Worst. Puzzle. Ever.

[Janik]

I've been playing The Neverhood, mostly a great game, but I came across the most infuriating puzzle, and want to vent

So there is this sequence of weird symbols you have to enter. The answer is on some other part of the world, to get there from the place where you actually use them you have to go through a million hoops, but that's besides the point.

The symbols you enter come one by one, and cycle slowly. Very slowly. You have to click when the right one shows up, and wait an eternity for the next one to come up. There are 12 symbols to enter - each attempt at entering the sequence takes 3-4 minutes. There is no way to speed it up. You can't make a mistake, or you start over from the first symbol. You can't save mid-sequence. And to top it off the sequence to enter is not straightforward, even with hints it took me 3-4 tries... ARGH!!!


Ok I've calmed down now. Does anyone else want to share their least favorite game puzzle?

[Helm]

>PULL ROCK

when standing on the left of it.

[Ali]

I've mentioned it before, but the outrageously stupid safe puzzle in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Pearl Earring. Or, indeed, any lock puzzle who's solution is coded into the lock's surroundings.

No one who knows what locks are for would do that!

[ManicMatt]

Use stretchy skin on manhole.

Not the worse puzzle ever, but it's all that came to mind.

Probably any puzzle from Discworld 2, although I never finished it.. for puzzle related reasons...

[Ghost]

That puzzle where you turn a boy into a puppy and then into hush puppies to sneak past a monster, taken from Simon 2, that got me riled.

Oh, and "smell darkness", from Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. That was tough, and seemed so illogical, even though it was perfectly sensible.

[veryweirdguy]

Two words that I'm suprised haven't come up yet (from Monkey Island II):

Monkey. Wrench.

[jetxl]

Two words that I'm suprised haven't come up yet (from Monkey Island II):
Monkey. Wrench.

That's the first thing I did when I saw that water pump...

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I agree with Ghost. Totally.

Although, there is a puzzle in Crave that I hate. The whole "put-banana-peel-on-floor-then-go-up-the-stairs-and-slide-down-the-banister-in-order-to-make-yourself-slip-and-fall-into-the-laundry-chute-to-get-the-lost-item".

For heaven's sake, just BEND IN AND GRAB THE BLOODY LOST ITEM!

I also find the above puzzle is hideous because it relies on the player character setting up a way so he could trip himself up. I mean, what's the logic in that? "Oh, I think I shall come up with a situation that'll trap me into doing something I could very well do right now".

Temujin had a similar puzzle, where you had to build a whole friggin' machine just to pour yourself some tea... but heck, THAT puzzle was actually fun.

[BOYD1981]

surely the worst ever puzzle in Flight of the Amazon Queen, you get passed a talking gorilla just by telling it he doesn't exist. TWICE.

[Ali]

surely the worst ever puzzle in Flight of the Amazon Queen, you get passed a talking gorilla just by telling it he doesn't exist. TWICE.

That's not as bad as spending ages getting your jet-pack working and flying to the misty valley, just to learn that your mechanic friend made the same journey by inexplicably hitching a ride on the villain's blimp. If he can go on the blimp, why can't I?

[InCreator]

Fascination. That idiotic game!

The final(?) Puzzle.
Where you have to turn some stupid wheel into position of birth sign symbol of an inspector according to his birthdate which you got from a flashlight(?) and then play notes on organ that are marked onto flashlight while using microscope to read them. There's also 3 cats with notes drawn on them. I don't even remember why or where did you have to play THESE notes...

omfg.

So, you have to know all astrological symbols, what they represent, the dates signs are assigned, the CDEFGAB notation, you have to guess which organ key represents what note (there's no way but to experiment)... argh.
I never got that done. Even though I'm 101% sure I did it right... just nothing happened.

THIS is the worst. puzzle. ever.

And of course, worldstones in Indiana jones: FOA sucked aswell. And finding one with topographic instruments.

[Ali]

The astrology puzzle in Keepsake, which depends upon the player guessing that a constellation of a mermaid represents fertility on the grounds that mermaids are female. I can't see how a mermaid would give birth, so it doesn't work for me.

[Mr Flibble]

And of course, worldstones in Indiana jones: FOA sucked aswell.

Apart from constantly having to ask my brother which moon was waxing and which was waning, I liked the worldstones.

Can't think of a worst puzzle per se... possibly Simon the Sorceror somewhere?

