I was not personally trying to criticise the genre past or present. I imply depth to mean improved depth of character through storytelling rather than depth of game.
Consider this. Guybrush, Sam and Max are quirky and interesting rather than deep involving characters (which I can freely admit I’d my opinion and that’s fine). But more importantly I don’t think the engine or method of presenting these characters has leant itself to giving them the room to breathe and grow into deeper characters. This where I believe the difference lies.

These couple of examples have been ‘all’ about the storytelling and treating the adventure game as an interactive medium. That is not a criticism of adventure games, far from it. A different direction which may lead to many people separating them by labelling it something different.

It’s just that now they are critically much more accessible to the wider gaming audience.

The puzzles etc in adventure games can be great (although can be really obtuse – Broken Sword anyone?) and long may it continue but I really like that the adventure game concept is being used to lead the way in improving games as a whole.

Starting off by suggesting that they are not games wasn’t the best start and although I love The Walking Dead as a game. Storytelling was just fine in Adventure Games before it came about.

Classic Games like Monkey Island, Sam and Max, The Pandora Directive and Grim Fandango all have great depth as well as great characters etc.

They are also a mix of storytelling, exploration, and puzzle solving a hallmark of the genre that which often involves challenging puzzles that test the mind rather than the reflexes. The puzzles are the gameplay not the narrative. In the same way that running down corridors and shooting stuff is the gameplay in a Halo game and not the flimsy Master Chief narrative that it’s set in.

To the Moon is certainly more of an electronic novel than a game (It’s a great story and I loved playing it earlier this year). There is little in the way of interaction unlike Walking Dead where interaction with the environment and characters is vital to the direction of the narrative.

Grrr….