I am not a pollster, I'm not a pollster's son. I'm only posting a poll till the pollster man
comes.
This is not a poll. I do not have a polling license,
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
1. A pixel hunt, like trying to find the ring of wizardry in that field in Baldur's Gate.
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over from the first jump.
4. Boss fights where the boss keeps coming back to life until you realise you have to blow
out the candle at the other end of the hall first.
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
6. Mazes.
7. I never met a puzzle I didn't love. Every wall of every room in my house is painted with a
copy of Mondrian's "White Wolves in the Snow".
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
I am not a pollster, I'm not a pollster's son. I'm only posting a poll till the pollster man
comes.
This is not a poll. I do not have a polling license,
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
1. A pixel hunt, like trying to find the ring of wizardry in that field in Baldur's Gate.
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over from the first jump.
4. Boss fights where the boss keeps coming back to life until you realise you have to blow
out the candle at the other end of the hall first.
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
6. Mazes.
7. I never met a puzzle I didn't love. Every wall of every room in my house is painted with a
copy of Mondrian's "White Wolves in the Snow".
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
I am not a pollster, I'm not a pollster's son. I'm only posting a poll till the pollster man
comes.
This is not a poll. I do not have a polling license,
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
1. A pixel hunt, like trying to find the ring of wizardry in that field in Baldur's Gate.
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over from the first jump.
4. Boss fights where the boss keeps coming back to life until you realise you have to blow
out the candle at the other end of the hall first.
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
6. Mazes.
7. I never met a puzzle I didn't love. Every wall of every room in my house is painted with a
copy of Mondrian's "White Wolves in the Snow".
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
My #8 is 1 through 6. Hate em all, but especially 3 and 4 (extra credit
if you have a save point, then a multiple jump, then a boss fight with
the hit the secret nonsense to actually kill it. Die, respawn, jump
puzzle, boss fight, die.
Extra, extra credit if all this is on a fucking timer as well.
On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 19:21:44 -0000 (UTC), "Mark P. Nelson" ><markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
Logic Puzzles. Fuck you 7th Guest and Myst!
I am not a pollster, I'm not a pollster's son. I'm only posting a poll till the pollster man
comes.
This is not a poll. I do not have a polling license,
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
1. A pixel hunt, like trying to find the ring of wizardry in that field in Baldur's Gate.
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over from the first jump.
4. Boss fights where the boss keeps coming back to life until you realise you have to blow
out the candle at the other end of the hall first.
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
6. Mazes.
7. I never met a puzzle I didn't love. Every wall of every room in my house is painted with a
copy of Mondrian's "White Wolves in the Snow".
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
Sliding tile puzzles.
6. Mazes.
Not so much anymore. I actually drew maps back in the early days.
Oh, fuck yes. I take back everything else I wrote and change my vote
to 'sliding tile puzzles'. They're the absolute worst.
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
1. A pixel hunt, like trying to find the ring of wizardry in that field in Baldur's Gate.
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over from the first jump.
4. Boss fights where the boss keeps coming back to life until you realise you have to blow
out the candle at the other end of the hall first.
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
6. Mazes.
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
"Mark P. Nelson" <markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> writes:<snip>
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
Not a fan but not common in games I play. I have a vague memory of some
Star Trek game (probably DS9 Harbinger or was there some other decent-ish
DS9 game?) where I turned on a flying cheat to do a jump.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over from the first jump.
Maybe but nothing comes to mind. Well, the ridiculous teeth of the Many
in System Shock 2 but thankfully that thing had only two teeth... Maybe >generalized to combinations of jumping and dodging moving walls or
bursting flames or whatever hazard.
And related. Your agile hero's complete inability to climb or rather,
step over a knee high railing, i.e. invisible walls. "No, you can't go
over that, please walk around through 17 corridors instead where we just >spawned some more enemies for you".
Then there's the buildings that clearly have a roof and there's maybe
even what looks like loot there. So why is it there's just no way to get
up there?
On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:27:45 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:
6. Mazes.
Not so much anymore. I actually drew maps back in the early days.
