After Ulcombe, I decided to just go ahead and finish the game. My favorite part is the search for the crown. Jonathan built a wonderful underground world for Nigel to explore, with some very nice puzzles to solve. These are more puzzley puzzles than those in the rest of the game, which tend to be item based.
But by the end of the Ulcombe episode we have all the clues we need to seek the crown. Nigel figures out where it is, and off we go. Jonathan has us tramp over the entire route, rather than simply shifting the scenes. I agree with that choice. This is close to the endgame (but it isn't!) We ought to work for the prize a bit.
I remember on my first playthrough that I got lucky just outside the mine and picked up an item that Nigel needs underground. I don't know what I would have done if I'd missed it. Perhaps Nigel gives us a clue that he needs this thing for players who missed it? Hope so, because the hapless, itemless player would need a hint to go outside again and find it. (I had a saved game close to that so I went back to check. Alas, no, there isn't any clue. If you miss the item you will be, ahem, stuck.) At any rate, if you've got the item it's fairly clear where to use it, and that turns on the waterwheel-driven machinery.
Descending ever deeper into the ancient world, we find some nice puzzles, none really too tough. There is another sound clue. Again, the hard of hearing can go to a walkthrough. Nice clues though:
I'm really impressed with how Jonathan depicted the Anglo-Saxon artifacts. They look quite real. Of course, the helmet is modeled on the one found at Sutton Hoo:
But best of all is the underground world. This isn't even the best part:
Great work. Love it!
However, Nigel's adventures underground turn out not to be the endgame. Nigel learns that he hasn't made very good choices, and serious events result. Violence happens, seen in a seance:
Nigel decides he has to make things right. Jonathan takes the endgame mostly out of our hands. We have a few things to do, such as dealing with the Harbour Cottage ghosts. I found another ghostly snapshot to take and tape to record that I'd never found before. I still seem to be missing a few, as there were gaps in my collection.
Once the real action starts the game runs in essence like a movie, and we watch, doing only a few simple actions. It's satisfying, but leaves us with plenty of questions. I will speculate in a separate post.
However, I did manage to find that last reference to Barrow Hill, and here it is in a blowup:
And then there is that last huge, major clue about what's really going on in Saxton. Nigel stands on the quay by Harbour Cottage--and there are rust stains in front of him. Nigel doesn't notice. On my first playthrough I did see that one, but I wasn't able to make any reasonable guess about why that was there.
So that's The Lost Crown! I'll go ahead and write a review, although I haven't changed my mind about this being one of the best adventure games ever made.
A+!
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