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Community Playthrough #53 Whispers of a Machine

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TimovieMan - 17 June 2019 06:05 PM

Finished Day 2.

The only part where I noticeably missed one (or more) alternative solutions is the shootout. I went for the straightforward solution by grabbing my gun and shooting first. I kinda regret that now, but alas, the save system is designed to not be able to backtrack this way.
It’s really odd that my usual approach of “talk first, shoot only when there’s no alternative” in other games had me doing the reverse here.
I didn’t think of trying to talk or even use the biometrics scanner until after. Oh well…

Funny, I only realized shooting Katarina even was an option after completing the day. Somehow using the gun didn’t even cross my mind as I had had no use for it until this point in the game.

Thanks to the quick help from Krusbert, I was able to continue with Day 3, which I just completed. I liked the flow of the day. Perhaps the puzzles were on the easy side (I only took some time figuring out how to move the filing cabinet without attracting the guard’s attention), but that let the story move forwards at a good pace. I was kind of surprised Katarina apparently was in on Maja’s secret plans with the baby, but saw confirmed my initial suspicion that councilwoman Rooth was not to be trusted.

Let’s see what Day 4 has in store for Vera!

Edit: I see that this my 100th post at the forum. The majority of those must have been in playthrough threads. This is as good a moment as any to thank all playthrough leaders, participants and occasionally game developers over the past years for their efforts in participating. These community playthroughs really add something to adventuring Laughing

     
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Happy 100 post!

Ok, it’s time. Complete day 4 and tell us what you thought about it. You have one week to do that.

Sealed Lips

     

I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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I finished day three. Things are getting exciting!

As with the previous augmentations, I wish it was possible to play around with mimicry a bit more. Being stopped by something like “I don’t need to do that” in every case but for the intended puzzle feels a bit limited. I realize making it more of a sandbox feature would have required much more work, so I am not really complaining.

The graphics, writing and story is excellent so far.

     
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I have now finished day four and thereby [spoiler]the game. In the end, I activated Huldra. I will play the game again soon to try another path and go for the other ending. Anyway, a great game. I would love to see more of this world.[/spoiler]

Hopefully, nested spoiler tags will not cause an error.

     
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Finished Day 3. Took me even less time than Day 2. Either the game’s legitimately getting easier, or my combination of augmentations makes for an easier experience.
The only part that made me pause a little was timing the pushing of the file cabinet with the noise from the workshop. Because sound-related puzzles have never been my thing. Even when being tone-deaf doesn’t matter in the least, like here. Tongue

Very few decisions to be made in this chapter, if any. But the plot moves ahead quite fast.
Of course, that’s to be expected. When there’s less things to do simultaneously, it makes everything more streamlined.

Story still remains good, and I quite like the Free Church of EPOS leader‘s character. Calm and collected, no matter the situation.

The hardest part of getting the book quote was finding the location of the co-worker. Smile

I like where the story is headed, and wasn’t at all surprised we got betrayed by Stina. I suspected our councilwoman for a while now, and got a good confirmation when the door to the shack in the junk yard mysteriously shut with no one present. Since my augmentation is cloak, I immediately said “Stina, and she has cloak too!”.
Gave me an Admiral Ackbar moment right after: shouting “It’s a trap!” but still being forced to set myself up for betrayal. Smile

Now that I can regenerate, bring on the endgame! Cool

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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TimovieMan - 24 June 2019 05:33 AM

Story still remains good, and I quite like the Free Church of EPOS leader‘s character. Calm and collected, no matter the situation.

Except when you talk to him about the conduit, guy was legitimately pissed Grin

     
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Karmillo - 24 June 2019 02:55 PM

Except when you talk to him about the conduit, guy was legitimately pissed Grin

Meh, he remained polite, despite the berserk button topic.

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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TimovieMan - 24 June 2019 03:18 PM
Karmillo - 24 June 2019 02:55 PM

Except when you talk to him about the conduit, guy was legitimately pissed Grin

Meh, he remained polite, despite the berserk button topic.

