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Old 06-25-2005, 12:50 AM   #4
TheTwelve
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Having more possible actions does not necessarily mean that the game has more choices. Let's remember that in most games with the verb interface, while you could always try 8 different ways of interacting with something, there was almost always only one correct way of interacting with it, leading to a lot of "That won't work," and "I'm not putting my lips on that!" The 8 verb choices was just an extra puzzle on top of the real in-game puzzles. "I know I have to push the ladder to the book case, but WHICH VERB SHOULD I USE?!?!" When in doubt, try all 8 on everything.

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In recent games i've tried, you just throw objects at people and other objects on the screen hoping it'll work as the game does absolutely everything for you.
And in the old SCUMM games, you did the same thing, you just have to click on everything eight times.

This extra layer of puzzle (which in many cases was more of an inconvenient interface than a puzzle), when applied throughout the game, for countless games, starts to feel clunky and impersonal. It's no surprise that you don't see commercial games with this type of interface anymore. It's an extra separation between the player and the character and takes away from immersion.

Certainly the choice of a one-click-fits-all interface changes the puzzle design. You just have to match your gameplay's aims to the interface that you use. But that doesn't make it "watered down," just different. I'm not saying better either, because, as it may be in the case of Syberia (I own it but haven't gotten around to it yet) the designers may not make use of their chosen interface to it's full potential, matching the puzzles and the world interations to the style of player input.
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