Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil 8: Into the Sky!

Wow. Quite a playing day today! I think I'm close to the endgame.

But getting there was fun! It's also about as close to getting scary as it's been so far. But we don't play Jonathan's games to be scared. We play for the spooky atmosphere and the story, revealed by pretty decent puzzles.

First, yeah, it's good to listen to that tape. Also, I managed to get into the business office of the people who were intending to market the place as a great little student housing project.

Interesting tape

Poster with attractive offer!

Getting into that office was good. I have a new map that I really have to scrutinize before I do anything more.

I was able to do the astronomy puzzle with no hints! Yay! There's a bit of a red herring involved, but if you observe things properly you can figure it out. 

Nice closeup of Oxford here!

I did it right!

After we finish that puzzle we get quite an intense event! Here the game has a pretty glaring flaw: the mouse jumps around all over the screen when you get into some screens, such as using the night vision camera. In this scene that problem was the worst it's been. 

Update: This is not a flaw in the game. Turns out I have a creaky old hard drive that is far too slow for the game in parts. My frame rate is basically sludge, and that's what's causing my mouse sensitivity.

Ghostly event

We've been through this kind of event before so I knew what to do. The problem was getting the cursor over the area I needed to click. The mouse works just fine in most other places, but it's a real problem in this kind of event. Fortunately, there's no time limit.

After that things get even more intense. 

We get to fly the drone again, and it's really good! However, I've only got four of the seven points I know I'm going to need on the house. Where are the other three? I did find a depiction of one of the missing symbols on the house. Still, I'm sure Jonathan wouldn't let me get this far in the game unless I'd found what I need to find, so there's got to be one more clue about the order of the symbols.

At any rate, after some rather intense messages from "Steve," I have managed to open the padlock on the basement. 

The padlock. Can you open it?

I can! The way in!

I'm pretty sure the basement is going to turn out to be the endgame, so I left off there for the day.

Whew! 

I really think this may turn out to be the best Dark Fall game so far. Starts a bit slow because you're getting oriented, but the pace is sure picking up now!

What's gonna happen tomorrow?

I have to admit that I'm just an eensy bit scared about going into that basement. Just sayin'.

Next Entry.

Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil 8: Flowers!

Made a lot of progress today! 

The second half of the seeds puzzle is fairly easy, although you don't know you've got it right until you move out of the room. But then you find yourself in a whole different time with whole different puzzles!

This is a good puzzle, but I think has one too may layers to it. Quite complex, we have to gather the correct colors of flowers and figure out what to do to them. We have to grow that yellow rose that we found in the attic room back in time.

Lovely yellow roses . . . for whom?

This all requires a bit of time traveling, but by this time in the game players will know how to do that.

A major difficulty in this multi-layered puzzle is to figure out which tune to play on the record player. Apparently it's randomized, so perk up your brain to remember melodies, because there's no clue to the numbers here:

Choose the correct tune

So you're going to have to figure out where you heard a tune like these.

But wait! There's more! Poetry is involved. Actually I didn't find the poem at all difficult. It's what to do with it that can cause some difficulty, and I admit that I needed a hint for that portion of the puzzle. If you did the whole thing without hints, I salute you! I needed one little nudge and one actual hint for the final solution.

It's a very good puzzle, but one of the more difficult I've encountered in Jonathan's games. Be patient. It is solvable. And plus, the scenery is really nice, I think!

Once you get all that done, you've got another bit of danger to face. Follow the easy clues and you will find yourself in a new location: the upper classroom! We did a find-the-difference puzzle on this room downstairs on the multi-cams. 

 Spooky place, isn't it?

And here we will encounter another bit of an uneasy discovery. With that discovery, however, we'll find another tape.

I know there's another major puzzle to be done here, and I'm pretty sure where we're going to do it (out on the balcony?). 

However, I'm going to go and play that tape first. Also, I made the mistake of looking at a bit more of CJU's playthrough and he found something that I missed. Actually, I might have permanently missed it, so I'm not too sorry that I looked. Want to be sure, however, that in future I don't watch his stuff until I'm sure I'm well past what he's done.

Once I get those two things done, the tape and the thing I missed, I'll go back to the classroom and tackle that new puzzle!

Onward!

Next Entry.

Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil 7: Cracking the Code!

Very little playing time today because I got interrupted, but I DID solve the puzzle in the boy's dorm. I admit that I got a slight clue from CJU's ongoing video playthrough, but as soon as I realized it I stopped playing that and solved it on my own. I had all the pieces already put together anyway. It was just the last element.