At least in my playthrough he suddenly turns into the typical zealot character you would originally expect when first hearing about EPOS, talking about how they are dirty heathens and theres only one true god etc then he just flips a switch and goes back to the chill old man you met on the train Grin. Not sure if I got any conversation about a beserk button though

     
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Karmillo - 24 June 2019 04:29 PM

At least in my playthrough he suddenly turns into the typical zealot character you would originally expect when first hearing about EPOS, talking about how they are dirty heathens and theres only one true god etc then he just flips a switch and goes back to the chill old man you met on the train Grin. Not sure if I got any conversation about a beserk button though

Sorry. TV Tropes has ruined my vocabulary. Smile

No actual conversation about a berserk button. Just that it’s a “berserk button” topic, i.e. a topic that very easily enrages a character like him. Sure, he went for the typical “dirty heathens” speech, but I found it less crazy/unjustified than in most similar situations.





I’ve finished the game last night. Story stayed excellent to the end. What others have described as a “rushed ending”, I feel is an ending that just doesn’t contain any filler. The last day is pretty straightforward.

The one part that irked me somewhat is Stina, a trained agent, missing at very close range. It gets justified by “withdrawal” but still, she was only five feet away…
But the game did surprise me by having two culprits. I didn’t see it coming that not all three murders were committed by the same person.

I ended the game by activating the Fenrir protocol (and destroying the A.I.). I also decided to raise the baby myself.
Satisfying ending, if you ask me. The case is wrapped up, the potentially dangerous A.I. is destroyed and the baby is unharmed and will be brought up by someone that’ll care for it as if it was her own (or, well, that’s how I played Vera at least). And the whole ordeal helped Vera cope a bit better with the loss of her husband.


I watched the other endings on YouTube, and I like this one best, followed by activating Huldra and getting an open-ended ending where we’re not sure how the baby’s going to grow up. The ending where you don’t raise the baby yourself is just a weak version of the ending I had (nothing added, just a few lines taken away).
There’s a missed opportunity for a fourth ending, if you ask me. After activating Huldra, we should have the option to go for Stina’s idea: putting the headphones on ourselves, hoping to turn ourselves into the A.I. With the game mentioning that that shouldn’t work, it could even be a bleak downer of an ending where we either die or wind up in a catatonic state, or our mind winds up in a personal hell or something.



I quite liked the scene that’s viewed from the side, where we’re walking by the side of the road. Excellent use of parallax scrolling, and it stands out because of how different it is from the rest of the graphics. It also leads to the main menu screen, which is a nice plus, and it gets repeated somewhat in the Huldra ending.


Interesting plot point to discuss:
The apparition of Alex is clearly the result of the nanotech in our system using our grief to manifest itself as a hallucination. But to further the A.I. theme of the game: how dangerous is the use of blue? It’s described in-game as “not A.I.” but Alex was very much pushing us towards the “activate Huldra” ending, and he sounded more robotic (or rather “artificial”) whenever he got excited or the topic of Huldra was brought up.
Leads me to think that the blue itself is very much A.I., and it wants project Huldra to happen, which also implies that project Huldra is actually going to work if activated. Just fuels the danger of the situation, imo.
Others’ thoughts?
Joel, Petter? Innocent


Anyway, very good game, interesting gameplay mechanics that feel fresh, and a great story and writing. The game is a tad on the easy side, but that should never be a deterrent.
Easy 4/5 rating for me.

And just to clarify for Joel and Petter: 4 is my cut-off point for excellence. By that I mean that games that get 4 or more in my book are all superb and the difference between 4, 4.5 and 5 is just “degrees of excellence”. There’s practically more difference in rating between 3.5 and 4 than there is between 4 and 5.


A big thank you to Joel and Petter for making a superb game, and to Mikekelly for leading the playthrough.

Great job, guys!!! Thumbs Up

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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Finished Day 3. Again I enjoyed the puzzles, quite a nice variety and pitched not too hard to keep the story moving. I enjoyed the audio engineering and moving the filing cabinet ones, some new mechanics (i.e. not before in the game) but simple enough to grasp.

