I would say, along with many others, the timed puzzle. Some of the situations in the Tex Murphy games drove me wild, and I lost most of my hair with Atlantis 1, the Lost Tales.
I also dislike any kind of puzzle that is solved by a particular combination of many colors, settings, etc., when there are no clues given in the game for solving them. Can anyone forget some of the puzzles in Black Dahlia?? gad. I used the keyboard overrides through almost all of that game.

Puzzles - my favorite topic ;-)

Puzzle i don't like are

- big mazes (its just plain tedious to draw a map, simply work without any fun at all)

- puzzle that definitely make no sense from a logical point of view, even after
you have read the walkthrough and the explanation (see 'solution superiority' further down)

- puzzles that require a series of actions where the single steps have to be
done without any hint, where you have to do things without any reason to do them
(for example there is a handle you have to pull without any hint/symbol/cable to conclude what it does
and it has an effect somewhere else)

- timed/action puzzles (i am playing an adventure for god's sake, not a 3d shooter, dear game designers)



A really, really great puzzle for me has to fullfil ALL or at least MOST of the following criteria:

- It requires VERY difficult logical reasoning to find the solution (Rhem's, Schizm 1 and a little bit of Riven are
the masterpieces here)

- You must be VERY observant to find the clues needed and what they mean to start using your analytical
skills to solve it (RHEM, RHEM, RHEM!!!)

- I don't know a suitable english word so i call it 'solution superiority' (which probably doesn't make
sense to native speakers). By that i mean that if you have several theories how to solve
the puzzle, there is one solution which makes the most sense - after you solved it or looked at the walkthrough.
Where you say: 'Yes, this solution makes the best sense. Its superior to other possible solutions.
Every clue comes together and fits perfectly together (RHEM, SCHIZM 1, RIVEN)

- The puzzle is embedded in the environment. It has its purpose, its not just there for the sake
of having puzzles in the game (RIVEN is the best of all games i ever played regarding that)

- puzzle that are set up in a way that leads you in the wrong direction because
you apply standard logic from older games, puzzles that have a twist (RHEM!)

So obviously my absolutely favorite games are: RIVEN, RHEM-series and SCHIZM 1.

Its a close call, but i think Riven is and will forever be the best game ever for me, there will probably
never come a new game that matches it, its one for the ages and must never be forgotten.

I'm yearning for a game like those. Unfortunately Knut is working on the old Rhem games
instead of developing a new one as far as i know :-(

I just finished "Samorost 3" and spent half of my total play time trying to reproduce those 8 notes whistled by a rat using watering system 'keyboard'.

I - simply - hate - music - puzzles!

Timo

I am playing Return to Mysterious Island 2 right now which has some music puzzle also. Fortunately, after a few tries "easy mode" becomes available .

I still haven't played all of the Samorost games so I don't know how it might compare but thanks for the heads up on that.

I hate mazes. Ive said it so often, I expect there are people here who can remember me saying it.

I am musical, so the dreaded 'piano' puzzle in MYST wasn't even a puzzle. Just match the notes and move on. First try.

Sliders are OK, unless the picture is so obscure that it is impossible to decide what goes where.
Traditional sliders have the final blank spot in the lower right. If it belongs elsewhere (like the one in Mystery of the Mummy's wine cellar has it in the center) it can be confusing.

Mazes have no place in an adventure or casual game. I think they were a hang-over from text games, where the entire game amounts to a giant maze. "Go north." There is a mailbox to your left. "Open mailbox." The mailbox is empty. "Go East" You are eaten by a Grue . . .

See why I still hate mazes? Arrgh.

I dislike sliders. I am at the slider puzzle in Whispered World for 2 years now. Every once in a while I will try it again but, I am stuck and it is not fun. I wish that developers would have a skip option for those puzzles.

I also disliked Timed puzzles or puzzles that use dexterity. I am old and my brain doesn't work as fast as it used to and neither do my fingers. argh. I guess the biggest thing for me is that developers need to put in a skip button for some of the harder puzzles. I just played Anna's quest and what a joy that they had that skip button for the pigeon puzzle.

The developer has some saved games for the game, which can be downloaded from here. Maybe one of those would get you past the slider, although I don't know if they would work with your version of the game - you would have to check and see.

Hahaha !! What memories words like that evoke

There is one type of slider that was made into a game called "Traffic," or something similar. It involves shifting pieces around so that a blocked object may be moved across the screen to the exit. I enjoy those. I wouldn't mind a game that was nothing but a sequence of them.

The sliders that drive me nuts are the ones based on the old hand-held plastic toy made up of numbers that you had to assemble in the correct sequence. Yes, I played with them as a child during those interminable road trips, but now I only find them tedious. Encountered one in a recent Casual game where they made it worse by having FOUR fixed (blocked) points around the center of the puzzle that you had to work around. Jeez. As if a slider wasn't bad enough, they have to add roadblocks?

I dislike sliders, and used to struggle with them until I found a trick on the internet for solving them. Now they are not so bad, but I still don't like them. I used to have the plastic ones as a child, and could've for the life of me solve them. I pulled all the squares out of at least one, and put it back together again!

I don't love mazes, but if it has some distinguishing screens and can be mapped, I don't mind. If everything looks the same, and when I turn around I can't work out where I am, then I get really cross and run around randomly til I accidentally solve it.


I have terrible reflexes, so am not good with action and timed scenes. I can usually force my way through with enough attempts, as long as it's not too tricky.


I am tone deaf so struggle with music puzzles, and the coloured flashing light ones that you have to repeat like that Simon game are hard for me.

Hmmm... looks like I am pretty rubbish at most things!

Lots of us are rubbish at lots of things, skeeter93 !! So you are in good company

Since I'm a singer, I'm fine with music puzzles. Sliders also don't bother me anymore, as I know the trick to solving them now. As long as I know what the picture is supposed to look like in the end, I'm good.

Mazes and I, on the other hand, do not get along. I have a terrible sense of direction and get lost easily. I'm happy that I rarely encounter them in games anymore. The only time I enjoyed being lost was in Propast in Dreamfall Chapters, as I loved exploring that environment. Now I know my way around there really well. If a lot of the locations are the same in mazes, they aren't that interesting or enjoyable to me, and it's pretty much a guarantee that I will get lost.

I also agree with the dislike of timed/stealth/action "puzzles" in adventure games. Unfortunately, unlike mazes, those are not disappearing from adventure games. I'm fine with Telltale "action," as that's just quick typing, but anything more complicated gets frustrating. If I want to play a game badly enough, I'll persevere. For example, it looks as though the upcoming State of Mind will include action , but the game looks fantastic otherwise, so I'll get it and suffer through those sequences to get to the good parts in between. It's a shame that developers feel the need to add these elements, as I think most adventure gamers don't care for them, and that's not the reason we play games to begin with. Sure, some play other genres, but not everyone enjoys action in their games.

I also could do without hidden object puzzles/pixel hunting, as I'm apparently bad at finding hotspots. That's why the hotspot reveler is one of my best friends now.

Thanks Mad

I noticed a few people saying sliders are okay if you can see what the picture is supposed to be, and I agree. One game (I think it was Criminal Intent) I quit because the picture for the slider was not on the same screen, and it was so frustrating to constantly go in and out. Gone are the days of spending weeks persevering through a puzzle...