Paradise

White Birds Productions, 2006

Paradise is an excellent point-and-click adventure game developed by the renowned Benoit Sokal, the art creator of award-winning Amerzone and Syberia series and perhaps this is the reason that Paradise also exhibits similar quality of graphics and animations found in Syberia and Amerzone, except this time, it's the landscapes of uncharted Africa. The storyline is set over four different African lands starting from a North African city called Madargane, where you follow a young woman, Ann Smith, who is suffering from amnesia caused by her plane crash. Playing as Ann Smith, your main objectives are to discover your true identity and what are you doing this strange land, which by fate is somehow linked with a black African leopard, which you must escort back from Madargane city to the land of Kilimanjaro, the place where he was born and where you were born. During your journey you pass through dry lands of Madargane, explore dark and dense jungles of Maurane River meeting primitive villagers who live on tree-houses, venture the moist and perilous depths of emerald mines and finally, unravel the mysterious truth about your past.

The game has different types of logical puzzles, which are mostly inventory based. There are few arcade puzzles that also need your witty expertise to overcome. In some locations during the game you also get a chance to play as the leopard in an action-packed real-time 3D environment to perform certain tasks that are necessary to solve certain puzzles, but these action packed sequences may be skipped if your skills are weak in action zone or if you don't feel like disturbing the tempo of playing a traditional point and click adventure game.

Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb

The Dreamer's Guild, 1994

In this marvelous family adventure you lead a band of talking animals on a quest for a magical orb with the power to save their kind from extinction. You play as Rif, a fox, who is wrongly accused of stealing the magical Orb of Storms, which predicts the arrival of storms. Your girl friend is held hostage while it is your job to hunt down the actual thief and the stolen Orb and prove your innocence.

The puzzles in the game are somewhat academic, but the vibrant graphics, bright story and likeable characters make this an enjoyable game for children of all ages.

Loom

Lucasfilm Games, 1990

Loom is an early LucasArts adventure that was first released with blocky computer-drawn images. However, it was later re-released with all the little perks you expect in a good adventure, like full speech and cd-quality music. Unfortunately, the graphics were little improved in the re-released version. Surprisingly enough, however, this flaw does not detract from the game's playing enjoyment, as the story remains bright and compelling. Additionally, the interface doesn’t use the “type-in-your-command” verb-driven text parser that was standard for the time. Instead, it is fully mouse-driven and all puzzles are solved by using your magic staff.

Flight of the Amazon Queen

Interactive Binary Illusions, 1995

One of the very best graphic point-and-click adventures ever released. Fraught with humor and off-beat characters, Flight of the Amazon Queen casts you as Joe King, pilot of the Amazon Queen. You have been hired to fly movie star Faye Russell to a shoot deep in the Amazon jungle - and that's when everything begins to go wrong. Marvelous puzzles, an excellent interface and colorful graphics combine with a humorous dialogue to create a charming adventure that will not fail to please.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

LucasArts, 1992

In many circles, The Fate Of Atlantis is regarded as one of the very best adventure games ever made, and rightly so.  In this sequel, which is also known as Indy 4, you assume the role of the infamous Dr. Indiana Jones, intrepid archaeologist and explorer, as he races to beat Hitler's S.S. to the fabled lost city of Atlantis.

The graphics are rather dated, the audio is marvelous, featuring digitized sound effects and music. Additionally, this title is somewhat unique, as it has multiple path to choose from, which allows you to solve puzzles in many different ways. In the first half of the game you reach a point where you have the choice to play the game using three different ways: Team, Wits and Fists. All three paths lead to a different adventuring experience. In all aspects, it's a triumph for LucasArts.

Jack the Ripper

GameTek, 1994

Fans of detective games should not miss GameTek's foray into London's underworld with Jack The Ripper. Playing as the legendary Sherlock Holmes, your task is to catch the infamous Ripper and bring him to justice before he strikes again. Interrogate suspects, examine crime scenes and compose premises in your notebook to deduce the true identity of the elusive Ripper.

When speaking with suspects, Holmes can choose between several lines of questioning. But be cautious, as not all paths will lead to the truth! The game has a very unique interface and allows you to retain all dialogue from your interrogations in your notebook for later reference. The graphics are high quality and the sound, quite atmospheric. Those who delight in Holmesian deduction will genuinely enjoy this cat-and-mouse game between everyone's favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes, and the mysterious and malevolent Jack The Ripper.

Lost in Time

Coktel Vision, 1995

When I first played this game in 1995, I was sure it would be turned into a series. Sadly, no sequel to this marvelous title was ever created, probably because solving the puzzles depends more on common sense than on imagination or resolve.  Even so, this remarkably enjoyable title casts you as Doralice Prunelier, a young woman travelling into time to hunt a killer. In order to return to your own time, you must complete certain tasks, which take you to marvelously rendered re-creations of fascinating historical periods.

Standard graphic adventure game with some digitized backgrounds, while most of the backgrounds are graphically rendered with brief inset full motion movie scenes describing the action taken. First-person perspective view with a unique point and click interface. An adventure well worth playing by all ages.

Full Moon in San Francisco

Alternative Games, 2002

Full Moon in San Francisco is an old-fashioned adventure game and first step of Alternative Games into adventure gaming. Your play the role of a small town Private Investigator, who has been recently appointed for a trial investigation by a big city firm called Copper and McIntosh. Your character is completely customize-able as you get the options in the beginning to create him or her by selecting given options that includes sex, amount of money to carry, and a peculiar option to select a pet, which will accompany you throughout your investigations.

On your first day on the job you find out that no one is available in the office and you got to investigate the theft of a valuable painting on your own with little hints from your pet, very funny, isn't it? Your job doesn't end with merely this theft case, as you have to solve a few other cases including the mystery of a gruesome ripper who cuts off his victim's head.

The puzzles too are old-fashioned and quite inferior in quality, which includes cracking of computer codes, timid jigsaw, color recognition, etc. The background graphics are still images rendered in 3D with plain and non-animated cartoon like characters to interact with. While the game is full of funny dialogue lines expressed by different characters, the voice acting is a huge disappointment. We hope that the team who developed this game will do better next time.

The Sydney Mystery

Twilight Software, 2003

If you haven't been to Sydney Australia, here is your big chance to have an interactive tour of Sydney and visit every tourist attraction including the infamous Opera House and the Sydney Harbour through the eyes of Uncle Fred's niece. Uncle Fred, a retired private investigator, left a note asking you to visit him as soon as possible, while you were away from home. Unfortunately, you received the note after your Uncle has been kidnapped and now you are tasked with investigating his mysterious kidnapping. Along the course of your investigation you meet and question many characters, visit over two hundred and fifty beautifully filmed locations gathering clues and items that could be useful to help find your Uncle and crack this case.

The game is done in full-motion-video with real people to interact with and fully packed with good quality logical puzzles, melodious music and sound effect. The controls are totally mouse-driven and you get multiple-choice questions to ask in your conversations with characters, which in turn is completely interactive and always unravel clues to solve the mystery of this beautifully developed game.