We’ve all been there. Stuck in the Water Temple. Praying we’ll have some grand epiphany as we wait for the Internet to become more widespread later in the decade. As it turns out, we weren’t alone according to some research by OnBuy.com. In a study of annual Google searches, OnBuy found that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time‘s most torturous of temples is still the 5th most likely section of any game to send gamers to an FAQ or walkthrough. The list of 10 games that gamers cheat at most contains only one game that chips in TWO levels with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim contributing its Volskygge and Fahlbtharz Boiler Room sections to the confusion.
Other famous (or infamous) puzzles that still stump after many years include the Piano Room from Silent Hill and Name that Gnome from King’s Quest.
The number one most-searched section of all is more recent and not necessarily a single-player game. Destiny 2‘s Corridors of Time tops the poll with a whopping 307,680 searches for that section alone in one year.
The List
| Section/Level | Game | Google Searches per Year |
| Corridors of Time | Destiny 2 | 307,680 |
| Magic Lamp | The Witcher 3 | 273,240 |
| Volskygge | The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim | 260, 880 |
| Fahlbtharz Boiler Room | The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim | 198,960 |
| Water Temple | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | 183,480 |
| Kayra Mah Shrine | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | 119,208 |
| Pumpkin Puzzle | Borderlands 3 | 97,560 |
| Name that Gnome | King’s Quest | 59,040 |
| Chamber 18 | Portal | 50,556 |
| Piano Puzzle | Silent Hill | 31,320 |
The list is a mixture of folk missing/misinterpreting the obvious (Silent Hill), codebreaking (King’s Quest), obvious answers with ambiguous direction (Ocarina of Time), puzzles that ask for decent spatial reasoning and working memory (Portal). A good variety that seems to suggest that being asked to do a new thing or contend with a new take on an old mechanic can throw people off as much as lacking innate talent or knowledge of puzzles outside of gaming.
No Judgement
The term ‘cheating’ may seem strong but looking up a guide is, indeed, cheating. However, it’s the little white lie of cheating – nobody got hurt and you did it to keep someone from going insane. It’s win-win, or neutral-win or whatever.
And besides, some puzzles are almost unfair in their execution. Broken Sword‘s Goat Puzzle and Gabriel Knight 3‘s Cat Hair Moustache Puzzle have their own Wikipedia pages, likely written by someone tortured by them back in the day.
And for those wondering where the PvP multiplayer titles that gamers cheat at are. Thankfully, there aren’t tens of thousands of people annually using wallhacks on CS:GO or DDoSing their opponents on Rainbow Six: Siege.
It just feels like it sometimes…
Which of these games did you resort to Google for? It’s OK, you can tell us… Mine was the Water Temple. Any other shortcuts we want to ‘fess up to? Are you surprised that the Goat Puzzle from Broken Sword isn’t frustrating folk en masse to this day?
