Monday 12 November 2012

Game 25: Codename: ICEMAN - Pixilation Detonation

Johnny Westland Journal Entry 5: “I knew navigating the Blackhawk through dangerous waters was going to be difficult, but I never imagined I was going to have to do so without the help of Captain Hawkins. He took a nasty fall today, leaving me to take on not one, but two Russian destroyers on my own. I have no idea how I managed to take them down without taking a hit myself, but I guess the training I had prior to this mission paid off! We’ve reached Tunisia, and I can now see the drilling rig that the CIA want me to destroy in the distance. It’s time to put on the scuba diving gear and take a more direct path through the Mediterranean. I really hope this dive vehicle does what it’s supposed to!”


The moment I, Johnny Westland...

Well, I made a lot of progress on the weekend, but I can’t say it was a lot of fun. Codename: ICEMAN continues to make me backtrack, and throws repetitive tasks at me that are clearly designed to make the game longer. It also suffers from some pretty serious parser limitations that make solving some puzzles if not impossible, far more difficult than they should be. There were at least a couple of occasions during the three hours plus I put into it where I was close to asking for assistance, only to eventually figure out was of cheating the system. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself and giving the game away (so to speak, don’t get excited). At the end of my last post I was finally in a position to take on the Russian destroyer with a functional weapon system.


...became first in command of the USS Blackhawk!

This section of the game really sucked. The manual gave me some basic hints about how to do battle, but the rest was really just trial and error. My instinct was to fire off as many torpedoes as I could, as quickly as I could, but I soon found out that the majority of them miss the target, leaving me a sitting duck when I run out of torpedoes. I reckon about one in every ten torpedoes actually hits the destroyer, so considering you only have a handful of torpedoes to fire, that pretty much forces the player to cheat. I eventually settled into a groove of firing one torpedo, waiting to see whether it would hit the destroyer, then saving my game if it did. Every time I missed, I restored and tried again. Only a matter of time I hear you thinking. Wrong!


That's clearly going to miss dude!

You see, the destroyer fired harpoons at me too, and these seemed to have a pretty damn high chance of hitting me. The manual suggested that diving would make it more difficult for the enemy to hit me, so I started diving as low as I could and then resurfacing while firing my torpedoes one at a time. In the end, I think I had to hit the destroyer four times for it to sink, but even then I had to cross my fingers that the harpoons already on their way towards me didn’t make contact. It probably took about half an hour for me to figure out how to cheat the system and then go through with it, which was tedious to say the least. Did anyone find a better way of beating this?


My supersize torpedoes will defeat your infrared beams any day you Ruskies!

Once the destroyer was dealt with, I received another encoded message from Washington, and yet another from the CIA. I’d figured by now that there was no way I was going to find out how to get into the safe or crack the CIA codes in the game. Since I knew that adding a 3 to each decoded number was the key to cracking the CIA codes (I only know this from a reader comment), it just seemed silly for me not to decode them. The first thing I did was decode the one I’d received much earlier in the game. “Russian war ships on patrol. Use extreme caution in Bering sea. Use alternate entry to harbor.” No shit! This begs the question though! Was there any way that I could have avoided contact with the Russians? I can’t see how I could possibly have used an alternate entry into the harbor.


So this is the message that you made impossible to decode. Not important or anything isn't it!

Regardless, I set about decoding the new Washington and CIA codes I’d received. The Washington message decoded as “Contacting fisherman… After exiting the water, contact agent for further instructions.”, while the CIA message decoded as “After polar crossing is achieved… Do not surface for remainder of mission.” Neither of these assisted me in the here and now, so all I could do was hop back behind the controls and head towards the next waypoint. As soon as I started moving I was informed of “many icebergs in the area” and advised to “turn on my TV monitor and slow down”. Once I figured out how to turn the TV on, I soon found myself navigating the sub through an iceberg obstacle course. What first looked easy turned out to be tedious once again.


I'm not trained to navigate this submarine through a field of tornadoes!

