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Difficulty of the puzzles. I wish it was harder

xkanexkane
edited July 2009 in Tales of Monkey Island
I did'nt have any trouble getting to the end of that game.I have put the hints frequency to 0 and I have avoided hints in conversation with the caracters and still it is too easy, there's not enough objects in the inventory. I wish the difficulty would be more like monkey island 3.
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Comments

  • eMKayeNeMKayeN
    edited July 2009
    Gotta agree, I loved the game, it felt very Monkey Islandish but was just a tad too easy. If Telltale could improve the difficulty a bit on the later eps it would be nice.

    Other than that I liked it. Took me about 5-6 hours to do I think. Which for 1/5 of a MI game is actually quite long.
  • FauskFausk
    edited July 2009
    This is just chapter 1, I think it'll ramp up in the subsequent chapters. With the exception of Monkey Island 2, most of the games had a very easy first act.
  • GuineaGuinea
    edited July 2009
    Sam and Max also got gradually harder, and the hardest chapter of Sam and Max if anything only slightly harder than this one iirc, so who knows what we get in the future :)
  • Joshua87Joshua87
    edited July 2009
    /Agreed
  • FidoFido
    edited July 2009
    I have to agree, the puzzles where abit too easy for a Monkey Island game, abit harder puzzles and I'm one happy pirate. Other than that it´s awesome.
  • WinterSnowblindWinterSnowblind
    edited July 2009
    I actually don't mind the difficultly in the game.. Something I've liked about all the Telltale games is that they actually make you think to solve the puzzles, where as a lot of puzzles in most old adventure games were just obscure and involved just randomly trying everything until something happened.

    Actually having to figure them out is a lot more rewarding, in my opinion, even if it seems a little easier.
  • fwed1fwed1
    edited July 2009
    I found past MI games generally got it right, with a few exceptions.
    I did find this game easy but not so easy it wasn't fun to play. I would enjoy it if they made it slightly more difficult however even if they don't it would still be a great game.
  • JohnsrBetterJohnsrBetter
    edited July 2009
    well...i think i spent more time waiting to d/l yesterday than i did playing today...but i still like it a lot...at least i didnt have to buy a new computer to play this one like i did with MI4...now just have to wait a month to play the next episode.
  • GasokaiGasokai
    edited July 2009
    I am not that hardcore adventure fan, but I've played previous MI's.

    Puzzle's in TOMI were very satisfactory, problems made me think, but all of them were solvable and I enjoyed solving them. There even one that made me to take brake, cause I couldnt see any way to proceed.

    Overall I think its the content that counts, since if you like some hardcore puzzles, there are zillion pure puzzle games to tackle. Content in first episode was awesome, and there will be never enough of monkeys, but this will have to do for now!
  • tmsmyth4tmsmyth4
    edited July 2009
    WinterSnowblind wrote: »
    where as a lot of puzzles in most old adventure games were just obscure and involved just randomly trying everything until something happened

    Dont know why, but I always enjoyed going through my entire inventory in the old games. the stupidity of some of the combinations made me laugh and I miss that because I feel with Telltales games its becomes fairly obvious once you have the item. 'Use Book with Horse' in DOTT made me laugh when it actually worked. Still loved the first episode, graphics and controls way above expectations and with some neat puzzles. cant wait for SE and ep2 (but an increase in difficulty would definately go down well) :)
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited July 2009
    tmsmyth4 wrote: »
    Dont know why, but I always enjoyed going through my entire inventory in the old games. the stupidity of some of the combinations made me laugh and I miss that because I feel with Telltales games its becomes fairly obvious once you have the item.

    I think it appeals more to younger generations that way. I think they are not patient enough to have too many options and try everything. I even see my self evolve into that direction.
    If there had been too many red herrings and obscure puzzles I would have been annoyed at some point and looked for hints on the internet. Back then that was not possible, but now we sadly are used to solving problems by using search engines and Wikipedia instead of theorizing about them ourselves.
  • Zee_psoZee_pso
    edited July 2009
    I also think it was a little on the easy side, but there is a difference between a hard puzzle and a off the wall one. Some old adventure games did have a hard time with this. I do hope the later episodes do get some harder puzzles but nonetheless, there were some cleaver puzzles in the game.
  • EduardoEduardo
    edited July 2009
    It was easy (although I got stuck at one point by missing an item), but I guess the difficulty will increase as the chapters progress.
  • Lennie MelvinLennie Melvin
    edited July 2009
    Yeah I found it quite easy. I was determined not to use a walkthrough. But I wasn't even tempted.
  • der_ketzerder_ketzer
    edited July 2009
    xkane wrote: »
    I did'nt have any trouble getting to the end of that game.I have put the hints frequency to 0 and I have avoided hints in conversation with the caracters and still it is too easy, there's not enough objects in the inventory. I wish the difficulty would be more like monkey island 3.

