Moebius 2: Original Versions Keep On Keepin' On

The plot develops in Moebius. Lucky for me there's lots of history (yay!). For those who don't like history, it's OK, you'll be spending almost all the time in the modern world. But we're trying to find out (this isn't much of a spoiler), if modern people might be similar to historical figures. 

While I continue to believe the game would have worked wonderfully in full-motion video, the cartoon characters look pretty good, except for the main character, who really does look just pretty bad. He doesn't look like a human. His sidekick, once we meet him, looks just fine, and the other characters are OK. But to have our main man looking so weird, well, it's weird.

Still, the gameplay is really fun, to me at least! It's Jane Jensen's normal mode: earn points by finding clues. Go into close-ups and hit a big "Exit" button to return to the regular screen. While her puzzles will madden many they are doable and you feel good when you crack one. As usual, you won't need a WT if you click on every possible hotspot in every possible screen. Eventually you'll hit the right one, so use that spacebar (or the target icon in the upper left corner) to find them all. 

The scenery is really pretty nice. Here, for example, is a shot from Malachi's balcony in New York at night:

New York View

I'll admit that the coffee puzzle in Paris had me ready to go to a WT. Hint: you have to put the coffee down in a special place to do what you need to do with it. Look for coffee places, maybe?

So here's a daytime scene from Paris, or, well, close to Paris:

A nice hotel

Frequently you'll have to go back to other scenes to get inventory items, and as I said in the last post, I think that's good. It adds complexity and it's more realistic than, say, picking up a ladder and carrying it around for an hour until you need it, as is usual in so many adventure games. I like it. Most reviewers didn't. They are wrong.

The music! Of course it's done by Robert Holmes, Jane Jensen's husband. I only noticed on my second day of playing that the incidental music in the background is either exactly the same or remarkably similar to the original Gabriel Knight game. I like that too!

In this game I think Jane has gone much further in character development than she's done before. Our main character, Malachi, isn't really a very nice guy at all. None of Jane's characters are perfect, but they were at least likable. This guy almost isn't. He's consciously superior and makes snide comments about the decor wherever he goes. He sneers. He's really not very nice. Yet, he's brilliant and he's our hero, so it'll be interesting to see if he has any character development in the end. I'm rather enjoying that these characters, especially Malachi, are closer to real humans than you ever encounter in games. Adds depth.

I almost missed one of the most important, and lengthy, cutscenes in the game by solving a puzzle when I inadvertently had the sound off on my computer. Had to not look until it was done, then quit and get back into the game and re-solve the puzzle. Pretty easy puzzle this time, fortunately.

I will admit that the coding puzzle in Reichart's office defeated me. I went to the WT. I just wasn't in the mood to trudge through that at the time. But I did manage the puzzle box!

I did run into what I thought was a glitch that was going to stop the game. I've made it to Chapter 6 (fortunately there are seven chapters this time so I've got lots of gameplay left). I was in the Senator's office talking about an email and I got into a loop that kept repeating. There did not appear to be a way out of it. I thought my game was corrupted. I went to the walkthrough on Gameboomers, read the relevant section and that gave me enough information that I got out of the loop. Whew! But the game has hiccuped on several occasions. All this might be a problem on Steam, of course.

So I still ought to have lots of fun to come. This is good, because it's distracting me from some other problems. I need this game right now. Probably I'll finish tomorrow, and then get back to my Kirkus job, but I'm so glad to find this real adventure to play right at this time!

Next entry

Moebius 1: Great Puzzles but Cartoon Characters

Still having a sort of vacant day, I decided finally to start Jane Jensen's newest. It's been out for several months and I first bought it on GOG, but I couldn't get it to install even with GOG's customer support, so they refunded my money and I found it on Steam for the same price. And Steam has achievements!

A very typical Jane Jensen game, Plenty of complexity, including in the gameplay. She for some reason uses the most layered of systems, always has. Yes, it's point and click, but you have to go through plenty of steps due to the options she gives you. You can look, take, operate, or use something on the various hot spots. These are always available with either a spacebar or by clicking on a target area in her abbreviated in-game menu.

