Best Non-Traditional AdventureAggie Award Winners

No point has been debated with more gusto in the decade-plus since the Aggies began than the dividing line between the traditional and non-traditional categories. No matter where you draw the line, however, we can all agree there’s nothing at all traditional about a game that has players forgo searching for items in favor of letting them tear the very interface apart to use the pieces as they see fit. It’s not just that There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension doesn’t want you thinking “adventure game” when you look at it; as the title says, it doesn’t want you thinking “game” at all. While there certainly is a game here – a brilliantly clever and often hilariously fun one – it emphatically does not want you to play it, and you’ll have to struggle tooth and nail using the game’s own logic, controls, and graphics against it if you want to bypass its many attempts to drive you away.

And yet, despite what it would have you believe, Wrong Dimension is an adventure game through and through. There’s no verb coin or dialogue menu to be found, but each challenge you come across is a puzzle in the truest sense, requiring all your wits and lateral thinking skills to solve, albeit occasionally within strict time limits. Where a normal point-and-click adventure would ask you to gather specific items from the environment and keep them tucked away for future use, this game forces you to consider the entire field of play and to think carefully not about what everything is, but what it could be. Icons, text boxes, menu options, script functions: if it’s visible on-screen, odds are you can use it to progress. This leads to some breathtakingly unconventional puzzle solutions that never feel unfair. No matter how impossible or bizarre each successive obstacle may seem at first, sticking with them and learning to speak the game’s language will lead you to a series of “aha!” moments like few other titles can manage.

Draw Me A Pixel’s There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension is a celebration of outside-the-box thinking – of gathering up all the rules, chucking them out the window, and just playing with the understanding that anything goes. “What would it be like if anything were really, truly possible in a game?” it asks, and then grants you several thoroughly entertaining hours to experience the joy of discovering the answer to that question for yourself. It’s anarchic, it’s frenetic, it’s one of a kind, and despite all its protestations about being a game in the first place, it’s ultimately the best non-traditional adventure of 2020.

Outer Wilds is only 22 minutes long, but it will likely take you 20 hours to complete it. Yes, if you know what you’re doing, you can complete the game in less time than it takes to heat up soup on the stove – in fact, the entire goal is to learn how to do so. Set in the small solar system of the folksy race of purple humanoids to which you belong, you’re tasked with setting off in your homemade spaceship to explore and map out your stellar neighbours. There’s just one pesky issue: 22 minutes after you wake, your sun goes supernova and destroys everything you’ve ever known. Luckily for you (and everyone else), you are resurrected back at the beginning of this severely limited time cycle with the memories of your previous journeys intact – again and again and again.

Thus your mission: to unearth as much of the mystery behind the star’s explosion as you can in your allotted time, exploring bizarre anomalies and accruing knowledge that will a) uncover whatever the heck is going on and b) clue you in as to how to fix it. Fortunately, this galaxy is filled with some of the most inventive and fascinating environments and mechanics ever seen in a game: a planet that crumbles, piece by piece, into a black hole at its core; another that siphons sand from its orbiting twin, radically altering the landscape over time; rocks that operate via quantum mechanics; and ancient alien ruins full of messages to translate. Outer Wilds is a tour de force of open world, non-linear design, packed with clever mechanics, awe-inspiring discoveries, and roasting marshmallows over campfires. You’ve never played anything like it, but now that the gaming world is paying attention, let’s hope this Aggie Award for Best Non-Traditional Adventure helps serve as inspiration to other developers going forward.

We’ve already established that Return of the Obra Dinn is one of the best detective games ever made, but it’s all the more impressive because it eschews nearly every element of a typical adventure game in doing so. Inventory puzzles? Nope. Environmental puzzles? Nada. Character interaction? With whom? They’re all dead! But who needs the standard genre trappings when you’ve got a ship full of horrific death and pixelized gore? With its single-minded focus on identifying the dead crew of the Obra Dinn (and the methods by which they met their ends), this is a uniquely compelling experience that takes place primarily between the player’s ears in piecing together the game’s one giant logic puzzle.

Not content merely to defy expectations about gameplay, however, indie deloper Lucas Pope has done a marvelous job bringing the ship to life (and death) in a stunning lo-fi, monochromatic style that recalls ‘80s MacVenture games like Déjà vu and Shadowgate, only thrust into the 3D era. Yet that deceptively simple visual approach belies a wealth of detail. Each frozen tableau of a character’s moment of death is deliciously complex, morbid, and often hilarious. This is a game that requires you to pay close attention to everything from the decorations on a sailor’s hammock, to the tattoos on their arms, to minor differences in accent and hairstyle. The package is topped off with a tragi-comically jaunty soundtrack, great voice acting, and atmospheric sound design. And the feeling of checking off another batch of names on your list of doom? Second to none. Return of the Obra Dinn is simply one of the most unorthodox but rewarding games of the year, and for that it’s the runaway Aggie winner for Best Non-Traditional Adventure.

