Grimrock

Most puzzles in the game were too hard for me. For each puzzle, I spent hours upon hours wandering around looking for the answer and when I finally solved it... I gain no satisfaction or sense of accomplishment.

In L6 Trapped (the Sword of Nex) where I have to race against time to press a bunch of buttons... I was always 1/2 second too slow. After about an hour of reloading and retrying... I gave up. Sigh.

This is indeed one of the really challenging yet optional puzzles in LoG. Precise walking and as few as possible steps and turns are needed to do it. Yet you don't need to do it in one go from start to finish; the tiles around the alcove with the key make a good pitstop.

I have to agree. I didn't like the puzzles in LOG very much either. I think it was probably the one largest thing preventing the game from being great, but I guess they already know this by now.

Dandy wrote:I have to agree. I didn't like the puzzles in LOG very much either. I think it was probably the one largest thing preventing the game from being great, but I guess they already know this by now.

I have the opposite view; having played many many dungeon crawlers; I can confidently say that the genre lives & dies on the quality of the puzzles; else is pure hack-n-slash, and boring after third of each monster type encountered. In these games the goal is to pass through [to the next area], and the puzzles are the blocked path; with the monsters being the spice of the game, not the main course. All monsters and no puzzles is like eating clove powder; fun for a minute, but you would do that for an hour; (Conversely, all puzzles can get tiring as well, there needs to be a combat intermission). These games are effectively the same genre as the original Tomb Raider; the point is to solve the puzzles of the tomb, but it's no fun if the tombs are empty.

I will be shocked (and highly disappointed) if they 'learn' and heed the notion that the puzzles are secondary or something to tone down quite a bit. That's the fastest way for me to drop the series; (for once they shift audience, to a group that just wants hack-n-slash ~even with semi decent story; there is no further reason to mod the game, because only a few would ever complete the mods if they had clever puzzles).

Some of the puzzles are very hard! There's no doubt. I lost my original save - and have been replaying the game, and thus started over. I am on Level 4, with the teleporting rooms - granted, I haven't spent much time figuring it out (yet, free time is not what it used to be these days, sadly!) - I do recall some of them being difficult. There's the one (I think it was on level 1 or 2?) where it was all reaction time - press the button on the wall and quickly run to the other side before it closes/changes. That took a great amount of time - and it CAN get troublesome knowing what you NEED to do, but not being fast enough. It'd be a cool if there was a way, after so many failed attempts, to slow down some of the "speed puzzles" to give folks (like myself!) with slower reaction speeds, a chance to complete the puzzles.

Sir Tawmis wrote: There's the one (I think it was on level 1 or 2?) where it was all reaction time - press the button on the wall and quickly run to the other side before it closes/changes. That took a great amount of time - and it CAN get troublesome knowing what you NEED to do, but not being fast enough. It'd be a cool if there was a way, after so many failed attempts, to slow down some of the "speed puzzles" to give folks (like myself!) with slower reaction speeds, a chance to complete the puzzles.

One thing not everyone notices, is that having a party with even one overloaded PC, slows down the party's movement; enough even to make some speed puzzles impossible. When I first did the one everyone recalls.. that Iron Door, I made sure to drop all my extra gear into a trunk so that the party could move at their fastest pace.

*It's true that I have read accounts of running the game on minimum or below spec machines that made it impossible as well... but that puzzle is also entirely optional; as all of the very hardest of them should be IMO.

Isaac wrote: One thing not everyone notices, is that having a party with even one overloaded PC, slows down the party's movement; enough even to make some speed puzzles impossible. When I first did the one everyone recalls.. that Iron Door, I made sure to drop all my extra gear into a trunk so that the party could move at their fastest pace.

Hah! I am sure that some people forget that! But for my characters - the only things I typically carry are the cloth and weapons that they're wearing/holding - plus scrolls and food. If I find extra weapons, shields, clothing that's of lesser AC or not usable - I immediately discard it (because as far as I know, there's no vendor in this dungeon of insanity to sell off extra stuff!) So I don't think any of my characters in my original (or my current replay session) have ever gotten close to max weight!

My theory is, if I don't need it to survive, I drop it.

Sir Tawmis wrote:If I find extra weapons, shields, clothing that's of lesser AC or not usable - I immediately discard it (because as far as I know, there's no vendor in this dungeon of insanity to sell off extra stuff!) So I don't think any of my characters in my original (or my current replay session) have ever gotten close to max weight!

My theory is, if I don't need it to survive, I drop it.

Do you not keep armor and weapons that your PC's cannot use ~yet?
(Not for several levels, for instance.)

I usually discard duplicate [non-stackable] equipment and weapons. This might change in LoG2, if the party can acquire additional NPCs'... as they can in some LoG mods.

Sir Tawmis wrote:My theory is, if I don't need it to survive, I drop it.

Hahaha. This made me chuckle out loud. I'm the complete opposite... "What *if* I need it for a puzzle or just to weigh down a pressure plate?". I keep hold of absolutely every item I can until all my characters are about 0.1kg away from being burdened (ie. "Yellow" carrying capacity). Then I have to start discarding what I think to be the least-potentially-useful items (like the tattered rags and things) when I want to hoard more stuff. Lol

JohnWordsworth wrote:

Sir Tawmis wrote:My theory is, if I don't need it to survive, I drop it.

Hahaha. This made me chuckle out loud. I'm the complete opposite... "What *if* I need it for a puzzle or just to weigh down a pressure plate?". I keep hold of absolutely every item I can until all my characters are about 0.1kg away from being burdened (ie. "Yellow" carrying capacity). Then I have to start discarding what I think to be the least-potentially-useful items (like the tattered rags and things) when I want to hoard more stuff. Lol

LOL! If this was a normal RPG where there's a vendor - then, I am a Ratling. I keep everything and sell whatever I don't think to the vendor. But I knew in this game, there was no point in keep the extra stuff. I keep stuff like gems, because I know - even if I don't see it for a few levels - there's going to be one of those damn statues in the wall that needs their eyes replaced or something!

Isaac wrote:

Sir Tawmis wrote:If I find extra weapons, shields, clothing that's of lesser AC or not usable - I immediately discard it (because as far as I know, there's no vendor in this dungeon of insanity to sell off extra stuff!) So I don't think any of my characters in my original (or my current replay session) have ever gotten close to max weight!
My theory is, if I don't need it to survive, I drop it.

Do you not keep armor and weapons that your PC's cannot use ~yet?
(Not for several levels, for instance.)
I usually discard duplicate [non-stackable] equipment and weapons. This might change in LoG2, if the party can acquire additional NPCs'... as they can in some LoG mods.

I can't remember if I ever had that issue when I did my first play through (where I lost my saves). The current one, I am only down to level 4, so it's not been an issue yet.