Puzzles ruin the game

[JS]

This game is all about the story.
The puzzles in act 2 are stupidly hard and unintuitive. They break the flow of the game and cause major frustration.
Anyone else agree?
I'm about to use a walkthrough to cheat

[7yukari7]

Now I see, that one of the most "not logical" traits of the game was that the changed the use of switching between two stories: in Act 1 you were free to explore both stories as you want, and in Act 2 you need to switch in certain moments to get necessary information and advance further. And this causes some kind of de-synchronization: when playing Vella story I already see, that the "spaceship" moves fast,, flying somewhere. But as Shay I can still see it lying on the ground (I spent much time exploring other areas before I triggered this event). I would prefer if the two stories were connected not only in the end and in the beginning, but also at several points inbetween,this would make the plot more consistent. (In Act 1 such de-synchronization wasn't a problem, because we were playing two separate stories and could only suggest the connections. But in Act 2 there are two stories that are definitely connected, but stll separated, and this is ridiculous.) (Gemini Rue is an example of point-and-click quest, that presents two stories much better)

[Kosmozuikis]

Not only this. You run back and forth for hours in the same locations as in act 1, it's boring and all that running is annoying. I just want to finish this awful game but i'm stuck on that horrible knot puzzle, i have lost the hope to solve it myself. How do you solve that crap? The game is ruined. And i'm afraid there will be even more stupid puzzles along the way.
I wanted new locations (no old ones) and puzzle which are logical and not frustratingly hard.

[Kalinstar ttv]

I can agree with the thread creator. I really enjoyed act 1 and it flowed nicely I thought. Act 2 though, the puzzles were irritating, a lot of them felt like they had no respect for your time either having to go back and forth to redo it. I was getting angrier and angrier as I was playing it and that's a real shame that one half of the game I loved and the second half left me angry and dejected. Instead enjoying the ending I just felt relief that it was finally over and I wouldn't have to play any more of it.

And yes I have played a few point and click games in my time.

[Mendacious Calamity]

Originally posted by themirroredquill:

You know something about the logic of Act 2's puzzles??? There's a certain 'order' to flipping back and forth between Vella and Shay's stories after doing certain tasks at the right time. Given it's the player's choice on which character to play at which moment, you can get clues all out of order.

That's what's so awfully frustrating. The way you play determines what clues you get and when and certain clues you can't get ahold of until certain parts of the story.

Well, you say that.

I got the drawing with the lights (first hexipal recharge puzzle) when I played as Vella first. Played her story for about an hour then switched. When I got to the hexipal puzzle and saw the lights I thought "I *know* I've seen them somewhere" but didn't think to switch to Vella as I had other Shay stuff to get on with while I worked it out. Later, Shay mentioned the answer was on his ship. Lightbulb!

But my point is, I got the clue no matter which one I played first.

/shrugs

People really are finding fault with every last tiny thing like this game was supposed to be bulletproof in a way that no game ever has been ever.

[Mendacious Calamity]

Originally posted by CutoutPanda:

I can agree with the thread creator. I really enjoyed act 1 and it flowed nicely I thought. Act 2 though, the puzzles were irritating, a lot of them felt like they had no respect for your time either having to go back and forth to redo it. I was getting angrier and angrier as I was playing it and that's a real shame that one half of the game I loved and the second half left me angry and dejected. Instead enjoying the ending I just felt relief that it was finally over and I wouldn't have to play any more of it.

And yes I have played a few point and click games in my time.

Well, you didn't like the game. These things happen. The number of movies I've seen that started great and turned to predictable ♥♥♥♥? About 75% of them. The number of meals I've had that sounded great on the menu but amounted to something I've had many times before when it arrived? Many, many meals over my lifetime.

So this game didn't go the way you wanted it to. Never mind.

