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Casual Playthrough—Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek

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I’m sorry, Tim, but it’s really a non-issue for me.  I like the bonus material and think it would be silly to start a new thread just to discuss it.  If you want to have a discussion about the basic game first, that’s fine, but after it’s done, I still think it’s fun to talk about the bonus material.  In fact, for the sequel I have the standard version of the game, and I would be happy to find out what the CE reveals.

     

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Finished the game as well as the bonus chapter last night. One good session was all I needed to catch up.

I agree with everyone that it was pretty obvious from the get-go that the mysterious stranger was Hamilton. And it was indeed him checking up on us (peeking through windows and the likes).

Solved the telescope puzzle in just a few minutes, didn’t think that one was hard. The armoire sliding puzzle on the other hand took me quite some time to solve. Good thing there were two empty spaces or it would have been a ‘skip’-inducing nightmare.

I was stuck for quite some time when (according to the map) only the screen with the big tree had an action left. There was a photo stuck to a branch up high, and I just couldn’t find a way to get up there to grab it. It took me a big while before I figured out that I wasn’t supposed to focus on that photo yet, and should have been grabbing a piece of broken glass from the display instead…

The HO scenes got progressively easier, I found. As more and more scenes were ones we’d already searched once or twice before, fewer and fewer objects were left to go through, and it eased the difficulty somewhat. Good thing too as there were far too many of these anyway.

The ending’s anticlimactic, too. I like saving the day and all that, but I like it even better when I don’t let the bad guy get away in the process.


I quite liked the bonus chapter. It had a couple of good additional puzzles (I especially liked the coded typewriter one), some VERY creepy dolls, and interesting background info on Hamilton’s history.

rtrooney - 23 November 2014 05:05 PM

I hate to beat this dead horse, but it seems that, yet again, we come up with a plausible reason for why things happened the way they did in the SE version of the game only to have that logic take a nosedive when contained in the CE is revealed. In this instance, as it did in Angelica, the CE information not only fails to make things clearer, it only serves to make things more confused.

I disagree. In Angelica Weaver the CE info turned he entire SE upside down and made the whole thing even more confusing in the process.
Here we’re not really learning anything new (except for some info on the preacher), and it doesn’t change anything from the SE. At most it exposes a continuity error with Emily’s clothing, but that’s more of a developer oversight imo.
And we learn nothing new since I already figured from the SE that Hamilton knew for certain that the preacher was the culprit 30 years ago, and that Hamilton had been too late to save his girlfriend. In that regard, most of the events in the CE are just more detailed depictions of what we could deduce from the SE…
The CE chapter here is similar to the CE chapter in Phantasmat, imo. Some additional info on past events from one of the main characters’ storyline, but nothing groundbreaking…




I do however agree with some of Iznogood’s issues about the plot, mainly the ones about Hamilton and the ending. The thing with the amnesia not so much. While I agree that the amnesia feels shoehorned in, it does serve its purpose (mainly in structuring the plot) and at least they give something of an explanation for it (although I must admit that it took Becky’s comment about the lightning and a rewatching of that cutscene to actually get it).

Hamilton, though, I have absolutely no idea what he’d been doing all those years, especially since he solved everything himself - half of our clues came from his files - AND had the dagger in his possession.
Hamilton’s the weak plot device in this game, but he is that in the SE already (even without the CE scenes).
The best explanation is indeed Crabapple’s, that Hamilton is fighting the Preacher’s influence as well, and there’s only so much he can do while not under the spell.

And the ending does let us have the idiot ball by stopping Hamilton from outright killing someone we KNOW has demonic powers - we saw that church bell, didn’t we? - and then turning our back on them. I’m willing to chalk it down to a cheap plot tactic to allow a sequel.


Unlike Iznogood, however, these things don’t bother me too much. They didn’t obliterate my enjoyment of the game…

Iznogood - 23 November 2014 08:42 PM

I know I shouldn’t expect Shakespeare from a casual game, but the other games we have played here in these CP’s did do much better story-wise IMO, and at least avoided any major problems.

I still think Angelica Weaver dropped the ball most. Tongue
But yes, Phantasmat was far more consistent with its story.

rtrooney - 23 November 2014 10:17 PM

I’m going to say it again. I believe the playthrough discussion should be limited to the experience of playing the basic game. If people wish to discuss alternative theories that arise from their CE experience, have at it, but it should be on a separate thread.

It makes for some good post-game discussion, though. It’d be far less effective in a separate thread, imo.


I’m really with Lady Kestrel on this. It’s a non-issue for me. The CE is a fun extra, I quite liked it here, but I’m also perfectly OK with watching it on YouTube for the games where I only have the SE.

But really….do you really want to watch a two-hour video of someone playing HO screens in order to capture the “essence” of the bonus chapter?

