Ranking the Best and Worst Sierra and LucasArts Adventure Games | Cannot be Tamed

[@GURken]

2:39 King's Quest (C) 4:14 Leisure Suit Larry (B) 5:42 Maniac Mansion (B) 6:19 Leisure Suit Larry 2 (D) 7:28 Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (D) 8:47 Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (B) 10:01 Leisure Suit Larry 3 (C) 11:49 Quest for Glory (A) 13:04 King's Quest V (C) 13:47 Loom (B) 14:45 Quest for Glory II (C) 15:59 Secret of Monkey Island (S) 16:46 Leisure Suit Larry 5 (C) 17:41 Monkey Island 2 (A) 19:01 King's Quest VI (B) 20:30 Quest for Glory III (A) 21:29 Day of the Tentacle (B) 22:22 Lost Secret of the Rainforest (B) 23:19 Gabriel Knight (A) 24:10 Quest for Glory IV (S) 25:29 King's Quest VII (B) 26:48 Leisure Suit Larry 6 (C) 27:26 The Dig (B) 28:38 Full Throttle (B) 29:26 Phantasmagoria (D) 30:39 Gabriel Knight 2 (A) 31:42 Curse of Monkey Island (S) 32:55 Grim Fandango (B) 34:06 Leisure Suit Larry 7 (B) 35:31 King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (F) 36:05 Quest for Glory V (D) 37:13 Gabriel Knight 3 (C)

[@SebGigl]

Day of the Tentacle only B tier hurts so much. But hey, tastes and colours !

[@LarixusSnydes]

I feel that way about Loom. That game was absolutely magical to me and I've lobbied long to get it available on GOG.

[@nosferadu]

Yes and Loom too. Yikes!

[@rickhynes2693]

Hurts for sure! I bought nearly all of these at actual launch. Day of the Tentacle (No brainer - S Tier) was the one that nailed amazing story, time travel, lots of laughs and great puzzles. Bit tough on Full Throttle and especially Grim Fandango as well. I wonder if it is that she is playing them more recently over the last 5 or so years more so than playing them when they dropped at release? Either way....I don't mind and I enjoy the videos and her opinion! (BTW My 9 year old son finished Full Throttle today on XBOX and loved it.)

[@adrianbalmes5704]

also grim fandango... it really messed up my blade... mrs chowchella stole my golden tickets the flowers on my skeletal configuration represent a horrible contradiction because they are the beautiful representation of death in the land of the dedd

[@miguelbranquinho7235]

@@LarixusSnydes Masterpiece, wish they could have made the sequels.

[@damianGray]

The Space Quest series is by far some of the best material Sierra has released

[@funghazi]

We're glad you could play Space Quest! As usual, you've been a real pantload!

[@-Tristan-]

Agreed. Miss this series...

[@redinthesky1]

Love Space Quest

[@GES1985]

Energizer bunny lol

[@odeball22]

Not even close

[@larslundin7049]

If yoy have not playd Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. You just have to play it. Its the best Indiana Jones game ever.

[@chrisfreakinp]

Agreed. I'm shocked you haven't played Fate of Atlantis!

[@scottjeppe7220]

I agree I played that game like 50 times .

[@rtperrett]

It would also made a great Indiana Jones movie.

[@mars___sumner]

It’s the fourth Indy movie as far as I’m concerned

[@guybrushthreepwood1090]

@@mars___sumnerabsolutely agree. I played it so many times as 8-9 year old, it’s the only “other” Indy movie.

[@calculatroncalculatron1556]

I haven't finished watching this yet, but I just wanted to say, "Graham, watch out! A POIIII-SON-OUS snake!"

[@AmbientWalking]

These games are such a big part of my childhood. Thank you for this. Brings back a lot of memories.

[@rotoninja]

This was an entertaining review list. Couple of recommendations: The Dagger of Amon Ra, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Codename: Iceman.

[@MidwayMaiTais]

Fate of Atlantis is an ABSOLUTE MUST

[@ResoluteGryphon]

"Laura Bow: Dagger of Amon Ra" was great!

[@nmo9584]

Hey Pam, enjoyed the video. I would recommend : Sam & Max Hit The Road from LucasArts, a definite classic.

[@coktoe4487]

I actually never played Hit the Road, but did play The Devil's Playhouse a few years ago, and liked it a fair bit. Good call.

[@albynoman]

This. Sam and Max was an absolute joy right from the opening pre-credit scene.

[@rschmidt9495]

One of the best in its genre imo.

[@DarknessIsTheTruth]

Sam & Max Hit the Road is S Tier, No contest.

