Adventure Gamers - Forums

this is just great! [/feeling happy]

Mm. Was the text adventure one of those pledging addon things? I think I applied for it.
Anyway, great news with the sequel.

I feel so left behind when you guys post about finishing this! I only have a couple of hours in and I’m really digging it, I really need to make some time to play this properly. So cool that it’s just 4 people that made it. And I like how out of left-field the music is, it really gives everything an incredible sense of urgency when it kicks in.

I really wanted to like this game, but it was just not to be.

Good initial impressions based on fantastic art style, good soundtrack and unique vision of the world, as well as memorable ensemble of characters, faded away after 2-3 hours. Approximately, the time I got my city pass.

Too much stuff in inventory, too much locations and interactive objects combined with utter lack of hints (or negative hints, as I would call it For example, when you’re strongly discouraged to interact with the fish in the fountain but then realize afterwards that they are useful), just ruined the experience for me. Also, one possible solution to the puzzle that might have be solved otherwise (why do I have to use water near the tree when there’s still left some in the fountain) and completely absurd solutions to the puzzles (use seat belt on stick to get a slingshot, seriously, that makes no sense what so ever, seat belt aren’t elastic if you remove them from their mechanism) really left me frustrated after minutes of pointless point ‘n’ clicking.

[spoiler]This item is never used in the game. Ever! Except that you can randomly pick it up.[/spoiler]

I’d really want to see the continuation of the story, but without irritating “randomly combine every item in inventory with everything” puzzle design. Also, it would be nice if it had diverse puzzle design. I’ve encountered only two logical, easy puzzles, there were no puzzles in conversations whatsoever. It would be nice to have conversations and puzzle solving intertwined, not roughly split into two sections. I feel I always had 10 minutes of listening to character (story exposition), then 10 minutes of solving puzzles time (gameplay), structure that becomes predictable after time.

I didn’t really mind at all that some items weren’t useful. That’s actually something that could easily add to realism.

Once I was really lost because I just didn’t realize I had to give a certain item to a person instead of just talking to them about the topic or using the item otherwise. I would’ve wanted a nudge there “maybe I should show this” or something like that. Overall I felt that there were subtle hints scattered here and there when the player was closing in on the solution.

In my opinion the use for the fish was so obvious that it can’t really be criticized. It’s just normal you don’t pick up a smelly shit to carry around if you don’t have a reason for it.

All in all, there were only like 3 things I felt that could’ve been hinted better or offered an easier solution, and that’s really not many on a puzzle heavy adventure.

Puzzle or gameplay wise the game is at least average. The story, the world and the art etc. make it a better than average adventure.

millenia - 28 May 2015 09:21 AM

Once I was really lost because I just didn’t realize I had to give a certain item to a person instead of just talking to them about the topic or using the item otherwise. I would’ve wanted a nudge there “maybe I should show this” or something like that. Overall I felt that there were subtle hints scattered here and there when the player was closing in on the solution.

ID badge, huh? Yeah, I also thought that was far-fetched.

millenia - 28 May 2015 09:21 AM

In my opinion the use for the fish was so obvious that it can’t really be criticized. It’s just normal you don’t pick up a smelly shit to carry around if you don’t have a reason for it.

I agree the fish puzzle was logical, but combined it after I tried gazillion of combinations before, simply because Michael “convinced me” that he wouldn’t be touching that fish for nothing in the world, in his previous dialogues. That’s why I thought of it as detracting hint.

millenia - 28 May 2015 09:21 AM

All in all, there were only like 3 things I felt that could’ve been hinted better or offered an easier solution, and that’s really not many on a puzzle heavy adventure.

Fair enough. I personally thought there were more, but still, 3 is enough in this kind of game to ruin the experience for me. When you take into account the scope of the game (locations, items, interactive objects) and start randomly clicking around, it churns out a fair bit of your time, only to leave a bad aftertaste.

Ok, the game wasn’t as bad as Randal’s Monday and it didn’t have scope as some bigger Daedalic titles, but there were enough puzzles that left an unsatisfied feeling after I’ve solved them, even if I solved them in reasonable amount of time.

I’ll give couple of other puzzle examples (along with aforementioned) that I solved pretty quickly, but I felt were nonetheless poorly explained.

[spoiler]I used crowbar on used car, even though I had no idea (or intrinsic feeling) why would I ransack the car of people who saved me. There was no hint whatsoever why is that car so important. I went with plain old adventure logic and that is: If I have a crowbar and there’s closed car gate/anything closed and I was hinted previously I had to open it (but, as I said, with no hints as to why should I open it), I will use crowbar on it. That’s it. Main character could said something in style “Cover seat and seat belts might prove useful.”, that could give me an insight to his behavior, but he didn’t.[/spoiler]

Using switches to adjust the lightning. Because of my extensive experience with AG genre, I figured that there are two probable solutions to this. Either you have to switch them off completely, or turn them up max. But otherwise, I was clueless. There was no hint, even thoughts from main character, about what should I do.

On the other hand, I must admit the game had some beatifully executed puzzles like the one where you had to frame the murder to reverend. It ties nicely with previous puzzle (giving him lion stone), goes well along story and shapes your character. It might be thought of as an easy puzzle, but it’s still “hard” to go to inventory, take glass and acid and disfigure the innocent man. I simply couldn’t believe what I’m thinking and hoped there was another way. But there wasn’t. So I had to do it.

Now, I wouldn’t mind if there were more of those, brilliant examples in the game that add to story/atmosphere/character development and cleverly force you to think outside of the box.

I understand that experiencing a few puzzles that seem illogical or otherwise annoying can leave a bad feeling and making the overall impression a bit worse. I usually take a pause after being frustrated, so that I’d be in a better mood when the story is actually progressing. To me, Dead Synchronicity didn’t have that many annoyances, but there were a couple, so I can see how they may irritate someone else more.

I remember being very disappointed in Lost Horizon’s middle chapters that were just stupid and super illogical fetching quests, and it left me with a stale taste that even the great last chapter couldn’t erase. That’s how it goes sometimes.