Adventure Gamers - Forums

The faces of evil:


I wish we had more background about where the king and his henchmen henchraven henchshadows came from.  They mentioned he was from a distant land, but we don’t know where nor why he pursued this family and their kingdom. 

I think we know that from the first game. Iris. and her parents possess the gift. They can draw/paint images they can enter. And, in doing so can create things that will deter the Evil King from world domination. Or, world destruction, depending on your point of view.

His pursuit is to kill her. If she is dead. everything is his.

That, unfortunately, is where the story breaks apart. If Iris dies, and the evil King wins, he is left with nothing. Hardly a victory.

Which is why we continue to play the game.

I agree that the puzzles are getting harder than in the first part, but also harder than in the first game. I actually don’t mind that as I appreciate a good challenge. As for the quality of the puzzles then I think it is a bit of a mixed bag, some I loved and others I hated.

The colour puzzle is actually one of those that I loved, and the reason I think, is that it has a progressive difficult. What I mean by that is that you can solve it in many small steps, experimenting and learning different principles about the puzzle as you go along, forming a strategy and then revising that strategy perhaps many times, instead of having to figure out everything right from the start.

On the other end of the scale, I immediately took a dislike to the candle puzzle, and I think that the main reason is that even though it might technically be an easier puzzle, then it has a much steeper learning curve. Sure you can also experiment a bit, but it is a much more binary solution where you either get it or you don’t, but you can’t really solve it in many small steps.

The first is good puzzle design, whereas the latter is poor puzzle design imo.

I also quite liked the whole children’s room puzzle for the same reason. There is no way you can see or deduce the whole solution right from the start, but if you take it step by step, experimenting with everything and solving/finding whatever you can, then in the end it will all come together. The fact that there was also a lot of charm to the puzzle certainly didn’t hurt.

Catching the library books and the “Write-Music-Art” puzzle (for a lack of a better description), are two other puzzles or rather minigames, that I also didn’t really like at all.

So all in all a mixed bag, but at least it doesn’t rely on repetitive minigames or HO scenes, which is a plus.


As for the story, well this part didn’t really add much new, but at least we finally get a chance to talk face to face with Iris.

Lady Kestrel - 05 March 2015 06:23 PM

I wish we had more background about where the king and his henchmen henchraven henchshadows came from.  They mentioned he was from a distant land, but we don’t know where nor why he pursued this family and their kingdom.

Yeah I agree, it would be nice with a bit more background information, especially about the villains.

rtrooney - 05 March 2015 08:47 PM

That, unfortunately, is where the story breaks apart. If Iris dies, and the evil King wins, he is left with nothing. Hardly a victory.

I don’t agree that it would be a pyrrhic victory for the evil king.
If he succeeds he will be the unchallenged ruler of the whole kingdom, which is obviously his goal. I don’t see how the death of Iris and her parents should change that, sure he can’t make these kind of drawings himself, but I also don’t think that is his goal. He is after Iris because she can challenge him and is a threat, not because he wants her gift. At least that is how I see it.

The candle puzzle took a while for me too, I found the clue what to lit but I think I started solving it unnecessarily hard way. In the end it was quite simple. But I agree that the whole concept of it was frustrating. You pulled the wrong lever once and then you had to spend a ridiculous amount of time fixing it - or start from scratch.

Then the frog puzzle. I didn’t realise you could spit the flies out too. I was stumped for ages trying all combinations and always ending up with the last fly on the opposite side of the last frog. I guess I should really click the question mark in the top corner more to get a decent description of the puzzle… Also took some time to find the last frog. Overall I didn’t like the frogs at all .

The drain puzzle was fun, surprisingly hard though. And the Children’s Room was super cute.

Mostly played with my daughter again, though she got a bit bored when I was stuck on puzzle too long, and then played her own games on another computer next to me.

Sorry for the radio silence on my part. I had fallen behind on the first beacon (sleep apnea is killing my game time), but I’m catching up.

Cleared the first beacon (final puzzle took me a while - I spent too long just randomly trying stuff before actually thinking strategically and solving the bloody thing ), and I had 5 of the cloth pieces.
I’m now at the candle puzzle but I’ve figured out how it works, so it shouldn’t take me too long (if I can avoid picking the wrong lever ).

