• Log In | Sign Up

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Top Games
  • Search
  • New Releases
  • Daily Deals
  • Forums

Adventure Gamers - Forums

Welcome to Adventure Gamers. Please Sign In or Join Now to post.

You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread

Post Marker Legend:

  • New Topic New posts
  • Old Topic No new posts

Currently online

angelus_04KeybordzLady KestrelTheTMDwalas74

Support us, by purchasing through these affiliate links

   

Favorite Puzzles

Avatar

Total Posts: 55

Joined 2020-09-23

PM

I’m surprised I couldn’t find a thread on this and, after reading Celebreon’s stimulating thread regarding them, I found myself reminiscing about my favorite ones. If the solution is part of what you liked most about it then don’t forget those spoiler tags, please!

I really liked the infamous recipe puzzle from Still Life, with its neat metaphors and chilled out, homely vibes taking precedence over the all-around dark tone, if just for a brief moment. I was rather surprised when I later saw the aversion from the AG community, which I think found it to be too difficult (?)

I didn’t though. So, yeah, this was a memorable one for moi. Nerd

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 8471

Joined 2011-10-21

PM

Maroko - 29 September 2020 09:38 AM

I’m surprised I couldn’t find a thread on this

There is one, but it’s seven years old now. Grin

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

Avatar

Total Posts: 8720

Joined 2012-01-02

PM

Maroko - 29 September 2020 09:38 AM

I’m surprised I couldn’t find a thread on this

how do you mean? if you are using the site search it is useless, sucks.
use google, type the topic you want and then Site:“adventuregamers.com”.
and add the keyword ‘forums’ anywhere in this search.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 55

Joined 2020-09-23

PM

Advie - 29 September 2020 11:27 AM
Maroko - 29 September 2020 09:38 AM

I’m surprised I couldn’t find a thread on this

how do you mean? if you are using the site search it is useless, sucks.

Oops! I did use it… But, as the Admin pointed out, it’s 7 y.o. already so I may as well create this shiny new one rather than committing the cardinal sin of necroing, right?

SO, both of you, cough up a puzzle you loved in these last 7 years will ya! Sarcastic

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 928

Joined 2009-11-10

PM

Not during those 7 years but for me the most classic puzzle I’ve always loved is the sword fighting in Monkey Island. Mostly because I’m nostalgic but also because it feels so organic…

Hard to think of a puzzle I loved in the last 7 years to be honest, I’ve had fun playing games but I don’t have a puzzle that suddenly pops up into my mind.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 55

Joined 2020-09-23

PM

giom - 29 September 2020 01:11 PM

I’ve always loved is the sword fighting in Monkey Island. Mostly because I’m nostalgic but also because it feels so organic…

Is there even a single creature out there that hasn’t thoroughly enjoyed that classic bit? And it’s really timeless cause I first played MI post-2000s and was grinning from ear to ear!

giom - 29 September 2020 01:11 PM

Hard to think of a puzzle I loved in the last 7 years to be honest, I’ve had fun playing games but I don’t have a puzzle that suddenly pops up into my mind.

Haha! I was just messing with them, there’s no limit here—nerd-out as you wish! Nerd

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 4

Joined 2017-05-15

PM

I really liked the grave yard ghost puzzle in KQ4.  Where else do you get to dig up a dead baby Grin

     

Have a Super happy dumb fun day!
Randell Trulson

Giggle Horse Games

Avatar

Total Posts: 860

Joined 2017-12-19

PM

The Darkside Detective.

If you have things like Enid Blyton’s ghost that is only visible through a ViewMaster in the game, you have a winner!

Although while I would say that the ViewMaster thing is one of the best and most memorable things in adventure games from the past seven years, and from all times actually, if we think about it critically it doesn’t really involve any previously unseen puzzle mechanics. You can replace the ViewMaster with some UV glasses or night vision, and it’s quite an ordinary thing really.

But the spin that they gave to it in The Darkside Detective is pure brilliance!  Laughing


It’s also kind of cute that the protagonist character doesn’t have any visible eyes in the game, but when he’s looking things through that ViewMaster, there are two dots where his eyes would be!  Tongue

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 8720

Joined 2012-01-02

PM

the point was directing you to the best way to search these forums, nothing more.

no need to reply to that.


