Gateway (1992)

In June 2020 the DOS Game Club played Gateway as their game of the month. DOS GAME CLUB

I highly recommend this game to anyone that enjoys 90's era puzzle adventure games. It has a different interface than games like Space Quest or Day of the Tentacle, but it's still very much in that style. I think the closest comparison I can make is Myst with a text interface. You can click a compass or type "N" to go north and the scene will change to a new room where you'll get a text description of the scene along with a list of all the items you can pick up or interact with.

The puzzles are very much like ones from typical 90's adventure games. You'll pick up items, combine them with others, talk to NPC's for hints, and explore until the world starts making more sense. The game prevents you from softlocks or dead-ends where you don't have an item to progress but you are clueless that you can't win the game. Solutions to puzzles are very intuitive. Never did I look something up and think "How was I supposed to think of that?" rather if I did have to cheat then I said "Oh, I should have thought about that!" and that to me is what makes a great adventure game.

The setting is a gritty future where humanity doesn't have a lot of hope, but they find a bunch of space craft left by a long gone alien civilization. Prospectors hop into these shuttles bound for unknown destinations hoping to gain wealth by bringing back technology. Some survive the trips and even fewer actually find anything valuable. You play as a fresh Prospector hoping to find your fortune, and away you go on space adventures.

If you can take the time to learn the interface and appreciate the retro graphics, then you're in for a real treat with this game.