And of course the puzzles come in nice layers. You have to find an object here before you can get a result over there. The only way to do it is to be absolutely sure you've clicked on all hotspots in every possible scene. Sometimes you have to have completed an action before you get the chance to take or operate something. Example: we find motor oil in a street in Cairo. First, our guy says he doesn't need any motor oil. Later we find a use for it, so we'd better remember that it's there. Only after we find the need for it can we pick it up. Actually, that makes more sense than most adventures, where you pick up objects and carry them around for no apparent reason, then later you find out why. (Carol Reed does that constantly.)  Plus, it adds more complexity to the game, and that's good.

Malachi investigates a murder

This time we play a high-end antiques dealer who tends to get into dangerous situations. I've just finished the first two chapters. We've got a murder mystery in Chapter 1 and the plot thickens in Chapter 2. I'm finding it quite fun. 

Much of the gameplay involves analyzing various people and objects. In the easier puzzles, we just look at hot spots on a figure and guess which of the multiple choice answers are correct. It's fairly obvious, and Jane tends to throw in some ridiculous choices to narrow the guess factor. 

But this game has a focus on history (yay!) and we get quite a lot of reading matter on various objects and figures from history. Which historical character matches the modern one, for example. Don't know where this is tending, but I suspect some time travel will be involved.

We don't yet know how the Moebius infinity strip works in the game, but I think that's going to be a major object of play. It's only been mentioned once so far.

Golly, I hope this game isn't short. I've already reached the beginning of Chapter 3, and usually her games have only six chapters.  I had to look at a WT in Chapter 1, but I figured out Chapter 2 all by my little self. Just a matter of getting used to the gameplay, really.

I'm having fun! 

One caveat: the 3-D cartoon characters just look dumb. She did the best ever full-motion video game in GK2. The tech is better now. Why not bring it back? (Probably too expensive. Sierra had the $$$, but she's operating independently now.) Anyway, full motion video would fit with this game perfectly. Most games screwed it up back in the 90s. Now they could do it very well indeed. Sure hope somebody tries, and with a decent game.

So, on to Chapter 3!

Next entry

Gone Home: It's the Thought that Counts

So I finished the month's Kirkus books, and my sister, who has been here helping me recover from surgery (which turned out not to have been necessary after all), is out for the night and will come back tomorrow.

Perfect time to play one of those few-hours-long exploration games that have been becoming more popular these days. And why not? They're rather like short stories. You get a real gaming experience without having to commit weeks of time. Nicely memorable too.

Gone Home fit that purpose quite well. You play as the daughter (sorry, males) of a family on the night that you return home from an extended trip to Europe--at least a year it seems. You arrive, but nobody's home. Eventually you learn where your mom and dad went, and you learn a bit about their struggles. But it's your little sister Samantha, or Sam, who takes center stage--even though she's not there.

Lots of reviews have called this a scary game. I didn't think so until the end. I was pretty well scared to walk up that ladder amid those red Christmas lights. But we're in an empty house. We spend the entire game wandering around it, opening doors and drawers and cupboards and finding objects and notes and letters that tell a story, along with voiceovers from the absent Sam in journal form. 

Anything could jump out at us at any time.

Sam has abruptly left the house, and the game's goal is to find out why.

As we wander from room to room, finding a few maps noting secret passages, more of the house becomes available to us. There are no actual puzzles aside from three combination locks that need to be opened. We have to search for the combinations. We find several secret compartments as well. Once we happen upon those they're added to the in-game map, always available, that really becomes essential to navigation through the house.

The result is the slow unweaving of a love story, with an ending. We just have to find all the letters to tell us the story, slowly, piecemeal, but easy enough for any player to follow.

Following, however, requires use of the keyboard and mouse. I hated the controls. At first I didn't think I was going to be able to play the game at all. You use WASD to move around, but to look around you have to use the mouse. My Apple mouse spun the rooms far too fast, and there seems to be no way to slow that down in the settings/options of the game. Fortunately, I have a Lexmark mouse that was marginally slower. That enabled me to play, although the controls still are far too touchy. My control got easier as I got used to the game, but I found the whole setup awkward. A nice point and click would have been far easier.

