Game 44: Altered Destiny - Final Rating

After my first exploratory session in Altered Destiny, I was proclaiming the naysayers wrong and convinced I’d found a hidden gem. By the end I was tearing my hair out and having to force myself to play it. I still think that underneath all the technical flaws is a good game, so it’s such a shame that I’m going to have to punish it in no uncertain terms.

Puzzles and Solvability
Before playing the game, I’d read a couple of reviews that praised it for its challenging but logical puzzles. Strangely, I think I agree with that assessment for about 90% of the puzzles in the game. There are actually some clever things going on. The riddles offer a challenge, but are perfectly solvable with some thought. Talking to the various characters of Daltere gives thorough players enough information to figure out what items might be useful where. There are some exceptions, such as needing to squeeze the Kleeg to get past the noisy plants on the island, not to mention the silencer working for the howlers but not the plants, but overall figuring out solutions wasn’t the problem. Given everything I’ve just said, it’s such a shame that the parser was so grotesquely awful! I’m going to rip into the parser in the next category, but it has to be punished here too. On top of the parser problems, there were also times that the game’s low resolution graphics caused a bit of a problem, particularly when trying to solve the underground cavern riddle. There were stacks of potential dead ends, with quite a few areas allowing you access even though you don’t yet possess an item critical to getting back out, and certain critical items allowing you to use them up at incorrect times. Other gripes include needing to know the defoil plant’s name to pick it up, and the fact characters like Lantra and Master Towhee don’t express their needs clearly enough. This category could have and should have received a decent score, but the game is just...broken.
Rating: 3

Natural Springs...oh I get it!

Interface and Inventory
Well, the parser is absolutely horrible! So many times the logical answer to puzzles was the correct one, but I just couldn’t find the right command to make it happen. Capturing the Indella bird was incredibly painful, even when I knew exactly how it would be achieved. The worst thing a parser can ever be is misleading, and I was put off the correct scent several times and sent down numerous garden paths due solely to bad parser responses. I can’t tell you how long I tried to pick up those damn pouches that Lantra had, with the parser continually suggesting that I just wasn’t close enough to get them. If I’d received a message like “she’s not going to just give them away” or “perhaps if you did something for Lantra first”, I wouldn’t have wasted part of my life. This is only one example, but I could list a whole bunch of others. Movement was also atrociously handled, particularly given the environment often demanded careful navigation. I died around a hundred times while playing, with the vast majority of them being in the canyons and the underground caves, and was forced to save every screen or so just to get through some sections. This constant need to save was exacerbated by the limited save game slots, and I played in fear that I would have to restart at some point due to having written over an earlier save game. The inventory was a simple list, which is never particularly friendly, but the seven item limitation was completely unnecessary and frustrating. Eventually I fell back on stashing my items in the central crossroads screen, but it seems to me limitations like this are implemented for no other reason than to extend the play time.
Rating: 1

Honestly, the parser in this game is just broken.

Story and Setting
We’ve seen the basic story of Altered Destiny before, even as recently as Future Wars. A man is going about his own business when all of a sudden he is swept off into another time / space / dimension and tasked with saving the world / universe. Its classic science fiction storytelling and not a problem in itself. The problem with this particular story is that all the details don’t add up to an interesting whole. I was given snippets of a much grander vision, including mention of a human race that once inhabited Daltere, but in the end I didn’t have a clue how any of it related to anything else. I was frustrated by numerous aspects of Altered Destiny, with the parser being the biggest culprit, but I think this vagueness in the story also played a role. It also didn’t help that the basic quest elements were so badly handled. As mentioned previously, characters have little motivation, and gave me even less. Vindah sent me on a quest to get an Indella bird so that he could perform a divination, but then added more items to the list when I finally came back with it (after an immense amount of struggle I'll add). Finally there’s the climax, which was far from satisfying. After being the super villain for the entire game, being badmouthed by just about every character, Helmar abruptly becomes a good guy and puts the jewel back from whence he stole it. My own character was then unceremoniously dumped back into my own time / space / dimension / whatever, with nothing to show for it. I’m sure P.J. would have felt just as unsatisfied as I did!
Rating: 3

Are we all really just going to be friends now?