[@VisionThing]

I absolutely love your content. There’s a severe lack of retro point and click game content on KZbin and I’m so glad I just found your channel. It’s definitely the best one and I can’t believe I went so long without knowing of it. Thanks so much for making these fantastic videos. I just watched your The Dig and Loom videos and they were so polished and entertaining to watch.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thank you so much!

[@rjazz2]

I got my first computer in 1994 at age 16 and it came with King's Quest VI. I was a Nintendo nerd but this game hooked me AND drove me crazy. It was the early years of the internet and I remember going to Electronics Boutique to try to find a guide for it but to no avail. I finally beat it almost two years later on my own and was absolutely my gateway drug to other adventure games.

[@azarisLP]

"I went to my Aunt's house and Leisure Suit Larry 3 was the only game she had on her computer." I have many questions.

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

Roberta Williams definitely enjoyed hitting a dead end and starting a game over with better knowledge of what to do to avoid it. It's the choose-your-adventure book mindset applied to videogames that a few chosen ones have, and I do not: I want to beat a game in a reasonable time and move on to the next.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Me too. I understand that without all the starting over again the games are quite short, but I'd prefer that to a lot of repeating myself.

[@miguelbranquinho7235]

The problem is that a lot of the dead ends she designed don't really look like dead ends until you hit them head on hours later. If at all.

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

@@miguelbranquinho7235 Exactly. You play the game for 4 hours not knowing your run is already screwed.

[@miguelbranquinho7235]

@@Ghost_Of_SAS It's blatant poor game design, Robert was a hack. I respect the heck out of her, but hate her games.

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

@@miguelbranquinho7235 I think it was more a deliberate choice to artificially inflate play time and increase perceived value. Callous rather than incompetent.

[@ArcaneWorkshop]

Gabriel Knight 1 anything but S rank, whaaaaat?! =O That's it! Sick the dogs on her, boys! We got us a non-believer here! (Just kiddin'!) I LOVE all the Sierra/LucasArts content you do! These games will never get old to me. One of the most awesome parts of watching your videos about them, is that back when we were all kids playing them, we didn't have the internet yet to talk about them. If you were lucky, a local BBS might have a message board where someone might strike up a conversation about one but... that was pretty rare. So, it's like we've all got YEARS of excited discussion in us, to make up for those internetless years.

[@roylazarovich]

Regarding Day of the Tentacle, the different time periods are not just different locations like in Monkey Island 2, they actually have a unique mechanic where some puzzles are dependent on thing done in certain time periods affecting other time periods and items left in one time period changing on other time periods and then can be sent back to be used in puzzles

[@WhatAHorribleNight]

"Alexander pulls out his magic map." These words will stick with me until the day I die. 😅

[@coatknight]

The Space Quest series along with "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis" (should've been the 4th movie). Honorable mention to "Conquest of Camelot" (text though) and the "Conquest of the Longbow". What I appreciate about the Sierra games is that they have multiple endings.

[@lordrosemount]

Another very nice video! On the subject of missing items, two of them were, back when I played them at the time, probably my favourites that would fit in the category: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam and Max Hit the Road. Also if the category is broadened out to cover similar games from other publishers, the Broken Sword games were great.

[@omgwerockhard]

Conquest of camelot i enjoyed aswell

[@computergames6417]

Great video Pam! My S tiers games are Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island 1&2, and maybe The Dig. I am going to play more of Curse of Monkey Island 3 ASAP, but I am unfortunately having trouble with it saving properly. I found your take on Leisure Suit Larry Love for Sail very relatable, I feel it's a hidden gem. One Sierra adventure game I would love to see you cover in the future is EcoQuest. It's an easier game made for younger audiences but still I found it to be memorable.

[@7thangelad586]

I remember Sierra from my childhood as making The Black Cauldron and Donald Duck’s Playground. I spent so much time on those as a six or seven year old.

[@djrmarketing598]

I think the transition from requiring CGA/EGA support in games (and having them fit on disks) was the primary reason for the crisp dithered pixel art style which I also loved too. Great video thank you for the nostalgia!

[@Sweemops]

where was Fate of Atlantis?

[@dtimm612]

First adventure game I ever saw was space quest 3 in the early 90s and it blew me away with the graphics, locations, and being able to tell the character what to do. Up to that point it had just been stuff like oregon trail on PC and nes/snes games. It's been a long time but I've played almost all sierra and lucasarts games, my favs would be Grim Fandango, SQ4, KQ6, PQ3, LSL7, GK, DotT, Full Throttle, and Indy Fate of Atlantis. So many other great ones like Sam & Max, Freddy Pharkas, Torins Passage, The Dig, Monkey island series, just weren't as memorable for me though. I finally got around to playing QFG series recently as as adult so it felt different, and sadly still haven't played LOOM, and some games I never could complete (WIlly Beamish)

[@drowningin]

Monkey Island 1-3 were always the best in my book. I wish more games got art like Monkey Island 3. That was so beautiful. I've rebought most of the Sierra games during Steam sales. You can get them for a few bucks during sales

[@djrenier]

Great job with this video and the reviews. For me, Day of Tentacle and Grim Fandango belong in the S category. It's interesting, and very cool, that you loved Monkey Island (and rightfully so) but then considered DOTT and Grim at a B level. I will check out Quest for Glory 4 soon. Thank you for posting this video.

