Question About Puzzles....

What game gave you the toughest puzzle to solve?
Also what's your favorite and least favorite kind of game puzzles? Just curious!

The toughest, yet still satisfying (i.e. good) puzzles, I found in Riven, RHEM, and Schizm. (But I didn't like the prayer wheel puzzle in Schizm, which required more than my share of artistic ability to copy the prayer wheel designs and more than my share of transpositional ability to write down the sounds)

My least favorite kind of puzzles are stealth "puzzles," or those that can't be "solved" without a high degree of dexterity. Timed puzzles come in various shapes and sizes, but if a puzzle has me rushing around fumbling with the interface instead of thinking, I don't enjoy it. And I don't enjoy shooting (as in the shooting arcade in Wanted). I'm a rotten shot - hands get too shaky, especially when I'm annoyed and/or under the influence of caffeine.

My least favorite kind of non-dexterity puzzles are conversation puzzles that you have to get through by trial and error, and which force you to restart a long sequence of blather if you say the "wrong" thing. One example of this is the puzzle with the two old people in Shambala near the end of Beyond Atlantis 2 (Atlantis 3). Another example is the scissors puzzle in Mystery of the Druids.


My favorite type of puzzles are mechanical types as found in games like Myst, Riven, RHEM, Schizm 2, Sentinel, Exile..., and puzzly types, as found in Jewels of the Oracle, Jewels 2, 7th Guest, and Cassandra Galleries. Some games, like Schizm 2, have both mechanical and puzzly types.

I also enjoyed the Mysts o' Tyme puzzle in Escape From Monkey Island.

And I liked the type of inventory puzzles Kheops included in Return to Mysterious Island.

I like all kinds of puzzles, Sandy, except those that are timed too tightly or those that are strictly trial and error, such as the fire dragons in Dracula: The Last Sanctuary.

When I think of very difficult puzzles, the stone circle in Riven comes to mind as well as the moving button puzzle in Obsidian.

I don't like puzzles based on sound because I am hard of hearing and simply cannot hear certain frequencies--matching sound to sound is really really hard for me! and almost impossible unless the sounds repeat over and over like the one in Remedy did.


I also don't care much for sliders that are more than 9 squares--I'm learning to do them ---

I don't like timed puzzles that are too shortly timed--especially like one of the ones in MOTM when I kept dying and did not realize it was timed puzzle

The math puzzles in Shcizm were hard for me (thank you again Mag for the walkthrough)because I simply don't remember that math--I learned it in high school and promptly forgot it--Schizm also had a puzzle where you had to beat the computer 2ce in a row--I did not mind having to beat it--and even having to beat it 2ce would not have been so bad--but having to do it 2ce in a row was a bit much I thought---

For me- the slider puzzle in Time Lapse just about does it for me- I'm not much of a fan of sliders to begin with- but that one takes the cake!

Toughest puzzle -- church of the machine in Obsidian.

Least favorite puzzles -- math puzzles.

Favorite puzzles -- logic puzzles using symbols or colors.

I hate sliders!!! I also don't care for math or overly scientific puzzles.

What I really like are inventory-based puzzles. One of the best (and wildest) was Tony Tough and the Night of the Roasted Moths...

My least favorite puzzles are action or timed, with math puzzles following in a close 3rd place.

I really like just about every other type of puzzle & love variety, though I'd have to agree with Becky on the colors, symbols and logic as being my favorite and absolutely love jigsaw type puzzles.

The hardest puzzle for me was Alida's main puzzle that had a zillion parts to it and required a tremendous amount of memory.

Melanie

Hmm, for me it would have to be a toss-up between Black Dahlia, 7th Guest and 11th Hour. Most of the puzzles from the latter are doable but I think Black Dahlia'a puzzles are just a bit too difficult. I'm convinced some of them have no logic behind them. The puzzle that's most annoyed me in a game is the piano puzzle from 7th Guest, if anyone knows this. You have to "follow the leader" for ages, and right when I was about to press the last note (only found out later that this would have been the last note) I clicked too far to the right and the puzzle exited. Can't tell you how angry I was at that point.

Oh, another thing, I *hate* any puzzle relating to chess, and 7th Guest/11th Hour have loads of these. As soon as I see one the walkthrough comes out.

I think sliders are the toughest and they are my least favorite! They take so much time, at least for me they do. Math puzzles,

SS...

You know me...anything timed or "arcade" like. Can we say "Inept?"

JK

The ND Haunted Carousel Arcade game!!! That was tough!! Couldn't even resort to a walkthrough on that one either!! Had to EEK it out!!

You mean laugh it out! My stomach hurt after that game purely due to all the laughing we were doing!

I don't care for timed puzzles. Sliders are a close second.

I don't like Maths puzzles, close timed sequences or Chess puzzles....any thing else I can cope with

Sue

My favourite puzzles are ones where you have to think laterally and see things in an unusual way to find the key to solving them, like the stone circle puzzle in Riven. In fact, Riven is still my favourite game ever because it has the puzzles that I find most appealing: stuff you can solve if you keep at it; there's no contrived roadblocks; it's pretty much a matter of thinking of things a certain way and putting the pieces together.

I also like puzzles that cover a lot of territory and integrate a lot of game aspects, like the map puzzle in GK3.

