East Side Story 2: Braining is Hard

Shoot! This is a complicated game! The difficulty is finding all the nodes, and we have to do quite a lot of that in the dark, using only a little circle of light, once we've finally acquired a light source which takes several steps. (I mean, can't Carol just have flashlights on hand in her apartment???) 

I think the most frustrating part, so far, is wandering around in a dark dark dark tunnel trying to find inventory items. I wandered around in it for a goodly piece of time and found nothing, nichts, nada, zero, before finally turning to the WT and noting the stuff I was supposed to find and a general guide to where it all was. So I've got all that now.

I have progressed to wandering through yet another derelict building (where does he FIND these places?? Is half of Sweden falling apart??). I am still in need of various items. I believe I will tackle that tomorrow.

But there were some nice puzzles and Jonas turned up, looking even better than the town, as usual. He wants Carol to join him for a few weeks at his vacation home. Hmmm. (Moral code or not this is Sweden, after all.)

Jonas. Some of the better eye candy in the game.

Also, our game designer himself, Hitchcock like, has shown up. He likes to play the more strange character types:

Say no, Carol!

So, though I've made real progress, that was due to my consultation of the walkthrough. As this is a replay just for this blog, I'm being completely shameless about it.

These games got easier later on. Here, if you don't find every possible node and click on it, then sweep the screen for hot spots, you aren't going to finish. Inventory puzzles or not, the difficulty level surpasses Jane Jensen. Plus, some of the puzzles are quite devious (hint: Mikael likes to do color-coded puzzles, and he likes to use numbers on the colors. Sometimes it means you need to click certain buttons numerous times. He's used that trick at least twice that I can remember.) Figuring out a translation puzzle, although it looks straightforward, isn't. 

And of course, we have the nice scenery, along with the derelict, run-down buildings.

Pretty

Not pretty

Nevertheless, despite my frustration tonight, I'm still enjoying it. I am glad, however, that Mikael made the games just a bit easier. I think this one might be the most complex of all of them.

So that's enough for tonight! See you all tomorrow!

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East Side Story 1: Back to Carol

After doing the latest Carol Reed I noticed that I've got a gap in my games: I'm missing numbers 4 and 5, Time Stand Still and this one, East Side Story. Although I've played Time Stand Still a couple of times, it seems that I don't actually own the copy any longer (the game was lent to me back when I was reviewing for Four Fat Chicks and I returned it. I had it loaded on an old computer, but lost it when my power supply crashed. I'll have to buy the game on Big Fish sometime. It's cheap.) But I do somehow own East Side Story. After zooming through the game last night I was still in the mood for Carol Reed and I haven't played this game for years. It's like new! So here goes!

First, this is still early in the series, and there is no in-game hint system. I grabbed the Walkthrough from Gameboomers and opened that on the Mac side of my computer. Then I opened the game under my Virtual XP machine. I can just switch from full screen to a window to access the WT without closing my virtual machine. However, if I want to play the game in full screen, I do have to save and close the game to access the WT. It's easy enough. I imagine I could just play the game in a window, but the icons in this game are kinda teensy, so that save and quit solution works just fine. Anyway, I want to immerse myself in the game and I can't do that with just a window.

The mystery starts with a letter from Carol's boyfriend Jonas. I hope this isn't all we see of him in this game. Can't remember:

A letter form Jonas. Nice pic!

So far I've been doing fairly well. I remember a few things--such as the skateboard park. Also, as this is early in the series, Carol hasn't yet put up that awful wallpaper in her apartment (it was still there in Bosch's Damnation). So that's a bit of a relief. However, the controls aren't as easy as they later became, so this game can be a bit of a challenge. You really have to look at every node. I only had trouble in the first apartment we examine. There was a puzzle there that will frustrate many players (oh you bet I looked at the WT! This is a replay I'm doing, after all).

The Skateboard Arena

A view into Carol's living room

So far I've found quite a few things. I've learned stuff from the library (a feature these games used to use often) and I've found missing stuff in the River Park--a nice section of Norrköping near the Industrial Park. I almost feel as though I could go to the town and find my way around!

The sepia-toned shot we get before entering every location

I have investigated several locations and come up with more locations, which is the way we advance through these games. I left off outside an old railway station, trying to find a way into the place. I will find the time to get back to it tomorrow!  Till then!

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Bosch's Damnation: Carol Survives the Winter!

For the first time in years I have no Kirkus books on hand, and I finished cleaning out the garage today so I decided to take a break and play the latest Carol Reed mystery. This one did not disappoint, with a nicely convoluted path through the game to the usual showdown conclusion and what I thought was an odd ending.

