PnC adventure games focused on "historical investigation"

Adventure/Lucasfilm Games
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I have realized that I have enjoyed quite a lot several PnC adventure games that were focused on historical investigations, meaning the attempt to solve a mystery that is somehow linked to archaeology or history or ancient civilizations, based on either real events or fictional events.

Usually this kind of games requires the player to travel to different cities or even continents and this characteristic provides a lot of variety in terms of locations and mood.

Can you suggest good titles with these characteristics?

These are the adventure games or series of this kind that I already know:

  • Indiana Jones
  • Broken Sword
  • Lost Horizon
  • Secret Files
  • Zak McKracken
2

Maybe you could include also Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
I never played that game which intrigued me some times ago, and I read that there is very well written story with many reference to historical background. Maybe someone who played it can confirm that.

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that’s true

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I played Gabriel Knight : Sins Of The Fathers back in the day and the game is centred around New Orleans, which (as a Brit) I finally got to visit earlier this year. I was able to go to plenty of the game’s real-life locations : Jackson Square, the cathedral, Tulane University, the voodoo shops …

The locations are, of course, still present in the 20th anniversary edition of the game.

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Gabriel Knight 2 is an historical investigation about some Wagner’s secret opera. you visit some very suggestive locations such as neuschwanstein castle. You’ll have to investigate in particular on the past of the shady figure of king Ludwig ii. It is one of those story centric adventure games, the puzzles are not where it shines, but they are not bad.

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Perhaps not the same PnC style that you are used to, but how about The Journeyman Project? Also, and perhaps more specifically, The Journeyman Project 2: Buried In Time.

dZ.

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Spelled correctly, good. :blush:

You have played more adventure games than I did, I can only confirm what you have written.
I can’t think of other adventure games where you can explore a lot of cities or countries.

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Hm… Undercover: Operation Wintersun?

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The Last Express is also based on historical events and myths. However, since the entire game takes place on a train, it is quite different to your examples.

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There is Jack Keane, but I remember not liking it very much.

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Thanks! In the first draft of that list I included “Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers” but at a second thought I removed it because I played the game and it’s mainly about the family history of the protagonist more than on generic history. But the gameplay is for sure similar to this kind of investigations.

I agree with that. Even if the story has a lot of elements that I usually don’t care much about (magic and esotericism explored in a serious way) it’s well written nonetheless.

I didn’t know that, thanks! I assumed that the sequel was again centered exclusively on the family history of Gabriel, but if the story contains also elements of generic history I think that I’ve just got a good reason to put it in my wishlist.

Thanks, I didn’t know these games at all. Do you think that it would be possible to play directly the second chapter without playing the first and still getting the story? Or the references to the first game would be too many to understand what’s going on?

Thanks, its story seems to fit the description quite well!

Thanks, I didn’t know that the game was based on historical events. The reason is that I abandoned the game after a few minutes, when I realized that its gameplay was similar to “Cruise for a Corpse” (events keep happening and if you are not where they happen in the precise moment when they happen, you just lost them forever).

Thanks, I got the second chapter “Jack Keane 2 - The Fire Within” in a sale because the reviews weren’t very good. I’ll try it sooner or later.

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You can play the second chapter on its own. It’s a completely different type of game from the first one, so it stands on its own.

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That is when you are supposed to rewind the time. You’ll get a lot of hints what’s going on, so you are prepared on your next try. This is a game mechanic very unique to this game indeed.
The strongest thing about that game is its atmosphere, imho. Every passenger speaks in its own native language, and only the languages your character understands have English subtitles. Unfortunately, this aspect gets lost completely if you’re playing a localized version of the game.

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to be precise that problem is not in Cruise for a Corpse, but on Colonel’s bequest. In Cruise, you can get stuck but you can’t miss events. (unless I missed that I missed them!)