Are you looking for the best adventure games to play on your mobile? If you do, then you have come to the right place.
Adventure games have always captured our imagination. They tell us stories we hardly imagine, giving us a unique way to immerse ourselves in atmospheric settings and world-building.
And, if you’re a daily commuter or like to play games anywhere you want, adventure games on mobile are your best choice. You won’t get the same set of adventure games on PC or consoles, but there’re plenty of good ones worth checking out.
Before we get started with the list, let’s talk a little more about adventure games.
Why Are Adventure Games So Popular?
Adventure games offer a unique world setting that lets you explore and experience on your terms. As the name suggests, you can explore new places around the world. During your journey, you do some quests, pick up new items, kill some mobs, and solve puzzles. Adventure games also rely on excellent music to aid the immersion.
Some of the best examples of adventure games across platforms include The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption 2.
So, where are adventure games so popular?
The main reason behind adventure games’ popularity is their interactive storytelling experience. Generally, these stories start by introducing the characters. Slowly, it builds up on the story while you take control of the main character to solve puzzles, defeat enemies or explore the world. The path to beat these adventure games depend on the type of adventure game you’re playing. It can be an escape type where you escape from a building or room, such as Portal, or interactive games, such as The Wolf Among Us.
However, the history of adventure games clearly shows its evolution. Going back to the 1970s, you’ll find most adventure games point-and-click or text-based. They offered a fantasy setting with decent visual experience. But, modern adventure games evolved into a more immersive experience held back by technology.
Telltale Games are a prime example of how storytelling evolved in modern games. They put the narrative at the front and gave complete control to the player. Then, there’re walking simulators such as Firewatch.
Undoubtedly, adventure games are here to stay so that we can keep having unique experiences.
The mobile devices are powerful enough to provide the modern adventure game experience. Let’s go through the list below.
The Walking Dead: Season One
If you’re into zombies, then The Walking Dead from Telltale can immerse you in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies run the world over. It is a five-part game series based on the popular The Walking TV show.
Telltale did a great job translating the TV show’s story into an interactive game, allowing you to relive the emotional tale of orphaned girl Clementine and her caretaker Lee. Also, the game is released in episodic content with 5 episodes.
The game is a multi-platform release, available on PC, Consoles (Xbox and PlayStation), and Mobile, including Android and iOS. Episode 1 is free to play on Android and iOS, with Episodes 2-5 available to purchase in-game.
- Developer: Telltale Games, Howyaknow, LLC (Mobile)
- Estimated time to complete: 8 to 11 hours for the main story.
- Release Date: Dec 5, 2019
The Wolf Among Us
The Wolf Among Us is another masterpiece from Telltale. It’s an interactive story-telling game like The Walking Dead. However, here, you play Bigby Wolf, who is trying to find the hidden truth behind the murders happening in the Clandestine community set in New York’s 1980s. Your decisions are important as it impacts the outcome drastically. So, think twice before choosing a path!
The story is based on Bill Willingham’s award-winning Fables comic books. It is also episodic, with the story divided into 5 episodes.
On Android and iOS, the Wolf Among Us Episode 1 is free to play. If you like it, you can continue playing it by making in-game purchases for Episodes 2-5.
- Developer: Telltale
- Estimated time to complete: 8 to 11 hours for the main story.
- Release Date: October 28, 2014
Crashlands
Crashlands is an open-world survival craft RPG game. Here, you play as Flux Dabes, a galactic trucker. During your expedition, you crash into an alien planet. With the motive to get back your packages, you meet other alien life and change your goals to world domination!
Despite being developed by Indie developers Butterscotch Shenanigans, the game has much to offer. You get an extensive crafting system where you can create more than 500+ craftable items. Apart from that, you get an RPG-style character progression where you become powerful as time progresses. You can also build your base, tame creatures, and explore the massive world at your own pace.
And the best thing about Crashlands is that it supports cross-platform, allowing you to progress from mobile to PC and vice-versa.
- Developer: Butterscotch Shenanigans
- Estimated time to complete: 28 hours for the main story and 64 hours for the completionist.
- Release Date: January 21, 2016
OPUS: Rocket of Whispers
OPUS: Rocket of Whispers is an indie game that takes you through a heartwarming journey. The game blends story-telling with audiovisual elements to give you a sense of belonging as you play in an apocalyptic plague. The story is rich in narration and offers an atmosphere with many mysteries.
Your goal as two survivors is to survive. In your quest, you explore the world, finding artifacts and antiques and using them to build a rocket. You also work with other craft tools — all backed by extensive research on rocket science!
During your journey, you also listen to 30 beautiful atmospheric soundscapes, immersing you in the fantastic post-apocalyptic world.
- Developer: Sigono Inc.
- Estimated time to complete: 4.5 hours for the main story and 6.5 hours for the completionist.
