Category: Role Playing and Adventure Games

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ian Schlaepfer GAME DEVELOPER:Herculean Effort Productions GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Herculean Effort Productions Apprentice II is a superb sequel to Apprentice, a fun point-and-click adventure game from Herculean Effort Productions reviewed elsewhere on this site. Like the first game, Apprentice II is coded with the increasingly…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Todd Howard GAME DEVELOPER:Bethesda Softworks GAME PUBLISHER:Bethesda Softworks Copyright 1998, Bethesda Softworks Redguard is a superb action adventure game from Bethesda Softworks that sets new standards in the ever-more-popular genre of hybrid games. This swashbuckling epic boasts an excellent and detailed plot, fluid 3D animations, and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ben Croshaw GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Ben Croshaw 7 Days a Skeptic is an excellent sequel to 5 Days a Stranger, a fun freeware horror adventure game reviewed elsewhere on this site. Although it is not as scary or captivating as the original, it…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Trevor Pitts & Paul Robson GAME DEVELOPER:Audiogenic GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Paul Robson The Valley and The Tomb of Drewan are two excellent remakes of classic Vic-20 games that were first released over 20 years ago. Similar to early Roguelikes, the gameplay in both games are…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Paul Robson GAME DEVELOPER:Argus Software Press (ASP) GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Paul Robson The Valley and The Tomb of Drewan are two excellent remakes of classic Vic-20 games that were first released over 20 years ago. Similar to early Roguelikes, the gameplay in both games are…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:John Dougherty & Charles Dougherty GAME DEVELOPER:Quest Inc. GAME PUBLISHER:Epyx Copyright 1988, Quest Inc. Legend of Blacksilver is the superb sequel of Legacy of the Ancients, one of the most underrated 8-bit RPGs ever made. As usual, Andrew Schultz explains in amazing detail why this Apple…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Al Evans GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1986, Al Evans Definitely among the best black and white shareware game ever made for the Macintosh, Cap’n Magneto is a fun adventure/RPG hybrid by Al Evans. You play Lance Magneto, an intergalactic ranger who is tasked with investigating…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Philippe Ulrich GAME DEVELOPER:Cryo Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Mindscape Copyright 1994, Cryo Interactive Commander Blood is a little-known sequel to the great classic Captain Blood. This time, your goal is to find black holes in order to go back in time and see the Big-Bang as it happens.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Rick Dyer GAME DEVELOPER:ReadySoft GAME PUBLISHER:Interplay Copyright 1995, ReadySoft Kingdom: The Far Reaches is a decent cartoon adventure game designed by Rick Dyer, who worked on Dragon’s Lair. Quandary Review’s thorough review says it all about this entertaining family game that is slightly better than average:…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Britton O’Toole GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Britton O’Toole A freeware masterpiece that no adventure gamer should ignore, No-Action Jackson is a superb point-and-click freeware adventure game that could have been packaged in a box, stamped with LucasArts’ logo, put on retail shelves, at which…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ron Gilbert & LucasFan GAME DEVELOPER:LucasFilm Games GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, LucasFan Maniac Mansion Deluxe is a superb remake of one of the best adventure games of all time. Ron Gilbert’s wacky and revolutionary masterpiece comes to life as never before in this Windows version lovingly…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Koji Okada GAME DEVELOPER:Atlus GAME PUBLISHER:Atlus Copyright 1994, Atlus Shin Megami Tensei (commonly called Digital Devil Story in English) is an excellent entry in Atlus’ Megami Tensei, a hugely popular RPG series that was rarely translated or released outside Japan. Originally debuted on the NES in…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Daniel Winebarger GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Daniel Winebarger Razors in the Night is a fun amateur adventure that offers a fun plot and the length that rivals the best commercial games. You play Knox, a punk member of a local gang who is running…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Squinky Productions GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Squinky Productions Pirate Fry 2: The Hand of Anturus is a funny and well-crafted amateur adventure game that is reminiscent of Monkey Island in many ways, not least of which is the pirate-y setting. Curiously released after Pirate…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Dupuis GAME PUBLISHER:UBI Soft Copyright 2001, Dupuis Largo Winch: Empire under Threat is a surprisingly fun 3D adventure games with action sequences from France. Based on a popular hero of the same name (who is virtually unknown outside France and The Netherlands), the game…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Darth Mandarb GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Darth Mandarb A Friend Indeed is a short but sweet amateur adventure that is memorable for a unique isometric/overhead perspective, although the puzzles are far too easy and the game is very short – 15-20 minutes is all…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Juncmodule GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Juncmodule Keptosh: The Search for Junc is an excellent freeware cyberpunk adventure game set in a dystopian future. Although the game has very few puzzles, the strong writing and interesting plot are guaranteed to keep adventure fans glued to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Michael Evans GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Michael Evans One of the better and longer amateur adventure games in recent years, The Perils of Poom is a funny, atmospheric, and well-written freeware adventure game. Excerpts from the review at Adventure Gamers does a great job…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Anonymous Garfield: Attack of the Mutant Lasagna is a great fanmade adventure game about the world’s most famous comic strip cat. Accidentally spilled radioactive material has turned harmless vegetables and food into menacing mutants, and it is up to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Edmund McMillen GAME DEVELOPER:Chronic Logic GAME PUBLISHER:Chronic Logic Copyright 2004, Chronic Logic One of the most original action-adventure games I have ever come across, Gish from Chronic Logic is a great shareware game that is well worth the price of admission. Almost every aspect of the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Alexander Gogin GAME DEVELOPER:DOKA GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1994, DOKA One of the finest examples of an action-adventure hybrid, Mick is an ambitious and clever game from DOKA, a Russian developer. You play a young boy who has been transformed into a snail by an evil witch.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Pack-In-Video GAME PUBLISHER:Pack-In-Video Copyright 1996, Pack-In-Video Slightly reminiscent of the Shining Force series on Sega’s Megadrive system, Monstania is an RPG with a turn-based combat system, which takes place on a 2D grid, rather than the usual select-target-and-attack system. This allows for some level…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Al Escudero & David Wong GAME DEVELOPER:Electronic Arts GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Arts Copyright 1987, Al Escudero & David Wong One of the best, largest, and most underrated RPGs ever made, Deathlord is an epic RPG from Electronic Arts that offers a unique gameworld inspired by Japanese myths,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Rebecca Clements GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Rebecca Clements Cirque du Zale is a fun snack-size adventure game from Rebecca Clements that is reminiscent of Monkey Island in all respects: wacky sense of humor, polished graphics, and fun puzzles. Created with Adventure Game Studio, the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Patrick Maidorn GAME DEVELOPER:Midnight Synergy GAME PUBLISHER:MVP Software Copyright 1994, Patrick Maidorn ShadowForce is a decent sci-fi adventure game published as shareware in 1994 by MVP. You control a four-person “ShadowForce” team, futuristic police force who has been called to investigate a space station called Icarus.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jeff Schiller & Jeff Sinasac GAME DEVELOPER:Little Devils GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Jeff Schiller & Jeff Sinasac Caverns of Xaskazien is a neat Windows remake (based on SDL) of an obscure but fun DOS Roguelike of the same name written by Jeff Sinasac as a shareware…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Miguel Perez GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Miguel Perez Lost Valley is an excellent freeware action-oriented RPG that offers over 25 hours of gameplay, a lot of neat weapons and magic items, and smooth animations. Similar to Zelda, you will roam a huge gameworld, battling…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Al Lowe & redruM GAME DEVELOPER:Sierra On-Line GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, redruM Leisure Suit Larry 2 Point and Click is a great fanmade “re-release” of Al Lowe’s popular classic game. Basically it is the same game with one critical difference: the text parser has been replaced…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Anonymous Dark Disciples is a fun “lite” top-down RPG that emphasizes thieving skills over battles. You start the game as a village denizen in a typical fantasy town, going about your daily business. But it won’t be long before…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Chuck Wood GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1991, Chuck Wood Another obscure Roguelike RPG, Sorcerer’s Bane was released as shareware in 1991, although registering the game only gets you a set of programs to add items and monsters, edit character stats, and resurrect characters from the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Mike Teixeira GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1988, Mike Teixeira MAG is an early and very difficult Rogue clone written by Mike Teixeira in 1991. The game as well as the source code is now public domain, thanks to the author. The lack of interesting plot…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Pyrrho12 GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Pyrrho12 The world’s first giant robot (“mecha” in Japanese) Roguelike, GearHead is a fun and addictive open-source Roguelike. The official page explains the best features of the game very well: “GearHead comes equipped with two different ways to control…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jerry Plemons & Brian Shankman GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1987, Jerry Plemons & Brian Shankman Mission: Mainframe is a fun but very little known Roguelike RPG – released as public domain as far back as 1987. One of the first sci-fi Roguelikes ever made, the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tarn Adams GAME DEVELOPER:Bay Twelve Games GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Bay Twelve Games Liberty Crime Squad is a fun little tongue-in-cheek “lite” Roguelike RPG game inspired by Oubliette, a 1983 Roguelike. You may not like the game very much if your political orientation is anything like…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Lorne Lanning GAME DEVELOPER:Oddworld Inhabitants GAME PUBLISHER:GT Interactive Copyright 1998, Oddworld Inhabitants Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus are two superb first games in Oddworld Inhabitants’ uniquely compelling Oddworld series. Similar to Delphone’s cross-genre classic Out of this World, the Oddworld games offer a superb blend of…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Lorne Lanning GAME DEVELOPER:Oddworld Inhabitants GAME PUBLISHER:GT Interactive Copyright 1997, Oddworld Inhabitants Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus are two superb first games in Oddworld Inhabitants’ uniquely compelling Oddworld series. Similar to Delphone’s cross-genre classic Out of this World, the Oddworld games offer a superb blend of…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Byron Preiss Multimedia GAME PUBLISHER:Byron Preiss Multimedia Copyright 1996, Byron Preiss Multimedia The Sinister Six is a thoroughly bad adventure game adaptation of the hit Spider-Man franchise. Following the plot of the comic book of the same name, the gameplay is straightforward: choose what…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Microids GAME PUBLISHER:BMG Interactive Copyright 1997, Microids Evidence is a fun and quite underrated adventure game from French developer Microids. You are Dan Singer, reporter from Channel Z. You just broke up with your girlfriend Sarah Hopkins when she calls you, claiming she has…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Nova Media GAME PUBLISHER:Titus Copyright 1996, Nova Media One of the most obscure FMV (full-motion video) adventure games ever made, L’Affaire Morlov is a surprisingly decent spy thriller adventure game once you get used to the annoying interface. You play Paul Keirn, a journalist…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Michel Ancel GAME DEVELOPER:UBI Soft GAME PUBLISHER:UBI Soft Copyright 2003, UBI Soft Beyond Good & Evil (BGE) is the rare gem that comes along only every once in a while: a wonderfully fresh and unique game that spans across multiple genres and manages to be better…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Core Design GAME PUBLISHER:EIDOS Interactive Copyright 2001, Core Design Definitely one of the best action/adventure hybrids I have ever played, CORE Design’s Project Eden is the game is the culmination of everything the design team has learned while developing the mega-hit Tomb Raider games.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:grenideer GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, grenideer Diver Down is a great fanmade freeware RPG – the first finished game using Verge, a new and promising RPG creation program. What I like most about the game is the much-better-than-average writing and setting, which is a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Chuck Pfarrer GAME DEVELOPER:Tsunami Media GAME PUBLISHER:Tsunami Media Copyright 1996, Tsunami Media One of the very few “interactive movies” that I really enjoy, Silent Steel from Tsunami is one of the best games made during the period of “full-motion video fad” that gripped the adventure genre…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:George MacDonald GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1992, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) The weakest of all Gold Box games in my opinion, SSI’s games based on “Dragonlance” AD&D setting are still decent enough to merit attention by all RPG fans.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Shelley GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1991, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) The weakest of all Gold Box games in my opinion, SSI’s games based on “Dragonlance” AD&D setting are still decent enough to merit attention by all RPG fans.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Shelley GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1990, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) The weakest of all Gold Box games in my opinion, SSI’s games based on “Dragonlance” AD&D setting are still decent enough to merit attention by all RPG fans.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Shelley GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1991, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) In the annals of RPG gaming, few series can boast of being “pioneers” of the genre more than SSI with its “Gold Box” series, all based on AD&D…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Shelley GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1990, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) In the annals of RPG gaming, few series can boast of being “pioneers” of the genre more than SSI with its “Gold Box” series, all based on AD&D…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:George MacDonald GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1989, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) In the annals of RPG gaming, few series can boast of being “pioneers” of the genre more than SSI with its “Gold Box” series, all based on AD&D…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Brad Myers GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1988, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) In the annals of RPG gaming, few series can boast of being “pioneers” of the genre more than SSI with its “Gold Box” series, all based on AD&D…