Blackstar: Agent of Justice

Worwyk Software, 1995

Blackstar: Agent of Justice is an exciting graphic adventure game and a one-man production of Thomas Vitacco. You play as Blackstar, a private eye with red-Indian blood and your quest is to investigate the murders of innocent victims killed in the city for sheer pleasure. The game is for mature gamers as it has some explicit scenes, which may not be suitable for young children.

The 256-color VGA graphics are extraordinary brilliant for the time it was first released. The controls are completely mouse-driven. The shareware version of this game was released in two episodes, the censored and the uncensored game.

Escape from Delirium

Virtual X-Perience, 1995

Escape from Delirium is a nice game in the LucasArts' Monkey Island style, but with a classical twist. You play as Paul Cole, an archaeologist investigating a murder that has taken place in an abandoned subway tunnel near the city Museum. While investigating you witness another crime on the surveillance monitors. Someone steals a valuable Stone plate from the Museum, which is rumored to point the direction to the source of immense powers. Solve all the mysteries and hunt down the bad guys. The title uses the same interface engine used in most LucasArts' adventure games. The graphics and sound are reasonably good enough to make this game enjoyable.

Blue Force

Tsunami Media, Inc., 1993

Similar to Police Quest, Blue Force casts you as Jake Ryan, a rookie motorcycle cop. Ten years have passed since the unsolved murder of your parents, but threads of evidence still exist. Teamed with your father's partner, you begin to weave the nearly forgotten strands together. As the past comes into focus, the line between justice and vengeance begins to blur. Will the truth force you over the line? Fine graphics and an easy to use interface make this one a winner.

Bureau 13

Take Two Interactive, 1995

One of the most interesting premises of any adventure game in history is to be found in GameTek's wholly engaging Bureau 13. As the game starts you may select two characters from the many presented, each with his or her own specific set of psychic and/or supernatural skills. This allows for true replay-ability, changing the story and the way in which puzzles are to be solved with each new game and character selection. As covert agents of the super-secret Bureau 13, your characters must seek out a renegade agent and neutralize the threat he poses. This title features excellent graphics and has many interesting locations to explore during your quest.

Normality

Gremlin Interactive, Inc., 1996

Imagine a world where everything and everyone is normal. All the same, all alike. all the time. Welcome to Neutropolis, where normality is strictly enforced by the police. but Kent, our oddball hero, has grown to despise the lack of variety in the banal and unchanging city of his birth. Playing as Kent, you must elude police and solve the puzzles that will eventually allow you to change your world. The game was developed using the same 3D engine used in Doom, but has much better graphics. A humorous romp that will not fail to delight.

Voyeur

Entertainment Software Partners, 1994

Voyeur is a adult oriented game ported from CD-I to PC due to its successful sale. The story begins when Reed Hawke, the president of  Hawke Industries decides to run for the presidency of the United States and gathers his family in his house to announce his decision. However, a few of his family members become jealous to see him rise politically and one of them plans to expose an old family secret that may harm Reed's career. Your role starts from your room situated across Reed Hawke's house, where you are set to spy Reed's house with your movie camera. Every room in Reeds house is within your camera's reach and you can watch every move in the house. During your spying session you learn that Reed will do whatever it takes to achieve his goal, including murder.

The game is mostly done in Full Motion Video, shot with Hollywood stars and overlaid on computer rendered backdrops. Few scenes have some very explicit adult scenes, which may not be acceptable to some audience. However, the game has a unique story line and game play and I recommend this to all the guys who fancy Voyeurism as fun.

Harvest

Michael B. Clark, 2002

Harvest, a first person adventure game is the sole creation of Michael B. Clarks. The story tells us about a mad scientist who has invented a machine, which can harvest water from rocks and become very useful to mankind. But on the contrary, the evil scientist plans to poison the Earth's water so to make his invention the only source to harvest. You play as someone whose dog is lost in a rabbit hole. You climb down in that hole looking for your dog and find the hidden laboratory, where the mad scientist lives and hides his Harvest machine. The secret hideout has many rooms with puzzles, booby traps and secrets. Your quest is to find out what this place is all about.

Despite the average graphics, which must be overlooked by keeping in view the fact that it’s a one-man developed game, the storyline is quite absorbing and the puzzles are very good. The background music is great and takes the maximum credit of this game.

Bargon Attack

Coktel Vision, 1990

Humorous and appealing from beginning to end, Bargon Attack is another Coktel masterpiece. The game takes place in Paris, where people are going mad about this new game called Bargon Attack. But, all of a sudden the Bargons come to life and starts eliminating humans. You play as our hero, Bob Sprite and your task is to clean the Bargonian infested Earth by kicking their rare side.

This unusually long adventure combines Coktel's wacky sense of humor with surprisingly creative puzzles and entertaining alien characters. The amusing plot seems only to add to the fun and even a few pixel-hunting puzzles cannot mar the player's enjoyment. Those unfamiliar with Coktel games may wish to keep a walkthrough handy, lest they find themselves stuck and desperately using every inventory item with every object on the screen.  But die-hard Coktel adventurers are urged to go it alone, as the struggle is half the run.

9: The Last Resort

Tribeca Interactive, 1996

9: The Last Resort is a surreal adventure game following in the footsteps of Shivers. In this game, you take over the role of an unknown hero, who has just inherited a hotel called the Last Resort from his Uncle Thurston. Your uncle was a music genius and he created some very unique musical instruments. The music artists from different places used to come in his hotel to create music and write songs. But an evil entity has now invaded the hotel and killed your uncle. Your task is to eliminate this evil entity named Toxic Twins by fixing all the musical instruments in the hotel. The parts of the musical instruments are hidden in different parts of the hotel and can not be retrieved without solving certain puzzles.The puzzles are unusually hard and the creepy atmosphere seems to make them even harder.

The most distinguished feature in this game is that it involves some top-notch Hollywood celebrities including Robert De Niro, Cher, James Belushi, Chrisopher Reeves and a couple of guys from Aerosmith. The game has beautifully designed images rendered in 3D and some creepy music. If you liked playing Shivers, you will love this one.