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Let's talk about pacing

Above we've got a fairly slow puzzle (sped up quite a bit for the video)  where you turn a bunch of pipes on and off.

I'm kind of ambivalent towards this sort of puzzle normally, but at this point in the game it felt appropriate to have a static puzzle. A lot of the time slower sections like this are used to provide breathing room between more intense sequences while still giving the player a win, although that's not necessarily the case here (more below).

The best example I have for this is the excellent ladder sequence from Metal Gear Solid 3, where an intense fight against an elderly sniper is immediately followed by a two minute climb up a big ladder as the game's theme plays. Ordinarily this would be considered bad gameplay, but in this case it feels completely appropriate to let the plater catch their breath for a minute before launching into a cliffside stealth section. It's like a mid-game credits sequence!

Let's talk about pacing but in increased detail

When I think about intense or exciting game pacing, the most basic kind of model is something like

Slow section
Fast section
Slow section
Fast section
...

or maybe

Slow section
Gathering momentum
Fast section
Slow section
Gathering momentum
Fast section
...

This is a really good model to have in mind but it's fairly reductive and doesn't apply that well to a more non-linear or exploration driven game, where you're stuck with something like

Slow explore
Fast action
Slow explore
Fast action
...

This is a bit limiting through, which is why I want to talk about pipes.

Let's find out why a pipe puzzle is relevant to all of this

The thing in  my mind here is that puzzles often have their own internal kind of pacing, where a period of slow contemplation is followed by a sudden rush once the player works out the answer.

If done right, I think this can make puzzles (even slightly annoying ones) a great launchpad into a more intense section of gameplay. I actually played around with this years ago in Heart of Ice, where an intentionally kind of annoying puzzle to open a door launches the player into a no holds bars series of action encounters, culminating in three boss battles in a row.

The pipes (above video) ideally have a simular purpose, launching the player into the last sectino of level where they have to evade a series of traps in order to grab the big McGuffin for that area.

I think it's helpful to think of puzzles in these terms, as kind of a natural ramp between low energy sections and high energy sections rather that just a contrast with higer intensity action.

Anyway, enought rambling; here's a screenshot with another new character: