tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post2373381496196568178..comments2023-05-20T12:08:52.031+02:00Comments on In The Games Of Madness: Puzzles in horror games. Part 7.Frictional Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00278352641328669040noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-29762238886655061112009-10-25T13:52:22.013+01:002009-10-25T13:52:22.013+01:00The Tuurngait puzzles at the end of Black Plague w...The Tuurngait puzzles at the end of Black Plague were awesome both in the intension and the Lovecraftian ruins setting. At the "think as a collective and sacrifice yourself in place of another"-puzzle however it happend to me that I messed up by simply running forward instantly so the hive accused me of acting as a selfish human - it was rather acting as a clueless human from my side :)<br /><br />The most intense thing about Black Plague was the fact that there was no way to battle the Tuurngait incarnations - in Overture the dogs lost their horror for me when I figured out how to kill them (dynamite, pick...). If you put aside the frustration aspect for the moment then the best puzzles in my opinion were those including the indestructible enemy creatures like the Tuurngait drones or giant worms in reality or virus visions.<br /><br />Combining such invincible monsters with a hiding puzzle would be excellent. It would be a situation where you have enough time to think but you have to make sure to do things right. Take a situation where you have to move objects (or to "pluck" them like the frozen head in Black Plague) while not to knock over other noisy stuff because it would reveal your presence.<br />Or you could substitute the element of noise with the element of light. You have to handle somehow a light crystal or some other shining gadget that causes weird shades all over the room arousing the monster's attention.<br /><br />In addition to that a variant of a chasing puzzle would be interesting: you are running from a monster which is faster then you and would catch you after some time. The only thing to hinder it would be to throw some oil at the monster causing it to slip or to make a ramp inaccessable.Chrischhttp://www.untote.ccnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-58635032849885656982009-10-24T03:49:13.020+02:002009-10-24T03:49:13.020+02:00Actually, I think that hiding and puzzles would be...Actually, I think that hiding and puzzles would be a very good combination. The very beginning of Overture, I thought the dogs were invincible, so I was sneaking around for a long time after the first dog came, and it was an intense experience. With some gameplay balancing and a decent stealth system, puzzles and hiding would actually be legitimately scary.Dylannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-62206796286235690192009-10-23T23:37:21.776+02:002009-10-23T23:37:21.776+02:00Nehacoo:
I think we always thought it would be too...Nehacoo:<br />I think we always thought it would be too stressful/annoying to have some hiding + puzzle situation, but I cannot really recall that it has been discussed. In Overture there was a dog near the blot clipper in an early version and although not a puzzle really, there was a code panel there and an item to pick up. It turned out to be too annoying to sneak past the dog so we skipped it.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02945983378935089787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-12821692833198788012009-10-23T22:53:44.199+02:002009-10-23T22:53:44.199+02:00Anderson_JAG: Hehe, there was a note in-game descr...Anderson_JAG: Hehe, there was a note in-game describing Morse code... I would think requiring people to look up things on wikipedia to solve a puzzle would be bad design.<br />For me the best moment in Penumbra was when you where locked in the computer room with the good doctor Eminiss - purely because of a misunderstanding on my part. At first I thought I had to solve the computer puzzle WHILE avoiding him. This made it really panicky and actually frightening for me. I usually don't find horror games very scary so that will probably be a memory that will stick with me.<br /><br />Anyway, it makes me wonder if you have considered making puzzles you have to solve while at the same time having to hide? I suppose it might be very hard to balance well, but if done right it might have the same effect for some players as my encounter with Eminiss had for me.Nehacoonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-37446238153923678232009-10-21T02:14:59.319+02:002009-10-21T02:14:59.319+02:00I found the puzzles in Penumbra to be pretty good,...I found the puzzles in Penumbra to be pretty good, and that's coming from someone who doesn't particularly like puzzle games. The Tuurngait Trials didn't lead to a spiritual revelation for me, unfortunately, but there are a few puzzles I'd like to bring up.<br /><br />I really liked the invisible ink and the blood lock puzzles from overture and black plauge respectively. They added a lot to the atmosphere, rather than just lengthening the gameplay. Also, bashing open the fuse box near the blood lock puzzle I found to be a small detail that blended very well in to the gameplay.