Developer: LucasArts

Publisher: LucasArts

The Dig is a game that’s so much easier to enjoy today than on its release twenty years
ago in 1995. Back then it was mired in stories of the enormous expense of its
development, the sort-of involvement of Stephen Spielberg, and ludicrous expectation.
Approached now, it’s the beautiful science fiction adventure it always was, enjoyable
without the noise.

Indeed, it was based on an idea by Spielberg, but this was truly the work of Sean Clark,
co-developer of Sam & Max. An asteroid is heading towards the Earth, and a five-
person team is sent to land on it, plant charges, and skedaddle. Except, wouldn’t you
know it, there’s more afoot.

It’s a well-paced game, calm, not afraid of silences. Its use of Michael Land’s score is
sublime, and Robert Patrick’s voice work is some of the best ever. Gosh, this is a
fantastic game.

Notes:

Indeed, The Dig did begin life as an idea for Spielberg’s Amazing Stories series, but at
one point it was also going to be a movie. Considered too expensive to film, it eventually
became game.
9: Ben There, Dan That! /Time Gentlemen, Please!

Developer: Zombie Cow Studios/Size Five Games

Publisher: Zombie Cow Studios/Size Five Games

It seems silly to separate Dan Marshall and Ben Ward’s two adventures, since they play
so fluidly one after the other. Both games centre around our eponymous heroes’ desire
to watch a Magnum PI marathon on television, but not having a working aerial. The first
sees them muddled up in an apparent alien invasion, the other meddling with time such
that Hitler rules the world with an army of robot dinosaurs.

Where too many indie adventures feel the need to reference the 90s classics, Size
Five’s duo rarely feel the need not to. The games are a love letter to the genre, while
simultaneously becoming one of the best entries it’s seen. A rare thing indeed.

Everything is self-referential, including how self-referential it is, and it’s fantastically silly
and rude. But it’s also, and this is the key, incredibly good. It understands inventory
puzzles in a way that’s so horribly rare since the new millennium and allows its own
perception of logic to become yours – something very difficult to pull off.

Also, so many poo jokes.

Notes:

The excellently named Zombie Cow Studios changed its name to the utterly boring Size
Five Games because lone-developer Dan Marshall is a twit.
8: Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and The Time Rippers

Developer: Sierra

Publisher: Sierra

There was a time when Sierra had the edge on LucasArts when it came to adventure
games. That time did not last, as you can see with a whopping six out of the top 10
being LA adventures. But in that time, when they were firing out Police Quests, Leisure
Suit Larrys and King’s Quests, they seemed on top of the gaming world. Wow, those
games haven’t aged well.

But Space Quest IV has. In a series of games that was certainly more miss than hit, it
stands out as a surprisingly hilarious project, and a game that actually lives up to the
myth of 90s adventures being “packed with jokes for every detail on the screen.” Most
certainly weren’t – Space Quest IV was.

Each game featured space janitor Roger Wilco trying to recover from his latest set-back,
and this time it was being chased through time by the baddy from Space Quest XII:
Vohaul’s Revenge. See! Just that joke – that joke is fucking brilliant. It gets better as
you go back from the luxurious SVGA graphics of this 1991 release, to the CGA mess
with which Space Quest 1 was drawn. (Wilco is mocked for his 256 colours.) And every
damned thing on screen had a joke, or more likely, four different jokes for each cursor
option, most of them dryly delivered by the mellifluous narration of Gary Owens.

Notes:

By the time SQ4 was being made, developers Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe were
barely speaking, and they both detested their bosses at Sierra. So much of that
bitterness comes through in the game, making it all the more splendid.
7: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge

Developer: LucasArts

Publisher: LucasArts

A lot of hyperbole circles around the Monkey Island games. They are, without question,
the most well-known adventure games of the 90s. I think as a consequence of that,
they’re often confused for being the best. They’re not. Especially the first, which is
actually a rather short, dull game. The sequel celebrated here is marvellous, often very
funny, and actually contains all the jokes and set-pieces people muddle up and think are
in the first. The second half is a lot weaker than the first, but it’s definitely the 7th best
adventure of all time.

The combined wits of Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman made for a really
silly, really entertaining pirate adventure, as poor inept Guybrush Threepwood sets out
to discover the treasure of Big Whoop. There is also spitting.

