9 replies to this topic

[The Eidolon]

Thinking back, a lot of the older video games had mazes in them,
but they seem to have fallen into disrepute. I can't think of
any modern game with a maze hard enough to make me need
to reach for paper and pencil, and they almost all have automaps
now.

The original adventure (colossal cave) had a couple pretty tough mazes,
as did many text adventures. Atari 2600 Adventure had sme great mazes,
and they were part of the game's charm.

Anyway, am I the only one who views the disappearance of mazes from
most games as a bad thing? Any fond/unpleasant memories?

--The Eidolon

P.S. This weekend I went to one of those "life size" mazes made from
a patterned corn field. First time I'd ever seen a full size maze, and not
a bad thing to check out if you like mazes.

http://www.davisfarm...amaze/index.htm

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I love mazes myself. So yeah, their disappearance from the game world hasn't exactly thrilled me, but then again, it's just one of so many play elements. Some of my favorites don't have mazes.

[NovaXpress]

I've always HATED mazes and I'm glad to see them fall into disfavor. I don't want to be making graphs paper charts of a dungeon unless I'm playing D&D. I think that mazes were used in order to cover up weaknesses in other areas of the game. I wanna kill monsters.

I also hate games with a hundred teleportation platforms. Features like mazed and teleporters typically require a lot of trial and error before the solution is found. To me this feels like work, not play.

The mazes in Adventure were fine because they were simple enough to not get in the way of the play. The challenge was in avoiding the dragon while being restricted by twisting walls, not figuring out how to finish the maze.

[Ze_ro]

It depends on the maze and the game... obviously, Pac-man and Wizard of Wor would suck without a maze... but role playing games with mazes get annoying when you need to backtrack, especially when all the monsters are dead (assuming they don't respawn).

If the maze has variety, or is at least somewhat interesting (ie, none of those stupid "every room is the same" mazes like the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time) and you don't have to keep going through it every time you want to get to an important part of the game, then I like them.

--Zero

[Mindfield]

I loved mazes. Still do. Games with mazes (explicit or contrived via natural scenery to fit the game) were always a favourite of mine. Hell, I liked playing Maze Craze by myself. :-) I always prided myself on the ability to memorize ones with static mazes -- RPGs mostly, like the Alternate Reality series or, to a lesser extent, the thread starter's namesake -- The Eidolon. I'd inevitably make maps once I'd pretty well memorized everything -- mostly for the sake of being able to come back to it after having let it sit for a while and still be able to make my way round. (I made a map of the entire AR city using 4 sheets of graph paper 2-up and taped together, complete with legend denoting guilds, taverns, shops, secret passages, etc.)

Many modern games are still mazey -- the vast majority of FPS games almost always feature some sort of maze, even if they're far more simplistic and relatively linear in nature. Mostly they mirror reality to a certain degree -- winding city streets, alcoves, cluttered warehouses with stacks of shelving and boxes to navigate around, etc. Postal 2 is probably one of the better modern examples -- lots of areas of the town have mazey elements to them, though few if any are complicated enough to require a map -- or anything more than a mediocre short-term memory.

[BassGuitari]

I like maze games! Maze Craze is my favorite maze game on the VCS. Midway's Amazing Maze arcade game is sweet too.

[Mindfield]

Actually, my favourite maze game on the VCS was Tunnel Runner -- definitely one of CBS' finest moments. It took the whole maze idea and put you right down in it -- a feat not easily accomplished on the VCS.

[2600Lives]

It really depends on the game. I remember throwing the controller in frustration at the timed mazes in the NES Golgo 13 games, and the non-timed but just as difficult ones in Fester's Quest. For the most part, first person mazes just plain suck, but gimme a good, overhead maze and I like 'em! Adventure was the best, I think, but some later games had some good ones, too.

[NovaXpress]

In many of the games mentioned, such as Tunnel Runner and Maze Craze, the maze is the entire point of the gameplay. My problem is RPGs which interrupt my slashing and spellcasting with a pointless confusing maze.

[Cafeman]

I like some mazes and dislike others. When a game's mazes (2d or 3d) are so complex that I need to read a FAQ to get through them, well that's going a little too far IMO.

2600 Adventure had nicely confusing mazes. They weren't too big but they did take some thought & trial/error to get through. Putting in the dark effect in the catacombs was a stroke of genius -- Adventure wouldn't have been quite the same without it. And it wasn't overused to the point where you felt you were doing more work than having fun.

With more memory comes the temptation to make bigger mazes -- and that's Indenture's most common complaint, too many mazes.

Ocarina's dungeons and the lost woods got confusing, but it pretty cool to be playing the game in 3D. In the lost woods, I liked how you had to follow your ears to find the correct path. If you stood next to the opening to the next room and the music grew faint, you knew that was a trap which threw you back to the beginning.