If there's one aspect of gameing I'm divided on, it's puzzles. There are games that are nothing but puzzles (Puzzle and Adventure games), but far more often puzzles are inserted into the stages of a game, often at the expense of realism. There are natural puzzles like using a certain tool to escape a dangerous situation, and puzzles that are part of the dungeon/temple/whatever, particularly if you're ever exploring some ruins or a castle.
The difficulty of these is a tricky balance no matter where your 'logic' puzzles are and what format. Make them too easy and they're just make-work, pushing boxes around so you can get to the next action sequence. Make them too hard (or more often in adventure games, obscure) and people complain about being held up for days at a time by your 'illogic' puzzles. Of course, overall it's difficult to put a lot of enthusiasm into making really creative puzzles when 90% of the gamer population will just GameFAQs it anyways, regardless of how hard or easy it is.
What is your take on puzzles in action games? What is your favorite example of a good puzzle? A bad one? Do puzzles enrich a gaming experience, or dilute it?
The difficulty of these is a tricky balance no matter where your 'logic' puzzles are and what format. Make them too easy and they're just make-work, pushing boxes around so you can get to the next action sequence. Make them too hard (or more often in adventure games, obscure) and people complain about being held up for days at a time by your 'illogic' puzzles. Of course, overall it's difficult to put a lot of enthusiasm into making really creative puzzles when 90% of the gamer population will just GameFAQs it anyways, regardless of how hard or easy it is.
What is your take on puzzles in action games? What is your favorite example of a good puzzle? A bad one? Do puzzles enrich a gaming experience, or dilute it?
