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 two weeks I’ll even leave you one of my own for you to solve. If you do, I’ll find a way to reward you!
It’s been two weeks and no one even tried to solve my little riddle. For the record, the answers are Grave or Coffin. Joel from Geekout South-West nailed it weeks ago and that’s why I didn’t let him participate this time. But don’t worry Joel, this is a fresh one!
For this week’s puzzle I’m going for my personal Kryptonite: Numerical Sequence/Pattern Puzzles. You can see them in many games, predominantly in Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes series. The thing you need to do is figure out the value of X.
7 10 6 12 15 11 X 25
It’s fairly simple but it might stump some of you out there!
Now for this week’s puzzle I have another classic, but this time from Sierra instead of the LucasArts.
In Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers you’ll spend most of your time talking to people, the puzzles mostly being about finding the right items you need to get them to spill. During the third day you need to meet a gentle old lady, but she won’t give the time of day to your lecherous investigator. So you need to fool her…by stealing clothes from a priest. As always, I won’t go into full details on how you go about this because I don’t want to ruin it for you.
The reason I love this puzzle is because not only does it move the story forward but it also supports the characterisation by showing you just what the protagonist is capable of to get what he wants. There are many other moments in the game were you commit questionable acts in your quest—and in fact, it’s a common element in the series…including the infamous cat hair puzzle, but we don’t talk about that one—but nothing beats tricking the old lady. Gabriel proves just how much of a sleazebag he can be. But his performer is Tim Curry so you can’t really hate him for that. Gabriel Knight is still at the top of my list because the puzzles not only move the story forwards but they support the characterisations. You learn more about the characters with every puzzle solved, as they are actions they committed, decisions they made.
Have you ever played a Gabriel Knight title? If so what’s your favourite moment? If it’s the unmentionable cat hair, we need to talk about your tastes my friend. If it’s the strangely homoerotic conversations with Von Glower in Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within that clearly made Gabriel’s actor uncomfortable, then you’ve got a fantastic sense of humour and I like you!
Make sure you solve this week’s puzzle and don’t forget to come back next week for another puzzle!
X=22
Correct! How did you find the puzzle? Too easy, clever?