AG Community playthrough - 5 Days a Stranger
 

Is anyone else interested in playing this game? Here's the game site for download:
http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/5days/

From Snarky's post further down the page:

Community Playthrough - 5 Days a Stranger

Steps:

1. Download and install the game.
2. Start the game and watch the intro.
3. Play up until the first breakpoint, save and quit.
4. Post! (If you mention things beyond the current breakpoint, use spoiler tags.)

The current breakpoint is the end of Day 5.

I've never played it, and I'm definitely interested (though I probably won't be able to get to it for a couple of days).

Who will be taking care of the organisation of the thread (or have you played it? I had in mind that you hadn't, but maybe I'm just confused)?

I haven't played it either, so I'm hoping that someone who has will want to moderate the gameplay.

Each day is fairlyt short, so that might prove the best way to split the game up. :)

Definitely, you get a black screen with "DAY X" in the middle of it when you reach a new chapter so that's the best place to split it. When do you want to start? Might be best to give it a day or so to give people a chance to spot the thread and get set up.

My best gaming time is on the weekends, so I'll give it a go today. Lets say we'll start with 1 day per week and see what happens. That'll give others a chance to join in mid week.

Five weeks to complete 5DAS?!
colpet, I don't think you realize how short this game is.

If we spend three days on each game-day, that allows us to finish the game in 15 days, or roughly two weeks. That's much more reasonable, and even if you can only play once a week you won't be that far behind.

Well, I did say I hadn't played it before, and really know nothing about it ;) .
Ok, 3 days per section sounds good.

AFGNCAAP: Yes, but since anybody who hasn't yet played the game won't read your spoiler, that'll just have to be a surprise to them!

OK, in order to get this thing started, I'll do the honors:

Community Playthrough - 5 Days a Stranger

Steps:

1. Download and install the game.
2. Start the game and watch the intro.
3. Play up until the first breakpoint, save and quit.
4. Post! (If you mention things beyond the current breakpoint, use spoiler tags.)

The first breakpoint is the start of Day 2.
Save and quit as soon as the cutscene is over and you regain control.

Our schedule is three days per segment, so we will continue with Day 2 on Wednesday, January 25.

Oh, by the way: 5DAS has a couple of situations where you can die, so save whenever your spidersense is tingling.

Sounds good. Downloading the game now.

Thanks for taking control of the thread, Snarky. :) I'll go and download the game.

Day 1

OK, I played Day 1. Some general comments on the game first.

5DAS has been released in many different versions. Later editions improved the interface, added sound effects and music, and other little Easter Eggs. The version off Yahtzee's website is the most up-to-date. I'm playing the SE, with a "director's commentary". To get it, donate $5 or more to Yahtzee. If you like the game, it's well worth it.

The graphics are quite simple, but to my mind adequate. The characters and the animation is really pretty good, in an early-LucasArts kind of way. The backgrounds, however, are relatively boring. All the rooms are based on the same basic template, and it shows. No variation in perspective or composition. It makes the graphics seem more primitive than they really are, more AGI than VGA. Some animation in the driving screen would have made a big difference. However, the title screen is suitably dramatic.

The interface is annoying, even in its present, improved version. AGS comes with a standard interface that is less clumsy than this, so I don't understand the design thinking that went into it. Of course, you have to experiment in order to improve, but in my opinion it should have been abandoned during development.


OK, so playing the game...

The best thing about the intro is that it's so short. I really respect a setup that doesn't waste time, but just gets down to the business of actually playing the game. Some games (both commercial and home-made) are made in the belief that the longer the cut-scene at the start, the better. Yahtzee here shows that he's an effective storyteller, laying out the bare necessities of the backstory in a short voiceover.

I like that we only see Trilby in shadows and silhouette at this point. Along with his mask, this means we've already started to get to know him by the time we see his face. (By the way, his face mask in reminiscent of Rorschack in Watchmen. In the commentary, Yahtzee mentions that he was inspired by League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, another comic by Alan Moore, so I don't think this was a coincidence.) Once we do get to see him, though... what's up with that hair cut?!

The atmospheric sound effects are one of the great elements of this game. They are extremely creepy. I think that dramatically speaking, it would have worked better if they appeared later in the game (and I think they do get more pronounced), but the creaky footsteps already in the first room definitely help set the horror tone. Players accustomed to modern commercial games may feel a bit put off by the lack of spoken voices. I find that you get used to it quickly, but then I play a lot of old games and home-made games.

