[MACGRUBER7693]

Sometimes I just can't resist, and I usually feel like an idiot afterwards.

[diego]

Depends on a game

If i feel the game is giving me all information i need, if i'm not feeling lost, if i have urge to continue on my own then i'll do everything possible not to look for the solution.

However, playing should never become heavy frustration. Slight frustration is good and natural, but if it becomes tedious and if i feel like i don't really know what is expected from me, i'll look up the walkthrough for that part. Playing should be more of a flawless experience rather than frustration, so it's basically game designers who will decide how much i will look at the walkthrough.

Sometimes, when i feel that the game is of such high quality, that it totally occupies me and my imagination, then i'll do everything not to look at the walkthrough or ask for hint as long as i can do on my own, because that's the least thing i could to respect the authors who succeded in making and designing great game.

[Lucien21]

As long as the puzzles are fair and that I have been given all the relevant information to solve puzzles I try to plow through without cheating.

A well designed game will have more than one puzzle outstanding at any one time to allow you to work on something else while you are stuck at one point.

There is a better sense of acomplishment when you do finally finish it without help.

However,

All too often these days we lack the time of patience to play these games and I find the time between getting stuck and cheating is getting less and less as I get older.

[7h30n]

If I get stuck becuase I missed an item and I'm sure of it then I look up the guide.

Other time when I use it is when I'm sure I'm doing the puzzle right but for some reason I can't get the solution (satellite puzzle in Moment of Silence).

I think I could count on my fingers of one hand when I used a guide:

Spoiler:

Still Life - door code via paintings and blade numbers
Discworld Noir - at the end some pixel hunting and journal connections because I was eager to see the end, game was amazing!
The Moment of Silence - satellite puzzle
Monkey Island 2 - some pixel hunting

I think that's it

But there is an extreme example where I played through the whole game with a walkthrough. It was Sam & Max: Hit the Road. For some reason, the game wasn't good to me at all like everyone says, so just to have it completed I used walkthrough. Telltale episodes are much more enjoyable for me, albeit too easy.

[Dwagginz]

I think I've used a walkthrough for every game so far, or I've used a number of the hint systems in the game.

Broken Sword 1 had me running to the hint system/a guide a number of times, as did The Longest Journey (And, to a lesser extent, Dreamfall). I've had to use one once or twice for Broken Sword 2, but I'm mostly making progress through that myself.

Oh, and I relied rather heavily on Keepsake's hint/puzzle-solving system.

[Nafsika]

I always look at walkthroughs lol I'm not that good yet at adventure games but I like playing them...Im new so yea

[Idrisguitar]

im new too. but i really feel deflated when i have looked at a guide, robbing me of effort, so i do what diego does, try not to look unless im close to giving up on the game overall.

its why im respecting secret files 1 so much, it is hard but very solvable. (even if the story/voice acting etc. are a bit uninteresting.)

[Lucien21]

Sometimes a nudge is better than cheat so I have used UHS in the past.

http://www.uhs-hints.com/

[Stuart]

Varies game by game. Some logic/number puzzles stump me as I have ADHD and also am not the best mathematician. For Dracula: Origin I had to use a guide several times for some of the puzzles. But for Lost Horizon I used a guide once and that was for a trivial matter (I'd tried every item combo on everything but hadn't looked at a doorknob to reveal a new hotspot -.-).

[marcd2011]

i think with the ease of access of online guides, it almost makes it harder not to use them, than it is to use them, which is a shame.

Most of the time with me it starts off as me getting stuck and looking at a walkthrough after trying everything in the game i can think of, then getting stuck again and looking at a walkthrough without really trying hard to solve the problem, then looking at a walkthrough after i've been stuck on a problem for 5 minutes, then deciding not to play the game anymore as i've ruined it for myself..

I think UHS is the best source for game guides as you're very unlikely to accidentally see the solution to a puzzle you're not stuck on, so i try to only use that nowadays.

Recently i played through Gray Matter and i think i consulted a guide once, not to find out how to solve a puzzle, but to find out what the hell i was meant to be doing in a chapter, because it's often not at all clear.

I also played through Black Mirror 2 and only consulted a guide once or twice, and Black Mirror 1 the same, the most stuck i got on Black Mirror 1 was that bastard gun puzzle which of course i had saved after already wasting a bullet..

The most memorable need for a walkthrough for me though would have to be Secret Files 2 where I was completely stuck for ages and it turned out that there was an object i needed which was appearing off screen due to the game being vert- on a widescreen monitor!!

[marshal99]

No shame in using a guide once in a while when you get stuck. I ain't that smart which is why i seldom play those puzzle adventure games like 7th guest , Myst etc.
I liked those self-inbuilt hint system which is better. In the 90s when adventure games were at a high , there's no such thing as an internet like right now where every solution can be found within minutes. In the past , you will have to pay for a hintbook and it ain't cheap.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by marshal99

No shame in using a guide once in a while when you get stuck. I ain't that smart which is why i seldom play those puzzle adventure games like 7th guest , Myst etc.
I liked those self-inbuilt hint system which is better. In the 90s when adventure games were at a high , there's no such thing as an internet like right now where every solution can be found within minutes. In the past , you will have to pay for a hintbook and it ain't cheap.

Yeah, as a teen I loved the * Quest games but never seemed to finish them as I found them too hard.

With AGs, I don't want a game to be too easy but I like a leisurely difficulty level. Lost Horizon is a perfect example.

