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"Walkthrough This"

Why do we need walkthroughs, most of us have had a quick fling with one of them during our gaming lives, but why?
it seems to me that when we get the games, puzzles and level are easy to complete when you have a basic idea of the moves, nothing can stop you until.....damn, this thing puzzles you! what can it be? i'm sure it needs to go....erm, where?

*A few days later*

Your brain starts to crack, after running around in circles too much and getting your 50th glass of water from the kitchen, you decide it's time to have a peek at a walkthrough, it's nothing bad because it's only a peek, your positive you can complete the rest of the game on your own. You log onto the internet, type 'walkthrough' into yahoo's search engine, a few thousand links pop up and you instantly click on one, to save some pain from what your doing.

when you eventually find out what went wrong, you kick yourself and run to the game.
It was right infront you the whole time! why didn't you see that? it's a perfect fit!

The next few hours are once again, as easy as the first few, you have no problems finding places for things and forfilling your missions, it seems a lot easier and your more confident with the controls as you've seen all the areas around the level, i'm sure only the people that made the game have seen before.

You trug on with a big grin stretched upon your face, looking for the next obstacle, your sure you won't need the walkthrough again, and if you do, you won't look at it, you paid £30 for this game and want to complete it on your own two feet.

I think this is all part of the game, some of you complete the games without realising it was hard, some of you struggle to complete the first boss only to find out he/she had a huge neon switch on their back saying "switch me off to win" well, where theres a will theres a way, and most people see no wrong in peeking at a walthrough once and again, thats what it's there for why not? i'm saving my self £10 on the original!

I've never heard of that game.

I needed one for emergency, a really wierd, fun game.

When games get frustrating, they stop being fun, which inevitably ends up with some form of walkthrough being looked at. I remember when I had Day of the Tentacle on my PC and the temptation to save myself from hours of frustratedly clicking on different things was to have a little peak now and then at a guide. I wish I hadn't; it's always more gratifying when you solve something really tricky in a game for yourself.

ashtray wrote:

> Then, you fall into the trap of looking at it again and again, even for puzzles
> that aren't quite as hard.
This is a bad thing with walkthroughs.

this is very true, you have to be strong.

Only time I have ever used one is for MGS, and that was only because i was mid-game and i haddnt played it in ages. I knew which room to go to, but couldnt remember how to get there, so i looked at a map.

One of the best uses I have ever made of a walkthru was for the original Discworld. I've read all the books, and so was really interested in the game. The only problem, was it was full of almost completely inane prattle, and was ludicrously illogical. The walthrough meant that I could skip the useless dialogues, and find out the answers to the stupid puzzles - (Ah! So, I unzip the rat, and theres an imp inside! Of course!)

Oh adventure games. Sometimes the clues can be so disturbingly bad or the puzzles so much removed from reality that your only hope of ever completing the thing is with a walkthrough.

There are some really, really annoying adventures out there and their programmers delight in making the games players go bald from tearing their hair out trying to figure out what to do next.

Not, in my opinion, a good use of my time!

One reason to use a walkthrough in a game is because the game itself doesn't explain itself enough. I'll elaborate:
I bought Vagrant Story. I was really interested in it, but some of the tactics you need to use didn't make any sense. It was only when I got a walkthrough that I was able to play the game with any degree of confidence in what I was doing.
This is a good thing with walkthroughs.
However, you could come up to a extremely difficult puzzle, and decide to 'just take a peek' at the walkthrough to work out how to get past it. Then, you fall into the trap of looking at it again and again, even for puzzles that aren't quite as hard.
This is a bad thing with walkthroughs.
However, you might have bought a game and decided that, whilst the game sucked, the story interested you. Then, you could use a walkthrough to get through the game, without it being any real effort (this is an extreme case, I know).
This is a good thing with walkthroughs.
However, you... oh... you get the idea...

A walkthrough is forgivable every now and then but there's some people and magazines that have walkthroughs before the game is actually released.

There's definately something wrong there.

Needed one for Discworld Noir. That game is classly surreal, but haaaaard.