Day 1 is slow. Some might find it dull... and, well, it would be hard to argue with them. There is very little to do, but you have to walk around the whole house and property. Also, the rooms are so sparse that it's difficult to imagine how there can be five days' worth of gameplay in this house. I think this serves a couple of purposes:

1. The player gets to explore most of the setting where 5DAS takes place, and can move around with confidence for the rest of the game.
2. Starting out with mundane gameplay creates a slow build-up in the horror stakes.

I'm not sure it pays off, though. Especially when finding all the different inhabitants of the house is so unreasonably difficult. It took me about half an hour to play through Day 1 (with the commentary on, but admittedly rushing through the conversations), but I remember the first time I played it I must have walked around the house a dozen times before I located that miserable little kid.

This brings me to a pet peeve: disappearing characters. Given the layout of the house, the way characters suddenly are nowhere to be found (AJ after he runs away, Philip after you talk to him in the room with the fireplace) stretches my suspension of disbelief. There's no way they would be able to evade me as I walk through all the rooms! It makes puzzles about finding people seem unfair. A Virtual Theatre-like system to keep track of each character's whereabouts at all times would be greatly appreciated here.

I don't find any of the other characters at all appealing so far. Trilby is the only one who is remotely likeable.

What about the story? The "people stuck inside a haunted house" concept has been done a thousand times, but I prefer to think of it as "classic" rather than cliché. Yahtzee includes tributes to a number of well-known instances, like the "Day X" intertitles inspired by The Shining (and still remarkably effective here). I think in the end 5DAS is a competent telling of this well-worn story, but we can discuss that when the game is over.

The cut-scene just before the first breakpoint uses a hoary old horror-film device: the scary scene that turns out to be a nightmare, but I was not expecting it when I first played, and it startled me quite a bit. The high point of the first playable segment. Fortunately, there'll be more scares in the rest of the game.

Things to do in Day 1:

• Pick up and read the newspaper
• Turn on the television
• Read the article you get from Philip
• Look at the doors

I'm playing Day 1 right now. Just walking around over and over again trying to locate all the characters.

There's a walkthrough here.

After you're told to locate the others, you need to find two people you haven't met yet, then return to the lounge (the room with the sofa and painting).

The first person should be pretty simple to find. Just make sure you explore every corner of every screen.

You can only find the second person after you've found the first one (this is a pretty big design flaw, by the way. An obvious opportunity for parallelism has been turned into an awkward, arbitrary restriction). So you might have to go over every screen again, and try things that didn't work before another time.

Spoiler:

The second person, Jim, is up in the tree outside in the back yard. Push the tree, and then talk to it.

Thanks for organising this, Snarky.
My first impression was that I really liked the music. It was not what I expected (I thought it would be more like BASS ) The music has a haunting quality, and is very atmospheric. I also like the background whispers, creaks, and footsteps. The graphics are crude, but as long as things are identifiable, I can live with that.Thank goodness for the descriptions of the items.
I was hung up at one point

Spoiler:

I had 'pushed' the tree, but didn't realise that someone else (Jim) had spoken. It didn't occur to me to 'speak' to the tree.

Once that part was over, it triggered the meeting. I'm hooked on the story.
One other thing

Spoiler:

Did anyone else think that the 5 holes are graves? I suppose they are te result of Phil's digging for treasure, but they look like graves to me.

Yeah I ended up finding the people before I saw your post Snarky. It wasn't that hard. I do agree, though, you should have been able to find them in any order.

Comments about Day 1: The story seems to be pretty interesting. The opening scene was great along with the music. And that nightmare scene caught me off guard!

I love the fact that the character comments on anything and everything. The dialogue is also well done.

My only complaint would be that the interface could have been better. The look, interact, etc. buttons are kind of small and close together. Also, it took me a little while to figure out how to go down the stairs. You have to click outside the bottom of the view (in the black portion).

For the moment, I rather like it. The characterisation seems interesting, and the mood works well. The interface is terrible, though (I keep trying to right-click to go to the next icon --- really, if you're going to use the basic Sierra look/do/talk system, why not use the Sierra interface that everyone is used to?). And I agree that the characters just disappearing and reappearing feels odd --- though I guess it might have been more a way of easing scripting than a real design choice?

