Adventure Gamers - Forums

I think Inventory Puzzles have had their day. Whenever I come across them in a game, they are often poorly constructed with little thought or logical basis. The last game I played was Detective Hayseed: Hollywood and it had such absurd puzzles that I got fed up and ended up using the scroll wheel to go through each inventory item and use it on everything in the screen. It was easy enough to do, and allowed me to finish the game with much less frustration than if I had tried to think logically (if that is even possible to do in a game where using a fish on a valve to open it is logical).

Inventory puzzles are archaic, but has nice nostalgia to it
But for modern design they have to be fun to use like Re7
Less obtrusive and more sensible

I prefer block/lever/climbing/platforming puzzles most
Still havent had enough of it
Something like TR ones, which involve exploring environments and running/jumping

Inventory puzzles were a lot of fun in Return to Mysterious Island.
Normally I prefer other puzzle types though.

5 years ago, and my opinion has not changed. I am loving The Witness.

I enjoy both types.

Crafting logical,challenging, and fair puzzles can be a hard balance though, and that is where many games go wrong.

Inventory puzzles can be excellent if they’re well implemented, but that’s hard work:

Firstly you need to make sure it’s clear what the player is trying to do. You’re allowed to mislead a bit on this - lateral thinking should be encouraged! - but if you’re just making the player waste time they won’t thank you.

Secondly you need to provide lots of alternative responses when you try the wrong thing. These have to indicate why the thing the player tried doesn’t work, possibly hinting at what might be better, and preferably also entertaining the player. Providing a lot of individual responses for different inventory items is a lot of work and expensive if there’s voice acting and animation involved, but it’s crucial - it keeps the player entertained and gives them the sense that they’re trying to solve a problem using the resources at hand rather than just trying to guess which one solution the designer had in mind.

A lot of more recent games don’t bother with the second - some will use a standard response for any ‘wrong’ interaction, often a ‘hilarious’ one. Say the player has a key and a bicycle pump, and wants to open a door. Trying to open the door with the bicycle pump also gets the response ‘Well, I could try that… if I was an IDIOT!’. That seems reasonable. But it’s the wrong key, and using the key on the door gets the response ‘Well, I could try that… if I was an IDIOT!’. Even if the player enjoyed being abused in a silly voice for trying something daft the first time, that response to the key is inappropriate and kills immersion. If the response had been ‘Hmm. Nope, this key doesn’t fit. The right one must be around here somewhere…’ it would feel more natural and the player would be encouraged to examine the surrounding area and find the right key hidden under a pot plant nearby.

Other games may simply give no response at all if the player tries something that’s not in the script. Experimentation is discouraged - you’re back to just trying to guess what the designer wanted you to do.

Now for some players this isn’t a problem - if you’re a big fan of Syberia/Secret Files etc and are following a walkthrough all the way for the sake of the story, you may not even notice what’s missing. But for anyone actually trying to solve the puzzles (is it too harsh to say ‘actually playing the game’?) it makes all the difference.

Some good stuff in this thread! I’m currently working on an adventure game (being a fan myself) and whilst most of the stuff is things i’m familiar with, some statements are eye-openers :-D. Very useful and enjoyable reads.

But on-topic:
I think a good adventure game has both. The key is immersion. As long as the inventory-puzzle and / or ‘regular’ puzzle are designed in a way that they make sense for the player in the story, i think you can get away with offering either.

Having said that, i think a player in general would also welcome variety and as such would appreciate a healthy mix of both. This as least goes for me.