Ranking the Best and Worst Sierra and LucasArts Adventure Games | Cannot be Tamed 

Day of the Tentacle only B tier hurts so much. But hey, tastes and colours !

The Space Quest series is by far some of the best material Sierra has released

If yoy have not playd Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. You just have to play it. Its the best Indiana Jones game ever.

I haven't finished watching this yet, but I just wanted to say, "Graham, watch out! A POIIII-SON-OUS snake!"

This was an entertaining review list. Couple of recommendations: The Dagger of Amon Ra, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Codename: Iceman.

"Alexander pulls out his magic map." These words will stick with me until the day I die. 😅

These games are such a big part of my childhood. Thank you for this. Brings back a lot of memories.

Hey Pam, enjoyed the video. I would recommend : Sam & Max Hit The Road from LucasArts, a definite classic.

I got my first computer in 1994 at age 16 and it came with King's Quest VI. I was a Nintendo nerd but this game hooked me AND drove me crazy. It was the early years of the internet and I remember going to Electronics Boutique to try to find a guide for it but to no avail. I finally beat it almost two years later on my own and was absolutely my gateway drug to other adventure games.

Roberta Williams definitely enjoyed hitting a dead end and starting a game over with better knowledge of what to do to avoid it. It's the choose-your-adventure book mindset applied to videogames that a few chosen ones have, and I do not: I want to beat a game in a reasonable time and move on to the next.

I think the transition from requiring CGA/EGA support in games (and having them fit on disks) was the primary reason for the crisp dithered pixel art style which I also loved too. Great video thank you for the nostalgia!

I remember Sierra from my childhood as making The Black Cauldron and Donald Duck’s Playground. I spent so much time on those as a six or seven year old.

The reason why KQ1 was so iconic is that its the first PC game that used hacked graphics. Prior to KQ1 PC games looked like.. S***. What KQ1 used was to hack the text mode to use all the available colors making it look more like, if not better, than other games of the day. So despite popular belief, KQ1 is actually CGA. (just like original larry) KQ4 and LL2 was in EGA... or rather PCjr/tandy graphic (there was very few game in true EGA). KQ1 was later remade with this engine. Later when VGA games came around, there was a similar situation. IBM first launched MCGA as a 128kB 256 color grapics mode. This later evolved into VGA, but a lot of games, specially early once, was made for MCGA (that could also be shown on VGA).

Another very nice video! On the subject of missing items, two of them were, back when I played them at the time, probably my favourites that would fit in the category: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam and Max Hit the Road. Also if the category is broadened out to cover similar games from other publishers, the Broken Sword games were great.

The QFG2, Trial by Fire remake has an option to simplify the travel. The maze in the original really bogged down the game. I believe it's intent was as copy protection, forcing you to use the map that came with game. Worst part of the game. The remake is worth checking out. For purists, you can select the classic street layout. It's a great remake. Oh, and the import system is compatible.

I didn't play most of these games, but I remember really liking King's Quest 8. Also Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis seems to be missing from this list, so if you didn't play that I highly recommend it.

My all-time favorite was The Dig, it was short, but very memorable

I can still remember playing the original King's Quest on a Tandy 1000. The 160x200 graphic adventure blew out my 10 year old mind.

Great video Pam! My S tiers games are Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island 1&2, and maybe The Dig. I am going to play more of Curse of Monkey Island 3 ASAP, but I am unfortunately having trouble with it saving properly. I found your take on Leisure Suit Larry Love for Sail very relatable, I feel it's a hidden gem. One Sierra adventure game I would love to see you cover in the future is EcoQuest. It's an easier game made for younger audiences but still I found it to be memorable.

Monkey Island 1-3 were always the best in my book. I wish more games got art like Monkey Island 3. That was so beautiful. I've rebought most of the Sierra games during Steam sales. You can get them for a few bucks during sales

Pam, every time I watch one of your videos I learn something new. I never even heard of that rainforest game. I'll have to check that out.

Really enjoying your videos - thank you x

Hi Pam, I’m pretty excited about the list of games you had ranked there and can’t wait to play some of them on my new laptop. Solid video!