That quibble aside, I enjoyed the game very much. The atmosphere remains fairly creepy throughout. There's a loud storm with lightening outside, and that no doubt is meant to contribute tension. And of course, you're wandering into dark rooms, always needing to find the light switch. The map is always available, along with an inventory (you'll use whatever you need automatically, it's just there to show you what you've got), and the collection of Sam's journal voiceovers, with accompanying text. And whoa, we really do need that map! Once we get into the basement, it's almost maze like.

But nervous players might start seeing things in shadows. Sam likes ghost chasing, and has been trying to find ghosts in the house. She's known as the girl from the "psycho house." Are we going to encounter ghosts and/or psychos? Was foul murder done? Any skeletons jumping out of all those closets?

I'm not telling.

But it was a truly enjoyable game, and an entertaining way to spend a few hours.

Serena: A Madness?

So I "played" this little freebie called "Serena" which turns out to be an exploration of a rather dilapidated cabin and an exploration of the narrator's sort-of mind.

I'm not entirely sure this is a game, or an adventure. It's more like an interactive movie or even book. You simply go around the cabin clicking on things. On each object you get numerous comments from the narrator. Once you've looked at everything, something changes and you start to get a different perspective, and later you learn more.

The cabin

Of course, there is some suspense. There are some decent sound effects, and the art work is really nice. The cabin has dust motes floating all around, which is a really nice effect. It's pretty easy to figure out what happened, and yet the ending didn't make much sense to me. 

The voice acting from the narrator was quite good, but the Serena actress was absolutely terrible. The voice not only didn't fit the picture of the woman in the slightest, but she had no concept of trying to make her speech sound natural. She did make an effort for emotion in the second letter you find. Fortunately, we spend at least 90% of the game with the narrator, who did a very credible job.

Still, it was an intriguing and absolutely not boring way to spend an hour.

Note: you cannot save in this game. I started playing it several months ago and tried to save, but wound up back at the beginning. Ergo, don't start unless you have at least an hour to spare, and don't start unless you're pretty sure you won't be interrupted.

All in all it was a very nice effort, and worth the hour. And for free! Thanks!

Avadon, the Corruption 6: Do it Again!

So I decided to try a replay, and I did it, and I did it on HARD all the way through! Yay! This is the first time I've managed to finish a Spiderweb game on the Hard setting. This time I chose to fight Redbeard in the end, and did get a very nice final battle. However, I wasn't able to defeat the guy on the Hard setting--it was the only think I couldn't do on Hard. So I just said I'd support him and finished the game to get the Medal for doing the entire game on Hard. (There's another secret medal, no doubt that one's for Torment.) Later I went back and defeated him on Normal and got the medal for "forced retirement."

I couldn't have done it if I hadn't played it first on normal. It turns out that the Hard setting (and presumably, the Torment setting) simply requires you to think before you act. You do have to use your wands and potions. I only managed to save a few wands, the Phoenix shards that restore your abilities, and the Circle of Fire scrolls--just used one on the wind demon and wound up with 14 of them for the final battle. They were extremely useful and I think allowed me to win, along with some speed burst scrolls (only needed two of those).

I had a lot of trouble defeating Miranda on Hard. I went to the Spiderweb Forum and asked for detailed help. The always-there "Randomizer" responded with excellent advice, but even then it took multiple tries to get 'er done. Again, it was just a matter of placing my characters where they wouldn't get hit, and some luck--finally my turrets were aimed at Miranda and I got her. Interestingly, you don't have to get her health down to zero. You only need to do a certain amount of damage to her and the game tells you that you've won. Plus, I followed a walkthrough and managed to pick up all the goodies from that area of the game--including the Avenger's Greaves and the meteor chunk. Nice!

