It's different in the core mechanic, but if you haven't played Return of the Obra Dinn, it's one of the most rewarding, well-crafted games I've experienced in the past decade, and scratched a similar itch of the old Sierra games, though again, not a pure text or point and click adventure... more a 3D, 1-bit murder mystery done as a detective game. It's simply brilliant.

Its a great game, but its more of a logic game than a sierra-style adventure in any way: no inventory, no dialog trees, no verbs, and no objects to interact with!

IIRC, the only interaction with the scene is using the pocketwatch on a corpse.

In the same category of deduction games: The Case of the Golden Idol [1]. Very much reproduces the 1990s game vibe, and a very unique game with an absolutely unique, bonkers story universe. The story extends to the excellent (but aesthetically blander, in my opinion) sequel.

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1677770/The_Case_of_the_G...

Seconded. I grew up with Lucasarts (and Sierra, to a lesser extent) point and clicks, but somehow I find they had the side effect to pretty much being the peak of that specific type of adventure game, so even if there are plenty of indie modern games of the same style, they somehow never reach the heights of the originals they are inspired by.

For this reason, I find much more interesting those modern games that scratch the same itch but try different mechanics and styles.

Obra Dinn and Golden Idol are for sure in my top three of post-2000 adventure games, and I would add Outer Wilds at the top.

I'd put up Lamplight City [1] with the best of 'em.

1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamplight_City]

I've enjoyed many of Wadjet Eye's games. Primordia [1] was fantastic, and just as good as the oldies. The Blackwell series, which I've not yet played, is universally loved.

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/227000/Primordia/

That one and the sequel are very good, but not adventure games - more puzzle in a box. Still very much worth it!

Anyone who liked Obra Dinn and Golden Idol might also like The Roottrees Are Dead. The presentation might be a little less polished, but the deduction is fun.

Her Story is also worth mentioning. Good acting, very polished presentation. Fun retro feel and a great gameplay loop. The only possible drawback is that there's no clear victory (this seems to be typical of Sam Barlow games, which are all worth playing). You're left to come to your own conclusion, which may or may not be correct.

Funeral for the Sun also came out recently. I'd call it more guess-y than Obra Dinn or the Golden Idol, but also very fun.

Other smaller games in this niche would be "Death at Fleming Manor" and "The Seance at Blake Manor", if we're collecting. Which we should. Maybe I need a blog.

Funeral for the Sun looks cool. Thanks for the recommendation.

I'll add the Broken Sword games to the recommendations. They are classic point-and-click adventures. Also Runaway.

You can experience them. Just type those titles into a search engine.

I wrote: "Would be interesting to be able to experience them *from scratch* with the mind of my present being"

There are enough contemporary games of similar quality that you can still experience for the first time. There's really no end to them. Check out: Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Discworld, Snatcher, Policenauts, etc...

I was a huge fan of Sam & Max and Day of the Tentacle back in the day. I played Full Throttle recently and it was awesome.

To add to your list, Machinarium is an absolute masterpiece. Beautiful hand drawn art, and some of the best puzzles in the genre (IMO). Anything from Amanita Design is worth playing, but it takes the cake.

And they announced the sequel just a few weeks ago!

My favourite Amanita games are the Samarost series. Something about the lack of dialogue, devious puzzles, quirky humour, and unique aesthetic combining sci-fi with a world of moss, wood, and weird junk.

Creaks was also excellent, albeit a very different vibe. I couldn't quite get into Phonopolis, although the art direction is stunning.

> the Paris underground

It was Venice underground, The Last Crusade (Indy3.exe)

> Simon the Sorcerer

That's not common to hear, thanks for the throwback ;)

To me, Simon the Sorcerer was almost the Harry Potter universe but 20 years earlier, with the bright purples and cosy taverns...

til Phantasmagoria had sequel.....!

Don't we all?

Going back isn't enough. What I wanted again was the feeling of seeing and playing those games for the first time. The awe. My kids were born in a world where color graphics and digital sound were everywhere so nothing is impressive to them.

I can very much recommend looking at games developed and published by Wadjet Eye Games.

You can see the learning throughout the years, with the Blackwell Chronicles being a bit linear, and some games in between being a bit of a miss.

But "Unavowed" or the new "Old Skies" are excellent games I consider on par with the old golden age. "Technobabylon", "Resonance" and "The Excavation of Hob's Barrow" are also very far up.

Yes Technobabylon was pretty good. Need to check the others! Thanks

I played Gemini Rue. It was pretty good, enough to remember.

Have you tried «the drifter»? It is amazingly good

I have The Drifter on the Todolist.

For some other smaller devs: "Elroy and the Aliens" was also a really good one. "Kathy Rain" also came out as a directors cut recently. There are some fun changes in there. "An English Haunting" was also fun. "If Fusion were that easy" was also quite neat.

There is a bunch of cool adventure games in the old style coming out recently. It's just hard to find them because "Adventure" and "Point & Click" are just such overloaded tags on Steam. Pretty much everything is tagged as "Adventure"

Also Loom and Dig

loved both

I miss scumvm games. they could make new ones id play

Have you seen all the free games you can play on scummvm?

https://www.scummvm.org/games/

Thanks for reminding me about Beneath a Steel Sky. Still need to play that one :)

Not quite the same thing, but I found the Ace Attorney series was fun in a similar way. Same with Ghost Trick, by the same creator.

And Grim Fandango if you hadn't played it.

Stylistically, Grim Fandango is a 10/10.

That said, I tried playing it again recently and the puzzles do not hold up. Extremely frustrating and unsatisfying solutions.

I would not be opposed to a remaster of the game that also fixes some of the puzzles - similar to what the Cyan team (controversially) did with their Myst and Riven remakes.

I think the world has just changed. Back then, the puzzles were just right, because often you would get the demo of the game on a CD bundled with a magazine and it would kind of suck to be done in 10 minutes, whereas with a challenge (even an obtuse one) you could play the demo over and over, enjoying the sights and sounds, without feeling like you were wasting time on a "replay", since you hadn't yet cracked it. On top of that there wasn't really a glut of these kinds of almost indie-styled yet big studio games in the adventure genre so it would be one of the few games you'd have bought, and again it would suck to be done with it too soon.

There were a couple of games though (like the curse of monkey island) that gave you a bit of a choice on how much you cared about spending time on puzzles.

In the TikTok era, you could probably make the argument that even a shape matching puzzle is obtuse and overly difficult and it could be a popular opinion.

The Nintendo DS stimulated a bit of a renaissance in point-and-click adventure games -- maybe because the touch screen lent itself so well to that style of gameplay.

The first Ace Attorney game is riveting from start to finish.

The Professor Layton games are all great.

I've read that Hotel Dusk and Last Window are both really good but haven't gotten around to playing them myself. I can vouch for Last Window's soundtrack, though, which is spectacular.

Grim Fandango is absolutely one of the best games of all time. Yes, some of the puzzles are very difficult. I had to read a walkthrough to figure out the cat race ticket number.

I felt the same magic as an adult twice.

Once with Machinarium, and again with A Short Hike