Best graphic adventures
Are you one of those players who, in judging a title, put history above all other aspects? Then I bet you love to immerse yourself in graphic adventures with unique stories, those that leave their mark. On the other hand, playing a graphic adventure is almost like reading a picture book, but with the precious addition of fascinating interactions. Thanks to these characteristics, a beautiful story told by a graphic adventure can easily remain in the heart.
Maybe you have also recently finished a great classic of graphic adventures or one of the most modern, thus making the pleasant discovery of this genre. But now you would like to explore and learn more about the world of graphic adventures, so you have decided to get on your computer and look for the best graphic adventures to add to your personal list of “must play”. That’s the way it is, right? Then I am really happy to tell you that you have come to the right page at the right time!
Of course! In the article you are reading, I have in fact decided to collect the best of the best of graphic adventures, dividing them by game platforms. Of course, being one of the longest-lived genres ever, the choice is truly endless, but I’m sure that after reading these lines, you will surely have a more precise idea of what you absolutely cannot miss! So, are you ready to go on this text adventure to discover the best graphic adventures ? Yup? Well: I wish you good reading and, above all, have fun!
Index
- General informations
- Best PC graphic adventures
- Best PS4 Graphic Adventures
- Best Xbox One Graphic Adventures
- Best Switch Graphic Adventures
- Best graphic adventures for Android and iOS
General informations
Before going into the list of the best graphic adventures , I think it is appropriate to specify what this definition refers to.
Well, generally, a graphic adventure is a video game strongly based on narration and history, where the player controls and follows the events through the interaction with characters, scenarios and / or other graphic and sound elements that make up the game.
The long history of this genre, once the most played and sold ever, was actually born as a textual adventure : they belonged to this genre of video games without graphics, or at least not the one traditionally understood today, but focused only on interaction through the inclusion of textual commands to be typed following the appearance of a narration written on the screen. In this way the interaction with the player took place.
With the increase in the computing power and graphics of PCs, the genre of text adventures has found a natural evolution in the addition of more complex visual elements, thus generating the first real graphic adventures.
The pioneers of the genre had vector graphics, for a visual result very similar to angular drawings made with white chalk on blackboards. These first experimental results were followed by the implementation of bitmap graphics , which allowed for more colors and a considerable variety of designs.
From the union of this new bitmap graphic style and the spread of pointing devices, such as mice and trackpads, point and click adventures were soon put on the market , the main advantage of which was to give the player the opportunity to interact more direct and immediate, i.e. by clicking directly on the images and options shown on the screen.
The enormous success of point and click graphic adventures erse the genre an unequivocal synonym of the entire genre, even today in fact, many old players with the expression “point and click” unconsciously refer to the entire category of graphic adventures. After all, the same fans of the genre are inclined to consider the branch of point and click as the best expression ever of graphic adventures.
With the progressive development of hardware and the introduction of sophisticated graphic tools, thanks to which increasingly complex video games are developed, the genre of graphic adventures has become 3D and the interaction today is no longer mainly based on point and click but prefers the use of controllers (or keyboards), because they are considered to be decidedly more suitable for moving in three-dimensional spaces.
The 3D graphic adventures are now more comparable to the films that picture books and is precisely this closeness that you are also seeing the opposite phenomenon, namely movies and interactive TV series where the viewer is no longer passively involved but is actively engaged in making choices that affect the outcome of events.
Best PC graphic adventures
I’ll start right away by telling you about the best PC graphic adventures . The PC is, in fact, the platform with the greatest number of graphic adventures of all videogame eras.
Of course, it is also true that to play on PC you need a gaming computer with good, or at least decent, performance. Speaking of which, did you know that I’ve created a guide to help you build a gaming PC ? If playing smoothly on PC is what you want, I’m sure my tips will help!
If you decide to play on PC, one of the best channels you can turn to to find graphic adventures is Steam . I have already told you about this well-known digital video game distribution platform, for example in my post on the best free-to-play games , and I recommend it to you even now. But how do you find the best Steam graphic adventures ? Simple, using the filters offered by the latter, I’ll explain immediately.
Once you have connected to Steam , from the Shop tab , refer to the Games button at the top , then scroll down the menu and notice on the left the item Filter by label and then choose Adventure . At this point, you can further refine your search by writing the Graphic Adventures label in the box on the left . In this way, you will have the entire catalog of the genre available on Steam.
Clearly, talking to you about all the best graphic adventures released on PC in recent decades would require an approximate list for infinity: for this reason, I would like to limit myself to pointing out those adventures that are widely considered the most valid and known to date. Finally, I recommend that you also check the titles I will tell you about in the other chapters of the guide, because many of these are cross-platform and therefore playable on PC as well.
