What are your favorite/most hated Adventure Game Puzzles

[GarageGothic]

Broken Sword 3, near the end you have to pull out coloured wine bottles in a certain order for a door to open. Me and a friend where playing it (refuse to use any type of guides by the way) and in the end I ended up writing down every posibble order that the bottles could go in (ennded up being about 500) and we started.... guess what, it was the second to last one possible!!!! damn puzzles that doesnt make sence to me... (Still don't know how your ment to know what to do unless you try every one!)

Um, see my post further up on this very page.

Edit: ok, on the previous page actually.

[Dan Beeston]

Best Puzzle ever? I'd have to say that would be figuring out the numerical system in Riven. Every time I saw that I needed to know the riven number for above 15 I felt I must have missed a clue because I only knew how to count to ten.

Then, when there was no where else to turn I finally sat down and told myself, "I have every thing I need, now let's solve this thing". Once I was in this frame of mind it didn't take long to realise it was all in base five. BASE FIVE !!!! Brilliant.

The Worst puzzle? Sitting in a jail cell in Darkseed knowing that there was a bobby pin somewhere in the game that you'd missed. Finally we found it. On the PC version it's , like, two black pixels on the floor of the Library. In full view, but too small to be noticed.

From that day forth, whenever a puzzle was hard just because an item was too small and in a place where it wasn't supposed to be for no adaquitely explained reason we've called it "a bobby pin puzzle".

[Krudmonger]

My favorite -- and most hated -- adventure game puzzle is still the Babel Fish from "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" text adventure. Another hated -- and not as favorite -- puzzle is the gold tooth puzzle from MI3.

On a more general note, I can't stand puzzles that do one or more of the following:

1. Assume that the player isn't color-blind and can readily tell red from green

2. Require the player to have out-of-game (read: manual) knowledge that the story's character would have no way (or reason) of knowing.

3. Make the player randomly choose a door, flip a lever, pick up an item, etc., with no in-game clues as to what the "right" choice is. (Especially if the wrong answer results in death.)

4. Forbidding the player from acquiring inventory items until certain information is gained. (i.e., an item on a table that the character refuses to take until s/he knows it's needed, despite having already taken everything else not nailed down.) [ESPECIALLY if it involves traipsing across numerous screens.]

5. Rely heavily on mazes, arcade sequences, or mini-games. (Unless they have variable degrees of difficulty.)

But my all-time favorite (not-hated) adventure game "puzzle" is the non-interactive one in Governor Marley's mansion from the first Monkey Island game.

USE GOPHER REPELLANT WITH GOPHER HORDE

[Anian]

I hate mazes, doesn't matter if they're "good" or not, I just dislike those types of problems  : (just to be clear I'm talking about those things where you have to chart your positions etc. it's like trying every ithem in your inventory on something - equally pointless and annoying).
besides that they're just not that good at being integrated in the game, there wasn't one game where I passed the maze and went - woah, was I in a maze? (usually it's more of "oh, no, not anothoer f***ing maze")
...and of course all those sensless puzzles that pop-up even in the bestest games 

[simply guest]

Just my opinion...

I love "logical" puzzles, where you may go with your brain..

And on the other side I hate if you choose the wrong option"...and you have to die...


I do not like dying in an adevnture game, as I would like to relax and try all possibilities..

[Petra]

Just my opinion...

I love "logical" puzzles, where you may go with your brain..

And on the other side I hate if you choose the wrong option"...and you have to die...


I do not like dying in an adevnture game, as I would like to relax and try all possibilities..

These could have been my words!!

But furthermore..I really hate mathematical puzzles ( i'm female, lol)

But to add 3 and 5  in order to get the sum of 4635 and at the same time looking of how the puzzle at the wall reacts..or something like that...

I'll never get  the solution without a walkthrough...

[an AGS rookie]

One of my favourite puzzles has to be the one in "Enchanter" where you had to get the turtle to help you. It was a tricky puzzle which required a lot of typing but it was wery clever and finally solving it (with a bit of cheating...cough ) was very rewarding.

As for a puzzle i did not like (If it even deserves to be called a "puzzle") it has to be in King,s Quest 5, near the end, where you had to hang around in the library for a long time, doing nothing, untill Mordack would go to bed. Now how the heck where you supposed to figure that one out . This is the only puzzle i know of which you actually had to solve by being inactive.

