Profound Red 1: Back to Sweden!

Having finally finished Barrow Hill The Dark Path, I couldn't resist starting the latest Carol Reed Mystery, which came out last week!

Mikeal Nyqvist very kindly sent me the link to the game via Facebook Messenger, because normally you get the game link in an email message, but I have no intention of ever setting up the email on the PC. So I bought the game and asked him how he could help, and he came up with the Messenger solution. And it worked! I was able to download the game and here it is! (I might add that at last Mikeal has added a Mac version--just when I got this PC! That version works too, but I'll play it on the PC.)

I only dipped my little toe into the game. So far we have a suicide mystery, a suicide committed by a lady who clearly was not depressed. So, it's a murder mystery, of course!

So far I've only been to talk to a few people, have searched the victim's apartment and the hotel room she rented. I've found some puzzles that will have to be solved later when I have found the required items.

Of course we always start in Carol's apartment. I do wonder if this actually is the Nyqvist's apartment. It has this wonderful bookcase, full of intriguing stuff that I just can't quite see!

Sure wish I could get a close up on this bookcase!

Actually they do change things in the apartment with every game, but sadly, that awful wallpaper that "Carol" put up early in the series is still there.

There is a plant of rosemary in the living room. No doubt we'll need that at some point.

Anyway, I've started! Tomorrow I will continue. I can usually solve these games in just a day or two, but I certainly have fun with them! I'm hoping that Mikeal is able to make his living from them by now. This is game number twelve in the series, I believe! (And Mikeal has already made his usual appearance in the game. At least he's dressed normally this time!)

Until tomorrow!

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Barrow Hill The Dark Path 18: Solved!!

And I did it! Game solved!

OK, I did have to go to the WT for just one teensy item that I had missed. I was right about the one of my major guesses--and realized that when the game allowed me to do something I thought might be necessary. What I really missed was the ID, which is not the same as an ID card. But as soon as I saw that on the WT, I knew I could finish the game, and I did!

Of course, it wasn't completely straightforward. I did indeed find the last two items that I needed. I prepared the fruit drink brew, but didn't realize I also had to prepare the other item, so that cost me another trip back to the place where you do that.

But once that was done it was a cinch.

Very nice indeed!

I object to the sim card puzzle, but only to that. It was not a fair puzzle because the solution simply made no sense. The other puzzles, however, were fair. I missed two items. Eventually I might have found the last sim card, but that last ID item I would not have found without the WT. So it was well worth it to consult the thing, drat it.

I will write a nice review tomorrow. Maybe Matt can use it! (Maybe someday he will explain to me his thinking on the sim card puzzle! I did, after all, send him a video of me and ostriches.)

Lots of fun! Frustration, but that's part of it all.

Well that was highly worth the time! I only wish I could have done an uninterrupted playthrough, but Life did not allow it. Now that I'm no longer doing book reviews that eat all of my time, I shouldn't have that problem any more.

Thanks for following! Comments?

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Barrow Hill The Dark Path 17: What Now?

Made quite a bit of progress! Yes, I was able to figure out the pentagram and place the metal objects. It isn't completely straightforward. Good puzzle, actually!

So! I have found Baibin, or what's left of her, and she needs some grave goods that the archeologist took from her or she's going to stay angry. I figured out two of the wishing stones. I have freed Ollie and Ben, but Mia is still possessed and I haven't yet solved the last wishing stone.

As to those grave goods, I have two of them. Still missing a cup with those fruit juices and an earthen bowl with some kind of bird offering. The Druid pool is no longer open for fishing. BHR is off the air (although other stations are available). I've looked all over the farm house and the cairn and Emma's trailer and can't find what I need.

I think I'll acquire them the same way I got the first two objects, and at that point I will be at the endgame. So I have to solve that last wishing stone.

I suspect that I ought to be able to get to the ruined church out in the swamp, because it was specifically mentioned somewhere and is on the phone map, but I can't find a route to it. I really tried to find another route in the swamp, and there isn't one.

