I was way more prepared to waste time being confused by a game back in the day. You occasionally would try stuff for hours. Now if I get stuck 10 mins I start thinking they didn’t play test or design the game well enough haha.
Yep. And coloured ledges you can grab, sparkling items to collect… I remember in old Monkey Island games there being no way to visually discern what you could or couldn’t interact with, you’d spend so long just trying things to see what worked.
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.
Yeah, having stuff being obvious is actually incredibly freeing. Without that I waste so much time checking every part of every room, trying to work out which corridor leads to the objective vs which one might have collectibles.
Knowing I can just play a game, find most stuff, get on with it, and not regret not using a guide is a real gift.
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.
I was way more prepared to waste time being confused by a game back in the day. You occasionally would try stuff for hours. Now if I get stuck 10 mins I start thinking they didn’t play test or design the game well enough haha.
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…
Yep. And coloured ledges you can grab, sparkling items to collect… I remember in old Monkey Island games there being no way to visually discern what you could or couldn’t interact with, you’d spend so long just trying things to see what worked.
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!”
Moon logic. Puzzles that are hard because they make no damn sense.
“Oh yes, of course I need to combine a fish with a phone book to create a sailboat.”
ALL THE UPVOTES, GET THEM IN HERE NOW
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.
Yeah, having stuff being obvious is actually incredibly freeing. Without that I waste so much time checking every part of every room, trying to work out which corridor leads to the objective vs which one might have collectibles.
Knowing I can just play a game, find most stuff, get on with it, and not regret not using a guide is a real gift.
That’s what’s wrong with your generation. You want all of the reward, and none of the work.
In MY day, we had to LOOK for shit goddamit.
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.
Yeah, that setting was great. I wish more games would have granular difficulty settings.
Sometimes it’s like they expect us to take notes while playing the game.
Like I’ve got paper just lying there. What am I, a high schooler?
I feel like Outer Wilds is a good modern-day Myst, sort of anyway.