Sound and Graphics
A little bit of positivity is due here. The sound and graphics were actually much better than first impressions suggested. There was quite a wide range of music tracks, and while some of them were a bit grating on the senses, others suited the environment perfectly and were even reasonably enjoyable. So often I consider turning sound off in these older games, but I didn’t do that in Altered Destiny, which is a sign that it wasn’t too bad at all. The sound effects are hardly worth mentioning, as they were irregular and not particularly noteworthy. The graphics were oddly bright, with lots of fluorescent colours pervading just about every part of the game. Somehow they pulled off a very alien world in the low resolution, and there were some surprisingly striking scenes that displayed really good art design. The woods and the canyons in particular were really quite cool, and once again displayed the potential of the game that it failed to live up to. Probably the only other thing worth mentioning was the animation, which was a bit shit at times. P.J. looked like he was skating across the screen rather than walking when things got busy, and the majority of other characters basically don’t move at all.
Rating: 5

I might want to forget the game overall, but some of the imagery will likely stay with me.

Environment and Atmosphere
As mentioned previously, the environments in Altered Destiny are truly alien. There wasn’t a screen in the whole thing that might be mistaken for somewhere on Earth, which I’m sure was exactly what they were going for. I also really liked that the game started on floating tethered islands, not giving the player any real idea where they were and what the larger world below looked like. The four main areas of the game, being the canyon, the woods, the forest, and the caves, were all well realised, with vastly different colour schemes and impacting imagery. The various creatures that can be found throughout also add to the wonder. There are a few that cross the boundary into outright silliness, such as Master Towhee and his pet stool, but for the most part they were intriguing and even useful. It’s such a shame that so much else went wrong in Altered Destiny, because the environment was much more to my taste than Accolades previous adventure game, Les Manley. It had a lot of atmosphere, which is why I felt so positive about things during the initial exploration period. It was only when I started actually trying to do stuff that it all fell to pieces.
Rating: 6

Let's not forget the acidic wasteland that comes with sleep.

Dialogue and Acting
I was so often reminded of text adventures while playing Altered Destiny. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, since the writer behind it was Michael Berlyn, who worked for Infocom during their most productive period. “A gentle wind, warm and sweet, rises from the ground far below. Off in the distance, to the east, you can make out a smaller floating island.” “The forest starts in earnest here, and zutterbys enter from a small clearing to the east. A wave of fatigue, like a gust of warm air, washes over you.” With this level of detail and description, it’s hard to believe that certain items weren’t mentioned in any way unless directly looked at, such as the golden tube in Tentro’s Fraggery (thanks Kenny). Looking over it all now, the descriptions were generally of a pretty high quality, and some of the characters also had distinctive voices. Alnar held his R’s: “Yes, I make tubes for that errraserhead Tentrrro.” Tentro is clearly intelligent and speaks quickly: “They flow down from above and I capture them and make frags with them and they’re wonderful.” Finally, there’s a bit of Al Lowe-like humour spattered throughout the game, and while it was never laugh out loud funny, it wasn't it did raise a few smiles. I actually hated myself a bit for smiling a few times when I was trying to stay angry at the game, and I guess this light-heartedness should be credited for what it is, rather than for the flaws that surrounded it.
Rating: 5

The relating was sporadically overdone, but it thoroughly constructed the enduring impression.

Where does that leave us...3 + 1 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 5 = 23, divided by 60 is 38.33333, which is 38 when rounded down. That already feels about right to me, particularly as Les Manley got 30. There was much more to like about Altered Destiny, and the themes suited my tastes a lot more. 38 it is!

Did anyone predict that score? Yes, both TBD and Corey Cole got it exactly right. That's the first tie we've had in a while. It's time to go to the random number generator. If it's odd, TBD gets the prize. If it's even, Corey gets it. The random number is...3. Congratulations TBD (for the second game in a row!), you get to choose from any of the following games:

The Quest for Glory 1-5 Collection from GOG

The King's Quest 4 + 5 + 6 Collection from GOG

The Hugo Trilogy

Space Quest 4 + 5 + 6 Collection from GOG

Leisure Suit Larry: Greatest Hits and Misses Collection from GOG

I have to say it would have been interesting to see whether Corey would have made Lars-Erik buy another copy of his own game collection. I guess we'll never know. ;)

60 CAPs for Aperama

• True Companion Award – 20 CAPs – For playing the game along with me.

• Request for Assistance Award – 20 CAPs – For responding to my request

• Request for Assistance Award – 20 CAPs – For responding to my request

40 CAPs for Ilmari

• Mission Critical Award – 30 CAPs – For solving my Mission Critical riddle

• Travel Advice Award – 10 CAPs – For helping me to plan my trip

40 CAPs to Ashley Bennett

• Request for Assistance Award – 20 CAPs – For responding to my request

• Request for Assistance Award – 20 CAPs – For responding to my request

35 CAPs for Charles

• True Companion Award – 20 CAPs – For playing the game along with me.