Yay! so happy to not feel so old thinking about all these memories:) awesome video, Pam!! Personally would have shoved "it's a poisonous snake..." game with it's moon logic MUCH much lower...

That's so amazing Pam, thank you for ranking them for us! 😊

I remember when my buddy got Full Throttle, we played it all the time. Pam you always do a great job with your reviews, thank you. Looking forward to future videos!

I can't tell you how much your video touched on my childhood. I'd even bring the Sierra Online magazine to school to read over and over again haha. I would play these all the time, and whenever I talk to a gamer who hasn't played them growing up, I can't believe it. My favorite series were Monkey Island and Space Quest. Thank you! :)

I've just found your channel. Loving all of your videos...I'm Watching them all! Keep up the good content!

YASSSS. This may be my favorite subject of yours yet. The very first computer games brought home by my older brother was a Sierra 3-pack with Police Quest II, Manhunter 2, and Hoyle's Book of Games. And some of my best memories as a kid are of flipping through a Lucasfilm catalog and reading about games such as Full Throttle, Sam & Max, and one of the few I was actually able to play back then (and still one of my all-time favorites), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Love love love this video.

Great and fun video. It would be nice to hear what you think about Sam and Max and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis as well in another video 😊 Keep up the good work! Cheers!

Love this video! Glad to finally hear your thoughts on the 2nd and 3rd Monkey Island games as well!

This was a fun video Pam. It flew right by!

Great informative video as ever. As for the avatar walking around the screen Valhalla on the ZX Spectrum came out in 1983 a year before King's Quest.

Nice video! Would be intresting to see a part 2 with games from other developers. And i agree about Grim Fandango.

I absolutely love your content. There’s a severe lack of retro point and click game content on RU-vid and I’m so glad I just found your channel. It’s definitely the best one and I can’t believe I went so long without knowing of it. Thanks so much for making these fantastic videos. I just watched your The Dig and Loom videos and they were so polished and entertaining to watch.

Oooooo! A "D" for Zak! I can't remember if the copyright stuff was as intrusive on the C64, but it was present in some form for sure. I definitely enjoyed it more than you did when I played it back in 80'-90', but can appreciate the frustration with it's implementation as you described it.

Great video. A very belatedThanks for posting. 😊

"I went to my Aunt's house and Leisure Suit Larry 3 was the only game she had on her computer." I have many questions.

Nice video. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a must play. The story is great and there are three diferent paths. Lots of replay value

Kings Quest V was the first graphic adventure I remember playing, will never forget getting my ass killed in the desert over and over

Hi Pam, great job on all your videos.

Another great video Pam. You are a delight, I say with the utmost respect!

Personally I would out Day of the Tentacle a rank higher. LSL 6 I would recommend playing again if you don't recall it well. I actually go back and forth on it and 7 being my favorite of the series. I am shocked and appalled (not really lol) at the ranking of Grim Fandango. I really enjoyed that game so much so I actually bothered to buy the remaster edition even though I still own the original which is something I normally wouldn't bother to do.

This was fun Pam. A few games to check out. I've played lots of adventure games but now realize very few of them were Lucas arts or Sierra (e.g broken sword series, Deponia series, beneath a steel sky, Discworld series, Silence etc plus the kings quest and leisure suit Larry reboots). Would enjoy watching a ranked video of these and others. I have played monkey island series and would agree that they are classics deserving top ranks.

Love this and would love to see more retro game rankings.

Gabriel Knight 1 anything but S rank, whaaaaat?! =O That's it! Sick the dogs on her, boys! We got us a non-believer here! (Just kiddin'!) I LOVE all the Sierra/LucasArts content you do! These games will never get old to me. One of the most awesome parts of watching your videos about them, is that back when we were all kids playing them, we didn't have the internet yet to talk about them. If you were lucky, a local BBS might have a message board where someone might strike up a conversation about one but... that was pretty rare. So, it's like we've all got YEARS of excited discussion in us, to make up for those internetless years.

As much as the Monkey Island series is my favorite, I was laughing at the “Sanford and Son” reference you had playing for QG III.