As with Miranda, defeating Redbeard in the end depended on my turrets actually firing at him. You don't have any control over the turrets, aside from hasting them and healing them. They fire at whatever enemy they feel like firing on. This time I had Khalida do a berserk leap at Redbeard right at the start, and she somehow managed to pin him at the front of the room. In previous fights he jumped to the center and took out my turrets pretty quickly. Once Khalida attacked him I set Yoshira on him with a shattering blow, which kept him in the front. Then Dedrik hit him with an icy storm, which also blew him back. With that tactic and by using only two speed bursts, a few wands and those Circles of Fire, plus a couple of summoned creatures and only one Phoenix shard, I managed to defeat him just after the text said his portal was half finished. So that was a matter of tactics and luck. 

See? Ya just have to think. I bet I could go back and get him on Hard, if I really wanted to! (heh) Update: And I did! Took about four tries, but the secret was keeping Redbeard at the front of the room and away from my turrets. Again, those Circle of Fire scrolls were the deciding factor. So now I indeed have finished the entire game on Hard. Ha ha!

I was amazed at how much of the game I missed the first time! Really, I must have missed at least 20% of it! This time I found the Tower of Trials quest, and was able to explore Redbeard's private quarters. There were at least four or five other side quests I found that I hadn't found on the first playthrough.

And I found abundant lockpicks this time. I had nearly 40 to spare by the end of the game. I was able to look in that chest just before the endgame and the thing had a totally useless "arcane scroll" and something else that didn't matter a damn. Sheesh.

I had no trouble with the endlessly swarming enemies this time, because I knew that I only had to bunny hop over to the fort. I did that on the first try.

So I must say that I enjoyed the game much more this time! There's yet another scenario I could play in the future--I could completely join the rebels. I suppose I could try that on the "Torment" setting sometime, and go for the "Kills a God on Torment" medal, and defeat Vardegras to get that medal, but  I think I've done enough of Avadon for now. Time for a few point and click adventures!

Still, it was much more fun this time. Glad I did it!

Avadon, the Corruption 5: Fighting and Fighting and Fighting and . . . Finished?

I finished. Plenty of great fun right up to the endgame, which frankly, sucked. But first:

Once again I was having too much fun playing to blog about it. Had to do all the little quests to satisfy my co-fighters. Each one has a little problem to solve, but we have to go find them and solve it in order to keep them friendly and happy.

Along the way I returned to Monitor Base D in the Corruption, and attacked the Wind Demon that was occupying it. With two tinkermages, giving me four towers, and my shaman to heal us up, after a bit of trouble with tactics I managed to defeat the guy pretty easily. Didn't get a "medal" in the game for it, however, because I did it on normal difficulty, and the game won't reward you with a medal unless you kill him on the "hard" setting.

The big quest was going to the Corruption Core and the fight with Miranda, one of the major villains. Miranda rebelled against Redbeard in the first game and caused all the chaos we're fighting in this game. We met her earlier a couple of times, but this time it's the showdown. The trouble with the Core is that if you step off the smooth walkways you engender nasty enemies. Plus, once you kill Miranda (a little trick is involved that I had to look on the forum for, but I should have been able to figure it out with my Spiderweb experience, drat me) you have to leave the Core post haste, or you get swarmed. Of course, you can always have just one character run out, leaving the rest to get killed. They come back once you hit the peace button.

So that was a nice challenge, and fun. But then we get to the actual endgame.

First, we have to go fight Dheless in  one of his temples again. This time he has abundant cronies who are pretty tough. It ain't easy to get through 'em, and finally I decided to just avoid a few fights. Once done with that, you get this screen:

There's only one place to go. So we go there, and we find . . .

Endlessly spawning enemies. First, we can get into a nice supply dump. I couldn't access all of the goodies available, because you need lockpicks and I didn't have enough to get into a chest that no doubt held some really nice stuff. Then it's out and into the fighting.

The first fight is fine. We can win it. However, once we proceed across the map we trigger those spawning enemies. Plus, there are more enemies in your way as you try to get to the fort. If you get through those you find four (4) flame throwing turrets blocking your access over the bridge. 