I did too so mazes never bothered me. I am sure you can just download
maps these days for any game that has a maze.
On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:27:45 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:
6. Mazes.
Not so much anymore. I actually drew maps back in the early days.
I did too so mazes never bothered me. I am sure you can just download
maps these days for any game that has a maze.
I still remember this one 20 years on cause it had one point where you
had a save point, then a triple whip jump plus other jumps while being
chased by a tank, then right into a boss fight.
And related. Your agile hero's complete inability to climb or rather,
step over a knee high railing, i.e. invisible walls. "No, you can't go
over that, please walk around through 17 corridors instead where we just >>spawned some more enemies for you".
Arx Fatalis springs to mind, where you could levitate but only truly >horizontally, so if your feet were 1mm below the edge, you couldn't get
up, made exactly zero sense.
Then there's the buildings that clearly have a roof and there's maybe
even what looks like loot there. So why is it there's just no way to get
up there?
Cruel Developers.
Or possibly there once was a way up there, then the area got redesigned
but they did not remove the loot.
Like Tomb Raider games - the early ones showed a regular path that was >blocked and you had to climb and jump and whatnot to get up an alternate >route.
Later games forgot this entirely and suddenly the only path there ever
was involves you climbing the wall, then hand over handing across the >ceiling.
One of the Space Quests too, maybe the first one? Early on, you crawl
through a cave with some shiny gem in your mouth and promptly drop it
after getting out. Or something like that. Game doesn't say anything but
you need it later. Feels like '90s game design stuff.
Oh and now that I think about it. Kind of similar to the pixel hunt: >adventure games where you're going to need an item from the beginning of
the game near the end and you can't go back to the starting area, just >because. My replay of Rex Nebular comes to mind.
Maybe but nothing comes to mind. Well, the ridiculous teeth of the Many
in System Shock 2 but thankfully that thing had only two teeth... Maybe >generalized to combinations of jumping and dodging moving walls or
bursting flames or whatever hazard.
"Mark P. Nelson" <markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> writes:Oh I really hate those, and time limits. GoW (new) had that thing where
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
1. A pixel hunt, like trying to find the ring of wizardry in that field in Baldur's Gate.
Not a fan but not common in games I play. Annoying all the
same. E.g. I've started a replay of Mission Critical, I think last time
was last millennium. Still, I remember it had one pixel hunt in it and
that seems to be one of the few things I remember about it almost three decades later.
One of the Space Quests too, maybe the first one? Early on, you crawl
through a cave with some shiny gem in your mouth and promptly drop it
after getting out. Or something like that. Game doesn't say anything but
you need it later. Feels like '90s game design stuff.
Oh and now that I think about it. Kind of similar to the pixel hunt: adventure games where you're going to need an item from the beginning of
the game near the end and you can't go back to the starting area, just because. My replay of Rex Nebular comes to mind.
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
Not a fan but not common in games I play. I have a vague memory of some
Star Trek game (probably DS9 Harbinger or was there some other decent-ish
DS9 game?) where I turned on a flying cheat to do a jump.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over from the first jump.
Maybe but nothing comes to mind. Well, the ridiculous teeth of the Many
in System Shock 2 but thankfully that thing had only two teeth... Maybe generalized to combinations of jumping and dodging moving walls or
bursting flames or whatever hazard.
And related. Your agile hero's complete inability to climb or rather,
step over a knee high railing, i.e. invisible walls. "No, you can't go
over that, please walk around through 17 corridors instead where we just spawned some more enemies for you".
Then there's the buildings that clearly have a roof and there's maybe
even what looks like loot there. So why is it there's just no way to get
up there?
4. Boss fights where the boss keeps coming back to life until you realise you have to blow
out the candle at the other end of the hall first.
Never seen.
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
I feel it was maybe a little overused around KOTOR and KOTOR2 time, over
two decades ago? But I think there's an upside, as in, if I see that, I
know how to solve it.