While the meaning of “non-traditional” can be debatable, there’s no question that Tequila Works’ and Cavalier Game Studios’ The Sexy Brutale perfectly fits the bill. In fact, this odd isometric thriller is so different from the norm that it managed to fly largely under the radar of too many adventure gamers. Those who took the chance, however, were immediately drawn in and captivated by its unique premise, stylish execution, and haunting staying power. Assuming the role of Lafcadio Boone, players attend a masquerade ball at the titular casino mansion. It proves to be a killer party in a very literal sense, and Boone is forced to continually relive the same twelve hour timespan – playing out over the course of twelve real-time minutes – after receiving a mysterious time-controlling mask by the sanguine lady known as the Bloody Girl. The protagonist’s task is to rescue the other costumed guests, who, one by one, are all lured to their deaths via devious means, over and over again each time the clock resets.

While it may sound repetitive, The Sexy Brutale is fast-paced and can be completed in just a few sittings. The challenge is minimal, but this is to the game’s advantage, as there’s little standing in the way of constantly discovering a new room or laying bare a new devilish murder plot to foil. Each guest presents a unique narrative puzzle that must be unraveled, first figuring out where, when, and how they meet their end, then working out a way to stop it from happening… and here’s the catch: it all has to be accomplished unseen behind the scenes, without directly interacting with anyone. By the end, all threads weave together into a satisfying overarching tale, but the journey itself is the real joy here, accompanied by some truly lovely sprite-based visuals and an amazing jazzpunk soundtrack that’s equal parts relaxing and emotionally stirring. No, it’s not like any other adventure game you’ve ever played, but don’t let that deter you! In terms of captivating anthology-style storytelling artistry, combined with an engaging gameplay hook, The Sexy Brutale is easily one of the most refreshing, must-play adventures of 2017. And for that, it’s the Aggie Award winner for Best Non-Traditional Adventure.

Amanita’s Samorost games have always been more than a little bit eccentric, full of creative organic worlds that ooze with whimsical charm. Samorost 3 takes that already impressive foundation and incorporates it into a full-length adventure for the first time, setting its little gnome's travels within a larger story featuring killer space squid, giant robots animated by lumps of dark matter, and magic trumpets. Not that it’s become a plot-driven puzzler, mind you, The experience is still very much about the journey rather than the destination. You visit a host of lush, exotic places, all inviting you to just relax, explore, poke around and play to see what happens. Practically everything you touch reacts to you in some way, and there's plenty to fiddle with just for fun. It's easy to get carried away stacking cockroaches or teasing monkeys and forget what you're really supposed to be doing!

The puzzles are more challenging this time around, and the rewards are many and varied, from watching technicolour insects dance to orchestrating the work song of imps in a volcano. As always, it's a story told without words – just occasional speech bubbles full of pictograms and a comic book to fill in the background narrative gaps – but it's filled to the brim with unique music and sound. Creatures everywhere express themselves by chirruping and singing, and many of the game's best moments arise when they come together to perform in harmony. The places you visit are often in a bad way when you arrive, but the way the sad melodies shift and develop and eventually burst out in jubilation would melt the coldest heart.

Childlike joy and curiosity is at the core of the experience, even more than the beautifully animated graphics or the delightful soundscape. Seeing the pint-sized protagonist whoop with glee or just take a moment to sit back and enjoy the show is utterly endearing and contributes to an atmosphere quite unlike any other. It's somewhat reminiscent of The Little Prince, and like any good children's story it's packed with wide-eyed wonder and flamboyant imagination. Add in the inimitable settings, the adorable characters and the warmth that radiates from every screen, and it's clear why Samorost 3 deserves to win the Aggie for Best Non-traditional Adventure. 

Amnesia: The Dark Descent was one of the scariest games of all time, and when Frictional announced that their next game would be another first-person horror adventure, anticipation was high to see how they would top the frights of its predecessor. Well, as it turns out, SOMA isn’t as scary as Amnesia, but deliberately so, and far from being disappointing, SOMA raises the bar in so many ways that it is not only a better game, it’s one of the best games of the year in any genre.

Why? Perhaps it’s the incredible atmosphere, the indelible sense of place, the terrifying feeling of being miles underwater, all alone amidst crumbling wreckage that could collapse at any moment. Or maybe it’s the peerless storytelling, which effortlessly sidesteps any number of sci-fi clichés and raises fresh questions about the nature of humanity. Or is it the wonderful physicality of the environment, packed with an astonishing variety of detailed objects to pick up, examine, and fling around with satisfying physics. Possibly it’s the deeply disturbing, yet surprisingly subtle moral quandaries the game forces on you.

