Adventure Gamers - Forums

diego - 03 January 2013 05:06 PM

I DID IT! I DID IT!

Congrats! I’d have lost my patience and gone for a walkthrough ages ago if I were in your place.

In fact, I did use one for the temperature controls - needing to set them at the second-coldest setting instead of the coldest is just plain brutal.

Fien - 04 January 2013 05:56 AM

Huh? Time, what time are you talking about? He is umpteen emptells behind the rest of you snails. No way this playthrough will continue running the rest of 2013! I won’t have it, I’d rather commit suicide.

At least the playthrough is still going, right?
Weren’t there playthroughs in the past that died completely?

I hope I get a couple of game nights soon (my game time has been pretty limited these last few weeks), so I can finish this game.

TimovieMan - 04 January 2013 12:47 PM

At least the playthrough is still going, right?
Weren’t there playthroughs in the past that died completely?

Allright, alright… the glass is half full.

TimovieMan - 04 January 2013 12:47 PM

I’d have lost my patience and gone for a walkthrough ages ago if I were in your place.

And I did, but even with the walkthrough and UHS hints I was lost - it’s because I saved and loaded many times and because of many little delays that I lost track of what I did. More precisely, I thought I had already called every number. I just hope other Emp-Tels are easier (wishful thinking).

Fien - 04 January 2013 05:56 AM

Huh? Time, what time are you talking about? He is umpteen emptells behind the rest of you snails.

Fien - 04 January 2013 12:54 PM

Allright, alright… the glass is half full.

So, you’re back for the job? 

Deleted. And I really, really, really hope the moderators will unstick this thread.

diego - 05 January 2013 04:44 AM

it’s because I saved and loaded many times and because of many little delays that I lost track of what I did. More precisely, I thought I had already called every number.

I had the same problem. Saving and loading so often that I forgot to call Dr. Root in my last playthrough…

Fien - 05 January 2013 04:56 AM

Deleted. And I really, really, really hope the moderators will unstick this thread.

We will.

Eventually…

inm8#2 - 05 January 2013 02:38 PM

Will this playthrough last until 2014?

Yes. Without me, that’s for sure.

I’m still trial-and-error’ing my way onto the pitch in Bettaker’s emp-tel. Still haven’t found what the correct attire is…

Guys, how hard is Soldier’s emp-tel?   I thought it would be impossible to be more difficult than Seedrot’s, but now I’m not sure. I’m still at the start of it, but how would you rate emp-tels you’ve finished in order of difficulty?

Sefir - 15 January 2013 09:17 AM

Soldier (The hardest. Requires timing with your ticks + a maze)

Click (we Win-98 users had to perfect our point ‘n clicking/panning control reflexes on this. I believe TimmovieMan agrees.)

Actually, I no longer agree. While it may seem like timing is required, it actually isn’t. You just have to make sure that you have the absolute shortest path through the maze for Soldier, and that you arrange the vines correctly for Click.
The ticks work in such a way that nothing moves until you do. The times when you think you lack the reflexes, you’ve just missed an added layer of difficulty that needs to be solved…

As for the order of difficulty: it’s hard to quantify. They nearly all have one or two puzzles that are just insane. Fleebix had “getting on the bus” and the part in the van. Soldier had “getting the egg to the rails” and a maze. Seedrot had that diabolical control panel. Click had escaping the police and drugging the correct guards, etc.

Personally, I think this is the hardest game I’ve ever played.
Very hard: The Space Bar, Seedrot, Soldier, Click
Medium/Hard: Fleebix, Cilia
Easy: Deven-7, Bettaker
Very easy: Thud

Now I know what a Kur’pupu looks like…

Just finished the game (finally, took me six months). I even was SO economical with the ticks in the bar itself, that I had to ‘wait’ a few dozen ticks at the end to initiate the endgame…

Here’s my thoughts:

The Space Bar - 3 / 5

Steve Meretzky’s The Space Bar is a mixed bag. On the one hand you have this funny game that has an original, diverse and beautifully created setting (with visuals that still look good after 15 years), but on the other hand it’s riddled with bugs (that will make it a challenge to play on a modern machine), and it has an amount of dead ends that was already long out of date at the time of its release. That, and the gameplay is simply brutal.
The Space Bar is quite possibly the hardest game I’ve ever played, but it’s not without its rewards. Dying will occasionally give you a chuckle, and it’s always worth it to go back to dialogues just to exhaust all options. All the ‘alien’ conversations and pop culture references make the game worth persevering, even though its difficulty often stands in its way. In fact, The Space Bar would have been more enjoyable if it wasn’t so bloody hard.
It also features a few design points that just feel ‘off’, probably a result of Meretzky’s history in text adventures (where some design elements don’t necessarily translate all that well to graphical games). And the sound editing is just plain awful: a lot of the time, two voices speak at once, and neither are subtitled. It’s nothing you can’t ignore, though, and the game should be given a chance, if only to look at the amazing worlds and plethora of alien creatures that Ron Cobb (of Star Wars and in particular the Mos Eisley Cantina fame) thought up…

TimovieMan - 15 January 2013 06:15 PM

Now I know what a Kur’pupu looks like…

Good for you. WARNING! Players who don’t know yet what a Kur’pupu looks like, should NOT read this spoiler! I put up my cool photo several months ago.

Just finished the game (finally, took me six months). I even was SO economical with the ticks in the bar itself, that I had to ‘wait’ a few dozen ticks at the end to initiate the endgame…

Glad you heeded my warnings. Waiting is much, much better than going back and doing things over.

The Space Bar - 3 / 5

In my memory of my first playthrough it deserved a solid 4, but based on that awful font bug I ran into the second playthrough, the terrible sound management (everybody and everything talking and making noise at the same time), and the timed bar sequences, I now rate it 3.5. On the plus side: the best bizarre creatures ever in a wonderful setting, superb voiceacting, some very original puzzles, the mostly funny Meretzky humor and, for me as a special treat, THUD! Darling Thud had me in stitches most of the time.

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