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Casual Playthrough #9 - Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove

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rtrooney - 26 May 2015 10:40 AM

I’m very curious to know what is in the CE version of the game. For those of you that have it, I hope you will play it and let us know what it contains,

I’d forgotten all about what the CE bonus gameplay content is. I’m not sure I ever knew, despite that I’ve played Dire Grove twice before.

There is no separate bonus chapter at the end, and it’s easy to miss the extra content by going on to finish the game.

After finishing the game, I couldn’t find any link on the menu for a bonus game. I hoped to find instructions in an online walkthrough—and instead found out there was no separate game.

Once you finish the SE version, look at the description at the end of the Gamezebo walkthrough
http://www.gamezebo.com/2009/11/25/mystery-case-files-dire-grove-walkthrough-cheats-strategy-guide/

Very much not worth getting the CE considering it’s so easy to miss a large part of the bonus gameplay—and that your “reward” is only a sort of teaser for upcoming games.

     
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Just found my third student—now I have the hunter, the fisherman and the blacksmith. I like the difficulty level on the puzzles—I only skipped the one with the compass-like hands (wasn’t patient enough). I agree that there are too many HO scenes, but this is a Mystery Case Files game, and what they historically about were HO scenes. Difficult to anticipate at the time that, years later, less would be more.

I think the game does a good job of portraying the character of the students. Yes, the camera angles couldn’t be filmed merely by the camera the students are carrying. But I suspect that having one student film the process was a kind of shorthand way to elicit “filmable” moments—they had to establish the story and the characters in very brief segments. What contradicts this theory, of course, is finding the actual video cassettes. I think the game would have been better if the filmic moments had been triggered some other way, so that they functioned as flashbacks without the use of the cassettes.

     
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I got the farmer too!! I’m almost tempted to go back into the hunter’s hut and see if there are still voices coming through the walkie talkie.  Naughty

     
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Sefir - 27 May 2015 02:15 PM

I got the farmer too!! I’m almost tempted to go back into the hunter’s hut and see if there are still voices coming through the walkie talkie.  Naughty

There is - and there is nothing wrong with that.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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Actually, the voices do stop, and you get a message saying the walkie-talkie went silent.

     

Carpe chocolate.

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Well, I staggered through to the end. Sure wish this had a teleporting map. I noticed in the close-out video that Alison got her doctorate. I’m looking forward to the sequel to see if any of our students return.

     

These days I go everywhere with a carpetbag containing a crowbar, a flashlight, a screwdriver, an oilcan, a ladder, a zipper tab, and a chihuahua.

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I made it to the end.I found the Hunter last, and as such, heard nothing on the walkie talkie. For a while, I had no clue what to do. I had found all the tokens and was about to solve the standing stone puzzle, but was stuck trying to figure out why I had all the items in my inventory. I should have gone forward, but went back over all the scenes again. I found the logs and made a fire.That was all I could do. I opened the portal, and backtracked for the ladder. The students were all missing, and I never found the ladder. It magically appeared when I went back to the portal. Anyhow, I solved the 4 riddles, and finally found a use for most of my inventory. The 5th riddle stumped me. I went back again through all the books and pamphlets looking for a clue. I finally googled the first phrase, and found the answer. I would not have solved it on my own and I didn’t remember it from my first play.
My impressions:
Thank goodness for maps these days. I had the least linear track through this game, and it showed. Had I been playing by myself, I would have given up in frustration. I kept looking for uses for the items I had, and went back and forth numerous times trying out the objects.The HOGs were not easy, but fair. The student mini games fell into that category of easy, but many steps. The story and FMV were the best part, and having the videos made it more interesting. I had missed some scene side extensions, and I think not finding the Hunter second made everything more confusing.
I’m looking forward to the latest sequel in CE mode to see how it compares with difficulty and clarity of goals.

     

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colpet - 27 May 2015 07:41 PM

I never found the ladder. It magically appeared when I went back to the portal.

Yes. I have no idea why they did that—and have you looking all over for it when it had magically teleported to where you wanted it (when you weren’t looking). Earlier in the game you had that ladder in inventory so you expect it to work the same way later on.

Anyhow, I solved the 4 riddles, and finally found a use for most of my inventory. The 5th riddle stumped me.

[spoiler] and aren’t we lucky that thermometer used actual mercury instead of that red stuff most thermometers use these days.

I’m looking forward to the latest sequel in CE mode to see how it compares with difficulty and clarity of goals.