—————————-

my fav puzzle is always has been Riven’s ‘Marble Grid’. which is almost 50% (or more) of the gameplaying of the whole adventure.

also, there are a lot of good ones, but it always hard to remember, but on the top of my head;

MI2, spitting contest.
PQ3, murder location on the map.
E & H: getting laundry lift ticket.
Lumino City, guitar musical puzzle.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1239

Joined 2016-04-08

PM

My all time favourite puzzle is the one of Day of the Tentacle where you need Benjamin Franklin to do his experiment, but it is not raining. How can you make it rain? Either you are Native American and perform a dance rain or… you wash a car, because everybody knows it always rains when you just have your car washed! Priceless…

     

Currently translating Strangeland into Spanish. Wish me luck, or send me money to my Paypal haha

Total Posts: 260

Joined 2014-12-25

PM

walas74 - 29 September 2020 04:34 PM

My all time favourite puzzle is the one of Day of the Tentacle where you need Benjamin Franklin to do his experiment, but it is not raining. How can you make it rain? Either you are Native American and perform a dance rain or… you wash a car, because everybody knows it always rains when you just have your car washed! Priceless…

It works just as well with windows instead of cars.

My favourite puzzle is and will always be Le Serpent Rouge in all its stages.

 

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1239

Joined 2016-04-08

PM

LittleRose - 29 September 2020 04:43 PM
walas74 - 29 September 2020 04:34 PM

My all time favourite puzzle is the one of Day of the Tentacle where you need Benjamin Franklin to do his experiment, but it is not raining. How can you make it rain? Either you are Native American and perform a dance rain or… you wash a car, because everybody knows it always rains when you just have your car washed! Priceless…

It works just as well with windows instead of cars.

My favourite puzzle is and will always be Le Serpent Rouge in all its stages.

You are right, it works with windows too. I haven’t played GK3 yet, next year I will, promised. Maybe then I would change my favourite (I always heard so many good things about Le Serpent Rouge, I hope not no be dissappointed…) By the way, years ago I played Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon and I read the final puzzle is similar in concept to the Serpent Rouge one…

     

Currently translating Strangeland into Spanish. Wish me luck, or send me money to my Paypal haha

Avatar

Total Posts: 8471

Joined 2011-10-21

PM

I’ll quote myself from the old thread, because they’re all still relevant:

TimovieMan - 08 April 2013 12:41 PM

You can’t really count this as a puzzle because it’s really an entire chapter consisting of a great bunch of puzzles, but I’ve always considered Year Two of Grim Fandango (the Calavera Café / Rubacava part) as the pinnacle of adventure gaming.
Rubacava is a big place so there’s lots to explore, but it’s not so big that you’ll get lost. The environments are beautiful, and the game’s ‘noir’ atmosphere is at its peak there. Your objective is relatively simple: you need to board a ship but the captain won’t let you (since he’s got enough crew). Unless, of course, one of his sailors doesn’t show up (and you need to make sure that happens), and unless you manage to obtain a Union card for yourself and official Sea Bee tools for Glottis…
And then you run around doing all the necessary things to finally obtain passage on the ship.
It’s the longest chapter in the game and the one with the most locations, it’s soaking with atmosphere and it’s by far the best piece of adventure gaming I can imagine.


As for specific puzzles, there’s a few that come to mind:
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: the multiple locations where you can find The Lost Dialogue of Plato
- The Dig: retrieving the part of a door panel that a rodent-like critter stole
- Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon: making chocolate in the Brazilian temple in Josie’s story


The one in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is by no means a difficult puzzle, but the fun part of it is that The Lost Dialogue of Plato can be found in one of three different locations (and its location changes in subsequent playthroughs). This means that you’ll often have to complete the puzzles for all three locations before you finally find what you were looking for (two locations being wild goose chases). If you’re lucky, it was at the first place you looked, but that’s not a certainty…
Too few games use a bit of ‘randomness’ like this in their puzzles - it’s one of the reasons why replaying Fate of Atlantis is such fun. The middle part of the game has three separate paths (so it’s already three different games in one), and quite a few of the puzzles in the game have a bit of randomness thrown in there so you have to actually solve them instead of just going by a walkthrough…