My first attempts to dodge the icebergs failed miserably, mostly due to the terrible collision detection in the game. Three hits and it was game over for me! My second attempt gave me more success, and after negotiating around six or so icebergs, I suddenly found myself in the clear. I’d expected some sort of message to pop up, but nothing happened. I started looking at my position on the map and wondering if I was supposed to be directing the ship towards the next waypoint or something. In the end I thought I must have missed something, so I restored back to the beginning of the icebergs and started again. This time I passed a lot more icebergs and eventually received a message telling me I’d scored 7 out of 10 for crossing the ice pack. It appears I discovered yet another bug on that second run through!


My six pack wouldn't rate that high!

With the icebergs behind me, I wondered whether I should be applying the CIA message and remaining submerged for the remainder of the journey. Was that the “polar crossing” it mentioned? While I was pondering that, I was informed of “active sonar on 150 degree arc, 100 miles south of true north. Sonar is stationary...could be ice station looking for us”. I sat there for a while waiting for another message, but received a game over screen for not responding to the sonar. What was I supposed to do? I restored and this time I got up and went and had a chat to the sonar man (next to the radio man). He was far too busy to talk to me, so that wasn’t the answer. Eventually I just tried typing “contact ice station” and that turned out to be correct!


No thanks to you buddy!

This contact resulted in two new messages from Washington and the CIA respectively. The former message was “Rendezvous with USS Coontz...36 degrees latitude 12 degrees longitude. Listen for erratic sonar. At that time, signal presence with one active ping. Pass through straits under Coontz.” The latter message was “Diversion tactic necessary. Locate nearest off-shore drilling rig and destroy. Do not use Blackhawk weaponry.” The coordinates mentioned in the Washington message were in fact my destination coordinates, so I only had to worry about that on arrival. The CIA message had me worried though. Was I supposed to find this drilling rig now somehow? Should I dive and plant the explosives I found in the torpedoes room underneath the rig? I decided the game would soon let me know if I was meant to have made a diversion already, so I hopped back behind the controls.


One active ping you say. Easy...what can go wrong!?

I immediately received more sonar messages: “Reporting inversion layer at 1,000 feet. Reporting trenches on ocean floor.” Navigation then informed me that we must be above Reykjanes Ridge, whatever that is. I knew from my earlier manual readings that inversion layers were warm sections of water that can be used as cover from active sonar. I began my descent to 1,000 feet, assuming that I was about to be attacked again. I received a bunch of other messages that basically informed me that a sub was “dogging” and “pinging” us from somewhere, and eventually that they were flooding their tubes to fire upon us. I thought to myself “no problem, I’ll just use my cheating tactic again and this should be all over in a jiffy”. Nope!


I can't be a seasoned submariner because if I was, I'd know what the hell I was supposed to do!

You’ve probably picked up on how tedious I’ve found some aspects of this game, but this section took the cake by far. I spent close to an hour trying to destroy this damn Russian sub without being destroyed myself, and at times I was tearing my hair out. The sub rapidly fired torpedoes my way with pretty much all of them making contact. One hit was enough to send me down to Davy Jones, meaning I had absolutely no chance of hitting it multiple times prior. I figured the inversion layer was the key to success, but even if I sat at 1,000 feet or just under that, I kept getting crushed. It was by pure luck that I dove to just past 1,100 feet, and suddenly the torpedoes started missing me!


Oh...so by 1,000 feet, you meant 1,100 feet! My bad!

Even still, since I had so few stingers (apparently I could only use stingers at this depth) at my disposal, I was forced to use the one shot save and restore tactics as I used during my previous battle. The major problem wasn’t defeating the sub though, it was dodging the three or four torpedoes that were already in the water once my final stinger made contact. By the time I hit the sub three times and destroyed it, the Russians had entered the inversion layer, meaning I could no longer just sit there and wait for their weapons to miss me. I must have restored about twenty times after beating the submarine, only to watch as I followed them into oblivion. I literally had to play through the whole scenario multiple times until I finally managed to get to that last hit with few enough torpedoes in the water to match the amount of decoys I had. Not fun!


