Adventure Gamers - Forums

I think you’re ahead of me in some parts, and I’m ahead in others. E.g., I have the anti-toxin in inventory, but haven’t met the snake. You’ve met the snake and are searching for the cure. I think we will all find ourselves at the same place when we are playing as Paloma again.

Edit: Forgot to mention that your comment about this chapter being more CSI procedural than Law & Order detective work was spot on. Seeing Victoria on her hands and knees tweezing a hair sample from a floor board seems out of place compared to her work in SL1. She’s the lead detective! Shouldn’t she have people doing that stuff while she looks at the big picture?

Took another few days off. I’m starting to wonder about the linearity of the game. Example, you got bit by the snake. I have not, and am still looking for it. Not that I’m looking forward to getting bit. But on the off chance that getting bit uncovers a new clue, it has to be done. I found an alternate entrance to the dumbwaiter by using a sledgehammer on the wall behind the blackboard. Found the sledgehammer in the furnace room which is a location I hadn’t previously visited.

Collecting forensic evidence is getting tedious. Everything requires at least seven clicks. Move cursor until eye cursor appears. Click eye cursor. Vic examines item. Get apparatus. Click apparatus on item. Click on item in kit view. Click on test method. And that can happen four or five times in any given location. (I wonder who and how someone is managing to replenish my revealer spray and cotton swabs. And I definitely should not be re-using the tongs to pick up more than one piece of evidence.)

So now I have just re-entered the electric chair room, and decided to take a break. My try to do a little more forensic work tonight.

I’ve made it to the point where I have broken the lock on the second floor door and am not standing on a balcony. Seems like as good a place to save a game as any.

I’m a bit exhausted. I’m ashamed to say that I got lost in the house and couldn’t find the room I was looking for. I forgot about the dumbwaiter behind the wall I knocked down that was behind the blackboard. I spent about an hour wandering around.
BTW, I found the snake. Luckily I already had the antidote in inventory. In this same scene I had a hard time finding a hotspot to move the bed. I finally got it but that also chewed up some time.

I played for an hour tonight and got nowhere really. I got into a locked room, but I couldn’t break into the computer. My partner gave me some hints about the safe, but I can’t remember where it is - I looked everywhere again. This is what happens when I am tired and haven’t played for a couple of days, I’ve forgotten what I’m doing. Garcia is working on the other electronic door, but hasn’t fixed it yet. I think I have only gotten one tick on my to do list, so I guess I will be stuck there a while yet.

Also, you’re right about the sampling being tedious. Added to that is that I am constantly right clicking to try and drop the instrument I am holding, so then I am popping in and out of the forensic case, which is annoying.

Re: the sampling. I had that same problem. Solution: double click on the box where the new sample is located. First click drops the tool. Second click puts the item on the screen to be tested.

OK. I was out on the balcony. There is this thing attached to the balcony railing. Vic identifies it as a satellite device. Further inspection shows that there is a piece of used chewing gum attached to it. How pleasant. And there is a USB port on the keypad, so we use our trusty computer recovery flash drive on that and tongs on the gum.

This is where things either get really weird or the story starts falling apart. Or both. We send the gum data to Claire, and she calls back telling us that there is no DNA on the gum, but identifies the “chewer” as male. How could she do that if there is no DNA? Then we do a computer analysis of the flash drive and find out that it is some kind of jamming device. Vic asks Garris about it and he says that it’s a very sophisticated piece of equipment often used by criminals to jam police communications. Vic says something like “That must be why Paloma had trouble calling us.” Huh????? If it’s that sophisticated how are we able to use our phone to talk to Claire? How was the Sherriff able to use her phone to call the pharmacist? How are we able to use our Kit to access the databases to identify the samples we collect? 

If this were a movie, the person in charge of this stuff would be called the continuity manager. That’s the person who makes sure the actor is wearing the same suit and tie as he was wearing when they shot a companion scene the day before. The game obviously didn’t have that type of person supervising the storyline. Which is why the game seems to be falling apart. Hopefully it will come back together soon.