[Mezzo]

I must be in the minority, but I managed to solve all the puzzles without resorting to a walkthrough. Really, they seemed quite fair to me. Granted, I was raised on these kinds of games and have cleared just about every Sierra and Lucas Arts game out there. I've also cleared a number of very challenging puzzle games from The Adventure Company. Keepsake was particularly nasty.

Following the recommendation, I DID play through the game starting from Act 1 again when Act 2 came out.

The wiring puzzle was the only puzzle that truly stumped me. It took me a few days to figure out the solution, taking breaks and coming back to it. It really does have all the clues to complete it, the solution just did not occur to me until enough time had passed and I'd tried doing some of the same things over and over. Once I got a piece of it figured out, the rest of the puzzle unraveled quite well.

[Inner Sight]

The wire puzzle took me a while but I figured that one out without a walk through as well. Suddenly needing a real life understanding of sheet music to progress was what rolled me into needing a walk through.

I think the puzzles just lacked a set consistancy with difficulty. if you're a pro you'll finish all of the puzzles. if you're a beginner to puzzle adventures you'll finish the puzzles that are obvious to you but you'll just be stumped when you run into the sudden complexity of wires, knots, and whatever else stumped people in general.

Act 1 I could see children of age 8 or so playing and figuring out. Act 2 though... I don't think I'd suggest it to a kid anymore. Older beginners maybe though still. The puzzles require more patience than act 1.

Ultimately though they can afford to be more brutal with puzzles nowadays since people can use the internet if they get stuck. If they're patient enough to complete the puzzle themselves then good. But the game isn't ruined since walk throughs exist now.

[Waterfall]

Originally posted by author:

Spaz McBomb a écrit :
Act 1 released. "Too easy, this is for children."
Act 2 released. "Too hard, doesn't make logical sense."

Interesting but I still want to play this game.

[Marie]

I liked the puzzles in Act 2, much more of what I expected of a point-and-click adventure game.

Regarding the puzzle with wires and the hexagons, I was almost annoyed at the amount of clues that we got: The two girls on the cloud basically spelled out what was needed for the solution, Shay kept repeating how he wished he was on his spaceship when performing the charging, and there were obvious pictures on the spaceship with instructions.

[Death of Hope]

Originally posted by microfloppy:

Regarding the puzzle with wires and the hexagons, I was almost annoyed at the amount of clues that we got: The two girls on the cloud basically spelled out what was needed for the solution, Shay kept repeating how he wished he was on his spaceship when performing the charging, and there were obvious pictures on the spaceship with instructions.

So, if you're the type of person who thinks, "Oh, Shay doesn't have the information he needs to solve this puzzle, but he'll magically get it if Vella happens to look at some random crap family photo that just HAPPENS to have the solution," then yeah, I guess the puzzles in this game were pretty obvious for you.

[D00mM4r1n3]

The Snake puzzle and Knot puzzle forced me to resort to walkthroughs, there was nothing about them that was intuitive. Everything else wasn't too bad except for it took me half an hour to figure out you needed to double-click the Hexipal in your inventory in order to change the wires, I thought the game had experienced a bug preventing me from changing the wires after the first attempt until I figured that out. I kept trying to pick the Hexipal out of inventory then click it on myself which did nothing useful.

[Inner Sight]

Guys, don't turn this into a "you're just too stupid to get it" argument. There's no winners in that and it leaves a bad impression on the game.

Think about those popular books that are more known to the outsider for their crazy followers than the actual books themselves.

[Inner Sight]

Originally posted by D00mM4r1n3:

The Snake puzzle and Knot puzzle forced me to resort to walkthroughs, there was nothing about them that was intuitive.

I actually found the snake out by accident. I was stuck on other puzzles and wandered by the snake. On a whim of curiosity I wanted to see all the lines Shay would spit out when hugged by the snake. When the snake's head dropped I suddenly realized I was on to something. If not for my random whim I may not have figured that out in a timely manner.

[John]

Kids these days don't know how to think in games. I admit some of the meta puzzles are annoying.

[Fractured]

Please no more music based puzzels, I have never been able to do those.