Adventure games. This term is likely to be one of the widest terms (may be even an umbrella term) among those which designate kinds of computer games. The term is really wide and is applied to very different mechanisms of games, so no wonder sometimes certain difficulties with its definition appear. Though we will try to single out several main features, being guided by them one will be able to understand whether the concrete game belongs to adventure games or not.
The first feature is a full-fledged and multidimentional plot which often includes not only natural, usual outset, development of the game (while one is completing the levels) and an outcome, but also some other elements. In most cases the plot of an adventure game contains some indications of the events which had taken place in the model-based virtual world a little time before the adventure of the main character began (the adventure that the main character has to have under the gamer's direction). Still certain participation of the main character in those events is not completely eliminated but as a rule - only in some cameo appearance. The past existing in that way may be half-known to us, and its details may be discovered by the gamer during the game, simultaneously with the development of the current story which often adds some mysterious detective features to the adventure together with unexpected turnabouts in the current plot.
The second feature is the inside logic of the world of the game. This world doesn't have to be physically real - on the contrary it may function under magic, fantastic and even a fortiori surrealistic laws. But in any case the inside logic should be found in the tasks of adventure games. It might be not obvious; still it shouldn't be too complicated for the game not to turn into examination of all possible variants of interaction between articles of the stock and objects of the play field. Correspondingly the tasks of adventure games should be logically blended with the world of the game in order not to cause bewilderment or rejection.
The third feature is predominance of logic elements. Arcade elements are not completely eliminated in adventure games, but an arcade or a game with a small amount of brainteasers can't be called an adventure game. Just as a game without a plot. The forth feature is linearity. The gamer can be free to move across the map, choose what episode of the game to pass first or even to refuse of passing some optional tasks. But the central plot (or all its episodes) should be passed in any case (to reach the final of the plot).
You can download adventure games in this section.