The term Adventure has been overloaded, but it used to be a fairly concrete concept. Something like Legend of Zelda has adventure game elements in it, but it's

The term Adventure has been overloaded, but it used to be a fairly concrete concept. Something like Legend of Zelda has adventure game elements in it, but it's much more action, combat and movement, something "traditional" adventure games don't have. Text adventure games are really the best example of the concepts that an adventure game usually has, even though they can also be graphical, like Monkey Island or Full Throttle. A more recent game series like Deponia fits the bill as well. I would say that there are a lot more games with old school adventure mechanics coming out than people might realise. A lot of them get bundled into the "Walking Simulator" category, but are far more Adventure game than anything else.