The one in the Dig starts with a joke: you enter a new area, and the first thing you see is a rodent-like critter that takes *something* from near a door panel, and then you see the door closing. Brink (your character)‘s first remark is along the lines of “whatever it is that that critter just stole, I have a feeling that I’ll be wanting it real soon”...
I really love this puzzle because it’s layered and makes clever use of an object that was (in most playthroughs) obtained a lot earlier. You can lure the critter out of its hiding hole, but it’s too fast to catch it, so you need to construct a trap to catch the critter. After you’ve done that, you still need to chase the critter in the trap’s general direction, but once you’ve caught it, it doesn’t have the part you were looking for - it left that in its hole…
And here’s the clever bit: you need to find the critter’s hideout and for that you need to be able to track it. Earlier in the game you found a device that pointed to a location. You found a bracelet at that location, that’s what the device was pointing at. So now you need to put that bracelet on the critter and then release the critter. Smile
When it returns to its hole, you can use the device to find its location and dig up the piece of the panel that was stolen.

I really like that puzzle… Grin


And the puzzle in Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon is one that I elaborated on here. If you don’t want to follow the link, I’ve copy-pasted the contents:

It’s an example of a perfect puzzle for me: it’s logical, you get a rough guideline to help you (so you at least know what you’re supposed to do and you’re never really stuck), it takes quite a few steps to complete (none of which are obtuse - so it’s complex, but perfectly doable), some parts have a very clever (and not too obvious) solution, and the entire thing is even educational because that really is how you make chocolate…
And it even manages to make you crave chocolate, which turns it into a sensory experience… Tongue

My favourite part is crushing the nibs by placing them on the sliding doors and then closing the doors. It’s the least obvious of all the steps that you have to take in this puzzle…



As an aside, I’d also like to mention the sneaky puzzles that Cing put in their DS games where you need to solve the puzzle by closing the lid of your DS. Another Code, Hotel Dusk and Last Window all have one or two puzzles like this and you never see them coming…
I love them because they really require out-of-the-box thinking. Every one of these puzzles has had me stumped for a good while until I suddenly had an epiphany and was able to solve it. Really smart use of the DS’ functionality, and I hope I’ll see the same type of puzzle appear in a few 3DS games too…

Possibly my favourite puzzle of these is the chocolate-making puzzle in Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon.



In more recent games, there was the oven puzzle (smelting ore and whatnot) on Kepler in ASA: A Space Adventure. That one reminded me of the chocolate-making puzzle in Callahan so it’s easy to see why I liked it so.

And I also liked the puzzle to obtain the drill early on in STASIS, because it’s *very* devious. Akin to “closing the lid of the DS” almost. Smile

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

Avatar

Total Posts: 5035

Joined 2004-07-12

PM

I think there are any number of LSL puzzles that are difficult, clever, humorous and engaging all at the same time.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

Avatar

Total Posts: 2063

Joined 2013-08-25

PM

Speaking of recent games, I really enjoyed a number of creative puzzles in Hypnospace Outlaw. Even not so much the “official” censorship part where you haunt down pirates and other violators, but rather what follows next as you start searching the in-game Internet for hidden web pages, passwords, a secret file sharing system (that one was probably my favourite part).

     

PC means personal computer

Avatar

Total Posts: 860

Joined 2017-12-19

PM

OK, if we change the timeframe from seven years to any age, then I will add one older as well.

Verschollen auf Lost Island has one of the funniest puzzle solutions ever, even if the game otherwise isn’t exactly a classic.

The puzzle that I found absolutely hilarious when I played the game was:
The protagonist needs to cut down a tree, but doesn’t have proper tools.
Solution: catch a beaver, get an engine, attach engine to the beaver and use it as a chainsaw.

Laughing

     

You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread

Welcome to the Adventure Gamers forums!

Back to the top