    I think the difficulty was just right. I got stuck 2 times but I never felt cheated by the game when I found out what the solution to the puzzle is.
  • bonbon
    edited July 2009
    Really intricate, difficult puzzles are one of my favorite things about the old MI games. This is just the first chapter though, so I'll let the easiness slide as long as they step it up for future installments.
  • jtcjtc
    edited July 2009
    Loved it but it was too easy. I really tried to take my time with it but it just flew by, didn't get majorly stuck anywhere, and of course I had the hints turned off.

    Also I was expecting 3 chapters for some reason, some interview or something made me think there would be 3 chapters per episode, I was a tad disappointed when the game just suddenly ended. That's episodic gaming for you.. I hate it tbh but what choice do we have? Lucas isn't really throwing us any bones, sure SMI:SE sounds good but the latest news about old titles on Steam was just a big letdown. The ball is in Telltale's corner, I really, really, really hope you guys are able to make full length adventure games one day.
  • mpuncekarmpuncekar
    edited July 2009
    I enjoyed the pacing a lot myself. Every time I just began to get frustrated, I would have that epiphany moment and solve it. Really well balanced.

    Although, if one thing strikes me as a monkey island game it's difficulty. MI2 had me cursing and groveling by the time it was done. Even the first act was surprisingly difficult. So if they did ramp it up I can't complain. A few more hours due to a more complex puzzle I definitely wouldn't mind at all. Just hopefully nothing as frustratingly terrible an idea as monkey combat, or as crazy hard as the spitting contest in MI2. I still think MI1 had the best balance of everything.

    I'm still chalking it up to being the first act though. Making sure people at least get to the hook in the story for the next episode, and not so frustratingly hard as to garner bad reviews.

    Edit: I gotta quit using the word frustrating so much.
  • SupahFlySupahFly
    edited July 2009
    Well in my opinion if they want to make the more difficult, the should make them less logical! That's my opinion. I think the puzzles in the game were brilliant, there were places where you should think a little bit more, some places, where you just should notice some minor details and to remember them so that they can help you further in the game but all of the puzzles were perfect logical and I think telltale have found a good balance between logical and tricky puzzles.
  • onemanandhisdroidonemanandhisdroid
    edited July 2009
    Bugger ye off, I'm stuck! :D So far so good, actually. Whilst it's good to have a fair balance of hard* and easy puzzles, what is more important to me is their overall inventiveness. And so far I rather like that. Plus I'm really stuck for the moment. No kidding. :)



    * Now with a hint-system like that in place this shouldn't be as much of an issue as it had been for prior Telltale games. Or should it? Some nuts to crack for the pros and Guybrush holding WiiWarers' lil' hands and all.
  • PariahKingPariahKing
    edited July 2009
    It lasted long enough for me - long enough for what I expect. It's handy I kind of suck at puzzle solving and play adventure games for the story and humor. I do like solving puzzles. I get about 6-8 hours of game play, which is a good deal for a $8.95 game.

    I like puzzles that make sense, not stupid ones that just serve to extend game time.
  • mpuncekarmpuncekar
    edited July 2009
    I dunno about the hints. I had them off (or as low as it could go) from the beginning and I still got through it pretty fast considering all the dumb moments I had on my play through, and I had plenty. With such a great in game hint system in place now that I think about it, why not make them bloody difficult. I mean, with that it pretty much has a difficulty slider to cater to everyone.

