Lost Souls (13): I'm Baaaaack!

[First published September 27, 2010]
Who knew that "tomorrow" would mean September 27th? This happens to me sometimes. I just get pulled away from my games. I come back, though!

Explanations:

Stuff happens. My first duty is to my Dad, and that interfered. I can't remember what tore me away from the game. Also, I had a vacation and several more deliveries of Kirkus books (far more than usual but it paid for the vacation).

After the vacation (said goodbye to my beloved pandas at the San Diego Zoo, Su Lin and my special Zhen Zhen, who just returned to China on Saturday), I had a whirlwind of doctors' appointments with Dad.

And then, well, to be honest, I was kinda scared of the game. Really, this is the scariest game I've ever played. That, of course, is a major reason to play it, but I also want to figure it out!

However, at last I decided that today was the day! So . . .

I unashamedly went to the WT, after having been off for so long. In fact, I've had to consult the dratted thing three times today, because again I ran into, shall we say, excessive difficulties. First problem: when I found the blue eye, the scissors kept breaking even when I finally switched the controls to "easy." Turns out, champs, that they will break if you let go at all. You have to keep on manipulating the scissors until the eye pops out. This process takes a long time.

Second, the next "clue" from Echo I figured out (shiny packages), but once again we had the moth problem. You have to grab far, far too many of the things before you find what you don't know you're looking for. I grabbed several, found either nothing or cockroaches, and figured that it was just local color in the game. There either needs to be fewer grabs, or some clue that you have to keep going.

As it now stands, the only clue to keep going is that your progress in the game will halt, and you won't know why. You'll have to go back over everything, and even then, will you grab enough "packages?" Not unless you're just lucky or to keep going and going and going far beyond reason.

This isn't a good way to add difficulty or playing time to a game. Once someone figures out the clue, there ought to be a reward for it. Normally Jonathan is great at that, but now three times (chrysalises, scissors manipulation, and shiny "packages") the player is expected to simply get lucky.

Humph.

Anyway, I am making real progress now. I have found the third sisters book, three eyes of three different colors, lots of mannequins, the last door on this floor that I can't enter yet, and it has a glowing symbol on it (!), and abundant trash. Amy is playing games with me. Echo communicates. I have found my way to the second TV room, and found the knob to run the "program" on the TV. (After my experience with the other three "puzzles" I just kept grabbing things until something popped up. That worked.)

Haven't yet figured out what the movie means. I'll watch it again when I return, and explore the room more. Well, I'll have to explore it more, because Amy has locked me in it.

I really would like to make more progress in this game. I know you kinda go back in time to 1947 and help out our old friends, the ghosts from the first game. I want to do that.

But sheesh. Doesn't look as though I'll get there anytime soon!

Still, I persevere.


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