Excellent video and a great trip down memory lane. Suggestion for a future "rank 'em" series - PC FMV Adventure games outside of Sierra and Lucas Arts (i.e. Tex Murphy, Return to Zork, etc.).

Great vid Pam! Brought back lots of fun memories - loved playing adventure games with my friends as kids - the Monkey Island games on my Amiga 500 & King Quest (esp 3) series & Manic Mansion on my best friend’s dad’s PC! 😉 Would love to know your take on more recent games - Thimbleweed Park / Jenny Le Clu / Tangled Towers / Darkside Detective series. Hope that you and Lilly are well n grand!

Hero's Quest aka Quest for Glory series was my ultimate favorite!! I do intend to play all of these games and/or finish what I have started. My brother loved Maniac Mansion on the NES.

My favourites are Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island games! Thanks for this Pam, It is cool to see other adventure games that i knew nothing about. Good to find out more just like i did with the CRPG ranking video.

Some games and locations in games have REALLY affected my subconscious, regarding so much of what I look for in games, as well as anything creative I do. These are from just the games I have played. Most of these are not LucasArts or Sierra games… 1.) Loom: the whole game, but in particular, Castlegard and the nearby forest, plus the space area toward the end of the game. Castlegard is the #1 area here (big green tower). The starting area was pretty cool too. The opening area is mysterious, Castlegard is a very uplifting, calming type area, and the last space area is kinda “mind blowing”…. 😁😁 SCUMM engine, yes… 2.) MadMaze: A Prodigy/AOL game. I liked any part with a still animation of a place, because it was so EXCITING to get to a unique place this way, instead of “more maze”. Plus the obstacle/puzzle/riddle/character interaction deal…. I never finished the game, but still loved it… 3.) Legend of Kyrandia: Westwood Studios. Also never finished it. The COLORS…. Just. The COLORS…. I loved the temple area at the beginning, the big willow tree near Brandon’s home, the whole gem collecting deal, Malcolm (he’s kinda milquetoast, to be honest…), the dragon’s mouth entrance to the cave, the different colors and “vibes” of each location-the roses place, the fountains, the well, the wizard’s hut with the purple dragon who was sleepy, the talking sunflower, etc.-and then the confusing cave area, the glowing gem area in the caves, the fire berry whole deal-something along these lines, dying if the berries get too dim/can’t find new berries to replace the old ones, etc. After the cave area, the rest of the game wasn’t QUITE as good-and the alchemy/Zanthia’s deal was too random of a quest, so it kinda “broke” the game at this point…. But the colors, point and click puzzle deal-YES. 👍 4.) The Wheel of Time (Legend): The whole game is AMAZING. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Every area was a GEM. Literally. Every. Single. Area. SO exciting, SO dreamlike/dream fuel…. 👍👍 5.) American McGee’s Alice: YES. 👍 Trippy, YES. 6.) King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity I have played, and I do remember the skeletons, the sylph, etc., but yeah, even though I beat the game, it was not THAT great, yeah… 7.) Baldur’s Gate I/II/TOB: This is the game that was kinda the main “gateway” game for me to the 2000’s and beyond REALLY big fantasy adventure games. I really, REALLY loved Candlekeep, the Carnival area to the east of Nashkel, Durlag’s Tower (HARD), Firewine Bridge/Halfling village, Beregost, the High Hedge Wizard’s abode, the Cloakwood/Iron Mines, Bandit Camp, The Friendly Arm Inn, in Baldur’s Gate: Sorcerous Sundries, High Hall of Wonders, the Ducal Palace, the Iron Throne, pillaging from Entar Silvershield/escaping the guards, the catacombs under Candlekeep, and of course the final battle under Baldur’s Gate. In BGII: Athkatla: Aerie/circus area, The huge market area (where the circus is), The Copper Coronet Inn, the cemetery, The Shadow Thieves, the travelling sphere deal with Valygar, and the bridge area/evil tanner, mixed feelings about the culty area, etc. Elsewhere-Firkraag/that whole area, Spellhold, Suldanesselar, Nalia’s estate, Watcher’s Keep, the Shade Forest area/deal with Mazzy, and Trademeet was ok. The final battle(s) were great too. 😁 In TOB: Eh, the final battle, basically. 8.) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 9.) Fable-kinda 10.) Dragon Age: Origins-kinda

Your eyes are amazing! Thanks for doing your eye makeup like you do, because its so lovely watching you blink and look around and think about stuff.