Of course, really it’s all of the above. SOMA is a harrowing science-fiction parable full of smart ideas, foreboding atmosphere, and moments of sheer suspense that holds its own against the very best narratives in science fiction, exploring new avenues of the human experience, raising difficult questions, refusing to give easy answers, and scaring the poop out of the player as it does so. It looks great, with varied but coherently designed environments that are wonderfully detailed and dramatically lit, and its sound design can now add “award-winning” to its list of superlatives.

A free-roaming 3D adventure, SOMA is not entirely traditional by genre standards, but it deftly balances moments of suspenseful stealth and frantic, terror-inducing escapes with a welcome amount of downtime for leisurely exploration and puzzle-solving. It sure ain’t point-and-click, but for those concerned about braving such perilous waters, we can’t think of a higher recommendation for delving the depths of SOMA (both literally and figuratively) than our Aggie Award for Best Non-Traditional Adventure of 2015.

The disembodied voice of God; QR codes with vague messages from strangers; anachronistic castles, temples, and ruins pockmarked with laser beams, force fields, and floating Tetris-like pieces… There’s clearly nothing traditional about The Talos Principle. Since the emergence of Valve’s Portal series, there have been a number of games emulating its classic puzzle-room structure and sense of underlying mystery concealed by an invisible overseer, but none that do it as well as The Talos Principle. This was a huge surprise coming from Croteam, better known for their work on the frantic retro shooter franchise Serious Sam. A quiet, contemplative puzzle game represents a complete 180 for the Croatian developer, but we’re happy to say they absolutely nailed the landing.

This is a puzzle game at its core, and what puzzles! There are myriad brain teasers that will test your spatial reasoning, timing, and ability to think laterally. They tiptoe right to the line of frustration and then relent, making you feel brilliant for reaching the solutions yourself. The most challenging ones are purely optional, representing the best of both worlds for players. Enveloping these puzzles is a gorgeous world full of secrets and a compelling backdrop that tells the story of a dying world with intelligence, humour, and heart. It sounds even better than it looks, and there’s a series of incredibly thought-provoking dialogues between two machines that manage to feel deeply human. The question of what qualifies as human is a mainstay of science fiction, but rarely is it handled so thoughtfully. For successfully merging so many fine elements into one cohesive whole, The Talos Principle is entirely worthy of our 2014 Best Non-Traditional Adventure award.

For an interactive medium, stories in adventure games are typically experienced in a very passive way. You may enjoy the ride, but you're relegated the back seat. Telltale's The Walking Dead doesn't quite put you behind the wheel, but it does let you ride shotgun, both literally and figuratively. The story of Lee Everett and his ragtag team of zombie apocalypse survivors isn't simply told to us, but partially created by us, particularly during split-second decisions with crucial consequences. Many of the choices are far more cosmetic, providing merely an illusion of control, but the weighty moral issues and painful personal ones you'll wrestle with are what make the game so fully engaging and often deeply moving. What kind of character will you attribute to Lee? What example will you set for young Clementine? Will you forgive offenses to keep the group together, or foster grudges to drive out unwanted elements? There are no right and wrong answers – only your answers.

The game also makes liberal use of Quick Time Events for action-packed moments. It's an unusual gameplay mechanic in adventures that can quickly grow tiresome when overdone, but here they feel entirely appropriate. Where the story and dialogue choices build close relationships with your fellow survivors, the QTEs help develop the requisite sense of immediacy and danger that complements – by endangering – these attachments beautifully. You're only ever a careless misstep away from losing one of the characters you’ve become fond of, and each new zombie encounter or hostile human opposition reinforces this sense of constant tension. Sure, you'll do normal adventurey things in between, but its unconventional emphasis on intense character drama and action set pieces (along with its superb production values and memorable characters already acknowledged) are what make The Walking Dead a non-traditional adventure worthy of this year's Aggie Award.

Is it, or isn't it? The argument will rage on about whether Portal 2 is really an “adventure game” until we're all past caring (if we aren’t already), but by Adventure Gamers’ own longstanding definition it most certainly is. It just happens to be one that’s utterly unlike anything we’ve ever seen before (besides its own predecessor), or may ever see again. What most adventure gamers truly value most is a decent story with memorable characters, rewarding exploration and challenging puzzles, and Portal 2 delivers all of these in a thoroughly engrossing, imaginative way. And yet none of it feels like the sort of adventure we’ve all come to know and love: there’s no people (except you), no inventory, no pixel hunting, no dialogue trees, no point-and-click look/use/pick-up verb options that have been around since the dawn of time. Instead there’s a gun(!), bouncy shoes, goo balls, and light bridges. Just what the heck kind of adventure is this??

