Suggest Sierra games that are good to start with

I have to add 3 Microprose adventures: Dragonspehere, Rex Nebular and Return of the Phantom.
They were very memorable to me with full voiceovers.

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Thanks dude!

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Thanks man

Iā€™m playing ā€œEco Quest 2: Lost Secret of the Rainforestā€ and itā€™s Monkey Island quality. Wow. You canā€™t die, there are no deadends, and puzzles and art are amazing. Itā€™s not easy as I thought. In fact itā€™s harder than TWP.

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I havenā€™t played it yet, but I thought the Eco Quest games were made for kidsā€¦? :thinking: So this surprises me too.

I thought so too :frowning:

Apparently the ā€œbeing for kidsā€ is only about deaths and dead ends, the age of the protagonist, and some edutainment. They still had to make money via the hint line :slight_smile:

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It should be great, Iā€™m going to try it right now.

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This is maybe not what you have asked for but in case you like Myst-style adventure games then I can recommend Lighthouse: The Dark Being from 1996 (GOG).

There arenā€™t really dead ends (I can think of one way but even there you get something like five tries).
Sometimes you get into situations where you think you may have messed up, but there are always ways to recover.

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Yeah, I heard about it, but I didnā€™t have time to play at that time, thank you

I dinā€™t play Myst until recently. I tried the original version, but I didnā€™t like the controls, which remind me on those RPGā€™s of the 90ā€™s, which I didnā€™t like either. Then I got the 2021 remake, and I liked it.

If you like first person adventures with abandoned places, you also might like

You can die a lot in that game, but there are no unwinnable situations, afaIk. Quicksaves and 2 autosave slots are there to prevent frustration.
It has an unusual realistic inventory system, as you can only pick up a limited amount of batteries and many items canā€™t even be pocketed. That leads to multiple walks sometimes when you need to bring multiple items somewhere, but nothing excessive.
If you donā€™t care for achievements, it can be played without Steam as well.
And it goes to deep discount every few weeks.

And another first person adventure with Myst vibes, I also liked:

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Ah yes, Lighthouse! I remember not being able to get very far in that one. Slightly further than Space Quest IV, where I never managed to go anywhere before being zapped by some space policeā€¦ pigs? (And this was in pre-internet days, so if you got stuck, that was it)
To this day, I havenā€™t revisited either of those games. I have higher hopes for the Space Quest series now I am older, can read English better and have the whole series so I can start with the first game.
But somehow Sierra games never quite clicked with me.

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I prefer 2D adventures, but wow, this is so cool, Iā€™ll definitely give it a try

Iā€™ve been playing some Sierra point&clicks (not the parser ones), and it seems most ā€œunfairā€ puzzles fall into few categories. So if you take a habit of regularly checking these things, most of the games become enjoyable.

  1. I got stuck because I missed an exit. => Observe the locations carefully. Understanding what are the exits is a puzzle in itself. (Eco quest 2, Space quest V, Larry 1 remake)

  2. I got stuck because missed an hotspot (pixel hunting). Use the eye on everything, even parts of an object that looks as a whole. (Eco quest 2, eco quest 1, space quest V)

  3. I got stuck because I didnā€™t realize I could walk over a precise object (space quest V).

  4. you need to use some inventory object on yourself, WHILE in a precise location. (Larry 1 remake, Space Quest V). Donā€™t forget to try this.

  5. you should have done something first and canā€™t go back. Save game every 10 minutes (Robin hood: it happens but you never need to go back more than 5-10 minutes).

  6. you need to go to a location adjacent to the one that makes sense, and something happens (Robin Hood)

  7. you need to go to a location and wait 15 seconds, and something happens (Robin Hood)

Note: KQIV seems to defy even this, it is hopelessly broken.

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Iā€™d rephrase that as ā€œitā€™s because you have to do these tedious things constantly, that most of the games arenā€™t that enjoyable.ā€ Ymmv, de gustibus, etc.

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If you take a habit of regularly checking these things, most of the games become work.

Donā€™t get me wrong: I love games where there is a lot of ā€œworkā€ involved (e.g. chess) but thatā€™s not what I search for in an adventure game.

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@LowLevel @Frenzie

I understand but I realize I have been misleading. I shouldnā€™t have said ā€œif you take a habit of doing these things regularlyā€, but ā€œif you remember these things can be doneā€. You donā€™t need to do them regularly, you only need to remember they can be done when you are stuck.

In other words: all these things (well, almost all of them) are things that make sense, that you should think of doing, that you should try to do regardless, but you tend to assume they canā€™t be done, because you forget the quirks of the interface.

Number 5 is the only really objectionable one. Missing the others can also be frustrating for sure, but number 5 is really sadistic, actually. And donā€™t count on it that a savegame 10 minutes ago would save you. In their early games, there are instances where you could play an unwinnable state without knowing it for hours.

Well, since you only played their later point & click titles, those are really tame in comparison to the text parser titles.

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Oh yeah, this can happen in other adventure games too a lot. Like having a clock object and separate hot spots for buttons on that clock.

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