You guys just overthink adventure games 
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The inter-character reactions (before talk enabled) where actually anti-collaboration. If you gave an item to a person this person needed to solve a puzzle (or any item) the answer was dismissive frn Ray and Ransome wasnt it.
Just to digress : I would prefer a game where you do not have character animations at all, completely static, but where you can see the item they are carrying in their hand.
(and they should have a backpack for everything else).
Yes, thatâs correct. Even handing the camera film to Agent 
to take a picture of the body feels strange after she dismisses it as an annoying burden to carry â even though she âknowsâ that is what she needs to proceed.
dZ.
You mean, like a text adventure? Perhaps one of the later ones with verb and object lists and inventory windows⌠
That would be the ultimate dream, but I donât dare to dream that. 
No, seriously, I mean with graphics (where you see the object carried in their hand) but with no character animations â because presumably they would become too expensive, since theyâd need to show the character carrying a shovel and so on.
Ah, I see. Wouldnât that be just a tad boring? I guess horses for courses. 
You know⌠I think whatâs boring is watching the walk animations over and over. So removing them , to get in exchange the possibility to see the item carried, would make sense.
Iâd like to meet the guy who said âok, we canât afford to show the item carried, because we canât draw the walk animation and the climb animation separately for all items, so letâs just abstract from thatâ. Why did he not say âletâs just abstract from the walk animation and the climb animation, but, by God, let me show the carried item?â
Because that would look extremly dull?
Yeah, I understand that moving pixels were a big thing back then.
Back then.
Today, for example, I prefer a location which is totally still to one where you move but leaves and grass do not.
Then way do you wanna go back to this?
See how you can clearly see the key and other objects the character is carrying? No distracting walking animations from the character there, that´s for sure!
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LOL. Not bad 
Actually what I had in mind is the game I am playing right now (Daughter of Serpents):
this is a style which does not have animations and ⌠it works.
my brain seems to work like this: if everything is still, then I imagine animations. And I find this immersive, and it works. But if there is something that moves, (e.g. the player), then either all the rest also moves (trees and grass), or it all looks fake and it stops working. Itâs puzzling. Sometimes itâs all or nothing.
Perhaps it works for you. To me it looks like a throw back to the times when making any sort of animation was expensive, and making high-res stilized artwork was impressive due to the hardware limitations.
In short, it looks dated to me, and not in the cool retro way.
Like I said, horses for course â or as we say in Spanish, para los gustos, los colores (for every taste, a color).
dZ.
Have you tried NeoHabitat?
It requires you to take an object out of your pocket to use it. Then you must put it back in your pocket before you can pick anything up or use another item.
Itâs interesting from a historical perspective, but overall the interface is very cumbersome. Makes me appreciate TPâs interface.
No, actually. I played Ultima 7, though. It wasnât cumbersome at all. (also note that in that game you donât need to be holding a knife in order to use it. only, when you are holding it, you can see the character holding it.)
anyway I seem to recall the Grim Fandango asks you to hold an object before you can use it. Am I wrong?
Also a point&click text adventure called âDetectivelandâ has an interesting UI where you need to hold an item, and then, if you click on a room object, you see new verbs. Works well.
I was an avid comic book reader in my twenties, and I have never considered it a problem that comic books did not have animations. A sequence of static images is perfectly fine to tell a story. Why is the lack of animation a problem in a game, if the drawings are good (as in Daughter of Serpents)? (sorry for hijacking the thread, btw)
Because it´s a different medium?
Imagine going to a movie theater and staring at a black screen for 2 hours while having an audiobook read to you over the speakers. What? Why is the lack of visuals a problem in a movie when it´s okay for an audiobook??!!
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but thatâs what happens when you go to a concert 
(unless you stare at the director or the pianistâŚ)
No matter what kind of concert I go to I certainly DO look at the musicians. Would be a shame if they´d play below the stage hidden from sight and just show a slideshow of pictures of them.
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Tell me again which comic books are interactive adventure games?
You see, I can play the passive-aggressive game too. 