A brilliant one, that’s what kind. Without ever emerging from the cavernous confines of Aperture Science, the story takes some delicious twists and turns, and its memorable supporting cast of two – although entirely mechanical – show more human personality and actual character development than most other adventures combined through their insightful, often hilarious dialogue. The puzzles, meanwhile, never feel like they’re there just for the sake of it, always integrated in a totally natural way as you make your way through the ruined remains of a former industry giant. And the pacing is darn near perfect. Just when you feel you’re getting the hang of the current tools at your disposal, along come a new set of obstacles and clever means to overcome them. There’s even a whole co-op segment to go with the single player campaign for even more devious challenges to solve with a friend. So no, it isn’t Monkey Island and it isn’t Myst. Instead, Portal 2 is the Aggie Award-winning best of an exceptional lot of non-traditional adventures in a year of truly innovative offerings.

It just may be the scariest adventure game ever. In a genre that includes classics like Dark Fall, Amber: Journeys Beyond, and Shadow of the Comet, such a statement really means something. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is THAT special. It's also a game that could only have been made from a first-person perspective. Everything about it is geared toward full immersion, from the lack of any visible interface during normal gameplay to the "insanity" effects that warp and blur your vision. While notes you discover remind you that you are playing a man named Daniel, it won't be Daniel's safety you’re concerned about. When the panic sets in, you’re not controlling a character; that’s you. And you’re not playing a game; you’re there.

So are other unseen… things, frightfully lurking in the dark shadows. All around you, phantom noises rumble and echo throughout the crumbling gothic halls of Castle Brennenburg. Creatures with warped flesh dip in and out of the light. Even the walls can turn against you at a moment's notice, spawning a deadly growth somewhere between human flesh and fungus. The confinement of the first-person perspective means that when you're hiding behind a barrel praying silently that nothing evil comes your way, you won't know until it's too late. You can never be sure when you are in danger, and so you can never rest. All these elements come together to evoke the feeling that makes Amnesia a modern classic, and for that it earned an overwhelming victory in the battle for top first-person PC adventure of 2010.

As a slideshow-style 2D adventure game with limited animation, Jonathan Boakes’ Dark Fall: Lost Souls relies on its imagination to scare you... or rather, using your own imagination against you. Where other horror games bludgeon the player with monsters and combat or cheap scare tactics, here you’re all alone with creaking floor boards, tinkling wind chimes, squawking crows – these little touches are the only signs of life, which makes it all the more eerie when you starting hearing other… things. Maybe you aren’t so alone after all? Further exploration keeps you on edge with a constant reminder that something is very wrong in the old Dowerton train station and hotel, from the creepy mannequin pageantry to syringe-stabbed mattresses to actual otherworldly entities appearing in the dark, often just on the periphery of view.

That’s perhaps what makes the game so great as a first-person experience. Your role may be the anonymous “Inspector”, but the fear is your fear, the perspective is your perspective. This proves important, because for all its ghostly inhabitants, Lost Souls has a very human element as well. Indeed, it’s debatable which is the more haunted: Dowerton or The Inspector himself. Of course, there’s much more to a game than being scared, and this adventure backs up its horror quotient with solid gameplay and graphic quality that’s much improved (and put to good use) over the two previous Dark Fall games. At the end of the day, though, you’ll want to be frightened, and there’s a reason we called this game “one of the scariest point-and-click adventures ever”. For that accomplishment, it deserves the Aggie for this year’s top first-person title.

At first glance, The Path of the Dragon seems to be just another solitary experience with a heavy reliance on puzzles. It doesn’t take long to realize, however, that this well-researched, riveting blend of historical fact, science, esoteric mystery and myth is one of the better, deeper games of its type. As Father Arno Moriani, a Catholic priest, players are sent to a small Transylvanian village to investigate the beatification of a doctor who devoted her life to helping her fellow countrymen, even during the World War I bombing that devastated the town. Haunted by his own nightmares, Arno soon finds himself entangled in a widespread conspiracy involving the Vatican, the mysterious Thule Society, and the epitome of the vampire mythos, Dracula himself.

Although numbered Dracula 3, this game bears no connection at all to Resurrection and The Last Sanctuary, its so-called predecessors. The depiction of Bram Stoker’s most famous creation here is both original and enticing, and everything in this adventure exudes atmosphere: the beautifully rendered locations are eerie and menacing, the musical score engrossing and suspenseful, the sound effects believably effective, and the cinematography swathes the player with its dense shadows, dim lights and cold colors suddenly ignited by sparkling flashes of vivid red. The plot unfolds slowly but steadily, with unexpected twists and moments of pure tension: occult lore, forgotten myths and secret conspiracy have been elegantly used by the designers to weave a brilliant story spanning almost five centuries.

Arno himself displays a convincing personality, struggling between faith and skepticism, loyalty to his priesthood and carnal urges, sacred love for God and human desires: his internal torment leads the game to a powerful ending that will leave you craving more. Such characterization of the playable protagonist is unusual in first-person adventures, and one of the key reasons for its broader appeal that sets it apart from its contemporaries.