6. Mazes.
Well... I put a lot of time into a maze adventure "Asylum" back in the
'80s. Main challenge was that the maze had some crazy in itself, it
quite impossibly wrapped around the edges and some other geometry was
also impossible. It was a visual 3d maze but with featureless walls and
floor so really hard to map and get around in. All dropped items were rendered as a featureless box. In the end I only got through a kind of
an intro part, the game opened up into an even larger maze after that
and introduced fun things like invisible "revolving doors" which spun
you around. Didn't feel like continuing.
Another maze in some recent-ish Jedi Whatsit game, I just couldn't find
my way out of a maze! Actually a cave system. I had solved all the
puzzles and got my prize or whatever and it was time to go but no. I
even tried a walk through but still no. And since the game wasn't really
that good I just stopped there.
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
Timed puzzles, also adventure game fare. You press a button somewhere
and the game tells you "you heard something". And then you're supposed
to figure out some exact steps to perform in a specific order after
pressing that button, to accomplish something. I remember I was
completely lost with that once.
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:13:17 +0200, Anssi Saari
One of the Space Quests too, maybe the first one? Early on, you crawl >>through a cave with some shiny gem in your mouth and promptly drop it
after getting out. Or something like that. Game doesn't say anything but >>you need it later. Feels like '90s game design stuff.
I have a map I made of that stupid cave. I remember that area clearly.
It was Space Quest II.
Oh and now that I think about it. Kind of similar to the pixel hunt: >>adventure games where you're going to need an item from the beginning of >>the game near the end and you can't go back to the starting area, just >>because. My replay of Rex Nebular comes to mind.
Dead man walking was common in adventure games. And in the text
adventures that preceded them. LuasArts managed to avoid this for the
most part in their games. I think only their earliest games, Maniac
Mansion and Zak McKracken had unwinnable states.
Also, I own Rex Nebular. I don't think I will ever replay it, but if I
do, I need to keep your post in mind. :)
Maybe but nothing comes to mind. Well, the ridiculous teeth of the Many
in System Shock 2 but thankfully that thing had only two teeth... Maybe >>generalized to combinations of jumping and dodging moving walls or
bursting flames or whatever hazard.
The jumping teeth part of System Shock 2 is my least favorite part of
the entire game. So I guess I hate those kinds of puzzles too.
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:14:08 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> said this
thing:
I still remember this one 20 years on cause it had one point where you
had a save point, then a triple whip jump plus other jumps while being
chased by a tank, then right into a boss fight.
And related. Your agile hero's complete inability to climb or rather,
step over a knee high railing, i.e. invisible walls. "No, you can't go
over that, please walk around through 17 corridors instead where we just >>> spawned some more enemies for you".
Arx Fatalis springs to mind, where you could levitate but only truly
horizontally, so if your feet were 1mm below the edge, you couldn't get
up, made exactly zero sense.
Then there's the buildings that clearly have a roof and there's maybe
even what looks like loot there. So why is it there's just no way to get >>> up there?
Cruel Developers.
Or possibly there once was a way up there, then the area got redesigned
but they did not remove the loot.
Like Tomb Raider games - the early ones showed a regular path that was
blocked and you had to climb and jump and whatnot to get up an alternate
route.
Later games forgot this entirely and suddenly the only path there ever
was involves you climbing the wall, then hand over handing across the
ceiling.
On a related note: Hey there, Mr. Hero-with-a-Rocket-Launcher. You
need to go over there, but there's a door in the way. Go search the
labyrinth for an hour looking for the appropriate switch. Oh, the
door? It's made of flimsy wood. No, you can't use your rocket launcher
to just explode your way through; don't be silly. Go search for the
key!
Not really a puzzle, this (or any of the other ideas above) but damned
silly. Then again, the alternative doesn't always lead to better games either. What's a poor developer to do? ;-)
On 2/18/2026 2:13 AM, Anssi Saari wrote:
"Mark P. Nelson" <markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> writes:Oh I really hate those, and time limits. GoW (new) had that thing where you have to hit 3 rune stones in an area with maybe a second to spare, really hard to get right especially with a controller. Easy-peasy on PC with mouse though. Of course I played it with controller.
