Best Sierra Puzzles Tournament: Final Round!

[Datadog]

This is it! It's taken a while to get back on this, but the Final Round is now up! We've started with 32 of our favorite puzzles from across the Sierra catalogue and have finally narrowed it down to these two heavyweight contenders:

LE SERPENT ROUGE vs. DEATH'S CHALLENGE

In one corner, we have "Le Serpent Rouge". Hailing from "Gabriel Knight 3", LSR is a game-spanning puzzle that Grace must solve to complete an ancient map. With the help of her computer SIDNEY (and a lot of sight-seeing) you unravel ciphers and plot map coordinates in your very own "Quest for the Holy Grail".

In the other corner, we have Death's Challenge from "King's Quest 6". More simplistic in nature, Prince Alexander must risk his very soul to save the royal family of the Crown by accomplishing a next-to-impossible task: make Death cry. The puzzle is an emotionally-charged and poetic moment where truth becomes the greatest weapon of all.

These are our finalists! And the voting begins when Graham guesses the gnome's name!



Close enough! Voting begins!

[Mostly]

There can be only one...

LE SERPENT ROUGE

[Rudy]

Serpent Rouge

[Rath Darkblade]

Le Serpent Rouge FTW!

[BBP]

Serpent Rouge!

[AndreaDraco]

It's obvious: Le Serpent Rouge.

[adeyke]

While I like the act of using a mirror to make Death cry, it's not actually a good puzzle.

The proper order would be:
1. Find out you need to make Death cry.
2. Think about how you could do that.
3. Seek out a mirror that will show him the truth of what he is.
4. Use the mirror.

Instead, it's:
1. Do something unrelated to Death, be given a mirror as reward.
2. Find out you need to make Death cry.
3. Look in your inventory
4. Use the mirror you already had with you.

You'll definitely have the mirror when you get to that point (which is good, since it means it at least isn't a dead end). However, the only possible solutions are the items in your inventory, and most of those are obviously wrong. So you either just use the mirror or brute-force through the handful of things you think might work. It's just not much of a puzzle.

Le Serpent Rouge, on the other hand, was very satisfying to solve. So that.

[Datadog]

I'm sensing a pattern.

Nonetheless, I'm voting for Death's Challenge. Mostly because this is one of the most memorable moments in all of adventure gaming for me. Dare I say, it even jumped the shark for what could be done with puzzles and storytelling. It was the first time that Sierra's famous moon logic actually became intuitive. A mirror has many practical purposes: reflecting a laser, defeating a gorgon, directing sunlight, etc., but its more impractical use of pointing out our flaws is something we experience daily on a subconscious level. Solving it may be simple, but solving it in the first couple guesses creates a personal connection to the player. From the weight of those mouse-clicks alone, I believe one wouldn't even need a MAGIC mirror to complete the challenge.

I didn't feel that same connection to Le Serpent Rouge. It's a great puzzle regardless, but at the moment, I'm favoring the "less is more" choice.

Either way, Jane Jensen wins!

[Collector]

I'll go with Death's Challenge, too, for many of the same reasons.

[Rath Darkblade]

I'm sensing a pattern...

Apologies, DataDog. I have not played KQ4, KQ6 or KQ7, so I can't really compare Death's Challenge with Le Serpent Rouge (and I have played GK1, GK2 and GK3).

Hopefully by declaring my hand, I've made it a more honest vote. You can choose to accept my vote for Le Serpent Rouge, or rule it invalid because I'm unaware of what Death's Challenge is. I don't mind.

[Collector]

I have not played KQ4, KQ6 or KQ7

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm? Why is that so surprising? I've played KQ1, KQ2 and (some) KQ3. I also played KQ5 from beginning to end, and found Cedric's constant interruptions annoying. Hmm... and now that I think about it, I have played some KQ4, but kept getting stuck in the whale's mouth - so I gave up in frustration.

I think I tried KQ6, but didn't get very far... if I remember, I kept getting stuck near the cliffs and couldn't work out how to climb them. I haven't played KQ7.

(All this was in the pre-Internet days, you understand! I had no hint-books, no forums, no-one to ask - and my grasp of English wasn't the best... so.)

I enjoyed the QfG games, the PQ games, the LSL games and (later) the SQ games and the GK games much more than I enjoyed the KQ series. Sorry...

[Collector]

The Logic Cliffs puzzles were the copy protection for the game. It requires the manual, but otherwise is pretty easy. Most of the KQ games were ground breaking for their times. Not having played KQ7 is not so surprising with its Disneyesque art, but 3, 4 or especially 6 are by far the favorite of most. KQ6 is actually a Jane Jensen game and it shows.

[Datadog]

I think this tournament has gone on long enough. From the votes alone, it looks like the winner of the tournament is...

LE SERPENT ROUGE!



Congratulations to Gabriel Knight and Jane Jenson for another victory!

And that concludes this tournament! Thanks to everyone who voted! There's always the chance of future tournaments, so sound off if you've got an idea for the next one! In the meantime, I've gotta go replay GK3. I just realized I haven't a darn clue how this puzzle goes anymore.

Can Gabriel and the bartender please play us out?



BURN, BABY, BURN! DISCO INFERNO!

[AndreaDraco]

My preference aside, I really think there could have been no other winner.