[@matsv201]

The reason why KQ1 was so iconic is that its the first PC game that used hacked graphics. Prior to KQ1 PC games looked like.. S***. What KQ1 used was to hack the text mode to use all the available colors making it look more like, if not better, than other games of the day. So despite popular belief, KQ1 is actually CGA. (just like original larry) KQ4 and LL2 was in EGA... or rather PCjr/tandy graphic (there was very few game in true EGA). KQ1 was later remade with this engine. Later when VGA games came around, there was a similar situation. IBM first launched MCGA as a 128kB 256 color grapics mode. This later evolved into VGA, but a lot of games, specially early once, was made for MCGA (that could also be shown on VGA).

[@waterbottle4782]

I can still remember playing the original King's Quest on a Tandy 1000. The 160x200 graphic adventure blew out my 10 year old mind.

[@andymares3594]

Hi Pam, I’m pretty excited about the list of games you had ranked there and can’t wait to play some of them on my new laptop. Solid video!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thanks!

[@zooropa04]

YASSSS. This may be my favorite subject of yours yet. The very first computer games brought home by my older brother was a Sierra 3-pack with Police Quest II, Manhunter 2, and Hoyle's Book of Games. And some of my best memories as a kid are of flipping through a Lucasfilm catalog and reading about games such as Full Throttle, Sam & Max, and one of the few I was actually able to play back then (and still one of my all-time favorites), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Love love love this video.

[@kloakovalimonada]

I really like how nostalgia-free this is. Great job.

[@maxbouvatte]

for anyone interested- the Grim Fandango soundtrack has recently been released on vinyl, it has great artwork and remastered tracks with live orchestras. Also, the Curse of Monkey Island soundtrack is Hi res on KZbin, and its really good. I personally have lots nostalgic memories attached to both of these games, and I think the music played a big part of that connection.

[@coktoe4487]

Oooooo! A "D" for Zak! I can't remember if the copyright stuff was as intrusive on the C64, but it was present in some form for sure. I definitely enjoyed it more than you did when I played it back in 80'-90', but can appreciate the frustration with it's implementation as you described it.

[@freeculture]

Considering the crack available for Maniac Mansion, i would think there was one for Zak as well. But failing the code in Maniac Mansion was funny to see the mansion blow up...

[@sombra1111]

Nice video. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a must play. The story is great and there are three diferent paths. Lots of replay value

[@sombra1111]

@ I agree

[@rickvanderham5695]

I didn't play most of these games, but I remember really liking King's Quest 8. Also Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis seems to be missing from this list, so if you didn't play that I highly recommend it.

[@Magnum_Opus_1124]

I am glad I am not the only one who likes King's Quest 8 (Mask Of Eternity).

[@RraMakutsi]

Fate of Atlantis should be at the top of this list, for sure... such a great game! One cannot have a proper list of adventure games without it

[@UFOLOGAMER]

I thought I was the only player in the world who enjoyed KQ8. We are a clear minority.

[@jimlarimore6074]

Oh yeah. Fate of Atlantis is not only the best Indy game. I'd argue it's the best Indy outing period.

[@Hermantheonlyone]

You have to play Sierra’s best: Laura Bow 2 Dagger of Amon Ra. A museum mystery adventure.

[@CmdrPinkiePie]

Oh! I forgot to mention the Laura Bow mysteries! I liked the second one better (Dagger on Amon-Ra), but Colonel’s Bequest was fun too.

[@chapterhawk]

Adored both of them tremendously. So well done.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

I need to play those.

[@Panzer_the_Merganser]

@@Cannotbetamed1 The voice acting alone makes playing Dagger of Amon-Ra worth it (spoiler, it’s hilariously bad)

[@belisariussmith9095]

My all-time favorite was The Dig, it was short, but very memorable

[@Panzer_the_Merganser]

Same here, that art style and music made a sense of wonder and exploration I’ve not encountered in any other game.

[@jat13]

Lucasarts only real adult adventure imo.

[@Gragnash]

Great and fun video. It would be nice to hear what you think about Sam and Max and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis as well in another video 😊 Keep up the good work! Cheers!

