Recommend a solo adventure game

[Mercule]

My wife is looking for something she can play as a stress reliever. She had been playing Fate and enjoyed Diablo 2, so I'm interested in something along those lines. I have Morrowind, and she sounded interested, but I'm wondering if it's too involved for her (it's almost too involved for me), but she enjoyed Daggerfall back in the day. And Temple of Elemental Evil was fine, except for being too buggy.

The criteria:
- Kill stuff -- this is groovy for stress.
- Not heinously bloody -- there's a small chance young kids will pop into the room while she's playing.
- No anti-heroes or villanous protagonists -- she nixed Soul Reaver on the PS2 because of this.
- The ability to just sit down and play -- we're talking 1-2 hour blocks, tops, so nothing that takes that long just to make a character.
- Save at any (or almost any) time -- again with small blocks of play time.
- Interesting -- if she wanted repetitive she'd play solitaire.
- Character advancement -- some sort of leveling/skill system that brings new toys.
- More adventure than action -- Diablo 2 is fine, but nothing that plays better with a joystick/game pad than a mouse.
- Primarily single-player -- both of us loathe online games.
- Western fantasy setting -- definitely no sci-fi or manga-fantasy, though really great gameplay might be a consideration, as might something sci-fantasy like Star Wars.
- Runs on Windows Vista -- it's what she's got on her computer.

I was thinking about picking up Neverwinter Nights, or some such, but I'm not sure what's even current and available. Any recommendations?

 

[Thanee]

Maybe Titan Quest Gold (greek mythology fantasy, Diablo-like game) would be a good fit; it's available pretty cheap, too.

NWN: The current is Neverwinter Nights 2 with one Expansion out.

Bye
Thanee

 

[trancejeremy]

Just for the record, those games are called RPGs (despite the lack of roleplaying). Adventure games are the sort where you point and click and figure out puzzles and there's generally no combat

Anyway, some suggestions: Titanquest (really cheap), Sacred

 

[FormerlyDickensC]

I want to suggest Overclocked: A History of Violence, but I think it breaks a couple of your requirements. Titan Quest is a great Diablo clone, esp with the TQ Expansion (forget the name).

If by some chance she decides she likes the darker games, Robert D. Anderson and the Legacy of Cthulhu is kinda neat. Or Dark Corners of the Earth.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Hmm... If still want to try out Adventure Games:
-The Dig
-Indiana Jones and The Infernal Machine
-Sam and Max (both new and old)
-The Longest Journey
-Dreamfall

Are some good ones.

Ones in your criteria:
-Titan Quest
-Oblivion (it is more shallow then Morrowind)
-NWN 2
-Baldur's Gate
-Icewind Dale
-Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
-The Witcher
-Fable

If you want to try out of fantasy:
-Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (though... only should be played when no kids are around)
-Mass Effect (coming to PC soon)
-Hellgate (slightly bloody)

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Neverwinter Nights 2 and The Witcher would get a recommendation from me, too.

Oh, and there isn't really anything to say against Neverwinter Nights 1, either. The second expansion was the best, in my opinion. It should be cheap getting the base game and its two expansion, there are tons of mods, and it should work on even cheaper/older hardware fine. (And personally, I like the NWN 1 character models better then the NWN 2 ones.)

All NWN games have the advantage that you can also play them online and over network locally, so even if online games aka WoW aren't for you, you and your wife could play together occasionally. Oh, and you can count on further modules coming out for both games, so you should get a lot of playtime out of them.

 

[Thanee]

-The Witcher
-Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (though... only should be played when no kids are around)

While both are exceptional games, I don't think they would be a good idea.

- Not heinously bloody -- there's a small chance young kids will pop into the room while she's playing.
- No anti-heroes or villanous protagonists -- she nixed Soul Reaver on the PS2 because of this.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Merkuri]

I second Sacred. I played that a while ago, and it's a Diablo clone that does a lot right. If she liked Diablo she'll probably enjoy Sacred.

 

[Mercule]

Thanks, all.

I decided to pick up NWN2. It really looks like a great game. While it's a bit more mechanically complicated than I'd normally pick for her, I figured playing a weekly 3.5 table-top game would offset that.

Witcher looked awesome, too, but definitely seemed like it'd be too mature for her tastes or to really even consider playing it near a 3 and 5 year old. None of the games are stuff I'm going to let them sit and watch for hours, but there are some that a quick pass through the room or what not aren't any big deal.

Now, the bad news. Apparently NWN2 has heftier video requirements than I expected. I figured a year-old computer that run the Aero interface fine would be fine with just scaling back textures and shadowing, at worst. It won't even run, natively. I found an emulator/spoofer type tool that lets us play it. Even then, it doesn't run real well. But, I was thinking about getting a graphics card, anyway.

Any recommendations? I've never really found myself needing anything besides an integrated graphics card before. We aren't heavy gamers and Civ 4 was at the top end of what I cared about. I don't want to spend any more than I have to, but as long as I'm buying, I want something that will handle my needs for a couple of years. I don't even know what the numbers/names mean.

For the record, I have the Baldur's Gate games. They run okay on Vista, but are definitely showing their age -- or maybe they just can't handle the wide-screen monitor well. Plus, I found that I couldn't stand the idea of going back to 2e mechanics.

 

[Bront]

What kind of video card you have in that machine? Are the drivers up to date?

Vista could be the problem more than anything else. I recall hearing NWN2 having vista issues, but I could be wrong.

As for a game recomendation, Oddly enough, Guild Wars can be played as a solo game, has fairly simple mechanics, and should run on an older PC.