http://www.scorpia.com/?p=1137

Stupid Puzzles
By Scorpia
Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Over at Gamesradar, they have an article up on “The Seven Stupidest Puzzles In Games”. While I haven’t played all the “honorees”, I can agree with some of those chosen.

Like the one in Gabriel Knight 3, where you have to impersonate Detective Mosely to obtain a vehicle. That was certainly one of the most ludicrous solutions I’ve come across.

Getting into the bank in Escape from Monkey Island was a mindbender, too. Not the only one in the game, either. Mercifully, I’ve forgotten what they were.

Two that I do remember, and probably will never forget, come from Sierra games. First was Wizard and The Princess. You start in a town, although there’s not much to it. The way onward is blocked by a big snake.

Nothing in your inventory will work, so you have to go out into the desert (there being nowhere else to go at the moment). You come across a big rock. Just the thing. Only when you reach for it, you’re stung by (ahem) a scorpion and die.

So the trick is, you have to look at the rock first, because you need the one and only rock that doesn’t have one of my little relatives lurking behind it. And this is a non-logical maze, which didn’t make things any easier. I almost gave up right there.

The other adventure was Odysseus And The Golden Fleece. Yeah, we know it was Jason, but so what? A hero’s a hero, right? Anyway, at the start of the game, you get a bag of gold to buy stuff. Only, the gold won’t buy everything.

So you have to decide which of the items you won’t be needing in the future. This, when you haven’t played before. And Odysseus is a strictly linear game. There’s no going back once you start on your journey. Pick the wrong item, and it’s “game over, man”. You have no recourse except to restore way, way back (depending on which item you didn’t buy), and try again.

In case you’re wondering, the one item you don’t need is the one probably every gamer took right off: the lantern. Yep, you don’t need a light source. Who would have known ahead of time?

Check out the article. I’ll bet it will stimulate you to recall other idiotic “puzzles” in games you’ve played. Provided you want to remember ;)

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Dolnor says:
October 9th, 2008 at 3:42 am

This puzzle has haunted me for many years. I still have nightmares about it.

On CompuServe, there was a game called Adventure 751. I was 3/4th the way through it and needed to reach a hole out of reach in a wall. I correctly positioned the Elephant against the wall and the crates against the Elephant. But I was missing some clue and/or article to get through that hole.

I requested a hint from the Sysop. Her answer was only “think about it a bit more.” I tried begging and pleading but nary another reply was sent. Ah well…

I just wanted to say Scorpia, I never was able to proceed past that point and gave up after 9 months of back tracking/asking others. And it still haunts me to this day! -)

Toodles,

Dolnor Numbwit
Never Forgets!

P.s. JADED!