Which puzzle type would you eradicate?

Thinking about my least favourite puzzles leads me to suggest a topic for "the most hated type".

I guess you would expect this to be "sliders". In fact my bugbear is the "push all the buttons type" where each button pressed also affects it's neighbours in a cross pattern. I've never come up with a viable strategy and have spent hours playing around until by chance stumbling on a solution. If I had a magic wand that could erase all traces of this puzzle type I'd wave it without a second thought.

What is your "eraser wand candidate puzzle type"?

The timed puzzle. An otherwise good game can be absolutely ruined by over-inclusion of these abominations.

Maths based puzzles are a close runner-up.

I vote for the awful Slider and the music tone puzzle.

Music/sound/tone and Timed puzzles here!

I strongly echo the timed puzzle. Especially the more elaborate "arcade" type such as the spider in Still Life and the three sequences in Next Life. I keep saved games after all of those puzzles once I complete them, just so I won't have to do them again.

If a game must have timed puzzles, I prefer the setup in So Blonde where you can skip them if you prefer, and it doesn't effect the outcome of the game.

I'm not a big fan of sliders, either.

Being a singer, I don't mind musical puzzles. I can see why others dislike them, though.

All of the above! But I know many members will say they like the ones we hate. Maybe the question should be "which kind of puzzles do you like?". I myself quite like the jigsaw type of puzzle - putting together broken cups, etc., or piecing strips from a paper shredder, etc. etc.

Math puzzles...Greek mythology puzzles

Timed puzzles for me, too. Especially the ones that end in death if you go wrong.
And VERY especially the ones where having failed and come to an untimely end, you are forced to watch a whole cutscene each time before you can try again .... and so it goes .... over and over and over ....


I also find "weird maths" puzzles - as in Rama and Voyage much, much too frustrating to be enjoyable !!

I'm with you, boomerang, in loathing those "push all button" puzzles. They're right up there with timed puzzles and Sliders with me. Although, I've grown to really like the sliding lock puzzles. Go figure.

Gil.

A thought: what would you call that horrible pentagram puzzle in Dracula 3? That is the only one that I absolutely cannot do even with a walkthrough. If it has a category, I'd blow it sky high!

Any "repeat the sequence" puzzles or timed puzzles.

Ana :wave:

For sure any Arcade type puzzle in an adventure game spoils it for me. These are the "skill" type games like having to jump or die - hitting targets that take a lot of tries, walking tight ropes or die, etc, etc.

I could also do without those sliders and mazes too.

I could list many that I would rather not "encounter" in a game I am playing. But if/when I think about it, if I could wave my magical wand to eradicate a specific type of puzzle, how do I then 'appease' the gamer who likes/loves that type of puzzle? So I opt not to eradicate any puzzle from any game...what I like someone else could eradicate then making me unhappy. Make sense?
Love, Betty Lou

Timed puzzles. They are the antithesis of what adventure games are all about for me yet they still turn up now and again. Makes you wonder if some adventure game makers have ever seen an adventure before or know what the no-nos are - it's quite simple and has been well established over the last 30 years: "timed-puzzles", "mazes" (although these are rare now they were a lazy way of extending gameplay and used to be quite prevalent(sp?)) and "dying".

I would have loved to have been in the design meeting of Still Life 2 when the genuis suggested that filling the game with timed puzzles would be a good idea, just so I could see the whites of his eyes. Amazingly bad decision that ruined it for me. Ended up not even finishing it and watching the ending on Youtube instead.

Math puzzels , Boo, Hiss, Yuck & double Yuck.

Can you tell I Hate math

Mechanical puzzels alright though

Dunn T

Arcade and math puzzles are my least favorite. I also am pretty bad on any mechanical puzzle.

All of them.

So you would rather just watch a film ????

Gobobby !!!!

Someone was obviously having a bad day when they came up with the idea of a timed slider Talk about a double whammy. They certainly need to be done away with.
Can't remember the name of the game but I sure remember them! (I think it was set in space).

And, I must be one of the few who not only like slider puzzles (there are several different kinds in my latest HOG Haunted Legends Queen of Spades) but I LOVE THEM - all kinds except timed of course. No timed puzzle is worth my time or the frustration they cause.
Love, Betty Lou

Timed puzzles are my nemesis! The hardest are those in the Tomb Raider games where you have to get to the other end before poles break or walls crumble!

I like music and math and even sliders. Don't care much for arcade, but the one where I always use a walkthrough without even trying is the safe with dial lock. Even if I know the code I never understand if I'm supposed to go right first or left, and when I'm supposed to go through zero or not.
And somehow always the code is someone's birthday, and then I dont know if it should go 141210 or 121410 or 101214...

And I agree with Mad on the timed puzzle with endless cutscene. I almost stopped playing Broken Sword 3 because of that.

