Hello everyone! As you can imagine from the thread title, I have a deep love for this kind of adventure games. I do enjoy third-person adventure games almost as much, but for some reason I tend to prefer the first-person ones. (Ironically, I can't stand first-person action/shooter games as I get motion-sick rather easily).

So, what is this thread about? It is meant to be an appreciation thread for 1st person point 'n click adventure games, which may also hopefully serve as a list of such games that still haven't made it to GOG. (On the other hand, it may just be buried in the forums forever rather quickly)

As a starting point, I would like to mention Shivers, which is one of my favorite 1st person adventure games of all time. I still haven't found a similar game that beats this atmosphere! I won't go into details here, but you can read my review on the game page. I remember the day it was released here, I was so ecstatic! Some forum members also told me how they were waiting for my reaction since I was constantly asking for it in various threads :)
Also, let's not forget about the sequel which we need here GOG (Shivers II)

Okay, now the next one. This thread could not be started by me if I did not mention RHEM. The main story is that someone calls you to RHEM, a strange puzzling place, in order to help him retrieve an artifact (to be honest, that's about all the story in the series). Currently, there are 4 games in the series, each one being a masterpiece. These games were created by a single guy who probably is a genius. They are very hard, full of challenging puzzles, complex worlds & will make your brain melt. If you think Myst requires observation, try RHEM. It may be presented as a Myst-clone, but I prefer it over Myst anytime (there, I said it).
Each game took me a good 20-25 hours to finish and I did not regret a single moment I spent in the RHEM world. Puzzles can be really, really hard but I never felt annoyed. Why? Beacuse this series gets my award for Best Game Design ever. When you cannot figure out a puzzle, you intuitively know that either it is too early to solve it or you have overlooked a clue in the environment. And when you solve the puzzles you feel proud of your cerebral activity.
GOG, please get these games here (RHEM). (Fun fact: years ago I stumbled upon physical editions of these on amazon and bought them rather cheap without prior knowledge of the games. One of my most valuable purchases ever, and DRM-free too)

In order to keep this post from getting enormous I will just mention another less-known game, Corrosion - Cold Winter Waiting. This is another great game, with good atmosphere build-up and story progression. You assume the role of a small-town sheriff whose connection to an unresolved accident leads him to investigate an abandoned farm in order to get the answers he needs.
The building where the game takes place consists of lots of rooms & corridors, most of which are not accessible until you trigger an event by solving a puzzle. The puzzles in this one are mostly inventory-based and on an average difficulty (with the exception of 1 puzzle which didn't make sense to me about the way it can be solved). A great game overall, took me about 8 hours to finish, with the story progression being good and keeping me interested up to the very end.
As always, GOG please do your best (Corrosion). I had bought this game 2-3 years ago directly from its website and it came with a DRM-free installer through a Humble Widget (the game appears in my Humble library, although it is not for sale in the store). As I see now, there is a purchase widget for itch.io which is probably DRM-free too.

So, fellow adventurers, please post about similar games you love, as well as games you wish could get here to GOG. Feel free to share any experiences, links, fun facts. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

edit: fixed a link
edit: typo

Did someone say point and click adventures! I love them.

There are a couple of adventure games that I have voted for GOG to add to their store. The two I have played recently and really liked were The Room and The Painscreek Killings.

The Room is a series of puzzles that I felt were done very well. I can`t wait to play the others in the series.

The Painscreek Killings is a game where you explore homes and various buildings in an abandoned village to try to discover who committed the killings. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the DLC.

Thanks for creating this tread and I look forward to hearing other peoples suggestions.

Hey, glad you share the feeling ;) Very nice suggestions there! Here are wishlist entries for both:

The Room

The Painscreek Killings

Come on GOG, lots of great games still to get here!

Come on, let's talk g.o.g.

There was a time where computer interfaces were all about typing commands in a row, and a couple of computers invented a new sort of interface with visual drawers and visual files that you could slide around thanks to a strange device attached to your machine and built around a ball rolling on your desk. Crazy times.

And some people went "hey, how about using this interface in an adventure game, where you could directly slide an item into a pocket and stuff".

And it was awesome, and it was called "Deja Vu" and also "Uninvited" and also "Shadowgate" and users of Mac or Amiga were perfectly at ease with it because it was just as intuitive as their OS and omg omg why didn't anyone think of it before.

Yeah, I loved "Deja Vu". And "Uninvited". And "Shadowgate".

I never played "Explora", but I was hearing that it was just as revolutionary. Gorgeous, and mouse-driven. But it required a full 1 Mb of RAM. Who can afford that ?

So my references stayed those Amigaventure games. And stuff like "Borrowed Time" or "Mindshadow" (yeah, you could type in your actions, but also click on the image and on the list of words), and of course (of course) the "Mortevielle Manor".