The first title I tell you about is Grim Fandango Remastered , an undisputed masterpiece of the genre, to the point of still being a quality reference. The original version of Grim Fandango was remastered in 2015 to give new and nostalgic players the chance to enjoy the adventures of Manny Calavera, resigned travel agent of the Death Department of the city of El Marrow, in the best possible way.
Grim Fandango remains today one of the best existing expressions of the video game: a product that becomes a work of art thanks to the splendid and original artistic direction, the extreme attention to detail, the characterization of the characters and the creation of a script that leaves nothing to case. Comedy pervades events, but never trivializing the scenes, but rather enhancing them and conveying their meaning.
There would be little else to add, Grim Fandango Remastered is to be considered both an invaluable point of arrival, and a perfect start, when looking for the best graphic adventure ever.
Faced with the arduous task of summarizing the best graphic adventures ever for PC in a few names , I find myself practically forced to have to mention the great classics. Which is why, after the immense Grim Fandango, I have to recommend The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition . This is the best available version of this classic LucasArts, one of the most active and experienced developers and publishers in the graphic adventure genre (I recommend you explore their catalog on Steam by clicking here ).
The Secret of Monkey Island has shaped and succeeded more than any other game in the point and click genre. It could be said that this series is to the genre of graphic adventures as Super Mario Bros. is to the platform genre. However, I warn you that by playing The Secret of Monkey Island and facing the daring and unlikely adventures of the protagonist Guybrush Threepwood, aspiring pirate and adventurer, you will automatically also have to deal with the high level of difficulty characteristic of the point and click graphic adventures of the past. .
How do you say? Are you looking for some more recent graphic adventure, perhaps belonging to the 3D genre? If to rediscover the classics you just need to look for developers like LucasArts and high-sounding names of the point and click, like Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert, to explore the offer related to the most recent graphic adventures, a good starting point would be to look for the video games made by the team. Telltale Games .
Behind this name are the minds that have contributed to the creation of must-see games, such as The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead. Both of these 3D graphic adventures are inspired by famous comics and are structured in five episodes.
In the case of The Wolf Among Us , the game is inspired by the Fable stories created by Bill Willingham. More exactly, this game narrates the events that precede the history of comics. Playing The Wolf Among Us, you will be tasked with guiding the protagonist Bigby Wolf in the investigation of a mysterious murder of a woman.
The game focuses a lot on the exploration of the surrounding environment and above all on the dialogues and choices that are made during the interaction with the other characters. To characterize the atmosphere and the setting, only apparently realistic, is the presence in the real world of characters and imaginative objects, related to fairy tales, folklore, myths and urban legends.
The other graphic adventure born from the talented minds of the Telltale team is The Walking Dead , whose first chapter was the brilliant beginning of an entire successful saga consisting of a total of four chapters, each of four episodes, a special episode and a three-episode mini series.
My advice is obviously to start from the first season of The Walking Dead, so as to start the adventure in the correct order as the criminal Lee Everett and Clementine in a world now dominated by decrepit and limping living dead. Remember that the final outcome of the game will then have implications for subsequent games in the series.
Before concluding the list of the best graphic adventures most suitable to be played on PCl I would like to return to the titles that have helped to define the adventures in two dimensions for graphic quality and artistic direction, in addition to their general quality.
One such game is Machinarium , a 2D graphic adventure that amazes at first glance for its style and quality of animations. The mechanics behind this adventure are all aimed at solving a series of puzzles linked together by the events of the plot. Another peculiarity lies in the absence of written and spoken dialogues: everything is communicated graphically, including the emotions of the characters.
Machinarium is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful modern 2D graphic adventures, to be played to the end, puzzle after puzzle.
With the last title on this list I want to go back to talking to you about a LucasArts title, so as to close the circle in a big way. I’m talking about Day of the Tentacle , an undisputed classic with one of the most beautiful 2D graphics ever created for a video game, carefully revised and improved in the Day of the Tentacle Remastered edition .
The game is the official follow-up to another great classic called Maniac Mansion but with a creative vision that has allowed developers to focus gameplay on controlling different protagonists grappling with the singular threat of a purple tentacle determined to conquer the world. Day of the Tentacle immediately strikes, as well as for its unique style, for irony and comedy.
