The Weekly Puzzle – Stoneshipped

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 week’s puzzle is from one of the greatest classics in the history of Point & Click adventure games: Myst. In this game you explore different dimensions, or Ages, all connected to the Myst Age. While doing so you uncover the secrets of those who linked the Ages and their complicated relationships. Today’s puzzle is the one you need to complete to unlock another Age connected to Myst, the Stoneship age. Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – Stoneshipped

The Weekly Puzzle – Boxed to the Stars

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. Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – Boxed to the Stars

The Weekly Puzzle – Popper Poppin’

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 week’s puzzle comes from the first season of Telltale’s Sam & Max – Sam & Max Save the World. Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – Popper Poppin’

The Weekly Puzzle – Lactose Eruption

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! Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – Lactose Eruption

The Weekly Puzzle – Lost for Words

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 week, and relating this week’s puzzle, I give you a cryptographic puzzle. It’s a simple substitution puzzle. You need to decipher the message. For convenience, every word is separated by ++.

╖╥ ++ ╚─╡ ++ ┼┌╟╙ ++ ╬┘╖╫ ++ ╬┘┌╩ ++ ╚─╡ ++ ┘╟╣┌ ++ ╫─l╣┌╙ ++ ╬┘┌ ++ ┼╖╙╙l┌ ++ ╟╩╙ ++ ┌╟┼╩┌╙ ++ ╟ ++ ╥┼┌┌ ++ ┼╟╥╥l┌ ++ ┌╩╬┼╚ ++ ╥─┼ ++ ╬┘┌ ++ ╡┐└─║╖╩╨ ++ ┌╜╬┼╟ ++ l╖╥┌ ++ ╛┼─╟╙└╟╫╬ ++ ╫╬╟┼╬╖╩╨ ++ ╬┘┌ ++ ╫╖╜╬┘ ++ ─╥ ++ ╩─╣┌║╛┌┼ Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – Lost for Words

The Weekly Puzzle – Clickety-Klacks!

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!

The answer to the puzzle from the last couple of weeks was A TREE.

This week’s puzzle comes from The Longest Journey as well and it’s one of my favourite sequences in the entire game. About mid-way through it, you must venture into Klack’s castle and face the sorcerer to release the winds he trapped so April can travel the seas. The castle itself is a giant puzzle with gargoyles and the sorcerer himself. You start at the bottom and in front of you is a begging gargoyle. You put a coin in its hand and it starts a chain of mini-puzzles, from putting its fiery hands out to taking pepper and blowing it on an animated wall to open the way to another segment. There is even an alchemy puzzle in which you craft several potions. Finally, Klacks himself is a continuous presence throughout the castle, teasing you and one of the last steps in this multi-layered puzzle of a sequence.

I’ve mentioned it’s one of my favourite puzzles in the entire game and it’s for a couple of reasons. The first is that I love multi-layered puzzles, where you have to complete multiple minuscule tasks in the same room to progress. The goal of this puzzle is to reach the top of the castle, but to do so you need to overcome the defences. It’s a giant puzzle made of smaller parts and I love them, as I mentioned in the Sam & Max Weekly Puzzle some weeks ago.

The Second reason for loving it is that perhaps more than any other sequence it made me believe that Arcadia was magic. A lot of what you do in the castle is reminiscent of classic fantasy. There’s an element of Disney wonder (and a bit of Fantasia) to it all, from sneezing rocks to evil mirror images. It made the child in me—which is always on the surface as I am a big kid after all—giggle with delight.

The Longest Journey is a treasure trove of awesome puzzles, and I’ll probably return to this title in another Weekly Puzzle. If you’ve played this game and have a favourite puzzle, let me know in the comments and we’ll get it up here as a future Weekly Puzzle!

(Video Credit: Dilandau3000)

The Weekly Puzzle – The Mighty Duck!

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!

No one has solved last week’s riddle, so I’ll leave it here again: “He’s old and patient, always moving but never wandering. He’s rough, has seen all branches of life and will share the fruits of it with you if you wait long enough.Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – The Mighty Duck!

The Weekly Puzzle – Thou Art Chosen!

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!

For this week’s puzzle, I’m digging something out of the Sierra bag of goodies again, a nice puzzle from Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, a game that’s already been in The Weekly Puzzle before. But that’s the thing about the classics, isn’t it? There’s always a reason to come back to them. Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – Thou Art Chosen!

The Weekly Puzzle – Tomb Reeling

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 week’s puzzle comes courtesy of Telltale Games’ Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, the third season (and so far last) of the series. Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – Tomb Reeling

The Weekly Puzzle – It’s all Smoke & Mirrors!

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!

For this week’s puzzle, I go to one of my favourite Point & Click adventure series, Broken Sword. This series has had its highs and dear lord has it had its lows, but it came back in its oddly episodic Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse with really cool and strong puzzles and this one was one of my favourites. Continue reading The Weekly Puzzle – It’s all Smoke & Mirrors!