And it worked! I did indeed get the code, and I got the secret thing the boys were hiding, and I got a second brief recording from a white glowing light. The other one was at the piano (although it was not an EVP).

OK. I think I know what's going on here. It's like the first Dark Fall game, where we will be reciting the names of the symbols in a certain order. I've found the runes in the Lab; that's easy.

The Runes

So far I've seen all but two of these. One I found that had clearly broken off the house, and the others are on the house, spotted by the drone.

Look closely for runes

So I definitely have made progress.

Now, however, I have absolutely no idea what to do. Won't have any playing time tomorrow, so perhaps in my time off I will think of something. Until then . . .

(I do enjoy CJU's horror game videos. He likes to laugh at games but I think he's come to appreciate the stuff that Jonathan, at least, does. I'm certain, however, that he is getting hints and is editing a lot of searching around out of his videos. I'm only watching what he does until I get to where I am in the game. I am glad I got that hint, though, because I probably wouldn't have thought of it.)

Two days later: Aha! I had forgotten one more puzzle in the boy's dorm. This one:

Makes no sense to me

I've gotta say that while the code-cracking puzzle is really good, this nightmare man puzzle is really bad. It makes no sense even when you know the solution (and I really did have to look this one up. It makes no sense.)

Anyway, thereafter comes a bunch of wandering around. You just have to go to the right areas to get radio messages (hint: the locations are all downstairs and outside). But by following those you get into the greenhouse where there is a nifty puzzle that I have not yet solved, but am fairly well advanced into.

Another nice time event

The first part of the puzzle

I've done the test tube part and have passed! Now it's on to the more practical side of Mr. Harding's lesson. And there I have left off.

So, much more to do I think! Um, also, there's more than a small hint of some danger, so that will add some spice to the game!

Onward!

Next Entry.

Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil 6: Flying!

I found the drone! Hooray! Flight!

And getting out of that room turned out to be a cinch. Fun when things work like that!

I indeed am using the Shadow Tor version of the game. I tried the other shortcut and it did take me to the Steam version. Fortunately both versions are keeping my saves current. Ergo, if I have any trouble with this version I can go to the more up-to-date Steam one and get by any problem. But I still like this version because it's so much easier to take screenshots.

I finally managed, in the Steam version, to get the EVPs from the two portraits, but I had to wait for several minutes for each one to kick in. I imagine the problem would be the same in the ST version. I just didn't wait long enough. Still no luck with the EVP at the piano. It's just not there.

However! Back to my progress!

First, however, I experienced what I think is the first real flaw in the game (other than the tech problem with the EVPs). You will be playing a game of Snakes & Ladders (in the US I think we called this Chutes & Ladders) and your reward depends on whether you win or lose. There's nothing you can do to influence the game. It's completely random, and it takes a long time to play. That means that if you don't get the correct outcome you have to play it again . . . and again . . . and again.

Winning! (or not)

It's fairly easy to see if you have the correct outcome, but the time involved is not worthy of this game, I think.

Anyhoo, you get to fly a drone once that task is complete! And that is super fun! Hint: fly the thing absolutely everywhere you can. You're going to pick up major clues! (I've got the clues, but have no idea where to use them. No doubt the places will appear in due time.)

A Drone!

From the Drone

I made it into the Boy's Dormitory! Yes! And I found the best Easter egg in the game: a map of Saxton from The Lost Crown by none other than Nigel Danvers! Now, it's quite appropriate that TLC makes an appearance here. This game was created in order to get money to finish the sequel to TLC!  You can do a puzzle with the map if you know TLC. There's a little trick to it but I figured it out.

Inside the Boy's Dorm

Map of Saxton!

But here I am in the Boy's Dorm. There is a complicated puzzle here, and I'm running out of playing time for the day, so I'll tackle that tomorrow. I imagine that if I figured out the puzzle in the Girl's Dorm I can do this one too.

Plus, there's this nifty puzzle. I thought it might work with sound the way the crypt door did in TLC, but no, there's a clue close by if you look!

How does it work?

So! Till Tomorrow!

Next Entry.

Dark Fall 4: Ghost Vigil 5: Back, Back, Back, On, On, On!

Whoosh! I made some real progress, but I may be trapped!

Anyway . . .

