Why Are Puzzle in Survival Horror Too Easy

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Should Resident Evil puzzles be harder?

• Thread starter ket
• Start date May 19, 2021

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• #1

I'll start off by saying that I think modern RE games are great. Capcom has been able to figure out how to make survival horror accessible to mass audiences with the successes of RE7 and the RE2 remake while also not veering too far off in the action horror direction with RE3 Remake and RE8.

However, ever since RE4 launched in 2004, the difficulty and quality of the puzzles has been lacking. The series used to be notorious for having convoluted puzzle design such as RE1 Remake's V-Jolt door code puzzle. But RE4 went in the other extreme with its puzzle design, which is to say that the game barely had any puzzles and the ones that were there were too easy.

With RE8, the puzzles were mostly bad imo. The solutions were usually written down in notes that were in the same room as the corresponding puzzle and the small environments & linearity made it trivial to find puzzle pieces when compared to a place like RE1's Spencer Mansion.

What do you think, era? Should Capcom bring back the challenging puzzles of classic RE games?

• #2

No, fuck the RE3 water puzzle and the RE2 Remake liquid rotation puzzle.

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth

• #3

I thought the House Beneviento puzzles were okay. Those actually took a bit of thought but your right in that generally the puzzles in 8 aren't all that hard. I'd welcome the return of harder puzzles and more of them. The exploration and puzzles are two of my favorite parts of Resident Evil games.

• #4

Sure, people just YouTube them when they can't figure them out anyway.

• #6

Somewhere between RE 1 and 7. Not going as far as RE1, but also not as braindead as 7/8. Just bring back some semblance of puzzle depth without making it annoying. I always got excited when I thought I was getting puzzles in 7/8, but it always ended up disappointing me with their simplicity.

• #7

Resident Evil never had particularly difficult puzzles. But at least in some REs like 1 and 3 (original) they required you to at least pay some attention. They can be fun and engaging.

You can find bad examples at both ends of the spectrum. RE Zero had some pretty obnoxious puzzles that I think are detrimental to the enjoyment of the game.
On the other hand, RE3 (2020) had things like the subway puzzle which is almost insulting, like they think the person playing is braindead.

The puzzles in RE8 are at least somewhat entertaining. Yeah, they feel like bare minimum effort and could be better. RE2 (2019) had some nice puzzles that were simple but fun.

• #8

Silent Hill had more difficult puzzles than RE. I think one of them in SH3 required a knowledge of Shakespeare.

• #9

I want puzzles to fuck with me like Silent Hill 3's Shakespeare puzzle. I will say though, that the puzzles back then seemed more legit cause I was a kid and didn't pay as much attention to them as I do now

• #10

Yes. They should ask the creators of The Room-games for some puzzles.

• #11

I remember a bunch of previews claiming in 8 that puzzles "were back" and after playing the final product I have no idea what the fuck they were talking about.

• #12

I thought they had some pretty fun puzzles in RE8.

Generally, I think you are good as long as you aren't push crates on top of pressure plates.

• #13

No, fuck puzzles. If I want to solve puzzles I'd play Professor Layton.

• #14

clearly they are as easy and brain dead as they are for a reason.

the majority of players either: don't like being stuck on puzzles/get stuck on easy puzzles/hate puzzles. It is what it is.

Ive watched quite a few playthroughs of RE7 and RE8 and people STILL get stuck on those easy af puzzles.

Though I will say that the Lucas game in 7 was pretty decent. I liked that one.

• #15

A little bit. I think 2remake did a good job, but they could push it a little further for one or two major puzzles per game. I don't think these kinds of games want a ton a huge brain teasers though. Ultimately they have to strike a balance, but I think for the most part they don't push them quite far enough. 8 definitely has a problem of its puzzles not really even being puzzles. I don't even really know how to describe them because they're so simple. Just super basic pattern recognition or even just simple rule following. "Put these objects in the correct order. Here is a piece of paper telling you exactly what the correct order is."

• #16

im perfectly ok with how they are currently implemented into the gameplay flow. I do not miss the fixed camera angle game puzzles at all.

