As the title suggests, what do you think is the most absurd solution to a puzzle in a video game you've ever encountered?
For me (and I imagine much of the community here can agree), this is something I think is disturbingly prevalent in point-and-click adventure games, which at best, in Kieron Gillen's words, have "a tenuous grasp on causality." The one that sticks out in my mind is excellent "The Longest Journey." At no point did it ever occur to me that I should have fed an undercover officer a tainted piece of candy so that he could spit it at the proprietor of a movie theatre, who would chase that officer away with a broom so that I could proceed into a back-alley unmolested (thankfully, I had my little brother across the room from me pull up the GameFAQ so I could enjoy the fantastic story).
The infamous subway-fishing puzzle. IIRC, you had to attach a clamp to a string and then you put an inflatable duck-shaped life preserver around that...but MAKE SURE YOU POKE A HOLE IN THE PRESERVER SO IT DEFLATES, that allows you to close the clamp on a timer and fish out a key from an electrified subway track.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I got yours without an FAQ (one of few). I'm fairly decent at nonsensical adventure game logic, but damn, did that game have some ridiculous goddamn puzzles (amazing story though).
In Banjo-Tooie, I once had to unclog a sewer pipe in one level, then push a talking ice-cube off a a floating island in a second level into a pool of boiling water in a third level and pump the water back to the first level, all so some three armed pigs could go swimming. Not quite as crazy on the surface as those others, but it involved going to three different levels, and all just for one Jiggy.
In that newish Magic the Gathering game for 360 that came out. There is a challenge mode. I used to play Magic a ton way back in the day and I still had some problems figuring out some of them. Probably the only "puzzle game" that I've actually enjoyed. Some of the solutions was to destroy your own units to fuel spells or make other creatures. Incredibly tough, but damn satisfying after I finished it.
" This is also from The Longest Journey: The infamous subway-fishing puzzle. IIRC, you had to attach a clamp to a string and then you put an inflatable duck-shaped life preserver around that...but MAKE SURE YOU POKE A HOLE IN THE PRESERVER SO IT DEFLATES, that allows you to close the clamp on a timer and fish out a key from an electrified subway track. Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I got yours without an FAQ (one of few). I'm fairly decent at nonsensical adventure game logic, but damn, did that game have some ridiculous goddamn puzzles (amazing story though). "
This was exactly the same puzzle I was thinking about. I would have never guessed this puzzle. I had to look this one up cause it was so ridiculous.
There was that time travel one from Escape from Monkey Island. This one was years ago so frankly I could look at it and solve it instantly today, but at the time when it came out, that one was really screwing with my brains.
I suspect it's going to be mostly point and click adventure games in here, as those almost always involving figuring out the game designer's twisted logic instead of your own.
As for me, I'd have to go with the entire game of Myst.
" There was that time travel one from Escape from Monkey Island. This one was years ago so frankly I could look at it and solve it instantly today, but at the time when it came out, that one was really screwing with my brains. "
I also seem to remember that diving competition one as being abstract as hell.
" There was that time travel one from Escape from Monkey Island. This one was years ago so frankly I could look at it and solve it instantly today, but at the time when it came out, that one was really screwing with my brains. "
I also seem to remember that diving competition one as being abstract as hell. "
Geez, I vaguely remember that one but its been so long that I forget the details. Wish someone had a precut video clip of that one to refreshen my memory.
" There was that time travel one from Escape from Monkey Island. This one was years ago so frankly I could look at it and solve it instantly today, but at the time when it came out, that one was really screwing with my brains. "
I also seem to remember that diving competition one as being abstract as hell. "
Geez, I vaguely remember that one but its been so long that I forget the details. Wish someone had a precut video clip of that one to refreshen my memory. "
@MysteriousBob: Thanks. I just assumed that the diving video couldn't be up there because I searched for the time travel one and couldn't find it (it was probably there as part of a walkthrough, but I'm not going to look for one of those just to add it to a post).
Just to get back on topic though, I agree. This one was pretty convoluted, beating Marco de Pollo at his own game requires very one of those "its right there in your face" solutions that always gets me.
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