Blocking My Fun

Game, why are you blocking my fun?

I was recently playing an old point-and-click adventure game called Broken Sword — a remake rather, the Director’s Cut — and although I was quite enjoying it for the first 1-2 hours of gameplay, I then hit a wall: a lame-ass puzzle that has nothing to do with the point-and-click adventuring that I had signed up for.

I’ve experienced this in many games, and it always frustrates me. In this case, it was a sliding block puzzle kind of thing that is something I just do not enjoy, and just the act of spending 5 or more minutes and not solving it made me stop playing. That was a few weeks ago, and I haven’t gone back to it because I know what awaits me. A lame-ass puzzle (in case you forgot).

Want another example? The second episode of the 1112 adventure game on iOS has a sudoku puzzle. Yes, nothing else than a plain ol’ sudoku puzzle — which is later followed by an even more complex version of it. The saving grace here is that I knew I had zero interest in spending time on it, and so went online and got the solution, but still, it felt ridiculously tacked on, and didn’t bring anything to the game’s flow.

So why do these things? To add length? Lack of imagination?

I really want to get back to Broken Sword, as I was really digging the early part, but at the same time, I don’t feel like subjecting myself to any more block sliding.

My request to game developers: make your game fun, and consistent with the gameplay we came to engage in.