Sure, did so twice, didn’t regret it.

     

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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Playing when I was tired & with far too many HO screens (very tedious) that detracted from the flow of the story yes! I lost the plot!

Iznogood - 18 November 2014 02:47 PM
chrissie - 18 November 2014 02:11 PM

We do know as it was stated at the time Iznogood! (I think?)

..... Also if you look at the screenshot I posted earlier then even the newest corpse does look at least several months old, though I must admit that I’m not exactly a forensic expert.[/spoiler]

I replayed the game up until this point & the girl in your screenshot Izno seems to be Emily which is confirmed by the items taken from her – I don’t know why I thought it was Kate except that I overlooked the fact that there was an investigation into the disappearance of 2 girls (see excuses above!!)

Iznogood - 21 November 2014 07:59 PM

All done with this section now. [spoiler]I have saved the girl and also her boyfriend, reinforcements are on the way, I’m pretty sure I know where to find the Preatcher and are ready to take down the m*****f*****......................
...............One thing I did like about this part, ..... is that we learn that this is more than just a case for Hamilton, that it is very much personal for him. I do however wonder why he haven’t been able to take down the m*****f***** himself….

My thought is that the bonus section gives some vague clues for this & I completely agree that you shouldn’t have to buy the CE to make sense of the story in the SE. My theory is that Emily was possibly the preacher’s last victim in the series of murders at that time & that the preacher went into hiding. Hamilton had already experienced that he was no match for the power of the preacher & also knew from the notes of a previous investigator that he was dealing with a much older ‘force’ that could only be destroyed by the same way ‘it’ gained its strength from the ‘ritual’ killing of women – so Hamilton needed the dagger which he takes from your deduction board but doesn’t know how to get into the ritual chamber again? He hung around to wait for the next spree of killings (that he knew would happen) & the fresh eyes of a new investigator.  He knew at the end of the SE story that he needed to kill the preacher which is something you as the current investigator didn’t just preferring to call the police.

Question why was it only women he needed to kill to gain in strength!  

 

Exactly why he locks up Kate’s boyfriend is never really told, perhaps because he doesn’t want him to get in the way, or perhaps it is to protect him from the Preacher.

I think the reason for this may be in the bonus chapter although it’s an assumption possibly Hamilton did want to protect him from the preacher but also from the same experience he had when finding Emily & feeling such a failure?

rtrooney - 18 November 2014 08:37 PM

Update on weather: We set a new record today. At 19 degrees we recorded the lowest high temperature for this date in recorded weather history. The last lowest high was 22 degrees in 1909. It is freaking cold. I worry about my pup’s nose getting frostbit. Bad news is that this is November. It will get colder.

Even worse news is that weather conditions travels across the Atlantic!

 

     
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Near the end of the SE, the Preacher says: My bell…you silenced it before I could drain my puppets and fully revive.”  So apparently he doesn’t need the blood sacrifices to remain strong. If a blood sacrifice isn’t available, he has an alternate way to gain supernatural power. But there is a danger in draining his “puppets” too much—they may lose their minds when drained too much. The Preacher mentions at one point that the next person to go crazy will be the old man in the church—the person who went crazy previously must have been the fellow who killed himself in the basement of the Boarding House.

I suspect that it’s almost impossible for a person to hear that bell and and not be influenced. So there is something special about Hamilton and something very special about the heroine/detective (as I recall, this is hinted at in the next Enigmatis game).

     
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TimovieMan - 24 November 2014 06:56 AM
rtrooney - 23 November 2014 05:05 PM

I hate to beat this dead horse, but it seems that, yet again, we come up with a plausible reason for why things happened the way they did in the SE version of the game only to have that logic take a nosedive when contained in the CE is revealed. In this instance, as it did in Angelica, the CE information not only fails to make things clearer, it only serves to make things more confused.

I disagree. In Angelica Weaver the CE info turned he entire SE upside down and made the whole thing even more confusing in the process.

I think we said the exact same thing. Smile

TimovieMan - 24 November 2014 06:56 AM

Here we’re not really learning anything new (except for some info on the preacher), and it doesn’t change anything from the SE. At most it exposes a continuity error with Emily’s clothing, but that’s more of a developer oversight imo.

On the contrary. Instead of believing Hamilton was an honorable man who wouldn’t seek vengeance against the preacher because he needed absolute proof which would be supplied by our protagonist, we find out that he knew the preacher killed Emily and did nothing about it for 30 years. Not even a phone call to the police. Which either makes him incredibly incompetent or a coward. To me that changes the storyline dramatically. Although if he had called the police or killed the preacher there would have been no game.

