What approach do you adopt with regards to walkthroughs?

[odwyer1980]

Since the internet has become a world wide phenomenon, it has been much easier to cheat if you become stuck at a game, by giving in to the temptation to look at the various walkthroughs available.

Then at the same time you start living in denial by trying to convince yourself ‘I'm only getting a bit of help, this doesn't count. It's not cheating'

Ring a bell?

In 1996-2000 I never had the internet, so when I was playing games like Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2 or Grim Fandango, it was much more difficult and at the same time, much more fun.

Before the internet, if I got stuck, the only options I had to find the answer to the certain puzzle, was to look at the back of the instruction manual and hope there was one of those premium line telephone hint facilities that various companies used to have, or hope that a walkthrough came up in one of the magazines I subscribed with.

I'd sometimes go days and days, sometimes weeks without an answer, only when I finally discovered the answer to the puzzle, it was jubilation. I'd feel on top of the world.

I'll never forget the day - I think it was in about 1997, when I first played Secret of Monkey Island and not being able to progress from the game after exhausting every area. Then all of a sudden, I found the tin in the Scumm Bar kitchen, which lead to me being able to progress through the circus tent part of the game.

It felt a great sense of achievement.

These days, I don't really get that feeling because of the internet and the if I wanted, I could cheat with no problem at all.

In a way, I feel the internet has contributed to my lack of enjoyment of recent games. I thank god I got all of the classics out of the way before I ever got internet access.

I've just read in another post that someone doesn't do walkthroughs. I think this is an interesting approach and I might follow the same method. No matter how stuck I am, I'd make sure I will never look at a walkthroughs.

How do you feel the internet has affected your gaming, enjoyment, and what method you adopt with regards to walkthroughs?

[Eggie]

I suck at all and any computer games I play. So walkthroughs are a Godsend.

I love the adventure game genre, I love the feel of playing them and exploring a new world. But sooner or later I get stuck and if i want to find out what happens next in the story...It's walkthrough time I'm afraid.

[Mr Flibble]

Walkthroughs are like an infection, in that if you look at them even once, you'll look back every time you get stuck until you finish the game.

I hate using them but I often do, since I want to find out what happens next in the story.

[m0ds]

I remember the first walkthrough guide I used was from a book of 200 game walkthroughs, all written in French. So it was kinda fun to translate it into English to be able to continue in the game (I can't remember which game though). I remember resorting to the LucasArts help-line once, again I can't remember which game but I think it was Sam n Max. That probably cost a bomb! When I got stuck in LBAII I wrote to Electronic Arts, the answer was so damn stupidly easy though! Hehehe.

I remember specifically needing a walkthrough for The Dig, because I didn't have a clue. A lot of walkthroughs are quite good, but back in the day they were still quite vague and you'd still have to figure quite a lot out yourself (the bones puzzle in The Dig was never fully explained in the walkthrough I had, so I was stuck on that for weeks).

Walkthrough's are a godsend - but they are cheating, how can they not be? They don't act as a hints and tips guide - they just give you the solution fully. When I finished The Dig I still felt a sense of achievement, even though I had used a walkthrough for the final third of the game. More recently, I haven't been tempted to play the games I own, because I still feel I know them quite well. It was only a couple of years ago that I played the fists path and then the wits path on FoA, beforehand I'd only ever played it along with Sophia! None the less, I want to play these games again - but at a later date when I've pretty much "forgotten" them, and can go back and play them without the use of a walkthrough.

Games I've bought but haven't touched yet like Simon ther Sorcerer, Big Red Adventure etc I'll probably use walkthroughs for, depending on how tough they get. I usually find that if I'm stuck on a puzzle for more than a couple of hours, I will resort to a walkthrough - rather than leave the game and come back to it a day or so later. That falls back to what Eggie said - I want to know what happens next!!

The internet is a popular walkthrough resource. In fact, who needs education when you've got Google?? The internet has made it far easier for me to cheat. What I would appreciate is if there were more "hints + tips" guides rather than "walkthroughs". I'd rather be given a decent hint than the actual solution.


m0ds

[passer-by]

I usually find that if I'm stuck on a puzzle for more than a couple of hours, I will resort to a walkthrough - rather than leave the game and come back to it a day or so later.

Same here. I'll use a walkthrough if I 'm stuck for too long on a puzzle. I don't want to miss the end of a story or the view of great graphics only because I got bored of trying after a few days... But I take great careÃ,  not to read more than I need, I don't want to guess possible solutions. And I must be really stuck when I use it. I never use phone or fax, not my style...