[@shampooswan]

I can't tell you how much your video touched on my childhood. I'd even bring the Sierra Online magazine to school to read over and over again haha. I would play these all the time, and whenever I talk to a gamer who hasn't played them growing up, I can't believe it. My favorite series were Monkey Island and Space Quest. Thank you! :)

[@Cannotbetamed1]

You're welcome :)

[@mjretrogamer4819]

I remember when my buddy got Full Throttle, we played it all the time. Pam you always do a great job with your reviews, thank you. Looking forward to future videos!

[@JungleMan777]

Personally I would out Day of the Tentacle a rank higher. LSL 6 I would recommend playing again if you don't recall it well. I actually go back and forth on it and 7 being my favorite of the series. I am shocked and appalled (not really lol) at the ranking of Grim Fandango. I really enjoyed that game so much so I actually bothered to buy the remaster edition even though I still own the original which is something I normally wouldn't bother to do.

[@pedroconstant1199]

I've just found your channel. Loving all of your videos...I'm Watching them all! Keep up the good content!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Welcome to the channel

[@theoldpcgamer77]

I would love a list again of these but this time from other developers. I remember games like Kyrandia, Simon the sorceror, beneath a steel sky, Broken sword to name a few.

This is a really good idea. Especially Simon the Sorcerer series has a different place in my heart along with Monkey Island series. My nickname is Simon just because of Simon the Sorcerer series. :)

[@hercufles]

Sierra did it on purpose because they noticed, that people bought more guides and lots of people pirated the game so they make the games so you needed to buy either the guide or called their sierra hotline.

[@donjohnson7768]

Kings Quest V was the first graphic adventure I remember playing, will never forget getting my ass killed in the desert over and over

[@freeculture]

One of the very specific design goals for Lucas Arts was to avoid not only the deaths but the unsolvable endings mentioned by her. In fact they made a joke of Sierra games in Monkey Island I where they simulate the typical Sierra death and later say "just kidding" of sorts (falling of a cliff). However Maniac Mansion didn't really apply these concepts to the full, no idea about Zak, never played it.

[@YeOldEntertainment]

I was hyped to see this video in my game. But you broke my heart right off the bat with "I don't like text parsers" and "this will have an impact in the ranking" :( Text parsing was my childhood and when point and click interface kicked in... it was a major step down for me. Still... great way to spend 40 minutes this morning for me. Thanks for the video!

[@freeculture]

It is funny she skipped KQ2, 3 and 4, she would have learned what real pain was and valued the other games a bit more. Also original HQ/QFG was better than the VGA point and click edition, it had the full ending transition to HQ2/QFG2 which was removed from the remake, it was a blast to watch it back then because it felt you were about to start the second game right away! (you could export/import your character but needed to actually have the second game, still before the rename from Hero's Quest I/II to Quest for Glory I/II. Also that text parsing helped my younger self to learn more about that foreign language that is English, useful when you are not born in an English speaking country...

[@jafrytvasia9609]

Myst and Shadowgate were my jam. Indeed, that is a nice bimodal distribution. Good to see Lily and thanks for the vid.

[@jafrytvasia9609]

@@Joseph-xe1ry Your recommendation is much appreciated sir~

[@Knight79334]

The QFG2, Trial by Fire remake has an option to simplify the travel. The maze in the original really bogged down the game. I believe it's intent was as copy protection, forcing you to use the map that came with game. Worst part of the game. The remake is worth checking out. For purists, you can select the classic street layout. It's a great remake. Oh, and the import system is compatible.

[@coatknight]

I recall there there was a way to see the map in the game but only realized this later to utter annoyance.

[@VGCLVideos]

Excellent video and a great trip down memory lane. Suggestion for a future "rank 'em" series - PC FMV Adventure games outside of Sierra and Lucas Arts (i.e. Tex Murphy, Return to Zork, etc.).

[@Cannotbetamed1]

That is one of the ranking videos I plan on making.

[@Mrster]

Weird, I didn't get a notification for this, and seeing how point & click LucasArts (primarily) adventure games is my favorite "genre"... Neat list, was a little surprised to see you put CMI above MI2 though! S: Grim Fandango, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Day of the Tentacle, and... I knew some were missing; Sam & Max Hit the Road (S) and Fate of Atlantis (S/A)!

[@anthonywheeler2082]

This was a fun video Pam. It flew right by!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thanks!

[@dwaynemenzies8824]

Another great video Pam. You are a delight, I say with the utmost respect!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thanks!

[@benchandler4298]

Fun video! I think this is a hard genre to rank, so many promising games held back by unfortunate choices, and notorious moments abound. I've been discussing these games over and over throughout years of being a developer in this genre and have heard plenty of cases for and against, but still enjoyed you explaining why you feel the way you do about these games. It's fun to hear your frustrations with the bits that I remember being annoyed at myself, and also hearing your reverence for some of the best titles. Great stuff!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it. I'm curious what your favourites from this category are.

