Adventure Gamers - Forums

Yes, I liked the cat puzzle and the 3-D printer puzzle very much!

The only probem is that there are points on which you can get stuck (like when waiting for the bus to Belarus): you really have to solve everything that comes before that.

It took me long, for instance, to find out that I could add the invisible ink to the bottle of wine mixed with holy water.

After that, it was not that difficult to think of what could be done (dor instance, comparing the stolen seal (you did take the real seal and put the 3-D printed one back in the archives, I guess?) with the photo of the artefacts at the dig site.

Charophycean - 11 May 2022 02:40 AM

sylv - 11 May 2022 02:08 AM

After that, it was not that difficult to think of what could be done (dor instance, comparing the stolen seal (you did take the real seal and put the 3-D printed one back in the archives, I guess?) with the photo of the artefacts at the dig site.

I took the copy. Could that be why the bus isn’t coming? Only problem is I can’t put the copy back and take the real one.

I also took the copy, i dont think it matters which one you take

Charophycean - 11 May 2022 07:01 AM

Sigh. Great. I think I’ll need to watch a walkthrough video. I don’t want to but I have no idea what the game wants me to do.

you have to do 3 task. I’m guessing you got the seal did you use the seal on the picture at the cafe when talking to the lady,
And have you talked to Vlad on the phone check all your messages in the phone sometimes you can’t hear the beep when it goes off

sylv - 11 May 2022 02:08 AM

Yes, I liked the cat puzzle and the 3-D printer puzzle very much!

The only probem is that there are points on which you can get stuck (like when waiting for the bus to Belarus): you really have to solve everything that comes before that.

It took me long, for instance, to find out that I could add the invisible ink to the bottle of wine mixed with holy water.

After that, it was not that difficult to think of what could be done (dor instance, comparing the stolen seal (you did take the real seal and put the 3-D printed one back in the archives, I guess?) with the photo of the artefacts at the dig site.

Yeah comparing photos and documents/investagating are the type of puzzles I like more than cat puzzles oh, I did find how you got the manuscript was weak. It was simply in a copy of another book in your grandfathers house. Should have been a lot better puzzle put there, to take it back to Brooklyn sword I can’t tell you how nervous I was going through kahns stuff looking for the manuscript the first time in his hotel room, thinking I could be found anytime and killed made that section really suspenseful in broken sword. By proxy what they did here was very lackluster to me during that section. 

I completed the game and it’s a good experience, solid overall, but falls short of great. There’s a good mix of item use puzzles involving physical actions and deduction style mystery solving puzzles. But sometimes the game wants you to communicate an idea in a very specific way and there’s inadequate sign posting to let the player know what’s being asked. For instance, the puzzle where you’re locating the 3 churches with hidden keys. I figured out the first two churches and for the Catholic church I noticed one of your grandfathers bishop magnets had the same staff as in the manuscript. So I combine the correct clues in the notes mechanic but the game won’t acknowledge I have the right answer. Turns out you need to use the magnet on the manuscript so the game registers that I figured out what I already gave the correct answer for. There’s very poor indication that this is what the game wants. What makes this weirder is there’s another similar interaction later on with a painting that does this the right way with simple sign posting.

In terms of the plot I liked the history and the mystery. The characters are fun but perhaps dip into cutsey millennial speak too often for my taste. There’s some really funny moments though, like when the bus driver recounts his sad life after seeing Milda’s sweater. They definitely should have given things more time to build and teased out the details. The last half of the game feels rather rushed and the antagonists could’ve used more screen time.

The ending doesn’t really give any closure to the games core mysteries and instead closes on a moral note, contemplating what’s more important, personal wealth or family? That’s fine by me, but if that’s the story Tag of Joy wanted to tell then they should’ve given Milda a character arc that explored those themes. That way the ending would’ve hit harder. Milda should have succumbed to greed in pursuit of the crown, alienated her friends and family, later realizing what truly important in life isn’t fame or fortune, finally rejecting the crown confidently because of her newfound convictions. Instead, Milda is rather even across the board. Which makes her consistently likable but also makes for a flatter experience in the end.

So where Crowns & Pawns lands falls short of its inspirations in Broken Sword, Gabriel Knight, etc. But falling short of some of the best adventure games ever made isn’t much to be ashamed of. Crowns & Pawns is still a solid game. There’s a few rough edges in the puzzle design and the story could’ve been more fleshed out, but it’s a fun game that’s worth an adventure fan’s time.

I think I am done with this game, the timing puzzles are awful. The cursor lags sooo much on me that its near impossible to beat them. the lemon puzzle at the start, the pop the balloon puzzle and the scooter chase pixel hunt are all she wrote for me. dark souls and jedi fallen order on grand master are not near as rage inducing as this. it takes the game 1 to 2 seconds to lag the cursor across the screen and thats all she wrote. Several other players have attributed it to v sync, IDK I turned it on and off and nothing helped.

PlanetX - 11 May 2022 04:58 PM

I completed the game and it’s a good experience, solid overall, but falls short of great. There’s a good mix of item use puzzles involving physical actions and deduction style mystery solving puzzles. But sometimes the game wants you to communicate an idea in a very specific way and there’s inadequate sign posting to let the player know what’s being asked. For instance, the puzzle where you’re locating the 3 churches with hidden keys. I figured out the first two churches and for the Catholic church I noticed one of your grandfathers bishop magnets had the same staff as in the manuscript. So I combine the correct clues in the notes mechanic but the game won’t acknowledge I have the right answer. Turns out you need to use the magnet on the manuscript so the game registers that I figured out what I already gave the correct answer for. There’s very poor indication that this is what the game wants. What makes this weirder is there’s another similar interaction later on with a painting that does this the right way with simple sign posting.

In terms of the plot I liked the history and the mystery. The characters are fun but perhaps dip into cutsey millennial speak too often for my taste. There’s some really funny moments though, like when the bus driver recounts his sad life after seeing Milda’s sweater. They definitely should have given things more time to build and teased out the details. The last half of the game feels rather rushed and the antagonists could’ve used more screen time.

The ending doesn’t really give any closure to the games core mysteries and instead closes on a moral note, contemplating what’s more important, personal wealth or family? That’s fine by me, but if that’s the story Tag of Joy wanted to tell then they should’ve given Milda a character arc that explored those themes. That way the ending would’ve hit harder. Milda should have succumbed to greed in pursuit of the crown, alienated her friends and family, later realizing what truly important in life isn’t fame or fortune, finally rejecting the crown confidently because of her newfound convictions. Instead, Milda is rather even across the board. Which makes her consistently likable but also makes for a flatter experience in the end.

So where Crowns & Pawns lands falls short of its inspirations in Broken Sword, Gabriel Knight, etc. But falling short of some of the best adventure games ever made isn’t much to be ashamed of. Crowns & Pawns is still a solid game. There’s a few rough edges in the puzzle design and the story could’ve been more fleshed out, but it’s a fun game that’s worth an adventure fan’s time.

I finally beat the game and got past the 2 awful timing puzzles aka balloon and scooter. And I must say the rest of the game got worse and worse to me, the puzzles were very meh, including a semi maze puzzle to end the game. I agree with you somewhat on the story but I think you are being to kind. The game just ends with no real payoffs to any of the character arcs at all. Does she ever meet her dad who knows? Do joris and her have a thing who cares? What happened to the Russian guy that you called and never met on the phone lol?The moral grandstanding at the end came out of nowhere, I never got the vibe that she wanted to be rich and powerful at all. This whole story was poorly constructed and plotted out. I was hoping it would give me the broken sword feels, but all it did was leave me with more questions than answers. 5/10