For the simple answer read the TLDR near the bottom.
The primary reason why I didn't like the game was due to the frequency of wacky semi-sensical puzzles, (especially in year 2), unclear un-intuitive puzzles, and the slowness of progress that those puzzles created,which resulted in me trying just about EVERYTHING I could in order to stumble upon the solution. I was especially inept at the interpersonal puzzles in year 2 which kept me at that state of the game for about 40% of my entire playthrough. of course there Was a bit of common logic that reduced the number of things that I did, but it only takes around 2 1.5 hour long puzzles to ruin a sentiment, and I felt this game had around 10 of those kinds of puzzles.
--By far the worst experiences I've had in the game can be characterized by nonsensical puzzles requiring bewildering solutions (putting balloons in pigeon feed), one-time clues that are critical to success that aren't emphasized enough (The sea-walker didn't explicitly say he wanted stockings or silk), and are demonstrated by these examples (I cheated on some of these)
For example in the part of the game where you use the contained detonation chamber to acquire the key from the cigarette container from nick (the lawyer), one would question that line of thought by saying "wouldn't the contained detonation chamber destroy the key as well?" or "what if there was a person with high dexterity that might be able to dislodge the key?", or "What if you could use the can opener on the container?, you get my idea, but apparently the friggin explosion chamber is what you gotta trick the cop into using on the container, which is especially frustrating if you weren't born into the culture that might make those options notable, especially since I don't remember the chamber being referenced that much in the game.
Another example would be found when you gotta use the ornate ashtray to acquire the stocking from the meche.
While there was a clue from the deep-walking simpleton, I thought his wealth was depleted by his purchase of the jackhammer and he didn't explicitly state that he wanted stockings or the fact that he had a gun, so I was screwed when I didn't take that statement about the stocking seriously, and I began searching for the gun in other ways. Even if I had known that the he wanted stockings, the manipulation of the ashtray didn't make any sense to me. Why would it work if Meche wasn't moving her legs around? The ashtray didn't have that many sharp thorn-like corners to get stocking stuck on, so how could it ruin her stockings? You get my idea.
It is for reasons like this that I felt that I had to try far too many things in order to progress. (since common logic is not that terribly developed)
But these examples are about 2 of 4-10 of the worst puzzles out of them all (the kind that can delay me for 75+ minutes). Getting stuck for hours on end in any situation where you have no idea which buttons to press (and thus trying to press them all), does not make a good game.
Other disliked puzzles were 1. putting the dogtags on the corpse, 2. using the perforated card on the pneumatic tubes, 3. getting the metal detector out of the kitty litter. And several others.
--Most of the puzzles were about average as far as I was concerned, but many of them had that wackiness that made my common logic somewhat impractical, they took about 15 minutes per step, and if the game had all of it's puzzles this easy I might have had enjoyed the game more, but I will not go into detail about the examples, but I will give examples.
1. drinking the gold-flaked beverage to trigger the alarm.
2. locking the waiter in the closet so I could progress the game (I had no idea what my objectives were) (actually somewhat fun)
3. Giving the sea-walker the little hammer for the jackhammer
4. putting a balloon in with the bird feed.
5. putting chemical-filled balloons in the pneumatic message transferer
6. shooting the water container that fed into the greenhouse
--The best puzzles tended to be categorized into 2 categories, 1. the Mechanical-physical puzzles 2. The low complexity puzzles.
--The funner/more endurable puzzles (mechanical-physical) more involved me observing cause-effect relationships and trying to derive practical solutions to a somewhat known objectives.
EX1. The ship anchors, perhaps the 3rd funnest puzzle in the game, (and somewhat wacky, but with sensible solutions), where you had to mingle with the anchors and the placement of the ship, was fun due to the solution being somewhat known (you had to get away from the assassins) but you didn't know the solution exactly. I had to experiment with the ship features, and noting where the anchors were when I moved the ship, eventually I learned that I could tangle up the anchors and use the anchor motors to shred the ship's hull, then you separated the engine room from the rest of the ship.
EX2. The ticket locker lock (the one with the axe), perhaps the best puzzle in the game. In that you had the objective at hand (find out how to arrange the tumblers), you just needed to observe how the tumblers rotated in their assembly, and make it so that you could jam your scythe into the assembly, and then open the door, initially the problem seemed confounding, but discovery of how the tumblers worked gave me a sense of created, predictable, tangible
progress rather than the luck, accidental, and nonsense progress of most of the puzzles.