The more recent refresh the game received added voice actors, which gives the old
game new life, especially when played with the superb original graphics.

Notes:

It’s often thought that Pirates of The Caribbean nicked ideas from Monkey Island, but
it’s the other way around. The game was inspired by the theme park ride that later
inspired the movie.
6: Toonstruck

Developer: Burst Studios

Publisher: Virgin Interactive

No, other voice in my head – Toonstruck is in fact a really bloody great game, and
everyone keeps forgetting just how great. Starring a live-action Christopher Lloyd as
cartoonist Drew Blanc, and his animated cartoon buddy Flux Wildly voiced by Dan
“Homer Simpson” Castellaneta, it’s a cartoon-reality crossover adventure.

Cutopia is being turned horrid by the evil Count Nefarious, gloriously voiced by the
unimprovable Tim Curry. Wow, just look at the talent I’m listing here. Add in Ben Stein
before he became an intolerable blowhard, and The Simpsons and Futurama’s Tress
MacNeille as Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun.

It’s sharp, laugh-out-loud funny, the puzzles are great, the animation is out-of-this-world.
The whole game feels like a tribute to the classic animations of the 1930s and 40s, but
with the twists of John Kricfalusi. Far too few people played it at the time, and far too
few remember its greatness today.

Notes:

There was meant to be a sequel. In fact, huge chunks of a sequel exist, as the original
game was split in half. Despite reaching a suitable conclusion, there’s a whole second
half that’s never been released. There is always speculation that it will see daylight, but
it never seems to happen.
5: Grim Fandango

Developer: LucasArts/Double Fine

Publisher: LucasArts/Double Fine

Tim Schafer’s great labour of love, the early proof that adventure games could be more
than either horror or comedy, and a complete clusterfuck of an engine.

As LucasArts was beginning to wind down its adventure development, and making mad
demands that everything be in 3D, what could have been the best 2D point and click the
world had seen was ludicrously hampered by an engine that simply didn’t work.
Everyone struggled through anyway, because wow, it was an amazing story – the lovely
reaper Manny and his attempts to uncover a conspiracy in the world of the dead – but
dammit, you couldn’t walk through doors.

And yet, readers in throngs will be furious that this isn’t #1 – testament to how wonderful
a story it tells, and the charm with which it tells it.

Notes:
The engine behind Grim was based on (so appropriately) Sith, created for running the
Jedi Knight games. Oddly not ideal for adventuring.
4: Indiana Jones: The Fate of Atlantis

Developer: LucasArts

Publisher: LucasArts

Fate of Atlantis is an Indiana Jones story so good that there were perpetual rumours of
it forming the plot for a fourth Indy movie from the moment the game came out. Sadly, it
proved far too good to have ever been adopted. Indy is, of course, racing the Nazis to
find the lost city of Atlantis before they get their evilly gloved hands on it.

During the game you play as both Indy and Sophia Hapgood – a surrogate Marion
Ravenwood – in one of the most smartly constructed and superbly written adventures.
And of course, there are three different ways to play! Wits, Team, or Combat, letting you
choose if you want puzzle heavy play, a one-player co-op experience (pick this!), or
adding in fisticuffs where brains might otherwise work.

It even changes the solution to some puzzles each time you play. It really is quite the
most remarkable game, and it’s also extremely funny.

Notes:

Fate of Atlantis was made at the same time as LucasArts was developing The Secret of
Monkey Island and The Dig. Flipping heck.
3: Sam & Max: Hit the Road

Developer: LucasArts

Publisher: LucasArts

From the combined minds of Mike Stemmle, Sean Clarke, Collette Michaud, and Sam &
Max creator Steve Purcell, Hit the Road saw LucasArts make the biggest technical step
forward in LA’s games: full screen, the verbs finally hidden behind mouse cursors.
(Sierra had managed this in 1991.) It also saw them create something that rivalled its
television contemporaries like Ren & Stimpy by offering a hilarious, slapstick cartoon,
that you controlled.

Each location is so wonderfully drawn and colored, and packed with daft details. There’s
immeasurable pleasure to be found in deliberately trying incorrect inventory items on
things, especially when that item is Max. And all the characters are superbly realized
and very silly.

Notes:

Sam & Max began as characters designed for testing animation software within
LucasArts, then as a strip comic in the company’s quarterly newsletter.