<br /><br />Of the puzzles I did not paticularly like, the "fix the computer" puzzle in Black Plauge was not very enjoyable experience. I had to use guess and check quite a bit to figure out the programs for each card, and the whole idea of fixing BSODs inside a game environment brings up a lot of annoyances(although my opinion on the subject is somewhat biased, since I had been dealing with real BSODs on my laptop almost right before that puzzle)<br /><br />The other puzzle that sticks out in my mind as being kind of "meh" was the mining cart puzzle in black plauge (or was it overture? I don't quite remember). I missed the bolt cutter earlier on, and so I tried to break the chain with a pickax, hammer, dynamite, and then tried blowing up the wall with dynamite, all of which would probably work in real life, but to no avail. I guess this was partly my fault, but the puzzle seemed rather contrived in the first place.<br /><br />And on the subject of NPCs, I agree with Greykin that alive NPCs could work, but it would be a very risky maneuver in terms of what it would do to the horror feeling.Dylannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-66196758842569728082009-10-20T16:23:44.571+02:002009-10-20T16:23:44.571+02:00A lot of the puzzles in Overture and BP were good,...A lot of the puzzles in Overture and BP were good, challenging and fun. I understand that there will be some implausibility with the puzzles in-game (like with the blood-lock), but the one puzzle that seemed TOO implausible for me was the cryogenic lab. You can only enter the back room if the heartbeat sensor doesn't detect a pulse? That just seemed a bit silly...couldn't I have just turned the sensor on without going through the rigamarole of nearly getting myself killed, and being able to just slip on through the door when the sensor doesn't detect ANY pulse? I think a keycard/password thing would've made more sense if anything...<br /><br />I did, however, throroughly enjoy the Tuurngait trials. I didn't think it dragged me out of the moment, and the sense of being more than just myself, I thought, was really profound. Who would ever think to solve a puzzle by sacrificing myself, so that another person could live...who just so happens to be me as well? I don't know about any of you...but I really found myself questioning exactly what life is, and how relative our perceptions of existence can be. Red might've been crazy and deranged, but who is to say his perception of reality is entirely wrong, and Philip's perception of reality is the god's honest truth?<br /><br />And to respond to Anderson_JAG's comment (a l'il)...meeting a living NPC could be nice, but it'd have to be done right. It'd get entirely repetitive and predictable if everyone you "encounter" from a distance ends up dying right before you meet them...but at the same time, meeting an NPC has the possiblity of taking the edge off of the horror. Just knowing the fact that you're not alone could be enough to pull you out of the grip of true horror (although if done right, it won't necessarily do this). I'll guess we'll see how FG decides to handle it...I'm putting my money on there being no live NPCs, though.Graykinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-60960868155373533642009-10-20T00:08:27.258+02:002009-10-20T00:08:27.258+02:00I also loved to carry the liquid explosive passing...I also loved to carry the liquid explosive passing and jumping through the wooden plates, it was nice. Despite the most tremendous and excitement ones, in my case, were all the ones related to the worms.<br /><br />I also liked a lot the fact you had to find out a door code in Overture listening to the Morse Code. Wow, that were hard, an absolutely "pencil and paper" one!. : ) Fortunately, Wikipedia came for my help (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code)<br /><br />Related to Requiem, the ones related to the "cybernetic" ball had become my favourites. <br /><br />Let's see what brings the Unknown... What I would like to see in the future?.<br />-The very first of all, that the spirit of your games remains the same. The world doesn't need another dumb linear FPS-Rambo-like-style game with last generation graphics (that's right, that would be a very extreme change, but...).<br />-The second one, that basic Overture-like-style fight to come back (not contradicting with the former one, just saying trying to defend yourself, run away the place and hide is part of the fun).<br />-The third one, keeping on stealth needed situations and multi-solving puzzles.<br />-The fourth one, expanding the chance of exploring (making the extreme comparison, not falling on Clive Barker's Undying flaming linearity -for being a mansion-).<br />-And the last one... I hope meeting a friendly ALIVE NPC someday. ;DAnderson_JAGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17789389884682700409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-6727455731457513452009-10-19T23:35:37.619+02:002009-10-19T23:35:37.619+02:00I liked the Tuurngait Trials, it was funny that I ...I liked the Tuurngait Trials, it was funny that I failed them all the first time I did them. <br />But I liked them because they showed how predictable humans are. <br /><br />Even after I passed the first trials and I said to myself "ok, think NOT as a human. Think as a creature that is actually good and trusty by nature" I still couldn't trust or be good. <br /><br />SO it would be awesome if you guys put more "Human Nature" puzzles like that in the future.Pedro R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09155622475973504857noreply@blogger.com