[DutchMarco]

also that (still unfinished)how doi go away from shop without paying for sword in MI1?

Uku, hint 1:

Spoiler

You have to pay for the sword. Get some money.

[close]

Hint 2:

Spoiler

You can get a job in the forest. Explore the map, wander through the forest.

[close]

Hint3:

Spoiler

Work for the circus. You'll need to solve some more puzzles but this earns you money to buy the sword.

[close]

My least fav puzzles are when you die if you slip up (like the vine/cloud land in KQ1VGA), unlogical ones and when you have to go back in the game to solve a puzzle. In SQ4 maybe I messed up, but I could get away from the SQ12 derelict city without some necessary items; in the mall you could buy one adapter out of many, but you would only know which one you needed if you were near the end of the game.

I absolutely loved the almost-last puzzles in SQ4 on the computer console in the maze, though:

Spoiler

Drag robots into recycling and robots are gone.
Drag brain into recycling bin and you die.
Drag disk into recycling bin and the game quits to DOS so fast you can't even blink your eyes!

Annoying if you didn't save, but very funny nonetheless!

[close]

Oh and the FOA darkroom puzzle as funny, I didn't find it a hindrance because of the @overhotspot@ feature of their GUI. Damn I miss FOA, I have the disks but I've lost one! Me wanna play again!

[pslim]

My favorite -- and most hated -- adventure game puzzle is still the Babel Fish from "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" text adventure. Another hated -- and not as favorite -- puzzle is the gold tooth puzzle from MI3.

God, I loved and hated that puzzle, too.


To this day my most favorite puzzle is another Infocom game, The Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

You find the machine at the mad scientist's house that takes away the letter t from anything you put in it, then you meet the king who is so sad because anything he touches turns into a 45 degree angle and he's turned his daughter into one. You put a jar of untangling hair cream into the machine and voila! Un-angling cream! Brilliant!

(You can also put the poor helpless rabbit into the machine and get a rabbi, but then you're walking dead without the rabbit, I think.Ã,  )

My second favorite puzzle is probably the rubber chicken puzzle from MI1. As soon as I saw that clothes line between the islands I immediately knew how to get there and when it worked I was ecstatic.Ã, 


I hate pixel hunts, and I really hate walking deads (don't see those too much these days, thank god). I feel that if I have destroyed any chance of finishing the game I should at least be warned. :0

I also hate puzzles that just feel like puzzles unless there's some reason in the plot for my PC to be solving puzzles. This is why I don't like Myst-type games... I just don't buy any rationalization for that many levers, switches, buttons and twirly doo-dads all in one place. In terms of forgetting you're solving puzzles, Gabriel Knight 1 is my favorite for that. There are mysteries, but you always feel like you're a writer investigating them, not a writer who has been sucked through a vortex into a land of buttons and levers.

[Polecat]

Voice recorder puzzle in The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery

[Babar]

King's Quest 6, despite being such a beautiful game had lots of pretty scary puzzles, which had the effect of keeping you glued to the screen in case you missed something. One instance that particularly infuriated me was when you had to note the type of lamp the vizier had for the Genie in a "MEANWHILE" cutscene that the player took absolutely no part in to be able to buy a copy of the same lamp later on in the game.

[Wellington]

Regarding types of puzzles:

It's dangerous to declare, on the outset, that one kind of puzzle is automatically bad.

I think that, in the text adventure community, a few people have a perverse desire to take the most hated puzzle types, and then try to make something entertaining out of them - just to see if they can pull it off.

So I've seen some of the following:

1.

A clever maze variant that not only requires no really tedious stuff from the player, but also makes perfect sense for the story and setting - and might even be considered essential.

2.

Several games that turn die-and-restart into an addictive process by being short and engaging, turning the whole game into a puzzle of planning. "Lock and Key" and "Varicella," both by Adam Cadre, are pretty much at the top of this form.

The first is a great comedy in which you are a villian's dungeon architect, facing an adventurer who, in spite of being at an apparent disadvantage, just happens to have all the items on hand he needs to escape his cell and kill you. Repeatedly. Eventually, though, you can, with care, set up the traps you need to counter his capacious inventory and kill him.

