What do you do when you get stuck?

[Your Mom]

I couldn't resist after playing the other 2 games back to back so I've been playing Dead Island 2. I really enjoy it! It feels a lot more polished and the characters are more distinctive rather than just "this is the one who is good at swords".

Anyway the reason I'm starting this topic I'm on a quest that I believe is really close to the end and I just can't beat it. There are swarms and swarms of Zombies and I tried it at least 20 times with no success. I just couldn't take it anymore and turned it off for now. To be honest I may just never go back to it.

So when this happens to you how do you handle it? Does it motivate you to get better and get through it or do you just give up? For me I get to the point where I just know I'm not capable of getting past it. This is really sad for me because I feel like I put in all this time and I'm just robbed of an ending because they wanted to make something artificially hard. Also if you're one of those people who sticks to it and tried their best what's your line? Like if you fail 20 times like me do you keep going?

 

P.S. I fucking hate when games don't have difficulty settings. Let me play your game on easy!  

[Ruki]

I usually keep trying until I realize that I am no longer getting any enjoyment from it, and the payoff is no longer worth the effort. So I usually give up, and just watch the rest of the cut scenes on Youtube. The only ones I can recall doing this with are FF2 and FF13. 

[Owen]

I usually just give up. It depends how invested I am, though. I've been there with games that's taken me hours and hours to beat it, my mind goes straight to the Harry Potter PS1 level where you have to get all the coins at Gringotts and the final level in Simpsons Hit and Run, and I persevered... but then there's also Mass Effect 2 which comes to mind, I struggled to beat one of the sections really early in the game about 15 years ago, and I've just never touched it since.

[Benji]

Set it down for a bit and come back, if I keep failing, look for tips from others, if I still can't then change difficulty (if applicable). Games are meant to be fun, if I'm not having some kind of fun (frustration from a hard section can be fun in terms of challenge if I'm going for a trophy or something), then there's no point. Playing Street Fighter games VS friends? Fun. Playing VS the absurd Capcom AI? Fuck that.

I'm a completionist too, and yet one of my all-time favourite games (Final Fantasy VII) has one of the single worst designed levels of any game ever (Great Glacier) and I walkthrough the shit out of that because it's just not fun. Nothing wrong with looking for help. Video games are the only medium that puts the rest of the game behind a wall like that - which is the nature of the beast, but sometimes the beast can deal with staying out in the yard for the night

[Meacon Keaton]

I'll Google it. I used to have this weird pride thing, where I was determined to figure it out myself. But in my old age, I don't have time to figure it out, and I don't have the pride to force myself to figure it out. I'll Google it in a heartbeat, and just leave the site that helps me up on my phone for the inevitable next time I get stuck.

[Rocky]

I've been on and off that game and don't believe I'm up to that part. All I've done in previous sections is run around, throwing the chembomb at things then the electric star in hopes it does some thing. Doesn't do much at higher levels but I usually Fury rage while they recharge. I doubt my play style is helpful to you though.

In general, as stated above, I'd step away from the game for a bit. Look up tips on it etc.

[Liam]

I use YouTube videos to help with regards to tips or strategies on parts that I get stuck on. Usually seems to work.

[Lint]

I quit.

So 15 years ago, I was playing a game...can't rmember what it was.  I couldn't figure out how to solve a puzzle after trying for 3 hours.  Just dying over and over and over again.

So I quit.  Then I went back a year later and solved the puzzle in 10 minutes...

[TheGrandAvatar]

At least it would seem that none of us quit in rage, or smash something up.  I often find that amusing, or in some sense understandable. 

Games guides, Walk-throughs and YouTube Videos on the problem I'm stuck at, or at least a guide and tip video. 

Broken Sword's Goat puzzle was the last one I can remember being stuck on, and this was before the day's of a trusty mobile phone. Printing out a walk through guide at the Library was how that was solved. Aged 15.

Can fully remember how it was always a cool logo at the head of the page. I often wonder how long it took them to make those with the keyboard back in the day. 

[Colly]

I'm happy to go to a walk-through if it's a puzzly thing, though the hints system on the new Monkey Island was brilliant.

For just difficult games I rarely play above a medium difficulty level, but I had to drop to story mode for the bosses on Fallen Order as I just could not properly get to grips with the combat system. I'm also delighted that the Valkyries on God of War are optional as they're very irritating.

[Pooker]

I've never been shy about looking up a guide, when I was a teenager it was on Gamefaqs, now it's Google and YouTube. I don't mind trying a couple times, but I play games for fun and to relax, not to stress out.

[Lineker]

Plenty of butter. 

[Benji]

21 minutes ago, Lineker said:

Plenty of butter. 

Lineker is the Winnie the Pooh of video games.

[apsham]

[Benji]

9 minutes ago, apsham said:

Classic @Lineker, walking around without trousers and underpants in public.

[Lineker]

....yup

[Your Mom]

So...update. I forgot that there is a mechanic where you pay money to up your weapons to the same level you are. My weapons were painfully underleveled! When I fixed that problem the part I got stuck on was actually way easy  

[Benji]

8 hours ago, Your Mom said:

So...update. I forgot that there is a mechanic where you pay money to up your weapons to the same level you are. My weapons were painfully underleveled! When I fixed that problem the part I got stuck on was actually way easy  

Been there. First time I played Final Fantasy X, I didn't realise you had to use items to actually fill in the sphere grid, I thought just going past them was enough. Took far too long to realise why I was struggling so much

[Liam]

I had similar things with Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Got to parts where I found the enemies too difficult, forgetting that I had a)not upgraded my weapons with new chips I had found, b)ignored better chips available at shops, and c) not put new, better cores to give me better stats, buffs, etc.

Unsurprisingly, when I powered my characters up, these battles became less of an issue.

[VerbalPuke]

I'm not above using cheat codes are exploiting some in game mechanic. 

I fucking wish game shark/game genie was still a thing. 

You bet your ass I'd play with invincibility...