Design your combat to work like a puzzle.
Play Super Metroid.

I think Half-Life 2 is both the most shining example of this sort of gameplay and the most eloquent argument against it.

In the midst of a fierce fight, you'd be given a chance to perform a novel maneuver, often with the aid of the gravity gun, and really turn the tide of the fight. The enemies were pretty sharp, but you could stymie them by maneuvering objects to block their ingress, creating ad hoc traps and using the weapons and environment in concert.

It wasn't really all that much fun, though.

Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
I think Half-Life 2 is both the most shining example of this sort of gameplay and the most eloquent argument against it.

In the midst of a fierce fight, you'd be given a chance to perform a novel maneuver, often with the aid of the gravity gun, and really turn the tide of the fight. The enemies were pretty sharp, but you could stymie them by maneuvering objects to block their ingress, creating ad hoc traps and using the weapons and environment in concert.

It wasn't really all that much fun, though.

I thought the overall game was a lot of fun, but it was also a big hypocrite. It tried to present countless realistic and outrageously complex physics for combat and traps, but then as soon as the player tries to use them to employ their own customized gags, the realism falls apart. For a simple example of this, a single enemy human can blast through a door by simply walking, regardless of how well you block it from the other side. Adding the ability to control so much in a game without having the game fully respond to it results in countless unrealistic fail-safes and safety-catches like this. This is all a bit off topic, though, so I'll stop complaining here.

I'd consider Deus Ex 1 to be somewhat of a puzzle / action game. The reason I believe it has puzzle elements is the nature of the things you could do. There were all sorts of tasks that required you to solve problems, hack turrets, find passcodes and there were multiple ways to solve any problem from brute force to stealth to turning the environment against the enemy.

I'm not sure if it enough of a puzzle to quite be considered that. Though if you took that style of game adding in puzzle type of activities would be a breeze.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time had a fairly abrupt delineation between fighting and jumping around. That said, the jumping around was a very clever, elegant mix of action and puzzle. You needed to figure out how to use the bars and ledges and whatnot to get from one place to another, but often you had to do this with a time limit, while negotiating dangers like rotating sawblades. The result was an ever-shifting mix of carefully analyzing and figuring things out, and performing under time pressure.. the different dimensions which the level designers found in these elements comprised much of the appeal of the game. The same was true of Portal: Some areas were easy to analyze but required quick reflexes, others were difficult to figure out but you could take as much time as you want; others were between the two extremes. I think the takeaway from both of these games is that thinking puzzles shouldn't be carefully delineated and removed from the action... players should pass seamlessly into and out of them.

Super metroid and zelda games are worth looking at as they are enjoyed by so many including me but the mix of action and puzzle is a fine line to walk. For instance I played Overlord on a mates 360 and felt I was always bringing my imps back to help kill things rather than do the boring puzzle with them. That grew into me not liking the game.

Personally if the action is very trigger finger fast stuff I don't really want to think about solving something at the same time. The two games I referenced tend to have predictable enemies and enjoyable puzzles meaning you can puzzle and kill things comfortably. The only times a puzzle is presented and you have to act fast action wise are boss fights and they are designed to be hard.

It would be frustrating to have puzzles and action where you have to solve the puzzle fast enough or you lose. It would be equally frustrating to have a tough puzzle to solve but you have to spend all your time fighting of a never ending supply of enemies that are not predictable and require 100% of your attention for example, therefore leading to you never getting to look at the puzzle enough.

So personally I conclude if you want both at once, either the puzzle or the action needs to be predictable and easy. Predictable puzzles are boring in my opinion but hack and slash games use them to vary the game levels without taking away from the pure action. Easy action elements like easy enemies to kill, would be the way to go for me. Now we're back to zelda and super metroid. Like I said before though, boss fights tend to break that rule because you want to push the player till they understand what to do and then it reverts too the balance

But as always what I just said is by no means the law, only part of the equation. If you think the player can handle both action and puzzle at once under timed pressure like the example mentioned before me in prince of persia then go for it. Only testing will you be sure if it's right or wrong. It also comes down to the situation, the player could be relaxed and then suddenly they have to do all this stuff and feel annoyed by the game as they lose. Anticipation of the puzzle and action together can be more than enough to let the player find it easy enough and it not be a disaster. Only real way of finding out if it's a disaster or not is by testing and then perhaps tweaking the design.

For your own game you could try to balance it and you could alienate players. Think about if you want it to be action or puzzle. If you lean towards one more then maybe think about an all action game with optional puzzle elements that if the player wants to do then they shall be rewarded or vice versa. Personally there is no reason to do whatever you want but keep in mind "is this fun" and get other people to test it and see their reactions.

[Edited by - DontPanic on June 11, 2008 6:23:10 PM]