Worst. Puzzle. Ever.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Grim? Whoa. Could you give us an example on what made it so bad? I'd sure like to hear, I love Grim's puzzles...

[Janik]

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

Well, I liked it

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 second Rui's response about Grim Fandango - it's been a while so no puzzle comes back to me, but I don't remember Grim's puzzles as being particuarly good or bad, sort of average. Everything else is amazing though, you really should give it a chance.

[Grapefruitologist]

Only one puzzle comes to mind that I thought was particularly illogical right now. In Apprentice 2, when you have to click on the armor twice just to put it on. Of course it was easy with the walkthrough, but without it, it makes no sense to "Use Uniform with Uniform" to put it on. It would have made more sense to "Use Uniform with Pib". But oh well.

[Radiant]

Curses! Your message has reminded me of that atrocity known as Rick Dangerous!

I found it quite enjoyable after invoking a cheat mode for infinite lives. Several of the traps in Rick are quite ingenious; it's the starting over again that makes it annoying. RD and its sequel are two of those games that I seriously doubt anyone has ever completed without cheating.

[Andail]

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

*Eric refreshes page every third second to see when someone writes a consolidating post stating the opposite*

[ManicMatt]

RD and its sequel are two of those games that I seriously doubt anyone has ever completed without cheating.

Except the designers of those games, haha!

Oh MrColossal! I liked your short game, except I was stuck for ages on the crosshair bit.

And Grim Fandango was alright puzzle wise, it was the controls I hated, that put me off even playing it a second time through.

[big brother]

Only one puzzle comes to mind that I thought was particularly illogical right now. In Apprentice 2, when you have to click on the armor twice just to put it on. Of course it was easy with the walkthrough, but without it, it makes no sense to "Use Uniform with Uniform" to put it on. It would have made more sense to "Use Uniform with Pib". But oh well.

We ran into some trouble with the scripting (and we didn't want Pib to be an object, as the player character tends to get in the way of other hotspots). If you'll look at the HTML help (that we spent too much time making) included with the game, it describes the "use item with itself" interaction. So I would call it awkward, but not totally unfair. Hopefully, it isn't the worst puzzle ever.

[FSi++]

Mmm the puzzle I hate the most... is... that one from RON Sixteen, where you have to stick pencil in the rock... Absolutely no sence. And the fact I made it truly turns me into the depths of hell.
Well, I have a (weak) excuse that I was short on time... But anyway I could invent something more interesting or at least patch rock's description.

[ManicMatt]

We ran into some trouble with the scripting (and we didn't want Pib to be an object, as the player character tends to get in the way of other hotspots).

I'm grateful then, as I hate it when the main character is solid like that!

What if Pib had been an inventory item himself? A picture of his head, say. "Use armour on Pib"

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

What, for just that instance? Make a whole new inventory that'd get in the way of the player for a single instance?

I never had any trouble with "use uniform on uniform". Dunno, maybe the manual hinted all I needed to know... it seemed a bit obvious.

[ManicMatt]

What, for just that instance? Make a whole new inventory that'd get in the way of the player for a single instance?

Did Simon's (Sorcerer) or Joe's (Flight of the Amazon queen) save book get in the way, by the way? Didn't Sam n Max have the little un' as an inventory item?

I said inventory item as it's minimal scripting. If the game had onscreen verbs you can just have a "wear" option.

[Redwall]

The point is that it would have only been used in that single instance, which disqualifies all of your examples.

[Tom S. Fox]

There is this one puzzle in Tony Tough 2 in wich you have to try to smash a window with a brick to get yourself arrested.
But there is absolutely no reason, to try to smash the window or to get yourself arrested.
This whole thing serves the mere purpose to make the plot progress and to have to break out again afterwards.

Oh, and what was the thing in Simon the Sorcerer 3D, when you have to bring this Gewe-San-guy back to life, despite he is of absolutely no help at all.
I mean, he eventually just vanishes from the plot without explanation.
This guy is the most useless adventure character I have ever seen.

But talking about StS3D, I know it's not quite on-topic, but there is a puzzle I especially like:
The passing-the-one-way-bridge-puzzle!
It took me a while to figure it out, but I thought this puzzle was quite clever and neat!

EDIT: Oh, I wanted to say something about Stupid Invaders!
It's not true, that you have walk over pixel-perfectly.
But it's true that you have to load a game after having died.
I, too, don't like puzzles you have to die for at least once.
The guys at Sierra made those puzzle on purpose!!!

[Radiant]

Oh, and what was the thing in Simon the Sorcerer 3D, when you have to bring this Gewe-San-guy back to life, despite he is of absolutely no help at all.
This guy is the most useless adventure character I have ever seen.

How about Cedric?

[Gilbert]

Well, I actually had sympathy with Cedric before playing the voice-enabled CD version, after I got the CD version, he's better dead than alive...

[big brother]

What if Pib had been an inventory item himself? A picture of his head, say. "Use armour on Pib"

It's a valid suggestion. We may have limited ourselves by justifying the magic of the inventory book. Instead of dealing having Pib lug around lots of objects on his person, we made everything transfer onto pages in the item book. We also established rules why he wouldn't be able to "pick up" very huge items or animate objects. But having a Pib hotspot on the HUD outside of the book might've worked. It would seem a bit strange for something so underused to command that kind of visual real estate.

You are right, I'm sure there's a better way of doing it.

[Colxfile]

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?

I've played the Neverhood. For me, I hated the bit in the Hall of Records where you had to walk to the end of the hallway to pick up the one object that you cannot complete the game without. So you walk. And walk. And walk and walk and walkandwalkandwalk for forever and a day. Oh, and the walls have a load of writing on for you to read as well.

The code sequence doesn't make much sense either  .

[GarageGothic]

You are right, I'm sure there's a better way of doing it.

I don't remember if the armor had any other functions, but an easy solution would be to let it work slightly different from the other inventory items. Instead of getting a "Use armor on" interaction, clicking on it could just make Pib wear the armor if in the correct location or say "I don't need to wear it here" anywhere else.

[LimpingFish]

That wall bit in Neverhood actually made me turn off the game. I haven't been back since.

[Kweepa]

Worst puzzle ever: the lock in "Heartland Deluxe."
[EDIT] Not any more. Yay!