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AG Community Playthrough #43: Sinking Island
The more I play (untimed mode) the more I can see how timed would make more sense as a game. There would be much less need for unnecessary questions like interrogating Baina or asking people something they would know nothing about.
The other thing I am wondering is if you can fail in the timed mode? Do you have to guess the culprit at the end?
I do think that it is unmistakably a Sokal game from the introduction onwards. The beautiful graphics, the feeling of empty decaying grandeur, the PPA design, the horribly un-idiomatic English and the vast number of empty screen/spaces all feel comfortably familiar.
Welcome aboard - and yeah I agree, with the very noticeable lack of a journey, it has all the other trademarks of Sokal.
Also, I don’t know if this is just me being thick, but it took me a while to work out how to complete the first mandate after you have checked the body on the beach right at the beginning. I mean that I literally didn’t get the process after clicking on the puzzle piece for a minute or so. It was simple enough in retrospect, so maybe just my stupidity. Did anyone else struggle?
I doubt it is just you being thick 
In fact I seem to recall something similar from my first playthrough. In retrospect I should probably have explained a bit about the PPA, instead of just referring to the in-game explanation which isn’t as detailed as I thought it was.
And while we are on the subject, the PPA I mean, I am really impressed about how much thought and attention to detail they have put into how it works, even the savegames are grouped by the active mandate.
I’m behind. I’m well over two hours into the game, and it’s obvious I’ve missed something along the way. I’ve interviewed nine people. Well, actually eight since one of the inhabitants can’t talk. I really hate the idea of starting over. but backtracking every square inch is equally distasteful. My only thought is that I missed something in one of the conversations. Although I am asking everyone about everything. I did accomplish the first mandate.
Don’t start over!
There are no dead ends in this game, at least not in Adventure mode.
It is also unlikely that it is because of a missed conversation, most likely it is as kabouter said:
Perhaps you missed the same thing I missed at first? It took me a long time to find a location close to the Tortoise Belvedere that contained a vital material clue.
Also remember my hint:
The navigation can sometimes be a little confusing, and many locations have more exits or directions to go than what is immediately obvious. So make sure to move the cursor around on all screens to find all exits, and take the time to explore a bit instead of going the straight route.
I wonder if you have to question the mute girl.
It seems very rude and useless, but the option is there.
Actually I find a certain sadistic pleasure in asking her questions she can’t possibly answer 
But even if she can’t answer directly, her reactions to certain questions is still telling.
Btw, I think it should be possible to compare the footprints of the picture of Baina with the footprints next to the wheelchair but the game doesn’t allow
Evidence description: [spoiler]Disorderly footprints which seem to “rush” around the wheelchair. These footprints resemble Baïnan’s, but it is hard to tell: they’re too worn away to be identified.[/spoiler]
There is a reason and explanation for everything!
The more I play (untimed mode) the more I can see how timed would make more sense as a game. There would be much less need for unnecessary questions like interrogating Baina or asking people something they would know nothing about.
The need is exactly the same, and the possibility to ask is still there, you are just encouraged not to ask silly questions when you are on the clock.
The other thing I am wondering is if you can fail in the timed mode? Do you have to guess the culprit at the end?
I don’t know exactly what will happen if you fail, perhaps Kurufinwe can answer that, but I doubt you will be given a chance to guess.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
The other thing I am wondering is if you can fail in the timed mode? Do you have to guess the culprit at the end?
There are various deadlines, and it’s game over when you reach them (your boss tells you to go home because you’re useless). For instance, if you haven’t finished the second mandate by 4PM on day 1, or the third one by 10PM, you lose the game. On day 2, when the game gets more non-linear, you get something like 5 deadlines, each a couple of hours apart, but you can do the 5 mandates in any order.
The time limits are generally pretty generous. Actually, the worst one is probably the first, because it’s so easy to get distracted during the second mandate, which is when you get to meet everyone and visit everything. When I replayed the game the other week, I think it was past 2PM by the time I finished it, and I (mostly) knew what I was doing! But then I had the next one completed long before 10PM, which gave me plenty of time to explore at my leisure and ask all the questions I had skipped.
Finished day 1. Was stuck for a while because of pixel hunting of the footprints by the bridge. Although it the answer was pretty obvious at that point…
After that solved the second mandate and already had all the clues for the third so it was fast.
I think I am going to be falling way behind. I finally resorted to a WT and found that I should have been capturing photos of feet. Unlike capturing photos of hands, there was no prompt that this should occur. So now I apparently have to back and find all the characters, lots of walking, why wasn’t there an interactive map, to take pictures of their feet.
I may try to catch up when time permits. But I am not finding this game as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Don’t wait for me.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Also finished Day 1.
I really don’t know what to make of the game at this point. I am enjoying it, but I agree with others that some of it is pretty weird like taking photos of hands to trace a broken fingernail. I get that we should be using the PPA but even still.
Mandate 2 and 3 came reasonably quickly and would have been a lot quicker if I hadn’t missed Lorenzo’s torn jacket up in the workshop so completely!
