Is it really possible to get worse at a whole genre?

It's been a while since I last played any point n' click games, I admit, but I don't remember them being this hard. I recently bought a nice looking adventure game, thought with myself that "hey, this looks fun, let's try it" and launched the game. After finishing the first "landmark", I was stuck. I had no clue what I was supposed to do next, so I just walked around like a headless chicken until finally giving up and shutting the game down. I was very disappointed with myself.

I'm used to in-game journals (or even character dialogue) that'd tell me where to go or what do to next (you know, like "Gee, it sure is cold here. I should get back inside, maybe Aunt May has finally prepared that oat meal). This game hasn't got one. Or perhaps I'm just blind. But I have noticed that I myself need those directions.

Do you? Do you want games to tell where you're supposed to go next?

It's just harder today to have patience with a game than it was 10-20 years ago if you get stuck. It's also much easier to get help these days via Youtube gamefaqs, guides etc. So I don't think you have become worse at PnC adventure games, I just don't think you have the patience for them anymore because you probably have a huge backlog of other games to play.

I have tried returning to adventure gaming, and instantly ragequitted. It is simply a really frustrating genre, where the gameplay consists of getting stuck, repeatedly.

how is it an "adventure" if you *know* where you have to go?! that is a huge part of what makes the games adventures - you're trying to figure out where to go and what to do - explore discover

but, yes, it is very very very likely that you've gotten worse at them, but don't fret!!! The brain is a muscle and tool and if exercised, it can get back in to shape!

As you get older, depending on how you take care of yourself, the synapses in the brain get "cloggy' and things don't compute as easily or as quickly and the brain function itself has probably deteriorated over time from simple lack of use.

To increase you pineal gland and synaptic function, start drinking raw apple cider vinegar.

and play more games and stick with them and just think and try and be patient, and you'll increase your abilities

I have yet to finish an adventure game playthrough, and not for lack of trying.

Although many point and click adventures are notorious for using brain twisting flawed logic (logical only to the designer, not shared by a general consensus) in their puzzles, and “hidden in plain sight objects” that need to be thrown together to advance the story. :P

I start them, get about 1/3 to 1/2 way through and for a myriad of reasons I just can’t seem to make it to the end. But I’ll keep trying, from time to time, until I do... since I have so many of these games in the collection. They’re on a low priority backlog. heh

I don’t require a game to always point the way, but I can only take so many misfired clicks before I’ll be distracted by the release of a new game, or an urge to revisit some of my favorite old games.

Most Point and Click games have illogical puzzles and most you need to try every possible solution. I love a good one though and simply always have a walkthrough on stand by when I've exhausted all option.

They've always had obscure puzzles though, sometimes with items you can't find. At least most identify all clickable objects now.

Given my overall track record with RTS games... yes. Definately yes. Well, there is a lot of room between being stright up told what to do, and just given a hint. Good adventure games provide some hints, or at least clear goals. The thing with adventure games is it's sometimes hard to say whether you, the player, is at fault or if it is the game, at least untill you solve the puzzle or look it up online, since untill you know the solution you don't know if you're just being dense, or if the puzzle is something nonsensical that no one could figure out rationally.

I love adventure games, and I don't mind getting stuck for a while as long as the solutions make sense, though I like it when there is some in-game hint system to help me along in case I do get hopelessly stuck for hours if not days, and save me from reading an entire solution in a walkthrough.

And even the good, sensible adventure games require a lot of patience, and time. And sometimes experience. With time one gets better at seeing the way thins tend to be connected in those games. But i think that if one simply does not have the time or the patience to get stuck for too long, but still wants to enjoy the humor, story and characters, usually the best part of the adventure genre, then there is no shame in looking for answers online.

This.

To be perfectly honest I'm not sure if it's because I'm older but I just don't have the time for old-school adventure games, and not because I don't have free-time. I tried replaying Dark Seed recently and in the end I just watched a YT playthrough video of the whole game.

The problem with a good many adventure games is that they use their own "logic" rather than trying to make sense in a more realistic way. That makes them badly designed.

A case for well-rounded adventure games would be Wadjet Eye's stuff. I can't say I was stuck for long in any of the ones I played, and I've played all except Golden Wake. A well designed adventure game should lead one in the right sensible direction while not having to spell it out or leaving one in complete darkness.

Bad examples would be Sierra's early adventures like King Quest and Space Quest. Trial and error to the max where you can even run into dead ends, which may not even be recognized as such, that will require one to start the whole game over again.

That depends on the game. There is nothing wrong with something like Deponia or Toonstruck following it's own cartoonish logic. It makes sense for the setting, and once you "get" the way the game world works you can still figure out everything perfectly well. The problem is games like Gabriel Knight, in theory taking place in a serious, realisitic setting, but still following insane logic of "read every name on the tombs for a squirrel to run out and knock over a vase so you can find 20$ inside". Now that is bad design.

Wait, after a long time of not playing any point-and-click adventure, you played *one* of them and because you got stuck in that one, you're trying to draw a general conclusion about how you're losing your touch with adventure games? Have you considered that it might just be the fault of that specific title, not the genre as a whole? Which game was it, btw?

yes there are also 2 avenues of adventure games - maybe your brain just doesn't like one type any more?

what I call "practical application" puzzles

and

"brain puzzles"

- adventure games that are a good portion "brain puzzles" I simply no longer like, at all (never liked them too much to begin with but I'd play them because I liked settings or didn't know any better.) They're like mini-games that aren't really part of the game to me (even if they put them in context of the game, it seems contrived, like "oh hey there's all these weird symbols and glyphs and you have to match up codes and whatnot" and sure it using stuff "in the game" (this glyph puzzle opens the entrance to a wherever or whatever) I can figure the puzzles out if I put my brain to them, but, it's not fun anymore, it's too "simple" maybe? (even if they aren't simple, they simply aren't exercising a part of the brain that "does" anything for me to be rewarding)

- adventure games that are all/pretty much all practical application, I LOVE AND DESIRE AND SEEK!! This is the stuff that makes sense. You need to get in the building and the building has an alarm system, so you have to drive a car into the electric pole to cut the power to the block, find a rock, and break in so you can get the files so you can continue on, or whatever.

To be honest, very few adventure games get the balance between logic and difficulty right. Personally, I find most of the LucasArts stuff to be highly overrated on that front and have always suffered from extremely illogical puzzles - The Dig being at the worst end of that spectrum but Monkey Island by no means exempt. Daedalic is another for obnoxiously illogical puzzles.

At the other end of the problem is Wadjet Eye, who create games with extremely logical puzzles, which in turn tend to be rather easy.

To be honest, I think the point & click adventure genre really needs to evolve beyond this "one puzzle, one solution" mentality. Gaming technology has evolved to the point where adventure games can be much more emergent in how they approach problem-solving and could theoretically incorporate physics and dynamic AI to allow alternate solutions to organically evolve.

I'll give you an example: let's say, for argument's sake, that you need to create a bridge across a river to further the story. Conventional P&C thinking would have you pick up a plank from a specific point in the game, which can only be used to solve that particular puzzle. A refinement of this genre might let you alternately throw a lassoed rope over, or chop a tree down with a saw to bridge the gap, or enlist the help of someone on the other side. The game should "nudge" you to acceptable solutions, not have you trying everything logical until you pick the pre-ordained solution.

Unfortunately, though, point & click adventures are easy money for developers with strong art teams but little experience in proper game development. While actual game designers are unwilling to invest in the genre, it won't move forwards.