What do you think about puzzles in AAMFP?

[grrrz]

Haven't quite finished the game yet, but so far I like the style of the "puzzles", if one might call them that. Pretty much for the same reason Alex Ros stated: It doesn't feel like a game anymore, thus it doesn't make me think like I'm in a game.
Frequent and difficult puzzles are, in the end, a very artificial element, similar to combat or precision jumping. A mere obstacle that you have to overcome with skill or intelligence, simply there to give you something to do and keep you entertained.

Think about it - in real life situations, how often do you come across a real "puzzle"? Say, the lights go out and you figure that a fuse must have blown in the cellar. Do you have to solve some intricate riddle now? No, you go down there and simply replace the damn thing.
Maybe you have a brief search because you can't remember where you put the cellar key, but you certainly won't have to combine a ton of random objects, pick the door lock and solve a mathematical puzzle in the fusebox itself to make it work again.

Riddles like that traditionally belong in games, but we are at a point where some games dare to try different approaches. Dropping classic elements like riddles, skill challenges, health and ressource management in favour of telling a story and trying to make the player forget he's playing a game. Personally, I'm welcoming this new direction as an interesting experiment, even though I think that AMFP could have done quite a few things better in order to truly pull off what they were aiming for. (For example, removing the immersion-breaking inventory is pointless if I'm still spending half the game in the journal menu instead.)

Puzzles in Penumbra felt very remarkably natural in the narrative, not contrieved at all.
In my opinion they help with immersion, since you feel more involved in the progression of the story, and you have to thoroughly check every detail thus giving you little aspect of the universe you could have missed otherwise (for exemple going through a small journal to find a recipe).
(Also I definitely like adventure/puzzle games and they play along very well with engaging horror story and stealth in the FG games.)