Quote:
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How much do you lose if you don't play the first game? I have it just not sure if I wanna go through a hassle of trying to get it to work on Win 7.
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I am only
going through the 1st Conspiracies game now, but I imagine it's (necessarily) not essential that you have played the 1st but certainly there is going to be at least some call-back/continuity fun if you have...
But, what I can say, is that you will "lose" out on a truly frustrating game experience. It appears, more and more, to me that this might be the most frustrating game ever created!
There is a lot of praise for this game in the many reviews that, in the end, generally seem to end up giving it a pretty middling score. And that's because there is too much of what I am experiencing:
frustration. All kinds of frustrations are mentioned: cheap graphics; bad acting; over-dubs; this; that; and the other. But, while maybe "this" is true and maybe "that" is true, these aesthetics-based things hardly bother me -- I'm even charmed by most of it. And I too have found (and expect to find) much (more) to love about the game.
My only real complaint is with the problem-solving. This game has problems with the problems! Its a very real let-down because what makes an adventure game for me is the figuring-out-what-to-do.
I've played tons of AGs. And I've never found a single one that didn't have at least one instance of poorly constructed gameplay. Even the best games have
something confoundedly obscure or obtuse. But this game is spectacular in this sense. I've just begun and I've already come across 3 HUGELY obnoxious instances of the aforementioned:
Spoiler:
Stand back just exactly there... and then use the broom? Are you kidding me?
"734"? Because "BuSyMaN"? C'mon... Are. you. kidding. me?
Push that tiny red button (again, just exactly there)? Really? Are you fucking kidding me?
These are really
terrible and made
worse, believe it or not, by the gameplay mechanics.
And, from what I've gleaned by skimming through Conspiracies reviews and such, these are not even the most infamous cases of such absurdities; those are still to come!
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It's just sad because this is a game that I can tell many people worked hard on and did some excellent work on; and it's exactly the kind of game I cherish. I want to like this game so much more than I honestly can -- therein lies the real frustration.
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I don't like walkthroughs. I don't use walkthroughs. As I said, I've played tons of AGs and I don't want to have to be "walked" through. It defeats the very purpose of playing an AG as far as I'm concerned. But, I guess it has become such a standard thing with the way games are played these days that it has fed-back into the way games are designed?
I know I'm very capable of solving good, tough, thoughtful, thought-provoking "puzzles". I don't use walkthroughs. I don't like walkthroughs. It defeats the very purpose...
I want to be challenged.
But not 734'd.
