Once a very prominent genre in the 80s and 90s, true adventure games are getting increasingly difficult to find. Generally focusing on an interactive story that is driven primarily by player exploration and puzzle-solving, some famous examples of a classic adventure game are Myst, King’s Quest, and Zork. A different approach to the genre, Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry series offered an adult-themed take on adventure games. Leisure Suit Larry follows the titular Larry – a balding, humorous, suit-wearing man in his 40s – through his misadventures looking for love in various resorts, hotels, and casinos.
The Leisure Suit Larry franchise has spanned over twelve titles since its inception in 1987. The first six, released from 1987 to 1996 and created by Al Lowe, were successful adventure games praised for their adult humor and unique style. The five games that have been released since then – with the most recent one launching in 2020 – were created by different developers and were not very successful critically or financially.
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Thankfully, the website Indiegala is now offering some of the original infamous Leisure Suit Larry titles for free right now for those curious about the older games in the franchise. Fans can grab the second title, Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking For Love (in Several Wrong Places), as well as Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals, and Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work. Indiegala also offered the original title, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, for free earlier this year, too. Indiegala does not state how long these games will be available.
It may seem odd to not offer the fourth title in the series, but that is because it doesn’t actually exist. Leisure Suit Larry was originally intended to be a trilogy, and after finishing the third title creator Al Lowe took a break from working on the series. When he returned to it, he created the fifth installment, Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work, skipping the fourth title entirely. In the fifth game, Larry has amnesia and has forgotten an entire game’s worth of adventures.
While adventure games have certainly gone by the wayside to some extent, some developers do still produce such titles. Apart from Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead and Tales From the Borderlands, Square Enix’s Life is Strange franchise and Quantic Dream’s Detroit: Become Human also offer slick adventure-style games with high production values and branching narratives.
Of course, some elements of traditional adventures games live on in other modern genres, too. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 2 is a highly cinematic adventure that echoes the adventure genre’s key features in various ways, despite the increased emphasis on combat. Still, it’s hard not to look back fondly on such classic titles as Myst and original Leisure Suit Larry and miss those traditional adventure genre titles.
Leisure Suit Larry Wet Dreams Dry Twice is available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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Source: PC Gamer
