Adventure Gamers - Forums

I have now played through The Longing twice with two different endings, one that I have described in another thread as powerful and sad and one that I found humorous with a dollop of irony.  I did view two undesirable endings online which I knew to avoid from clues given in the game.  I’m very glad I heeded those clues. 

I reset the game and plan to play for one more ending, the secret one.  Getting an inkling of this three-part quest required paying careful attention and a big helping of patience spiced with a pinch or two of luck.  At one point, my little guy and I both fell asleep while waiting in a promising place, and I woke up seeing a needed inventory item on the ground without seeing how it got there.  I did eventually get everything I needed, but because the last part was close to the king’s awakening, I opted not to try it.  Fortunately, I took notes, so it should be easier to get what I need this time. 

Lady Kestrel - 28 August 2021 08:18 PM

I have now played through The Longing twice with two different endings, one that I have described in another thread as powerful and sad and one that I found humorous with a dollop of irony.

I’m guessing you joined the family. The best ending with some humor but also sad imo because the underground world and the king are destroyed. And little Shade doesn’t look very happy sitting at the table with his newfound family. Storywise it’s a an intriguing development. Who was the guy who paved the way into the mountain and whose skeleton we found? What role do the birds play? So many questions.

I reset the game and plan to play for one more ending, the secret one.

The dev added the fifth ending later. I’m afraid I didn’t like it at all when I watched it on youtube. **

Getting an inkling of this three-part quest required paying careful attention and a big helping of patience spiced with a pinch or two of luck.  At one point, my little guy and I both fell asleep while waiting in a promising place, and I woke up seeing a needed inventory item on the ground without seeing how it got there.

Yep, it’s complicated. The hardest puzzle in the game.

The paintings are a special aspect of the game I loved. They deserve to be analysed, there’s a lot of info. Little Shade knows so much.

EDIT: **I didn’t watch that one on youtube, I actually played it myself when I discovered another new feature that had been added.

Yes, that was the one, and no, he didn’t look too happy in his new home.  It did clarify the reason why he called the coal lumps his brothers.

I really enjoyed the paintings, too.  Not only did they make his home cozy, but they contained valuable clues as well. The shade’s periodic remarks about his dreams that weren’t visible to us were also very helpful.

One of the things I really liked was the map.  When he first encountered it, I took his first comment about it as all there was and moved him along to another doorway.  It wasn’t until much later when I clicked again and noticed a slight movement leading to that marvelous overview.  Those slow zoom outs were used wonderfully in the game.

Alright you two, good job on making “The Longing” sound amazing.

I just finished testing Brawsome’s new game “Warp Frontier”.

I know a couple of forum members are into sci-fi: this will be right up your alley. It’s a like one of those old hard sci-fi paperbacks.

Lady Kestrel - 28 August 2021 11:40 PM

One of the things I really liked was the map.  When he first encountered it, I took his first comment about it as all there was and moved him along to another doorway.  It wasn’t until much later when I clicked again and noticed a slight movement leading to that marvelous overview.  Those slow zoom outs were used wonderfully in the game.

I also discovered it by accident. It was such a wonderful WOW! moment early in the game that I knew this was going to be my type of game.

Vegetable Party - 29 August 2021 06:52 AM

Alright you two, good job on making “The Longing” sound amazing.

It was for me. Five out of five stars. I always recommend the memorable experience of The Longing, but not everyone likes a very slow-paced game about time and timing, loneliness, patience, waiting, idling, exploring.

Karlok - 29 August 2021 08:36 AM

It was for me. Five out of five stars. I always recommend the memorable experience of The Longing, but not everyone likes a very slow-paced game about time and timing, loneliness, patience, waiting, idling, exploring.

And reading!   I give it top marks, too.

Just finished Behind the frame and Night Book. This wraps up my iPad mini and ending 6 years of stunning gaming. My iPad has 210 games on it, most of them are excellent.

Behind the Frame is one of the very best first person adventure games I’ve ever played. Great interaction, activities and the puzzles were very different in a good way. Although short, it’s very replayable. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

Now, Night Boook is a short FMV game that got terrible reviews and deserved them. It’s pretty low budget with poor special effects.

That said, I did enjoy it in a Plan 9 From Outer Space sort of way. It’s got multiple endings so it’s very replayable. If your are looking for a so bad it’s good game, this is it, very funny actually.

I also played OXENFREE and finished it for a third time, my favorite game I’ve played this year, a true classic. Shows how great indies still are.