"And I agree with Mad on the timed puzzle with endless cutscene. I almost stopped playing Broken Sword 3 because of that."

I did stop playing it !!

Timed sequences with such awkward controls and then the over and over repeated cutscenes a consequence of failure ??
Just too much for this adventurer

I want my games to be enjoyable experiences, not frustrating endurance tests

oh , yes ! remember the timed slider in secrets of atlantis? the stupid curtain ? or those endless typed cutscenes in castle malloy when you tried to navigate the bog ? enough to make you insane !
but i 'd get rid of things like the electic panel in GITS , where i wasted 2 days trying to get it to all light up ,only to find it didn't - you had to go back and flip switches for each section not fair !

I'm with you Mad. I HATE timed areas in games. Not very keen on sliders but can cope with a WT. Love maths and code breaking.

Anything that requires dexterity or quickness of action.
So hate timed puzzles of any kind.
I like anything cerebral, even sliders, with endless time to work it out.

Sliders are wierd for me. Ive always been able to do them without quite knowing how or why. If anyone asked me what the process of completing them is I wouldnt have a clue how to explain. I just sort of move the bits around and they end up in the right place:-)

Rather than solve yet another slider.

The timed ones are the worst cos you could just be a bit slow and then it tells you time up not good.

Hi, boomerang!

The puzzles I would eliminate are:

1. Timed
2. Sliders
3. Push buttons to either light up or unlight the board.

Susan

Susie I had forgotton about the push button light puzzles. I hate those too.

Excellent choice of Topic Space Quest,
I don't know where this catergory fits in, but what makes me Not like games like Myst and Rhem as much as I would like to is the:
Push something here and...... listen and... what the Heck did it do? And you have to wander around finding what it did, if anything...
I hope I explained this right?

I wouldn't eradicate any particular type of puzzle. Some timed, sliders, mazes, etc give me trouble but just as many don't.

What I do hate though (on the line of the endless cutscene) is the endless dialogue you sometimes have to listen to over and over and over again when you have one (or a hundred) of those "game over" moments.

Of course, when you want to hear something again because it actually contains a clue that you didn't quite get or can't write down quick enough and still listen to what's being said, you can never hear that again.

"Of course, when you want to hear something again because it actually contains a clue that you didn't quite get or can't write down quick enough and still listen to what's being said, you can never hear that again. "

So true, oldbroad !!

I'd like to add that if it weren't for saved games and MaG and the other walkthru writers there is many a puzzle that would have kept me from completing a game!

For me it's the timed and arcade puzzles that kills any desire to play that game.

Which is why I don't play Nancy Drew.

All bad puzzles and other puzzles that are not to my liking.

I am playing a game right now that have multiple telephone reconnect the current from one to another and light redirect.. without being there to actually see the wire I can' tell where the heck they go...

Perfectly stated Ascovel!

Any kind of puzzle that includes numbers! I am mathematically challenged. These types of puzzles drive me insane! I don't mind the sliders. But yes, I agree. Any timed puzzle gets on my nerves too! I need to relax!

I'm with the 'hate timed, arcade, dexterity' group. The problem with those puzzles is that no Walkthrough will be able to help you. You're either fast enough or not.

Other than base 10 math puzzles. I won't even try solving them on my own if I can find step-by-step solutions.

A close second is boomerang's "push all the buttons type".

I like sliders (as long as they're not timed).

Mazes, timed, and arcade depend on the individual puzzle.

I am not fond of similar puzzles of any puzzle type in a game.

Also, I am not fond of anything where, if I fail, I'm forced to sit through a long cutscene or endless dialogue before I can try again.

Actually, I wouldn't eradicate any of them. IMO, a far better solution would be an optional bypass of some sort - that way everyone would be happy.

I also would prefer the option of opting out of a puzzle in games especially if it was one I tried a few times already.

I think the worst type of puzzle is one that is both very hard, timed, involves pixel hunting, is not verified as correct when done correct (eg no noise or cutscene or comment) and does not let you save just before or after it.

I agree Vic. An opt out option would be great. I hate when you get stuck at one puzzle and it holds you up for hours.

Same for me. Especially when they make you watch the cutscene again. For some reason, "Time" and adventure games are like oil and water for me.

I'd have to agree with the majority, a timed puzzle. I'm playing the game to relax and enjoy the experience. I don't get pleasure out of solving something before the clock runs down.

I sometimes have no problems with sliders or some math puzzles--to my surprise. But trying to solve a puzzle where you have to get into the head of the programmer to figure out the logic of the puzzle is another turnoff. And yet, I sometimes find myself able to do just that. Sometimes...

I handled the crazy math puzzles in Rama, traversed many timed puzzles without too much hassle. But one type of puzzle is guaranteed to ruin a game for me.

Slider puzzles!