Well, I made quite a bit of progress tonight, and it was all my own work. Did not go to the WT. Those things are traps—once you justify using one you're likely to keep going back. I do not want to go back to the WT.

Insights: I think freeing Mia will be the last game event—it will probably happen when I get the grave goods properly placed. Placing those, at least, seems straightforward. I placed the two I have just to test it out and it was a cinch. 

It could also be that I have the wrong wooden effigy on that wishing stone, but I don't know where I might find the correct one.  I suppose I could just make them all and see if one works. That seems a better plan than tediously hunting all over the woods. Obviously there is no fourth ID card. I have the ID card I need, but the stone won't take it. Yet the personal item I have for that wishing stone doesn't belong to the proper person. It's Mia's wish, not Emma's.

Then, there are all those strange images I got in the magic hole when I was playing around with it. Have no idea what to do with them, though. Haven't run into anything resembling them anywhere else. Perhaps I will, later.

Clearly, solving that last wishing stone is the next major thing to do, and I'm betting that solution will lead to the last two grave goods that I need, which will free Mia.

So I'm close, but at the moment I am well and truly lost. Again. Gonna let things steep in my tiny brain overnight, and see if insight will bloom.

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Barrow Hill The Dark Path 16: Ready to Get Witchy

Ha, ha ha ha HA!

OK. I absolutely needed the walkthrough. First, I needed to find the last sim card. Probably I could have done that but it would have taken me hours and hours. Situations like that are what WTs are for. Frustration actually is good in adventures because when you solve the thing it feels great, but too much frustration spoils the game.

Also, once I found the sim card I never would have realized that you have to manipulate the things that result. And after that, the final manipulation makes absolutely no sense at all. None. So I went to the WT for that, after trying to make the things make sense. They do not. (I mean, who would put what turns out to be the first one first? Makes no sense.) So without the WT I would again have experienced hours of frustration. As it was I only experienced about one hour of frustration.

However, once that is accomplished the game finally progresses, and it progresses very nicely indeed.

Yes, we do get to go to Emma's trailer in the swamp, but you'll have to find out how to do that on your own.

However, I think I'm really ready for another major advance in the game. I have found the last personal item for the wishing stones, I'm absolutely sure. I'm also pretty confident that I have placed all the symbols and items on the correct stones. Of course, I haven't yet found the torn-off bottom of the page that tells you how to reverse a wish. Bet I will though!

I have found the tin and the gold items. Already had the iron, copper and lead. That means that I'm ready to place these items where they ought to be. Without question, that will produce a result.

However, I'm pretty sure that I'm not at the endgame, because I don't yet have the grave goods items that I'm sure will have to be placed somewhere, nor have I found the place to put them. Also, I haven't found any fruit packets (waitaminute--I think I might know where to look for those). Matt didn't put that stuff in the game for nothing.

So no doubt there's more to do. But having at last broken through, I'm feeling pretty good about getting on with the game. Going to the WT was worth it.

Whew!

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Barrow Hill The Dark Path 15: OK, get a Clue!

Oooooohhhh Kaaayyyy. I've been away from the game for too long. I played it up to the point where I quit, but I really couldn't remember everything I'd done in my original game.

I went ahead and looked at the walkthrough on Gameboomers to make sure I'd remembered everything (good excuse, doncha think!), and I found the place I missed.

It was that last sim card. I know have a general idea where it is. Once I find that I ought to be able to progress.

But it's really amazing how quickly you can play this game if you know where stuff is! The second time just zooms.

So! Tomorrow I will go find that sim card and take it from there. I'm back in the game now, I've read everything, I've got my notes from before and I think I'm back up to snuff.

Really pretty proud of all the stuff I did figure out. But just missing that sim card was enough to stop me cold.

Tomorrow!

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Barrow Hill The Dark Path 14: Not a Quitter!

Oh I definitely have not quit playing The Dark Path! But I had to take a major hiatus.

