Action Sequences in Adventure Games

Okay, here's my pet peeve: why do so many developers these days seem to feel the need to "spice up" adventure games with nasty incomprehensible action and evil timed sequences?!?! I hate this!! It just really ruins games for me. A certain number of arcade or action sequences is okay if they're done well -- I think I would say like the boar hunt in Atlantis, or the sequences in Sanitarium -- but it just seems as if the whole thing is getting out of hand. I mean, a timed underwater maze (Cameron Files)? What the heck was that? And games like Thorgal's Quest shouldn't even be marketed as Adventure, in my humble opinion.

I could rant about this all day! What does anyone else think?

ww

I have to agree with you WW. I absolutely stink at them. <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/pacify.gif" /> I'm guessing they put them in to reach a broader buyer.

~Dee

They're terrible.
Just terrible.

I have a difficult time with many of the action sequences, too. I find myself getting very tense, especially when they're timed. I play adventure games to relax and get enough thrills from walking down a dark corridor to a new area or climbing down a ladder in the dark and getting eaten by a Grue!

Lady K.

Ohh I Hated that maze!!! I don't like them at the best of times, add in the wicked time factor and I just went to pieces!!

At the beginning of Simon 3D, I had to get Al to help me go down the passageway and that was within the first 5 minutes gameplay. Not fun.

Tig

I agree whole heartedly, the under water maze in cameron files made me very tense, shivers2 was another and after nearly a year I still haven't managed to cut all the legs off the octopus in atlantis2.
Sylvia

it's not just these days... action and timed sequences have been in adventure games from the beginning. Many of the old Sierra games have arcade sequences, mazes, and timed puzzles.

they don't really bother me, but I do like that some games give you the option to bypass the sequence if you don't want to play it.

-emily

[/QUOTE]it's not just these days... action and timed sequences have been in adventure games from the beginning. Many of the old Sierra games have arcade sequences, mazes, and timed puzzles.[/QUOTE]

yeah, I know that, but it seems to me that it's been getting worse. I'm always excited to pick up a newer game that doesn't have one!

my husband and I usually play together under the "two brains are better than one" theory, and fortunately he is better at those things than I am. I made him fight the octopus in Atlantis II and he got through it relatively easily. Actually, we got through the infamous underwater maze on the first shot, but that was purely luck. Generally whenever a timed thingie kicks in I get so flustered that my brain shuts off.

I guess some people actually get a kick out of dying over and over again while they figure something out, but I'm not one of them!

ww

Hi!

I, too, hate timed and/or action sequences, and am just rotten at them (wonder which came first??!!) I like the option of bypassing them..forget which game, but you had to walk on a wall and not fall off...could click to bypass it. I am also severly directionally challenged, which make games like Capri and Schism a nightmare...love the feature in Black Mirror where the doors are identified so you don't always go into a room you don't want!

I also appreciate the "want to try again" feature of games when you die...some older games I've played you actually had to start over if you had no save!!

There...glad I got that off my chest!!

waves

I must say I surprised myself and managed to do the octopus sequence in BEYOND ATLANTIS after only 3 tries. After I got over my initial panic and learned what needed to be done, I just calmly waited for the light and lopped those limbs right off. If only I could call up that calmness in other situations. Perhaps a little meditation would help before each game. Ooooooohmmmmmmmm!

Lady K.

I had to practice that underwater maze several times before attempting the timed version.
I had the walkthrough with the pictures where you were supposed to go right next to me and I still got lost.

The octopus in Atlantis II wasn't much of a problem. You just aim toward the base of the tentacle that's moving and click as fast as possible around that area. Not much of a puzzle if you ask me. Just an annoying clickfest in a game that was otherwise free of that sort of thing.

As long as there's been timed and arcade sequences in adventures, there's been more adventure gamers who hated them than liked them. Yet most game makers still insist on putting them in for some reason. I can usually get past them, even though it may take more than an hour in some cases. But I still hate them. It's just so boring having to repeat the same dern thing over and over. And "dying" and having to restore a bazillion times really kills the immersiveness of the game.

My theory, based on practically no evidence, is that developers want to vary the challenges and worry that gamers are getting bored with the same old thing. Movement challenges may be seen as a way to give the game a bit of tension and interest -- the kind you don't get from dialogue trees or using inventory items or playing with mechanical devices.

A lot of gamers do like movement. And some action challenges really can be fun. The trick is finding the challenges that will please the gamers that like an occasional thrill without alienating the gamers that feel a sense of panic or frustration instead of the thrill.

As for constant dying -- IMHO, this simply is NOT fun. It's a way to stretch out the game and make it seem longer.

I must say I dislike the action and timed sequences too. I always get tense when I have to face those. Some adventure games I just didn't finish because of a timed sequence right at the end - GK3 for example - I just couldn't kill the monster right at the end but got through the earlier hard bits like crossing that "bridge" thing. My trigger finger isn't as quick as it used to be.

The time-sequence in Egypt 1 was the worst for me. Running down, finding the right pillar, putting the stone out. I even don't want to remember how many times I had to do that thing
beaver

My feeling is, if you have to die in an adventure game, resurrection should be automatic. SECRETS OF THE LUXOR did that, which made me much more daring. I even walked through doors I knew I shouldn't (No, no! Don't go in there!), just to see what would happen.

Lady K.

As I said in another post, I want them to put warning messages on the box: WARNING This game includes action sequences. So I won't waste my money on a game I won't complete.

I dont mind action sequences but hate it when they are timed. I kept getting fried in Blackstone Chronicles recently not knowing what to do with the thermometer. Finally figured it out after three tries.