Thank you for your input. Found it real interesting

Weird, I didn't get a notification for this, and seeing how point & click LucasArts (primarily) adventure games is my favorite "genre"... Neat list, was a little surprised to see you put CMI above MI2 though! S: Grim Fandango, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Day of the Tentacle, and... I knew some were missing; Sam & Max Hit the Road (S) and Fate of Atlantis (S/A)!

I would love a list again of these but this time from other developers. I remember games like Kyrandia, Simon the sorceror, beneath a steel sky, Broken sword to name a few.

Regarding Day of the Tentacle, the different time periods are not just different locations like in Monkey Island 2, they actually have a unique mechanic where some puzzles are dependent on thing done in certain time periods affecting other time periods and items left in one time period changing on other time periods and then can be sent back to be used in puzzles

Great video, would love to see your thoughts on other adventure/point-and-click games

I love Mask of Eternity so much. I feel like it's greatly underrated. For people who haven't gotten far in it, it really does have puzzles (lol) and it uses them in often-times creative and non-arbitrary ways. But it's not perfect and I'm not surprised where it landed.

This video gave me tiers of joy 8) TY Pam

The first game I ever bought with my own money was Conqueror A.D 1086, a medieval strategy game by Sierra back in '95. Man that game was just the full package to me as a kid, great memories. Thanks Pam, for reminding me : )

for anyone interested- the Grim Fandango soundtrack has recently been released on vinyl, it has great artwork and remastered tracks with live orchestras. Also, the Curse of Monkey Island soundtrack is Hi res on RU-vid, and its really good. I personally have lots nostalgic memories attached to both of these games, and I think the music played a big part of that connection.

Myst and Shadowgate were my jam. Indeed, that is a nice bimodal distribution. Good to see Lily and thanks for the vid.

I recently ran across your interview on Smash JT discussing the Vampire the Masquerade video. Your nuanced thoughts on the matter really impressed me.

I was hyped to see this video in my game. But you broke my heart right off the bat with "I don't like text parsers" and "this will have an impact in the ranking" :( Text parsing was my childhood and when point and click interface kicked in... it was a major step down for me. Still... great way to spend 40 minutes this morning for me. Thanks for the video!

One of the very specific design goals for Lucas Arts was to avoid not only the deaths but the unsolvable endings mentioned by her. In fact they made a joke of Sierra games in Monkey Island I where they simulate the typical Sierra death and later say "just kidding" of sorts (falling of a cliff). However Maniac Mansion didn't really apply these concepts to the full, no idea about Zak, never played it.

Great job with this video and the reviews. For me, Day of Tentacle and Grim Fandango belong in the S category. It's interesting, and very cool, that you loved Monkey Island (and rightfully so) but then considered DOTT and Grim at a B level. I will check out Quest for Glory 4 soon. Thank you for posting this video.

Great stuff, Pam. Thanks for the video.

Ha! LSL3 was my first adventure game too! Dad brought the discs back from the Sunday markets so we had a crack.. I don't think he expected it to be so risque! :P (You know what, I think I learned the word 'risque' from that game!)

Pam, like so much your videos and comments. I've been a persistent adventure games player back in my teenagehood. Loved both Indiana Jones, the Legend of Kyrandia ones, Cthulhu Shadow of the Comet... Awesome! Love also Sam & Max! It'll be great to hear your thoughts on the latter ones

Awesome video ‼️ I always loved CPU adventure games and point and click games as a kid ⌨️🛡⚔️💾💽🔦🔮