[@benchandler4298]

@@Cannotbetamed1 Good question! In terms of my own work I drew the most inspiration from Full Throttle & The Dig - particularly when I was painting Unavowed, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what made those games look so good, and that was kind of my goal aesthetic! In terms of all around favourite game, The Secret of Monkey Island is just super hard to beat as a game that does everything right! Quest for Glory is probably the most rewarding Sierra game I've played, although I love the art in many of them (even if I like the gameplay less).

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Well, Unavowed looks beautiful! What a great game.

[@benchandler4298]

@@Cannotbetamed1 Thank you so much! Dave and I are working on another title together right now, really cool to be working on something else with him again. :)

[@joelhulsey2800]

Several years ago I wanted to do a retrospective of all Star Wars games to come out. Life threw a couple of curves and I didn't get to do it, but I think you would be awesome at that. I'd love to see that!

[@igobyplane]

lsl3 at 7 being your intro adventure game by your aunt is wild lol. that was quite a difficult game, and i'm curious how many of these you beat. quest for glory was my favorite series as well, i started with 3 then went back from 1 (vga) importing characters forward. my favorite was a thief who i gave magic abilities to. i wasn't a huge fan of typing but really enjoyed qfg2 as well in the end. my first sierra games were actually police quest 3 and space quest 4, then i think king's quest 5. i didn't play agd's vga remake of qfg2 - but it's supposedly one of the best ever fan remade games. thanks for the video, fun watch to bring me back 20 years for a lot of games i sunk a lot of time into. you might like laura bow 2.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

I beat all of these games. Though I didn't beat LSL at 7.

[@tyyu9116]

Your eyes are amazing! Thanks for doing your eye makeup like you do, because its so lovely watching you blink and look around and think about stuff.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thank you

[@BryanTruong]

Love this video! Glad to finally hear your thoughts on the 2nd and 3rd Monkey Island games as well!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thanks!

[@Steve-nk2ds]

This was fun Pam. A few games to check out. I've played lots of adventure games but now realize very few of them were Lucas arts or Sierra (e.g broken sword series, Deponia series, beneath a steel sky, Discworld series, Silence etc plus the kings quest and leisure suit Larry reboots). Would enjoy watching a ranked video of these and others. I have played monkey island series and would agree that they are classics deserving top ranks.

[@JTSuter]

Great video! Another good one from 1989 is Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail.

[@98of99]

Great video, I can say I 95% agree with your raking with the exception of King’s Quest V - I do agree that Cedric was annoying but I have such a personal fondness for it that I’d put it in the A tier. But again, just personal preference and not anything wrong with your own opinion. Thank you and keep up the wonderwonderful work you’re doing!

[@yaurright6003]

Hey Pam! That is a rad stop skeletons from fighting shirt! Great video!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thanks!

[@pkhris]

Yay! so happy to not feel so old thinking about all these memories:) awesome video, Pam!! Personally would have shoved "it's a poisonous snake..." game with it's moon logic MUCH much lower...

[@drowningin]

Oh yeah MetalJesusRocks did an interview with the Williams couple who ran Sierra recently. Well worth a watch to hear interesting things from when they were at their peak

[@BenjaminGessel]

