Regarding cheese...

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Well after reading some stuff here there, and giving it some thought, I tried to outline what's cheese and what's not; mainly after reading the solo mage thread where someone kept arguing that it's impossible to solo BG1 with a mage w/out cheese, and I obviously set out to do just that.
One of the harder fights mentioned in that thread was the fight on top of iron throne... now I'v been through the game many time already and planned my atack way before I got there... obviously before I went upstairs I cast mirror image and drank some magic protection potions, and was wearing the shoes that increased protection from missiles... First thing I did was cast my fav lvl 1 spell - charm on the warrior (not the one with the bow), it worked (stupid worriors...) I sent the guy to atack the archer, the shapeshifter(I dont know how to spell dopelganter)atacked him as well... so now I'm not being atacked by anyone... I cast domination, and then hit them with an array of aoe spells(well really just fireballs, I had a wand with me and some exploding potions).. 4 or 5 of them, then magic missile the almost dead warrior and other survivors that were running around scared and confused... everyone was dead, I thought to myself - well that was easy..
SO now I'm thinking.. did I cheese that... was I relying too much on luck and that first charm working?... and more importantly, I'm trying to outline what's "legal" to do in the final fight...
I'm obviously not going to cloudkill tazok angelo and the mage(who's name I cant remember) while being out of sight, and then run around with boots of speed throwing pebbles at Sarevok for 2 hours... but I'd like some imput from other, probably more experience players about what's cheese/ai abuse, and what's not...

 

The 'what's cheesy?' question is difficult to answer sometimes. There are things that are definitive no-nos (even outright cheating), like fake-talk or attacking from the edge of the fog of war. Some spells don't work the way they should, like Chromatic Orb bypassing MR and all that...

But on the other hand, a hardcore player may also consider using your foreknowledge of the game battles and ambushes 'cheesy'. For instance, buffing your mage before entering the last floor of the Iron Throne. You were using the knowledge of what it was there in advance to prepare yourself accordingly. There were no real fights before reaching that floor, so there was no reason for using all the protection vs magic potions and the mirror images unless you knew what was coming...

Not that I mind, though. If I were you, I'd say that I was warned by my "wizard sense".

 

I'd say that ALL games (at least the not boring ones) require some pre-knowledge to win. Park of the fun is learning what strategies and tactics succeed and which ones do not. That's a form of preknowledge. I don't think there's an interesting game out there that doesn't require nibbling on a bit of cheese. Thus, the whole cheese argument is a bit pointless unless you like mindless games that require no strategy and tactics (like maybe solitaire). Of course, cheating is in another category than cheese, and shouldn't be required to win. Are walkthroughs considered cheating?

 

If you know more than you should (when playing a game for the second time) it's always cheesy. You can't tell your brains to forget or ignore your knowledge, it just doesn't work.

I guess you can beat IWD without cheese with a little luck and care.

 

This is one of the main reasons i can not play Baldurs Gate 1 anymore, i have played it so many times over, that no matte what map i enter i automatically have a mental image over every item and non random enemy. It really kills the fun of this game for me.

 

Quote:
Are walkthroughs considered cheating?

Using a FAQ/walkthrough to give you all the answers to the puzzles in a game is like looking at the answer key before taking a test in school.

As a general rule, I try to avoid FAQs/walkthroughs the first time through a game unless I'm stumped and frustrated to the point where the game is no longer enjoyable. Then I'll goto some place like gamefaqs for a walkthrough to help me with that one part, and once I've past it I'll try to play without further help.

On the other hand, once I've beat the game, I find that the replay value is greatly increased if I use a walkthrough to see all the secrets or alternate ways of doing things that I missed.

 

how it goes from this to that... I have no clue

 

Regarding walkthroughs for replay value ....

It is very rare that I replay a game once I've finished, especially story-centric RPGs. The puzzles and quests are not much fun the second time around. I could try an evil party, or maybe a bard, or a dwarf, but the differences aren't much compared to a playing a completely different game.

So, given that, I use a walkthough to make sure I haven't made a choice that prevents fun later in the game (carefully avoiding to spoil anything). If so, then I reload a recently saved game. Also, since I don't get a big kick out of experimenting with different character growth paths, I'd rather read a walkthough about how to best develop a character. A trial and error approach there would be too tedious for me.

I enjoy trying different tactics and strategies, and learning how best to use the gameplay mechanics, where failures through trial and error can usually be fixed with a recently saved game load. I use walkthoughs to avoid having to replay a significant amount of a game from an old saved game or an entire restart from the beginning or missing out on a significant part of the game.

If I had no other games to play, I would probably use walkthroughs less....