Gaming Best puzzles in a game

[2010DigitalBoy]

So, which is it? The grandois mindbenders of God of War, the crazy dungeon-crackers of Tales of Symphonia and Golden Sun, or the moving of retarded orbs in Final Fantasy 10. Personally, I think God of War had the coolest puzzles in any game. They were full of crazy stuff and... crazy stuff, like lighting a guy on fire and dumping him in a ditch to open a door.

[Sandy]

I fell in love with the puzzles of Golden Sun: The Lost Age (haven't played the prequel). I mean, you'd have to use magic to remove obstacles, move objects, and find hidden paths. The dungeons seemed very innovative to me, and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I should probably start a new game now that I don't remember clearly how each dungeon went...

I've also played one installment of Tomb Raider, and there were some awesome dungeons that required for you to really work your brains (or read a walkthrough). I also finally found a good excuse to know all the names and looks of the nine planets in order, as one puzzle required you to put them in correct order in a planetarium. ;)

[Bloodseeker]

You want some good puzzles, go out and buy Myst and its sequels. I remember Riven and Exile having some real mind benders... but that was also several years ago...

As for games that aren't pure puzzle games, God of War is king. That game would have been all-around perfect if it were about 10-15 hours longer...

[Sandy]

[QUOTE=Bloodseeker]You want some good puzzles, go out and buy Myst and its sequels. I remember Riven and Exile having some real mind benders... but that was also several years ago...
[/QUOTE]


I'd like to disagree with you. I bought about a year ago both Myst and Riven in the same package. At first I enjoyed Myst quite a lot, but then it began to go too difficult, as nothing was explained in the game - not what you should do next and why you should do it. Then I found this neat-o little help button, and the rest of the game was a wheeze after that.

Well, after that I started playing Riven. To my surprise, the neat-o help option was gone, and I was stranded in a strange world all my own, with no objectives and no goals, just trying to figure out what the feck I was supposed to do next. Of course, I got stuck and haven't played the game since. :/

So there is something of a balance that is required to good puzzles - they should be mind-intriguing and challenging, but not impossible to figure out without a walkthrough.

[BlueYoshi]

[color=darkred]Sage has a point. For me, when it comes to puzzles, I prefer one that's challenging, but no where near impossible, because then you'd get no where fast, which pretty much achieves nothing.

LoZ: LttP had some decent puzzles, I thought. Of course, they're no where as near as complex as those in OoT or TWW because of the restrictions that come with a 2D game. But, out of the simplicity of LttP came a bunch of tough puzzles -- the type that has you kick yourself after realising just how simple they really were after completing them. Even though TMC is superior in terms of graphics to LttP, it just doesn't provide the goods. The puzzles in that game are seriously as simple as ABC. Goes to show that great puzzles are the results of innovation, and not graphics.

As for Resident Evil, I find some of the puzzles amongst the games to be good past timers, but most of the time you're just required to back-track your routes. You know, find item X to acquire item Y in order to retrieve item Z. That kind of thing.[/color]

[Sandy]

[QUOTE=Bombu][color=darkred]
As for Resident Evil, I find some of the puzzles amongst the games to be good past timers, but most of the time you're just required to back-track your routes. You know, find item X to acquire item Y in order to retrieve item Z. That kind of thing.[/color][/QUOTE]

I prefer my puzzles to be zombie-free. ;) There's nothing more agonizing than to try to find some minuscule item while fighting off hordes of undead boogies. :(

Seriously, I played Resident Evil Nemesis for a few hours, but then the game just went too freaky to me (much thanks goes to that hulky bastard Nemesis), and I didn't touch it after that... :nervous:

[Guest juzzam]

I dont know about best game for puzzles, but my favorite puzzle would be in Metal Gear Solid.
You get told to ring meryl, and someone tells you that her number is on the back of the cd case. [spoiler]If you look on the back of the box that the game is in there is a pic of snake talking to meryl on codec and it shows her number.[/spoiler]
It just shows kojimas a genius.

[Killer7]

Personally I like the puzzles in the original Prince of Persia. With all the crate and key puzzles, adventure games were starting to get boring. POP had puzzles based on physics and acrobatics, you actually felt you were doing something everytime you solved a puzzle, and of course it is always fun to slide down banisters and walk on walls.

[satan665]

[quote name='Killer7']Personally I like the puzzles in the original Prince of Persia. With all the crate and key puzzles, adventure games were starting to get boring. POP had puzzles based on physics and acrobatics, you actually felt you were doing something everytime you solved a puzzle, and of course it is always fun to slide down banisters and walk on walls.[/quote]


I agree totally here. Prince of Persia has awesome puzzles that were just tricky enough. Some of them took a while to figure out, but it was really fun to figure them out and never very frustrating. Plus the whole reverse time thing where you can back up and re-try a failed jump is amazing. That has to be the best platformer and puzzle game so far.

[Killer7]

If only the sequel had improved upon that, it was basically the same game with a darker Prince. I just started playing GOW though and so far I haven't come across any puzzles, though I have heard in alot of places they are innovative, and in a sickening way, funny.

[WW2]

I agree that the newer Prince of Persia games have some to the best puzzles. They're pretty tricky, but not totally impossible to figure out.

I also really like the puzzles in Ico, which were pretty similar to those in the Prince of Persia games, only that you had to find away to drag that useless chick Yorda along with you.

Oh and Tetris had some great puzzles too. :D

[Killer7]

Ico, the puzzle cult classic. The game was pretty good, but I totally forgot about it. Actually a similiar game is coming out from the same developer, named THe shadow of the Colossus. Basically you ride your horse around finding these 18 colossus, which are humongous creatures of stone, and once you find one you must figure out how to get on it (i.e. Shoot a flying colossus' wings to make him land and jump on him) then find it's weal spot and kill it. So basically the whole game is one big puzzle, finding out how to bring down the colossus.

[Kamuro]

[SIZE=1]I hated those god forsaken FF X orb puzzles. The later ones were so complicated it took forever to get them right without the use of a walkthrough or some type of aid to help you along.

Xenosaga II has some pretty good puzzles. Some are very simple but others can provide quite the challenge. Luckily most of the puzzles don't actually have to be solved. You can play through the game doing minimum amounts of puzzles, however you always get something for beating them. It's worth it in the long run since a lot of the prizes provide skills for your characters to adapt.[/SIZE]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Am I the only one who actually enjoyed the Cloister of Trials puzzles in FFX? Yeah, there were a couple that were annoying (mainly the Bevelle Temple one because of the stupid moving platform), but for the most part, I thought they were fun. They reminded me a lot of old point-and-click adventure game puzzles, and I thought they provided a nice change of pace from the rest of the game.

One of my favorite games for puzzles, though, is Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest. All of the landscape is the same as OOT, but nearly everything else inside the dungeons is completely mixed up, so it provides the same feelings of discovery and accomplishment even if you've played through the original OOT before. And if you have played through the original OOT before, I really love how it takes what you know about it, turns that knowledge completely around backwards, and then slaps you for thinking you already know how things work.[/color]