Some games and locations in games have REALLY affected my subconscious, regarding so much of what I look for in games, as well as anything creative I do. These are from just the games I have played. Most of these are not LucasArts or Sierra games… 1.) Loom: the whole game, but in particular, Castlegard and the nearby forest, plus the space area toward the end of the game. Castlegard is the #1 area here (big green tower). The starting area was pretty cool too. The opening area is mysterious, Castlegard is a very uplifting, calming type area, and the last space area is kinda “mind blowing”…. 😁😁 SCUMM engine, yes… 2.) MadMaze: A Prodigy/AOL game. I liked any part with a still animation of a place, because it was so EXCITING to get to a unique place this way, instead of “more maze”. Plus the obstacle/puzzle/riddle/character interaction deal…. I never finished the game, but still loved it… 3.) Legend of Kyrandia: Westwood Studios. Also never finished it. The COLORS…. Just. The COLORS…. I loved the temple area at the beginning, the big willow tree near Brandon’s home, the whole gem collecting deal, Malcolm (he’s kinda milquetoast, to be honest…), the dragon’s mouth entrance to the cave, the different colors and “vibes” of each location-the roses place, the fountains, the well, the wizard’s hut with the purple dragon who was sleepy, the talking sunflower, etc.-and then the confusing cave area, the glowing gem area in the caves, the fire berry whole deal-something along these lines, dying if the berries get too dim/can’t find new berries to replace the old ones, etc. After the cave area, the rest of the game wasn’t QUITE as good-and the alchemy/Zanthia’s deal was too random of a quest, so it kinda “broke” the game at this point…. But the colors, point and click puzzle deal-YES. 👍 4.) The Wheel of Time (Legend): The whole game is AMAZING. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Every area was a GEM. Literally. Every. Single. Area. SO exciting, SO dreamlike/dream fuel…. 👍👍 5.) American McGee’s Alice: YES. 👍 Trippy, YES. 6.) King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity I have played, and I do remember the skeletons, the sylph, etc., but yeah, even though I beat the game, it was not THAT great, yeah… 7.) Baldur’s Gate I/II/TOB: This is the game that was kinda the main “gateway” game for me to the 2000’s and beyond REALLY big fantasy adventure games. I really, REALLY loved Candlekeep, the Carnival area to the east of Nashkel, Durlag’s Tower (HARD), Firewine Bridge/Halfling village, Beregost, the High Hedge Wizard’s abode, the Cloakwood/Iron Mines, Bandit Camp, The Friendly Arm Inn, in Baldur’s Gate: Sorcerous Sundries, High Hall of Wonders, the Ducal Palace, the Iron Throne, pillaging from Entar Silvershield/escaping the guards, the catacombs under Candlekeep, and of course the final battle under Baldur’s Gate. In BGII: Athkatla: Aerie/circus area, The huge market area (where the circus is), The Copper Coronet Inn, the cemetery, The Shadow Thieves, the travelling sphere deal with Valygar, and the bridge area/evil tanner, mixed feelings about the culty area, etc. Elsewhere-Firkraag/that whole area, Spellhold, Suldanesselar, Nalia’s estate, Watcher’s Keep, the Shade Forest area/deal with Mazzy, and Trademeet was ok. The final battle(s) were great too. 😁 In TOB: Eh, the final battle, basically. 8.) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 9.) Fable-kinda 10.) Dragon Age: Origins-kinda

[@skijumpnose]

My favourites are Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island games! Thanks for this Pam, It is cool to see other adventure games that i knew nothing about. Good to find out more just like i did with the CRPG ranking video.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

No problem, glad to introduce some new (old) games.

[@DragonRage1017]

Hero's Quest aka Quest for Glory series was my ultimate favorite!! I do intend to play all of these games and/or finish what I have started. My brother loved Maniac Mansion on the NES.

[@nifftbatuff676]

The quest for glory series wa also a favorite of mine.

[@freeculture]

You should read the rant about the guy who ported Maniac Mansion to the NES, after you read it you will never want to talk about it again. TL;DR Nintendo (of America) censorship.

[@retluoc]

I loved Maniac Mansion...it had enormous replay value. You could play it again and try so many new things...even things that had nothing to do with the outcome. My favorite was recording the tentacle mating cry and sending it to the record producer...his window shattered and I couldn't stop laughing...they actually thought of that.

[@nesmegavanialink350]

Hi Pam, great job on all your videos.

[@OzzFan1000]

My personal favorite, even if I'm looking through rose-tinted glasses, is the Shadow of Yserbius. It was the first game that introduced me to multiplayer online games. The rush of being able to partner up with 3 other people via their online service, The Sierra Network, was just beyond words. Going into the Tavern online to see all the role-playing and/or people looking for groups to adventure with was a level of gameplay I wasn't prepared for in 1991/2. The challenging monsters, the interesting puzzles, and the multi-user dungeon made it quite memorable for me.

[@expsharevideogames]

The first computer my family ever bought had King's Quest 7 pre-installed on it. I was like 10 years old. I remember being really intrigued by it and wanting to progress in the game, but I got stuck right off the bat and never figured out how to get past the scorpion haha. I remember there was some wandering guy in the desert who seemed extremely annoyed by you talking to him. His voice pleading "What do you WANT" is something that has stuck with me for 20+ years haha. I really need to check out Monkey Island. I recently played through Blazing Dragons and started Rise of the Dragon on Sega Saturn and Sega CD respectively

[@Cannotbetamed1]

That pained "what do you want?" line has also stuck in my mind over all these years.

[@martinanderson4873]

Really enjoying your videos - thank you x

[@hazy33]

Great informative video as ever. As for the avatar walking around the screen Valhalla on the ZX Spectrum came out in 1983 a year before King's Quest.