A great ending to a great generation.

chrissie - 09 September 2021 01:36 PM

I’ve just seen that I have Oxenfree in my GOG library so that’s an encouraging recommendation to get on & play it Adv_Lvr. 

Meanwhile after going as far as I’m meant to with Yoomurjak’s Ring for the CPT I thought I’d just try The Journey Down for a short while. I got so hooked I binge-played all 3 chapters & would highly recommend it to all fans of traditional adventure games. It was a lot of fun & the voice-acting was superb as was the soundtrack especially in Chapter 3…..I could listen to the wonderful ‘Soul in the City’ for hours…which I did!  ’ 

well, thats kinda late to say, just saying chrissie not pointing anything out.

i just think the CPT thread is turning into more of a place for certain posters, and much too intimation for newcomers there, and it seems they like it that way.

chrissie - 09 September 2021 02:11 PM

Advie - 09 September 2021 01:53 PM

well, thats kinda late to say, just saying chrissie not pointing anything out.

Better late than never! 

Advie - 09 September 2021 01:53 PM

i just think the CPT thread is turning into more of a place for certain posters, and much too intimation for newcomers there, and it seems they like it that way.

Sorry, I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make there Advie? I don’t see the CPT thread as a place just for certain posters? Do you mean intimidation? If there is I don’t see it. Who’s ‘they’ & in what way do ‘they like it’ .....sorry I’m lost.

i mean regulars, not for the site, for the thread itself

intimidation is what every poster can feel before writing anything, based on really other ‘intimidating’ places, but not* here in general, so its better to give them any the chance to contribute easly at least making things easy for them, to understand, and not asking a question that ‘other’ posters would find it ‘dumb’ and reply with any kind words that could embarrass someone who never posted in a ‘CPT’ before, which they any luck of statics, are just less than 90%

they are us, the regulars at the CPT(s) threads.

Finished Spycraft, a gift from Lady Kestrel for, eh, not winning the great summer quiz In fact I would’ve finished it like a month ago, but somehow I was expecting it to be longer and harder, so I played it occasionally hoping to invest more time into it at one point and dive into a puzzle heaven… just to deal with the rest of it in like an hour. It is a solid adventure experience by all accounts, with a serious political/spy story, good puzzles, great production values and surprisingly decent acting, backed by a former CIA director (who died mysteriously just a couple of months after the release) and a former KGB General/traitor who is now on Russia’s most wanted list - seems like you can’t go wrong with this formula. I just wish I played it back during the 1990s. It’s such a 90s adventure that tried so many things at once, but never fully developed them.

There are lots of cool ideas thrown in, with all kind of tools for analyzing photos, videos, audio tapes, electronic data, not to mention hunting down a mole - and all this while sitting in a cabinet. Well, mostly. We also travel between America, Russia, some other exotic countires, we are constantly bothered by video messages from higher officers and even presidents, we even shoot people in some sort of a shooting range - real people, as the game takes full advantage of FMV: they run into the scenery, you click them with your gun, they wait a bit until the video stops playing and “fall dead” A properly made FMV game that never turns into an interactive movie and has a bit of everything.

And yet you are often left with an akward feeling. Pretty much every puzzle could’ve been expended into something more complex, yet most of the time they seem like “intro” puzzles: you are quickly done with them and move to something completely different. Forgering a photo, for example, was so cool, like playing with an early Photoshop version, a very rewarding experience. But once you’ve done, you’ve done. Saving a hostage turns into a real-time tactics of almost Commandos proportions, and yet after a very long intro all I had to do was brute-force several rooms - no tactics, no head-scratching, thanks everyone. And while desiphering texts offered so many opportunities, and you even return to this puzzle 3 or 4 times during the game, the solution was always the same…

It’s like they thought “No, no, people will get bored searching for different solutions for same puzzles, we should make the game more dynamic and varied, fill it with clips, silly shooting scenes and spy film cliches”. It’s also weird how our character is thrown into this conspiracy plot involving presidents, terrorists, nuclear weapons, traitorships despite being completely inexperienced: you have zero knowledge of anything going around and have to be instructed and guided through every new obstacle. But make a couple of mistakes - and you are fired (or imprisoned, or killed). Do we even have a personality? But then, as I mentioned, the game is very 1990s, made by Activision between its Zorks, and as such it looks absolutely natural. Maybe that’s how spying is done anyway.