There is a fine line between ingenuity and madness, and this fact of life is perfectly captured in video game puzzles. Some puzzles are perfectly attuned to the game they're in, remaining consistent in style but increasing with difficulty as the game progresses. This design encourages you to use the puzzle-solving skills you've learned up to that point in the game, but also forces you to go build on them to keep playing. Then there are the puzzles that have left gamers baffled for hours, weeks and even years, confusing us with their obscurity, randomness, and lack of direction. Many of these puzzles feature in otherwise brilliant games, and make you wonder whether the people behind them had some misanthropic agenda to make sure that gamers don't have too much fun when playing. With many of today's mainstream titles eschewing challenging puzzles and replacing them with the equivalent of fitting triangular-blocks into triangular holes, you may wonder whether games have lost some of that brain-bending magic that they once had. On the other hand, no one should have to suffer through the hours of frustration that the puzzles listed here forced upon us. Driving us towards despair, boredom, and eventually madness.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