I decided to start over because the game is on Steam and I wanted the achievements. Also, I'm pretty sure I wasn't more than a third of the way into the game, and I definitely had missed some stuff. And plus, I wanted to use my own name in the game (because I know that Jonathan actually put my name in the game!! Somewhere. But the game knows my name!)

However, I just re-experienced the earthquake, for which I was supposed to get an achievement, and I did not get the achievement. Plus, I found Steve's pamphlet, for which I know there's an achievement, and I didn't get that one either. But I can take screenshots the old-fashioned way without having to go through the verdamnten Steam overlay. So I think I must still be working off the Shadow Tor version. There are two shortcut icons for the game on my desktop, and I'm using the older one. 

That's fine. I will without doubt play this game again, and I can play through the Steam site and get the achievements at that time. Right now I'd rather be able to get screenshots easily rather than having to go through the Steam overlay.

I wasn't able to play for a few days because of Life. This is what I mean by Life:

My phone

Had to get that taken care of and then had yet other major problems to fix. But now I'm back!

I also got the PDF walkthrough from Darkling Room, and although I really really try not to use walkthroughs, I did have a look at it. It says you can get an EVP from the roundabout, but no, you can't. I tried far too many times. There is no EVP there, despite the "here" clue. Nevertheless I followed the instructions from the PDF and I did get the phenomenon, which is kinda nice.

The Playground phenomemon

I'm actually having lots of trouble getting EVP's I'm supposed to get. Despite what the PDF says, there is no EVP from the piano or from two portraits that are supposed to have them. I finally got one from the burning boy portrait, but I had to hold up the recorder for a very long time before it kicked in. That waiting technique did not work for those three other spots.

I did some exploring in the washroom. Here's that phone! There's another one in the Office with a bit of a different message. Very nice. I've collected some items, and several ID cards. I know what those are for.

Phone in the washroom.

We have another find-the-changes puzzle when we get to the main hall with all of the camera screens. This one was fairly easy to spot. I'm not giving anything away here. You have to go through some stuff before you get to this

Nice ghost in the classroom

Now and then we run into harmless spirit manifestations. These won't hurt you. (Well, there might be one that can).

You'll find this one easily.

Well! At one point today when I was just about to say, there is no progress here, I went back to the attic and followed the clues that I have. And that gave me a fantastic experience as well as what I'm sure will be a major inventory item! I know exactly where to get the item I will need to make it all work, but so far I don't have the item that will allow me to collect it.

I solved the piano puzzle. That one really is a cinch. No EVP though, despite what the walkthrough says.

You can do it!

And then, and then, and then, I solved the puzzle with the levers in the girls' dormitory. It took me almost forever, but at last I figured out how to do it! The clues are all around the room. You just have to find and interpret them. Good puzzle. Really good puzzle, with quite a reward!

Figure it out!

Yes! Made it to the girls' safe room. Found major, major clues in there along with what I already know will be an essential item.
However, it doesn't seem as though I can leave. Oh dear. I really do appear to be trapped.

I'll have to try to figure it out tomorrow!

So far, this is the best Dark Fall game yet! Can't wait to see what happens next IF I can get out of that room!

Next Entry.

Dark Fall 4: Ghost Vigil 4: Exploring the House

Made more progress today, finally! There were no deliveries that didn't arrive until hours after they were supposed to and the furnace is fixed. So! I played!

I did go back into the scary room and immediately regretted it. I got out without damage. I think tomorrow I'll be sure to save and see if the Dark Fall gets me in there. Be cute to know what happens.

I am having a bit of a problem: the mouse is terribly loose, and sometimes as difficult to control as a controller would be. I wonder if that happens in areas of the game that originally were meant to be navigated with a controller. Probably not, but it's interesting.

The Thermal cam reveals secrets

I explored all through the upper floor and most of the way through the lower floor, and will be going back upstairs tomorrow because I found an item that I can use to advance. I also found numerous inventory items, and am collecting employee ID cards for some reason. 


And I have a pen that I think I can use in the attic. There was even a reference to it in some of Steve's dialogue—he wondered if he could find a similar pen. Great. I've got it. I think I'm going to try that first tomorrow because I saved in a place where I can get outside and to the fire escape pretty quickly. Plus, I need to try the radio in specifically in that location, even though all the radios appear to play the same stations. There was a photo, and it was the radio in the attic.

Tawney the Owl!