• #17

Only way I want harder puzzles is if they do the silent hill thing and have puzzle difficulty

• #18

No. I'll play puzzle games if I wanted some brain busters.

• #19

For the action-oriented titles like Village? Probably not, it would throw off the pacing and they're not the focus anyway.

For the survival-horror titles like RE7? Absolutely, let's crank up the difficulty! I thought the original RE titles (with the exception of maybe RE3) had absolutely pitch perfect difficulty with their puzzles, and was especially impressed with Resident Evil (PS1) - for a game from 1996 I was expecting a lot of unfair BS but it was all challenging but solvable. I think it really adds to the atmosphere / horror, especially when you realise that you're missing a puzzle part on the other side of the level and have to start working out the best route to collect it while avoiding enemies.

• #20

Puzzles are hard to get right. You can piss off all kinds of players.

RE8 did a decent job with optional puzzle rooms/wells and you can explore the village locked doors.
On the critical path they can just throw you off if they are too hard.

Around here I guess RE8 will be viewed as having really easy puzzles, for the casual crowd I'm not so sure.

Only way I want harder puzzles is if they do the silent hill thing and have puzzle difficulty

This would be good yeah

• #21

I would love harder puzzles, they give me an unparalleled level of satisfaction.

• #22

I liked how the puzzles were slightly harder in Hardcore mode in RE2. I think it'd be great if more games had Shadow of the Tomb Raider's difficulty options for individual aspects of the game.

• #23

Definitely, much harder puzzles would be nice to have, i am in favor.
Just leave the general public have fun in an "8 and under" mode, don't forget that one, otherwise there will be some problems of adoption.
I wouldn't want that to be a second run thing, since you'd have a general idea of the mechanics of the puzzle... and discovering the underlying mechanics is most of the fun, the execution seldom is.

• #24

The more hidden object style ones like the bell puzzle in the castle are alright but the rest are braindead easy, I'd appreciate a bit more of a challenge in that area for sure.

I actually assumed you had to know how to read sheet music for the piano one and my partner actually wracked her memory from playing many years ago to solve it...only for me to discover on a subsequent playthrough that not only does it show you precisely what key you're playing in correlation to the sheet, but you don't even have to get that shit right in one go xD

I mean I get it, this is a game meant to sell a bunch and not stump people like The Witness, it could still have used a bit more difficulty just the same.

• #25

They should be less brainless.

• #26

I actually enjoyed the puzzles in Village. I just wish there were more of them.

I think it'd be great if more games had Shadow of the Tomb Raider's difficulty options for individual aspects of the game.

I agree. This would be great for all action games wih puzzles, imo.

• #27

Yes. The RE games have never had real puzzles. I really don't need them to be hard, but it'd be a lot of fun to have actual puzzles in these games that aren't just dumb busywork, but something that forces you to stop for a second and think it through.

• #28

Bring back water puzzle tier puzzles.

• #30

Naw I liked em in Village. They don't need to be more than that.

• #31

I don't care, if give me an option to skip them lol

• #32

No. Don't want it to detract too much from the rest of the game.

• #33

No. Although if they do in the future I'll just look up the solution on YouTube. I play the RE games for the horror elements not for puzzles.

• #34

I'm for more harder puzzles.

1. You can youtube a solution any time.
2. On lower difficulties you could get more hints. Or outright answers in an ingame notebook or something.

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• #35

I don't really enjoy how getting stuck in a puzzle affects the pace of a game.

• #36

Sometimes i rember that the worst puzzles in the series(aka the easiest ones) comes from RE2 original, the.only weak point of that masterpiece

• #37

Needs a Silent Hill difficulty slider. At the moment they're just a time waste for me as they're too easy.

• #39

Doesn't have to be silent hill 3 Shakespeare level stuff but god anything would be better than modern era RE

• #40

Nah, I do wish they had a bit more lore/context to them like the old ones having solutions in files or items in other rooms etc. but I don't want them to be overly challenging either. Like someone else said, these days people will just look it up either way, it kinda makes me feel like the purpose of a mind bending puzzle is lost when they are not the main feature of a game.