There was intended to be an Xbox exclusive sequel from former LA devs called Sam &
Max Plunge Through Space, but they were divinely punished for their console hubris
and went bust before it was finished.
2: The Longest Journey

Developer: Funcom

Publisher: Empire Interactive

April Ryan, an 18-year-old who can shift between the mundane world of future Earth,
and the magical fantasy realms of Arcadia, sets out to restore the Balance in the
universe. And does so in an utterly enormous and phenomenally verbose adventure
game.

There’s no question that the puzzles in TLJ are often, well, not so great. The
policeman’s glass eyeball, anyone? Which is perhaps an even greater indication of how
strong the writing and world are, that it rises above this to be one of the best adventure
games ever made.

Its twin worlds are limited to sections of cities, and yet you walk away with a sense of
understanding two entire civilisations. It’s packed with so many memorable characters,
from your fabulous landlady Fiona to the sarcastic and adorable crow, Crow, via the
mysterious Cortez, the extraordinarily foul-mouthed Burns Flipper, and moustache-
twirling alchemist, Roper Klacks. And that soundtrack!

These are the best RPGs to play on PC right now, as chosen by our team of experts.

While it earned notoriety for the prolific swearing and the appearance of a blue winky, it
gained a massive following and two sequels because of its massive heart. TLJ was a
game that changed my life when I first played it, and I’m not alone. It’s thoughts on
imagination, magic, modernity, and faith are deep and challenging, all while being a
nonchalantly progressive game in the late 90s.

Oh, and there’s so much bloody talking.

Notes:

Quick declaration of interests: I’ve worked with creator Ragnar Tørnquist on some stuff.
But my mind was made up about TLJ years and years before.

Ragnar Tørnquist just really wants to be Joss Whedon and kisses a poster of him on the
lips every night before he goes to bed.
1: Day of The Tentacle

Developer: LucasArts

Publisher: LucasArts

There isn’t any doubt. It’s nice and easy: if you disagree that Day Of The Tentacle is the
best adventure game of all time, you’re wrong.

The sort-of sequel to Maniac Mansion has you play as three characters, rock band
roadie Hoagie 200 years in the past, slightly deranged Laverne 200 years in the future,
and ultra-nerd Bernard in the present day. Switching between each, you must help to
prevent a race of tentacle beings from taking over the world.

DOTT was the winning assault in the war between Sierra and LucasArts/LucasFilm. It
confirmed that where Sierra was shackled by its 1980s past, Lucas were ploughing
forward into what adventures would become – and indeed still are. Yes, it still had a
verb interface, a step behind Sam & Max’s magic cursor, but it now, 22 years later,
demonstrates how it could still be a workable system.

It’s not just that DOTT is incredibly funny – it’s also incredibly smart. Accompanying the
crazy-gorgeous art, some stellar voice work (woe to those who hadn’t upgraded to a
CD-ROM drive at the time of release, and were stuck with the voiceless floppy version),
were puzzles that still shame every modern adventure. I can prove that in one example:
interfering with the design of the American flag in the past in order to create a tentacle
costume in the future. Okay, another one: shrinking a jumper small enough to defrost a
frozen hamster by putting it in the tumble dryer for 400 years.

It’s sharp, witty, clever, and enormously satisfying. DOTT remains the textbook which all
adventure game designers should study before they even consider conceiving a puzzle.
On top of that, the care over the characters from an on-form Tim Schafer gives things
an emotional depth that should surely have been impossible in such a silly caper.

That at 22 years old it’s still unbeatable is not a slight on adventure gaming – the last
two decades have been packed with so many great point-n-clickers. It’s just that this
one is so damned perfect.

Some will decry that this beats Sam & Max. I’ll tell you why. While S&M may have felt
more slick, more flowing, it undeniably had weaker puzzles, and relied far more on
cutscenes to deliver its humour. DOTT may not have had an excellent song, but its high
points measure higher on the graph of goodosity, and that’s why it’s unquestionably no.
1.

Get it and play it again. Or heck, for goodness’ sake, for the first time. It’s one of the
best games ever made.

Notes:

The game was originally released in a rectangular prism-shaped box, to the horror of all
gaming shops. Younger readers: yes, games were released in boxes! And sold in
shops!

Double Fine are, of course, working on a remake of DOTT. Hmmmm, I

say. Hmmmmmmmmmm.