I find when I play adventure games, certain types of puzzles have me running straight for the nearest 'walkthrough' with barly any effort to solve it on my own. Two examples are mazes and slider puzzles. I'm especialy bad at solving sliders, and the few times I attemt them on my own, I become quickly frustrated! (but I was able to get through a tough one in Largo Winch with a helpfull stratagy provided by Witchen, even though it wasn't a step by step solution).

Are there any types of puzzles that have you doing the same, or do you always attempt them one your own first?

Louis

Interesting subject, Lou! Are you talking about games in general or the puzzles in the game? For games in general it would have to be something like Schizm that gets me running straight for the walkthrough!

Also, I loathe sliders and mazes in games. I guess developers delight in torturing us with these sliders. Right, developers????

Maybe I am odd but I really like sliders. But mazes--they frustrate, humble, and torture me. If after considerable pain there is a WT for the solution I will run to it. This is not always possible as you all know. So I take my medicine and try to continue on.

Although there are a few puzzles that drive me batty (like sliders ), the thing that will make me go straight to a WT is boredom, or a puzzle that is not related to the story at all. I'll go to a WT when 1. I just want to get this part over with. or 2. I know that my mind just doesn't work the way the programmer's does and no matter how "out-side the box" I think, I won't get it. A perfect game for me would be one where I don't want to go to the WT, although there have been very few when I haven't had to at least peek.

Timed sequences.

Frequent and unpredictable sudden death. (I'll follow the WT step by step to avoid it - assuming I don't quit the game first)

Mazes if they are boring-looking ones. (e.g. -Traitors Gate maze)

Obnoxious conversation trees where you have to ask things in the right order or be doomed to repeat them. These are actually a sort of maze if you think about it. (e.g. - getting the scissors from the jerk in Mystery of the Druids, talking to the people in Shambala in Beyond Atlantis 2)

Puzzles which have multiple solutions only one of which is correct (e.g. - the Mandala puzzle in Beyond Time)

Known dead end. If I know a game has one, I'll look up how to avoid it in a WT before I even start the game.

Suspected bugs. If a puzzle doesn't seem to be working correctly, I'll look it up in a WT to see if it could be a bug. (e.g. - in Xiama, the star puzzle, the cursor disappeared after the sky darkened and did not reappear. Looked like a bug to me, though apparently it wasn't. A little warning in the documentation could have helped.)

Slow navigation. It cuts way down on the fun of exploring and I'll use a WT so I know exactly where to go (e.g. - Traitors Gate and Temujin)

Denitely maze. And of course if the game is not interesting anymore because of the bad story, bugs, etc.

Just want to see the ending...

This should be an easy one to answer but I actually had to think about it a bit. Schizm sent me to a WT fairly soon after I started. I believe it began when I hit those rotating drum and things. I do not like figuring out a foreign (alien) language except when it refers to numbers. I usually get that pretty easily (Riven). Illogical puzzles -the Gear Puzzle in the Clock Tower in MYST kept me busy for a week and then I accidentally solved it. Mazes that twist you when you stop so you can't orientate yourself to where you were drive me to a WT after a little while. Sliders are fine unless I find out they change themselves into unsolvable puzzles (I think Safecracker had one). Timed sequences can get to me if they are too fast to kill me off. Hate to be killed or thrown out of the game for any reason. Don't want to feel like the programmer is testing my patience - don't have any to spare. Conversations where you have to keep going back until you get the same answers twice - can handle them most times but tempt me to hit the WT. SYBERIA's biggest temptation to go to a WT was seeing the same subjects in the conversation list and not knowing if you would get new questions or not from choosing them again - managed to hold myself back from a WT but the temptation was great there, too. Traitor's Gate forced me to a WT when I learned doing one thing in the beginning changed the end.......with no warning anywhere NOT to do that. Getting trapped in the lower floor of the Gift Shop area did me in - went to a WT but was so disgusted I never did finish the game. Guess I covered everything. Good to get it off my chest. Happy gaming!

I also hate sliderpuzzles, mazes and everything with chess.
I can never figure out that game.

hmmmm....... What gets me running straight for the 'walkthrough'????? INSTALLING THE GAME, of course! I never start a game without one....

Why does everyone consider sliders to be so hard? Didn't anyone do the sliders where you had to put the numbers 1-15 in sequence when you were a kid? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="confused.gif" /> Time sequences, sometimes mazes, and too much to-ing and fro-ing will send me to a walkthru. Also any math ones that I don't feel like doing at the time. Or how to use the interface when know what to do but don't know how to use the keys.

I go right to a WT for musical or tone puzzles. Even playing a simple tune on a keyboard (Safecracker and Myst)is really difficult for me.

I agree. I've never understood why everyone hates sliders and mazes so much. Whether or not they fit into the game ("why would there be a slider here, or a maze there, realistically?"), they are both good examples of puzzles that can be solved with a little simple logic. It's the whole idea of using logic to progress through a game that makes me love adventure games to begin with.

It's puzzles that don't have a logical solution that make me look for the walkthrough.

Yes, I did.. and never solved one! Usualy endend up smashing the miserable thing into little bits of plastic! Okay, maybe that means I have some anger managment issues.. but I still hate them!

Louis

Sliders and mazes don't bother me. But those conversation trees (like in Atlantis, The Lost Tales) or illogical interface and/or inventory (like in The Messenger) drive me straight for a walkthrough. As for sound/musical puzzles I will generally try to get hubby or one of my kids to help me first.......then it's off to find a walkthrough.

I wish I had known about walkthroughs when I played Beyond Time, definitely would have saved myself a lot of time and trouble on that Mandala Puzzle. What a pain that one was!

hugs, Cheryl

I'm hesitant to even start a game unless there is a WT available. However, I have taken to using them less & less. Now, I usually only refer to them if there is a timed segment in the game that will result in sudden death if the moves are not done quickly and in an exact sequence.

And I would not have finished Largo Winch at all were it not for that help the WT gave in solving those "hacking" puzzles.
Cynch