I don’t think there are things you can only do with adventure games. It’s more a matter of ‘what else’ is in the game (besides the story) and whether or not that’s appealing. Personally, I don’t enjoy playing action sequences so I prefer a game that has puzzle, exploration, and story over games that may have those but also include heavy action sequences. To me that’s the difference between an adventure game and not-an-adventure-game.