I agree that the most difficult part of the day was finding the friend to give the book quote.

Story wise we seem to be getting some paramaters now, betrayal by Stina some kind of link up between Maja and Katarina...

Also I enjoyed waking up somewhere new on day 4!

     

3.5 time winner of the “Really Annoying Caption Contest Saboteur” Award!

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Pegbiter - 23 June 2019 08:53 AM

As with the previous augmentations, I wish it was possible to play around with mimicry a bit more. Being stopped by something like “I don’t need to do that” in every case but for the intended puzzle feels a bit limited. I realize making it more of a sandbox feature would have required much more work, so I am not really complaining.

Yeah, unfortunately we had to draw the line somewhere, and the best option we could come up with was [spoiler]that Vera would only use the ability when she had a good reason for it. This is also consistent with the other two final augs, which work similarly. If we would allow Vera to change disguises at will, mimicking people as she pleases, we would’ve had to create reactions for every single permutation of Vera coming into view or interacting with character x disguised as character y.

It’s a staggering amount of actions, requiring many lines of custom dialogue (and therefore voice overs both from Vera herself and the character she is mimicking unless we’d scrap that neat layered effect), additional game logic scripts for all the different variations, and lastly art for all combinations of mimicry sprites/portraits etc.

A better option could’ve been to figure out some limitations within Mimicry itself at an earlier stage of the design process. Perhaps not everyone could be copied for some technical reason (the process to do so could be complicated, time consuming, require the target to do certain things etc). Alternatively, there could be limitations imposed on how the signature itself is used. Maybe you would have to be within a certain range from the original target, the disguise could decay after a short period of time or something like that, limiting the number of combinations. If we would’ve had more time or resources, perhaps we could’ve figured out something like that, but alas we were out of time and had to figure something out quick to ship on time. Smile

     
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TimovieMan - 25 June 2019 05:44 AM

There’s a missed opportunity for a fourth ending, if you ask me. After activating Huldra, we should have the option to go for Stina’s idea: putting the headphones on ourselves, hoping to turn ourselves into the A.I. With the game mentioning that that shouldn’t work, it could even be a bleak downer of an ending where we either die or wind up in a catatonic state, or our mind winds up in a personal hell or something

We did include such an ending originally, but ended up scrapping it. The ending was basically only Vera ranting in a padded cell after using the helmet on herself. As dark and cool as this sequence could’ve been, it’s pretty darn anti-climactic as an ending, since you cannot revert or change it without replaying the entire game, and it would’ve left many loose ends. We considered turning this ending into a checkpoint restart instead, to let the player both have the cake and eat it, but it felt quite out of place (and counter to our overarching philosophy about choices, consequences and no do-overs), so we decided to cut it.

TimovieMan - 25 June 2019 05:44 AM

The apparition of Alex is clearly the result of the nanotech in our system using our grief to manifest itself as a hallucination. But to further the A.I. theme of the game: how dangerous is the use of blue? It’s described in-game as “not A.I.” but Alex was very much pushing us towards the “activate Huldra” ending, and he sounded more robotic (or rather “artificial”) whenever he got excited or the topic of Huldra was brought up. Leads me to think that the blue itself is very much A.I., and it wants project Huldra to happen, which also implies that project Huldra is actually going to work if activated. Just fuels the danger of the situation, imo.

This is something that we deliberately left up to interpretation Smile Was Alex no more than a hallucination or does the Blue have a will of its own? Will Vera meet Stina’s fate later in life, with the Blue eventually consuming her?

     
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TimovieMan - 25 June 2019 05:44 AM

There’s a missed opportunity for a fourth ending, if you ask me. After activating Huldra, we should have the option to go for Stina’s idea: putting the headphones on ourselves, hoping to turn ourselves into the A.I. With the game mentioning that that shouldn’t work, it could even be a bleak downer of an ending where we either die or wind up in a catatonic state, or our mind winds up in a personal hell or something.