I really wish the whole submarine bit had started with "Forty-six hours later..."

I was very pleased to find myself at latitude 36, longitude 12, once this test was over. I’d made my destination, and hopefully would no longer be required to play impossible battleships for the rest of the game! As the Washington message had suggested, the USS Coontz was waiting for me, so I signalled them with one ping (the first time I pinged them twice and the pedantic bastards left the scene!). I was then given an overhead view, with the USS Coontz represented by a yellow cross. I needed to navigate my ship into the same space as the moving target, which I apparently did well enough to receive 4 out of 5 navigation skill points.


Oh come on! Surely you can ignore one extra ping! Come back you pedantic bastard! I'm on your side!

I then had to keep the USS Blackhawk as close to the cross as possible as it zig-zagged across the screen. Not a difficult task when it wasn’t changing direction much, but very challenging when it suddenly decided to take a right angled turn and go up a gear in speed. Subs apparently do eight point turns while attempting to change direction at speed! Succeeding in sticking with the cross pretty much involved knowing what it was going to do next and therefore being able to prepare for it. After a few failed attempts, I stayed close enough to the USS Coontz to receive a navigational skills rating of 8 out of 10, and was able to move on. I’d reached Tunisia, and a weak captain tapped me on the shoulder to congratulate me on my success!


This is me trying to stay exactly underneath the yellow cross. Admiring my talent aren't you!

The captain told me that “It looks like we have more on our hands than we anticipated. There’s a gunboat out there keeping a close watch on the entrance to the harbor!” I was then told to take a look through the periscope at our predicament. I was able to move the periscope left and right a full 360 degrees, but there really wasn’t all that much to look at. I certainly couldn’t see anything that looked like a gunboat, unless the grey blob merging into what appears to be the mainland was it. I did come across a drilling rig out to sea though, which immediately reminded me of the CIA message telling me to blow one up. I took note of the fact the rig seemed to be at 283 degrees (and that the grey blob was at 40 degrees), and left the periscope.


Yes...that thing! At least that one looks like something.

The captain was nowhere to be found at this point, and he hadn’t exactly left me with any instructions. I tried getting behind the controls to see what would happen, but received a game over message telling me I was on a time limited mission. What mission!? Well, the obvious thing to do was to try and blow up that drilling rig, and I wondered whether the key to the storage room compartment was now in the machinist mate’s possession. I wondered whether the compartment held scuba diving gear, rather than the radiation suit I’d first assumed. Well, the machinist mate did have the key now, which he gave me, so I was about to find out whether my way of thinking was on the money.


It's amazing how often people only find keys when they need the contents within the compartment that hosts the lock in adventure games.

I used the key to unlock the door and then watched as Petty Officer Johnson entered the room and take the scuba equipment out of it, vowing to take it to the escape hatch for me. I immediately wandered up to the engine room and collected the dive vehicle. I then entered the escape hatch, put on the scuba gear, and pressed the big red button. Watered flow into the room, so I opened the hatch, and swam out into the Mediterranean Sea! The game told me that I had “a strong feeling of insecurity” as I directed the dive vehicle away from the Blackhawk. That feeling turned out to be well founded, as less than thirty seconds after leaving the ship, the DV-3X diver malfunctioned and I was left for dead!


Well you can't blame me can you?

Apparently I was supposed to check the diver, as if I’d done so I would have noted there was a missing washer. Clearly I’m going to have to collect said washer from the machine room and insert it using a wrench from the drawer in the engine room, but somehow I doubt even that is going to be n easy process. I continue to be thwarted at every stage of Codename: ICEMAN, and often I’ve only become aware of what I “should” have done after not doing it causes a game over message (and usually my death). I’m determined to finish this game, but I can’t say it’s been much fun! At this rate I’m going to have to postpone playing Emmanuelle so I can join Chet in playing Hero’s Quest from this weekend onwards. Just wrapping this game up in time may prove challenging!