[@LordRapter]

Cool rating video :) I played much of the games you talked about myself, so I think I could agree with you most of the time. :) "The Curse if Monky Island" was one of the first P&C-Adventures i ever played and it is my absolut favorite. I finished it 10-20 times and still love this game. Did anyone ever played a strange game called "Normality"? It was developed by Gremlin Interactive. Its absolutly ugly(it even was when it first came out in 1996) but it has a great and funny story that was highly inspired by George Orwells 1984(my favorite book) and it was absolutly great! Great puzzles, hilarious humor, great characters. But nobody seems to know this game anymore today. I think its very underrated. Maybe because it wasn't a LucasArts or Sierra-Adenture and so it was just overlooked. Really like your rating videos tough. Hope you will make more of it in the future :)

[@AntagonisticAltruist]

The City Map thing in Quest For Glory II was a sort of copy protection. Back in those days games came with all sorts of cool stuff in the box. Because pirating games or any software was so rampant, they would sometimes include items that were hard to copy that you might then need in the game. In the case of QFGII there was a fold out map that would tell you how to navigate the labyrinth like streets of the city. It was actually kind of cool to pull out your offline map and see where you needed to go in game. But after a while you start memorizing how to get places, which is kind of empowering. Good times.

[@NedJeffery]

I did all my maps manually with a pencil and paper. It was part of the fun.

[@ChipsAndWires]

Thank you for this walk down memory lane lane. I can almost hear the hard click of my old 286's big red power switch and whirr of the sub- 1gig 5.25 inch hard drive.

[@VHDT10]

Travelling to different locations gives games more of a sense of environmental variety. It can and has been overdone many times, but it's very effective, if used correctly.

[@daveshank1921]

I loved these old PC games. I remember playing Space Quest Kings Quest and Police Quest on a super old super slow IBM green monitor and all. Good times.

[@artsyebonyrose]

it's really interesting to me that the aspects you disliked in monkey island 2 and king's quest 6 were the hopping between different locations, because that's an aspect i love in those games! which makes sense when i think about how those are two of my favourites haha. travelling back and forth between islands in mi2 makes the game feel more vast to me, like i'm a pirate actually exploring the seas and different islands. i feel a lot more satisfied when i finish the chapter, i feel like i've done a lot :) i understand how the travelling could be annoying for some though, it definitely extends the time it takes to do things (especially if you're figuring out what to do and keep having to go back and forth aimlessly for a bit lol). i feel this more in kq6 bc the travel is kinda slow. it's fun to see how something that attracts some players can do the opposite for other players! also this tier list was really cool, there's a lot on here i've not played or seen playthroughs of, but i'm wanting to get to more of them. quest for glory is a series i've not seen yet. so this was a nice unintentional guider for me to see what to check out next. thank you!

[@rayceeya8659]

Pam, every time I watch one of your videos I learn something new. I never even heard of that rainforest game. I'll have to check that out.

[@JohnDoe-uu2zs]

Great little vid and got me into the mood for a little point n clicking. Gonna have to fire up Indy Jones and the fate of Atlantis though. Def an S on my list!

[@BenRai2k]

I enjoyed this video. Some of these 90s point n click just have beautiful graphics. Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis is my face, Sophia Hapgood is such a sass in it lol. Also again, your The Dig vid was brilliant too.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Fate of Atlantis will be the next one I play.

[@wrathfultick]

Great video, these games really take me back - point and click adventures and CRPGs were my obsessions back in the 80s and 90s. Personally, I wasn't as bothered by the text parsers since I got my start with the old Infocom text adventures but I can see how they could be annoying. Totally forgot how some of these games could get you stuck in a no-win situation, that was the absolute worst. Funny how at some point along the way, game design seems to have shifted from an adversarial relationship with the player to more of an almost co-operative relationship - providing challenge certainly, but not outright kicking you when you're down. Thanks for the memories!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Glad you enjoyed! I'm certainly happy at the more player-friendly designs in games now.

[@PAUL-uk1le]

This video gave me tiers of joy 8) TY Pam

[@Cannotbetamed1]

haha

[@childofthe80s1981]

Day of the Tentacle I really enjoyed it.

[@danielviviani]

Pam, like so much your videos and comments. I've been a persistent adventure games player back in my teenagehood. Loved both Indiana Jones, the Legend of Kyrandia ones, Cthulhu Shadow of the Comet... Awesome! Love also Sam & Max! It'll be great to hear your thoughts on the latter ones

[@freeculture]

I enjoyed the three Kyrandia's. Westwood's quite unique take on the genre.

[@phattjohnson]

Ha! LSL3 was my first adventure game too! Dad brought the discs back from the Sunday markets so we had a crack.. I don't think he expected it to be so risque! :P (You know what, I think I learned the word 'risque' from that game!)

