The "problem" with Old Skies and Rosewater – A fair & balanced rant

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Features by Adventure Game Hotspot staff
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Wadjet Eye Games' Old Skies and Grundislav Games' Rosewater are two of the best and most popular adventures released in recent memory. So more than a few sphincters probably tightened when the Space Quest Historian turned his attention to both games in his latest "fair & balanced rant" video. Surely he wouldn't dump all over these two fan favourites, would he?!

Rest assured, he does not. He very much likes them, in fact. But SQH uses the opportunity to highlight a growing trend in modern adventures. Call it the ease-ification of games into smaller-scale, episodic-like "missions" or "self-contained mini-adventures" that keep the focus narrow and the possibilities for getting stuck extremely low.

Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily! Good riddance to moon logic and bizarre, what-were-they-thinking puzzles of yesteryear that only made a modicum of sense after the fact, if then. But it's a far cry from the genre's Golden Age classics like Monkey Island, which generally favoured complex problem solving through exploration of ever-increasing worlds.

So has the pendulum swung too far the other way now? Old Skies and Rosewater are two modern examples of this streamlining trend, each of them putting great (and effective) emphasis on story and character dialogue while going to great lengths to ensure that players never get lost, especially with companions there to lend an (overly?) helpful hand even when you don't need it.

It's an interesting question, with many different layers, and the Space Quest Historian uses his familiar razor-sharp wit and insight to work through them. (Warnings for small spoilers of the two games, and a bit of "blue" language if you're sensitive to such things – because, SQH.)

The Space Quest Historian is part of the Adventure Game Hotspot Network, a collective of talented, dedicated content producers who work entirely independently but have joined forces to promote each other’s efforts. All opinions expressed belong solely to the original creators.