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Why do Sony protagonists insist on not letting me solve puzzles myself?

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
yeah I literally turned voice audio to 0 after a while. the game was basically ruined by Aloy and the NPC idiots around you.

and did you know that you are currently playing the patched version where they toned down the amount that bitch talks? yeah! unpatched she was even more annoying 🙃

So that was the update was about? Wow. I was wondering why they have an update so quick
 

sachos

Member
this used to be referred to as 'back seat driving'...
I'll be honest, it kinda killed my hype for the game a little. Imagine a Souls game with those kinds of comments during a boss fight... it is such a big contrast in game design philosophy.
 
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Fredrik

Member
About 15 hours in now in GOWR, am I imagining things or does the hints come less often? I saw a patch getting installed too, have they tweaked it?
 
Also give us a trophy for completing a game on the highest difficulty setting you cowards. The analyst that came up with the idea of trophy nerfs should have his broken ego paraded across all the realms!
Wait, there’s no trophy for beating the game on the hardest difficulty?
 

damidu

Member
About 15 hours in now in GOWR, am I imagining things or does the hints come less often? I saw a patch getting installed too, have they tweaked it?
it seems to be happening less for side stuff,
but not really consistent, 20 hrs in, and still have some npcs jumping to guide you like a 3 year old in kindergarten.

had a patch yesterday as well, no idea what it did
 

Thief1987

Member
About 15 hours in now in GOWR, am I imagining things or does the hints come less often? I saw a patch getting installed too, have they tweaked it?
They are still repeating basic stuff like "we need to break that", "we need to do this", but puzzles become less straightforward so now you actually need to figure out how to do it. It's just mostly annoying when they repeat this every 10 seconds, while you are searching for solution.
 

CherryFalls

Member
Keep in mind they have to make it so people like this can get through:

( Watch first few minutes and you'll understand )

 
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Bernardougf

Gold Member
yeah I literally turned voice audio to 0 after a while. the game was basically ruined by Aloy and the NPC idiots around you.

and did you know that you are currently playing the patched version where they toned down the amount that bitch talks? yeah! unpatched she was even more annoying 🙃
DaFuck ... didnt know that kkkk
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
There was a GDC talk by a dev at SSM who used DSP as a basis for how to design levels. They are literally designing the game for complete morons.

"If this player likes shock crystals, he can find more of them on his own"

So in order for a gamer to like it, they got to be force fed examples on screen by visual or audio cues, instead of...... gasp.... letting the gamer figure it out. And lets not all pretend here on GAF an action game like GOW is the most complicated kind of game to figure out.

Well, lucky for console gamers the games skew to easy simplified plots. So you can only get so much babysitting.

Just imagine if this kinds of game development was programmed into a detailed PC war sim. The tips would go on for weeks before the gamer can do anything himself.
 
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There was a GDC talk by a dev at SSM who used DSP as a basis for how to design levels. They are literally designing the game for complete morons.

LEahiMa.gif
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Remember when you needed a guide to solve puzzles, complete games and find all the special secrets? Final Fantasy and a lot of JPRG's were the poster child for those experiences. Anyone who played EVERQUEST or early Ultima's would remember the lack of hand holding and complexity of quests. Then we got Warcraft and its hand holding, arrows, quest markers and other mechanics to really dumb down the experience. Seems we've reached the other side now and the opposite direction. People seem easily frustrated these days and want to consume experiences at a blindingly fast rate, at least casually. Older gamers want it easier due to busy lives and this young generation doesn't know anything better. I like how Uncharted found a middle ground, where if you struggled it would offer a hint.
Quest markers and such are valid QOL improvements to UX, between that and spoiling everything everytime there are some galaxies of differences... It happens to me in Scarlet Nexus that I'm straight to pick an item just to read after that a character is saying "tHeREs SoMtHiNg To PiCK nEaRbY 🤪"... That's literally not letting me play because I'm playing the "looking for random items" sub game at the moment, just let me explore freely, it would be a problem if the game would be hiding me content in order for me to find it myself... Like games are becoming simulations of games lol
 

tommib

Member
It’s funny how I didn’t see one reviewer highlight this. It’s almost as if it’s targeted at those idiots.
https://www.eurogamer.net/god-of-war-ragnarok-review-glorious-excess-makes-a-triumphant-return

But Ragnarök does try its best to undermine my enjoyment at times, thanks to a truly overbearing urge to offer you hints. You will not look at a puzzle for more than a few seconds before one companion or another (there are many, all as overeager as the next) tells you the solution. "Maybe that lever could help, brother!" Yeah? The lever I'm pulling right now? You don't say, Mimir! The joy of these puzzles is that they are actually incredibly simple but they make you feel like they're complicated because of the visuals, the sense of whirring mechanism, all the satisfaction coming from how you feel smart for solving them, watching the micro-chain of cause and effect start to flow like you're the master of your little universe. Patronising you with a solution before you can even nock the required magic arrow - and a dog-training "Well done!" after the fact, for good measure - often spoils the fun.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
So people who are not very good at puzzles can advance the game.
But then why can’t it be optional? OP mentioned you cannot turn it off and also characters start to give you hint even before you encounter a puzzle.

