When is puzzle solving fun?

Amathe

Some games have puzzles, and those puzzles can be fun. But just as often they are a pain in the ass.

They sort of remind me sometimes of parking. Here in Miami, every place you try to park your car, be it on the street, in a lot, or in  a garage - they all have a machine with 20 buttons to press. It is never the same machine or the same buttons. Man I hate that.

So what would warrant you spending time trying to solve an in game puzzle?

Cybersig211

When the genre makes sense.  Puzzles based on lore with a heavy lore setting and deep story that ties into the puzzle is great....usually reserved for single player games tbh.

Dropping in crazy puzzles just to have them suck, people just google the answer and move on.  Why? because its boring usually.  When its tied into the last couple cutscenes and storyline youve been playing through it makes sense and seems interesting.

Basically anywhere the story can tie into it in a meaningful way puzzles become fun and satisfying to solve.  Everywhere else it seems just a delay tactic and is more annoying than satisfying.

AlBQuirky

Totally in agreement with @Cybersig211 here. When puzzles "fit" into the game, using lore for answers, it's fun for me. Otherwise, they're just a guessing game that seems to have no purpose other than delay the "real gameplay" for me.

Skyrim got a lot of flak about their "puzzles", usually because the answer was right there, in front of the player. Why even have them if the answer is easily seen? That first Dragon Claw door was interesting, but all the rest became trivial. The pedestal puzzles were not good, in my opinion, and them ones that moved (turn one and another turns, too) made them a little more interesting where one could figure things out after some trial and error, but usually it ends up just clicking until one gets "lucky."

Now, if a game is all about puzzles, that's core gameplay and can be quite fun wracking one's brain to figure them out.

As far as MMOs go, no place for them with hundreds of impatient players also there, "puzzling things out." (all puns intended ) They seem to make as much sense as "sneaky infiltration" missions/quests. I'm curious, though... Do Character development, aka Skill/Ability Trees count as puzzles sometimes?

sunandshadow

Puzzles should never be somewhere monsters or other players are trying to kill you.  Ideally puzzles should also not be in the depths of a dungeon, but somewhere easily reachable.  Adventure games can be a powerful experience, but one that's largely incompatible with MMOs; replayable puzzle mini-games are way more compatible with MMOs.

Foncl

It's fun when puzzles are solvable using logic, if it feels like a guessing game or trial and error it's usually just tedious. I enjoy well desgined puzzle games like Portal, The Swapper, The Talos Principle, Antichamber, Exapunks and TIS-100. Random puzzles in games that aren't puzzle games are rarely well designed in my experience.

hallucigenocide

it all depends where you find them. in games that keeps rushing you towards reward after reward constantly they're nothing more than a nuisance.

in games like Secret World they make total sense.

d_20

For me, never in an mmo. I need another way around like killing stuff or conversation choices or some other kind of mini-game (like diplomacy or something). If wanted puzzles, I'd play a puzzle game. I pretty much tab out and go right to a walkthrough when I get a puzzle.

H0urg1ass

It depends on the Genre and the difficulty level of the puzzles.  In a single player game like Skyrim where the puzzles are really easy to figure out, I don't mind them at all.

In an MMO where I'm trying to get shit done and  suddenly I'm confronted with a very difficult puzzle that I end up googling anyhow, then it's a pain in the ass.

Single Player Games:  Ok, I'll be fine with some light puzzle solving here and there that fits the narrative and makes sense for the setting.

MMO's:  I'm a lot less inclined to enjoy puzzles unless they're part of a raid like the zodiac raid in Age of Conan, where half the raid has to run out every few seconds and solve a quick puzzle to avoid a party wipe.  That's kind of fun.

Sovrath

Cybersig211 said:

When the genre makes sense.  Puzzles based on lore with a heavy lore setting and deep story that ties into the puzzle is great....usually reserved for single player games tbh.

Dropping in crazy puzzles just to have them suck, people just google the answer and move on.  Why? because its boring usually.  When its tied into the last couple cutscenes and storyline youve been playing through it makes sense and seems interesting.

Basically anywhere the story can tie into it in a meaningful way puzzles become fun and satisfying to solve.  Everywhere else it seems just a delay tactic and is more annoying than satisfying.

Just have puzzles that are more about the "puzzle solving" and less about the answer.

So having a puzzle that one has to "figure out" and then having that puzzle change but the system for figuring it out is still the same.

Panther2103

Anything to bring a game different ideas or content is fine with me. Puzzles being part of that. I like solving puzzles, and I think any time a puzzle is dropped into a game I enjoy it. I don't know if there has been one that has really frustrated me or felt unnecessary. I know near the end of Runescape quests (or at least higher level ones) there's a pretty intense puzzle that took people I know something like 6 to 8 hours to solve without help, which is crazy. 

Ungood

This is a great question, and one game that does "puzzles" really well was Dungeons and Dragons Online, where they applied old board game like puzzles to their dungeon encounters (often for Raids),

To give an example, in DDO, a raid called the Shroud, would look players into different rooms, where they had to play a Lights Out style game to open the door. Sure there were solvers, but other players started to pride themselves on how fast they could just solve the puzzle themselves. Given this was timed, if you did not open the door in time and get out, a force wall would come along and kill you.

Another Raid, called Reavers Fate, used the vintage game called "Mastermind" as a final puzzle, and this was also timed.

But I guess, it really boils down to how the game can be played.. and what works for you.

Bloodaxes

I love puzzles in my game, heck even plat forming sections which I wish more mmos did. When they are incorporated well into the game it's amazing! However, if I am required to search the web and dig for clues (Some puzzles in Secret World), you lose me. I'll end up googling the answers from other people as I don't want to waste a lot of time scratching my head in confusion.

cheyane

Bard's Tale 4 some of the puzzles drove me bonkus. I was getting a headache because first person view and moving big blocks in dwarven ruins not a good combination. 

I solved some and others I cheated and checked.