It’s not the same at all.
Despite all the problems with the first Dire Grove, I think it’s a much superior game.
Not that Sacred Grove is horrible, but it’s very ordinary and much like lots of other games from the same developer (Elephant Games).
You’ll see when you play it.

     
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The only answer I have is that Allison took it with her when she “defrosted” to join the others. Seeing as she’s going to the same place you are, it “magically” appears where you need it.

     

For whom the games toll,
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Lady Kestrel - 27 May 2015 04:00 PM

Actually, the voices do stop, and you get a message saying the walkie-talkie went silent.

Doesn’t that only happens later, when they all get up and leave?
At least that is how I recall it, but I could be wrong.

Anyway I’m sorry that I haven’t been as active in this CP as intended, part of the reason being that I accidentally finished the game too fast , but there is also another reason for it:

The game has sort of a strange story construction, where you get a whole lot of story dumped on you in the first part of the game, but once you find the first student, the story sort of fizzles out and only picks up again at the very end. In the meantime all we do is run around solving puzzles (and HOG’s), finding more students and tapes, but none of that adds anything new to the story whatsoever, a few details perhaps, but that is also it.

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.


The very last puzzle in the game, was imo also by far the most difficult and the best in the game, in fact it could just as well have been in an AG, and is more difficult than than what you find in most AG’s. But it is also a puzzle that varies a great deal in difficulty depending on what items you have in your inventory!

You get a riddle as to what item is needed, you then have to translate the answer into the old signs (luckily it is a letter to letter translation and not even the spelling differs Shifty Eyed) and spell out the answer, and finally use the correct inventory item. However the answer to the riddles is much easier if you already have the correct item in your inventory. For example for the Ashes riddle I though of something like 5 different answers that could all have worked, but looking in my inventory I saw that I had a urn full of ashes, so hey lets try with the word ASHES. However if I had not had the ashes in my inventory, then it wouldn’t have been my first answer, nor my second or third and I could have spend quite a lot of time trying to solve that riddle. Fortunately the only item I didn’t have was mercury, and the answer to that riddle was pretty obvious.

That you can sort of solve the puzzle in two different ways, both forward and backwards, is an interesting idea, but it might also be borderline unfair to those who haven’t already got the correct items in the inventory, and are forced to solving it the forwards way.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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Yes, I just assumed Alison took the ladder and that she started heading for the cave when I went to look for it.

I have finished the game.  I played the CE, but there is no additional story.  These are the features that don’t seem to be in the SE:
-50 morphing objects to find
-Awards for different tasks
-Finding two golden Felix Fish medallions, one in a hidden object scene and one in the rabbit statue’s head.  The two fish open a trap door in the back room of the store.  There is a puzzle of sorts there, but I forgot to do it this time around and forget exactly what it was - some sort of commercial, I think.

     

Carpe chocolate.

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It’s too bad that I missed this playthrough, but maybe I can join you when you start Sacred Grove. I haven’t played that one yet (saved it for something like this Smile).

     
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rtrooney - 28 May 2015 10:43 AM

The only answer I have is that Allison took it with her when she “defrosted” to join the others. Seeing as she’s going to the same place you are, it “magically” appears where you need it.

Indeed, in fact the game says so if you click on the empty space where the ladder should have been. But I’m fairly certain (though the chance that I might remember wrong is possible) that in my playthrough she actually moved the ladder back into the barn where we originally found it, and I had to drag it to the dig myself. There was also a new HOG that I had to complete at the barn loft, before I could take the ladder.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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Iznogood - 28 May 2015 11:17 AM
Lady Kestrel - 27 May 2015 04:00 PM

Actually, the voices do stop, and you get a message saying the walkie-talkie went silent.

Doesn’t that only happens later, when they all get up and leave?
At least that is how I recall it, but I could be wrong.

No, it happened when I went back looking for something quite a while before I opened the cave, though I don’t remember the exact sequence.

I liked the last puzzle but didn’t have all the inventory items I needed.  I had the urn and the fire extinguisher but hadn’t put out the fire I had just lit.  It was easy enough to figure out.  I also had to go back to get the mercury, something I wouldn’t have thought of without seeing the clue.

     

Carpe chocolate.

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The last puzzle was pretty good despite the ashes one taking me three tries as I had not even chopped the wood yet.

Despite a few minor issues that have been discussed I thought the game held up very well and I don’t think I would change a thing…except for the hidden object scenes. Those definitely need a rework. Otherwise, this is one of the few games that genuinely convey the sense of bitter cold and desperation.

From reading the BF forums, the CE has additional gameplay involving the bag of potato chips and also morphing objects. From what they said it does not sound like a big deal.

     

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