I have recorded a couple more EVPs, one of which appears to be the beginnings of a game—if I can find the area that it refers to. Pretty clearly these EVPs aren't just window dressing or part of the backstory. I think they're going to be major clues.

I have met one nice ghost, apparently the caretaker. I found the portrait of the "burning boy." No doubt that will kick in later. I found Harwood's study, but can't get in yet. I found the nursery but Steve told me to get outta there.

The "Burning Boy"

The girls' dormitory is open, with some really nice detail scattered around. I think this game is going to be part of a puzzle, but don't know how that's going to work yet. The boys' dormitory is still locked.

I think this game in the girls dorm will be part of a puzzle.

I have found Steve's copy of the ghost pamphlet with all kinds of interesting notes. No doubt I'll be able to use some of these ideas to advance.

I also got a nice phone call in the laundry room. Can't remember what it said though. Hmmm. 

The detail in this game is really good and is greatly contributing to the atmosphere and, ahem, realism, if you can call it that. You really do feel as though you're doing ghost hunting in the house. 

I do need to use my ghosthunting gadgets more, but the night vision camera revealed several hidden messages, one of which may be a code that I'll need. And of course, Jonathan's signature clue, the ghostly whisper "here" tells you where you need to look more closely at things. I now also have a bit of a goal, finding something about the "Jerico Five." The word "Jerico" has come up several times.

Just a corner in the game

Also, I indeed do have the Jemima doll in my inventory. I've looked at her but she didn't do anything evil to me. I'm certain that's going to come in handy.


So, really, I'm still kind of just getting my feet wet in the game. I'm betting I may be a third of the way through, the way it feels. Still lots and lots to go! I know there are major puzzles coming up, and I haven't found them yet. 

So, onward!

Next Entry.

Dark Fall 4: Ghost Vigil 3: Whoa! What was THAT??

So that was fairly intense! Careful about going upstairs, especially if you find Jemima!

However, the game continues to be just exactly what I need! I'm clearly not finished with the attic area, as there is at least one place there where I need an inventory item. I actually might have found it, but have been wandering in other areas instead.

The lab had an interesting puzzle. Four of the six pictures you find there and examine are easy--the other two not so much. But once you solve that you get a new gadget. 

The thermal cam!

Additionally in the lab you find that Steve has been collecting runes, and for those of us who have played Dark Fall 1, they will look familiar. Note: it is not at all necessary to have played any of Mr. Boakes' other games to enjoy this one. It stands alone nicely. However, experience of the other games certainly enhances this one.

Some of us have seen these before!

Also I got into the library, with a key a ghost gave me, apparently. So it wants me to help us? (You can help us!) There are major things in that library desk. I had another malware crash (no, I hadn't saved often enough because I was just too engrossed in the game). However, when I went back the second time I found two things I had missed at first. So that was worth it.

Lots of goodies in the Library desk!

I am now saving after anything major. It isn't the game, it's my malware protection.

I have made it into the main lobby and ghost hunters headquarters. The plot has thickened. There were more find-the-event puzzles on the cam screens, one of them fairly challenging—but if you get seven of eight on that screen you really cannot miss number eight! So keep hunting!


Now my problem is where to go. I have been authorized to go upstairs, but instead I decided to hunt around on the ground floor and got fairly well lost. Found my way back to the headquarters mainly by accident. However, in my wanderings I found the most wonderful paintings on one wall that depict Saxton. If you go close up you can hear faint music and dialogue from The Lost Crown. That won't mean anything to those who haven't played TLC, but if you haven't, what are you waiting for?

Some players will recognize these locations!

However, my next excursion took me into a room that inspired the title to this post. There are supposed to be no jump scares in this game, but this comes pretty close! Very intense, unnerving sounds and visuals that go on and on until you figure out how to stop them and then get outta there! (At least, I suppose you're supposed to get outta there. I certainly did. Not entirely sure I'm going back, either.)

Be careful with Jemima!

I have made it safely back to the headquarters. Haven't even been up all the stairs yet. So, lots and lots to go!

Gad this is fun, and at times, intense. The graphics are great, and of course Jonathan is the past master at sound effects. I might add that most of the voice acting is done by Jonathan and Matt (with their real photos too) and I think they're both doing just fine. Matt's the good guy in this one, and Jonathan is playing a character that comes across, intentionally, as rather a nasty sort. 

So I should have time tomorrow after the gas company comes to fix my furnace, which has been out for a week and a half. This is Southern California, so it's not an emergency, but I do have to be able to spring up and go to the door as soon as they arrive, and the position I get into to use the PC makes that difficult. Hope the guy comes in the morning.

