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Old 24-02-18, 01:33   #1
trfan16
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Default Worst puzzles that you encountered in games you played...

What are some of the worst puzzles that you encountered in any videogame that you played? This could be a bad puzzle for any reason. The solution for the puzzle could be cryptic, solving the puzzle is time consuming, the premise behind it is nonsensical, etc. Or these could be puzzles that you dread when replaying through a game again. Here's a list of some bad puzzles in games I've played:

- Vaccination Synthesis Puzzle (Resident Evil 3): RE3 is infamous for having some absurd and time consuming puzzles. In fact, there are a couple of those puzzles that will make their way on this list. Out of all the puzzles in the game, this is one I could NEVER figure out. I can actually solve the dreaded water sample puzzle, but this one still puzzles me. How is the solution suppose to work? I just turn the levers until the puzzle is solved.

- Lt. Surge's Gym (Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen): It might be surprising to see a Pokemon game on this list. But the series actually has some challenging puzzles in the gyms. There are some sucky puzzles throughout the series like warp tiles and ice tiles, but I will nominate Lt. Surge's gym as the worst. This is a puzzle where you have to find two switches in a trash can to open the door to Surge. The locations of the switches are random. The first switch is located in a random trash can, and the second one is located right next to it. The problem is that there is 15 trash cans to choose from. Finding the first switch is not hard, but the second switch is pure luck. If you mess up on the second though, then the puzzle will reset. You could complete this puzzle in either 30 seconds or 10 minute!

- Aldwych timed doors switch (Tomb Raider III): I have mixed opinions on timed runs. For the most part, the TR timed runs are not too bad and are like mini-puzzles. The one is Aldwych is pure evil though. This is the room where you have to push one of the buttons on the wall to open the 3 doors in the next room. The problem is that there is a very short window of time to make the timed run. And if you choose the wrong door, you have to go back and do the puzzle over again. And running to the doors is even tricky with debris and water in the way.

- Music Box puzzle (Resident Evil 3): This puzzle requires you to replicate a melody that is played on a music box you find earlier. The only way to solve this puzzle is to memorize the melody played on the music box. I don't know about others, but I struggled immensely with this puzzle when I first played this game. It's a little easier on subsequent playthroughs. It doesn't help that the solution to the puzzle is two floors down from the actual puzzle.

What are some other bad puzzles that you encountered in the video games you played?
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Old 24-02-18, 07:37   #2
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If a puzzle is difficult or time consuming that doesn't bother me at all, or if there was a clue, just subtle and I didn't notice, that's okay too. You just have to be patient, observe the enviroment, and think. Basically, if a player can reasonably be expected to solve it and I was just too stupid/clumsy to do it, that's fair game and I only have myself to blame.
The puzzles I hate are those that completely defy logic and common sense and there was no clue for it at all, when you have to be a telepath to read the minds of the creators is the only way to solve it, that's a no-go. The old point'n'click type of adventure games had plenty of those, Gremliiiins for example, never finished it.
In Tomb Raider I only encountered two that I rate as unfair, in the official games that is, custom levels are a different kettle.
In TR3 where you buy the ticket, that's not an object just a textured column, and there are several of them with the same texture, how on Earth was I supposed to know which side of which column is interactable, while the other identical ones aren't.
The other is the centaur fight in Anni. Even though there is a Lara's Home level which supposed to serve to train you, they still put in those annoying teaching dialog boxes in the first level, same as Legend btw. Yet despite all that overdone teaching, the only thing that the game doesn't teach you is the only thing I actually needed teaching, that gimmicky matrix move. It's in the manual, granted, but when I first reached those centaurs I was stuck there for a long time, no idea what to do.

Last edited by akci; 24-02-18 at 08:02.
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Old 24-02-18, 10:26   #3
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That RE3 music box puzzle was easy. You don't have to memorise the tune itself.. you only need to hear which version (up or down) on each peg sounds out of tune. Its pretty obvious really..

For me - any puzzle in modern games which isn't even a puzzle.. ie pulling a switch or lever to open a door (all of RE5)


As for difficult puzzles - mine would have to be from Silent Hill 2 and 3 on Hard.
The Bookstore puzzle from the SH3 Mall was a nightmare on Hard. I have no idea about most shakespeare books so this one was impossible
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Old 24-02-18, 18:47   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trfan16 View Post


- Aldwych timed doors switch (Tomb Raider III)
OMG YES


I think Resident Evil 3 is just jam packed full of unpopular puzzles. The one that always get to me the most is the pressure plate one with Carlos. It's like playing a crooked carnival game, I swear it's fixed to only open on the fourth attempt no matter what order you try.

But yeah the fuse room puzzle sucks, the gas station puzzle sucks, the dead factory steam puzzle sucks and even though I do okay with it these days people are 100% within their rights to hate the water sample puzzle, it's SO obnoxious.


And speaking of obnoxious puzzles
The Devil May Cry 4 Gyro blade puzzle!
It's not difficult, it's just awkward, annoying, not in the least bit fun and takes waaayyyy too long to do. And to a lesser extent you can throw in the dumb obligatory dice game from DMC4 as well.

The Resident Evil 4 sliding block puzzle.
Every time I get to that bit it's just like
"...seriously? Is this really a thing I have to do?"
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Old 25-02-18, 16:20   #5
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Most of Resident Evil 3's puzzles are perfectly fine and can easily be brute forced if you're having any difficulty. They require paying attention to feedback upon interacting with something.