I have for yeas done book reviews for Kirkus Reviews, of young adult literature. This activity has basically ruled my life for the past several years, severely limiting the time I can spend playing games.

At last I have taken a major hiatus from that job because I wanted my life back. I'm making enough money at other things now that I don't have to do it any more, although I haven't quit entirely. However, I can now read the books that *I* want to read, and can I play games!

To that end I bought a PC laptop intended entirely for games. I'm still a Maccie for very good reason, but Macs simply don't get at least half of the games I want to play. I've been playing PC games under my virtual machine on my Mac, but that is an old XP program and it's running out of space. The newer games take up so much space that I have to delete a bunch of stuff just in order to add something, I've been playing Dark Path that way, but now that I have the new PC, I'm starting over.

Only for games (and a few websites)

Starting over is a good thing because I was thoroughly stuck in the game. So far, except for one thing, this new PC is doing exactly what I hoped it would do. (It's a Dell, 2 TB, 16 gigs RAM that I got for $699 on sale at Costco.com--whatta deal!) I learned how to take screenshots on it, but I don't seem to be able to take screenshots with this copy of Dark Path. I took lots of shots tonight but got only the underlying desktop. I hope somebody can tell me how to fix that problem. The PC takes screenshots of games I've downloaded from GOG, but this one is from Steam. Why wouldn't it work with Steam games? It really bothers me that I can't take screenshots of the game for this blog.

Update: No, the computer does take screenshots of Steam games. Just not this one. I tried it again with different graphics choices and got desktop shots and black screen shots. So I tried it with my new copy of the original Barrow Hill from Steam, and it worked fine! Also, it isn't the Wintermute engine. Mikael Nyqvist also uses Wintermute for his Carol Reed games--I just tried it on his latest and it worked fine. It worked fine for this very game, coming through Steam, on my Mac under my virtual PC. Well, this is why I'm a Maccie. Macs just work. PCs make you work to make them work, if you can.

It really is just this game. Very very weird. Well, if I really want to post a screenshot I might be able to get it on my Mac/Virtual PC game. I can upload pics to this blog just as effectively from that computer as from this new one.

At any rate, I have started from scratch. I've already found Ollie, because I was able to access the video puzzle as soon as I opened the office door. Also, of course, the password to Mia's computer is available early on, so I plugged that in and didn't waste hours looking for it. I've still got all my notes from my first game, so I'm just zooming through things. Got the plug to the microwave put together fast. Have so far collected six sim cards. I know where the seventh is, but I never found the eighth in my first game.

I'm noticing some fun things that I didn't see previously. On the tablet that you find in the cairn, there is a pear with a bite out of it instead of an apple as a logo. Also, Matt is the "organic farmer" in Emma's emails.

I still cannot finish the hidden object game on Emma's website. I don't imagine it would make any difference. I just suspect that I might learn something if I could finish it! (The problem is in finding a doll. In my first play there was a doll, and that worked, but the trailer still wouldn't open. Then I clicked on the flying saucer once and THAT worked--but the trailer still wouldn't open. Now clicking on the flying saucer--which is not easy because it moves fast--did not work.)

I have a suspicion about what I need to find to get past Mia in the farmhouse. Every time I meet her she sends me to the wishing stones. I've found all the items I need for those stones except Mia's personal object. I strongly suspect that when I find whatever that is, I will be able to get into the farmhouse.

Clearly there is plenty of the game left for me to play. I'm guessing that I'm about halfway through. I'm pretty sure we're going to be able to get into the farmhouse and look around there, and we'll be able to get out to Emma's trailer in the swamp. I think that because on the phone there are three GPS points, and Emma's trailer is one of them.

So! Tonight I'm going into the woods for the first time in this playthrough (although I think I'll go back to the cairn first because I found the runestones). I'm not looking forward to solving that puzzle with the crystal key at the Druid pool. I just bulldogged my way through that last time, but it wasn't easy by any means. Hmmm. Maybe I ought to try thinking about how to solve it this time??

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