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Action

Action-adventure

You combine real-time combat and reflexes with exploring a world, collecting and using items, and solving puzzles that open the way forward.

Also known as: action adventure, action-adventure game

This is a basic entry: it has the definition and the classification. Full entries add history, games and a demo.

History

  1. 1980
    Origin

    Mark J. P. Wolf credits Adventure (1980) for the Atari VCS as the earliest known action-adventure: you explore, use items and fight dragons in real time.

    Action-adventure game (Wikipedia)
  2. 1998

    The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sets the template for 3D action-adventure, with target lock-on and context-sensitive actions.

    Action-adventure game (Wikipedia)

Reference games

1981

Castle Wolfenstein

Silas Warner (Muse Software). Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, MS-DOS

You escape from a castle room by room in search of secret plans. You can fight, but you can also disguise yourself in an enemy uniform to walk past the guards without being stopped.

1998

Metal Gear Solid

Konami (Hideo Kojima). PlayStation

You infiltrate a guarded facility, dodging cameras and patrols, pressed against walls and using a radar that shows the guards' fields of view. It took the series' stealth into 3D with a story told like a film.

Subgenres

  • MetroidvaniaYou explore a large interconnected map, usually 2D, where many areas stay locked until you gain the ability or item that lets you through, so you keep backtracking.