Wondering how to play this title without playing the first Maniac Mansion ? What if I told you that this first chapter is entirely playable in a Commodore 64 reproduced virtually inside Day of the Tentacle? You got it right, Days of the Tentacle is the first game ever to have introduced this gimmick, still fascinating today and from then on used by many other developers.
Best PS4 Graphic Adventures
In this chapter I want to focus on the best graphic adventures made exclusively for PlayStation 4 . In fact, many of the games I told you about in the previous chapter are also available on PS4, such as Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle and the excellent The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.
In the following lines, however, you can read about those adventures born on the Sony platform and remained exclusive, or about other native ones on Sony consoles and then become multi-platform.
The first title on this list is Until Dawn , a 3D graphic adventure available only on PS4. This game belongs to the “teen horror” genre, as it narrates the terrible events experienced by a young group of friends gathered for a night in a cabin.
The setting is already enough to imagine what to expect, yet Until Dawn not only offers clichés of the horror genre, but manages to introduce interesting narrative elements and unroll the skein of the mysterious ones that follow one another at a fast pace. As a player, you also have the responsibility of influencing events with action choices, dialogue and finding hidden objects.
At the end of the game you will be able to see more conclusions based on your actions and intuitions. Finding the culprit and getting to the truth won’t be easy, especially if you want to rescue all eight protagonists!
Until Dawn PS4 HITS [Edition: France]
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This unmissable graphic adventure is connected to another exclusive PlayStation 4 that serves as a prequel to Until Dawn. The game is called The Inpatient and is exclusively playable on PlayStation VR . The plot focuses on the events that took place 60 years before the horror experienced by the eight friends, putting you in the shoes of a patient locked up in a distressing nursing home.
Puzzle after puzzle, puzzle after puzzle, you will have the arduous task of reconstructing the protagonist’s memory, of which you will also be the voice thanks to the possibility of giving voice commands via VR.
The Inpatient PS VR – PlayStation 4 [Edition: France]
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Did I mention that you can play an exclusive graphic adventure on PS4 by actively collaborating with your friends to solve (or deepen) an intricate and intriguing crime?
Well, all of this is possible in Hidden Agenda , a 3D graphic adventure for PS4 that is played without a controller! You read that right, to play this title alone or in company (up to six friends at the same time) you can use smartphones as a game tool to compete or collaborate in determining the choices of the protagonists.
Hidden Agenda is part of the PlayLink series of games ! , ideal if you’re looking for great PS4 party games. Feel free to check out my article on the best PS4 exclusives to find out what other games fall into this category!
Hidden Agenda – PlayStation 4 (cover may vary), assorted
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I will now go on to tell you about three other games that have accompanied Sony consoles in recent years as a truly innovative reference in the genre of 3D graphic adventures. I refer to the latest creations of the Quantic Dream team , or Detroit: Become Human , Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain . These games were developed exclusively for PS3 and PS4, and have also been ported to PC in recent years.
The most recent is also the most complex, given the script made up of an unprecedented multitude of choices and outcomes that the player can access. In Detroit: Become Human the setting is that of a seemingly perfect future where there are androids designed and built to serve humanity.
However, what seems like a perfect project for humanity will soon show its limits: the androids Markus, Kara and Connor will be the protagonists of events that will subvert the utopian system wanted by human beings to seek in them and in the world their own consciousness of existing. . The consciousness of the machines.
Detroit: Become Human – PlayStation 4 – [Edition: UK]
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The game Beyond: Two Souls starts from different assumptions but also has a complex structure of choices and interactions . With this title, the video game meets the extraordinary performances of famous and highly regarded actors, such as Ellen Page, in the role of the protagonist Jodie Holmes, and Willem Dafoe, in the role of Nathan Dawkins, researcher and director of the DPA research center.
Beyond: Two Souls actually has two protagonists because Jodie has the gift of communicating and interacting with a supernatural entity, a sort of soul that has accompanied her since childhood. In this title you can in fact play in multiplayer by entrusting the control of Aiden, the supernatural entity, to a second player.
The third title made by the same team and with a similar structure to the previous ones is Heavy Rain . This is the first title of the team that belongs to modern 3D graphic adventures and I must say that, despite being the pioneer, it remains perhaps the most intriguing.
In Heavy Rain you will have to find the culprit of a kidnapping by a serial killer and, to do so, you will have to impersonate different protagonists and following the events from different perspectives. Only you, as a player, however, will be able to guide their actions, with the advantage of having followed the plot from multiple points of view and collecting the most disparate clues.
