Portal - Should You Use Walkthroughs?

[JustAlex1997]

I'm admittedly a little dumb, so I struggle with puzzles more than I probably should. I'm doing my first full playthrough of Portal, and while I've only had to look up a walkthrough for one chamber, I still feel somewhat guilty about doing it.

How do you feel about occasionally missing out on the satisfaction of solving a puzzle on your own? Does that rob you of the true experience the developers intended?

 

[oappo]

How do you feel about occasionally missing out on the satisfaction of solving a puzzle on your own? Does that rob you of the true experience the developers intended?

I think it really depends on the game. What matters to me is how the entire game is set up; the story, the presence/absence of hint mechanics, complexity of the puzzle/room, ect. Generally not a huge fan of looking up the solutions though. I think I'd rather bash my head against a puzzle over and over again than look something up. There is a special satisfaction from solving puzzles that other genres lack. That said, if there's story locked behind a puzzle, especially where it isn't the focus(like an RPG), I'm more likely to just look it up.

Puzzle games are special in that the skill needed is much different than most games and so is how you find solutions to difficult parts. Failing to solve puzzles can be much more frustrating than losing to a boss so I wouldn't feel too guilty about it. I haven't actually beat portal myself.

 

[Ovidia Dragoness]

I know I felt bad when I looked up how to spare Undyne in Undertale

 

[Mambi]

I'm admittedly a little dumb, so I struggle with puzzles more than I probably should. I'm doing my first full playthrough of Portal, and while I've only had to look up a walkthrough for one chamber, I still feel somewhat guilty about doing it.

How do you feel about occasionally missing out on the satisfaction of solving a puzzle on your own? Does that rob you of the true experience the developers intended?

Honestly, you only rob yourself so yeah, kinda. Its like giving up trying to figure it out just so you can figure out the next one, admitting defeat so you can try again. Not the worst thing in the world, but figuring it out on your own is FAR more satisfying!

 

[Ovidia Dragoness]

I never used a walkthrough for any of the portals tho so I'm a god gamer

 

[JustAlex1997]

Because I'm a good boy, I beat the rest of the game on my own.

 

[Pipistrele]

I wouldn't recommend to - Portal games are fairly intuitive and lack BS puzzles, so you can beat it without a walkthrough if you apply some perseverance.

 

[WolfSpark]

sometimes i look up youtube gaming walkthroughs just to get past that one section ! i had to look up a few on bendy and the ink machine XD

 

[TyraWadman]

I personally don't use walkthroughs. The only time I look things up (nowadays) is because I'm stumped to the point where I'm not sure if it's a glitch/bug. Sometimes it is, and it saves me hours of thinking I was doing something wrong. I don't want to lose that satisfaction, and if it's an RPG/open world kinda thing, I don't want to be robbed of the experience.

Pretty sure I had a bug or two happen playing portal 2, but we solved it all on our own.