Always hated Myst, though. I associated it to Macintosh snobbery somehow, their hypocritical pride of not being able to run games and then their enthousiasm for the few games they could run - and which often tried hard to look as workplacey as possible. Dunno. Always got an unpleasant feel from that world. And attached Myst to it.

Nowadays, I hardly know what is a point and click 1st person adventure anymore, with the likes of "Penumbra" and "Firewatch". Often merged with action, roleplaying, or walking simulators. And I don't mean it in a negative sense : I always loved mixed genres. There's a couple of pure ones that I enjoyed a lot ("Scratches", "Ether One", etc), a few that I detested ("The Park", "Montague's Mount"). But I'm not sure where the boundaries are, between p&c and 3D exploration/action. I'd rate the "Penumbra" series at the top, I think, if they qualify. But they are light on point-and-click puzzling, and, compared to 2D or 3rd person games, that's how 3D 1st person adventure games tend to be.

I am 100% with you on the whole Macintosh snobbery stuff.
About the mixed games, I get what you're saying. Hey, it's even harder to describe a game today with all kinds of hybrids coming out. That's why I created this thread, to share our experiences, appreciation & news on pure 1st person point 'n click adventure games. Thanks for the nice post & feel free to propose any games you'd like to see here!

Never was a huge fan of first person adventures, but I always appreciated Deja Vu, and have a new-found love for Tex Murphy after playing Tesla Effect (will eventually purchase the rest of them!). I also played Maize, which, although not a "stellar" game, it's pretty interesting and funny for me to appreciate.

Will be keeping an eye out for more titles mentioned in this thread! Evharisto pou ksekinises afto to thema!

I tried the first RHEM that I got off Amazon, and didn't like it, the reason being that I got lost. While I have gotten into first person dungeon crawlers recently, and I love making maps for those on graph paper, for all the games in the Myst series, I didn't need to do that. I could walk through the world once and remember where everything was. Even in the King's Quest games, I found I didn't need to make maps. I could remember where a clue was and make my way back there no problem, but with RHEM, I got to a bit, wanted to go back to look at another bit, and it took me 30 minutes to find my way back because I hadn't made a map, because I didn't think I needed to. I did try to find my way back to the start so I could do that, but after trying for an hour, decided to uninstall the game and maybe try again later.

I've still got it, and I think it came as a trilogy, so I could possibly try it again, with the knowledge that I'll need to write down how to get to places, as well as puzzle clues. I haven't decided yet, and I'm kind of gettiing into RPGs now, so it may be a while before I do.

One game I've got on GOG, but have yet to play is Timelapse, and I also haven't played Uru yet either. I actually still haven't managed to complete Riven yet (I refuse to look at a walkthrough), but it is still my favourite game in the series. As for Myst, the only version of the game I can play is the original Masterpiece one. It just doesn't feel right to me playing the realMyst games. If they'd just fix a couple of bugs/errors in it, it would probably be joined with RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 as one of my 'perfect' games.

P.S. Wtf with links?

Do yourself a favor & play them! It's a great series. Just be a little patient at the beginning as you have to get used to the play style (switch between free-roaming & exploration views). After you get that you will be having a great time. :D Parakalo!

*clicks madly over the thread looking for that sweet sweet hot spot






i adore them. they also age well, on par with my aging and loss of physicality, I still can play them easily. the genre is my go to game when i cant be arsed with learning combos, keystrokes and clutered UI mechanics of most other genres. I love the more atmospheric ones, not necessarily the scary ones which seem to be all that is released nowadays. If they have a great soundscape and decent story im in for the count. If they are gimmicky, overly emo for emos sake, weird or clunky UI mechanics im going to quit

I agree, when first playing RHEM it is very easy to get lost as it is enormous & labyrinth-like. I was very patient at start & eventually managed to create a sense of direction in the world. Actually, being able to understand how to navigate in the various areas is crucial as lots of puzzles rely on your understanding of the environment structure. If you have the time, give it a go again with this in mind.
Timelapse is a great game. I loved how the different areas were structured based on different themes and the puzzles followed that logic (note: some puzzles are very hard - but like you said, I insist on not using a walkthrough unless I am pretty desperate).

Glad to see Rhem getting a mention. While not as visually engaging as the Myst games they do feature some amazing puzzle design.

Thanks for participating! Nice to see people share that "sweet sweet hot spot" as mintee said. Please, feel free to post your own recommendations and wishes anytime. I will keep posting here often about similar games and I am looking forward to everyone's comments.

Atlantis is good to run through with a guide if you can pick it up on sale.

The Cube Escape series is pretty great, and they're all free to play. Their premium games are also worth a play.