[Ubel]

I always hate myself when I look up a solution for puzzles from walkthroughs. I sometimes quit trying too easily and dig up a walkthrough from somewhere. I really should stop doing that, but sometimes I'm just too impatient. :\

Walkthroughs are useful sometimes, but players should use them only if they have tried to solve the problem in the game for a very long time without success.

[Mr Flibble]

Hints and tips feel much less like cheating. For example, one site has a Hint-o-Matic for the Discworld games. Although I resort to it much to often. But I mean, put the frog in his mouth? I would never have got that.

[Helm]

There is an age where investing 3-4 weeks on solving a puzzle, and then feeling the enjoyment from finishing it is appropriate more, I feel: When you're a kid and have nothing else to do. Today, even when I do solve puzzles properly, I very rarely get more than an 'ah, that was clever' or possibly an 'ooh I wish I had designed that puzzle' and that's it. These things seem like a big deal more when you're enveloped in the game world, and though to no blame to the games themselves, as you grow up, it's much more difficult to get sucked in. You can see the 'numbers' behind the game more, the walkable areas, the simple design. it's not a game world and you're not 'beat it' you're just trying to figure out what the designer had in mind...

EDIT: this also had a lot to do with how much access we had on different games back then. You'd be surprized how much of a big deal solving the rubbish puzzles of Flight of the Amazon Queen is if you have nothing else to play.

[Pelican]

In my opinion, the issue of using walkthroughs tends to be game specific. If I'm really enjoying a game, and the puzzles have been comprehensible so far, I'll usually leave it for a day, in the hope that something sensible will occur to me (like the wine bottle puzzle in BS3 - I was on top of the world after figuring that out!). However, if I'm at the point of simply clicking everything in the hopes of getting lucky, then I might as well save myself some time and look up the answer on the internet. Unfortunately, as most tips are in the form of walkthroughs, I find that I'll accidently spoil some puzzles while trying to find the one I was stuck on. Its why I like the hints and tips forum here - rarely does anyone give out the full solution, and quite often, while waiting for an answer, you have a brainwave and work it out anyway.

When I was younger, I was lucky enough to find a walkthrough to the Secret of Monkey Island before I bought the game, because it is pretty tough for a first time adventure gamer. I agree with Helm, that when you were a kid, you had nothing much else to do, so it was rewarding to spend stupid amounts of time trying to figure out a puzzle. Now that we're all grown up (well, most of us ), we don't have the time anymore, and its so much harder to get into the game world, that tough puzzles can easily disturb the suspension of disbelief.

Anyway, in general I just prefer to find some hints (the hint system in Myst 4 is a good example, because you don't have to leave the game), but if a game is riddled with incomprehensible puzzles, or timed puzzles, I tend to keep a walkthrough to hand, simply so I can progress in the story. While I do enjoy solving puzzles, my main motivation these days for playing a game is the story, so I will use a walkthrough simply just to find out what happens next. It just really depends on the game, how impatient I am to get ahead in it!

[passer-by]

You can see the 'numbers' behind the game more, the walkable areas, the simple design. it's not a game world and you're not 'beat it' you're just trying to figure out what the designer had in mind...

I've noticed that, too, since I started using AGS. Whenever I play a game, all I see is walkable areas, hotspots and animations and I'm not a even a professional. I was playing Discworld Noir (II?) with my sister and she was mad at me explaining her the technical details instead of trying to solve the *ahem* puzzles! The good thing is that if the game is good, I can still dive deep in the  story and enjoy it.

[HillBilly]

I always use a walkthrough as the last way out, but when I'm really stuck, I prefer Universal Hint System. I know most of the hints are rather bad, but I find it better than walkthroughs that goes like this:

Pick up bottle
Dance on dead man's coffin
Talk to Theraphist

But yes, I know what you mean. I remember playing MI3 without an internet connection, and I felt godlike when I solved a puzzle. I had a friend who were playing it on the same time, and we called eachother each time we were stuck. It was great.

[ildu]

My question regarding being stuck in Eco Quest 1 was published in the hints section of the finnish PELIT magazine. You can find it if you search through the magazines around the beginning of the nineties. I don't think I ever got an answer.

It's funny, you would never imagine a hints section nowadays in a magazine, wherein people would mail in questions in hopes of getting an answer from the writers. And back then game walkthroughs were a central part of game magazines, taking up anywhere from 5 to 10 pages from the magazines.