Heavy Rain will put you in the shoes of a guilt-ridden father determined to find his son, a strong and self-confident journalist, an intelligent and trained FBI agent, and a retired former cop turned private investigator. . If you don’t solve the crime on the first try, you have nothing to fear, because the game has more than one ending to make it more interesting to play it again.
Heavy Rain and Beyond Collection – PlayStation 4 – [Edition: Kingdom One …
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Best Xbox One Graphic Adventures
Before introducing the first titles that represent the best graphic adventures for Xbox One , I want to remind you that many of the ones I told you about in the chapter dedicated to the PC are also available for the Microsoft console.
In addition, I also want to specify that the titles I’m about to tell you about are also available for PC and PS4, but I decided to include them here because the Microsoft console has no exclusives of the genre. In addition, I think these adventures are particularly suitable for using a controller, so even if you want to play them on PC my suggestion is to use one.
If you already have an Xbox One, I remind you that in this guide I explain how to use it on PC. The alternative is to use a PS4, as I’ll explain in this article . If you don’t have one, you can simply buy it in a store or online from retailers like Amazon!
Microsoft PC: New Xbox Controller + Wireless Adapter for Windows 10 …
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Returning to the games, an important recently created saga that has been able to distinguish itself from the others is that of Life is Strange , a 3D graphic adventure based on the ability to turn back time and on the concept of the “butterfly effect”.
This saga has now reached four chapters but if you intend to play it appreciating the plot, my advice is to follow the release history, then start with the first, then continue with Life is Strange Before the Storm and finally play The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit , a natural link to the last chapter to play called Life is Strange 2 .
Life is Strange: Before the Storm – Limited Edition – Xbox One
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Life is Strange 2 – Xbox One
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The skilled development team of pearls of the genre such as Until Dawn has also proposed for Xbox One the title The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan , a story of terror with a cinematic imprint and the first part of an anthology of short stories that will be collected below the title The Dark Pictures.
In this first game of the series, you will have the opportunity to experience the story of a group of friends who are the protagonists of a trip to the open sea. What, however, seemed like an exciting experience on the high seas, soon turns into a disturbing and terrible nightmare, to be overcome by making choices that will bind the fate of the characters to results that are not always predictable.
THE DARK PICTURES: MAN OF MEDAN – – Xbox One
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The next graphic adventure I recommend you play on the Microsoft platform is The Vanishing of Ethan Carter . This adventure tells a horror story by adopting a first-person view so as to leave the exploration of a map full of puzzles and hints free.
As the protagonist, investigator Paul Prospero, intrigued by the story contained in a letter from 12-year-old Ethan Carter, you will have to investigate and solve the crimes and death of his family members by means of paranormal powers. The events take place in Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin, but exploring this area is not enough to finish the game: only by solving all the stories behind the deaths can you unlock the “real” ending of the game and have the answers you are looking for.
I conclude this list with a very special graphic adventure, initially released only for Xbox One and then also brought to PC. The game is D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die , whose protagonist is David Young, a young detective with a sad, somewhat bizarre and unpredictable fate.
As a player, your goal is to investigate the murder of David’s wife two years earlier. However, things are not going well at all, because the young detective has completely lost his memory and his wife’s last words are the only useful information at his disposal to set up his entire investigation.
Best Switch Graphic Adventures
In this chapter I want to offer you those graphic adventures that I consider most enjoyable if you play on Nintendo Switch . In addition to a factor of playability itself due to the portability of the console, the graphic adventures I talk about later boast a 2D capable of standing out from the crowd.
Therefore, these are not exclusives but titles that you can also find on other platforms, although my advice remains to play them on Switch.
The first game I tell you about is Gris , a graphic adventure that mixes platform and puzzle elements to integrate them perfectly into the plot until they are an integral part of the narrative. Gris is also the name of the protagonist of this adventure that soon reveals itself for what it really is: an inner journey to face a painful life experience.
The peculiarity also lies in the fact that Gris’s cloak manifests the grief and anger that strikes her and, ironically, this cloak itself is the only tool that provides her with the skills to move forward, without which she would be lost.
But wait a minute, how would you react if you were to find a dead body in Thimbleweed Park but despite the seriousness of a murder suspect, this will only be the least of your problems. How do you say? No, I’m not kidding! In Thimbleweed Park, a game born from the brilliant minds of the creators of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, you will have to use five characters to explore the surreal secrets of the bizarre town.
With this point and click adventure, you will take a dip in the past by remembering the most classic point and click graphic adventures but at the same time you will be able to enjoy a more practical and modern interface. Thimbleweed Park is a reasoned and very successful meeting between present and past of point and click graphic adventures, revived in a refined, simple and expressive 2D.