Edit: No, not StS. I'll come back when I think of one.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Ayuh, I actually enjoyed the worldstones. Same deal with waxing and waning, and sometimes figuring something else out, but overall I quite enjoyed it. What didn't you like about it? Were the clues too cryptic?

Heh, talk about cryptic clues, what about the cookie-baking puzzle in Still Life? Not the worst, but really unnecessary. I hated every minute of it.

Two puzzles in Midnight Nowhere that totally put me off the game:

1 - Use magnet on wall poster to get key.
I still don't know why this has worked. No bulge in poster, it's not been ripped, there wasn't even any hint to it. Senseless.

2 - Find the password to a computer - "Ariel", the name of the little mermaid.
Look, this is actually fine, since the room had plenty of mermaid items, posters and memorabilia, but come on, a game that's all about gore and darkness and where the hero swears in every other sentence and where the siren posters are downright sinister and bare-breasted... Disney isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

[Radiant]

Monkey. Wrench.

That one made me laugh out loud when I finally got it. It's so obvious in retrospect

passed a talking gorilla just by telling it he doesn't exist. TWICE.

Yep. That's about when I wiped the game from my hard drive.


The birthstones puzzle in Kyrandia I, since it's entirely random and stupid.

The naughts-and-crosses in Kyrandia 3; it's a good puzzle but made annoying by the fact that you have to do it over, and over, and over again. Come to think of it, several other puzzles in that game have the same problem - great idea, poor execution.

Just about anything in KQV (sorry, can't help myself) including the yeti, the servant girl, the library wait and the desert pseudo-maze. Likewise, just about anything in Codename Iceman.

The library staircase in Maniac Mansion

The entry to hell in Quest for Glory V (there are two puzzles that require blood; for the paladin ring, you have to get hurt a bit and click it on yourself since you're bleeding. For hell, that indescribably doesn't work, and you have to click on some dead soldier hidden elsewhere in the screen, in pixel-perfect fashion).

Speaking of pixel-perfectness, Ultima VIII.

Ok, I'll shut up now

[Akatosh]

Anyone played 'Stupid Invaders'? It's supposed to be funny, but is quite the opposite of it. Really, the puzzles are so incredibly bad... for example: In one case, you are in a cellar. Being exactly one room big. There stands a giant mouse trap in the edge. Your objective: get out. If you just open the door, someone steps in and kills you. If you turn off the light, someone steps in and kills you. You have to place the mouse trap on the right place, then walk over pixel-exactly, and *then* turn off the light.

Really, it's 100% impossible solving this without dying at least once!

[ManicMatt]

Really, it's 100% impossible solving this without dying at least once!

When you inevitably died, did you have to load your last save game up or did it plonk you right back before you died? I don't mind it if one is taken back. Although I DO hate pixel-perfect puzzles!

Curses! Your message has reminded me of that atrocity known as Rick Dangerous! Not an adventure game sure, but you had to be psychic to play that. Read the programmers minds! It became a memory test, remember where that spike will come out of nowhere and kill you, remember where that bomb goes off etc etc

[Ghost]

Really, it's 100% impossible solving this without dying at least once!

It became a memory test, remember where that spike will come out of nowhere and kill you, remember where that bomb goes off etc etc

Ah, but you got rewarded by that hilarious "Aaayyrrghh!" sound 

Another game that raises its ugly head: The first chapter of Runaway, though it's more an attempt at puzzle design I dislike very much: You have to get the girl out of the hospital and, as you start to assemble a decoy, have to search Gina's handbag for useful stuff. Your heroic nerdy guy then takes out something and says there's nothing more, ONLY to produce, after solving another sub-puzzle, a wig (I mean, they're big, and hard to overlook) from the same bag.
I hate such trigger sequences that make me discard an item as "used, done for" and then telling me I was stupid to think so, and the designers were so clever. Jaded player that I am.

[MrColossal]

6 Day Assassin is basically one terrible puzzle after the next. But that's ok, I forgive myself, it was a long time ago.

[InCreator]

I would like to add... everything from Grim Fandango. I know that majority of AGSers love this game, but I absolutely hated it. None of puzzles in first part of game made any of sense to me. And I never wanted to play further. I'd rather play Larry Vales or random other adventure game.

Lure of Temptress had some quite awful/difficult puzzles too.