Village's overly easy puzzles did leave something to be desired though. I would not want them to hit Silent Hill levels of nonsense however or 3's fucking water puzzle.

• #41

Yes. Resident Evil 0 actually had a good puzzle in form of the animal statues that has to be lit in a certain order based on some clues you get. It actually required a bit of logic thinking rather than go pick up the prerequisite key for the door. More puzzles like that would be great.

• #42

I imagine today's audience doesn't have the attention span for deep and thought provoking puzzles in a game like this.

Why spend more than 5 or even 10 minutes to get a single moment of achievement, when other games satisfy that need much quicker and more frequent?

Take a look at what Silent Hill did in the 2000's. These games had some mind-bending, atmospheric, lore-building puzzles, and even seperate puzzle difficulty settings.

Last edited: May 19, 2021

• #43

No, fuck puzzles. If I want to solve puzzles I'd play Professor Layton.

Hahaha exactly my sentiments

• #44

Any non-puzzle game with puzzles in it should keep said puzzles to a pretty low difficulty. There's nothing worse than getting stuck on a stupid puzzle in the middle of a non-puzzle-focused game.

Puzzle is a really funny word now that I think about it.

• #45

No. I like me some challenging puzzle games but in survival horror games, I believe they serve a different purpose. They're for interacting with the world in order to make it feel less static and more believable. As well as changing up the pace and giving the player a breather so they aren't meant to go on too long.

Although having Silent Hill puzzle difficulty settings would add a lot to replayablility.

• #46

please include the following: An option for the solution to be different (random) on repeat playthroughs. The door in dollhouse for example.
and an option for riddle difficulty like in Silent hill.
this will please both the speedrunners and the egg heads :)

• #47

Nothing crazy, but I would like atleast a bit more steps between the initial problem and solution.

• #48

I don't think so, it's not a puzzle game per se the fun is solving the puzzles while being chased around and the feeling of dread. so I'm fine with the difficulty.

• #49

I like puzzles, so I wouldn't mind, but I think it's gonna be hard to strike a good balance between "mass market" style puzzles and "hardcore" style puzzles if you can catch my drift.

That said, while I've yet to play RE8, I did generally enjoy RE2R puzzles and thought they were an improvement over RE7 (granted, it is a remake but...). That level of puzzle solving could be a good compromise, given RE2R sold very well and is widely beloved and one of the highest reviewed RE games.

• #50

Everyone saying 'so what people don't have attention spans' or 'they'll youtube it'...so what? Let people youtube it. What is the purpose of puzzles that anyone over the age of 5 will never fail.

The ball labyrinths in Village have to be the biggest joke of all, I was like 'oh cool this'll be fun' and then immediately when I actually put the ball in each time I became more annoyed as they actually got easier throughout the game instead of harder.

Every other puzzle is like 'here's the solution' on a piece of paper in the same room. Why? Who does that actually serve?

People can say 'oh these games shouldn't be about puzzles' but frankly, they used to be, why should that be the thing we decide the series can't incorporate anymore? Here's a crazy thought, let's make them scarier and less about action like they used to be too, or reduce the batshitness of the plots.

Village is excellent, but the puzzles feel really pointless.

I like puzzles, so I wouldn't mind, but I think it's gonna be hard to strike a good balance between "mass market" style puzzles and "hardcore" style puzzles if you can catch my drift.

That said, while I've yet to play RE8, I did generally enjoy RE2R puzzles and thought they were an improvement over RE7 (granted, it is a remake but...). That level of puzzle solving could be a good compromise, given RE2R sold very well and is widely beloved and one of the highest reviewed RE games.

RE8s are significantly easier than any of the other current gen resident evil games.

As far as 'mass market' - youtube exists, people will use it. Worst case, you make a puzzle difficulty like silent hill. I always thought that was the best way to do it, as I think 'hard combat and easy puzzles' and 'hard puzzles and easy combat' are both very appealing options to large parts of the playerbase, and then you've got 'normal' all around folks and 'hard' for both folks as well.

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Source: https://www.resetera.com/threads/should-resident-evil-puzzles-be-harder.427949/

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