Video Game Flashback: Point-And-Click Adventures

Games have evolved to unprecedented heights in the last 20 years. We've gone from simple uses of lines and block to the use of digital modeling and texturing to create the characters and environments in today's games. But we should never forget the games of the past that helped bring today's games to their current splendor. And one of those types of games is what today's Video Game Flashback is about - the point-and-click adventure games.

Point-and-click games are PC games that utilize the mouse to point at certain objects on the screen and in genres like adventure games, they are used to further the story of the game. For example, as a character enters a room, the player then searches the room clicking on objects that could be an item needed to get past a current puzzle or saved to be used later on. It's hard to describe this type of gamestyle, but if you've ever played a Sam & Max title, you'll know exactly what I mean. And so, I dive into some of the point-and-click titles that I played back in my infantile stages of PC gaming.

DAY OF THE TENTACLE (LucasArts)
DoTT, is a sequel/spin-off of the Maniac Mansion franchise and is a game that, to this day, has me remembering the small jokes to the largest puzzles. The story revolves around three characters, Bernard Bernoulli (from the original MM) and his two friends, Hoagie and Laverne. The trio use a makeshift Port-a-Potty turned time-machine to stop Purple Tentacle, a creation bent on global domination. The trio are separated after the time-machine malfunctions and Hoagie is sent 200 years into the past, Laverne sent 200 years into the future and Bernard left in the present.

The game has you working with all three characters to help each other overcome puzzles in their time period. For example, Laverne needs a small animal in the future and Bernard, in the present, has to grab a hamster and place the unlucky rodent in a nearby freezer for Laverne. Switch back to Laverne, look in her nearby futuristic freezer and, presto, ham-sicle equipped with futuristic puzzle-solving action. The game uses puzzles like these to keep you on your toes and, trust me when I say this, when you finally catch a break and use an item right, you feel practically untouchable. A great game, with a great story and full of humor that makes the experience that much more fun.

THE DIG (LucasArts)
The Dig is a more serious type of point-and-click game. I say this because the story is darker and involves things like characters dying, being revived and also succumbing to madness. The story revolves around a group of astronauts sent to destroy an asteroid headed for Earth. The player taking the role of Commander Boston Low alongside two other primary characters, Dr. Ludger Brink and Maggie Robbins, find themselves an alien spacecraft that transports the crew to a distant planet.

Here is where the main story of the game begins, the player must learn to use the alien technology to eventually find a way to return to their ship. While on the planet, the player has to overcome puzzles that, like DoTT, move the story forward after each solved problem. In my opinion, Dig is one of the most original games I have ever played. For example, in the game you will eventually find a set of egg-like capsule that hold a goo that revives the dead. Well, while walking around the planet, you eventually run into the skeletal remains of an alien turtle (pictured). Where the puzzle starts is that you must rearrange the remains to their proper placement before reviving the turtle with your "miracle goo." Do it wrong and your turtle dies a horrible disfigured death, get it right and you get to move forward with the "help" of your new buddy. It was a mind-melting puzzle my first time around, but I'd play it again if I got the chance.

I could write all day about point-and-click adventure. There were hits like King's Quest, Space Quest, Sam & Max and, a personal favorite, Full Throttle. All these games used a perfect fusion of puzzle-based adventures and it is a helluva genre. Unfortunately, even though episodes of Sam & Max get released occasionally, the genre has kind of lost it's ground and that sucks. So next time you have a drink, make sure to honor a toast to the oldies that couldn't stand the test of time, but still rocked.

- R

Image: www.ancientabandonware.co.uk/screenshots/Day%20of%20the%20Tentacle/day_of_the_tentacle_5.jpg
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/824/dig15pe.jpg
http://www.the-spoiler.com/ADVENTURE/Lucas.Arts/dig.turtle.gif