Finished! Well that really was fun. I swear, this is the best puzzle game ever made (caveat: I haven't played all of 'em), and it's plenty scary to boot, never mind the cartoony ixupis. The sounds they make are enough to get you jumpy--the goal is not to see the things until you catch 'em.
Really, this thing is brilliantly put together. The 1995 graphics still look good, and it's because the museum is so well designed. The puzzles range from a cinch to extremely frustrating, and no, you can't go to a walkthrough for all of them if you don't like solving puzzles (well, why would you play this if you didn't?). You have to solve the things. My favorite is still the alchemy puzzle on the third floor, the one with the disks that match up all the colored lines.
Fortunately, as in 7th Guest and 11th Hour, you can go back and do the all the puzzles again! After you win the game you get the option to explore the museum. You can go back and do all the puzzles again if you like. And you can go back and restart the game, load the game you won on, and you will get the screen that allows the exploration option. So that's super neat!
There's also a slideshow of really nice shots of the museum. Alas, they've included that awful "music" from the maze, but you can turn it down or mute it, as I did. Why not use the sweet little Anansi Spider tune? Yeah, I guess that wouldn't fit the mood.
When you find the last clue things are pretty straightforward. One place where the graphics do not hold up is the rollercoaster ride to the lobby when you find the final button to push. Way too pixelated to give any thrills.
Here's the final jar, the room where the endgame happens, and a few of the endgame sights. The newspaper is a nice reward for winning--it ties up the story. There are no spoilers in it, but ignore it here if you want to play the game and read it when you've earned it.
The final jar. Figuring out the last clue will give you the talisman for it.
Here's where the endgame happens
The final, awful movie
Your Reward
The real standout performance is the narration, meant to imitate Rod Serling and succeeding pretty well. The guy is a pleasure to listen to all the way through.
And as I've said, the museum just looks great, especially the lobby. And I loved the elevator music in the elevators. Such a nice little touch.
So that was an excursion into the past! I was very familiar with the game even after all these years, but it was still plenty of fun and not just for nostalgia. This is one of the games that turned me into a gamer, and I think that's true for a lot of folks.
Here are a few final screenshots:
The flashback screen all filled in
And finally, the Shivers advertisement, the last screen!
So I loved that! Have fun! Play Shivers!
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