Puzzles are at the core of Adventure gameplay, they provide challenges for you to overcome with brains rather than brawn. For Action Adventures, they offer a break from the hacky-slashy-stabby-shooty element of title.
Every week I’ll bring you a new puzzle, drawn from some of the best and worst adventure or puzzle games I’ve ever played. Every once in a while I’ll even leave you one of my own for you to solve. If you do, I’ll find a way to reward you!
This puzzle is from a fantastic adventure game series I discovered early this year during Rezzed, The Room. In the first title of the series, you progress through the game solving increasingly complex puzzle boxes, each furthering your quest towards the NULL element.
This puzzle box is on Chapter 3. The box’s lid looks like a map to the stars, showing different constellations and you can see grooves in it, as if the map had different moving parts. But you can’t interact with it just yet, because it’s powered down. You need to unlock the pieces hidden in the box, first light the beacon, then find the mirrors and open the way to the map to the stars.
If you’ve played this puzzle you can understand why I love it. If you haven’t, then the reason is simple. It’s amazing. It is one giant set of interconnected puzzles—by now you should know how much I love those—and it’s made up of logic elements, sliding parts, inventory items and so many puzzle-design styles that it’s actually baffling how they managed to pull it off so brilliantly.
It’s no surprise The Room became one of my favourite adventure series. I met the devs on the first day of Rezzed and I didn’t know anything about the games. I went home, got them, played through the first and second titles, and then returned the next day to interview them again but as a fan this time.