    I totally agree on the balance thing. What killed EfMI for me was by the time I got to monkey combat, i just said "screw it." Never finished it after all of these years. So far the balance in this one I have really enjoyed.
  • meandermeander
    edited July 2009
    I'd like to see harder puzzles in future episodes too... but I guess it was a good introductory episode :)

    one thing that may need tweaking is the hints.. I had them turned off and still got comments like
    "the jungle sure is noisy" when looking at the map. I think if you did want guybrush to say this to give an idea as to what to do it would be better to do it as he walks into the jungle initially... seems out of place and too obvious when examining the map
  • The BurninatorThe Burninator
    edited July 2009
    Well I spent 10 minutes looking around for areas in the jungle, as I thought the pictures worked like, take left at monkey, up at boar etc, so the noisy comment didn't make sense til I figured it out.
  • milanvmilanv
    edited July 2009
    meander wrote: »
    I'd like to see harder puzzles in future episodes too... but I guess it was a good introductory episode :)

    one thing that may need tweaking is the hints.. I had them turned off and still got comments like
    "the jungle sure is noisy" when looking at the map. I think if you did want guybrush to say this to give an idea as to what to do it would be better to do it as he walks into the jungle initially... seems out of place and too obvious when examining the map

    i agree with you :cool:

    this episode was pretty easy, a little bit short, but fun
  • FauskFausk
    edited July 2009
    meander wrote: »
    I'd like to see harder puzzles in future episodes too... but I guess it was a good introductory episode :)

    one thing that may need tweaking is the hints.. I had them turned off and still got comments like
    "the jungle sure is noisy" when looking at the map. I think if you did want guybrush to say this to give an idea as to what to do it would be better to do it as he walks into the jungle initially... seems out of place and too obvious when examining the map

    Agreed. I had hints off and got this hint and
    the one about the faces matching the weather vane
    .
  • RockNRollRockNRoll
    edited July 2009
    tmsmyth4 wrote: »
    Dont know why, but I always enjoyed going through my entire inventory in the old games. the stupidity of some of the combinations made me laugh and I miss that because I feel with Telltales games its becomes fairly obvious once you have the item. 'Use Book with Horse' in DOTT made me laugh when it actually worked. Still loved the first episode, graphics and controls way above expectations and with some neat puzzles. cant wait for SE and ep2 (but an increase in difficulty would definately go down well) :)

    me too. i loved the old style of puzzles from that classic era. it's funny how the "old puzzles" are often castigated by people, yet everyone seems to agree that those old games were the golden age and just had a feel to them that isn't around anymore. i think the puzzles and the attitude towards trying to figure out tough situation with a bizarre set of resources was the fun, almost like being macguyver.
  • SupahFlySupahFly
    edited July 2009
    meander wrote: »
    I'd like to see harder puzzles in future episodes too... but I guess it was a good introductory episode :)

    one thing that may need tweaking is the hints.. I had them turned off and still got comments like
    "the jungle sure is noisy" when looking at the map. I think if you did want guybrush to say this to give an idea as to what to do it would be better to do it as he walks into the jungle initially... seems out of place and too obvious when examining the map

    And now imagine
    that one hasn't turned his/her speakers on.
    It will be almost impossible to guess what to do. :)
  • RockNRollRockNRoll
    edited July 2009
    agreed that it was too easy. way too easy in my book. however, the puzzles were still clever which was great. they were just easy to figure out. and as others said, even with the hints turned to 0, it still gave you dead giveaways.

    in my opinion, a good adventure game should seriously test my will power in seeking out a walkthrough several times throughout it. this game i didn't even consider using one, because i just sailed through it. that severe frustration is part of the fun to me. the games i replay the most are the ones where i don't quite remember how i solved the puzzles and want to figure them out again.
  • orangepeelorangepeel
    edited July 2009
    First things first, AWESOME GAME!!! Whal far the best Telltale game I've played to date, along with some authentic MI giggles!
    It is a bit to easy though, the hint system needs to go down a peg leg or 2 on the minimum setting. Also, there were none of those lateral thought puzzles that have you kicking yourself because they were staring you in the face. There's definitely some truth in what SupahFly is saying in the previous post.

    Hopefully you guys are just easing us in gently, it's gonna be a long month!
  • FrogacudaFrogacuda
    edited July 2009
    xkane wrote: »
    I did'nt have any trouble getting to the end of that game.I have put the hints frequency to 0 and I have avoided hints in conversation with the caracters and still it is too easy, there's not enough objects in the inventory. I wish the difficulty would be more like monkey island 3.
    Monkey Island 3 was too hard, though, especially by contemporary standards. People wouldn't put up with stuff as arcane/esoteric as the dandruff puzzle or the maggot/chicken puzzle in 2009.