TimovieMan - 24 November 2014 06:56 AM

The CE chapter here is similar to the CE chapter in Phantasmat, imo. Some additional info on past events from one of the main characters’ storyline, but nothing groundbreaking…

The only thing of relevance that we learned was that the girl’s fiancé was a cad and a con man. Hardly worth the additional CE cost.

TimovieMan - 24 November 2014 06:56 AM

Hamilton’s the weak plot device in this game, but he is that in the SE already (even without the CE scenes).

The best explanation is indeed Crabapple’s, that Hamilton is fighting the Preacher’s influence as well, and there’s only so much he can do while not under the spell.

I’m not buying it. Hamilton appears to be as immune to the bell as our protagonist. So, at any time in the last 30 years he could have entered the belfry, hacksaw in hand, and brought down the bell. And, with the knife he also found, killed the preacher while he was in a weakened state. Again, if this happened, there would be no game. But simply having this CE information changes the whole raison d’être of the SE game.

TimovieMan - 24 November 2014 06:56 AM
rtrooney - 23 November 2014 10:17 PM

I’m going to say it again. I believe the playthrough discussion should be limited to the experience of playing the basic game. If people wish to discuss alternative theories that arise from their CE experience, have at it, but it should be on a separate thread.

It makes for some good post-game discussion, though. It’d be far less effective in a separate thread, imo.

Then let me ask two questions. If information contained in the CE dramatically changes or confuses issues explored and “solved” in the main game, (e.g. both here and in Angelica,) should it be part of the discussion? Or if information contained in a CE is of so little value, (e.g. Phantasmat,) that it adds nothing to the main game, should it be part of the discussion?

My answer is no, which should not come as a surprise to anyone.

This in no way says that people who want to buy CE games shouldn’t. Or that people who participate in these playthroughs shouldn’t play the bonus materials they purchased. Just that if the answers to the two questions posed above is No, then CE material should not be part of the playthrough discussion.

As for Lady K’s comment about the sequel, if the answer to the two questions is No, then no, the CE information should not be part of the discussion. My opinion, of course.

 

 

     

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rtrooney - 24 November 2014 07:05 PM

On the contrary. Instead of believing Hamilton was an honorable man who wouldn’t seek vengeance against the preacher because he needed absolute proof which would be supplied by our protagonist, we find out that he knew the preacher killed Emily and did nothing about it for 30 years. Not even a phone call to the police. Which either makes him incredibly incompetent or a coward. To me that changes the storyline dramatically. Although if he had called the police or killed the preacher there would have been no game.

To some degree I agree.
The problems I have with Hamilton is all there in the SE part of the game, we still know that he has been after the Preacher for a very long time, and has very little to show for it, and much of what we learn in the bonus chapter was already hinted in the main game.

But it is made a little bit worse by the extra information we get about Hamilton, and I think I would have preferred if he had remained more of a mystery figure that we only know very little about. In fact I think they made the mistake of already telling us too much about him in the main game, instead of leaving this up to our own imagination.

Still I see no reason to start excluding or censoring the bonus chapters from these playthroughs. It is not like anyone who has played them can cut out their memory of it, or act like they don’t know what they happen to know, and there is no reason to put strict restrictions on these discussions.

rtrooney - 23 November 2014 10:17 PM

Yes, there is YouTube. But really….do you really want to watch a two-hour video of someone playing HO screens in order to capture the “essence” of the bonus chapter? I can only speak for myself, but not me, never again.

Fast forward through all the HO and puzzle solving and you can get the whole story in about 15-30 minutes.


Anyway I can promise that the sequel Rawenwood, doesn’t spoil, change or adds extra information whatsoever in the bonus chapter, but only shows us some preceding events that has no bearing whatsoever on the main story.

And speaking of Rawenwood, the next/continued playthrough of Enigmatis will start tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon/evening/whenever I’m ready Wink where I will start a new thread.

     

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TimovieMan - 24 November 2014 06:56 AM

I do however agree with some of Iznogood’s issues about the plot, mainly the ones about Hamilton and the ending. The thing with the amnesia not so much. While I agree that the amnesia feels shoehorned in, it does serve its purpose (mainly in structuring the plot)...

The amnesia part was also not my biggest problem with the story, and if it was the only problem then it wouldn’t have bothered me much. But the point is that I believe that the plot could have been structured better, that it would have been a better story if they had shown us especially the showdown with the preacher in realtime instead of a flashback. The amnesia could still have worked if they stopped it halfway through, like UH (Unnamed Heroine) had gotten her full memory back when we destroyed the bell, and the rest of the game would have been more about confronting and defeating the Preacher.

     

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Warning—Spoilers from this Point On in the Playthrough/Thread

Since I imagine that most people have now completed the game, those who wish to can drop the spoiler tags. People reading from this point on (I’ll post this at the top of each thread for those who are skimming) should be aware that spoilers may be posted and that images may also contain spoilers.

