Quote:
Originally Posted by Oscar
B is superior, no argument.
In A, who is telling me what books I need to pull? Aren't I meant to be the hero in this story? Who asked the "game/hero" to tell me what to do? Sorry, but I'm not his lap-dog.
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It doesn't necessarily have to be the game. It could be another character. The situation in A kinda reminds me of the part in Full Throttle where Maureen tells you of a secret entrance to the factory where you need to kick a certain stone at a specific time. Same thing, no? The game tells you what you need to do, but you still need to figure out *which* stone and at *which* time.
I agree that the puzzle presented in B is a lot more interesting, but there should always be at least a clue to be found somewhere that could make it easier. Like finding a piece of paper in a hidden compartment of the desk that tells you which books and/or gives you an idea of the order in which they need to be pulled...
I don't know, but the design (linear or non-linear) basically boils down to a varying degree of difficulty imo. If you need to fix a flat tire (like in Secret Files: Tunguska), you had to take the flat tire, use a pump to inflate it, put it in water to locate the hole and fix that with a rubber glove and some glue, IIRC. Easier games could let you find a "tire repair kit" instead of gloves and glue and could just solve the entire thing by letting you use the repair kit on the tire.
Few to no games offer this varying degree of difficulty, imo. Only examples I can think of are Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis where the 'dumber' fists-path let you turn on the generator at the dig site just by pressing the switch, where the wits- and team-paths had you looking for gas for the generator first.
Lost Horizon did offer a possibility to change the difficulty setting for a couple of mini-puzzles (like putting a broken record together like a jigsaw-puzzle - the easier the setting, the fewer pieces there were).
Maybe adventure games should offer multiple difficulty settings? Almost all other genres have them...