Anyway, I saved after all of this. I’m apparently waiting for a call from Claire. I guess when I start playing again I’ll just have to walk around until the call comes through. I checked a WT, and while I don’t see the connection, that call is the trigger for Garris opening the electronically locked door.

Is the scanner still on? I assumed the killer turned it off when he left. Either that or I wasn’t paying attention when Victoria examined it. I found it strange that the FBI coroner was running all the tests for us, when we were in a different branch or something, but again I might have missed something in the story.

So I played a bit more tonight. I didn’t want to wander around aimlessly again, so I used a walkthrough to find the safe

I got to a new scene at Richard’s studio, set back after the last game. I was happy to get some more information about the last killer. I also realised why I was so confused in the present, because Victoria obviously rejoined the FBI after quitting. I had thought Claire was helping her, then realised she was still in the FBI and couldn’t work out why I was surprised. I obviously need more brain power.

I was pretty disappointed when after that scene I was back in the house working on computers again, grrr…

Again, because of the non-linearity, it’s hard to tell if anyone’s actually ahead. I think I’m right behind you, but… I’m trying to find a trigger that will get Claire to call me with information about the trailer’s license plate/owner. That’s the trigger for Garris to open the burnt door. And entering the room, if I remember correctly, is the trigger for one of Vic’s flashbacks that will take us back to Richard’s studio. I hope that made sense!

I don’t know what I did to trigger that… all I remember is not long after I cleaned the plate and called Claire about it, she called me back with the info.

Something is wrong then. I cleaned the plate and I called the information into her. The WT says she should call me back with the name of the owner. And that triggers Garris opening the door. I’ve been through every room in the house, along with trips to the front an back yard. I looked at the plate again. It’s clean because Vic reads the number.

Only thing I can think of is to go back to a saved game before I cleaned the plate. I’ll go back two saves since all I’ve accomplished with the current save is worn shoe leather. We’ll see what happens.

Edit: If anyone else is reading this and remembers where I might have gone wrong, I would certainly welcome a hint.

I got through to the next chapter. There was another cut scene with Richard. It felt particularly overacted…

I ended up using a walkthrough to operate the metal detector. I couldn’t work it out, I was waiting for noises to appear to lead me on a ‘hot/cold’ type hunt.

I hope you managed to get past the point that you were stuck on.

Was busy the last two days. Should have some time to replay tonight. Trying to figure out how far back I need to go to insure I accomplish what I need to do. Probably back to some time before I clean the plate. Since I’ve already done everything, it shouldn’t take me more than 45 minutes to get back to where I am now. Hopefully with a better result.

Since the game is non-linear, I doubt trying to find a saved game would do me much good. I wouldn’t know what the person had or hadn’t done. Nor would I know where inventory items had been stored.

Giving up. I replayed from the scene where Vic finds the electric collar, gets the sponge wet, photographs the message on the wall, gets bitten by the snake and takes the antidote. Who knew so much could happen in one room. From there Vic goes upstairs and shows the collar to Garris and knocks the latch off the balcony door. On the balcony Vic gets the gum sample and sends it to Claire. Then she asks Garris about the jamming device. Back to the backyard where Vic knocks the lock off the trailer and gets the rope. Then she washes the plate and sends a message to Claire. On the way back to the house Claire calls and says she has narrowed the search to someone named Parson, Carson, Manson or something like that, and that she will call back when she has more info. Then the WT says that Claire will call back and tell me the owner’s name is David Karson. She doesn’t!

Vic goes back inside and tests the rope on the dumbwaiter.

From here Vic goes back upstairs and, according to the walkthrough I’m using, she is supposed to see that Garris has opened the door, and when we walk into the room we are transported back to Chicago and Richard’s Gallery. Obviously that doesn’t happen either.

It seems that the trigger that allows me to proceed with the game is the second call from Claire. I don’t know what I can do to make that happen.