As usual, we get to see the beautiful city of Norrköping, Sweden, some really nice winter and nighttime shots, as well as the gorgeous countryside and, as always, incredibly messy apartments and derelict buildings. Thankfully, there are perhaps one or two fewer of these in this game, and plus, there's a nice little joke about them. One of the characters is making a computer game, and he writes about his players' possible reactions to scenarios like that.

 Winter Scene

Norrköping at night

Later on we find a really nice joke about Mikael Nyqvist himself. If you're a regular player of these games, as I would imagine a good 95% of the players are, it will be fun.

Of course we have the normal gameplay. I note that Nyqvist is still using the Wintermute engine to make the game and why not? It works perfectly for him and he doesn't need anything fancier. It's a slideshow with plenty of nodes to visit. We go from location to location, finding clues--usually by completing fairly simple inventory-based puzzles to uncover said clues. If you make sure you visit every node and sweep the screen you really won't miss anything. But the wandering, to me, is perhaps the most fun in the game. I get to travel around the environment, snooping into people's apartments and enjoying the scenery. I like that, and fortunately we didn't have to spend quite as much time as normal in the derelict buildings. Yay.

Carol goes through two seasons in this game--in fact I think it's the first time we've seen Norrköpping in the wintertime. Mikael takes the trouble to change the scenery in Carol's apartment to fit the season, another new feature in this game. Even if you don't do the tutorial, at the beginning you will get on-screen how-to-play advice. 

Here's a nice gingerbread scene for the winter

There are plenty of museums in this game. I presume some are real. The Swedes seem to go in for history quite a bit. (Yay!)

Here's a very nice church

The hint system is really good. One of the problems with the earlier games in this series was that you often couldn't figure out where to go next. The hint system solves that for you, and you don't have to delved into it too far if you'd prefer not to spoil the fun. On a couple of the more esoteric puzzles (although only one really stumped me, because I couldn't figure out the trick) you have a little question mark to click on that will give you the order of clicks you need to make. Really, the frustration has been cut to a minimum this time, but of course, only if you want that. Feel free to become as frustrated as you like by not using the hint system (in the upper left-hand corner of the inventory bar at the top of the screen). 

And for once--and this is a new feature in this game--when you need a ladder to climb onto something you will find it nearby, in the current location. In previous games we always had to grab a stepladder from some other location and lug it all the way back to the proper hot spot. It was silly and never made any sense. 

Of course we have the usual suspects who turn up in all the games: Bigge and Björn Larsen as Carol's extremely patient boyfriend Jonas. Both provide some comic relief, as always.

The usual suspects

I actually played the whole game in about four hours. I was a highly pleasant four hours. Would have taken me much longer but I shamelessly used the hint system, because I just wanted to plow on through it. 

I did have a qualm about one choice in the game. Carol finds a historically significant object, but chooses to leave it in secrecy. I understand that Carol has her scruples, but frankly, I would have given the object back to the world. 

That's actually one of the very nice things about these games. They appeal to women of a certain age (me) and they follow a fairly strict but quite nice moral code. In earlier games, for example, if Carol borrows something she makes sure to return it after she's finished using it. She's always polite, except when fighting villains. (After all, this is from MDNA Games--it stands for "Madonna" and I'm sure Mikael doesn't mean the pop singer.) Said villains, of course, always wait for the player to figure out what inventory item to use on them. You really can't get killed in these games (except for one of the very early ones as I recall--but the scene would instantly reset when that happened to give the player unlimited chances to figure out the puzzle). By now though, we know that we're going to encounter a life-threatening scene near the endgame.

And the scenery is lovely. The houses are messy. The people are nice (well, most of them). It's just an enjoyable time.

Have fun!

The 7th Guest: Everything Old is New Again

I got this on GOG for cheap, even though I still have my old copy that would run on my classic blueberry iMac. It runs pretty well, although for whatever reason today it decided it didn't want to go full screen. No matter, it was easy to play in a window.

This was one of the first full-motion video games. Came out in 1995 and was right at the top of the bestsellers along with Myst. However, the acting in 7th Guest was perhaps the worst ever in video games (except for one character in The Watchmaker), and that's saying something. Makes the Myst brothers seem competent.

Random ghosts appear all over. This one is in the maze.