OP - because developers are obsessed with you “not missing out on the content”. So even if 1 in 100 players will abandon the game due to not being able to solve the puzzle, that in the eyes of developers nullifies the fact that other 99 will have no issues.
This can be solved letting you turn it off, idk why they didn’t put this option. Lazy devs I guess. Or very sneaky answer - so that corporate can artificially box the time you will beat the game in so that you have to buy other games.
 

mxbison

Member
Plague Tale Innocence also did this a lot, and now Ragnarok.

Very annoying thing in an otherwise great game. Weird that they didn't include the option to turn it off when they have settings for like everything else.
 

Mephisto40

Member
I'm sure I'm not imagining it, but GOW:R has an option to turn these hints off doesn't it?

Sure I saw it in the options menu somewhere
 

Dynasty8

Member
Have you ever played Hellblade?

If you havent, do not play this game.

But if you have an itching to be bombarded with a bipolar nitwit talking to herself for probably 45 minutes of the first hour, play the game. I tried it on Game Pass and deleted fast. In the first hour you roam around a bit opening doors with a red symbol and get into 1 or 2 sword fights. The rest is unskippable cutscenes with the main character who seems to be on quaaludes.

Thanks, I was thinking of playing it but you saved me a headache. Developers really need to stop with this. It's annoying. It's the main reason why I'll be avoiding Forspoken like the plague.
 
No. Previous game also doesn't have it. Sony not including difficulty tied trophies for at least five years already. Not sure why need to act surprised.
I remember that final Valkyrie being incredibly difficult in 2018. I don't even remember difficulty levels, but I usually always just keep it on normal, unless needed for trophies.
 

Ansphn

Member
I agree but PlayStation arent the only ones doing this. Plague Tales 2 had me about to punch a wall because the kid kept telling me what to do instead of letting me solve the puzzle. There should be a dedicated button for hints for all games.
 

sainraja

Member
Uncharted has the best implementation of giving hints as you pointed out (I think the Last of Us also had character prompts). In Ragnorak so far, and maybe I haven't experienced this yet, I have only been given hints right away for mechanics that are new, if I encounter the same later along with a puzzle, they don't seem to blurt out the solution as quickly or at all.
 

Jimmy_liv

Member
Seriously, I thought we've been through this, but it's getting worse.

It started with Uncharted. After a bit of time, if you haven't solved a puzzle, the game prompted you to press a button and Drake or someone would say something to give you a hint on how to proceed. It was actually brilliant and kept the flow of the game going, while still giving you the choice to keep attempting the puzzle yourself.

Then, games like Horizon started doing similar things, only they didn't give you the option to NOT hear the hints. If the game deemed you are taking too long, Alloy, etc would make comment hinting at what to do.

Forbidden West took this to a ridiculous level, basically giving you almost no time to figure out the puzzles yourself. And often when you WERE quick enough, she'd still insult you by telling you the answer while you were already in the process of doing that exact thing.

Now, I'm playing God of War Ragnarok. While, I'm pretty early on, this already looks like the worst offender yet. I'll fight a room of mobs and while I'm still picking up loot the other NPCs are giving me not so subtle "hints" at solving a puzzle I haven't even had s chance to see yet. And then, ten seconds later, even more specific hints to basically where they're calling me a dumbass and telling me exactly what to do.

"Hmmm, we need to get across that water. I wish we could freeze it."

"Oh, your Axe freezes stuff doesn't it?"

"Hey, what if you throw your axe at the water?"

Sigh... ok, I jump across and immediately

"Hmmm, I wonder if we could knock that block down?"

"Maybe you could throw your axe at the chain holding that block?"

Sigh... I do that. As soon as the block lands.

"I wonder what you'd see if you climbed on top of that box?"

As soon as you climb up

"Oh, a pool of water. I wish we could freeze it somehow..."

SHUT THE HELL UP. Or do you just want to take the controller from me and do it yourself?