The forum gave good advice. Get a character with teleporting abilities, load up with regeneration potions, and "bunny hop" across the map. 

So, I went back to a save game that I had in Avadon, and chose a different party. I left my sorcerer with his great robe and wand, and took my shaman because I needed the healing ability. Then I gave my character the teleport scarab and also chose the shadow walker, who can teleport automatically. I fought my way through the temple yet again--good tough fights. Also got through that first section of the outside area that you have to traverse to get to the fort.

But then I ran into the spawning area. Used the teleport ability to get my character and the shadow walker across. One of them got stuck in a fight, but the other did manage to leap over the bridge with the turrets. Whew!

But. 

It turns out that more spawning enemies come from the north. At last I just gulped down speed potions and ran to the fort. I made it! Now I'm ready for the final showdown that will end the game. I've saved up nine precious circle of fire scrolls, because these games always end with a final, tough battle that you eventually can win, right? I've got battle elixirs. I've got three assault crystals. I've got wands. I've got speed elixirs. I am READY for that final battle!

Nope. Those spawning enemies were the final fight. You get to recruit all six of your buddies. I took time to make sure they were all well equipped, although I wasn't able to change any scarabs because I wasn't at Avadon. I gulped down some "water" available in the area that replenished my vitality. Everybody was at full strength. We go in to see Redbeard. We make choices (I decided to be loyal this time).

Redbeard says we're going back to Avadon. So I hoped I'd have chance to fix the scarabs before the fight.

But there was no fight. Once you click the green check button to end the dialogue, the game goes into the explanation of what happened. No final fight. No scarabs. No circle of fire scrolls. The game is over.

Sheesh. 

Well, it was a fantastic game up to that point. The endgame was nothing but frustration followed by disappointment. Did Jeff get tired? Did he get pushed over a deadline? And why the spawning enemies anyway? That just isn't Spiderweb's style. Normally, when you kill an enemy, it stays dead. You can get spawns, but there's always a source to destroy and stop the spawning. 

So instead of five stars, I'm docking one just because of the endgame. Great game, up to that point.

I did have fun most of the time though!

Next entry

Avadon, The Corruption 4: THAT was PHUN!!!

Played all day yesterday! W00T! Did two epic dungeon crawls that kicked it!

First up was "Troezen's Treasure," an abandoned tinkermage workshop with all kinds of nasties inside just waiting to eat me. This may be the best dungeon crawl I've ever done. It has three different layers. First, you get in and confront constructs that keep generating. The more generated the tougher they become, so it's necessary to take 'em down as quickly as possible, um, except you don't know that until you get to the end. We wind around and get to the back of the workshop, destroy all the constructs, and then we're safe. However, we can't open the gate into the rest of the workshop. We make a drawing of it and take that back to the lady who gave us the quest, a tinkermage in Troezen. She takes her time in figuring it out, and won't figure it out until we've gained more levels. So we get on with the rest of the game.

At last we're sent back to Troezen, and at last she's figured it out. She gives us instructions, and we return to the workshop. We open the gate! Now we've got more baddies to fight and they're not really all that bad, but once we get 'em all slaughtered we find yet another gate we can't open. Back to the lady tinkermage and she can't figure this one out, but remembers that there's another way in. So off we go, slaughtering altered goo bats and various ghasts until we get to a window that allows us to see the gate mechanism from the other side. Take that back to the tinkermage and she solves it. Now we can get in to the inner workshop, with all the goodies.

But, first we have to get by a couple of really tough constructs that drop mines. That one defeated me the first time until I wised up and set up my towers right at the doorway so they couldn't get by. I've got two tinkermages in this battle: my main character and the other tinkermage that nobody likes, and that turned out to be a great choice. Was able to fire away at the constructs with my sorcerer taking no damage at all, and finally got through to the inner sanctum and the final, nasty battle.

