I Confess! I liked Runaway

[peb]

I just finished Runaway and while I thought it was a really good game, I'm feeling guilty about something. I pretty much cruised through the game until I got stuck at one point. So I decided to look at some hints from the Universal Hint Reader. Once I got these hints, I cruised through the rest of it with no problem, but I'm feeling guilty that I looked.

Here's the detail:

I couldn't get the wrench out of the trough in front of the saloon. I looked at the hints and the last ones I read were "Perhaps you could knock the trough over." and "You'd need to do it from pretty high up." That got my brain going and I soon figured out you had to use the flowerpot from the balcony over the street to get the wrench.

What I'm wondering is would fellow adventure fans consider this cheating? The hints I got pretty much revealed the solution, but then again it's not like I got the direct answer. Is there a difference between getting a hint and looking at a walkthrough?

I feel like I'm walking into the Adventure Gamers confession booth waiting for absolution of my sins. What shall my punishment be?

[Kingzjester]

I usually blame the game makers for puzzles that I don't solve after a few stuck hours. That way it was never my weakness that caused me to look up the solution, but the designer's stupidity or carelessness.

EDIT: syntax, grammar, missed words.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

That could be my answer as well, but it's sometimes hard to tell whether it's the stupidity of the puzzle's design or my own incompetence, or even a combination of the two.

[Moron Lite]

That puzzle was one of several remarkably obtuse puzzles in the game. Or so I thought. It's not dishonorable to look solutions up when the puzzles are badly designed. Of course, I guess you can't know if the puzzle was badly designed until after the solution is known.

You should commit ritual seppuku anyway. :) Only then can you live a good life.

[Kingzjester]

You should commit ritual seppuku anyway. :)Can I be your second? I always wanted to cut my best friend's head off --- and if I can't do it to my best friend, anyone will do.

[Moron Lite]

Can I be your second? I always wanted to cut my best friend's head off --- and if I can't do it to my best friend, anyone will do.
I'm a goddamn talking skull...my head is already cut off. Although if you want to put me on somebody's shoulders and pretend cut me off, that's cool.

[peb]

That puzzle was one of several remarkably obtuse puzzles in the game. Or so I thought. It's not dishonorable to look solutions up when the puzzles are badly designed. Of course, I guess you can't know if the puzzle was badly designed until after the solution is known.

That's the thing. I don't think it was badly designed. It made sense afterwards but your choice of the word obtuse was very appropriate for that one.


You should commit ritual seppuku anyway. :) Only then can you live a good life.

O.K. then. Nice talking to everyone. Take care.

*slit*

ARRRRRRGHHHHH!

[guybrush_guy]

i dont think it's a big deal as long as your really try to answer the solution without resolving to cheeting/hinting.

[Maquisard]

EDIT: syntax, grammar, missed words.

Leftvoer persnoa from Rex? :confused: :pan: (you) :shifty:

[Tanukitsune]

i dont think it's a big deal as long as your really try to answer the solution without resolving to cheeting/hinting.
Same here, as long as you tried your best before using UHS, it's not really that bad...
As long as you don't use it when you really haven't tried that hard on that puzzle, you're not spoling anything...

And IMHO, when you know the solution it usually DOES makes sense, even if it didn't before you used the hint...

[Intrepid Homoludens]

:D Heh heh, gaming ethicists we are.

[Scoville]

What I'm wondering is would fellow adventure fans consider this cheating?Is there a difference between getting a hint and looking at a walkthrough?

Who cares? Do whatever will make you enjoy the game more.

[Terabin]

Who cares? Do whatever will make you enjoy the game more.

I guess though that if you do skip through the puzzles, its kind of showing a lack of respect for the work the game designers put into their puzzles. Of course, if you're stuck because of pixel-hunting or some completely illogical puzzle, then its kind of unfair. However, you never really know until you look at the walkthrough to see whether you would've gotten it anyway. I suppose using walkthroughs is kind of like skipping to the end of the whodunnit novel to get the payoff before you shuffle through the book. Personally, the process makes the payoff that much better. Of course, this stuff is probably reiterated over and over in any discussion of the use of walkthroughs. Oh well.

[Terabin]

Its kind of sad that I feel like anything I say or mention is extremely unoriginal in these forums. Everyone's probably said my opinion over and over again. People rehash the same conversations every few months. How do you make yourself stick out? I suppose I could create some on-line persona. Something really bad ass. Oh well, I suppose I'll remain a completely uninteresting contributor.

[Maquisard]

Well, just to encourage you, I think a Homestar Runner avatar is pretty interesting, like my own. :D

[Terabin]

Yeah, homestarrunner is something pretty sweet. What would we do without strong bad or the cheat?

There would be no laughter.

Well, maybe that's a little overblown. But man, the peoples that do that site have the perfect blend of humor; not too crass, and still capturing the essence of hilarity.

[peb]

Who cares? Do whatever will make you enjoy the game more.

I enjoyed the game fine. I was just trying to get people's opinions on what constitutes cheating which is why I used the "I Confess!" thread name.

BTW, who changed the title of my thread? I did like Runaway, but that's not really what my thread was about. The new thread title makes it seem like I feel guilty for liking it and I don't want to give that impression.

[jjacob]

Yeah Runaway did have some nutoriously bad puzzle design/pixel hunting moments, I especially enjoyed the log cabin :frusty: , but maybe that's just me. I did very much like the game though, nice (weird) graphics, but definately a step forward in some direction. I am buying pendulo's next game, if that would mean we'd have another serious adventure game developer. The story wasn't half that bad either, I enjoyed the detectivy-atmosphere. I didn't expect the game to be all that good but pendulo did a very nice job! So don't feel bad about liking it :P

As for the ethics; I don't feel it adds much to my game experience If I'm stuck for several hours, so when I exhaust every possible line of dialogue and every other possibility twice, I don't feel bad looking up a UHS hint, although it does make you feel rather stupid if it was right under your nose the whole time, like in Syberia 2.. ...where you have to insert Oscar's heart key into the ignition in the train. Although it's right in the middle, the texture and size make it pretty hard to spot! On my screen, anyhow. :frusty: ..luckily I had to waste 3 hours on this nasty bugger in finding the solution on my own..

Didn't have too much problems figuring out that wrench 'puzzle' in Runaway though, used my guybrushy-logic for that one ;)

edit: grammar

[guybrush_guy]

i find that when i do breaze threw a game, viea a UHS or walkthrew i dont enjoy it that much. thats what i did with full throttle, i got so fed up at one point then finished the game with a walkthrew and did'nt enjoy the outcome, i think that if i realy tryed to play the game without help i would of enjoyed it so mutch better.