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
1. A pixel hunt, like trying to find the ring of wizardry in that
field in Baldur's Gate.
Not a fan but not common in games I play. Annoying all the
same. E.g. I've started a replay of Mission Critical, I think last time
was last millennium. Still, I remember it had one pixel hunt in it and
that seems to be one of the few things I remember about it almost three
decades later.
One of the Space Quests too, maybe the first one? Early on, you crawl
through a cave with some shiny gem in your mouth and promptly drop it
after getting out. Or something like that. Game doesn't say anything but
you need it later. Feels like '90s game design stuff.
Oh and now that I think about it. Kind of similar to the pixel hunt:
adventure games where you're going to need an item from the beginning of
the game near the end and you can't go back to the starting area, just
because. My replay of Rex Nebular comes to mind.
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right
spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
Not a fan but not common in games I play. I have a vague memory of some
Star Trek game (probably DS9 Harbinger or was there some other decent-ish
DS9 game?) where I turned on a flying cheat to do a jump.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a
row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over
from the first jump.
Maybe but nothing comes to mind. Well, the ridiculous teeth of the Many
in System Shock 2 but thankfully that thing had only two teeth... Maybe
generalized to combinations of jumping and dodging moving walls or
bursting flames or whatever hazard.
And related. Your agile hero's complete inability to climb or rather,
step over a knee high railing, i.e. invisible walls. "No, you can't go
over that, please walk around through 17 corridors instead where we just
spawned some more enemies for you".
Then there's the buildings that clearly have a roof and there's maybe
even what looks like loot there. So why is it there's just no way to get
up there?
4. Boss fights where the boss keeps coming back to life until you
realise you have to blow
out the candle at the other end of the hall first.
Never seen.
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
I feel it was maybe a little overused around KOTOR and KOTOR2 time, over
two decades ago? But I think there's an upside, as in, if I see that, I
know how to solve it.
6. Mazes.
Well... I put a lot of time into a maze adventure "Asylum" back in the
'80s. Main challenge was that the maze had some crazy in itself, it
quite impossibly wrapped around the edges and some other geometry was
also impossible. It was a visual 3d maze but with featureless walls and
floor so really hard to map and get around in. All dropped items were
rendered as a featureless box. In the end I only got through a kind of
an intro part, the game opened up into an even larger maze after that
and introduced fun things like invisible "revolving doors" which spun
you around. Didn't feel like continuing.
Another maze in some recent-ish Jedi Whatsit game, I just couldn't find
my way out of a maze! Actually a cave system. I had solved all the
puzzles and got my prize or whatever and it was time to go but no. I
even tried a walk through but still no. And since the game wasn't really
that good I just stopped there.
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
Timed puzzles, also adventure game fare. You press a button somewhere
and the game tells you "you heard something". And then you're supposed
to figure out some exact steps to perform in a specific order after
pressing that button, to accomplish something. I remember I was
completely lost with that once.
Oh I really hate those, and time limits. GoW (new) had that thing
where you have to hit 3 rune stones in an area with maybe a second to
spare, really hard to get right especially with a controller.
Easy-peasy on PC with mouse though. Of course I played it with
controller.
On Tue, 17 Feb 2026 14:08:18 -0500, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> said
this thing:
On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:27:45 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:
6. Mazes.
Not so much anymore. I actually drew maps back in the early days.
I did too so mazes never bothered me. I am sure you can just download
maps these days for any game that has a maze.
Plus, most mazes in games these days aren't that difficult to
navigate. Even in the heyday of the maze-game, the generally small
size of the maps (usually 16x16 squares) meant it wasn't too hard to
find your way around, which is why the developers resorted to things
like invisible or one-way doors, teleports and spinners.
Modern mazes tend to lack these annoyances, and while technology
allows them to make much larger labyrinths in terms of area, the
developers usually end up making mazes that have far fewer twists and
turns.