On the whole I feel like I’m beginning to get to know the characters now which is good and, I think, necessary in an Agatha Christie style murder mystery, not to mention an investigation.
Also, surely I can’t be the only one who thinks…
3.5 time winner of the “Really Annoying Caption Contest Saboteur” Award!
I think I am going to be falling way behind. I finally resorted to a WT and found that I should have been capturing photos of feet. Unlike capturing photos of hands, there was no prompt that this should occur. So now I apparently have to back and find all the characters, lots of walking, why wasn’t there an interactive map, to take pictures of their feet.
I may try to catch up when time permits. But I am not finding this game as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Don’t wait for me.
I don’t think you have a choice what photos to take. Just use the old Adventure Game tactic of talking to everyone until the conversation repeats itself.
I think I am going to be falling way behind. I finally resorted to a WT and found that I should have been capturing photos of feet. Unlike capturing photos of hands, there was no prompt that this should occur. So now I apparently have to back and find all the characters, lots of walking, why wasn’t there an interactive map, to take pictures of their feet.
I may try to catch up when time permits. But I am not finding this game as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Don’t wait for me.
I don’t think you have a choice what photos to take. Just use the old Adventure Game tactic of talking to everyone until the conversation repeats itself.
The shoe photos are automatically triggered after discovering the footprints near the bridge
Also, surely I can’t be the only one who thinks…
I didn’t see it at the time but now I can’t unsee it.
I think I am going to be falling way behind. I finally resorted to a WT and found that I should have been capturing photos of feet. Unlike capturing photos of hands, there was no prompt that this should occur. So now I apparently have to back and find all the characters, lots of walking, why wasn’t there an interactive map, to take pictures of their feet.
I may try to catch up when time permits. But I am not finding this game as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Don’t wait for me.
The shoe photos are automatically triggered after discovering the footprints near the bridge
Sorry Tim that you’re not enjoying the game so much but I guess that you missed the footprints near the bridge so the taking of photos of feet wasn’t automatically triggered. On the subject of an interactive map I can see this can’t work in the event you may choose to play in timed mode but double-clicking does make Jack run.
I’ve now finished Day 1 & completed 3 of the mandates. I’ve continued to find the different viewpoints from various characters being asked the same questions interesting but started to realise how many of them (i.e the questions) were unnecessary which I guess need to be more carefully selected to get through the timed option!
I can’t believe I had this game for so long without getting around to playing it as I’m loving it so far!
I can’t un-see that comparison either that you posted Intense Degree! but regarding that character he’s apparently the youngest brother but to me he does look like the oldest sibling?
A couple of the other characters look familiar too! 
The whole Marco = Schwarzenegger struck me when I first played the game a decade ago, and I’ve never been able to unsee it.
Speaking of things you’ll never be able to unsee, Walter Jones is a lecherous real-estate magnate who loves building towers and sticking his name on them. Who could have been the inspiration for that character?... (Not physically, obviously.)
Totally agree! As I was playing through it walking back along the beach I said to myself, “OK, back to Trump Tower!”
One of the things that surprises me about the game is just how bad the English is. It really does feel like the dialogue was written in French and then just run through google translate. “Pardon, Je suis un peu distrait” (or whatever it would be - apologies to French members!) sounds like idiomatically good French to my inexpert ear, but “Sorry, I am a little distracted” (or whatever the exact line is) is frankly risible English.
3.5 time winner of the “Really Annoying Caption Contest Saboteur” Award!
One of the things that surprises me about the game is just how bad the English is. It really does feel like the dialogue was written in French and then just run through google translate. “Pardon, Je suis un peu distrait” (or whatever it would be - apologies to French members!) sounds like idiomatically good French to my inexpert ear, but “Sorry, I am a little distracted” (or whatever the exact line is) is frankly risible English.
As a non-native English speaker this doesn’t bother me that much. In fact all the dialogue is perfectly understandable for me, whereas sometimes a game from US origins contains some colloquialisms I have to guess the meaning of, or look up…
I may try to catch up when time permits. But I am not finding this game as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Don’t wait for me.
Maybe it is encouraging to know, that we think on Day 2 the pacing improves a lot: more to do in a smaller space means less walking through empty locations.
Because at the end of Day 1 the story started to pick up again after we spent a lot of time trying to find what we were missing to complete the second mandate (it was the piece of cloth ripped from Lorenzo’s jacket because I had kept missing the exit to that screen), we were curious to know where the story was going next. This means we are now a bit ahead of the playthrough.
I thought I had done just about everything I could think of to solve the second mandate. Turns out I was right. I found a walkthrough and I am missing one item: A picture of Nolent’s shoes. I am with him in the Library, and no amount of conversation brings up a prompt to photograph his shoes. So, I am stymied as to what to do next. Hint would be appreciated! I am already close to six hours into a section that was only supposed to take two hours. Not an auspicious start!
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
The shoe photos are automatically triggered after discovering the footprints near the bridge
I’m not sure what you mean by bridge The only footprints I found were with the wheelchair tracks right before you reach the cliff where WJ died.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
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