Stuck / Frustrate on Adventure Game? Let off the steam here!
 

I'm gonna use this thread to whine about some puzzle that make me stuck / frustrated and have to consult a walkthrough.
I warn you though, this is gonna be really subjective, since i'm a bad adventure player (probably with ADD too),
so please forgive me if some of these part might sounds really stupid to you, I just want to let off the steam :D


Let me begin with my recent one:

Tales of Monkey Island (The Siege of Spinner Cay)

Spoiler:

- I totally missed Brillig Island, it's hidden on top right corner of the map, and really small, and separate from all the other island. WTH, pixel hunting, but yeah i admit i'm not that observant)
- Trying to memorize, the Forest Maze, grr... i hate to memorize path, i have a short term memory.

Paradise

Spoiler:

- A Water Jug near the Pool that suddenly appear. This is totally not cool, do they expect me to check every single screen everytime i talk to NPC, to see if it's trigger something ? wth ?
- I missed the path to the Leopard cage, it doesn't look like there is a path there until i check the walkthrough, put an ARROW for god sake
- Finding hotspot for the Pool, where the heck is it, a wide pool of water in front of me and i have to click on exact spot to get water ?? wth are they thinking when making this game ??

The Lost Crown

Spoiler:

- I just start playing this, Where is the SKIP button, i don't want to wait 10 minutes to watch a slow pace boring black & white intro (if it's a Square Enix / MGS cut scene quality maybe it's different story), i just want to see the gameplay. Give me a SKIP button.
- My first 3 item on inventory is a notes, maaaan i hate to read bunch of text especially in beginning of the game.

DreamFall

Spoiler:

- WTH with the picture matching mini-game, i have to do it like 10 times until i get it correct, So many small picture, so little time. Drop it please.

Memento Mori

Spoiler:

- I just arrived at the office, and checking the PC, OMG bunch of emails to read,
arrghhh.. .read..read...read.... also a few names which is hard to remember. Can't they just keep it to 2 short email. (I think Blackwell Convergence did it in a better way), i know you want to make a game as real as possible... but this is too much for me
- Too much uninteresting chit chat

SO BLONDE

Spoiler:

- Loading...Loading..Loading...Loading...Loading...L oading..Loading...Loading...
Loading...Loading..Loading...Loading...Loading...L oading..Loading...Loading...
Spent 3 hour just for watching the Loading Screen, even playing recent Next Gen Games doesn't require me to load this long... (QuadCore, 4 GB RAM, Geforce 8600, latest driver)
- Some puzzle drive me crazy, especially where you have to talk to certain person to trigger something, but it's been a while i forgot which part.

MorningStar (Flash Game)

Spoiler:

- Overwhelming Inventory Combination, basically it's almost asking me to try to combine everything with everything i have on inventory (in a permutation style).
- Hidden HOTSPOT, pixel hunting.... sigh classic problem

Mystery / Touch Detective 1 - DS Game

Spoiler:

- I have to wait Mackenzie to wake up, turn off her alarm, do her bed, and walk toward the table, every single f'ing time i start the game. Wth do they achieve from doing this ??
- Some puzzle you have to click on a hotspot to be able to continue... sometimes annoying.
- Manage to finish the game without walkthrough though

TRACE MEMORY - DS Game

Spoiler:

- The beginning puzzle to open the Silver Door (with clover sign), basically you have to combine 2 keys to open it, problem is you have to actually try using both keys in a sequence to that door to initiate the combine process. I solve this puzzle by accident, but this pissed me off because how do i know that i have to use Key 1 and then Key 2 on the same door at once ? based on luck ??

Feel free to add more if you want, just let off the steam and share it to the world, I'm interested to see where other player usually stuck on a game :D


I'll add more later.

another one:

Dreamfall (again)

Spoiler:

- that Underground Maze, where you have to sneak / hide to avoid the big monster
- Countless dying..... (what happens if i don't have a save file nearby)

The last time I really got frustrated was with the slider puzzle in Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer. It's stupendous how much I hate anything that relates to the slider puzzle.

But beyond that, I usually stay cool with most puzzles I encounter. I take my time and try different ways to approach obstacles. When all else fails, I peruse MaGtRo's most excellent walkthroughs to get unstuck. She's simply amazing.

I had a problem with hotspots disappearing. You'd use one, it would disappear, but you were supposed to use it again. So I had to wander around aimlessly, accomplishing nothing, until the hotspot magically reappeared for no reason. Black Mirror had a similar problem in one area.

I'm with you there.

Spoiler:

People complained about the moving box puzzles in Broken Sword 3, but there were many many many more of those stupid matching mini-games in Dreamfall. And unlike the box puzzles, you had to start each one over again if you missed it.

Ugghh, I can't even think about slider puzzles without wanting to throw up. They are the bane of my existence, and I hate them all. If I ever made an adventure game I would specifically write in a part where the main character says something to the effect of "It looks like a complicated lock, I have to put the picture back the way it was" And then a couple seconds would pass, and some dialogue would come up and say "Oops, you broke the lock, oh well, looks like you won't have to spend the next hour dragging around puzzle pieces!"

Something like that anyway :D

Huehuhe... i like this solution :D
also... for an adventure game with serious real life case, who in the right mind will make something like slider puzzle for a lock ?

at least If it's for Monkey Island / other cartoon adventure game i can still understand that.

Adding

Mystique 1 (For Iphone/Ipod)

Spoiler:

- I hate the CHEAP Scare, instead of trying to scare the player through the atmosphere / story, this game using a sucky technique by flashing a disturbing picture at you... wth

Diamon Jones: Eye of the Dragon

Spoiler:

- Please get a better translator, dialog is really bad & uninteresting.
- Character doesn't look loveable

I hate it when puzzles are "saved" even if you faile them.