I was going for this ending before I realize it was not possible. My idea was to start with what I expected to be the worst ending, and then something more pleasurable on my second playthrough.

TimovieMan - 25 June 2019 05:44 AM

Interesting plot point to discuss:
The apparition of Alex is clearly the result of the nanotech in our system using our grief to manifest itself as a hallucination. But to further the A.I. theme of the game: how dangerous is the use of blue? It’s described in-game as “not A.I.” but Alex was very much pushing us towards the “activate Huldra” ending, and he sounded more robotic (or rather “artificial”) whenever he got excited or the topic of Huldra was brought up.
Leads me to think that the blue itself is very much A.I., and it wants project Huldra to happen, which also implies that project Huldra is actually going to work if activated. Just fuels the danger of the situation, imo.
Others’ thoughts?[/spoiler]

I rather got the impression that the hallucinations were transmitted to Vera by the Strange Sphere in Katarina’s apartment. Her blue was probably involved in showing them to her - but the substance need not be an A.I. itself. The possibility to hack into the blue like that is obviously a security problem. Stina’s addiction is another example of usage being dangerous.

Krusbert - 25 June 2019 06:59 AM

A better option could’ve been to figure out some limitations within Mimicry itself at an earlier stage of the design process. Perhaps not everyone could be copied for some technical reason (the process to do so could be complicated, time consuming, require the target to do certain things etc). Alternatively, there could be limitations imposed on how the signature itself is used. Maybe you would have to be within a certain range from the original target, the disguise could decay after a short period of time or something like that, limiting the number of combinations. If we would’ve had more time or resources, perhaps we could’ve figured out something like that, but alas we were out of time and had to figure something out quick to ship on time. Smile

Good point! I do prefer the game as it is over more generic responses. Only being able to use the augmentations when needed made the puzzles much easier though.

     
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Krusbert - 25 June 2019 07:17 AM

We did include such an ending originally, but ended up scrapping it. The ending was basically only Vera ranting in a padded cell after using the helmet on herself. As dark and cool as this sequence could’ve been, it’s pretty darn anti-climactic as an ending, since you cannot revert or change it without replaying the entire game, and it would’ve left many loose ends. We considered turning this ending into a checkpoint restart instead, to let the player both have the cake and eat it, but it felt quite out of place (and counter to our overarching philosophy about choices, consequences and no do-overs), so we decided to cut it.

Only the fate of Katarina and the baby are really left at this point in the game, so the amount of loose ends would be minimal.

But it’s an understandable decision if you feel it’s counter to the overarching philosophy of the game.

Krusbert - 25 June 2019 07:17 AM

This is something that we deliberately left up to interpretation Smile Was Alex no more than a hallucination or does the Blue have a will of its own? Will Vera meet Stina’s fate later in life, with the Blue eventually consuming her?

Not only Vera’s fate later in life, but the baby’s as well!
[spoiler]Imbueing a fetus with blue before its own psyche is even formed will have WAY more unpredictable effects than adults getting the same treatment. The blue could be much stronger, more possible augmentations, etc. but the blue could also be more in control than the child itself.[/spoiler]
That’s probably the basic idea behind project Huldra in the first place… Smile

Pegbiter - 25 June 2019 07:26 AM

I was going for this ending before I realize it was not possible. My idea was to start with what I expected to be the worst ending, and then something more pleasurable on my second playthrough.

I usually go the other way around: go for the best ending first and then see what the others are.

I follow a similar pattern in RPGs: first doing the lawful good/paragon/Goody Two-Shoes playthrough and if the game warrants a replay, then doing the evil/renegade playthrough. Usually with gender/race/etc. flipped as well, to get as different an experience as possible. Cool

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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TimovieMan - 25 June 2019 05:44 AM
Karmillo - 24 June 2019 04:29 PM

At least in my playthrough he suddenly turns into the typical zealot character you would originally expect when first hearing about EPOS, talking about how they are dirty heathens and theres only one true god etc then he just flips a switch and goes back to the chill old man you met on the train Grin. Not sure if I got any conversation about a beserk button though

Sorry. TV Tropes has ruined my vocabulary. Smile

No actual conversation about a berserk button. Just that it’s a “berserk button” topic, i.e. a topic that very easily enrages a character like him. Sure, he went for the typical “dirty heathens” speech, but I found it less crazy/unjustified than in most similar situations.





