What gets you running straight for the 'walkthrough'

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

I like sliders since I was a child, but maze puzzles drive me crazy. The most I love are musicpuzzles and I really hate timesequences

josefien

I tend to go straight for the walkthrough in office puzzles. That is, puzzles that take place in an office. I think it's because there are very few offices in games (or real life for that matter) where I want to spend a lot of time.

Besides, office puzzles are usually tedious puzzles (because offices are tedious places?). What to do if you're terrible at the tumblers that open safes? What if you don't like reading through scads of boring mail to figure out the right code, or opening multiple drawers to find the key? What if figuring out how to route a request-form correctly through the office bureaucracy makes you want want to scream?

This is a problem in police procedural games because a good part of the game always takes place in the detective's office. I recommend that any game that has to have office puzzles should place them late in the game so that they don't discourage the gamer right at the beginning.

Anyway, Obsidian contained the only enjoyable office I've ever visited in a game.

No ifs ands buts or maybes - if a game has a maze I'm heading for a walkthrough. I may try for a few minutes to do it on my own but that's about it. <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/woozy.gif" />

Unfortunately I am not independently wealthy and need to go to work each day. Time to relax and play a game may only be 1 or 2 times a week, and then maybe for only an hour or so per sitting. It is very frustrating to spend the entire time wandering around the same places or working on the same puzzle and having to end the session having gotten no further than when I started.
I go to the walkthru then to avoid just saying poop on this game (excuse my French) and never going back to it. Let's face it, we play the games to have fun. When it stops being fun go for the walkthru!

AHA!!!! Condemned by your own words....

Hi all,

When I need direction is when I use a walkthrough.

If I need to find a place or item than I look to see where it is located.

If I have to try combinations of symbols to open a door or something...I look for the answer.

If its a math related puzzle...I look for the answer faster !!!

Hi.

Has to be timed sequences - when "death" is the punishment for getting them wrong

I consider "being timed" to be enough of a trauma !!!!

Cheers.

Mad

There isnt a particular thing that makes me use a walkthru, if the puzzle I am working on seems illogical or bores me, then I use the walkthru, and of course there are times when I just cant figure out what I need to do next.
BTW, Sliders are probably one of my favorite types of puzzles, have never gone to a walkthru for one of those, I enjoy trying to figure them out for some reason.

I no longer print out a walkthrough at the start of a game but I'm still pushed to look at them in certain circumstances.
1) Dead ends. What did I do wrong and why can't I go anywhere?
2) Boring...zzzzzzzz. Time to finish the game and move on.
3) Mazes (like mentioned above) that disorientate you. You have no idea which way you are facing.
4) Die over and over again. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="tongue.gif" />

Pixel hunts, especially when the games are toooooo dark to see, even with the lights turned off and the brightness turned up. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="tongue.gif" />

Mazes like the one in the 7th Guest. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="tongue.gif" />

Marion

I don't discriminate about finding help dependent on what particular type of "mired in the great black stuckness" occurs. I just set a round about time limit. No matter what the "puzzle" is, if I am stuck in one spot and can't proceed no matter what for an hour or so...I'm off to find help. Time is essential.......LOL

I don't mind mazes or sliders either. I find myself looking for a WT if I am stuck, ie I have no clue what to do next. Unfortunately, that is the majority of games that I have played. I tell myself I am not going to look, but that doesn't work.
I normally find it difficult if there are TONS of inventory items to use. That's frustrating.

Mazes, mazes, mazes. Been there, done that. 'Nuff said.

With me it is Timed Sequences and it is either my solving it or getting blown up.

The hacker puzzles in Largo Winch.

Am fine with Slider puzzles.

Just okay with mazes.

Tee Hee,

definately mazes!! The worst was in Cameron files 1 underwater and timed... I sussed out getting there, felt really pleased with myself, but getting back was nigh on impossible!! Worst thing was I was soooo close... one wrong turn and it banjaxed the whole thing. I started to feel claustrophobic and paniced, amazing how I identified with what was happening to the character!! Obviously what they tried to do worked

Tig

Personally, I avoid walkthroughs like the plague! I much prefer hints ... like the ones you get from UHS. This means I don't get to the end of the game feeling that I cheated (by using a WT), but that I maybe had a few pointers when I got a bit boggd down.

Having said that, I needed the walkthrough to get through the pain that is Mystery of the Druids.

Ta-ra,
The Gremlin.

Walkthroughs do put me of games, for example the Lighthouse submarine at the ship wreck it took me ages to open that safe.. think it was a safe its been so long.. anyhows id rather much have hints than telling me exactly what to do...

~Polo <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/woozy.gif" />

I go straight for a hint (or walkthrough) whenever I not interested enough in the puzzle/game to solve it myself. This is always caused by a boring story, a boring puzzle (I don't like twiddly puzzles much), or my big pet hate...

walking, walking, walking, bit of interaction, walking, walking, walking, bit of interaction, walking, walking, walking...

Oh I don't know...I use walkthroughs as a reference point if needed. Depends on the game
if it's logical I have no problems. But it's the illogocal ones that get me....like Tony Tough. Drove me batty. But Lighthouse made sense, so did Gast for example (go figure)
Inferno

i try to avoid walkthroughs as well as it really can take away all your fun. and once you have printed it out and it's lying there next to you..you have a much greater tendency to look at it even if you are not THAT lost.
my walkthrough situations:
1) dead ends: one dead end scars me for life. hours and hours of game play for nothing...i will use a walkthrough for the whole game after running into a dead end.
2)puzzles that bore me. if i see that there are 50 buttons to push and you have to find out a combination....no way!
3) illogical puzzles
4) if i get really, really lost.

Hi!

I hate the slider puzzles! But I like the UHS system. When I need a W/T, I usually can't resist looking ahead on the WT. Sometimes I need W/T though. I am tone deaf & dyslexic, so need help with any of the tone puzzles, and have a terrible time with the mazes where you have to look at the walls. I'm fine when looking down at a map, but get totally turned around in the turn L or R mazes. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="confused.gif" />

But I still love the games. Especially all the old Infocom & Sierra games. Love the fun stuff!



Happy Gaming!

Judy

I'd go along with those who say "boredom" as the answer. Perhaps boredom from a dull or missing story-line. Or boredom from playing sessions spent getting nowhere.

Good games I'll beg for hints on.

Mediocre games I'll use a walkthrough to get through to the end.

Bad games I won't even finish.

But what's good / mediocre / bad for me could unplayable / fun / classic for someone else.

I agree with what Peter said. I use a WT when I am too bored or frustrated to continue the game without a absolute detailed way out or through.

It might be a great game or a terrible one I am determined to finish, but the similarity is that I am done trying to figure out whatever puzzle or place I am stuck in within the game.

Laura

"What gets you running straight for the 'walkthrough'"

Beginning a game!!!!!