The thing is, as much as I like to bash games for requiring you to read guides or even outright need to go to a special school just to understand it.
It doesn't mean the game is bad... League of Legends isn't bad because you have to memorize every single item and hero in the game in order to be considered competent, it is more its caustic community policing it.
While I say this it isn't like "You need a guide" is nessisarily a good thing either. If a game outright requires a guide then it should state it. Point and Clicks that require a guide (mind you most people suck at them... I REALLY gotta start up my letsplay again...) is outright a bad thing because point and clicks are made or broken out of intuition and logic.
Likewise games that have hidden mechanics that kill you unless you read a guide is that either. It just depends on the transparency.
IVAN is probably the game I think is hurt the outright most by its guide requirement and demonstrates it perfectly. So it is a Roguelike and it is indeed difficult but the logic is rather straight forward and while you will have a few unavoidable deaths here and there, that isn't necessarily a flaw because each death sort of introduces you to the game's internal logic.
But here is how you win the game (at least without the cop out early ending)! First you need to build your wisdom and to do that you need to speak to people until you unlock an ability called "Sci-talk" which lets you raise wisdom by talking to different people. Then you need to get a item that lets you alter the materials of objects. Using the wisdom you unlocked you must transform your arms, legs, and equipment into end game materials that don't appear early in the game... so specifically you have to type in the name of materials so far into the game that it is impossible for you to know what they were.
Sci-Talk which isn't referred to in the instructions or elaborated on in the patch notes (yet, it is oddly alluded to in the instructions). This is dreadful because, and I hate to say this, but IVAN for the little of it that is good, is probably one of the best Roguelikes I ever played and if not for FTL and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon would probably be "The best" (If I was allowed to chop away the bad parts mind you). I never played a Roguelike before IVAN that was so intuitive... "Ohh I caught Leprosy from the zombies... hmm I better not hang around them".
The Issue with Roguelikes and their metagame requirement beyond how long the games can be... Is that... Often the solutions to problems are far earlier in the game. You can't win them just by being good at the game and learning how to play with each pass occasionally dying to a new mechanic that unfolds in front of you...
Lets just say... that when I put a "No Metaknowledge" challenge run on a Roguelike's message board (They couldn't do things like wish for items they haven't seen, use secret words that paralyze people, or use mechanics that are not in the instruction manual with the exclusion of ones that are just flat out logical) was mostly met with "That is impossible!"... Mind you it was IVAN...
Now a Roguelike that Dwarf Fortress where it has a dreadful UI in some places but you can fiddle with it and learn it after a while except for a few mechanics... Links the instructions right in the forums. But more to the point it doesn't kind of flood you with nonsense that you could have avoided if you had psychic powers...
Author
Topic: How far are you willing to go in order to enjoy a game? (Read 9879 times)