I guess I should have learnt from the lessons taught to me in Police Quest.

Session Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 12 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

47 comments:

  1. I think I survived the submarine battle by diving below the inversion layer (or was it all way to the bottom of the sea) and standing still while the enemy sub passes over. You probably needed to shut down sonar and maybe something else as well.

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    1. You mean I didn't have to fight at all! Damn trigger finger! :(

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  2. Sometimes those Restore/Restart/Quit messages can be downright infuriating. I remember the 10-12 year old me crying out over the unfairness of it all :-)

    I did have rather unflattering memories regarding ICEMAN, and it certainly has been both painful and entertaining to read of your troubles with the game.

    At least a great game is up next.

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  3. "so I started diving as low as I could and then resurfacing while firing my torpedoes one at a time."

    Does it really make you surface to fire at the destroyer? That doesn't seem right, a sub should never surface during a battle (I'm no expert, but I have seen Hunt for Red October :)

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    1. Exactly right Novacek. Surfacing to fire on the destroyer was just Trickster making it harder on himself (Apparently the game's not challenging enough for him on its own or something). ;P The Harpoons are designed to hit targets on the surface from depth. (Also why you can't use them on the sub). As for the rest. Yes your chances to hitting your enemy are random, but increased by the following. Don't fire until the white line representing the target really closing in on you appears, from there the closer it is, the better chance you have of hitting it. Make sure you lock onto the target, fire, pray. I had to resort to the save/restore method too. Fire, hit? Save! Fire, miss? Restore. As far as I know that's the only method for dealing with them.

      For the Sub: Qvivat vagb, naq gura svanyyl haqre, gur vairefvba ynlre jnf n tbbq svefg fgrc, ohg Sraehf unq vg evtug, qvir qrrcre fgvyy hagvy lbh'er xvffvat gur obggbz, nebhaq 2200 srrg. Sebz gurer lbh pna tb nobhg vg qvssrerag jnlf, ohg gurer'f gjb znva zrgubqf. Fvg naq jnvg dhvrgyl, gur Fho jvyy tb njnl, ab arrq gb qrfgebl vg (Ntnva Sraehf unq guvf evtug) Gur bgure bcgvba vf gb jnvg sbe vg gb cnff bire lbh naq gura tb nyy Ebthr ba vg: Jnvg dhvrgyl hagvy vg cnffrf bire lbh naq vf zbivat njnl.. gura onpxfgno vg jvgu fbzr gbecrqbrf! Even so and knowing the method myself the Sub battle was more annoying to me it just seemed like I missed hitting the sub waaaaay more than I missed hitting the destroyer and so was restoring constantly to try and get the hits in. Va snpg vg jnf ng gur cbvag jurer V jnf tbvat 'Urpx jvgu vg, vs guvf qbrfa'g uvg V'z whfg tbvat gb bhgjnvg vg' gung V svanyyl tbg va zl svefg uvg.

      I'll be exceptionally happy if we do indeed jump to Hero's Quest/Quest for Glory 1 next. After Ice Man I've been sorely tempted to jump the gun on it just to cleanse my adventure game taste buds of this game!

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    2. At this point it's pretty much certain that I'll be temporarily skipping Emmanuelle. I hope you can wait until next week to join me! :)

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  4. Oh, nice that you caught up Trickster. I'm sorry to say I'm dead in the water (ha!) just a bit ahead of you. Some comments from my own playthrough:

