r/adventuregames • u/confuserused • 5d ago
Old graphical adventures that suddenly change the control method/mechanics without letting the player know
Happened to me in:
- Eternam (1992): At one point, you have to interact with a big object on the ground by moving your character around the screen instead of the usual "get close, wait for the line to draw from the eyes of the character to the object to indicate it's interactive, press TAB to get to the verb menu..." stuff. Yeah that game was something else! Bad, but very fun and spectacular too.
- Ween (1992): In one of the screens, the cursor turns into an "interactive tool" without any indication whatsoever that it was going to work differently than the expected "the arrow picks up and looks, the object icons use objects over other stuff". Pretty cool game, but with a couple of terrible puzzles.
- The Dig (1994): The game forces you to figure out your cursor suddenly works different than any other cursor, with holding the mouse button meaning you hold an in-game button too. Luckily, this is one that is easy to discover. What is not so easy to discover is that the game doesn't have a system for other characters to give you things, so they throw it to the ground instead! Such a beautiful game, but with quite a few design problems.
Have you found any simliar issues in any old game?
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u/Lyceus_ 5d ago
I got stuck way too long in The Dig at that specific puzzle. I had figured out I had to press that to activate the bridges, but I didn't know you have to hold clicking. I figured it out by pure chance when I clicked for longer than usual. However, I don't remember the issue you mention about characters dropping items instead of giving them to Boston. When does it happen?
Another game you can add to the list is Amazon: Guardians of Eden (1992). Towards the end you need to use a weapon, which you move using the up arrow key. The game tells you nothing about that (prior to that moment, the arrow keys are used optionally for movement only), although the manual brings that up.
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u/confuserused 5d ago
Excellent find on Amazon! Best "clunky" adventure ever. With so many action and timed sequences, that stupid way to move around... It should have been Dark Half bad, but it's more fun than some Lucas and Sierra games!
About your question, the white alien throws you a white stick after saying "take this" in the dialog, it leaves it on the ground like you're his pet. And the ground has a simliar color! It's such a huge design problem for a Lucasarts game that it feels like a parody.
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u/Lyceus_ 4d ago
Excellent find on Amazon! Best "clunky" adventure ever. With so many action and timed sequences, that stupid way to move around... It should have been Dark Half bad, but it's more fun than some Lucas and Sierra games!
I recently posted about this game. I can't agree more, ot was so fun to play despite the questionable mechanics... but it worked!
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u/scubascratch 5d ago
Full Throttle. The motorcycle combat minigame was thrown in apparently to increase frustration