• Technical Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For helping me get the game running properly.

• Dreamworld Award – 5 CAPs – For answering my question about the dreamworld.

30 CAPs for Lars-Erik

• Sponsor Award - 20 CAPs - For sponsoring the blog with free games

• Travel Advice Award – 10 CAPs – For helping me to plan my trip

25 CAPs for TBD

• Psychic Prediction Award – 20 CAPs - For correctly predicting what score I would give the game.

• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on GOG

15 CAPs to Laukku

• Minor Request for Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For responding to my request

• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam

10 CAPs for boukensha

• Travel Advice Award – 10 CAPs – For helping me to plan my trip

10 CAPs for Deimar

• Travel Advice Award – 10 CAPs – For helping me to plan my trip

10 CAPs for Corey Cole

• Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs - For correctly predicting what score I would give the game.

10 CAPs to Zenic Reverie

• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on GOG

• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on GOG

10 CAPs to Kenny McCormick

• Asshole Award – 5 CAPs – For explaining how some holes can in fact be full of something

• Caption Contest Award – 5 CAPs – For understanding

5 CAPs to MrValdez

• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam

Game 44: Altered Destiny - Won!

P.J. Barrett Journal Entry 7: "I did it! I defeated Helmar in his castle and in doing so reunited him with his brother JonQuah! This seems to have brought balance back to Daltere, and the Jewel of Light has been put back in its place within the Order. I'm being sent back to Trudy now, but I have no idea how I'm going to explain any of this to her. She's gonna think I've gone mad!"

Come on P.J.! The readers reckon there's only a little bit to go!

I cannot describe just how happy I am that this ordeal is finally over. I’m still shocked at just how frustrating Altered Destiny turned out to be, especially as my initial thoughts were quite positive. I’m very keen to move onto something more enjoyable, and Quest for Glory II should fit the bill perfectly. For that to happen I need to take you through my final gameplay session with Altered Destiny and then give it the shitty rating it deserves. Let’s do this...

Please let the mirror achieve something here. Please!

A couple of people had commented just how close I was to finishing the game at the end of my last session, and thankfully that turned out to be true. I’d just collected the mirror from Kayla, and was trying to figure out how it might be useful. My first thought was that it might allow me to get past the howler at Howler Lake, but a quick bit of experimentation convinced me otherwise (in other words, I died). It was time to take stock of what was outstanding, and what items might be useful at this late stage in the game. I knew that I could get a silencer from JonQuah in the underground, but I hadn’t a clue how I could jump through the Pool of Darkness to exit the area. While I was thinking about this puzzle, the purpose of the silencer became very clear! The reason I'd not been able to survive being at Howler Lake was because the “plaintive, haunting cries of Howlers” had been beckoning me into their deadly arms. If I had a way of silencing them, surely I would be able to pass through the area unharmed. If this were true, then my short term goal must be to solve the Pool of Darkness puzzle.

If I can't hear them, they can't beckon me. Right!?

I made my way back through the underground caves, crossing the bridge over the clamchops and then passing through the floating floor room. Once I had the silencer from JonQuah, I saved my game and spent no less than twenty minutes trying to find a way to pass through the pool without dying. Nothing I tried worked! I was so close to asking for assistance, but decided to look through my screenshots one last time. While reading Master Towhee’s dialogue in his library of scrolls, I had an idea! Eureka! Towhee mentioned a few times how bad his eyesight was, and I now had a lens in my inventory! Feeling confident, I tried giving it to him: “That was a kind gesture, and to repay you, I will send Otto for another scroll, even though I should not.” (7 points) Towhee gave me a scroll that had a picture of a plant on it. (5 points) “This is a beautiful scroll of the defoil herb. You figure you’d be able to recognise it if you ever ran across some. The text mentions the herb’s capacity to turn plants in animals.” Aha! The plant I’d seen in the Yula Graveyard must be a defoil plant, and having it should help me pass through the Pool of Darkness since I would no longer be a plant and require light to survive!

Creatures that turn animals into plants. Herbs that turn plants into animals. This is one crazy planet!

