By Ilmari
What was my goal again? It seems that for a couple of posts I’ve just been going through various parts of Xanth, without any clear idea where I am heading. There was some sort of prize I was supposed to find out, and I had to look for the Good Magician Humfrey… Really, neither of these plot points have had anything to do with the challenges I have been facing.
 |
| This one’s the next one in line |
Bridge. A troll demanding a toll and threatening to eat us, if we don’t give it. A staple of adventure gaming from the start. We didn’t have anything to give him, but he was willing to let us pass, if we just did him a favour: find a small key he had lost somewhere in his apartment.
 |
| The troll disappeared. What if I just went forward? |
 |
| Seems to be working… |
 |
| …but finally Nada objects. Well, at least I found a hose here |
The troll lived under the bridge.
 |
| I’d expect more mold |
 |
| Nothing in the living room, so let’s go to the troll’s lab |
The key I was looking for could be seen at the bottom of the well. Seeing that I had a hose and there was a sink, it seemed clear I was meant to raise the water level in the well. I couldn’t attach the hose directly to the faucet, but I could put it in the sink and open up the faucet with one of the coloured buttons on the wall. With the well full of water, I could swim at the bottom of it and take the key the troll wanted.
 |
| This doesn’t sound good |
 |
| No, this does not definitely sound good |
As a “reward” for my help, the troll gave me some puzzles to solve. This was an even worse fate than the maze in the previous post. At least I had three options to choose from.
 |
| Fill the tray with Tetris-blocks |
 |
| Slider puzzles |
 |
| Matchstick puzzles |
I tried all the three options, and matchsticks were the easiest. Even so, doing a dozen of those in a row took some time. After that feat, the troll let me go and even gave me a crowbar as a gift.
I had entered the lair of Com-Pewter, a recurring villain in Xanth series (well, at this point in the series it had been reprogrammed to be good, but that’s not so important). Originally meant to be a machine for recording the history of Xanth, it had a structural flaw and became able to shape its immediate vicinity with its printouts.
 |
| 5 CAPs for the first person to spot the reference |
The evil machine set up another game for me (great). It would give a description and a word, and from a given set of letters, I had to choose the one, which with the letters of the word made up a new word matching the description. All the words could be found in my Com-Pendium of Xanthian things, so the game was mostly just a case of perseverance.
 |
Let’s go through one example. The Com-Pendium mentions asparagus spears, so the letter I need is S
|
 |
| I find it here |
 |
| And put it in here |
 |
| Repeat ad nauseam |
With the tenth iteration of this game, the Com-Pewter asked for a word that required T for an answer. Unfortunately, there was no T in the tile set. Then again, I had both a tea bag and a golf tee in my inventory to use as a supplement. Like a bad loser, the machine decided to cheat and altered the reality so that I would resign from the game.
 |
| Grundy is influenced by a flu virus |
 |
| The lessons you can learn from this game |
Grundy managed to reinstate me back in the game, but I still had to defeat Com-Pewter. Luckily, I had just received something to do that.
 |
| So this is how you make computer viruses |
Another challenge passed! Next time…
 |
| …it’s the region of Air! |
Session time: 2 h 5 min
Total time: 11 h 50 min
test
ReplyDeleteOh man, I remember playing the demo of the game where you played through the initial part with being in the apartment, getting the delivery, playing with the computer, phoning people. It felt really cool how it was grounded in real life stuff because I hadn't played adventure games like that before and wanted more gaming like that.
ReplyDeleteReading the posts though, it just sounds like random incoherent free association scenarios and puzzles. The pun based writing and puzzles is so off putting to me. When there is no way to predict what's going to happen next or what's going on, it's hard to care.
I am enjoying reading though, it is just a weird game.
I agree the scenarios so far seem somewhat random and the minigames/puzzles disappointing standard fare. Let's hope both get better.
DeleteAs for the puns, I don't have an issue with them and actually find them often fun, they're usually just notably harder for non-native speakers, as mentioned before - but when I manage to get/solve them nevertheless, it's quite satisfying.
It reminds me of Return to Zork CD graphics adventure, in that it's zany and weird in look and feel. When playing the Zork text adventures, I always felt Zork was darker and more serious.
ReplyDelete"Nomad" reference = Fgne Gerx Gur Bevtvany Frevrf, gur rcvfbqr "Gur Punatryvat"?
ReplyDelete"Fill the tray with Tetris-blocks"
ReplyDeleteNo, those are Pentomino pieces (5 squares each instead of 4) and the puzzle of filling a rectangle with them is decades older than Tetris.