Adventure Gamers - Forums

Midweek Puzzle

Welcome to the very first edition of my puzzles specials of the Adventure Game Scene of the Day.
In these specials I will be focusing on what is one of the most important parts of adventure games imo - The Puzzles. Either in the form of a specific puzzle, a certain type of puzzle or puzzle mechanics, or simply a game that excels in the puzzle department. My first choice is a case of the latter..

Memento Mori 2: Guardians of Immortality is in my opinion one of the absolute best adventure games that has been released in recent years. It has everything that you could possibly want from an AG, a very good dark story, good graphics, good voice acting, globetrotting around the world, 20+ hours of playtime etc, but where it really excels is in the puzzle department.

It is not only a puzzle heavy and difficult game, but it also has an extreme variety of puzzles. Every single type of puzzle you can imagine (with perhaps one or two exceptions) is represented in this game, from standard inventory puzzles over dialogue puzzles to Sherlock Holmes type deductions, you can find them all in this game. In fact I can’t think of any other game in the history of adventure games that has such a large variety of puzzles!

But that is not what impressed me the most - What impressed me the most is that, with the exception of standard inventory puzzles, they never use the same puzzle type twice!

The screenshot I have selected is from the puzzle know as Chapter 3.
Wait a minute - some of you are probably thinking. How can a puzzle be a chapter or a chapter a puzzle? That must either be a very small chapter or one gigantic puzzle - and you are correct, it is one gigantic puzzle. Technically it is several individual puzzles, but since they form one unbroken chain of puzzles then I like to think of it as a single very large puzzle.

In the screenshot we have a mural at a crime scene painted in the blood of the victims, and we have to find a hidden message left for us in the mural. Now since this is MM2 it is not as simple as clicking on the mural and start analysing it, compared to other games there is always one extra step or twist to the puzzles, and in this case there is actually quite a few steps necessary before we can start on the actual mural.

More importantly however is that once we solve this puzzles, all it will do is point us to the next puzzle, which will point us to the next puzzle, which will point ... until we finally make a shocking discovery

I have avoided this game,  don’t know why really, but you just convinced me. Variety of puzzles? Some of them with a similar style to Sherlock Holmes (in terms of deductions)? Great to know.

Just one question: We need to have played the previous game? Or it is not necessary?

Yep, I’ve got this and the first one sitting in my Steam pile of shame, never even installed them I don’t think. It seems I always just assumed they weren’t that great, just like some others here.

I think you have just moved them nearer the top of the steam pile!

Renacimiento - 03 June 2015 11:35 AM

Some of them with a similar style to Sherlock Holmes (in terms of deductions)? Great to know.

Well - One deduction puzzle, they don’t use the same type of puzzle twice

Renacimiento - 03 June 2015 11:35 AM

Just one question: We need to have played the previous game? Or it is not necessary?

I would say that it isn’t necessary.
The relationship between the two protagonists starts in the first, and there are some references to the story in the first game that might go over your head, but nothing that is critical. Equally important is that this game is much much better than the first, that was only okay imo. But if you plan on playing both it is better to play them in order.

chrissie - 03 June 2015 11:40 AM

Wow! What a spectacular start to your puzzle-themed day Iznogood.

Thanks, when I started contemplating doing this, I immediately knew that this just had to be my first post.

chrissie - 03 June 2015 11:40 AM

I don’t really have a great puzzle head so I don’t know what I’ll make of Chapter 3 & also as “It is not only a puzzle heavy and difficult game….” I’ll probably be adding a lot more +‘s to the 20+ hours of gameplay.

I love difficult puzzles, but I’m not necessarily better at them than you are. When I played this there still hadn’t been made an English walkthrough, so you can imagine how many hours I spend getting stuck, which I actually found refreshing because it forced me to solve it myself no matter how long it took. In the end I however had to capitulate and found a German walkthough that helped me with a couple of puzzles.

One thing is should probably mention to anyone considering playing this, is that it starts a bit slow, and it isn’t really until the end of chapter 1 that the real story begins.

A smart puzzle and a nice start to the thread of puzzles to follow, giving the fact when the previous chapter of office investigation was concerning this one, where you eventually go through a lot of details and clues given by the murderer in order to come to this place/chapter.

The puzzle itself had tricked me at the beginning to kinda believe its one of those mini game pushed nicely through the story, but after a little time of playing around with the mural, it turned out to be more smart than that, but nothing where the game oughta beat ya; mostly by checking the mural and comparing the drawings on it to the hard copy photos given to you previously you start to notice a pattern needed by just looking* closely to the scene .

I love how you established your words Izno for the puzzle spoiler-free, I was expecting a lot of spoiler tags, but this was made even nicely.

I liked the first game more than the average person here. It was definitely easy but it managed to grab me and have a nice atmosphere. Plus I really liked the male protagonist’s psychological issues. Pretty much everyone has been saying that the sequel is much better though, so I’d think it should really be to my tastes then.

I seem to have grabbed the sequel from some Steam discount or bundle, but haven’t played it yet. I think I might like to replay the first game but that’s just making my to-play list longer. Games like Tex Murhpy and Dremfall and BS already wait me to replay the earlier ones before I get to the latest part.

But I guess I’ll play all of the titles eventually.

Iznogood - 03 June 2015 09:33 AM

In the screenshot we have a mural at a crime scene painted in the blood of the victims, and we have to find a hidden message left for us in the mural. Now since this is MM2 it is not as simple as clicking on the mural and start analysing it, compared to other games there is always one extra step or twist to the puzzles, and in this case there is actually quite a few steps necessary before we can start on the actual mural.

Just out of curiosity, does it involve Luminol and/or a blacklight?

TimovieMan - 03 June 2015 07:46 PM

Just out of curiosity, does it involve Luminol and/or a blacklight?

Perhaps, in fact the blacklight is already illuminating the mural in the screenshot.

But Lara works the Stolen Arts department of Interpol and is brought in as an arts consultant. Both the police and FBI have already been all over the scene with luminol and everything, and we have already seen their photos before we get here - So it’s not that simple.

Oscar - 02 April 2016 05:02 AM

Good voice acting, huh? I just started this in the hope of an absorbing detective game and the acting is atrocious. The main character sounds like he’s never acted in his life, and his female partner, though slightly better, is supposed to be Russian but speaks with a 100% American accent.

a) You are confusing who the main character is!
I honestly can’t remember how good or bad Max’s voice acting is, but he is not the main character - Though he is the character we control in most of the first chapter.

b) I actually thought that the main character Lara’s voice acting was superb!
She manages to act some difficult scenes without overacting and getting too emotional, which we see so often in games, while at the same time giving it just enough emotions to not be outright cold and unemotional - A balance that I though suited Lara perfectly.

c) I can’t judge how credible her Russian accent is, but she certainly doesn’t sound American to me. In fact she sound exactly like someone who speaks more or less fluently English, but isn’t a native English speaker. Though exactly how that sounds of course varies greatly depending on what their native language is, and how much British/American they have been taught / picked up from various sources.

Besides even if there was some traces of American accent, didn’t she receive at least some of her training in the USA, or am I misremembering that?

d) The quality of the supporting voice acting is a bit more varied, and not always perfect.

e) The first chapter is in every single aspect by far the worst part of the game, so I will recommend that you reserve judgement until you are further into the game.