Cool rating video :) I played much of the games you talked about myself, so I think I could agree with you most of the time. :) "The Curse if Monky Island" was one of the first P&C-Adventures i ever played and it is my absolut favorite. I finished it 10-20 times and still love this game. Did anyone ever played a strange game called "Normality"? It was developed by Gremlin Interactive. Its absolutly ugly(it even was when it first came out in 1996) but it has a great and funny story that was highly inspired by George Orwells 1984(my favorite book) and it was absolutly great! Great puzzles, hilarious humor, great characters. But nobody seems to know this game anymore today. I think its very underrated. Maybe because it wasn't a LucasArts or Sierra-Adenture and so it was just overlooked. Really like your rating videos tough. Hope you will make more of it in the future :)

lsl3 at 7 being your intro adventure game by your aunt is wild lol. that was quite a difficult game, and i'm curious how many of these you beat. quest for glory was my favorite series as well, i started with 3 then went back from 1 (vga) importing characters forward. my favorite was a thief who i gave magic abilities to. i wasn't a huge fan of typing but really enjoyed qfg2 as well in the end. my first sierra games were actually police quest 3 and space quest 4, then i think king's quest 5. i didn't play agd's vga remake of qfg2 - but it's supposedly one of the best ever fan remade games. thanks for the video, fun watch to bring me back 20 years for a lot of games i sunk a lot of time into. you might like laura bow 2.

I loved Maniac Mansion...it had enormous replay value. You could play it again and try so many new things...even things that had nothing to do with the outcome. My favorite was recording the tentacle mating cry and sending it to the record producer...his window shattered and I couldn't stop laughing...they actually thought of that.

That EGA style from the late 80's is so memorable. While you didn't rank any of the Laura Bow games I just wanted to bring up The Colonel's Bequest because it might be one of the best looking games ever. Even in the days of the "retro revival" you just don't see a lot of that style anymore. It's really evocative and time warp-y.

Thank you for this walk down memory lane lane. I can almost hear the hard click of my old 286's big red power switch and whirr of the sub- 1gig 5.25 inch hard drive.

I didn’t had a pc in my childhood, so I missed out all these click & point classics. And you always make me very curious about these. Btw Pam, your presentation is so much more relaxed since the last couple of months. It’s really good! 👍🏼

Wonderful vid! Thanks so much!

Hey Pam! That is a rad stop skeletons from fighting shirt! Great video!

Monkey Island among my favorite games ever! Nice to see them ranked so high.

Great video, these games really take me back - point and click adventures and CRPGs were my obsessions back in the 80s and 90s. Personally, I wasn't as bothered by the text parsers since I got my start with the old Infocom text adventures but I can see how they could be annoying. Totally forgot how some of these games could get you stuck in a no-win situation, that was the absolute worst. Funny how at some point along the way, game design seems to have shifted from an adversarial relationship with the player to more of an almost co-operative relationship - providing challenge certainly, but not outright kicking you when you're down. Thanks for the memories!

I'm glad to see that there's someone else who thought that Grim Fandango is overrated and King's Quest 7 is underrated. Personal S-Tiers for me are Finding Teddy, Fran Bow, Kathy Rain, King's Quest 3 and 6, Legend of Kyrandia: Book 1, and Thimbleweed Park. Of them, I think you'd like Kathy Rain, the Legend of Kyrandia series (1 and 2, at least; 3 is pretty rough), Thimbleweed Park, and maybe Finding Teddy and Kathy Rain. Finding Teddy is especially neat because you have to decipher a language based entirely on sound and music notes, which may be a dealbreaker for some, but I'm really stupid when it comes to music theory, and I was able to get through just fine.

That stop skeletons from fighting shirt tho! Hype for uncle Derek!

Fun video! I think this is a hard genre to rank, so many promising games held back by unfortunate choices, and notorious moments abound. I've been discussing these games over and over throughout years of being a developer in this genre and have heard plenty of cases for and against, but still enjoyed you explaining why you feel the way you do about these games. It's fun to hear your frustrations with the bits that I remember being annoyed at myself, and also hearing your reverence for some of the best titles. Great stuff!

I've not played too many of these but I have fond memories of Monkey Island on the Commodore Amiga. Having to juggle about 10 floppy disks when there was no hard drive to install to was a real pain but well worth it. I had the same issue as you with Grim Fandango which I played as the remaster: I had heard great things but despite a few highlights I didn't really gel with it.

A game that was developed by Sierra that I didn’t see on your list was Torin’s Passage…which was a pretty fun one if I remember right. I think that one was 1995 or 1996 if I remember right. I agree with almost all of your choices though. Great video!!