- Release Date: September 14, 2017
Tower of Fantasy
Do you like MMPORGs on mobile? If you do, check out Tower of Fantasy, a stylized anime-based sci-fi MMPORG game on mobile. It is a top-rated game with over 5M+ downloads.
The game takes place on the planet Aida, with beautiful open vistas and futuristic structures across the landscape. Earth is now inhabitable due to a lack of resources, but Aida, a habitable alien world, has become yours to explore. However, you’ll need to fight over resources in a vibrant environment. And all of these lead to the discovery of Omnium energy. To capture it, the humans build Omnium Tower, which leads to adverse effects and catastrophic disasters over the new world.
As a player, you can choose your unique character with access to different gameplay styles and weapons. Also, each character has a compelling backstory. You’ll also be able to meet new friends as you ponder the dangers of the new open shared world. The combat is excellent as well, which lets you switch weapons and utilize the different gameplay styles to your advantage!
- Developer: Level Infinite
- Estimated time to complete: Unknown
- Release Date: December 16, 2021
Thimbleweed Park
Thimbleweed Park is a classic pixelated puzzle-detective game. As the name suggests, it occurs at Thimbleweed Park, where a dead body is lying around without anyone noticing it “yet.”
The park is haunted, where you’ll find a population of 80 nutcases. The atmosphere relays the tension and suspense as you move across the park through the haunted house, burn-out pillow factory, or abandoned circus.
The story revolves around 5 deeply connected people. They’re being watched and have no idea about their fate. These include Agent Ray, Junior Agent Reyes, Franklin, Clown, and Delores. Thimbleweed Park is known for its excellent storyline, engaging gameplay, and overall retro feel!
- Developer: Terrible Toybox
- Estimated time to complete: 11 hours for the main story and 16 hours for the completionist.
- Release Date: Mar 30, 2017
Lucid Dream Adventure: Mystery
Lucid Dream Adventure: Mystery and its sequel are popular point-and-click games with puzzles, riddles, and crazy plot twists. Both Lucid Dreams Adventure: Mystery and Lucid Dreams Adventure (LDA) 2: Story offer unique stories to explore.
In the Mystery game, you play as Lucy, a wheelchair-chained little girl, to take on the world of dreams with suffering, regret, and loss. Throughout the journey, you need to solve puzzles and quests. In her dream, she looks for a cure for her terminally-ill mother. The developers did a great job not only in the story department but also on hand-drawn graphics and evocative music. In the LDA Mystery game, you explore 10 refined dream regions.
The LDA 2 takes you to the second chapter, where you continue to play as Lucy, the little girl. The story continues when you try to free Lucy’s mother’s pain and find the Oneriomancer’s secret. LDA 2 impresses on creepiness and also offers excellent hidden object games.
- Developer: Dali Games
- Estimated time to complete: 4 hours for the main story and 7 hours for the completionist.
- Release Date: April 1, 2019
Life is Strange
Life is Strange is a well-renowned choice-based narrative game that lets you follow the Max Caulfield story, who’s a senior photographer. She discovers that she can rewind time when she tries to save Chloe Price, her best friend. Despite hesitating to use her power, she soon finds herself trying to understand the mystery behind Rachel Amber’s disappearance, a student in the Arcadia Bay area.
During the story, you meet a new character, choose a narrative that opens up multiple endings, and get engrossed in a world full of narrative and drama. The visuals are top-notch, with an excellent indie soundtrack that’ll immerse you throughout the journey.
- Developer: Square Enix
- Estimated time to complete: 14 hours for the main story and 19 hours for the completionist.
- Release Date: December 12, 2017
➡️ Download: iOS
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
Star Wars needs no introduction. And, if you want to enjoy a galactic adventure, check out Start Wars: Galaxy of Heroes on mobile. It lets you choose your characters, available across the Star Wars universe movies and series, including The Force Awakens and The Mandalorian.
Moreover, the combat is turn-based, where you take on epic boss fights. It also offers RPG elements, character progression, gear, and ability unlocking. The goal is to create an unbeatable squad where you add other legends and heroes from the Star Wars franchise. Also, you can farm gears and level up abilities for your teammates as well – to increase the overall squad strength.
You also get to participate in galactic ship battles with the chance to collect iconic ships. You create a war fleet with the ships and then recruit heroes to pilot them!
Overall, Galaxy of Heroes is an excellent RPG turn-based strategy game you can play on the go.
- Developer: Electronics Arts
- Estimated time to complete: Unknown.
- Release Date: November 9, 2015
Summing Up
Mobile games have come a long way, and so did the adventure genre. With technological advancement and the power of the latest smartphones, you can enjoy popular adventure games on the go. If you’re a newcomer to adventure games, check out The Walking Dead, Thimbleweed Park, and The Wolf Among Us. They’re highly focused on story-telling with excellent visuals and audio. However, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is your best bet if you like progression, team-building, progression, and turn-based combat.
Next, check out the best iPhone game controllers if you regularly play games on iOS!