I'm looking forward to playing more. :)

Oh, BTW, where are the puzzles? :P
No, seriously, the only one was the random 'let's randomly click on the tree again' one, and this one had better been forgotten.

One thing I really like about this game is that it is very characteristically English. Trilby's grappling umbrella is a "grolly", the Beeb is on the telly, and the recently deceased DeFoe heir went to Warwick Uni. (I have a mate who went to Warwick.)

Too many adventure games are either generic, could-have-been-made-anywhere affairs, or desperately want to be American (*cough*Runaway*cough*). This is one of the benefits I see with home-made adventures, I think they (sometimes) retain much more quirkiness and personality.

I agree that the driving part of the intro could have used some sense of movement. You do get the Trilby climbing out of his car (with the sound of the door opening) before the full title comes up. He even puts his trademark trilby on as he gets out. Given you know trouble lays ahead (this being a game and not real-life) it's a nice touch that Trilby's opening monologue leaves him looking forward to "a painless and rewarding evening's entertainment" :D

Two things strike me about the exterior shot in the title. Firstly, the house must be some sort of reverse Tardis since its definitely bigger on the outside than on the insdie. I guess this is Yahtzee wanting to show the big manor house but not wanting to create a lot of rooms. Secondly, does it strike anyone else that the sky is a bit light for cat-burgling, especially when his fence called him "in the middle of the night"

I think the first day is intended as introductory. It gives the player a chance to get the layout of the house and a basic idea of the personalities of all the characters involved (except AJ unless you count unreasoning fear as a personality) You also get several opportunities to get some detail of the backstory of the house and recent events.(The newspaper, Phil's article, the TV, conversations at the house meeting) Its all exposition of course but introduced in a reasonable fashion rather than forced.

People disappearing does stretch the sense of disbelief. However, with the exception of AJs disappearance at the start (is he benind the shower curtain? No, how anticlimactic. ;) ) it is just about feasible. The downstairs hallway is a 3-way junction. If you enter from one way and exit another that still leaves a 3rd route people could be hiding in. It's still a stretch though.

The things I like that comes through in this opening day is the little details that enhance the experience. We already had mention of the spooky sounds (the whispering is the one that freaks me out) but I also like the way Trilby's footsteps sound different on different surfaces and the creak as you open doors. I'm also amazed how well a white circle with a black circle inside convey fear when Trilby wakes up from the nightmare sequence.

Two questions arising from Day One

1. Trilby wears a mask to hide his identity (he is a burglar after all) Why does he take it off the moment he meets someone in the house?
2. Does the pool in the back garden remind anyone of the pool in Maniac Mansion? :P

Spoiler:

Though you won't find nuclear reactor cooling rods when you drain this pool

I didn't hear any whispering. I was playing with my speakers pretty low, though, so I think I missed out on some of the sounds.

The sound effects are somewhat randomly generated. I didn't get any whispering on Day 1 this time around either. Trust me, you'll hear it soon enough.

stepurhan, funny you should mention those things... In the commentary, Yahtzee mentions that the house must have a "reverse Tardis effect" because the exterior is so much bigger than the interior (though we haven't seen every room yet). Some of the rooms were intended to be bigger (like the lobby), but he was forced to make them all the same in order to save time.

Yahtzee also comments on Trilby removing his mask probably being out of character, but that "he had to do it sooner or later," so might as well get it over with.

It does a bit, but the backs allot bigger :P

It would have probably made more sense if he took his mask off after he found out that there was no escape and when he ran into Phillip.

Speaking of Trilby removing his mask too early, another thing that bothered me is how intent he is on leaving the house from the very start. I mean, he gets in the first room, finds nothing of interest, and then, instead of leaving through the door to try and find something worth stealing elsewhere in the (supposedly deserted) house, he wants to just leave (through the window)! What kind of burglar is that? And then, he seems to immediately understand that the window being stuck is not a coincidence and decide to leave the house as fast as possible.

I dunno, but it felt rather awkward as far as characterisation goes. And wouldn't have it been more efficient (dramatically) to let the character slowly realise that he is locked in?