I’ve finished the game last night. Story stayed excellent to the end. What others have described as a “rushed ending”, I feel is an ending that just doesn’t contain any filler. The last day is pretty straightforward.

The one part that irked me somewhat is Stina, a trained agent, missing at very close range. It gets justified by “withdrawal” but still, she was only five feet away…
But the game did surprise me by having two culprits. I didn’t see it coming that not all three murders were committed by the same person.

I ended the game by activating the Fenrir protocol (and destroying the A.I.). I also decided to raise the baby myself.
Satisfying ending, if you ask me. The case is wrapped up, the potentially dangerous A.I. is destroyed and the baby is unharmed and will be brought up by someone that’ll care for it as if it was her own (or, well, that’s how I played Vera at least). And the whole ordeal helped Vera cope a bit better with the loss of her husband.


I watched the other endings on YouTube, and I like this one best, followed by activating Huldra and getting an open-ended ending where we’re not sure how the baby’s going to grow up. The ending where you don’t raise the baby yourself is just a weak version of the ending I had (nothing added, just a few lines taken away).
There’s a missed opportunity for a fourth ending, if you ask me. After activating Huldra, we should have the option to go for Stina’s idea: putting the headphones on ourselves, hoping to turn ourselves into the A.I. With the game mentioning that that shouldn’t work, it could even be a bleak downer of an ending where we either die or wind up in a catatonic state, or our mind winds up in a personal hell or something.



I quite liked the scene that’s viewed from the side, where we’re walking by the side of the road. Excellent use of parallax scrolling, and it stands out because of how different it is from the rest of the graphics. It also leads to the main menu screen, which is a nice plus, and it gets repeated somewhat in the Huldra ending.


Interesting plot point to discuss:
The apparition of Alex is clearly the result of the nanotech in our system using our grief to manifest itself as a hallucination. But to further the A.I. theme of the game: how dangerous is the use of blue? It’s described in-game as “not A.I.” but Alex was very much pushing us towards the “activate Huldra” ending, and he sounded more robotic (or rather “artificial”) whenever he got excited or the topic of Huldra was brought up.
Leads me to think that the blue itself is very much A.I., and it wants project Huldra to happen, which also implies that project Huldra is actually going to work if activated. Just fuels the danger of the situation, imo.
Others’ thoughts?
Joel, Petter? Innocent


Anyway, very good game, interesting gameplay mechanics that feel fresh, and a great story and writing. The game is a tad on the easy side, but that should never be a deterrent.
Easy 4/5 rating for me.

And just to clarify for Joel and Petter: 4 is my cut-off point for excellence. By that I mean that games that get 4 or more in my book are all superb and the difference between 4, 4.5 and 5 is just “degrees of excellence”. There’s practically more difference in rating between 3.5 and 4 than there is between 4 and 5.


A big thank you to Joel and Petter for making a superb game, and to Mikekelly for leading the playthrough.

Great job, guys!!! Thumbs Up

glad you also enjoyed the game, the reason I felt it was rushed is two fold. One reason was as pointed out the puzzles in day 3 and and 4 were so easy that they sped up the game play speed so it seems rushed I kept thinking at one point there was a puzzle that got cut in the junkyard at the hideout bc we see a huge tower on top of the shack and what looks like a ladder on the inside. I thought we would be contacting a member of the conduit in a different place.

my other reason for the ending seeming rushed is because, I felt like we needed to know more about stina, and what she actually wanted, I felt that was kind of ambiguous, I wish we could have learned more about her in her apartment like how we learned about the world in the museum.

Also I felt the game kept setting up valter to do something and he never does really lol.

     

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