I paid another visit to the graveyard, dying a few more times while trying to navigate P.J. through the tight pathways. When I reached the plant, I typed “get defoil”, and it worked! (15 points) I stated when I first ran into the plant just how pissed off I’d be if I needed to know what type of plant it was to be able to pick it up. That prediction turned out to be precisely the situation, and it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! When I looked at the plant I was told that it would reverse the effect of the Hoppa by defoliation, which confirmed its use. It was time to go back to the underground caves one last time! As soon as JonQuah gave me the silencer, I typed “eat defoil”, hoping that was the key to success. “It wasn’t quite a candy bar, but it’ll do. The stiffness you were experiencing disappears.” I crossed my fingers and jumped through the Pool of Darkness...

Apparently on Daltere you can only pick plants if you know what their names are.

Real graceful P.J.!

To my relief, P.J. survived passing through the Pool of Darkness, and after returning to the crossroads, I typed “look at silencer” to see what it was. “This device cancels some dangerous sounds when turned on. The silencer is currently off.” I found I could turn it on by typing “turn silencer on”, although I had no idea how that was actually achieved. Assuming that getting through Howler Lake would take me to the castle where Helmar would be found, I spent some time figuring out which items I might need there. I’d not yet used the bowl of slime, the Kleeg, the mirror, the silencer, the leaf, or the jewelled arrow, so all of those seemed to be must haves. That only left one more slot, and after considering whether the axe or the golden tube were more likely, I chose the axe. I journeyed southeast to Howler Lake, and was damn excited when I didn’t die on arrival. Finally this game was nearly over!!!

How exactly does one turn this thing on and off?!

I'm...ALIVE!!!

I typed “look” at Howler Lake to get a screen description, and found that the artefact I’d been able to see in the distance was actually the castle! “These are the crumbling remains of a once-great civilization, a causeway which once travelled to the island. Far off in the distance, over the lake of fog, you can see the castle rising from a lush island.” I’d never considered what I might do if I could get past the howlers, and suddenly realised I had no obvious way of reaching the island in the distance. If I walked into the water, then a howler would kill me instantly, so I must need to use one of my items. I have to admit that I was stuck here for quite a while until I finally paid attention to a small glimmering light that kept appearing on the island. When I looked at the light I was told that “It’s coming from the island. It’s some kind of signal.". This gave me an idea, and I quickly typed “use mirror” to reflect it. A boat set off from the island and soon arrived in front of me! I’m not really sure how said boat could actually float since it seemed to be nothing more than a skeleton, but after a brief trip across the expanse I hopped off onto a platform.

Some of the puzzles in Altered Destiny are actually quite decent. It's the parser that screws things up!

I'm not sure I'd be stepping into that thing!

I'm here Helmar! Nothing's gonna stop me now! You hear me?!

Right, I’d finally reached the island! Surely the end was nigh! Before I could even take a step towards the castle, three plants emerged from the sand on the beach and apparently emitted a horrifying sound. “Ouch! Their deafening din did you in. What a way to go.” Let me get this straight! I just got past the howlers because I turned on a device that makes everything silent, and a couple of minutes later, with the device still switched on, I've been killed by a loud noise!!! That made no sense at all, so I checked to make sure the silencer hadn’t switched off during the trip. It hadn’t, so clearly I was going to have to find an alternate way of avoiding death this time. I poured the slime on myself again, but that didn’t help. I tried blocking my ears, but the parser didn’t understand me. I tried using every item I had, but nothing was achieved. I couldn’t believe I’d come this far and was going to have to request assistance at the last hurdle! I did it, and a few hours later received an answer from Aperama.

That's right, nothing's gonna stop me...except for these noisy ass plants!

Aperama’s first hint was “For the island, you need to have a Kleeg, and some slime.” Well, I had both of those, but couldn’t see how either would help me with my current circumstances. I received points whenever I tried pouring the slime on me, so clearly that was part of a solution at some point. It hadn’t helped me here though, which meant it was logical that the Kleeg must be the answer! What did I know about the comatose creature? Well, it was full of gas for one thing. Was I supposed to gas the plants somehow? That seemed unlikely, but I tried squeezing the Kleeg anyway: “You squeeze the Kleeg for all you’re worth.” (15 points) Suddenly P.J. appeared to be wearing a kilt, and the sound emitting from the Kleeg was a combination of a foghorn and bagpipes. I might have been amused by this if I wasn’t so shocked by how stupid the solution was. “Squeezing the Kleeg produced a 10 megaton belch. Relieved of its terrible swelling, it flees.” I still don’t understand why exactly, but the Kleeg’s belch caused the plants to descend back into the sand, allowing me to walk onto the beach and then off to the east.