Another fascinating 2D graphic adventure belonging to the modern point and click genre is Broken Age . The graphics and animations are all done by hand and the visual result is that of watching an animated film or reading a picture book while playing.
Broken Age is the successful result of one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns, capable of raising the enormous sum of 3.45 million dollars. This incredible campaign produced a structured two-act game that tells the incredible fate of two characters, Vella and Shay, each grappling with their own incredible reality, only seemingly light years away from each other.
Are you in the mood for a cyberpunk graphic adventure? Then you should definitely play The Red Strings Club , available as a console exclusive on Nintendo Switch. In this title you will be able to decide the fate of three characters, a freelance hacker, a club owner and an android surgeon. Isn’t this already futuristic enough?
To add particularities to the game is the variety of gameplay, in fact to progress in the plot you will have to demonstrate skills as a bartender, investigator and surgeon. The simplicity of the interface and the articulated plot make this adventure an unmissable opportunity to experience a respectable graphic adventure directly from your Nintendo Switch.
Best graphic adventures for iOS and Android
The library of graphic adventures for Android and iOS devices has today reached a level that has nothing to envy to other consoles or to the huge choice available on PC. I want to premise this because many of the graphic adventures I’ve told you about so far are also downloadable in mobile version, including modern masterpieces, such as The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.
Given the huge catalog of titles, in this chapter I will try to suggest the best graphic adventure experiences for mobile terminals based on their usability and availability.
The first game I recommend is particularly suitable for use on a smartphone or tablet. It’s called Bury me, my Love , available for both iOS / iPadOS and Android terminals . The peculiarity of this graphic adventure lies in the fact that you play as if you were normally using a smartphone. I’ll explain.
In Bury me, my Love you can experience the story of a Syrian refugee named Nour and her husband Majd during their perilous journey to Europe. The peculiarity lies in the fact that it is a textual adventure in a modern key. In fact, the interaction in the game takes place through a fictitious messaging app with which to communicate to exchange the information necessary to face the difficult journey in safety.
Surely a peculiar narrative and gameplay stratagem to modernize the origins of the genre, or that of the textual adventures of many years ago.
However, Android and iOS devices are also an ideal platform to rediscover the great 2D classics such as the most famous ones from LucasArts, with the advantage of being able to play them wherever you are. It is no coincidence then that another game that I recommend is Beneath a Steel Sky , available exclusively for tablets and smartphones with iOS / iPadOS operating system .
It is a science fiction adventure set in a metropolis of a dystopian future where pollution and radioactive waste have made human life extremely hostile.
As Robert Foster you will have to understand why you were forcibly taken from your home and how to avenge the death of your family. Despite his age, Beneath a Steel Sky can boast a story with still current themes, pressing gameplay dynamics and fabulous drawings and illustrations by the master of the comic Dave Gibbons.
Staying on the subject of science fiction, I want to suggest a title that seems to be from the past but was actually born only in recent years. What if I told you that this adventure takes place in a futuristic world with hues and atmosphere inspired by Blade Runner and is about an investigation to be carried out in the most remote corners of the galaxy?
What if behind all these shifts in infinite space there was actually an introspective journey whose outcome will change the future of humanity? All this is Gemini Rue and all this is the work of only one developer: Joshua Nuernberger.
Available for years on PC, this point and click adventure with 2D graphics is available for iOS / iPadOS terminals from the App Store . An unmissable opportunity to enjoy a masterpiece of this caliber by taking advantage of portability and practical touch-screen controls.
A gem I want to tell you about is The Last Door , available on practically all platforms on the market and also on Android devices and for iOS / iPadOS . In the case of this 2D point and click adventure, you have the opportunity to experience a distressing story about evil whose roots lie in England, in the Victorian era.
The Last Door is a journey into a world of pixels and madness, and it is thanks to its extremely simple and dark graphics and the direction techniques perfectly integrated by the developers that you can play a unique horror experience in the genre.
Another particular game, more unique than rare, worthy of entering the list of the best graphic adventures for iOS / iPadOS and for Android is Her Story . Understanding the concept behind Her Story is very simple, but playing it is another story altogether. I’ll explain right away.
In Her Story, a woman is interrogated by the police seven times, and as a player you can explore and unlock hundreds of video clips (played by a real-life actress) to reconstruct the interrogations and piece together the story of the protagonist.
In addition to the originality of gameplay, the strong point of this title lies in the innovative choice of narration. Absolutely to play if you are looking for something new and an easily shareable experience directly playable from smartphone or tablet!