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Old 01-25-2006, 01:50 PM   #40
stepurhan
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: South East England.
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The "Where is everybody" dialogue is an obvious anomaly. I'm presuming it's a programming issue since you can exhaust all the other dialogue options. To properly reflect Trilby meeting everyone you'd need to programme all the dialogue trees 6 different ways to reflect the 6 ways you could meet the 3 characters.

The TV is showing different news and both Simone and Jim get mentioned. It seems odd that the police are at the house but can't apparently see people moving around inside. Those windows must really be odd.

I like Jim's dialogue The reference to Pratchett is nice (I like Pratchett as well). Is that more of a UK thing or does that work well all round the world? I think its slightly ironic in the circumstances that AJ's last words involved him "getting to the bottom" of the mystery (he certainly gets to the bottom all right ) And as for the comment that imprisonment isn't that different from boarding school.

Both Jim and Simone mention having dreams that sound astoundingly similar to the one in the cutscene opening day two. We as players know something is up but its good to have this further strengthening of the weirdness.

IN the library I like the way that the different blocks of books are coloured differently to indicate different hotspots. However, with the map, we get a problem with the interface again. The use icon is a bit clumsy (could have done with a highlight spot like the GK1 cursors) so its hard to center on those particular books.

It does seem odd that Trilby can't see AJ clearly at the bottom of the pool but, when the pool is full, the water does look a bit blurry. The lines down the side of the pool fade fairly quickly from the top. Maybe the pool has been a bit neglected (the new heir having only recently arrived) and the water has got a bit murky.

The main puzzle is a workmanlike standby. How to get an item you want from another character. I can't really see why you can't sweep the metal detector across the lawn (it's not that big) but I suppose starting from the pipe does make things easier. The real question is why is Trilby trying to drain the pool at all? He berates Philip for having his priorities wrong by treasure-hunting when he should be looking for a way out. Since the pool clearly isn't leaking how likely is it that there will be a usable escape route at the bottom of it?

Good work on the characterisation though. Phil comes off as brash, sarcastic and self-centred. Simone is the level-headed reporter. Jim is just the boarding school lad keeping himself to himself .

Another nice scary cutscene to finish the day. It seems a good time to mention the sparing use of music. Because you don't have it constantly in the background its more effective when it does come up. Especially the tension-building music of the scary moments. I believe it was all sourced from public directories rather than self-written which makes it even more interesting.
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No Nonsense Nonsonnets #43

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A thread most controversial, that’s what I want to start
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