Why exactly should I have expected this to achieve anything useful?

I still have no idea why there were ever humans on Daltere, and I'm not sure I'm ever going to know.

I wandered through a few screens containing the remnants of what was clearly once a beautiful garden island. There were broken crystal statues everywhere, but I didn’t seem to be able to interact with them. Eventually I reached a broken bridge that once led to the castle steps. There were two tiny points of gold light shining beneath the broken edge, but walking over to investigate them resulted in a creature reaching out and grabbing me, pulling me underground to my death once again. To the west of this bridge was a pathway leading north, but there were three spiky, and very dangerous, pink plants blocking my way through. The only thing I could think of to do was to cover myself in slime again, and this time it did the trick! The plant shot the nasty spikes at me, but they slid off my slimy body. The pathway led to the castle steps, and I ascended them and placed the red jewel in the slot on the entrance. (3 points) I knew this would be required since it was mentioned in the first scroll that Master Towhee gave me a few sessions back. The door slid open, and I entered, anticipating a confrontation with Helmar.

Bastards!

I've been waiting a long time to have a real reason to do this!

Ouch! That really hurt!

Within the castle I found myself standing in a crystal like structure, and the room description told me that a “thin rope is connected to a small platform and travels high into the distance, out of sight”. The logical thing to do was to climb the rope, but my attempt to do so was met with “You won’t get anywhere climbing that”. I tried pulling the rope instead, and found that it worked as a pulley, raising me up into the air on a platform. I passed through a few screens before a room description suggested I “could probably jump into a doorway from the platform”. As I reached the doorway I typed “jump off platform”, but the damn parser responded with “I don’t know how to do that”. The solution was to type simply “jump” at the right time, and once I did so P.J. launched off the platform and into a hallway of glassy pillars. (5 points) “You’re in an incredibly complicated structure, with passageways branching off in all directions. Finding your way through this is hopeless.” Hmmmm, this seemed like the perfect time to use a map.

Another striking image from a game that never lacked potential.

Reminds me of that amazing scene in The Matrix. If only I got to go all whoop-ass on someone here!

I looked at the leaf that the Indella bird had danced on during Vindah’s divination. I’d always assumed that it would act as a map at some point, with the middle section seeming to have three arrows pointing east and then one north. I saved my game and then tried going three screens east. To my surprise, this led to a section with no pathway leading north, so I thought perhaps my reading of the leaf had been incorrect. I tried walking north anyway and found that I could walk straight through the wall!!! Good luck figuring that out without getting the leaf! Suddenly I was looking over P.J.’s shoulder, with a man meditating in mid air at the end of a corridor the way JonQuah always seemed to be. Strangely, the floor and sections of the walls were transparent, and I could see the landscape of Daltere all around. I quickly realised it was Helmar before me, and I was soon faced with an important choice.

That bird was really onto something!

P.J. summons his Kitty Pryde

Um...can't we settle this the old fashioned way?

Helmar made an offer to me: “So... you have arrived. I have watched you approach. You seem earnest and dedicated, a man of honor, so I offer you your choice of weapons.” I could now select one of my items to use as a weapon against Helmar, which included the mirror, the silencer, the leaf, the battle axe, the jewelled arrow, and the bowl. I had a feeling I would find out which one I needed by dying, so I chose the most obvious weapon amongst them, the axe. As soon as my choice was made, Helmar fired some sort of beam at me, frying me immediately! This of course made the solution pretty obvious, so I restored and chose the mirror instead. Helmar’s beam reflected back on him, causing him to go unconscious. “Well done, P.J.! That mirror reflected his blast and has rendered Helmar unconscious!” I’d completed Altered Destiny, and the game's resolution unfolded before me! I’ve included the outro scenes below so you can read it for yourself. It seems a bit odd that Helmar would suddenly go back to being good once reunited with his brother, but I couldn’t care less to be honest. I don’t even care where the missing 22 points were. Waddya say we move onto something a bit more fun for everyone!

Time to taste some of your own medicine buddy!

And what, everything is just forgiven!?

Yeah, real safe! What's to stop Helmar from becoming a super villain again?

It is a pretty cool spot to put it!

You mean no-one will know how awesome I am?

1029 moves, with about 947 of them being rejected by the parser.