The first computer my family ever bought had King's Quest 7 pre-installed on it. I was like 10 years old. I remember being really intrigued by it and wanting to progress in the game, but I got stuck right off the bat and never figured out how to get past the scorpion haha. I remember there was some wandering guy in the desert who seemed extremely annoyed by you talking to him. His voice pleading "What do you WANT" is something that has stuck with me for 20+ years haha. I really need to check out Monkey Island. I recently played through Blazing Dragons and started Rise of the Dragon on Sega Saturn and Sega CD respectively

These video's are one of the reason's I love this channel. Pams beautiful voice and the way she remembers these games from the past so well. I played Police Quest but, can't remember it well at all but, I'm glad you left it off. Enjoy the memory lane. ID Softare was something I did like in the 90's great company. Cheers to you Pam

I remember being stuck on these games even for months...

It's really nice to have someone giving thoughtful reviews of old games here without drowning everything in absolutes and hype. I'd be really interested to know where you'd put Fate of Atlantis on this list after playing it, and also my old favourite, Sam & Max Hit the Road. They both involve the back-and-forth travel that was really common at the time, but the stories and voice acting are top notch. Also, if you can stomach just a few (dozen) more arbitrary deaths, at least one Space Quest game would probably be worth your time; they were the funniest of the Sierra games by a long shot.

Great idea to combine Sierra and Lucas Arts games in the same review, since they are so similar in terms of quality. Great review :-)

I love hearing you talk about point-and-click adventure games, my favourite genre :) I think I'm taking a bit of a break from them to dive into some story-based rpg's, but I'm sure I'll be back. The aliens want to make humanity stupid? I don't think that's a very hard task ;) Very entertaining story about your encounter with LSL3, I guess you could say the game nursed you into the genre. My favourite of these games has to be Beast Within, the real-life actors sometimes display a degree of subtlety in their expressions that I don't even think current-day computer graphics can match. Loom and Curse of Monkey Island are very close behind.

Loved this video and I love the genre! If you have not already, it would be great to see a playthrough or your thoughts on Fate of Atlantis and Rex Nebular. Big nostalgia for both here! I have physical cib copies of both if you ever want to review and need them for future videos.

I had written a comment with some game recommendations I had (namely Sam n Max Hit the Road, Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis, plus some additional Sierra games and maybe Sierra/Dynamix ones), but I may have forgotten to type "Comment" and it didn't send. OOPS. Either that or YT auto-flagged it for you to review. No idea. On the whole I agree with your tier list. Sierra games suffered a lot from their bizarre puzzle designs and philosophy too focused on game overs and dead-ends, which often got in the way of making their games enjoyable. If there's a thing KQ6 and the Gabriel Knight games proved though, it's that Jane Jensen was a much better story-teller and game designer than Roberta Williams was. Not to take the credit away from Roberta, she was absolutely a pioneer, but Jane just made better games.

Oh yeah MetalJesusRocks did an interview with the Williams couple who ran Sierra recently. Well worth a watch to hear interesting things from when they were at their peak

Ah really glad to see this video mentioning some of my old favourites. I just haven't found the same connection to a lot of modern games. 🙂

Great little vid and got me into the mood for a little point n clicking. Gonna have to fire up Indy Jones and the fate of Atlantis though. Def an S on my list!

Great video! Another good one from 1989 is Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail.

My personal favorite, even if I'm looking through rose-tinted glasses, is the Shadow of Yserbius. It was the first game that introduced me to multiplayer online games. The rush of being able to partner up with 3 other people via their online service, The Sierra Network, was just beyond words. Going into the Tavern online to see all the role-playing and/or people looking for groups to adventure with was a level of gameplay I wasn't prepared for in 1991/2. The challenging monsters, the interesting puzzles, and the multi-user dungeon made it quite memorable for me.

Try as I might, I've never really been able to get into adventure games, even though I feel like it's a genre I should like. Still though, I really enjoyed listening to you talk about your favorites and will likely use this as a reference if I decide to dip my toe into the genre again. Great video, these tier lists are always fun!