[skeeter_93]

I've pretty much looked up a hint for every game I've played for years (since the internet) unless they were quite easy or had inbuilt hints. I hate myself for it, but can't seem to stop myself. Just yesterday I was about to look up a solution for a mapping/maze type puzzle that I'd been fiddling about with for a while when I suddenly stumbled upon the solution. The little thrill I got from working it out made me think I was glad I hadn't looked it up. And that's what I'm missing out on now - the pride on working something out for myself. I remember that from when I'd been stuck on a game for weeks, that thrill as whatever you tried actually worked!

Originally Posted by marcd2011

Most of the time with me it starts off as me getting stuck and looking at a walkthrough after trying everything in the game i can think of, then getting stuck again and looking at a walkthrough without really trying hard to solve the problem, then looking at a walkthrough after i've been stuck on a problem for 5 minutes, then deciding not to play the game anymore as i've ruined it for myself..

My problem exactly. I can resist for a while, but once I have looked up hints for a game, it's like my resolve is weaker, and it takes me less and less time to go back to them.

Some games seem to encourage me to use hints! Like So Blonde...

Spoiler:

Near the end I was trekking all over the island trying to find someone or something and the load screen every time I went to a new location drove me insane. After what felt like forever I used a walk through because I just wanted the game to be over.

I did find I was much better earlier in last year when my computer wasn't connected to the internet. Checking hints meant going down to the study and turning Dad's computer and the modem on and I couldn't be bothered a lot of the time. Now everything's all networked and all I have to do is ALT TAB to get hints.

[jhetfield21]

i get what you mean about the working hard and the thrill after solving a hard ,or at least a hard for you(you as in for each person),puzzle.
but sometimes the puzzles that you can't solve after 10-20 times you've tried and you have to resort to doing all the things that can be done like combining everything with everything or trying all inventory items with every hotspot and such just ain't worth it.
if you have to resort to such tactics it's not like the thrill of finding the solution from understanding.i think that the online guide and this situation is the same.in the end you didn't think about it.

EDIT:sometimes you have to use a guide 'cause if you're stuck on something for ages and refuse to look at a guide then you can easily drop the game or get bored to use everything with everything which ruins the whole game.and even if you're not that weak willed after a while it really ruins it if you can't progress at all.in the end it's just a game so for the sake of finishing it and watching the whole story you can use it.

[mtgmaster]

When I do, the solution is normally something I was just about to try but didn't. Probably because it seemed so illogical compared to whatever I've already tried.

Also in games where you have to keep going back and forth between scenes that take way too long to get to. Then I just give up so I can move on with the game.

[terhardp]

I try to abstain myself from using walkthroughs when playing a new game as much as I can, but I must admit that I use them fairly often. The most common scenario is when I got stuck in the game: I have no idea what to do next. Especially when the story of the game hooks me up, so I can't wait to see what's going to happen next. The other reason is when I encounter some more complex logic puzzle that frustrates me.

When I must use walkthrough, I tend to use the classic ones which can be scrolled an inch by inch, rather than UHS because the latter can sometimes reveal too much than I want to know at that point.

[kate me]

When I got to like the adventure genre, I didn't even know walkthroughs exists !

I remember back in the good old days when I was stuck for 2 month on Broken Sword 2 because I wanted to figure out the scene by myself and don't ask anyone what to do

Now on the other hand, I'm embaraced to say I'm using walkthroughs more and more often... with regrets after, most of the time!
(maybe I should disconect my PC or my phone from the internet so I won't be tempted!)

But if they make a Broken Sword 5 someday, I promise I won't use a walkthrough !!!!!

...or maybe if I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY STUCK, I'll ask you guys instead !

[jhetfield21]

lol upstairs for the last sentence

[marcd2011]

well i think i've taken cheating to a whole new level today, not because a game is hard, but because it's stupidly written.

I decided to play Scratches Director's Cut because everyone on here seems to rave about it, but what an awful awful game it is.. it never tells you what you're meant to be doing, or gives you any clue as to what puzzle you might need to solve, choosing to rely on you using the phone every time you haven't got anything to do and hoping it advances time.

I've had to look at the walkthrough pretty much every 10 minutes just to know what i should be trying to do next. There actually came a point during the first 'day' where i had to talk to the same guy on the phone 3 times in a row because i'd somehow triggered several things all at once due to exploring the whole house right at the start. Yes that's right, ring him, talk to him, hang up, ring him, talk to him, hang up, ring him, talk to him, hang up. Now that's just ridiculous, and without a walkthrough telling me i needed to call him again, and again i would still be stuck.

And to top it off, i just started the next part, Sunday and yet again i have no clue what i'm meant to be doing. A phone call told me i should get some writing done but nope, can't do that. The only story thread left open from the first day was a letter i mailed to someone to translate but i can't ring her to find out what the letter said.

Looking at UHS suggests i should be looking to open a safe, but i've not been given any indication from the game that there is even a safe, much less that i need something from a safe. I really think i can't be bothered with this game, seriously, no thought went into it at all.

[Hoipolloi]

Originally Posted by marcd2011

... Scratches Director's Cut ... it never tells you what you're meant to be doing, or gives you any clue as to what puzzle you might need to solve...

A hallmark of good oldstyle adventuring, anyone?

I started using walkthoughs when I lost touch with my co-gamers. Having to figure out everything by yourself can be pretty hard, depending on the game. Probably Schizm (2000?) did it for me - that game got me stuck quite early and didn't offer enough clues. I just forgot about it until I had a dial-up internet connection a few months later, stumbled across a walkthough and knew I would never have figured it out myself. That was the first time I felt cheated by the developers, and since then I have had no compunctions about using "assistance" when I'm stuck.

I prefer a hint, when I can get it. But complete walkthoughs are much easier to find. It takes some selective reading skill to browse over the parts you don't want to know, but a well-written walkthough allows you to do just that.