I had to take a look at the forum for advice on this one. There are three "tinkermage constructs," each in a little alcove. These all set up their own hostile towers that shoot at you. Apparently you only have to kill one tinkermage construct to win the battle, but they're not all vulnerable at the same time. A little wisp circles one of them, changing all the time. When the wisp is circling around one of them, that one is vulnerable. Also, in the center of the room, more constructs are formed that eventually are going to attack you.

First, I set up with the south tinkermage construct, but got killed pretty quickly. Then I took the forum's advice and entered battle mode before going into the room, because the room doesn't become hostile until all three of our characters are inside. This time I chose the north alcove, because you're sheltered from the other two alcoves and their hostile towers there. Ran in one at a time, set up four towers, two for each of my tinkermages, then had my sorcerer run in and join me. 

How I did it!

Got killed again on the first try, but that was only because I neglected the center constructs for too long, and they shambled forward and slaughtered me fairly quickly. However, it clearly was a smart option, so I did it again. Summoned creatures with my summoning wands and used an assault crystal to get everybody charged up. This time I hid behind my towers, except for my sorcerer, who mostly stood back against the wall. When my tinkermage construct was invulnerable, I just shot at the constructs forming in the center of the room. They actually go down fairly easily if you keep hammering them. Whenever my tinkermage construct turned vulnerable, I whacked away at her, this time not forgetting the center constructs. It took awhile, but I had set up not only suppression, ice and razorblade towers, but a healing pylon too. 

So I got out of it with a nice win and not even too much damaged. 

Really, I think that was the best dungeon crawl I've ever done.

The second one turned out to be another solo effort for my main character, although I think I could have avoided that. We go to another of those temples looking for the bad guy Dheless, and this time we find him. We also find a truly powerful Tawon goddess, however and she sends us downstairs to hung Dheless, because he make her mad. She sends our two companions away, however, so we're on our own.

Now, I think I could have avoided most of that by just going downstairs with my whole party before I encountered the goddess. I might have a saved game that would let me check that out, but I'm not sure. Anyhoo, you have to slaughter ghasts and ghosts and rats, but these come at you mostly one at a time with the occasional twosome. Not too difficult to dispatch, as we heal up every time we go into peace mode after a fight. There are some decent goodies to loot, and thanks to the junk bag there's no limit to what we can carry. (Although my inventory was completely clogged at the end, because I found some good weapons and armor that I didn't want to sell--fortunately, as you'll see!)

Got to a room where I had to fight Tawon soldiers, but these came at you one at a time, and I had my towers to suppress them and heal me. I didn't bother with shooting towers because I could whack away at 'em on my own. Got all those guys and used up a buncha lock picks to get into sealed areas and get some better goodies. Finally went upstairs, where I had to avoid a construct that patrolled the halls just as in Avernum 6, so I knew how to do that. Fought a buncha ghosts there and took down a buncha hostile towers--easy for a tinkermage with some tool use.

Another upstairs level, and this one had internals to fight. Needed my suppression and healing towers for those, but it went easily after that. Then we get to a "test area" where you have to prove your worth to the goddess. But hey, I'm a tinkermage, so I can set up my towers and the bad guys will whack those instead of me while I shoot and whack them. Wasn't difficult at all and I came out of it almost unscathed. Then I got a really nice sword from a treasure chest as a reward, as well as a key to the final tower, where you find Dheless. Won't say what happened there.

But back I go to Avadon to find that my sorcerer has disappeared. This happens in the Avadon games--each of your characters will have some kind of crisis and you have to go rescue them. That would be fine, except that my sorcerer disappeared with all the good gear on him! Luckily I had scored some good stuff, and I had a good breastplate for my blademaster, as well as a buncha other stuff I hadn't sold yet. She had her own good weapon, so I gave the new sword to the tinkermage that had gone with me on the last mission, as he was already tricked out with the good armor. I only had to buy a helmet for her--I had necklaces and boots and gloves and what all for her. She won't be as strong as before, but she won't be vulnerable.

So now I can start gathering my wandering characters. I've got two to find, as I didn't go after the first one earlier. Will do that before I start any more major quests.

Whew! That was major PHUN! Two great dungeon crawls! Took me all day, but I earned it!

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