So far the game is very much on par with the first one, with some improvements added. I like how this one is more about us, and less about Iris’ backstory. Artwork is yet again stunning. The music is also top notch. I think I didn’t pay enough real attention to it in the first game.
Puzzles are more difficult, but that’s mainly because there’s less hints to be found. And none are *too* hard, so I’m very much enjoying the increase in difficulty level.

I like how you can manipulate a lot of things, even if they don’t do anything, like tapping the windmill in the windmill painting. Adds to the atmosphere, I feel.

Lady Kestrel - 05 March 2015 06:23 PM

Bobbin Threadbare?

rtrooney - 05 March 2015 08:47 PM

That, unfortunately, is where the story breaks apart. If Iris dies, and the evil King wins, he is left with nothing. Hardly a victory.

Few villains ask themselves “and then what?” before trying to achieve their evil goals. It’s a common villain mistake.
Unless he’s an unpredictable villain like the Joker in The Dark Knight, where the destruction and chaos is an end in itself for him.

Becky - 06 March 2015 03:40 PM

I think I need a bit of time away from this game to cool down and stop throwing things. 

Rubber stress balls. Always handy. Squeeze them to cool down, or throw them without actually breaking anything.

They were really useful back when I was playing online poker…

Lit the second beacon, and did so WITHOUT skipping a puzzle!

Silly me had to solve a large part of that dreaded colour puzzle twice, though. I mistakenly thought the whites of the eyes were grey (yellow+red+blue) instead of empty…
Fortunately, the second time around it went a lot faster as I’d found the correct strategy for filling the green part next to the ears without disturbing the purple in the temples…

I should really have read this thread more closely, or read the in-game puzzle instructions, since I lost a lot of time before figuring out that the gryphon extinguishes candles (after which it became really easy - see below), and before figuring out the importance of the lower ear drains…
Especially since these things were mentioned here already…

 
 
TimovieMan

Sefir - 04 March 2015 11:09 AM

As for the storyline, the king reminded me of Darth Vader in the end…

That was my first thought as well!

That quote is forever linked to Vader…



For those that had difficulty with the candle puzzle: the trick is basically to light as many candles as you need until you’ve got the middle candles on the left and right of the middle square lit. After that, extinguish all the candles on the horizontal axis, and move those middle candles to the top and bottom of the vertical axis to extinguish all remaining candles. Once those middle four are the only ones remaining, it’s just a matter of lighting new candles, moving them to the opposite (gryphon) side of the horizontal axis, lighting new candles again and moving the horizontal axis until you’ve completed your square.
Shouldn’t take more than five minutes.

The only puzzle I didn’t like so far was the one with the art-write-music symbols and birds, because that was more an exercise in patience than an actual thinking-puzzle…

I’m interested in how you go back and resolve puzzles. TimovieMan talks about going back to both the candle and color puzzle. I know they can be reset, but going back, as Lady K described would require starting the game from scratch. I know I would love to have a second shot at a few puzzles, but I’m not willing to start over in order to do same. What’s your secret?

rtrooney - 06 March 2015 10:06 PM

TimovieMan talks about going back to both the candle and color puzzle.

No, he doesn’t.

At most, I went back over this thread, to read everyone’s thoughts on each section with hindsight. I never said I went back to the puzzles.
I was behind on the playthrough, so I only solved that disc that lights the first beacon yesterday, and solved the candle and colour puzzles today…

TimovieMan - 06 March 2015 07:59 PM

Lit the second beacon, and did so WITHOUT skipping a puzzle!

Well played, Timo! 

I know we’re not due to finish this section until Wednesday. But I just couldn’t help myself. I’ve finished the game and have a ton of comments.

Of course I needed to prep for the start of D3, so that’s my excuse.

It’s time to start the final part of Drawn: Dark Flight.  There is one fussy puzzle in this section, but the rest should go fairly quickly.  Let’s give it to Monday, March 16 to finish the game. 

Also, if you haven’t played the excellent bonus chapter in the collector’s edition, I’ll share some screenshots with you next week.