Game designers being plain unfair

[Darklord]

Space Quest, Kings' Quest, Police Quest... All of these games were abysmally designed. Simply not fun to play.

I know people who loved those games, I personally played and enjoyed several King's Quest game, my personal fave Sierra games were the Quest for Glory (Hero's Quest) games, so awesome.

Daniel.

[eharper256]

Quest for Glory games were amazing. They literally had three (later, four) entirely different ways to tackle EVERY bit of the game based on whether you were a Fighter, Mage or Rogue (or Paladin, after you figured out how to become one in QFG2). And you could carry that character between games too!

Well, for some reason I couldn't ever get into the last game, but 1-4 were cool. The remake they released of 2 a couple of years back let me play them all again, and they were still fun.

Space Quest, Kings' Quest, Police Quest... All of these games were abysmally designed. Simply not fun to play. Wasn't there a section in one Space Quest were you had to amass money and the only way to win was to save then play the slot machine until you won? Yeah very clever... I'm surprised Sierra lasted as long as they did!

All point and click games had absurdly un-logical puzzles and douchebag doorstops. It was just the way of things back then. Worse, it was before the days of GameFAQs helping you out of a tight spot (days which are nearly passed now, actually, its the age of the Wiki/Concise Online Reference at the moment).

[BlueSpace]

Not being able to find an orc army which threatens to overrun the entire kingdom and finish the game...

This probably needs a bit of explanation. I was just reminded of this because of another thread. There is an old german RPG called Schicksalsklinge. The entire premise of the game is that you need to get a blade of destiny (Schicksalsklinge) and slay an orc warlord that threatens to overrun the entire kingdom. I found the blade no problem (well kind of problem since it takes the entire game). What I failed to do is find the orc army... I travelled back and forth and I never, ever found it. There were several NPCs that told me where to go and I traveled there to find nothing... no giant army.

Years later I actually learned that in order to find the army (giant, giant army that will wipe out the entire kingdom) you need to talk to a small boy in one of the mayor cities that will tell you about some dream he had and after that the event gets triggered. At that time most of my friends also played the game and found the army, because they talked at some point to the boy but didn't actually remember it because it seemed unrelated and rather cryptic.

So in conclusion: An obscure trigger for an event, that is vital for progression and there is no reasonable clue as to why the event does not trigger. I mean who expects the entire orc army to hide, when everybody is talking about being afraid of getting torn to bits by said army...

Yes I am traumatized.

[Isaac]

Years later I actually learned that in order to find the army (giant, giant army that will wipe out the entire kingdom) you need to talk to a small boy in one of the mayor cities that will tell you about some dream he had and after that the event gets triggered. At that time most of my friends also played the game and found the army, because they talked at some point to the boy but didn't actually remember it because it seemed unrelated and rather cryptic.

Yikes!
That's pretty bad.

* I played a game once where you had to collect a few unmentioned items in order to finish the game, but some were in one city, and the end game was in another ~and you could not travel back to the first city. So if you missed one, that basically halted all progress in the game once you were in the new location.

[Sol_HSA]

All point and click games had absurdly un-logical puzzles and douchebag doorstops. It was just the way of things back then. Worse, it was before the days of GameFAQs helping you out of a tight spot (days which are nearly passed now, actually, its the age of the Wiki/Concise Online Reference at the moment).

Early point and click games were mostly designed to have as many ways to lose as possible. Later ones less so, and the recent ones I've played (Blackwell) continue LucasArts trend of not being able to fail at all.

If you pick up early Sierra games and know what you're doing (i.e, follow the solution), the games are REALLY short. Most of the content is in the ways games kill you! =)

[BlueSpace]

All point and click games had absurdly un-logical puzzles and douchebag doorstops. It was just the way of things back then. Worse, it was before the days of GameFAQs helping you out of a tight spot (days which are nearly passed now, actually, its the age of the Wiki/Concise Online Reference at the moment).

Early point and click games were mostly designed to have as many ways to lose as possible. Later ones less so, and the recent ones I've played (Blackwell) continue LucasArts trend of not being able to fail at all.

If you pick up early Sierra games and know what you're doing (i.e, follow the solution), the games are REALLY short. Most of the content is in the ways games kill you! =)

Full Throttle was the first game that I can remember which was really, really easy in that genre. Came quite as a shock for me after the Indiana Jones game from Lucas Arts.

[PSY]

Most of the content is in the ways games kill you! =)

After completing a Sierra game, I would play it again and try to die in as many ways as possible. I just loved the DEV's cynical comments ^^