    This one was too easy if the other episodes stay the same, but if they ramp up and this is just an introduction, then I think it's spot on.
  • turingmachine604turingmachine604
    edited July 2009
    Frogacuda wrote: »
    Monkey Island 3 was too hard, though, especially by contemporary standards.

    I don't buy that. There's no reason why games should be easier this day and age. If games have to be made easier it just shows the medium is suffering and actually taking a step back.
  • ShmehShmeh
    edited July 2009
    I like an adventure game to challenge me, so I'd love for the puzzles in all of TTG's games to be more difficult. I get the feeling though, that if they made a game to challenge veterans, new-comers to the genre would be frustrated away, so I'm fine with the level of difficulty of TTG's games.

    From what I have gathered from other people's posts about the hints, the hint system points you toward the location of the puzzle, rather than giving you clues on how to solve the puzzle. The clues seem to be given irrespective of the hint level. I hope in the future, TTG find a way to disable clues too. I, for example, found the
    weather-vein
    clue, mentioned earlier, very disheartening (to a level that even surprised me) because I hadn't even been given the chance to figure out that using the
    weather-vein
    was needed to solve the puzzle and I'm sure it would have taken me a while to figure out.
  • RockNRollRockNRoll
    edited July 2009
    Frogacuda wrote: »
    Monkey Island 3 was too hard, though, especially by contemporary standards. People wouldn't put up with stuff as arcane/esoteric as the dandruff puzzle or the maggot/chicken puzzle in 2009.

    those are the exact kinds of puzzles we need more of in this day and age. i think people LIKE those kinds of super clever solutions that still make sense.
  • onemanandhisdroidonemanandhisdroid
    edited July 2009
    For what it's worth, I think Tales Episode1 has some of the most clever puzzles I've seen in quite a while. Three evenings and I'm still not thru, by the way! But for ramping up the difficulty a bit for those who finished bloody Myst on nightmare mode maybe they could add BOSS PUZZLES™ to each episode. Like those big mofos that'll make you pull out your hair if you wanted to - hey, if that fits your bill.. One mid way through an episode and the other at the very end of it, and the player is given difficult kinds of feedback depending on the hint settings. End of level bosses! Oldschool!
  • britt12334britt12334
    edited July 2009
    Fausk wrote: »
    This is just chapter 1, I think it'll ramp up in the subsequent chapters. With the exception of Monkey Island 2, most of the games had a very easy first act.
    i agree if the game was too hard in the begging it would have to get harder and harder, to and almost unbeatable level, to keep people interested
  • Guybrush_ThreepwoodGuybrush_Threepwood
    edited July 2009
    xkane wrote: »
    I did'nt have any trouble getting to the end of that game.I have put the hints frequency to 0 and I have avoided hints in conversation with the caracters and still it is too easy, there's not enough objects in the inventory. I wish the difficulty would be more like monkey island 3.

    Monkey Island 3 wasn't that difficult as you're saying. I thought it was pretty easy, there wasn't even a real point on choosing the difficulty level...
    MI2, THAT was a hard game.
    Frogacuda wrote: »
    Monkey Island 3 was too hard, though, especially by contemporary standards. People wouldn't put up with stuff as arcane/esoteric as the dandruff puzzle or the maggot/chicken puzzle in 2009.

    No, it wasn't.
  • MalaxMalax
    edited July 2009
    ACK, Episode 1 is way too easy, even with turned off hints. :(
  • Liquid-XLiquid-X
    edited July 2009
    For those complaining about how easy the game is, the thing you have to consider is that this is the first episode of the series. With the amount of hype being built up, you can bet that this may be some peoples first forray into adventure games. Having difficult, brain busting puzzles in the first episode is NOT the way to get new people into the series. And without new blood discovering the joy of the series, we wont see a second series.
  • AlucardAlucard
    edited July 2009
    I figured the first chapter/episode was going to be easy. It's kind of a "get your feet wet" type of thing. Hopefully Telltale can ramp up the difficulty and complexity in time for the next release.
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