Plus, thanks to the increased fidelity of modern games, every corridor
and room has its own detailing and appearance. No longer are we lost
in 'a maze of twisty passages, all alike'.
Even in the day, I rarely relied on maps to help me navigate. Nowadays
I never bother.
On Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:38:49 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
Oh, fuck yes. I take back everything else I wrote and change my vote
to 'sliding tile puzzles'. They're the absolute worst.
I hate them too. They fall under 'Logic Puzzles' which was my vote for
worst type of puzzle. 7th Guest had more than one sliding tile puzzle
I believe.
I am not a pollster, I'm not a pollster's son. I'm only posting a poll till the pollster man
comes.
This is not a poll. I do not have a polling license,
What puzzles do you hate most in computer games?
1. A pixel hunt, like trying to find the ring of wizardry in that field in Baldur's Gate.
2. Jumping puzzles, where you have to take off from just the right spot at just the right
angle with just enough velocity or you'll plunge to your doom.
3. Multi-jump puzzles, where you have to perform three jumps in a row, and can't save
your progress, so if you fail the final jump you have to start over from the first jump.
4. Boss fights where the boss keeps coming back to life until you realise you have to blow
out the candle at the other end of the hall first.
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
6. Mazes.
7. I never met a puzzle I didn't love. Every wall of every room in my house is painted with a
copy of Mondrian's "White Wolves in the Snow".
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
Anyways, the puzzle type I despise the most is... Lights Out puzzles.
The kind where toggling one switch flips all adjacent switches. I am
just miserably bad at these and usually resort to clicking randomly
until I stumble into the right solutions. The type of puzzles where each >button toggles multiple things is similarly frustrating, but they also
aren't a 5x5 grid of misery.
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 14:52 this Wednesday (GMT):
On Tue, 17 Feb 2026 14:08:18 -0500, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> said
this thing:
On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:27:45 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:
6. Mazes.
Not so much anymore. I actually drew maps back in the early days.
I did too so mazes never bothered me. I am sure you can just download
maps these days for any game that has a maze.
Plus, most mazes in games these days aren't that difficult to
navigate. Even in the heyday of the maze-game, the generally small
size of the maps (usually 16x16 squares) meant it wasn't too hard to
find your way around, which is why the developers resorted to things
like invisible or one-way doors, teleports and spinners.
Modern mazes tend to lack these annoyances, and while technology
allows them to make much larger labyrinths in terms of area, the
developers usually end up making mazes that have far fewer twists and
turns.
Plus, thanks to the increased fidelity of modern games, every corridor
and room has its own detailing and appearance. No longer are we lost
in 'a maze of twisty passages, all alike'.
Even in the day, I rarely relied on maps to help me navigate. Nowadays
I never bother.
You can also always follow the left hand wall to avoid getting lost :)
On 2/20/2026 10:40 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 14:52 this Wednesday (GMT):
Even in the day, I rarely relied on maps to help me navigate. Nowadays
I never bother.
You can also always follow the left hand wall to avoid getting lost :)
Except that some of the maze designers deliberately made that not work.
Mark P. Nelson <markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> wrote at 19:21 this Sunday (GMT):
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
I still don't really get the tower of hanoi, but i can usually
EVENTUALLY get it down.
8. Your proposal here:_______________________________________________
Anyways, the puzzle type I despise the most is... Lights Out puzzles.
The kind where toggling one switch flips all adjacent switches. I am
just miserably bad at these and usually resort to clicking randomly
until I stumble into the right solutions. The type of puzzles where each >button toggles multiple things is similarly frustrating, but they also
aren't a 5x5 grid of misery.
On Fri, 20 Feb 2026 18:40:07 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> said this thing:
Mark P. Nelson <markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> wrote at 19:21 this Sunday (GMT):
5. Oh, GODS, not the f*cking towers of Hanoi again!
I still don't really get the tower of hanoi, but i can usually
EVENTUALLY get it down.
The Towers of Hanoi aren't really hard; the problem is that they're time-consuming. Once you figure out how, it's just a matter of
flipping the bigger pieces back and forth and it's just gets boring.
On Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:27:46 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> said this thing:
On 2/20/2026 10:40 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 14:52 this Wednesday (GMT):
Even in the day, I rarely relied on maps to help me navigate. Nowadays >>>> I never bother.
You can also always follow the left hand wall to avoid getting lost :)
Except that some of the maze designers deliberately made that not work.
Actually, there's an exception to my maze-navigation prowess. I'm
great at 2D labyrinths, but start falling short once the
third-dimension starts getting involved. THAT'S when I usually need to
whip out the mapping paper. "Ultima 5" had some dungeons like that
(even though their labyrinths were otherwise fairly simple). "Descent"
just baffled me. ;-)
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:14:08 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> said this
thing:
I still remember this one 20 years on cause it had one point where you
had a save point, then a triple whip jump plus other jumps while being >>chased by a tank, then right into a boss fight.
And related. Your agile hero's complete inability to climb or rather, >>>step over a knee high railing, i.e. invisible walls. "No, you can't go >>>over that, please walk around through 17 corridors instead where we just >>>spawned some more enemies for you".
Arx Fatalis springs to mind, where you could levitate but only truly >>horizontally, so if your feet were 1mm below the edge, you couldn't get
up, made exactly zero sense.
Then there's the buildings that clearly have a roof and there's maybe >>>even what looks like loot there. So why is it there's just no way to get >>>up there?
Cruel Developers.
Or possibly there once was a way up there, then the area got redesigned
but they did not remove the loot.
Like Tomb Raider games - the early ones showed a regular path that was >>blocked and you had to climb and jump and whatnot to get up an alternate >>route.
Later games forgot this entirely and suddenly the only path there ever
was involves you climbing the wall, then hand over handing across the >>ceiling.
On a related note: Hey there, Mr. Hero-with-a-Rocket-Launcher. You
need to go over there, but there's a door in the way. Go search the
labyrinth for an hour looking for the appropriate switch. Oh, the
door? It's made of flimsy wood. No, you can't use your rocket launcher
to just explode your way through; don't be silly. Go search for the
key!
Not really a puzzle, this (or any of the other ideas above) but damned
silly. Then again, the alternative doesn't always lead to better games >either. What's a poor developer to do? ;-)
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:14:08 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> said this >>thing:
I still remember this one 20 years on cause it had one point where you >>>had a save point, then a triple whip jump plus other jumps while being >>>chased by a tank, then right into a boss fight.
And related. Your agile hero's complete inability to climb or rather, >>>>step over a knee high railing, i.e. invisible walls. "No, you can't go >>>>over that, please walk around through 17 corridors instead where we just >>>>spawned some more enemies for you".
Arx Fatalis springs to mind, where you could levitate but only truly >>>horizontally, so if your feet were 1mm below the edge, you couldn't get >>>up, made exactly zero sense.
Then there's the buildings that clearly have a roof and there's maybe >>>>even what looks like loot there. So why is it there's just no way to get >>>>up there?
Cruel Developers.
Or possibly there once was a way up there, then the area got redesigned >>>but they did not remove the loot.
Like Tomb Raider games - the early ones showed a regular path that was >>>blocked and you had to climb and jump and whatnot to get up an alternate >>>route.
Later games forgot this entirely and suddenly the only path there ever >>>was involves you climbing the wall, then hand over handing across the >>>ceiling.
On a related note: Hey there, Mr. Hero-with-a-Rocket-Launcher. You
need to go over there, but there's a door in the way. Go search the >>labyrinth for an hour looking for the appropriate switch. Oh, the
door? It's made of flimsy wood. No, you can't use your rocket launcher
to just explode your way through; don't be silly. Go search for the
key!
Not really a puzzle, this (or any of the other ideas above) but damned >>silly. Then again, the alternative doesn't always lead to better games >>either. What's a poor developer to do? ;-)
Recoil, Red Faction.
Blowing your way through the terrain has been done before.