Session Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 9 hours 30 minutes

Game 44: Altered Destiny - Toxic Nightmare

P.J. Barrett Journal Entry 6: "I can't tell you how happy I am to have finally caught that slippery Indella bird! Once I had it in the cage, I was able to give it to Vindah and receive the divination I'd been promised. It wasn't as useful as I'd hoped, but that shouldn't come as any surprise given my experiences on this planet so far. I've spent the last hour or so wandering around in some sort of nightmare state, helping a cute little animal in return for a mirror. Either I'm going crazy or things are just getting weirder by the minute. Possibly both!"

Well I don't see any hope then!

My last post finished with me requesting assistance. I was convinced that the parser was screwing me over when it came to catching the Indella bird, and genuinely had no idea how to cross the floating platform in the underground caves. It was Aperama that first came to my rescue with a couple of hints and a spoiler for the bird puzzle, but since my most recent save game was in the caves, I decided to check out Ashley Bennett’s hints for that section first. The first hint read: “The answer as suspected is in the wall riddle.” I was already quite certain about that, so moved onto the second hint: “Avoid the nasty tiles with two circles.” I had actually taken that idea from the riddle, and thought I’d avoided them successfully on at least one occasion without success. I tried again now that I knew it was the correct way to approach the puzzle. On my second attempt I managed to cross the floor without being crushed, at which point P.J. descended down into the darkness below on a platform! (9 points) I think the reason I struggled with this puzzle was not so much the riddle (although that was certainly obtuse), but how difficult it was to discern which bits of floor had two circles and which ones didn’t, particularly where the vine crossed over them in the foreground. I was excited to be through though, and watched as P.J. slowly descended onto another platform next to where JonQuah was floating in mid air.

Man, you really do like to make things difficult for yourself JonQuah.

JonQuah spoke to me: “Here, P.J. This is for you. I give you this silencer so you can deal with sounds as I have. Use it when you approach Helmar.” A silencer! You mean for a gun?! I could only hope it were true, although I knew it wasn't. (15 points) Suddenly JonQuah was gone, leaving me standing there with seemingly nowhere to go. There was a large circle below me, similar to the one that had surrounded the Pool of Light. I typed “look”, hoping to get some idea what I was supposed to do next: “The faint drip of condensing water hitting the pool rings hollowly in your ears. The cold here is intense, the darkness almost infinite.” I typed “look at pool” and received the following: “This pool must have been created by Helmar, wielder of the Jewel of Light. The pool is the antithesis of the pool of light.” That was interesting, but didn’t really help. I saved my game and jumped straight into the pool to see what would happen. In short, I died! “Brrrrr. In your current state, the absence of light in the pool freezes your altered structure. No light, no energy. No energy, well...” So the pool was so cold that I couldn’t survive it in my current tree-like state. Did that mean I needed to find a way to create light or a way to stop my transformation into a tree? I wasn’t sure, but looked through my inventory items for inspiration. I hadn’t found a use for the bowl of slime yet, and wondered whether pouring it over myself might help. “Not in your current condition. You’re a little too stiff to do that.” I received this message no matter what I tried to do, so eventually concluded I was dead ended. It was time to restore back to the Indella bird screen to see whether that path would lead to great success.

This game could actually redeem itself by letting me shoot everyone.

I turned to Aperama’s hints, with the first one being: “You had the right idea from the start.” That was nice to know, but I wasn’t exactly sure which idea he meant. I’d tried everything I could think of with the pigment. If that was it, then I was going to need some more help. The second hint read: “The bird would sure go for that pigment, and you have a cage now...” Huh? I’d tried putting the pigment in, on, and around the damn cage a hundred times already! How could I have not stumbled on the solution? I was going to have to read the spoiler: “BATE CAGE WITH PIGMENT”. WTF? Was that seriously what I was expected to type? Typing “put pigment in cage” hadn’t worked, and hadn’t given me any different message than when I’d tried to put just about everything else I owned in the cage. That’s a pretty precise thing for the parser to expect! I put my disbelief to one side and typed the command just as Aperama had told me to. I got another negative response: “That would be tough to manage in its present state.” As John McEnroe said on many occasions, “YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!!” Now the game was refusing to accept outright spoilers! I took a deep breath, and tried to figure out what the parser was telling me. I couldn’t even be sure whether it was talking about the present state of the cage or the pigment. Was the cage closed and I needed to open it? Nope. Could I now open the pigment? Nope. Deciding the puzzle just wasn’t worth the effort, I went back to the readers, describing my further drama in a comment. Once again it was Ashley Bennett that pinpointed the issue, which shouldn’t be surprising given his occupation as a radiologist. I needed to “SET TRAP” before I could bait it. (2 points) It may have something to do with the fact I’ve never used a trap to catch anything in my life, but I can honestly say I never, ever would have figured out this solution. With the trap set and baited, the Indella bird was finally convinced to hop inside and be caught. PHEW!

