Adventure Gamers - Forums

I don’t know about the dialogue writing. It’s not bad, but certainly not great. I get the impression that the translation from the original French might have been done by someone who spoke English as a second language. That would explain why I get the occasional “that didn’t make sense” moment. But then I wonder if that was actually the case, why wouldn’t the voice actors, who sound as if English is their primary language, have caught the mistakes, and corrected them during the recording session?

Well, I’m done through the bistro as far as I know. I’ve completed the painting puzzle (I didn’t have any problem with it for some reason), and got a reaction out of Malet when I showed him my sketch of the suspect. Talked to LeBrun and got a little info about Hellouin before being summarily dismissed. I have not gone to check out Hellouin’s place yet.

I’ve scouted out room 507 after using the paper under the door and Talisman I got from Mrs. Loiseau. I found some glass shards and a wedding ring in there but not much else.

Game-wise, the scenes for the most part are very dark. I tried to increase my monitor’s brightness but it’s already maxed out. Kind of off-putting. Also, the static characters in the bistro and elsewhere make it seem like you’re walking around in a wax museum!

Before I left Mac’s apartment the first time I picked up a camera, among other things. Has anyone figured out how or where to use it yet?

Unfortunately, I think we are all playing the same game, but are all going in different directions.

The first end point was to converse with the clerk at the hotel. Then we were given free reign because we hadn’t really solved any puzzles.

Now I think we need to take a time out, because most of us are in entirely different places.

I think our fearless leader need to say STOP! Whatever you have done, stop doing it. The objective after you talked to the clerk is to enter the murder room. And then when all the players have accomplished that, we move onto the next task.

This free-form approach is not serving us well.

Well, I’m following the original route, got the lockpicks and entered the murder room (the puzzle worked surprisingly well this time around, I even kinda enjoyed solving it), but haven’t accomplished much there or anywhere else. I’m just stuck on the portrait puzzle which is not working for me.

The puzzles in this game can suck really bad. I just use TWO walkthroughs as I need them when I get stuck, However, I still like the game overall, the characters are pretty interesting.

Let’s go ahead with the next checkpoint, I can see that most people have made it to the first one already.

Let’s shoot for The Brotherhood Meeting Room by next Thursday. That way we will have gotten a fair amount of the game accomplished by next week.

Well that’s a good objective. But I’m not sure where we are supposed to be now. If the freestyle objective after conversing with the clerk was to enter the murder room, that was unstated. I’m not there. Don’t think Doom is there either. So saying that the initial objective has been solved by everyone is false.

I read about solving the ID sketch with the hotel bartender. I haven’t done that. Maybe I took the wrong dialogue tree. Is that important? I don’t know. I’m just feeling very uncomfortable. I just don’t feel comfortable pursuing a new objective before I know whether I’ve completed a current, unknown, objective.

I’m just about ready to drop out of the playthrough. Which would be hard since I nominated the game. I just don’t feel good about this.

I finally used walkthrough to solve the portrait puzzle (had to look TWICE, nothing makes sense in it!), then quickly reached the Hellouin’s flat and played through his version of the story that contains no puzzles at all. I visited the Meeting Hall of the BSORC location on my way (I guess this is the Brotherhood Meeting Room?), but wasn’t allowed inside. Am I supposed to enter it as MacPherson?

One thing I noticed so far: all young females in this game look almost identical, with similar bodies, faces and hair styles. At the same time, all males have very distinctive looks. How so? The are also several old ladies whose looks and moves are just… weird. And I have yet to meet a nice likeable person - everyone is either a moron or some nutso. Well, maybe the barman was ok, but he seems like a minor character.

And also I can’t get rid of the feeling that the game is only half baked. Those empty lifeless screens, those strangely animated characters, those dialogue options that keep repeating each other and sometimes make no sense, the unfriendly inventory, the stupid repeating tune that is already getting on my nerves… Only the cutscenes are excellent, like the devs made them first and then decided to add the game

Ok, ok, let’s all stop at the painting puzzle at Albamic Bistro. Let me know when you have reached it.

This game is fairly non-linear, so we all just have pick locations in the game to meet at.

If you get lost, steam and gameboomers both have excellent walkthroughs that will guide you to our checkpoints.

Also, this game has triggers to make a puzzle appear - so don’t dispair if a puzzle does not appear for you.

To make the portrait puzzle appear, do the following: Hotel Orphee:    Nicolas, Cafe waiter at Nantis Cafe:  Talk to Nicolas about suspect. Malet hangs out at the Alambic Bistro (appears in map). Suspect sat by window and dashed off around 11 PM. Malet was given money by the mysterious man. Description of suspect: Tall, heavy, black moustache, square face, dreadful eyes, tough guy.

Hey rtrooney, since I have never participated in a CPT let alone followed one, I have no idea how they are “supposed” to work. I’m sure there have been many other non-linear or multi-pathway games played in this format in the past, so how did some of those overcome the difficulties you describe to having with this one?

As I play this game, and I stopped after solving the paintings puzzle in the bistro (kind of?), it occurs to me that there are any number of ways—from choosing different dialog trees to alternative paths—to the same “objective point”. Is the idea in a game like this, or any other CPT for that matter, for everyone to follow the exact same path to a particular point?

Back on 10/12 this was posted:

Mikekelly - 12 October 2018 07:38 PM

OK, many want their next instructions now. If you want to continue past talking to the clerk, do the following:

Continue playing the game until you get to Alambic Bistro and solve the paintings matching and the suspect drawing puzzles these can be solved after exploring the bistro.

So I did. BUT, the way I got there was probably different than some others did. For example, I took the instructions to mean we could take any path/dialog tree we wished as long as we stopped once we completed the two puzzles related to the bistro. My path had me go upstairs and talk to Mrs. Loiseau, procure an item and use it to enter room 507, which I proceeded to turn upside down for evidence. I then talked to the bartender and went from there to the bistro. I probably could have skipped going upstairs but we weren’t told not to so I did.

Ergo, I took a divergent path to the same objective. Is that necessarily wrong in a CPT?

rtrooney - 18 October 2018 08:41 PM

I’m just about ready to drop out of the playthrough. Which would be hard since I nominated the game. I just don’t feel good about this.

 

Heh, finally, Now we are talking!

This game is VERY non linear.  I will quite happy if we just meet up weekly at a given location and talk about the game.

You can go to different locations are different times and solve puzzles at different times.

Some people love these kind of games because it increases the replay value with its variety.

So, YES consult a GOOD walkthrough as needed. Gameboomers has a really good one.

This is especially true for the portrait puzzle.

The good news is, I am playing the game for the 2nd time and it is just as good as my first play.

The game is not perfect, but I like it anyway. After this if you stick it out I will lead a playthrough of Stilllife as a gift for those who made it through.

Many adventure games are very linear, but their replay ability is pretty much zero.