Color of Murder (2): Well That Was Fun

It was indeed, lotsa fun. Finished my extra-zippy review for Kirkus, and had the whole day free to mess around.

Didn't expect to play the rest of the entire game, but I did. And that was with reading to Dad for an hour, and fixing him a very nice dinner, too.

Probably wouldn't have finished but for the in-game hint system, which is pretty good. I forgot about it for about half the game, but it works pretty well to just give you hints if you want them without revealing the solution unless you want that too. I only needed one or two actual solutions. Did almost all of it on my own. Yet, the Nyqvists always have some tricky puzzles, and this game was no exception.

Plus, this is the best game yet. Finally they produced a really finished game, without just stopping at some point and telling you the solution to the mystery. This one allows you to figure out the solution, or at least the culprit. Then there's a very nice cutscene to end the game.

That sports club I remembered must have been from East Side Story. The missing kid in this has a membership to a paintball club, but that turns out to be completely derelict (although not quite as bad as the Station Hotel).

Also, I finally found the little stepladder I needed to get to high places, and later to climb over stuff. I remember now--one of the ways the Nyqvists add length to their games is to have almost all necessary inventory items placed in some location other than where they're needed. But it allows us to wander about and see more of Norrköping, which is fine with me. Half the enjoyment of their games is the scenery.

I was pleased to see that there weren't any action sequences in this one, as there was in East Side Story. That kind of thing just doesn't fit with these games.

So I just played all afternoon, opened up new locations and explored, found items and figured stuff out. Finally it all came together nicely. Plus, that hunka-hunka Swedish gardner, Jonas, is back. Serious scenery right there.

I'm continually impressed with the Nyqvists' devotion to these games. This one was planned out extremely well.

Most enjoyable.

Now then, should I read another Kirkus book, or should I play Black Circle tomorrow?

The Color of Murder (1): Starting Over

It's time to get back to my old friend, Carol Reed!

I had started this game months and months ago, but my hard disc crashed and I lost everything I had on the XP side of my Mac. Among the lost stuff were the first three Carol Reed mysteries from my old reviewing days at Four Fat Chicks. One of their folks had reviewed the first two, and sent me all three so I could play them and review the third game: Time Stand Still. After I finished them all, I sent the games back, but kept them loaded on the 'puter.

The crash took care of that. I saved almost all my stuff on the Mac side because it was pretty obvious that something bad was happening inside the 'puter, so I dragged it all to my Time Capsule. But the XP stuff was un-back-up-able.

I had bought a copy of The Color of Murder and had started playing it. Once the 'puter was fixed I tried loading it again from the CD. But alas, somehow I'd scratched it, and despite about a dozen attempts on two different computers, it would never fully load. I'm poor. I can't just start throwing around $$$ to replace copies of stuff.

But I then found out that Big Fish Games had everything for cheap except the second game, Hope Springs Eternal. So I was able to get new downloads of Remedy, Time Stand Still, The Color of Murder, and the new one, Black Circle. Yay!

To the game:

I really like these games. Primitive, absolutely. But gorgeous. I doubt I'll ever have the cash to do it, but I'd like to visit Norrköping (and Polperro, also). I don't care that the actors are amateurs. As I said in my review of Time Stand Still, these people are the Nyqvist's friends. They ought to be amateurs. It actually adds a sweet quality to the game.

So out I go to Carol's allotment. What is an "allotment," anyway? They seem to have them in European countries. Do people buy, or are they assigned, little plots of land for gardens in the outskirts of towns? Seems so, because Carol just has a shed there. Her garden doesn't seem to be doing very well this year. But we have a new case from her allotment neighbor.

Off we go to the first apartment. I note that the clock on the kitchen wall is missing its hands. I find clues. I find a closet that has an item I can't reach.

Now here's something I don't like. Carol can't reach on top of the shelf in the closet, but right there in the kitchen are perfectly good, solid chairs that could be moved to the closet and stood upon. But no, we have to find some obscure inventory item in some other location and cart it back here to get to the shelf. Humph.

Anyway, I go to the kid's workplace and to a theater. There I find a puzzle that I stumped me in my first try at this game. This time I figure it out and get a key. That gets me into another place, where I turn on the lights in another closet. There I find another door which has a puzzle the Nyqvists have used before: a punch pad with discolored numbers. You should be able to tell which numbers have been punched a lot, and work out the code from that. Maybe not, though, because this time I can't work it out. Perhaps there's a code hidden somewhere, but for now, I'm locked out.

However, I find another location that gets me to the murder victim's apartment. I have his key, thanks to my intrepid puzzle-solving. And in there I find several things: a color-coded box that I'll just bet has something to do with the title of the game. Don't have the code for that yet. His wall clock is also missing its hands, and he's into clock repair. I find a key in a green vase-like thingy that I'll need a paper clip or magnet so I can fish it out. Alas, there are no refrigerator magnets to use, as in an earlier game (I keep hoping they'll recycle some of their puzzles). I do find a tall refrigerator, however, and I need something to stand on for that, too. So eventually I'll find a folding thingy, portable, that I can use to climb up stuff. So far, nothing.

I find the guy's boat. Find a boat hook on that, which you'd think you could use to fish something down from a tall place, but nope.

Something strange: I remember clearly when I played the game last time, I got to a sports club and found clues threre. Haven't found that yet, although I've progressed further in the game this time than I did then. Must go back to the first apartment and look around a bit more. I did find the kid's membership card, but the game didn't add the location to it's map. Maybe I need to manipulate the card a bit more.

All these locations will have to be scoured a bit better, frankly. I just kinda zoomed along in the game at first, really glad to get back to it! But I figured that was enough for a very busy day.

Tomorrow! Back to the colors!