I agree, although hes not definate that hes locked in, he figures it out too quickly...

and is it just me or does this game remind anyone of Hugo House Of Horrors? :D

For a second there, the meeting in the family room reminded me of And Then There Were None.

It's a bit late for me to start it up and check but,

Is it Trilby wanting to leave the house immediately or the player?

After all, Trilby is a character under player control. Can you as Trilby root around the house looking for other things worth stealing? (Or at least not act like you want to get out of there as soon as possible)

Haven't got the special edition Snarky so my comments are just coincidence. Keep thinking I should get the special edition of this and the sequel though. I've enjoyed all the Yahtzee games I've played so far.

I can't recommend the SE highly enough. Yahtzee's sensibilities are, obviously, very British and he offers an excellent commentary on the entire game.

I'm pretty sure it's the player. That's why I don't understand Kurufinwe's comment above.

No, it's not. In the first room, if you try to open the door (to go explore some more, logically), he says something like 'No, I'd rather leave the way I came in'. Only when you've tried the window and found it stuck does he agree to open the door.

You're quite right. He does say something along those lines. You could argue that the empty safe and cabinet are an indication that the house has already been cleared of valuables (so he would be wasting his time and taking unnecessary risk by searching the house further) but its still a bit odd.It's just you Karmillo. :P

Oh come on! theres allot of Hugo resemblenses(sp?) here!

Actualy now that I remember it....I think id be better bringing this point up after weve got further in the game :P

Fair enough. I shall look forward to a proper discussion of this later then.

I stand corrected. See I never got him to say that at the door because I had already tried the window. I always have to try everything, and just naturally I went from left to right.

Day 2 should be fairly straightforward. Perform a bunch of reasonably self-evident actions, watch the scary scene, and we're on to Day 3.

This is where the game really starts to get going, though. After the (to my mind) overly slow Day 1, the story has kicked in and there's some actual gameplay. It should start to become evident why 5DAS is regarded as one of the best non-professional adventures out there.

http://home.comcast.net/~snarkibartfast/images/day2.png
I always enjoy exploring libraries

Incidentally, look how small the actual background is on the screen. Yahtzee is painting less than half of the 320x200 pixels available. Again, a cost-saving measure that doesn't really have any negative impact on the quality of the game. This is where experience pays off.

I finally got sick of the interface, and started using the F1-F4 shortcut buttons. That really helps. The fact that clicking using any verb on somewhere that isn't a hotspot acts as a WalkTo is also highly appreciated. I think Yahtzee has done a good job salvaging an awkward UI, and I wish more games would utilize shortcut keys and offer alternative ways to control the game.

In this chapter, the limitations of the conversation system become evident. The options remain static throughout the day. Even after I've found all the (living) people, I can still only ask them about each other's whereabouts. It would be nice if it responded to my actions and current knowledge.

The idea that you can't make out AJ at the bottom of an apparently clear pool until you empty it out (and climb down into it) is typical adventure game logic. Of course, it's a lot more dramatic this way.

There's a case of "can't take it until I know why I need it" in Day 2, which might throw some people off track in the puzzle. The game isn't consistent with this, but I think it's pretty natural in the cases where it does use this limitation.

If you compare the location of the staircase on the ground floor and first floor (another Briticism), you'll notice that most of the upper story is actually hovering over thin air. I don't mind when house layouts don't make total sense in a game, but if you're providing me with a floor plan, maybe you should make sure that it's not glaringly inconsistent.

Things to do in Day 2

• Turn on the TV.
• Look at the painting in the dining hall. Does it look a bit different?
• Look at all the books in the library, and try taking them.
• Read the history of the DeFoe family.
• Study the map.

We've already determined that the house is topologically warped (the smaller on the inside than the outside thing) Why does this come as a surprise? :P

Will play and comment on Day 2 when I get in. At work at the moment.

Well I finished Day 2. Not bad at all. Story is starting to build up and the puzzles are fair. Only problem I had with the puzzles was at first I thought you couldn't pick up the map, but I had only clicked on the wrong pixel.

One minor complaint about the dialogue. It's kind of strange that if you go upstairs first and talk to the woman, then go downstairs and talk to the kid in the dining room, the dialogue will not reflect that you have already been to the library.

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 :P ) And as for the comment that imprisonment isn't that different from boarding school. :D

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.