The second is more darkly comic (yes, darker than the game where you play the murderous mastermind), but requires replaying to win, and is, by the standards of this thread, incredibly unfair. It lets you get all the way to the ending before killing you. As one character remarks, ironically, it's SUCH a shame that life doesn't give second chances...

3.

Two games that integrated die-and-restore into the plot.

I can't give their names, because this is an automatic spoiler. But in one, you have to ask somebody questions in the first act based on what you see in the second. Of course, it helps that you're a psychic with the power of RESTART...

In the other, you can exert conscious control over time itself, and pick the timelines that give the best outcomes. Taking full advantage of this is necessary to get one utterly brilliant ending, but not to get others.

4.

Brilliant math puzzles.

Come on. They exist. Especially when they hinge not on arithmetic, but on deduction, or give some sort of insight into the gameworld. The slightly tedious number system puzzles in the graphic adventure RAMA are good examples of a case where these contribute immensely to the game's atmosphere.

[Steel Drummer]

The buying a ship/credit puzzle in Monkey Island 1. It was the hardest and most incoherent puzzle, but it was also the best puzzle.

[lo_res_man]

btw, whats the least anyones paid for a ship in MI1?
I think I paid 3000 pieces o' eight, anyone go lower?

[Nathan23]

King's Quest 6, despite being such a beautiful game had lots of pretty scary puzzles...

I second that, This was my first adventure game and with the hardest puzzles for my first time, but I can assure you guys that the puzzle that I hate most is the riddle of the Door in the Death Dimension, I coud not imagine there would be a simple answer.

My favorite puzzle was the final puzzle for the end sequence of Phantasmagoria, but I didn't like to Kill Don.

[advent]

Nothing beats the spiderdroid from Space Quest 1 (VGA Version)

[Darkmaster400]

Carla in Monkey Island 1 was the most annoying 

[Sheepisher]

No contest.

For me, it was the 'hush puppies' puzzle in "Simon the Sorceror 2: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe".

That's where, in order to sneak past a giant spherical demon thingie without being heard, you had to use your wizard's hat on a small dog in order to transform it into a pair of hush puppies.

I hated that puzzle because I spent weeks trying out several increasingly arbitrary and illogical solutions to it before I finally caved in and consulted the readthrough.Ã,  And every single arbitrary and illogical solution I came up with made more sense than the actual solution.

I mean, seriously.Ã,  Using a magic hat on a dog?Ã,  Anything could happen!Ã,  Anything!Ã,  Why would I ever assume it would turn him into a pair of slippers?!Ã,  As I recall, there was one extremely tenuous and obscure clue offered when you examined the dog and Simon remarked that he was "rather quiet", or something, but unless you knew the solution, you wouldn't notice it.Ã,  And what if you'd never heard of hush puppies?Ã,  Hadn't the designers ever heard of beta-testing?

Phew.Ã,  Okay.Ã,  I'm done.Ã,  As you can see, this puzzle made me very angry, which is why it's my most hated puzzle in an adventure game ever.Ã,  Frankly, I hate any puzzle where I have to look up the solution and it still doesn't make sense, or I'd never have guessed it unless I was the guy who designed it in the first place.

[/rant]Ã, 

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Worst:
1.5 Days a stranger, using the weird doll on a string to find something in the basement. I think I had a glitch or something because it kept telling me I was in the wrong place! (And I had searched every inch.)
2.Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island, I mean, come on. Checking every single bulb with the light at the top to find a working one?
3.Myst 4, family names in order? The books were practically unreadible.
4.KQ5, getting turned into a frog repeadiatly, and having to restart because you get stuck.
WORST OF ALL: "That's a dumb idea." "I don't get it." "That doesn't work." And no further explanation. WHY CAN'T I USE THE GUN ON THE LOCK!? (<Example)
OR:
Random Death

BEST:
1.Myst 1, the maze. I loved mapping the place out. The N, E, S, W really helps.
2.DOTT, a right handed hammer? And: "When you're saving the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs." It made sense.
3.Curse of MI, the lighting. Genius!
4.Teen Agent, infiltrating the evi dude's base.
BEST OF ALL: Human contest in DOTT, spaghettit for hair? "It looks so... meaty-" "-and juicy!"

[BlueGlowingSword]

In Zork Grand Inquisitor when

Spoiler

You had to cast the weather spell on the umbrella tree to get the scroll,
and when you had to cast the purple invisibility on the word 'infinite'.

[close]