Also, once Izno posts the beginning of the Enigmatis: The Mists of Ravenwood Playthrough, this thread needs to be unstickied. Anyone who has thoughts about Maple Creek can keep posting to this thread even while we’re playing and posting about The Mists of Ravenwood on the new thread.

 

     
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I’ve been comparing the picture from the church basement with the altar.

Here’s the altar:

And the picture:

The Preacher in the picture, or maybe more accurately, Asmodai, takes the place of the demon sculpture or the dragon at the altar. All the sculptures seemed to have horns, and the horned object at the bottom of the altar is the same object that’s the clapper on the bell. Asmodai here is associated with a bull, a ram, a demon and a dragon. Or possibly these represent an entity that Asmodai is sacrificing women to.

I’m not sure why it’s always women who are sacrificed. And, at least in the game so far, it’s women who don’t live in Maple Creek—it’s outsiders.

One thing that is apparent from the first screenshot in this post is the crack in the altar’s dragon neck that the Unnamed Heroine eventually takes advantage of to destroy the altar. This reminded me of the bell—one of its supports had also been worn down, making it possible for the Heroine to destroy it. If Hamilton tried to destroy the bell years earlier, before the support was weakened, that may explain why he was unsuccessful, but the Heroine, later, was successful.

Destroying the altar seems to have caused some sort of explosion, something I certainly didn’t expect. I wonder, if Hamilton had managed to sacrifice Asmodai on his own altar, would that actually have worked? Or would the power of the altar have protected Asmodai—perhaps even transformed him into a more powerful entity?

     
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I’ve been thinking about how the Preacher/Asmodai talks about needing to use the bell to draw strength from the people in Maple Creek in order to revive himself. This could mean that he needs to revive himself after the fall when the Unnamed Heroine pushed him. But I’m now wondering if, in addition to needing to recover from the fall, Asmodai was responsible for the storm that ravaged Maple Creek. It seems quite coincidental that, just as the young man from the farm was handing all of Hamilton’s notes to the Unnamed Heroine, lightning just happened to strike both of them. Plus, the greatest storm damage was to the Boarding House where the Heroine was staying. Maybe Asmodai not only has control over the people of Maple Creek, but also, to some extent, the atmosphere around it. Recovery from using that much power would take longer than recovery from a 15-foot fall.

Also, I’ve been trying to trace the path of the knife. We know the Heroine had it in her room before the game starts. Then, the old man, under the influence of Asmodai, takes it from her room. Where does it go from there? Is it the same knife we pick up in the ruined house later in the game? And if so, why did it end up there?

     
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Becky - 25 November 2014 10:39 AM

Also, I’ve been trying to trace the path of the knife. We know the Heroine had it in her room before the game starts. Then, the old man, under the influence of Asmodai, takes it from her room. Where does it go from there? Is it the same knife we pick up in the ruined house later in the game? And if so, why did it end up there?

The old man was definitely in your room, but he didn’t take the knife. I’m thinking he was simply using your room as a shortcut to his house.

The knife disappeared later, and was likely taken by the same person who wrote you the message on the wall…Hamilton.

The sacrificial/sacramental knife isn’t seen again until it’s in Hamilton’s hand during the endgame.

The other knife, the one from the ruins has but one purpose - cutting down the rope ladder. Once it has done that, it disappears from your inventory.

     

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rtrooney - 25 November 2014 12:06 PM

The old man was definitely in your room, but he didn’t take the knife. I’m thinking he was simply using your room as a shortcut to his house.

When you first enter your room, he pops up all indoctrinated (scaring the crap out of you), and takes a plastic evidence bag from the desk before he disappears.
Our detective mentions that bag contained some sort of knife. I take it this is it.

We then find it again in the church, on top of that trap door, so that’s where he took it (undoubtedly to be found by the Preacher).

Once we recover it, we put it on the evidence board where Hamilton later steals it.

     

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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As to why preacher/Asmodai sacrificed women and why he was able to revive by only draining the townpeople, I suspect that Asmodai gave him the power to revive by draining the townpeople, in order that the preacher furnished sacrificial victims for Asmodai.

I concur with the opinions of Hamilton but it is somewhat common in casual games for the nonplayable partners and investigators to be foils rather than fully contributing.

     
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I think this will answer the question about why only women were sacrificed:

     

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Um, this Asmodai/Asmodeus character is starting to make the typical casual game villain look like milquetoast.

I’m thinking that destroying the bell and using the knife wouldn’t have been enough. Destroying the altar was also necessary—he’d parked power there that he also could have used to revive himself.

I’ll bet he has another source of power we haven’t discovered yet.

I’m looking forward to playing Ravenwood.

     

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