[@childofthe80s1981]

I never played the original King's Quest I did play the vga remake that Sierra made cause it was part of a compilation that I bought back in the day. This compilation also includes the remakes of Space Quest I, Police Quest I, Quest For Glory I, and Leisure Suit Larry I.

[@Ephesians-6-12.]

The first game I ever bought with my own money was Conqueror A.D 1086, a medieval strategy game by Sierra back in '95. Man that game was just the full package to me as a kid, great memories. Thanks Pam, for reminding me : )

[@Travis-hp4jr]

great channel! keep up the good work!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thanks!

[@crayhact]

It's really nice to have someone giving thoughtful reviews of old games here without drowning everything in absolutes and hype. I'd be really interested to know where you'd put Fate of Atlantis on this list after playing it, and also my old favourite, Sam & Max Hit the Road. They both involve the back-and-forth travel that was really common at the time, but the stories and voice acting are top notch. Also, if you can stomach just a few (dozen) more arbitrary deaths, at least one Space Quest game would probably be worth your time; they were the funniest of the Sierra games by a long shot.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

I'd like to try those all at some point.

[@TheShadowseesyou]

I approve of this list monkey island is god tier. I would also agree with monkey island 2 also what made it worst back in the day was its on 11 floppy disks

[@Cannotbetamed1]

11 floppies, wow. I think the most I ever had to deal with was 8.

[@MotherKojiro]

I'm glad to see that there's someone else who thought that Grim Fandango is overrated and King's Quest 7 is underrated. Personal S-Tiers for me are Finding Teddy, Fran Bow, Kathy Rain, King's Quest 3 and 6, Legend of Kyrandia: Book 1, and Thimbleweed Park. Of them, I think you'd like Kathy Rain, the Legend of Kyrandia series (1 and 2, at least; 3 is pretty rough), Thimbleweed Park, and maybe Finding Teddy and Kathy Rain. Finding Teddy is especially neat because you have to decipher a language based entirely on sound and music notes, which may be a dealbreaker for some, but I'm really stupid when it comes to music theory, and I was able to get through just fine.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

I've played Finding Teddy, Fran Bow, Kathy Rain and Thimbleweed park. None of those are LucasArts or Sierra games though.

[@MotherKojiro]

@@Cannotbetamed1 Oh yeah, sorry about that; I don't know what made me think it was just all Adventure games...

[@Davey_Cakes]

That EGA style from the late 80's is so memorable. While you didn't rank any of the Laura Bow games I just wanted to bring up The Colonel's Bequest because it might be one of the best looking games ever. Even in the days of the "retro revival" you just don't see a lot of that style anymore. It's really evocative and time warp-y.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

I still need to play the LauraBow games, they seem like something I'd like.

[@PCGamingGoodies]

At the time, many people didn't yet have color monitors, myself included, and had to play some of these games in black and white. These games often had a monochrome setting. My first memories of the early Sierra games were all in black and white.

[@Davey_Cakes]

@@PCGamingGoodies Either that or people had to play in CGA which wasn’t great but now has nostalgia attached to it. I remember being a kid and enjoying full color experiences as well as some of the more limited stuff. Shoutout to Skullduggery: Adventures in Horror.

[@kjhoskins]

Great stuff, Pam. Thanks for the video.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Thanks for watching!

[@roberttolan7894]

Thank you for your input. Found it real interesting

[@stroaters]

Was waiting for sam and max hit the road which never came up in your list! One of the best for sure, do give it a go! :) Oh and thank you for this awesome review!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

I've played it since, and really enjoyed it.

[@winterburden]

That's so amazing Pam, thank you for ranking them for us! 😊

[@Cannotbetamed1]

No problem 😊

[@lancebaylis3169]

Fun fact: King's Quest was revolutionary also not just for featuring graphics (when an adventure game previously only featured text) but by having 'arcade style' character control, ie being able to actually walk your character around the game enviroment, behind and in front of scenery, etc. That stuff was mind-blowing on the PCs of the early/mid '80s. And Sierra used King's Quest as their platform for this kind of thing for decades. Every new KQ game brought with it a new enhancement or technology. The fourth introduced sound cards and a full musical soundtrack (other games like Space Quest 3 employed actual rock stars to compose the soundtrack). The fifth game in the series was one of the earliest with full speech for every character and the sixth featured major musical set pieces with established broadway stars providing the voices/singing in massive multimedia sequences. King's Quest 7 used cell drawn animation and felt like an interactive cartoon. Every game was a step forward for not just the genre, but gaming in general.

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Yeah, I mentioned the character control.

[@battlepants5818]

Nice video! Would be intresting to see a part 2 with games from other developers. And i agree about Grim Fandango.

[@kweirlmang]

Monkey Island among my favorite games ever! Nice to see them ranked so high.