Stolen Pixels #167: The Solution to All Puzzles

[Shamus Young]

Stolen Pixels #167: The Solution to All Puzzles

When stumped in Machinarium, there's always one answer to which you can turn.

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[Onyx Oblivion]

The internet didn't kill the point of adventure games. The point of adventure games was the story, not the puzzles.

Case in point: The Longest Journey. Mediocre puzzles, but the interaction with the characters and the world made the game.

 

[johnman]

"Google it" and "Too the googles!" have now become common sayings pretty much everywhere I go.

 

[Jared]

lol, google giving the finger. Thats hilarious!

 

[dududf]

Lol...

The robot asking the other guy what to do, and the guy responding "Fuck you, google it.".

That made my day.

 

[Andronicus]

The internet didn't kill the point of adventure games. The point of adventure games was the story, not the puzzles.

Case in point: The Longest Journey

Thing is, if the "point" was just the story, then what would be the point of having puzzles? It might as well just be a graphic novel.

I disagree with you that the "point" is the story; you can have puzzles without a story, or a story without puzzles, but put them both together and you have an adventure game. Just as a sidenote to that: a good story in a point-and-click adventure game gives you context as you solve the puzzles. A great story in an adventure game makes solving the puzzles all the more worthwhile.

 

[Trivun]

The internet didn't kill the point of adventure games. The point of adventure games was the story, not the puzzles.

Case in point: The Longest Journey

Oh yes, I agree completely with that. Psychonauts was a sort of action adventure game, and that was good mainly because of the story and the writing involved. Same can be said of any of Tim Schafer's adventure games. And to cite your example, I bought the Dreamfall Limited Edition a while ago (great bargain, got it for £15). It has the game, plus The Longest Journey, and I have to say that they are the sole reason why I got back into adventure gaming. And the best part of those games is the story. Fine, there are some really good puzzles (among some really obscure and annoying ones), but the story is the main driving force (not counting the ending of The Longest Journey). Hell, even adventure games that are driven mainly by the puzzles, such as the Myst series, are backed up by extremely detailed and intricate storylines (just play Myst III: Exile if you doubt me on that...). And that can only be a good thing, as far as I'm concerned...

 

[VGFreak1225]

Huh, I'm suprised you didn't mention the in-game guide on this one. They will essentially give you the answer to every puzzle after playing a 30 second shmup. But I'm not going to pick on them for that one since all they did was pull out the middle man (Google) in the process.

Although I will admit I used it way, way, way too much for my own good. I'll never forgive myself for that one.

 

[Mylon]

Yes, adventure games suck because it's just following an often linear progression of use X on Y.

 

[oppp7]

This is the exact reason I don't take puzzle games seriously anymore.

 

[Benjeezy]

AWESOME game.

Incredible. I loved every second of it. I think we have the Game of the Year on our hands.

Thank you for exposing me to this amazingness.

 

[Nivag the Owl]

AWESOME game.

Incredible. I loved every second of it. I think we have the Game of the Year on our hands.

Thank you for exposing me to this amazingness.

So you completed the game just over an hour after you heard about it? Not really a selling point for me haha. Only kidding. I played the demo a while back. Some bits were a little tricky. I thought the puzzle in the comic was kinda funny. Not worth getting the whole game, me thinks.

 

[Benjeezy]

AWESOME game.

Incredible. I loved every second of it. I think we have the Game of the Year on our hands.

Thank you for exposing me to this amazingness.

So you completed the game just over an hour after you heard about it? Not really a selling point for me haha. Only kidding. I played the demo a while back. Some bits were a little tricky. I thought the puzzle in the comic was kinda funny. Not worth getting the whole game, me thinks.

Nah bro, I just played the demo. It floored me

 

[Killerbunny001]

But there also was a time before Google called DLH.

 

[lesterley]

Of course, if you were Sierra On-Line, you set up an 800 number and CHARGED your customers for answers to your indecipherable puzzles.

Quite a racket they had going until Google came along...

Leslee

 

[Lauren Admire]

Though I enjoyed this game, having to play a mini-game to get to a walkthrough annoyed me enough to not play past the free trial.

 

[Nocta-Aeterna]

I liked the demo, nice atmosphere. Also, finished the demo without google or walkthrough under 30 minutes.

 

[AvsJoe]

So very, very true. Getting stuck in a video game is a pain in the ass but I will try for an hour or more before I get defeated and head to gamewinners or gameFAQs or wherever.

 

[Skooterz]

It is the final solution to all puzzles. I try not to use it, but I don't really play puzzle games anyway.

 

[Otterpoet]

Great comic and thank you for the link! That is an amazing game!!!

Google is a double-edged sword for adventure games. Although sometimes it's too tempting to 'cheat,' in some poorly designed games you almost HAVE to use the walk-through. The Adventure Company is notorious for this... they have 'clickable' items/areas made so small you can spend half the day exploring the screen for them or their puzzles just don't make logical sense.

Machinarium's puzzles made sense and were pretty easy to figure out. Looking forward to playing the rest of the game.