    - As Fenrus said, I survived the first Russian attack by diving deep and silent, and waiting for the ship to come really close. The key here was to keep calm; turns out most of the torpedoes I thought would hit me ended up missing (and others I aided with the decoys). My problem was that once I had 3-4 fish in the water, I reloaded without waiting! With the destroyer almost upon me I fired a string of Stingers very rapidly and managed to kill it.
    - The enemy sub was easier, once I found out like you that "1000 ft" was just a ballpark figure. Who needs precise instructions when the lives of so many are at stake, right! I had no torpedoes left from my earlier encounter, so I remained completely still under the inversion layer. All the enemy torpedoes missed and the Russian sub simply passed over me; eventually the game informed that I was in the clear.
    - I have the theory (though I'm NOT going to test it) that you might survive both encounters simply using evasive tactics and not firing a single torpedo (in case you didn't manage to fix them before the attack). That would be in line with the game offering alternate solutions for the puzzles.
    - The iceberg sequence I found quite easy, but following the Coontz took me several annoying retries. This is one section where I managed to shut up the perfectionist in me that wanted a better "navigation score"
    - Turns out the CIA messages weren't needed, after all! I figured out the oil rig plan myself, although with a lot of trouble as you'll see if you ever go back to previous ROT13'd comments.

    I'm very interested in your next moves, as I believe you may need a hint very soon. ;-)

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    1. I am still exactly in the same spot where I was a couple of posts earlier (plotting the course), haven't found time to continue playing.. So again I am commenting based on my memory: I think the destroyer cannot be evaded. I remember it dropping some depth bombs (or something like that), if you're just trying to hide. I will test this when I continue playing..

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    2. Nice, thanks Fenrus.
      One thing I wonder: jung'f jvgu gur pbbx? Ur tnir zr n ohetre naq nyy V pbhyq qb jvgu vg jnf rng vg evtug gurer. Vg qbrfa'g frrz gb unir nal bgure rssrpg va gur tnzr. Ur unf na "bayl bar cre phfgbzre" cbyvpl, fb V ubcr V qvqa'g qrnq-raq zlfrys.

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    3. Wait.. what? You can do that?

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    4. @Jarikith: you mean gur ohetre? Yes, it doesn't net you any points, though. Seems to be completely optional.

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    5. Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Never knew you could. Not even mentioned in the 'Did you try' portion of the official Hint Book. And yes, therefore completely totally optional.

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    6. This is an official request for assistance. As usual, please use ROT13 and gives hints followed by a spoiler.

      Alright Charles, I reckon I'm stuck exactly where you expected me to be. Damned if I can figure out how I'm supposed to find the oil rig and the gun boat!!!! I thought I would be able to enter the heading of 283 degrees into the diver, but I can't find anyway to do that using the parser. I also can't for the life of me figure out how the directions work while swimming. If I swim straight ahead my heading continually increases or decreases, but I just don't understand why. There's nothing in the manual either.

      I swam around until I finally managed to hit a heading of 283 degrees, but by then I was about 1700 yards away from the ship. How am I supposed to know how far away from the ship the rig is? I restored back to the periscope, but can see no way to judge or measure how far away it is. Maybe this is all just my lack of navigational knowledge, but I'm feeling pretty stupid.

      This is an official request for assistance. As usual, please use ROT13 and gives hints followed by a spoiler.

      Cheers guys!

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    7. Check out what Charles, me and Jarikith discussed back in "Codename: ICEMAN - Resuscitation / Fornication", starting from Charles' "Here's another limerick for you". The answer is somewhere there...

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    8. Yay, I'm not alone! I asked for a hint before and the guys helped me find out the distance I'm supposed to swim; the solution is not illogical, if you know how RL subs calculate distances, and it turned out I was on the right track; I didn't hit the right phrase however and of course the parser gave me no clue whatsoever that I only needed to try a different wording.

      But even with that information I could make no sense of the underwater navigation system, and no mapping has helped (I even tried a "radial" map!) so I'll be using your clue if you don't mind :-)

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    9. There’s one thing missing from the discussion I mentioned (Charles, might this help you also?):

      Uvag 1: Qb lbh xabj nyy jung lbhe qvire pna qb?
      Uvag 2: Lbh pna hfr gur qvire gb gevnathyngr lbhe cbfvgvba, vs lbh whfg…
      Fcbvyre: RAGRE PBBEQVANGRF.

