Adventure Gamers - Forums

Yes, the potato chips trigger a hidden object scene at the wolf’s tree, which allows the player to find the other golden Felix.

Sefir - 28 May 2015 05:22 PM

(how nice that the ancient people knew exactly the size and dimensions of every object in our possession like the urn)

I don’t know much about English Celts and their Banshees. But I will say this much about the Irish Celts and their Banshees ... The Irish always have known everything there is to know about everything. The logical explanation is that the Irish snuck into Dire Grove while the English weren’t looking. And thus knew in advance the shape your urn would take. Makes perfect sense to me!

I’ve found all four students (first the Fisherman, then the Hunter, then the Blacksmith and finally the Farmer), found all 16 VHS tapes, and have opened the (presumably) final area (stolen ladder back in place and everything), so hopefully I’ll finish the game later today.

I loved the puzzle that opened the Celtic ruins. I had noticed the major hint towards this puzzle’s solution, but it only clicked after a minute of experimentation with the puzzle itself. Gave me an “AHA!”-moment. Always nice, those.

I agree with Iznogood’s sentiments that the game throws you smack in the middle of the story (which makes for a compelling start), but after you’ve found the first student, you’re basically just running around solving HOGs without advancing much of the plot until the very end. They could have paced that better, imo.
I’m also not a fan of HOGs reappearing without explanation. If there are multiple objects to be obtained, why not just give them both at once? As a result, after every bit of progress I ran around going over every screen again, just to see if a new HOG had appeared somewhere.
It’s one of the reasons why I’m already almost 12 hours in (well, that and the multitude of - often difficult - HOGs and of course the slow-charging hint-button).

It’s also becoming a very big cliché that, throughout the game, everything we did played into the villain’s hands, like we were an unwitting pawn. See also Time Dreamer and Enigmatis: Mists of Ravenwood.

TimovieMan - 29 May 2015 06:36 AM

I loved the puzzle that opened the Celtic ruins. I had noticed the major hint towards this puzzle’s solution, but it only clicked after a minute of experimentation with the puzzle itself. Gave me an “AHA!”-moment. Always nice, those.

Yeah I also quite liked that, I had of course noticed the hints (they are hard to miss), but it also took me a little while before I made the connection.

TimovieMan - 29 May 2015 06:36 AM

It’s also becoming a very big cliché that, throughout the game, everything we did played into the villain’s hands, like we were an unwitting pawn.

I hadn’t really thought of this before now, but it does raise the question of why?
Why weren’t the banshee able to use the students to open the portal herself? They had already found the four stones needed, so why was our actions even needed? Perhaps because they weren’t smart enough?

colpet - 27 May 2015 07:41 PM

I kept looking for uses for the items I had, and went back and forth numerous times trying out the objects.

That’s why I was running around with an urn full of ashes and a vial full of mercury without knowing why...
But that’s par for the course in this genre. Pick up everything that’s not nailed down, even if you don’t have any use for it (yet).

The HOGs were not easy, but fair.

Agreed. Just a pity there were so many of them (and that they often appeared without warning in screens you’d explored already).

The student mini games fell into that category of easy, but many steps.

Nothing wrong with that.

In fact, the only puzzle in the game I didn’t like was the alphabet one, and even then it was mostly because you couldn’t backtrack after a mistake and had to start over again.

The story and FMV were the best part, and having the videos made it more interesting.

The videos were definitely a high point in the game.

Iznogood - 28 May 2015 11:17 AM

I still very much like the story and the whole Blair Witch feeling, but I think that they made a huge error in the order of which we find those tapes. Better to start by building it up with the background first, and then build up to the climax, instead of starting with the climax and add the background later.

Actually, the order isn’t bad. You start with two tapes that let you know some legendary evil is afoot, and then you piece together “how they got there”. The problem lies more in the fact that most of the background info adds very little, as it’s obvious early on (due to that book you find on the subject, among other things) that we’re dealing with a banshee. That makes the entire story buildup feel slow.
It’s more a pacing problem, imo, than an error in the order.

Finding the video where Alison explains that there’s a fifth element last, was great, but it had me confused for a long while. Apart from the last two tapes (which you find first), you find most of the other tapes more or less in order. Having one of the middle ones missing threw me off. For the longest time I thought I had missed a tape somewhere…

Iznogood - 29 May 2015 01:19 PM

I hadn’t really thought of this before now, but it does raise the question of why?
Why weren’t the banshee able to use the students to open the portal herself? They had already found the four stones needed, so why was our actions even needed? Perhaps because they weren’t smart enough?

I don’t think it’s a case of the students not being smart enough but likely more a case of the banshee not being smart enough. Once the banshee possesses the students - something she needs to do to get them to unearth all the relics - I don’t think she either has the knowledge or the capacity to unlock the relics, requiring outside help. Or you could speculate that [spoiler]the Banshee requires a fifth “volunteer”, just like there’s five elements at play here, and that WE represent the fifth element (Supreme being - mooltipass )...

I think everyone liked the story and basic play of the game. Yes there were too many HO scenes, but this was common when the game was first published. We’ve been spoiled by some of our recent playthroughs, particularly the Drawn trilogy. We also saw this type of difference when we played the two Enigmatis games. The first had quite a few more HO scenes compared to the second game.

The upcoming sequel will have far fewer HO scenes. And those that we will see are far more interesting and varied.

I will be interested in how people compare the two games. Lady K will soon set the scene for Sacred Grove.

Personally, I rather like this format. I.e., finding two games of similar themes that are separated by a few years. We not only get to comment on the first game, but also on the advancement of the genre between the first and second game.

Do you think starting the sequel on Monday would be too soon?

Lady Kestrel - 30 May 2015 09:46 PM

Do you think starting the sequel on Monday would be too soon?

I think I would give it a few more days, maybe Wednesday, just in case there is a bit more follow-up discussion. Then Timovieman can un-pin this thread and start yours.

Timovieman - There’s been no activity for two days, so I think we can unpin this thread and load Lady K’s whenever she’s ready to go.

I’ll start the new thread tomorrow.

I enjoyed it, too.  Of all the Mystery Case Files games, this is the only one that used real actors.  It was definitely a nice change.

Actually there is another, Shadow Lake, that I consider to be the worst of all the Mystery Case Files games. Well the original Madam Fate was the worst. But I think you know what I mean.