Developer – Atari Inc.
Publisher – Atari Inc.
Designer – Warren Robinett
Rating – N/A
Developed in 1979 by Atari and Warren Robinett, Adventure provided the catalyst needed for developers to create some of the greatest video game series ever made, including The Legend of Zelda and The Elder Scrolls. However, regardless of how much influence it has had, I did not get any enjoyment or satisfaction from playing it. Perhaps I’m being biased since it was before my time and I was introduced to games when standards had increased. But I found flaws that I believe could have been addressed at the time and they weren’t.
Graphics – 3/10
There is some small basis in visual diversity, as most areas in the game are color-coded, which was commonplace for home consoles of the day. But my biggest gripe with how the game looks is in the main character, which is simply a square. I’ve always thought that if the developers could get the dragon sprites to look vaguely like dragons, then they could have gotten the player character, who was presumably a human, to look even vaguely like a human. I realize that imagination played a much more significant role due to the technological limits, but this is ridiculous.
Games like Berserk and pitfall had much better-looking character sprites than this. An interesting thing about the visuals in the game, however, is that there is one of the first examples of a video game Easter egg included; a border in the black castle stage saying “Created by Warren Robinett”. This was a particularly risky thing to do since Atari didn’t credit developers with the making of their games. But Robinett left Atari before they were able to discover it.
Gameplay – 2/10
Even for the time, I found this game to be far too dull and unimaginative to be enjoyable. The combat system is extremely primitive, and I also found a good number of game-breaking glitches whilst playing. Keys must be collected in order to unlock each area of the game, but it is possible for keys to accidentally merge into walls, and the player will not be able to retrieve them again, making the game unplayable upon this happening.
Controls – 6/10
Though the controls scheme is simple enough to grasp. The main button the Atari 2600 is made to be completely redundant. It has the same effect on an item as what would happen if the player were to simply come in contact with it using the directional stick. To me, it doesn’t bode well that the developers couldn’t find another use for the main button in a game. Especially whereby there were plenty of options open to them, even for the time. Its especially daunting, since the button was used in other games to attack, and this game’s combat system is unrefined.
Originality – 7/10
Despite the fact that the game is extremely unimaginative and boring to play, it is still owed respect to any fan of modern open-world adventure gaming, since it has inspired the creation of so many classics over the years. Without Adventure, there would be no Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, or Shadow of the Colossus. Though I did not enjoy this game, I can appreciate would be released in the future as a result.
Angrii
In summary, though the likes of Legend of Zelda were born from the ashes of Adventure, I did not enjoy playing this early Atari 2600 game at all. It was Ed Koch who once stated “in action, be primitive; in foresight, a strategist”, and to me, that sums up the approach that Warren Robinett took towards developing it.