quote: Original post by Anthracks
Have any of you played Sanitarium? I thought that was a great game. Some of the puzzles were a bit odd, but I really liked the story and especially the atmosphere. It was all so wierd . It felt like you were really in a deranged man''s head seeing the same twisted things he did. It was damn creepy; I wish more games could convey their atmosphere like that.
Anthracks
I loved Sanitarium, although the dead child in the wagon was a bit over-the top. On the other hand, there have been a lot of horror Adventure games recently. (Relatively speaking, of course. There are never a lot of adventure games.) What I would like to see are some that try for a sense of wonder - capture the emotional impact of that scene in Jurassic park where the dad and kids stumble onto the meadow teeming with dinosaurs, for example. For some reason there have been a lot of astonishingly bad (in the sense of having no character development or story line) RPGs lately: Reah, for example, and probably The Crystal Key, but I haven''t finished it yet, so I''m reserving judgement.
What about this problem of the limited number of puzzle-types that exist? I think one could find almost every type in Jewels of the Oracle alone. I''m thinkin gof things like the Tower of Hanoi, Water Subtraction, Jumping Pegs, Sliding Tiles, Maze (and variants like anti-maze and maze with obstacles that need pushed into a hole or onto targets), N-ominoes, etc. Say, does a list of these exist somewhere? Maybe I should write one... Anyway, recent Adventure games seem to not consider it necessary to invent new types of puzzles, and I find this to be a flaw.
For the curious, here''s my list of puzzle virtues:
Puzzles’ existence and style should make sense within the plot.
A puzzle walkthrough should be included with the game.
Puzzles should require application of real-world principles, and deductive and inductive reasoning.
It should be easy and convenient to re-attempt a puzzle.
A solved puzzle should stay solved.
No timing or dexterity puzzles.
Puzzle-necessary items should be impossible to sell or waste.
For my money, a winning Adventure game is one that combines this type of puzzles with an interestingly twisted story, real character development, and decent art.