Why won't you go home? Are you too good for your HOME!!!???

Thank f$%^ for that!

I picked up the cage containing my captive and made my way directly to Vindah’s floating island to receive his divination. When I gave the Indella bird to the four-armed creature, they appeared on the ground in front of him, with the bird wandering back and forth. Nothing much happened, so I asked about the divination: “I don’t have everything I need to begin. Let’s see... a bird, some pigment, and something for the bird to leave its tracks on... I guess not.” Oh come off it! The guy hadn’t mentioned anything about the pigment or something for the bird to leave its tracks on when he gave me the quest! Think Tricky, think! Aha...the pomenta leaf should do the trick! I gave the leaf to Vindah, and was thrilled when it also appeared in front of him. He then cast some sort of spell, turning the bottle of pigment into a bowl instead. The Indella bird hopped into the pigment and then onto the leaf, and after a surprisingly amusing dance, left coloured footprints all over it. Vindah explained what it all supposedly meant: “The runes say you are a dreamer, though some accomplish more in their dreams than others do in a lifetime. At some time you may need to discard the illusion of reality and use this divination as a guide.” (20 points) Hmmmm...”accomplish more in their dreams”...I’d been able to sleep in the forest to the south of the crossroads. Would I now be able to do something while dreaming? I picked up the leaf and looked at it, revealing what appeared to be arrows formed by the bird’s feet. I was glad I hadn’t found this before trying to get through the floating floor in the caves, as I may have though it was a solution. I couldn’t think of anything else it might be useful for, so put it away and left the island.

Oh you didn't just say that did you?!?! Please tell me you didn't just say that!

I was actually annoyed to find myself enjoying the bird's performance.

The four arrows in the middle seem obvious. I hope they're the only relevant ones!

On my arrival back at the crossroads, I realised I’d left a few items all over Daltere due to the harsh inventory limitations. I decided to hold off my trip to dreamland for a bit while I collected everything and left whatever I couldn’t carry in the middle of the crossroads. While collecting the jewelled arrow that I’d left next to Lantra, I decided to try something I’d thought of whilst trying to get to sleep the night before. I’d previously tried throwing the crystal from the small pouch Lantra had given me onto the ground, only for it to be destroyed by the light of the planet’s sun. While I was underground, I tried throwing it there, and found that a large round crystal grew out of the ground in its place! I picked it up, and when I looked at it found it to be in the shape of a lens. (10 points) That was certainly interesting, but once again I couldn’t come up with any way that it would be useful. After my item collection was complete, I ended up leaving the golden tube, the scroll, and the battle axe in the crossroads screen before heading off towards the forest to take a nap.

Lollipop, lollipop, lo lo lo lollipop.

If the inventory is going to be so limited, I'm going to have to stash my stuff somewhere that anyone could steal them.

Hopping into the hammock, P.J. once again drifted off to sleep and dreamt of television shows. Vindah interrupted as he’d done previously, giving me the hint that led to me passing the Yula fears unharmed. One the desolate landscape appeared around me, I quickly tried typing on the keyboard, and found I could do it. I typed “look”, wondering whether I’d been able to type during the dream prior to receiving Vindah’s divination: “You see the insides of your eyelids.” Well that didn’t help! I typed “wake up”, and was actually a bit stunned when a blue and orange coloured spirit rose from P.J.’s resting body!!! (4 points) I soon had control of it, and could walk around the environment as though I were awake. Furthermore, I still had all of the items available to me in my inventory, which I thought was a bit weird. I typed “look” again, and this time got the description I was after: “The cliff and the rocks seem the same as the place or time you went to sleep in the hammock, yet everything is different. You’re surrounded by noxious vapors which rise from pits filled with bubbling, boiling acid.” I investigated the acid pits a bit closer, but didn’t get any useful information. I should point out that I died a few times on this screen, getting too close to the acid with the dodgy controls. Eventually I managed to walk to the east and gained access to another screen.

Can anyone confirm whether this is possible before receiving the divination?

Lovely place for a moonwalk.

