Re: Arbitrary death (Fire Witch spoilers)


14 Mar 1995 22:41:24 GMT

Andrew C. Plotkin (ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu) wrote:

>Having now actually played through Fire Witch, I have decided that this
>area is reasonable....
>I agree that players can't really be expected to survive it the first
>time; even though they have a turn to work, they'll almost certainly not
>do the right thing. (Unless they save right away... not a bad response.)
>But the point is not to "survive the puzzle", the point is to find out
>how the mechanism works. The warning on the archway, ambiguous though it
>is, should be enough to cause the player to save the game just in case.

Everything you say here reinforces my feeling that this is a bug, not
a feature. Puzzles which can only be solved by dying are a bad thing,
imo. This sort of "instant death" puzzle always makes me think one
thing---too bad the author couldn't think of something more original.
I shouldn't have to die and then undo or restore in order to "find out
how the mechanism works."

Also, is the arch in any way connected to those cells? Is there some
way for the player to relate that "uneasy feeling" to the giant ice
cube he's seen?

To make it worse, this same device (i.e. a timed puzzle which results
in death unless the correct thing is done in the proper turn) recurs
_twice_ more in Fire Witch. C'mon John, you can do better than that!

chris
goedde@nwu.edu