Disclaimer: I'm blogging about this game right after I play part of it. I don't know what's going to happen. Any conclusions I reach in the blog may or may not be correct. I'm trying to avoid spoilers.
It is said that this game is much darker than the first. Yup. Very much darker in tone and, so far, in available light. It also has been said that one shouldn't play this game alone in the dark. Check. I started in the bright California afternoon after planting some flowers. This looks a bit too creepy for my usual taste even though I adore a good ghost story, but we'll give it a go anyway. In daylight.
It all seems confusing at first, but stuff starts to happen. A pretty easy jigsaw puzzle starts us off, then we're chased, or we run, from the train tunnel where we've been hiding, or perhaps, living, amid discarded mannequins. "We" are the Inspector who was trying to find little Amy, who disappeared five years ago under eerie circumstances.
I wonder if "we" are dead or alive?
No matter. To avoid being dead, I'll switch to first person.
I stumble along onto the train platform, just outside the station waiting room. OK, I figure out how to get in and find an inventory item, but then I'm blocked by a ghost from entering the room any farther (that's the very ghost, in the picture on the box). I can't access my inventory or do anything and this ghost, who sees me but just seems curious, won't let me by. OK, so we keep on exploring elsewhere. I decide to go back to the restrooms and there I find another item, plus a brightly burning fire that wants some kind of inventory item that I don't yet possess. (And there's something that sounds dangerous in that restroom. I get outta there.) However, I find more stuff outside. A fuse. The electrical shack is blocked, so I assume we won't be using that area this time.
I wander around some more and go to the other side of the platform. Hmmm. I can't get into the hotel the same way I did last time, but I find a book that gives me one part of a little story. I can't get though the fence to the little garage. There must be another way into that in this game. I do manage to go up over the bridge and find another fuse, plus Amy, who is taunting me and certainly appears to be a ghost.
So yeah, I think Amy's dead.
Also I find a close-up of DT (Dowerton?) and three numbers. Break out the notepad. My character seems to be very cold, breathing out mist and shivering, perhaps a hint to keep moving? I keep seeing green and red flashes, and I assume that's some kind of ghostly warning until I realize that the game is taking place on "Bonfire Night" (Guy Fawkes night?). These must be fireworks. Aha. Also, I enjoy looking up. Always did like computer game night scenes with stars and moonlight.
Back to the tracks, cross over again and find the door to the dining room that I can't yet unlock, and a cigarette machine that seems to want coins I don't yet have. Well, I've found some stuff. Let's try that fire again and see if I have what it wants. Nope. However, I'm more careful about looking around, and I find a control box that does want something I have. Bingo! I move the box in front of the electrical shack. So I am intended to go in there! The box drops at first, but I figure out how to raise it enough to get into the shack.
Aha! I indeed am partway through the obligatory Adventure Game "turn-on-the-lights-and-get-in" puzzle, and it is coming in several layers, which is just how I like things to be. I find out how to get light in the shed, then realize that I need one more fuse. That means I haven't explored enough yet. Back outside, look around, find it eventually. Put the fuse in it's slot and zing! A great lights-coming-on sequence, nicely done.
Now that's the kind of puzzle I enjoy. Satisfying! Stumble around finding stuff, don't know what's going on yet, get a bit frustrated but still interested, keep stumbling around, then it comes together and I find the solution. Feels like a good golf shot.
Oh yeah. This is why I play adventure games.
But somebody's trying to call me on the phone somewhere!
Back to the waiting room and the ghost is gone. I can find the phone easily because I've been here before, but new players already have a map if they want to consult it. Exploring more and finding more clues I see that I need to find an eight-digit number to get me into the Station Master's room. There it is, with
. . . a combination lock.
Drat.
I've hated combination locks in computer games ever since I had terrible trouble with the one in the old James Burke's Connections game. First, I figure that the three-digit number I found outside is part of the combination, but then I realize that no, there are three clipboards, each giving a different part of the part of the number. Well, that's easy.
However, there are plenty of five digit numbers. I figure from other clues that the one I want is one of two possible colors out of four, but there are two of each color. Also, I don't know where the three-digit number goes--in front or behind? And I don't know which direction to start twirling on the combo lock. This leaves me with plenty of twirling to do, not counting mistakes, which are easy to make.
So I twirl and twirl and twirl. I am sick of twirling and I haven't cracked it yet. No, I refuse to go to a walkthrough this early in the game. I can figure this out. I'm sure I've got all the clues, it's just a matter of figuring out which direction and which number to use.
So I quit for the day. I really, really don't like this kind of puzzle. It's too labor intensive. Yeah, I realize that the lock is from 1947 so it can't be digital, but geez, I'd rather do a hunt for a key.
I have no doubt I could get into the hotel now that the lights are on, but I want to try the Station Master's room first. It may give me a key to the dining room, and/or coins, and/or whatever item that fire wants. It would be nice to get those puzzles done first and perhaps advance the storyline a bit more.
So I'll let it stew, and come back tomorrow.
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