Like if you try a slider and get stuck, and "back away" a few screens, and when you come back it is still in your "failed state". There should always be some kind of reset-button, or it should reset if you leave it and come back, otherwise you cannot use a walkthrough, or try another idea.

Of course you can always go back to a saved game, but if you managed to solve something in between you may be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

On the other hand, I don't like the opposite. If you manage so solve a puzzle, to open a door for example, its very annoying to have to enter the combination (or use the key, or move the sticks, or whatever) everytime you want to pass.

Another Dreamfall one:

Spoiler:

When Zoe reaches the end of the troll infested cave, in Arcadia, you have to play out a tune on those glyphs. I never even noticed that the tune you're supposed to play, played once you activated the water wheel. I kept trying different combinations and nothing worked. I had to check a walkthrough in the end and discovered that the solution had already been presented. What's annoying is that there's no way to replicate the tune. :frusty: If I hadn't checked the walkthrough I'd still be in those caves today.

I TOTALLY agree with that! :)

I totally forgot about this one, i think this is the 1st time i'm using walkthrough when playing Dreamfall :frusty:

I may really go off on a rant over Lost: Via Domus. Since I liked the tv series so much and the game got reasonably good reviews I decided to get it. Little did I realize that it would test my system and find I didn't have an up-to-date video card. It didn't like the number of shaders my card rendered and wouldn't allow me to play. That after spending good money on the game.

Well, I decided it had been a couple of years since I'd bought a new video card, although I didn't think an adventure game should be so picky - it wasn't Halo, after all - and that maybe it was time for a new one. So $129 later with a new card I get all set to play. It looked great and started out auspiciously. I knew from the reviews that it was mostly keyboard based which isn't my favorite way to play but I figured I could get over that. What I didn't know was that the game was going to require taking pictures regularly to solve the puzzles. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it was anything but! It required zooming, aspect and other settings as well as deciding exactly just when to shoot at moving characters all with almost simultaneous keyboard commands. Not only that but the "clue" gave you two characters to choose from, to make it more difficult.

I tried twenty-five or thirty times, started getting wrist pains and greatly frustrated and decided to put it down until the next day. Well, I fared no better then either. For the life of me I can't understand why something so difficult for even a person who can play FPS games without a problem should be included in this game. At least make it optional or solved after a high number of tries. Disgusted, I threw it on my "forget about it" pile and sulked for the next hour.

So maybe it was me but I had a friend try and he got no further. I could have cheated and searched for walkthroughs that may have told me exactly what to shoot and what adjustments to use but that would have ruined it for ne. I returned the video card since I had no use for it and will probably sell the game on eBay.

Speaking as both a LOST fan and an adventure gamer, you're not missing out on much. It was quite disappointing with only flat parodies of the LOST characters.

I agree with those stupid puzzles not resetting themselves.

And the "Dreamfall" ones;

Spoiler:

like the Troll cave and the mini games were just horrible.

And about potan's first post about "The Lost Crown";

Spoiler:

I wasn't bothered by the documents, I love reading more about backstory, etc. It jsut goes with the genre, especially 1st person. The good thing about these documents was that you didn't need to read them at all, if you didn't want to. There weren't any answers in them for future puzzles that you needed to read. They were totally optional, and just there for mood. :)

heuhe.... yeah i think i'm just too hard on this one, i'm kinda busy last time and want to check how the game works pretty quick, but instead i have to wait the long cut scene before i can see my main character & how the control works.
I'm pretty sure i'll get back on this one again, since i heard lot's of good thing about The Lost Crown :D

but yeah i admit i'm not into reading too much, recently when i saw that on Memento Mori you have to read bunch of stuff on her PC / email, i just stop playing it.

I think the way how the text presented to me is what made me if i interested to read or not, if the game just give me one paper full of text (or maybe even more than 1 page)..... i'm too lazy to read it.

but maybe if they simplified it, divide it into some text, with pictures, player's comment once in a while etc... now that is interesting.
for example in Hotel Dusk (DS), Blackwell Series, Monkey Island, there are bunch of reading too and i'm totally enjoying it.

more...

DRAWN: The Painted Tower

Spoiler:

- Item appear out of nowhere, where it's clearly not there before (one of the bird picture to solve the tree puzzle)
- Mini Game, puzzle, slider, you name it, good thing it has SKIP PUZZLE button, but i feel like i'm cheating when i use it, F' those puzzle.
- Though the puzzle kind of make sense, but it's so shallow, give this use for that, find this 5 piece of stuff, etc, etc, i guess this is
what happen when you combine Hidden Object and Adventure game together.

PIZZA MORGANA

Spoiler:

- Good Voice Over, but i'm so annoyed hearing her voice over and over
(it's pretty ok though, it's just i'm super annoyed with a high pitch voice, want me to punch her mouth)
- Fuse Box doesn't work as expected, when you switch on Zack room it will switch off kitchen,
but once you trigger an event, when you trigger the switch on, the kitchen still on. what's going on here ???

will add more later when i'm done with the game...

1000th post! YEAH! :D :D :7

And now on topic: that is the beauty of Myst, that no matter how many times you do something wrong you can always solve all the puzzles. I never had to go back in any Myst game because of dead ends. Those games were made with LOVE :kiss:.

Yes, I hate slider puzzles! The most recent game I played with a slider puzzle in it was Murder in the Abbey. That one really pissed me off. I can deal with frustrating puzzles, but slider puzzles are a huge pet peeve of mine and ends up making the game one of my most hated.

Slightly OOT, congratulation on your 1000 post :D

PIZZA MORGANA (again):

Spoiler:

- stuck at the forest, dialog keep repeating, have no idea what to do,
too much repeating chatty.

Thank you!