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I never enjoyed these types of games as a kid, and I never beat them. I'm thinking specifically of Myst, its sequel, and Monkey Island. I'm not an idiot, but whatever particular type of problem-solving skill is required to enjoy these games, I just don't have it. I can enjoy the most complicated and convoluted strategy games or RPGs, but somehow those skills don't translate to knowing which thing to click on with which other thing. I can't be the only one, right? A reasonably smart person who outright fails at point-and-click puzzle games?

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It’s a distinct art form, with it’s own cultural norms (eg “use A on B”, where neither has any obvious relationship to the problem at hand).

As far as I can tell, exhaustive search tends to be the solution.

I never got them either - but they seem to be to be like cryptic crosswords, where the logic of the puzzles is a thing that exists divorced from the (apparent) context, and it's about understanding a bunch of conventions specific to the puzzle designer and the subculture around them.

> cryptic crosswords

I still remember the magic of discovering cryptic crosswords. Regular crossword puzzles are fine but cryptics are their own sort of fun.

Exhaustive search is as much the solution to Point & Click adventures as save scumming is the solution to action games / RNG-heavy games - you can beat the game that way but it isn't the intended way and probably not the most fun one. That is unless by exhaustive search you mean you need to explore other scenes available to you when you are stuck somewhere.

While some adventure games do rely on so-called "moon logic", the solutions are pretty much never completely arbitrary but rather require you to think out of the box, take descriptions/names/etc. literally even when that would not make sense in the real world, always look for possible puns or other jokes. Play enough of them and you will quickly get an intuition for these puzzles.

Of course, there are P&C adventures that go for more realistic puzzles if that is what you prefer. You'll still need a sense for puzzles though and won't always immediately know what to try next.

Many of the puzzles are illogical, or only make sense in "video game land" type logic similar to how Looney Tunes cartoons work with their own rules. So yeah, intelligence is not necessarily that important compared with obstinately trying everything. I was pretty good at them, but mostly due to being stubborn.

Personally though, I always had the most fun with these as a bunch of pre-teen friends standing around the computer throwing out ideas. I really struggle to play a lot of puzzle games now that I'm older since I miss that dynamic, and tend to stick to more straightforward ones like Tametsi/Hexcells (think Sudoku/Minesweeper).

Well, Myst is like 100 times more difficult than something lighthearted like Monkey Island. Those two games are almost different genres and not really comparable I would say.

I feel similarly, although I always felt the gameplay system itself was flawed, rather than blaming my own ineptitude. It felt like quite often I'd be stuck trying every combo of items with elements in the environment until some arcane combination unlocked the next bit pf story/gameplay. It seemed like such a shame because the design and scriptwriting were so good.

There's nothing wrong with playing with a hintbook if you do get stuck. I play for the story, not the puzzles.

And since we are in the computer age you can find one along the information hightway: https://www.uhs-hints.com/

This lets you get hints for the part you are stuck on without spoiling other puzzles or story bits.

This one has a built in hint system.

I completed a bunch of Sierra and Infocom games in my youth, 20 or so.

Can't recall many without reaching out for a hint here or there. There's always things in these types of games that are totally illogical. I'm suspect of anyone who says they beat these things with zero help at all as IME it's down to myopia in writing/design in most cases.

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