I looked at everything I could think of on that screen too, but came up with nothing to work with. I turned south, but as I reappeared on the next screen where in the real world the pomenta flowers would be performing their mating dance, I found myself standing in front of a wall of vapour. It seemed very unlikely that I would just be able to walk straight through it, but I saved my game and tried anyway. As expected, I died a horrible, painful death, so I was going to have to find a way to get past. I looked through my inventory, but there didn’t appear to be anything obvious to assist. The only thing I could think to try was to pour the bowl of slime over myself, hoping this might somehow protect me from the deadly gas. To my surprise, P.J. did actually pour the slime all over his body, and I gained points for it too! (5 points) Sadly, despite making a good find that might assist me at another point, being covered in slime did not protect me from the vapour. Surely I wasn’t missing another item again was I?! I decided the only thing to do was to go back to the other two screens and try one last time to interact with something before waking P.J. up. On the screen where he lay asleep, I tried typing “look at rocks”, since the screen description had made a point of mentioning them. “They look mighty unstable.” Hmmmm, was that a hint or just a description? I walked over to the pile of rocks and tried pushing them. The pile crumbled over the cliff, giving me the opportunity to climb down them to a yet unseen area! (6 points)

This is what P.J. looks like after sucking in toxic vapor.

This is what P.J. looks like covered in slime. Not much better really.

I've felt like knocking a few things over lately too!

This new area was clearly the nightmare equivalent of the screen containing the path leading to Howler Lake in the real world. The pathway wasn’t there now, but there was a small pink creature sitting in front of four acid pits. The screen description informed me that the creature was named Kaylef, so I typed “look at kaylef”. The response that I got suggested this little female might actually be sentient: “Luella Kaylef’s life can be seen in her eyes, a hopeful but sorrow-filled existence.” Clearly something was up for Kaylef, and talking to her revealed what it was: “Oh thank you for coming. Oh thank you. My mate is gone forever, and the only image of him I had is over there. There it is over there, on the other side of these horrid pits. I’ll never get to it. Oh. You will help, won’t you? Oh. Oh.” How could I possibly ignore such a heartfelt plea? I set about trying to reach whatever it was that was behind the pits, but found I couldn’t get past the acid without falling in. There were two trees standing right next to the pits, and I wondered whether I might be able to cut them down and form a bridge. I cursed myself for leaving my axe back at the crossroads, but tried typing “cut tree”, hoping my sword would be enough. “Which one do you mean, the right tree or the left tree?” Sighing, I typed “cut tree on left”, only to be told “I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to do that.” Holding my parser frustration back, I figured out that typing “cut left tree” was the correct command, but even then I was given: “Try a better spot. Swinging your weapon here wouldn’t be effective.” You guys are probably getting really sick of reading annoying messages like this one, and if you are, then I’m satisfactorily getting across how damn horrible the parser is in this game! In the end, after falling in acid about five times trying to get into the exact right position, I was able to cut both the left and the right trees down. (4 points) As I’d hoped they would, they fell side by side across one of the pits. It was time to find out what was on the ground behind them!

I was convinced this cute little thing was going to rip me a new one.

There was even a point where I had to restore to an old save game because one of the trees was suddenly still standing despite me having cut it down already.

I spent well over five minutes trying to cross over the pit of acid along the fallen trees. Doing it with the keys was impossible, and using the mouse only slightly better. Once I got across I realised I didn’t know what to type, but since Kayla had said there was an “image” of her mate, I typed “look at image”. I was shown a picture of Kaylef’s mate Luigisimo, which I then tried to pick up. “You’ll have to drop something first.” I stepped away from my laptop to take a few deep breaths, cursing Canageek under my breath for making me play this damn thing. After regaining my composure, I dropped the sword, figuring it might just have served its only purpose. I could take the axe to the Pool of Light later on. I was then able to get the picture (10 points), and after a few more deaths, managed to cross back over the makeshift bridge and give it to Kaylef. “Oh thank you. This mirror is for you. When I had this I was less lonely. But now I have a nicer image to look at.” Now that I no longer had the picture, I was able to pick up the mirror and be on my way. (10 points) I climbed back up the rocks and walked back over to my sleeping body. Typing “sleep” caused the two images of P.J. to merge, and I was suddenly back in the hammock in the real world. I didn’t really know what I might be able to do with the mirror and I still don’t. The first thing I’m going to try is heading over to Howler Lake. Perhaps the howler will see itself in the mirror and not attack me...or something...

Punching above his weight in my opinion.

Every time I get a new item I think things will open up for me. They never seem to!

Wake up P.J. You've got to get moving so Tricky can play Quest for Glory II!

Session Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 8 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 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!