Well, any delay I might have only prolongs the experience, and that's a good thing. Really, so far I think this is one of Jonathan's best games. 

Until tomorrow—sometime.

Next Entry.

Dark Fall 4: Ghost Vigil 2: MASSIVE FUN!

Ah, glorious fun! Jonathan Boakes has done it yet again. At last I can just immerse myself in a creative, challenging but not impossible adventure, steeped in gloomy atmosphere, and not have to worry about how I walk around. It's just an old-fashioned point and click, which is intuitive, so I can concentrate entirely on the game and not on navigation. What a relief! (And thank you Jonathan, for listening to your fans about that.) 

And I'm back to the most fun kind of game for me, just wandering around, finding clues, learning the story, and doing decent puzzles! It's like going back to my first immersive experience with Uninvited, except the graphics in this game are a bit more sophisticated (ahem).

The Van. Nice graphics.

I finally got some playing time yesterday. Only planned to play for about two hours. Wound up playing for five hours, and would have gone on except it was well past dinnertime and I was hungry! Plus, I had reached a perfect place to pause for the day.

(Oh, a heads-up: so far when I load the game it takes a full 30 seconds to get the first screen. I have a black screen for that long. Don't crash the game; it'll work.)

So! What have I done? I did indeed take a tour of the rest of the outside area, and just as I was trying to enter the house my malware protection kicked in with a scan and crashed the game. So, lesson learned: save often. I didn't lose much, and I learned a bit more about where things are. I also rode the slide and a rocking horse in the playground and found numerous doors with locks. 

And I found the graphic for the Dark Fall. And somehow the name "Jemima" came up. Nice little Easter eggs for Jonathan's longtime fans.

There it is! The Dark Fall symbol!

And another blast from the past: the TLC ghosts in the Fenland Eye say "You can help us!"

Got into the attic and poked around and poked around and found lots of stuff. I learned how to operate the four-camera surveillance system and found more than enough ghostly events on that. But Matt Clark put out an updated version of the game because he said people were getting stuck in the attic. I could leave the attic, so perhaps I wasn't one of the victims, but I was just sure I'd been there far too long. Getting the update required another full install which I was fearful of doing, but I did it and it worked this time without a hitch. Plus, it's good to have the latest version of the game.

I did make a teensy mistake. I realized after I did it that I could have entered my name into the system. Instead, I just kept accepting "guest." So that's who I am. However, I believe that Jonathan has put my name somewhere in the game after I responded to a Facebook opportunity. I will wait for that! (It knows my name . . .)

Does the Spirit Board know my name?

Having done that I finally realized that the probable real reason I couldn't expand the game beyond the attic was that I had not completed all the task list. "Steve," the lead ghost hunter, kept telling me to find the assignment list, but it took me a good two hours to do it. Never mind. I had plenty to do in the meantime, and had completed two of the six tasks by then.  Having the task list is hugely important though, because you would never think to do everything on it without that guidance. Plus, warning: you have to do some of the tasks more than once, a fact not indicated in the list.

A helpful sceen in your PDF

Capturing EVPs is rather fun. Once you get them you have to translate them. Only one is a bit problematical, but it didn't take me long to solve it.

Not telling you what else is on the list. Find it yourself. 

I have made it into the lab, the next venue for my efforts. Saved there and WILL PLAY today no matter what happens! I'm caught up in it now! 

My first glimpse of the lab.

Honestly, it's such a relief to find a game that grabs me like, well, like Jonathan's other games have grabbed me. Also, Uninvited, Shivers, Gabriel Knight and other stuff by Jane Jensen, the Dracula series, those kinds of games. I mean, Fran Bow was wild, but extremely difficult and more horrific than I like. Grim Fandango, a true masterpiece, was impossible for me to play because the puzzles are so outlandish. I wound up watching a YouTube video playthrough of it. Edith Finch, another masterpiece that I hugely enjoyed, was a bit marred for me by the difficult navigation, even though it used only a mouse. I enjoy the Carol Reed games but although enjoyable they're all the same, and not as immersive as these real PnC adventure classics.

But this is taking me back to the joy I felt playing those great adventures! I want a game I feel compelled to keep playing. I believe I have found it!

So, I'm back into a true classic adventure world! I have missed it badly. I cannot wait to find out what happens next!

Next Entry.