Still, it isn't the story or the acting that we care about here. No, it's the devious puzzles. This is entirely a puzzle game and some of them are really clever. I've never made it though without a WT, but I have learned some things about a few of them that might help me in the future. Having finished the game, I can access any puzzle and do it again as often as I wish. A nice feature.

Have just been doing the puzzles when I needed a break and a little brain teaser. Many I was able to do. I'm most proud of the knights puzzle, which I did all on my own with nary any hints, but I confess that I did get hints on lots of stuff. The queens puzzle is the first one I had trouble with--but before that I was doing pretty well. I managed the telescope and bedspread puzzles with ease. The cans in the kitchen have always stumped me. I dunno how anybody could have figured that thing out. 

The maze is kinda notorious, but there's a map of the thing on one of the bedroom floors:

The maze. Take notes.

As we complete puzzles (each room has one) we unlock other doors and puzzles. Some of them are so devious you really need help. However, I got lucky with the Stauf portrait. I found out that it's randomized, so I reloaded until I got a good starting point and actually solved it in about four moves. Some of the starting points, I think, might be impossible, but if you know how it works you ought to be able to get it. That puzzle is hard to find. It's in the "art room" which isn't connected to any other room. You have to look at the stairs and click on the action icon (chomping teeth), and you get swept down into the room. To get out, click on the picture of the piano.

Sadly, when we finish puzzles we often get the awful videos. Really, there is not one even decent amateur actor in the game. I think they must have been the office workers on the project. They used to do that a lot with games. Thankfully, now everyone hires pros (well, except for Jonathan Boakes and Mikael Nyqvist, but they do a far better job with their friends than these poor folks, forever embarrassed by their "performances" in this classic game). 

The awful "actors" meet in the library

In the version I have the infamous microscope puzzle, which really is a game and is optional in all versions, and the piano puzzle weren't included. And, except for the awful acting and the "game in a box" full-screen, this holds up pretty well. The puzzles really are what the game is all about, and they are still very much good enough to captivate anyone today. So, a 20-year old game proves that imagination lasts.

Had fun! 

Moebius 3: Dungeon Crawl of a Different Kind

I could have used glowsticks in the dark dark dark Chapter 7 of the game.

So I finished! At the last save point I had gathered up 636 out of 679 points available. No doubt I got lots more points after that--but that the was last available save point. 

So it was a solid example of a Jane Jensen game, with her standard gameplay and operating system. The puzzles were quite typical of her stuff.

A few times there are some puzzles that you have to figure out precisely correctly--normally involving a series of actions in exactly the right order--or we get killed. The screen comes up with a menu, restore, and retry button. You can retry as often as you wish. These segments can be annoying but quite satisfying once you get it. I made it though all of these nicely, although I had to do some more than several times.

Finally the endgame: we're sent to a medieval fortress in the Middle East, but we don't get into the fortress. Instead, once we find a way underground, we spend nearly the entire time in tunnels. First one character, then the other. Getting them to meet up seems like a terrible challenge, but actually this maze isn't as tough as it first seems.  There are clues. There's a big dipper symbol whenever we have a real choice to make. At first, when we're confronted with three exits as we make our way through the tunnels and find no big dipper, one of the exits will turn out to be a dead end. So really, it's fairly easy to navigate. I did get turned around once and had to backtrack, but I found my way back to the correct node and went on from there.

Once we hit the real endgame we can no longer save. That is annoying and I didn't like it. One puzzle, not a good puzzle although the graphics are wonderful, makes us choose pictures of the fortress, without really knowing which are correct. However, when we get one right it sticks. I confess that I got lost in that for far too long, so I quit and looked it up in the WT. I just wasn't in the darned mood to fight it.

That's really the last major puzzle, however. After that we have some suspense and some nice cutscenes. 

A sequel definitely looks forthcoming, as Malachi and his new sidekick David finally manage to bond as friends. 

I liked the David character best, and indeed, Malachi did mellow in the end, mostly in his growing appreciation for David. 

The voice acting, as always in a Jane Jensen game, is absolutely top rate. All the main characters were just superb, and that added a great deal to the game.

The puzzles were challenging, with a few just not my cuppa tea, but mostly there were spot on in difficulty. The artwork, except for the cartoon characters, was quite nice indeed. 

Malachi has a vision

It took me 13 hours altogether (Steam keeps track). It was an excellent distraction, but I really do need to do some work, starting tomorrow. Gotta jam it.

However, I'm very glad I took the time to play this! It's a Jane Jensen game, and she ( along with Jonathan Boakes, who makes very different games) is the best!

Great fun, for me at least.

Keep it up, Jane!

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!

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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!

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