With that being said, I absolutely hate the clock and gemstone puzzle.
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Old 25-02-18, 20:41   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by akci View Post
If a puzzle is difficult or time consuming that doesn't bother me at all, or if there was a clue, just subtle and I didn't notice, that's okay too. You just have to be patient, observe the enviroment, and think. Basically, if a player can reasonably be expected to solve it and I was just too stupid/clumsy to do it, that's fair game and I only have myself to blame.
The puzzles I hate are those that completely defy logic and common sense and there was no clue for it at all, when you have to be a telepath to read the minds of the creators is the only way to solve it, that's a no-go. The old point'n'click type of adventure games had plenty of those, Gremliiiins for example, never finished it.
In Tomb Raider I only encountered two that I rate as unfair, in the official games that is, custom levels are a different kettle.
I don't mind challenging or time consuming at all either. The only time where a time consuming puzzle bothers me is when it's unnecessarily long for no reason - like the block pushing planetarium puzzle in the Lost Library in TRIV. The puzzle itself is a good idea, but the sluggish block pushing makes it a little tedious for me.

Interesting example about Gremlins though. I'm pretty sure there are many old school games that had cryptic puzzles in them. I love watching Angry Video Game Nerd's reviews of older games and how some of them have some extremely cryptic puzzles to resolve. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is an example of this. I would love to hear more stories about cryptic puzzles from older games.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dcw123 View Post
That RE3 music box puzzle was easy. You don't have to memorise the tune itself.. you only need to hear which version (up or down) on each peg sounds out of tune. Its pretty obvious really..

For me - any puzzle in modern games which isn't even a puzzle.. ie pulling a switch or lever to open a door (all of RE5)


As for difficult puzzles - mine would have to be from Silent Hill 2 and 3 on Hard.
The Bookstore puzzle from the SH3 Mall was a nightmare on Hard. I have no idea about most shakespeare books so this one was impossible
Yeah, puzzles that hold your hand or are scripted should be frowned upon. It's been a long time since I've played SH2 and SH3 though. I never got a chance to play SH2 on hard because my game was lost while on vacation. And I never got far in SH3 on hard difficulty. This is a game I need to really replay.

Quote:
Originally Posted by redfox45 View Post

I think Resident Evil 3 is just jam packed full of unpopular puzzles. The one that always get to me the most is the pressure plate one with Carlos. It's like playing a crooked carnival game, I swear it's fixed to only open on the fourth attempt no matter what order you try.

But yeah the fuse room puzzle sucks, the gas station puzzle sucks, the dead factory steam puzzle sucks and even though I do okay with it these days people are 100% within their rights to hate the water sample puzzle, it's SO obnoxious.


The Resident Evil 4 sliding block puzzle.
Every time I get to that bit it's just like
"...seriously? Is this really a thing I have to do?"
Yes, RE3 is pretty infamous for having some whacky puzzles. Although the game itself is pretty short compared to the previous two games, so the challenging puzzles kind of make up for it. There's only two puzzles I really dislike in that game: the vaccination synthesis puzzle and the Past/Present/Future puzzle. As matrix54 mentioned in his posts, some of these can be solved with brute force like the gas station ABCD puzzle. There is supposed to be a solution behind that one, but I forgot how it work. The other puzzles can be solved by exploring or reading the files.

The water sample puzzle is definitely the most disliked in the game. I made a poll on GameFAQs RE3 board and the water sample puzzle got almost half of the votes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by matrix54 View Post
Most of Resident Evil 3's puzzles are perfectly fine and can easily be brute forced if you're having any difficulty. They require paying attention to feedback upon interacting with something.

With that being said, I absolutely hate the clock and gemstone puzzle.
The thing I dislike about that puzzle is that you have to constantly open and close your inventory to switch the gemstone. It would've been better if they allowed you to just switch the trays you put the gemstone on without having to open your inventory.

Last edited by trfan16; 25-02-18 at 20:42.
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Old 25-02-18, 20:51   #7
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Any puzzles that’s require you having extensive knowledge of specific themes outside of the puzzle/game are a no no for me. Key ones that stick out for me are the Shakespeare puzzle from Silent Hill 3 on hard like someone already said and Assassins Creed has been guilty of this over the years too; I didn’t like the enigmas in Unity that required you having an in depth knowledge about Parisian architecture and geography - an obvious puzzle on face value but frustrating if you don’t know the place. Like wise for the chess puzzles in one of the other entries, don’t remember which it was, if you can’t play you aren’t solving it.
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Old 26-02-18, 03:37   #8
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Maybe doesn't count but trying to solve the puzzle that was AOD controls was a rough experience.

The water treatment puzzle in Resident Evil 3 is a huge bitch and the best example. Another one would be the rotating walls puzzle at the end of Thailand in Tomb Raider Underworld. I have no idea why, as I beat that level 6+ times, but I would never ever ever ever be able to finish that damn thing from memory. I'd take 7-10 minutes some times!!!

There were also some puzzles in Assassin's Creed II (I think they were memory sequence puzzles or something), where you have to look at historical photos (such as with Ghandi or some important figure/event), and find an apple or apple-shaped thing somewhere in the image. It was like scouring for two identical grains of sand in the Sahara!!!
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Old 26-02-18, 15:25   #9
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The Water Treatment Puzzle is just matching, though. It’s only now requires a little time and patience.

The Music Box Puzzle may be a little harder in the event that you’re tone deaf.
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Old 26-02-18, 15:45   #10
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IMO timed "puzzles" always was a good indication that the design team did not have enough time and/or dedication to devote to developing really good, thought provoking puzzles. The route from point A to point B etc. is obvious and easy to traverse but make you do it in a matter of seconds and you have 90% of the timed "puzzles". In TR1 there were very few times puzzles. Rushed to get TR2 out and timed puzzles proliferated.
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