And that’s why Boy never shuts the fuck up in GoW Ragnarok.
Player stuck for 30 seconds? Better tell them the answer to keep our completion metrics up…
This particular thing kinda sucks, though. I also hate when there’s a puzzle that goes “you know that interaction that normally doesn’t work? We’ve enabled it here and it’s how you’re supposed to solve this puzzle! Surprise!”
FF8 was infuriating about that shit, iirc shit did somewhat glimmer but they had a habit of jamming junk under overhangs you can’t see under and can’t really tell exist unless you try to walk there. You end up spending a significant part of the game walking around all the walls like a psychopath.
I don’t think I’d dislike it if they gave me like 5 to 10 minutes depending on the size of the puzzle and what I’ve done. I definitely hate how fast it is. It’s like, Jesus, give me a minute or being told what do do after it’s already blatantly obvious and you’re trying to figure it out.
Your comment has a vibe of complaining about that, but I like it for the exact reason you’re replying to. It’s a little overtuned (I’d like a couple of minutes before being given a hint), but I don’t have the patience for getting stuck for long periods of time, especially if it’s because of game limitations (ie, I can think of alternatives, but the game doesn’t let me use the alternatives because that’s not how video games work).
I also really like when games make it clear that I can’t do something right now. Horizon has been great about that, with Aloy remarking that she probably needs some tool or should come back later. I always hated spending 10 minutes trying to get to some obvious treasure, googling it, and being spoiled because the Google result will tell me (in too much detail) that it’s a late game thing.
Yeah, that’s sometimes really immersion breaking, but it does save time.
One of the recent Tomb Raider games (“Shadow of the” probably, which was otherwise unremarkable) had separate settings for puzzles, combat and exploration, so you could turn puzzle hints off completely. I still kept the exploration setting though, because it’s a nightmare to find the puzzle parts among all the clutter that modern games throw in. Like a wall full of cogwheels, but only two of them are part of the puzzle and the rest is just scenery.
These games, although I was utterly fascinated by them, I had no clue what I was doing or where I was supposed to go. I couldnt even tell if I was progressing or what. I think I was just too young for it.
Rest assured, you weren’t. These games were made back in the day before the internet got huge. When games could have legitimately hard puzzles for their own sake. There was no handholding back in the day.
Yes and no. A lot of games had hint books you could buy, either from the company or third party. Infocom used to put out hint books which could reveal things to you one clue at a time with a special marker that came with it. But then Infocom was always a very innovative company.
That game left my brain absolutely riven.
I realized the moment I fell into the fissure that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned. It continued falling into that starry expanse of which I had only a fleeting glimpse. I have tried to speculate where it might have landed but I must admit however such conjecture is futile. Still, the question of whose hands might someday hold my Myst book are unsettling to me. I know that my apprehensions might never be allayed, and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written.
And yes, that was from memory.
Wow… I remember playing this for MONTHS, trying to figure out what buttons, levers, everything does. I dedicated an entire paper notebook to writing down clues, hints, and failed attempts. And then the same for Riven.
Now I simply don’t have the free time to dedicate to those games… #adulting