Surely, I'm not the only one experiencing this, right?
YES!!!! EVERY SINGLE DAMNED TIME!!

Honestly made me want to smash Atreus in the face with an axe!!

And prior to that I'd been playing Lost Legacy... Same shit!!!

Why bother putting a puzzle in if your just going to tell me how to do it ffs!!
At least have a slider or a way of turning it off!
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Seriously, I thought we've been through this, but it's getting worse.

It started with Uncharted. After a bit of time, if you haven't solved a puzzle, the game prompted you to press a button and Drake or someone would say something to give you a hint on how to proceed. It was actually brilliant and kept the flow of the game going, while still giving you the choice to keep attempting the puzzle yourself.

Then, games like Horizon started doing similar things, only they didn't give you the option to NOT hear the hints. If the game deemed you are taking too long, Alloy, etc would make comment hinting at what to do.

Forbidden West took this to a ridiculous level, basically giving you almost no time to figure out the puzzles yourself. And often when you WERE quick enough, she'd still insult you by telling you the answer while you were already in the process of doing that exact thing.

Now, I'm playing God of War Ragnarok. While, I'm pretty early on, this already looks like the worst offender yet. I'll fight a room of mobs and while I'm still picking up loot the other NPCs are giving me not so subtle "hints" at solving a puzzle I haven't even had s chance to see yet. And then, ten seconds later, even more specific hints to basically where they're calling me a dumbass and telling me exactly what to do.

"Hmmm, we need to get across that water. I wish we could freeze it."

"Oh, your Axe freezes stuff doesn't it?"

"Hey, what if you throw your axe at the water?"

Sigh... ok, I jump across and immediately

"Hmmm, I wonder if we could knock that block down?"

"Maybe you could throw your axe at the chain holding that block?"

Sigh... I do that. As soon as the block lands.

"I wonder what you'd see if you climbed on top of that box?"

As soon as you climb up

"Oh, a pool of water. I wish we could freeze it somehow..."

SHUT THE HELL UP. Or do you just want to take the controller from me and do it yourself?

Surely, I'm not the only one experiencing this, right?
Maybe they think most gamers are idiots. They might be on to something from what I can tell.
 

drotahorror

Member
This is my video, found it ridiculous.



Worst part is, theres another one of these cranes right on the next platform and if you do the same thing, the person says it again!
 

Fredrik

Member
With so much hand holding, I may pass on it. How can that be GOTY material?
I’m probably 30 hours in now and there is still a constant baby mode active even though side puzzles have less hand-holding. One area is super long, extreme hand holding and while it looks absolutely amazing I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

That said, the game is still awesome. That’s why it’s GOTY material. The visuals, presentation, cutscenes, action set-pieces are at the top of the industry.

For me personally it’s behind Elden Ring but I have no trouble understanding those who place it ahead.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
Because these are not puzzles they are shitty „find Waldo“ problems that are not fun to solve. They know that and want it to be done as fast as possible. I hate puzzles in every Sony game

GOW is the worst in that regard. „Maybe try another angle“ …
 
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Dynasty8

Member
Because these are not puzzles they are shitty „find Waldo“ problems that are not fun to solve. They know that and want it to be done as fast as possible. I hate puzzles in every Sony game

GOW is the worst in that regard. „Maybe try another angle“ …


If that's the case, then why even have them in the game at all? It's bad design choices.

I enjoy puzzles in games like GoW, Zelda, etc. They provide a good break from all the combat and can be satisfying to solve, but not when the answer is automatically and immediately provided to you.

I know people are still in the honeymoon phase with Ragnarok, but this aspect is absolutely bad game design and I can't believe I didn't see a single reviewer mention this. Overall, the game is incredible with the story, combat, visuals, world, sound and everything else. But I'd be lying to say this didn't turn me off big time from the game.

The "backseating" happens SOOO often, we're past annoying at this point.
 

Shh

Member
If that's the case, then why even have them in the game at all? It's bad design choices.

I enjoy puzzles in games like GoW, Zelda, etc. They provide a good break from all the combat and can be satisfying to solve, but not when the answer is automatically and immediately provided to you.

I know people are still in the honeymoon phase with Ragnarok, but this aspect is absolutely bad game design and I can't believe I didn't see a single reviewer mention this. Overall, the game is incredible with the story, combat, visuals, world, sound and everything else. But I'd be lying to say this didn't turn me off big time from the game.

The "backseating" happens SOOO often, we're past annoying at this point.
The human race as a whole is now dumber than ever and that is who game designers are catering to.
 
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