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    10. Heh, so Uvag = Hint and Fcbvyre = Spoiler :)

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    11. @Ilmari: I did what you mention in your second hint. However, it didn't seem to affect anything? My search for any form of na nhgbcvybg ohggba was fruitless as well :-(

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    12. @Charles: Ab nhgbcvybg. Vs lbh unir ragrerq pbeerpg pbbeqvangrf gb gur qvire va gur fho, lbh fubhyq whfg zbir fb gung gur natyr fgnlf arne gur natyr bs gur bvy fgngvba naq gur qvfgnapr tbrf pybfre gb mreb.

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    13. V jnf gelvat gb FRG PBBEQVANGRF ohg tvir hc jvgu gur vqrn jura vg qvqa'g jbex.

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  5. "I can’t see how I could possibly have used an alternate entry into the harbor."

    What harbor does the message mean? You don't go to harbor in the ice station, right? So is the message possibly referring to the harbor in Tunisia, and the alternate entry is then diving?

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    1. I thought it was talking about an alternate entrance through Bering Strait, since that's where the Russians first attacked, but perhaps you're right!

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  6. Yikes.

    It seems like ICEMAN requires you to be more informed of submarine procedures than Police Quest required to you know about police procedures. Not to mention that many of us will have some understanding about what a police officer does in their daily job, whereas knowledge of submarine protocols is something the vast majority wouldn't have a clue about.

    Actually pretty glad I didn't try and play along, I think I would have become quite frustrated at it all.

    I think I'll be getting an early start on Quest for Glory though, I'm planning on going for a max stats run (100 in every stat/skill). A difficult ask, but I have done it before (for the first game, anyway).

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    1. For a complete max stats run, I guess you would need to create a multiclass thief with all skills available. And also to max out all the spells! Now there is some grinding to do. I am curious in how many game days you would be able to do it! :)

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    2. Actually you could play ICEMAN without knowing squat about subs. Things like inversion layers and silent running are spelled out in the manual and you'll probably use it once in the whole game. In general frustration is due not so much to PQ-style trappings as to issues with bugs, weird pacing, lousy feedback, infuriating parser, and many sequences (plotting the course, evading icebergs, fighting the destroyer) are actually poorly implemented mini-games. The vibe I get is that the game may have been rushed out the door.

      Actually one of the positives is that it's whetted my appetite for a real sub sim. I have a copy of Silent Hunter somewhere...

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    3. I couldn't go near a sub sim at this point. If there's one thing this game has shown me, it's that I don't know anything about underwater navigation.

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    4. @Fenrus

      Yes, you have to start as Thief, otherwise you don't have enough points to get all the skills required. It requires a lot of grinding, but there is enough time to do it, so long as you know what you're doing!

      (as an aside, Throwing is considered a Thief skill in the first game, but later Fighters require it too - I accidentally got into trouble by neglecting it in a pure fighter run-through)

      @Charles/Trickster

      I've not played a proper sub sim, the closest I got was playing a little bit of 688 attack sub. I like the sneaking around and torpedoing surface ships, but not the details or difficulty.

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    5. The adventure begins!

      Just played a little bit of QFG to get myself started and take a couple of screenshots:

      http://i.imgur.com/9sEEv.png - Just signed the Adventurer's Guild guest book
      http://i.imgur.com/2OGK5.png - starting inventory (plus the Open spell, first of many!)
      http://i.imgur.com/y4Wvg.png - starting stats (with minor additions from talking to folks (INT) and climbing). A long way to go to 100!

      The ongoing album will be here: http://lookapanther.imgur.com/

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    6. I loved 688 Attack Sub as a kid!! Codename:Iceman really ruins it for sub games, because not all of them are bad. On the other hand, my memory is approximately 22 years old at this point.

      My "natural" character - the one I developed on my own when role-playing - was a thief with magic user skills. I know for a fact you can develop almost all the skills within the time limit ... the only ones I never did were Parry and/or Dodge.