[Mr Flibble]

...You can see the 'numbers' behind the game more, the walkable areas, the simple design. it's not a game world and you're not 'beat it' you're just trying to figure out what the designer had in mind...

AGS is both my punishment, and my reward.


When Grim Fandango first came out I found a walkthrough for it in a magazine before my parents bought me the game. I read that walkthrough like a book, cos there was pictures and plot synopsis thingies and such. That means that whenever I finally got my parents to buy it for me I virtually breezed through it ('cept for that wheelbarrow puzzle. Man, that took a while.)

[Ali]

To quote Helm again:

You can see the 'numbers' behind the game more, the walkable areas, the simple design. it's not a game world and you're not 'beat it' you're just trying to figure out what the designer had in mind...

There are times when playing a less-than brilliant game when a walkthrough can save you from seeing the bones of a game. On many occasions I've been stuck and the solution has struck me as absolutely illogical. (See: getting-into-the-tower puzzle in Simon the Sorcerer II).

A walkthrough can help players to escape the mire of a poorly constructed puzzle and enjoy the game's story. Admittedly, I'd rather all games were great, but as long as many adventures have engaging stories but ill-concieved puzzles, walkthroughs will be a boon.

[odwyer1980]

I bought the LucasArts double pack of Monkey Island 1 & 2 in 1997.

Like I mention, apart from a premium line number on the back of the manual, which was always a challenge to get too, there was no real help in sight which made the challenge more satisfying. Even something as basic as missing a hotspot.

At the same time period, I was playing the Broken Sword series and again, with no internet access, it made this game such an exciting prospect to play.

I had that feeling of when you first wake up in the morning, you want to switch on your computer and play the game. If I am honest, I haven't had that same feeling for a long time now.

It looks like the majority do use walkthroughs - I was hoping that most would say they don't. I'm probably going to adopt a new stance where I will not use one - if I can't solve a puzzle I will not finish the game. I think this is the only way I am ever going to enjoy this type of game like I used too.

To me, using walkthroughs would always be cheating. I have on a couple of occasions tried to convince myself I wasn't cheating when using walkthroughs but that's just living in denial on the subject.

A lot of good points on this subject - especially regarding the shortness of a games today because we live in the day of walkthroughs, which enable a game player to get through the game in double quick time.

I recently played Sherlock Holmes and the game was very difficult. I used a walkthrough a lot throughout that game and I felt kind of empty when I finished it.

[Mr Flibble]

Team17's Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy.
Awesome game, but difficult. I ended up calling the premium rate number.
Those little sods put a guy with a thick scottish accent on tehe phones!
I had to call back about 3 times just to catch what he was saying.

[Eggie]

It's ALWAYS a guy with a thick scottish accent...

[Gonzo]

Okay, there is probably something to be said for the satisfaction of really having to make your brain work to solve the trickier puzzles, then finally cracking it, which was pretty much the only way to do it back then - short of calling a hint line or ordering a hint book.

But personally, I don't think it was always like that when I spent a long time stuck.

Rather than puzzling it out, more often than not I'd just be scouring each and every room I'd visited for a previously-unnoticed hotspot, or maybe exhausting all the conversation topics with everyone in the game so far. It's not really playing a game anymore once you start to do that - it's just a frustrated approach of bulldozing your way through to the next bit.

I've thought about this in the past, and decided that what I like about adventure games is not so much the process of solving it or a sense of achievement. Frankly, for me, the actual puzzling is a tiny part of the enjoyment, next to the way the best games allow you to immerse yourself in a world and its characters through interaction. Sometimes I think that in good game design, the player should never be stuck for more than a few minutes (controversial?).

So I don't get too nostalgic about not having walkthroughs easily available. I'm more interested in getting on with the story, even if I did have the time to be stuck.

[Dambuilder]

I think using a walkthrough is OK, as long as you don't resort to it for every little problem you encounter. Of course this is pretty hard, as once you know where to find a walkthrough, every little problem can become a huge problem in an instant.
So it's a matter of self-discipline IMO - which I'm currently teaching myself by playing the games on another computer without internet-connection.
The most frustrating experience in an adventure is, when you realize you could've solved it on your own afterwards.

I'm glad they exist, though. I would have been hopelessly stuck forever in several games, as sometimes there are puzzles that defy any sense of logic at all. (Down In The Dumps, anyone?)
And I'm no fan of a "Can't solve it, don't bother with it ever again" attitude. Just because there's one puzzle that takes one's imagination to the extremes, doesn't mean the rest have to be. There's nothing wrong with using a little help from time to time.