roguepingu's review
3.0
2.5/5 stars
I wasn't around in the 80s and 90s when adventure games were enjoying their heyday, nor do I have much of a background in video game playing beyond basic PC flash games. Yet this text was still reasonably accessible, although I will admit I did skim quite a bit simply because Salter does go into a lot of detail into the games she uses as case studies.
The book could also do with a structural edit. The jumps were awkward between iPad books, history of adventure games, fan projects and crowdfunding, back to iPad tech again. Nonetheless, I did manage to pull out quite a bit of interesting info, especially around concepts of "interactivity" and "narrative."
I wasn't around in the 80s and 90s when adventure games were enjoying their heyday, nor do I have much of a background in video game playing beyond basic PC flash games. Yet this text was still reasonably accessible, although I will admit I did skim quite a bit simply because Salter does go into a lot of detail into the games she uses as case studies.
The book could also do with a structural edit. The jumps were awkward between iPad books, history of adventure games, fan projects and crowdfunding, back to iPad tech again. Nonetheless, I did manage to pull out quite a bit of interesting info, especially around concepts of "interactivity" and "narrative."
clgibbons's review
2.0
I had a lot of problems with this book but it gets 2 stars for concept. First, this read like a Masters level thesis that hadn't been taken to committee. Harsh, I know, but I've been there and seen that. The author occasionally compares adventure games to literature but long passages of the book are just summaries of games. I know that games can be seen as interactive literature, but this book never explains why that's important. I was also very confused over the idea of the death of the adventure game. Maybe I'm missing how the author defines adventure games. She relies too heavily and almost exclusively on the Kings Quest and Leisure Suit Larry franchises. Are RPGs not adventure games? Are MMOs not adventure games? Is Minecraft not an adventure game? A lot of this book focuses on the death and rebirth of the adventure game but I don't think it ever died. It changed and took on new forms, sure. Unclear definitions and missing information really sank this book.
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