EX3. Toppling the tree in the petrified forest, Was the 4th best puzzle in the game. While It had more wackiness than the other puzzles, it was manageable. By far the worst part of this puzzle was discovering that the wheelbarrow would block the hoses that were powering the machinery, but once I figured that out, I knew how to destabilize the apparatus on the top of the tree and topple it for car parts.
--The low complexity puzzles were well, just as mindbendingly weird as the other ones but the environment and tools reduced, I cannot say that they were particularly enjoyable to solve but they were easier and more endurable to solve.
EX1. On the octopus-operated sub with domino easily the easiest, and funnest of all the low-complexity puzzles, primarily due to the drama of the situation.
EX2. Making glottis vomit in the boobytrapped (dominoed) car, good because I only had about 4 items and one of them had a reasonable function (bottle ship filled with alcohol) and brute force attempting in on everybody was viable, but it was wacky in that common sense would state that the vomit would topple some of the dominoes and trigger the bomb.
EX3. Spilling coffee on the performers, was easy because the coffee pot in the area was notable and restricted to a small area, which made and weird imaginings I had developed to play the game restricted to that area, which in turn severely reduced the number of options I could use with the item. Which was good.
EX4. using liquid nitrogen on the wound, By far the most dramatic scene, I pressed buttons for about 30 seconds before realizing that that wouldn't work, and realizing I couldn't move, I checked my inventory, and naturally selected the liquid nitrogen. Which solved the puzzle (and left a rather dramatic and enjoyable impression about the game)
--The best parts of the game were when I didn't fully explore the game environment and I didn't have a full understanding of the objectives that I had to complete, I guess these were the parts of the game where I felt I was actually exploring the environment and enjoying the art instead of pressing buttons and looking for wacky solutions to my problems. These occurred anytime I first was thrust into a new area (the beginning of a year) and began to end when I explored the environment and got a bearing on the puzzles that were presented to me, and figuring out the first few puzzles that were easy to solve for me, as well as collecting items.
--But outside of the game, here are some factors that may have ruined my enjoyment of the game.
-I was probably acclimation to more instantly gratifying games like Metro 2033, prototype, F.E.A.R, prey, halo 3
in that one is constantly doing something with puzzles being secondary gameplay features, with these
-The desire to play newly released games due to them being hip and new, and relegating anything else to be something inferior.
TLDR
I didn't enjoy the game as a whole due to the frequency of progress halting puzzles that took 30-60 minutes to solve and the frequency of general puzzles that required 15 minutes to solve, and the general brute force attempting of possibilities so I could stumble upon a solution. (gameplay momentum was terrible)
These took the form of
1. Completely nonsensical puzzles that were not hinted at very well.
2. general puzzles that almost always required experimentation to solve.
3. puzzles that required real-world knowledge to solve (damn you ticket stand!).
4. Feeling that my progress was dictated by the amount of things I did, rather than the use of mental powers or anything I had control over.
I enjoyed the game more (or endured it less) when I
0. Felt that I solved the puzzle by my own wit rather than luck
1. Didn't fully explore the environment and the world felt open and explorable.
2. When I was doing mechanical-physical puzzles and/or low complexity puzzles.
3. stumbling upon solutions to puzzles after I let my subconscious work on the puzzles.
Other factors why I didn't enjoy playing the game were
1. I was into the immediately gratifying on-the-go solution finding nature of FPS games
2. I was into new releases, and disliked old games.
To get a taste of the worst of this game, watch this letsplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A_vEPBGxNw and note how the player spend roughly 15 minutes to exit that damn clubhouse (I probably spent 25-45 minutes due to applebloom never stating that she was aware of the key outside), and imagine a game composed of about 20 instances of that, with some instances taking 60 minutes to solve, which are only solved after you have brute force attempted almost everything! And it's not like there are a lot of environmental areas and details that clue you into what to do, NOO, You looked at everything, and there are no clear clues.
I am not calling the MLP game CMC a dash of adventure a bad game, I'm just saying that it is a good example of what I didn't like about Grim Fandango. But perhaps there exists no way of expressing the aforementioned intention as I wish. (saying CMC a dash of adventure is not a bad game)
Subject: Re: Official Spam Thread! 
Wed Apr 11, 2012 10:30 pm