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    7. Made a little GIF of the Meeps:
      http://imgur.com/gallery/f2rE0

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  7. Um, yeah. I really regret Emanulle now, you'd better put at least one good game between it and this. There also seems to be a difference between bad, wacky games like Uninvited and boring games. Uninvited was fun to read about, this just feels like we are reading you wanting to strangle your computer. It isn't bad puzzles that seem to make this bad; it is the fact you die a *lot* and have to redo things over, and over, and over.

    Or am I the only one feeling that?

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    1. I got that feeling only after Trick had arrived to submarine – his reviews of the earlier parts seemed far more neutral in tone. As Charles pointed above, the submarine part is mostly a collection of not so well made minigames and almost without traditional adventure puzzles (fixing the torpedo conveyor is the sole expection, I think). I’d say the middle sections of the game were in great need of editing – not just fixing the bugs, but also cutting away the uninteresting parts (like dice; no action flick could spend so much time showing just two guys facing one another). IMO the ending of the game has far better pacing – we’ll see how Trickster likes it.

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    2. Oh yeah, the first part seemed pretty normal adventure game, less 'dance monkey, dance.'

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  8. I finished! The ending was pretty tough too!

    Won post in the next couple of days.

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    1. Whoa! Could it be that I'm near the end too? Just surfaced in Tunisia...

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    2. Wooo. Good going Trickster! And yes Charles you're pretty dang close. So close you should taste it! Win that game!

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    3. Congratulations Trickster! Interesting to see how low the PISSED-score will go. I'd also like to hear whether CN:IM passes Canageek's Test of Seriousness - the beginning had some silly moments, but after that it's been pretty grim stuff, like Cold War and Arab terrorists.

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    4. Congrats. Looks like I won't finish up my game before you start QfG. Oh well, life happens.

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    5. Ilmari: It does, though it is still a terrible game. Also, not much plot either, mostly filler.

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    6. I will have a Won! post up tomorrow, although I may have to split it into two posts. My last session was around 4 and a half hours!

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    7. This game sounds so painful! I can't believe you finished it. You deserve some kind of medal.

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  9. Soooo... I arrived at Tunisia. I found zl pbagnpg, Fnaql, ohg jura V gnyx gb ure (fur erfcbaqrq gb zl glcvat "VPRZNA") fur whfg fnlf "Tbbq wbo naq tbbq yhpx, Wbua" naq fraqf zr ba zl jnl. Jnfa'g gurer n cbvag va zrrgvat ure??

    After that painful diving sequence (boy am I glad I won that magnetic jammer at the dice game) my frustration level is high.

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  10. Lbhe obff gbyq gung lbhe pbagnpg jbhyq unir n znc sbe lbh. Gel gnxvat gur znc sebz ure.

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    1. He did, huh... I was wondering if I was missing something from the early briefing. Serves me right for not taking notes! Thanks again Ilmari.

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    2. Hah, found a way to rack up unlimited points. Just yrnir gur fperra, er-ragre vg, jnyx hc gb gur tvey naq fnl "VPRZNA". Evafr & ercrng sbe serr cbvagf!

      Nyfb, vs V glcr "TRG ZNC" orsber gnyxvat gb ure, V trg n "Lbh qba'g frr gung urer" erfcbafr. Nsgre fur terrgf zr naq qvfzvffrf zr ("tbbq wbo, tbbq yhpx"), fhqqrayl gur ireo jbexf naq fur oyhegf bhg n ybg bs rkgen vasb. Fubqql.

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    3. I found lots of bugs, but didn't discover the unlimited points bug.

      I think scenarios where commands don't work at all one minute and then do the next is just unfair. I had a similar experience while entering coordinates into the diver. If you do it in the engine room it works, but if you do it later it doesn't. A message such as "you should have done this earlier" would at least have let me know that it was the right thing to try!

      Very shoddy!

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  11. I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but the Humble Indie Bundle 4 has a point and click adventure game in it, called Machinarium. https://www.humblebundle.com/

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