On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 18:25:49 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> said this
thing:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:14:08 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> said this >>>thing:
I still remember this one 20 years on cause it had one point where you >>>>had a save point, then a triple whip jump plus other jumps while being >>>>chased by a tank, then right into a boss fight.
And related. Your agile hero's complete inability to climb or rather, >>>>>step over a knee high railing, i.e. invisible walls. "No, you can't go >>>>>over that, please walk around through 17 corridors instead where we just >>>>>spawned some more enemies for you".
Arx Fatalis springs to mind, where you could levitate but only truly >>>>horizontally, so if your feet were 1mm below the edge, you couldn't get >>>>up, made exactly zero sense.
Then there's the buildings that clearly have a roof and there's maybe >>>>>even what looks like loot there. So why is it there's just no way to get >>>>>up there?
Cruel Developers.
Or possibly there once was a way up there, then the area got redesigned >>>>but they did not remove the loot.
Like Tomb Raider games - the early ones showed a regular path that was >>>>blocked and you had to climb and jump and whatnot to get up an alternate >>>>route.
Later games forgot this entirely and suddenly the only path there ever >>>>was involves you climbing the wall, then hand over handing across the >>>>ceiling.
On a related note: Hey there, Mr. Hero-with-a-Rocket-Launcher. You
need to go over there, but there's a door in the way. Go search the >>>labyrinth for an hour looking for the appropriate switch. Oh, the
door? It's made of flimsy wood. No, you can't use your rocket launcher
to just explode your way through; don't be silly. Go search for the
key!
Not really a puzzle, this (or any of the other ideas above) but damned >>>silly. Then again, the alternative doesn't always lead to better games >>>either. What's a poor developer to do? ;-)
Recoil, Red Faction.
Blowing your way through the terrain has been done before.
Yes, I'm aware but even in those games it was still often limited. In
fact, I seem to recall that in "Red Faction" there were a number of
times that the doors themselves were invulnerable and the solution was
to borrow through the rock.
But destructible terrain is the exception, not the norm. Too often,
the wooden door stubbornly resists even the most fierce barrage of
fire-power launched by our rocket-launcher armed heroes.
I wonder what was the first game to feature destructible terrain.
"Space Invaders", with its protective blocks that could get chipped
away by enemy fire? "Lemmings", where you could dig through rock
walls? "Tank Wars" (or similar artillery games, like "Scorch" or
"Worms") where you could blow away huge chunks of terrain? Supposedly
a game called "Ghen Wars" for the Sega Saturn was the first
first-person game to utilize the technology (six years before "Red
Faction"), although watching videos of that game I see no evidence of
it in action. Almost certainly "Red Faction" was the first modern game
to make the destructible terrain central to the game's action (and
never got better at it than "Red Faction: Guerrilla").
"Bad Company 2"
used it to great effect as well. Newer games like "Teardown" utilize
similar levels of destruction, but the concept still remains
relatively rare in FPS games.
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
Scorch I played extensively as well as worms.
Never played Tank Wars though
On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 08:43:44 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> said this
thing:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
Scorch I played extensively as well as worms.
Never played Tank Wars though
"Tank Wars" (also sometimes called 'Bomb', because that was the name
of its excutable: bomb.exe) was basically "Scorched Earth", except a
bit older. It had older graphics and fewer options, but it was
basically the same game: lob shells at your opponent (or the ground
beneath them), and then use your winnings to buy new and exciting
weapons.
The fact that I can still remember the executable name should tell you
how often I played it. ;-)
"Scorched Earth" too... but after that I sort of burned out (hahahaha,
pun!) on artillery games. By the time "Worms" came out, it barely got
a few hours of gameplay before I got bored (besides, I found its
backgrounds too muddy in comparison).
On 2/24/2026 6:49 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
"Scorched Earth" too... but after that I sort of burned out (hahahaha,
pun!) on artillery games. By the time "Worms" came out, it barely got
a few hours of gameplay before I got bored (besides, I found its
backgrounds too muddy in comparison).
Scorched Earth was great, it's the only one of those I could ever get
into. So many times when friends played it with me, either at their
place or mine.
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