[misslilo]

How about the Broken Sword series.
I love the puzzles in them.. not too hard and not too easy. Most of the times it's very logical puzzles.

In my opinion puzzles don't have to be long and complicated, I'd rather see lots of small ones, which fits into the story.
Like having to read a specific book(magic) before you can do another type of puzzle, which involves mixing ingredients for a magic spell or something. (You get my drift)

Another puzzle that comes to mind, is where you have to navigate a robot spider through a room with laserbeams.
Not action puzzle, more a matter of timing it right (which btw took me 4 tries, lol)
It also didn't feel like it had been put there just for the sake of it, it was a natural part of following the storyline.

Another thing (maybe out of context) - you know there are games, that comes with an implemented map, that lets you jump from one place to another.
I like it, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't feel logical to me for it to be there already. Lets go search for a map first...lol

[Davies]

The very best puzzles are logical but not obvious. Rather like a good cryptic crossword clue -- it's all there in front of you, and it's not easy to see what the right answer is, but when you finally do hit on the right answer you KNOW it.

For instance, in The Secret of Monkey Island, the ingredients to make the recipe on board the ship, or how to get the enchanted zombie head from the cannibals.

Similarly, in Phantasmagoria 2, the alien machine puzzle, which some people describe as trial-and-error. You have to experiment to figure out what the parts of the machine do, but if you do that systematically, then setting the machine up and operating it correctly is quite logical.

Some puzzles have been so perfectly logical and transparently obvious that I never solved them and had to resort to walkthroughs. And then, after being told, said "d'oh" and slapped my forehead for being such a supreme idiot. The two that really stand out in that category are:
Phantasmagoria 2 - when you are desperate to get your e-mails but can't get into your office
Monkey Island - finding the swordmaster

[Risingson]

Originally Posted by Crapstorm

4. Obsidian contained many very clever puzzles. One of my favorites was a bureaucratic maze in which you had to navigate a 3x3 grid of cubicles. Each pair of adjacent cubicles was separated by a locked door. You needed a certain combination of colored access cards to get through each door. The problem was, the locks ate your cards, and in each cubicle you would find new cards. It was really tough to figure out the route that would get you into that last cubicle where the prize was located, but what a treat when you got it!

This is one of the most brilliant puzzles I've come across, if not the most.

But my most beloved one is the "enraged squirrel in love" puzzle in Toonstruck.

[mrLOL]

Misslilo: funny that you would mention the thing about the map, cuz I was just dealing with that problem in my own game, but you're right (altho probably don't have much to do with this thread) especially if it's really drawed to look like a map (rather than just a arial photo or whatever).

Davies: Very good example with the finding swordmaster puzzle, come to think of it I like that one too because it's so well intregreted with the engine, and it's really one of those puzzles that you can't do by just trying all items with all objects.
As for the recipe on the ship, I really can't remember what the puzzle were.. hmm I'll see if I can walkthrough it later.

Risingson: D'oh, haven't played any of those, but I'm tempted to try the toonstruck one, it sounds funny (but not the Obsidian, that one sounds like a puzzle I wouldn't even complete )

[tsa]

I liked the puzzles in Myst III & Myst II the most. They were logical and not too hard for me to solve. As a scientist I have to solve hard puzzles for my job, and therefore adventure games shouldn't be too hard, otherwise they look too much like work

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Risingson

This is one of the most brilliant puzzles I've come across, if not the most.

Aaaaahhhh... the black cards! Not just a great puzzle, the presentation was perfect too: something fun to do in each of the nine cubicles. All of it related to the bureaucracy theme. My favorite vidbot is the chatty one who shows you pics of her family.



Here's her youngest, Angela.



And this is Aunt Beth, 103 years old and still going strong.



I LOVE this game!

[Kazmajik]

One of my favorites was in King's Quest 6, on the Isle of wonder where you have to get past the five guardians, each of whom has a super-sense you have to trick somehow. It was thought out well, organic to the environment, was a reasonable boundary that required exploration of the places you could go at the time, and solving it opened up the solutions to other puzzles that couldn't be gotten past previously. Plus, while it wasn't difficult, per se, it did involve some creative thought and rewarded the player for it.

[rtrooney]

Originally Posted by Jelena

I like mapping out mazes.

*hides*

Hiss! Hiss! I hate mazes. Some are fairly easy, i.e. do a right hand drag, a la Shivers1. Some are incredibly complex, e.g. the 3D maze in, I think, SQ5.

[rtrooney]

One of the best pure puzzle games that I can recall was Lighthouse.

[Risingson]

Lighthouse is great, and the only game I remember that has a box like the one in Hellraiser

[SeaTurtle]

Originally Posted by Davies

For instance, in The Secret of Monkey Island, the ingredients to make the recipe on board the ship, or how to get the enchanted zombie head from the cannibals.

I still love the puzzle to get the navigator's head from the cannibals. I think it's really clever. I'd love to see more puzzles like that, which require you to actually think about what you're doing rather than randomly trying everything in your inventory (Which, true, for this puzzle would have worked, but that's not the point).

I think the main thing is that, as many people have already said, the puzzles have to be logical. Think about it from the main character's point of view. Would they really think of the solution? For example, I think that most of the puzzles in Grim Fandango can easily be worked out if you think about it enough (some are difficult to put into practice, i.e. the lock on the safe, but you know what you're supposed to do). The one puzzle that I don't feel fits in the game is:

Spoiler:

The road sign in the forest. As far as I can see, there is no logic behind it whatsoever. Why would Manny pick up the road sign and take it to a nearby clearing? Once you've got the sign, it's fairly easy, but it's realising that you need it in the first place that makes no sense to me.

[cwapitm]

I'd like to add something else. I really enjoyed the puzzles of Legend of Kyrandia: The Hand of Fate. That is creating the different potions.

[Risingson]

Originally Posted by cwapitm

I'd like to add something else. I really enjoyed the puzzles of Legend of Kyrandia: The Hand of Fate. That is creating the different potions.

Yes, until you arrive to the rainbow puzzle, which I still think that has no logic.