You know, I can think of an adventure game that took this sort of thing to an extreme back in the day. The 7th Guest, one of the first FMV games, had some of the most difficult puzzles ever imagined. Some of them could literally take an hour each to solve, and that was if you knew how the rules of the puzzle worked. They added in a feature to the game, however: if you go to the library and check the book on the table, you get a hint for the last puzzle you checked. If you look at it again after attempting the puzzle, you get a more detailed hint. Check it again after another attempt, and the puzzle is solved automatically for you.
My question is, how many PC gamers bitched about that system being in The 7th Guest? I know I didn't; I never would have solved that damned microscope puzzle without it.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