I tend to like mechanical puzzles best, followed closely by color association and well-done sound puzzles (but badly-done sound puzzles, like in Schizm, are really bad). I also rather like math puzzles.

I dislike pure inventory puzzles (i.e., see hotspot, collect item, use item with hotspot) unless there's something really clever about them--especially if a game relies on them extensively or exclusively. They don't appeal to me as real puzzles, merely as busywork. Ditto for pure conversation puzzles. I dislike timed puzzles even when they aren't too difficult--it's a matter of principle.

WW

The game that gave me the hardest time was Rama . There were a lot of puzzles involving base 8 and and base 16 math . I had no experience with that type of math before playing the game , so I lost a few hairs on that one .

I read in a previous post about the "moving buttons" puzzle in Obsidian . That one was very difficult too . Also the wave puzzle gave me fits in that game .

I like puzzles that require keen observation skills as in the Dark Fall games . Also mechanical type puzzles as in the Myst series , Lighthouse , The Riddle of Master Lu etc.

Ditto for me

I love exploring and mapping out the landscape. I enjoy true puzzles - sliders, mazes, jigsaws, logic and decoding and math based challenges. One puzzle that I thought was excellent, but is hard to categorize was Le Serpent Rouge in GK3. Other favorites are Obsidian, Rhem, Riven and Dark Fall.

I'm not as keen on goofy inventory puzzles, or challenges that involve exhausting every dialogue choice to help the game progress. Like most Boomers, I hate action/stealth/timed puzzles and I really am awful with strategy games played against the computer (7th Guest and 11th Hour).

I love em all!! Sliders, stealth, timed, mazes, talky ones, hard ones, I'm calling all ones.
Ones that are strange, ones that make no sense, some that make sence. So many puzzles! So little time! Stuck on one too long and a walkthroughs jus fine! Arcade, Dexterity, slow like myst! Its all good I insist (rymed with Myst)! In other words I'm a very easy boomer to please. Did I mention I like cheeze?

Appy Sleuthin!

Oh PLEEZ!
Really? ALL puzzles?? You are the Truest gamer ever!

RAMA is one of my very favorite games. I agree Robert, the math gave me fits too. Aside from that, I loved this game.

I guess I must be weird. I like the games where the game is conversation/story driven intermixed with puzzles. "Dectectiving" I call it. Examples: Black Mirror, Jack the Ripper. It makes the game more realistic to me. One exception I can think of is Riddle of the Sphinx as there was limited conversaion there, but lots of inventory based puzzles. I absolutely hated the puzzles in Schizm and only got about 1/4 of the way through the game, if that, and only with a walkthrough. I'm in the Longest Journey now and loving it!

Winkie

For me the Piano Puzzle in the Rocketship in the first Myst Game was the hardest puzzle for me to complete. Even though I could tell the right sound I could not set those sliders exactly right!!

I spent tons of time running back and forth between the piano and the levers! I also crashed to the desktop more than once on this puzzle! Did anyone else find it hard?

I thought it was easy. You have to be careful you don't move the mouse at all when letting up on the mouse button or you'll move the slider off pitch. Other than that no problem.

Jenny100, My mouse is very sensitive, but I still found that puzzle in Myst to be one of the worst for me. I had less trouble doing the "Slice and Dice" in Traitors Gate 2!

Maybe your mouse was TOO sensitive. Sometimes it helps to DECREASE your mouse sensitivity in control panel, so you have to move the mouse farther to move the cursor. That way it won't matter if your hand shakes a little.

Do you think making my mouse less sensitive would help in the game Mystery of Nautilus? In that game every time I get near the edge of the computer screen I crash to the desktop.

My sister and I have different computers and she has the same problem with Nautilus. Neither one of us has been able to play this game to the end.

I mainly play for the story not the puzzles, sometimes i dont even like games to have puzzles. I just enjoying playing the interactive adventure with the characters and the world around me.

No I think Mystery of the Nautilus is hopeless.
Nautilus and Forever Worlds are the buggiest games TAC ever released.

Oh what a bummer Jenny100! I do not understand why they don't make a patch for these games! Thanks for letting me know about Forever Worlds because I was thinking of buying it!

t-bot is the developer of Nautilus and has been out of business for some time. TAC is just the publisher. Forever Worlds was made by Hexagon Entertainment. I don't know what happened to them. Probably bankrupt.

To Bad about t-bot the developer of Nautilus but you would think TAC could do something to fix it since they keep releasing the game!

Actually they aren't selling it from their online store any more.
They're selling the solutions guide, but not the game.

Jenny100, I saw the Nautilus at COMPUSA just last week so the game is still out there for unsuspecting gamers who don't know it is not worth the money!

That's old stock CompUSA is trying to get rid of.
TAC no longer sells it. Too much trouble to support it. Remember how some people posted that TAC offered them another game to replace it when they couldn't help them get it running? They don't want to mess with supporting it anymore.

I noticed no one mentioned Aura. I liked most of those but especially the tower puzzle with the spinning disk.

I was one of the lucky ones, I guess--Nautilus played on my computer with no problems at all...

I must be another 'lucky' one Jenny, because it played flawlessly for me too...but I played it on Win98SE...I don't know if that made the difference

Sue