I tried something a little different with the hints this time (Still affected by what setting you have hints at). Not all of the hints come in the form of Guybrush just blurting out something as you walk around. This time I integrated more of the hints into the gameplay. Sometimes new dialog options would appear for characters you talk to. Sometimes just clicking on objects you have clicked on before will offer new descriptions to point you in the right direction. Sometime other characters will offer hints when you exit a dialog with them. I think there are even a couple of instances where the camera does something different when you click around the environment to highlight things you may have missed before.
Those of you who wish the hints were more subtle and less outright telling you what to do, you have had help from out hint system and not even known it!
the best things in life ARE the things you dont notice till their gone.
I had a little more trouble with this one than the last one, but I don't think it was harder, there were just a few puzzles that I got hung up on for stupid reasons.
Mainly
the bucket
. I just totally missed it the first five times I went there.
The hints were well done. I had them turned down, and I didn't feel they ever intruded when I didn't want them to. There was only one that I actually needed, but it sure saved me a bunch of frustration. Guybrush said
something about the locket "having worn edges and being used for something else." From that I got that I should put in in the manatee, which I'd been totally unable to figure out until then. It still doesn't make much sense. That stupid shack on Roe Island was full of way too many red herrings.
Anyways, overall, the difficulty was spot on, like the first game. I just think the puzzles were a little less tightly designed this time around.
The only disappointing thing, difficulty wise, was that Elaine kept telling you what you needed to do... distract with the cannon, go to this place, this place and that place for items etc despite having hints set to 0. But all in all it wasn't too easy...
Oh and I'd just like to say, my favourite hint system was in Sam and Max season one where you actually had to ask for hints rather than being randomly given them. I'm not sure why that was stopped.
Found it easier than chapter 1, too, it must vary from one person to the next. I was only stuck once, couldn't find an item fo a while. But I guessed what I was going to have to do long before I had to do it in several cases (which is frustrating when you can't take an item yet)
I finished the first game in two days (not spending all day each day of course) and I finished the second one in a few hours.
HOWEVER I didn't have the hints turned completely off so I have no clue if I got some hints without realising.
But I don't have a huge problems with it being easy. I'd rather spend most of my time playing than spending most of my time trying to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do.
It feels shorter to me than a chapter of the previous MI games (that is, if you do everything in order, already know what to do, etc) but that could be because of how it's cut into chapters rather than being all together.
I do feel like I spent more time doing things I knew weren't useful (like misleading LeChuck in every possible way, reading all fish jokes, looking at items at least twice to see if it changed...), but the thing is, these were all entertaining and part of the Monkey Island experience (because it was all funny. Well, the fish jokes weren't that great, but you know what I mean).
If feels to me, if you just want to rush, do the bare minimum and finish the game as fast as possible, you might feel the game is lacking.
But if you take your time, enjoy the ride, try everything you can, etc, it's already a most complete game.
I still find it short (I'd find almost every length too short :P), but for what I paid it's a good length.
And I liked the fact that what I was supposed to tell people seemed obvious to me, because it allowed me to try everything else first.
I played with hints off completely and it took me probably eight hours. I got stuck for hours on the golden artifact puzzles but didn't hint search. I also drain every single thing out of the game in terms of dialog and item combinations and clicking. I found the difficulty level to be great - there was nothing insanely stupid but I had to think very hard several times.
To be honest I don't think you can make episodic adventure games that hard and still good - generally things are only really hard if they're illogical. And then you hit a point of frustration.
I love Mark's idea though - seamless hint integration sounds MUCH better and less experience breaking. I'm kind of tempted to do the game again to hear the hint dialog.
What? Are you kidding me? It was a lot more frustrating than chapter one! Also, it was less straightforward!
Definitely varies from person to person. I'd estimate that chapter 2 took me half the time of chapter one. I also didn't get stuck, except once when it took me some time to find a certain item (starts with a while I got stuck several times in chapter 1.
I couldn’t find Brilling Island at first
I just didn’t see it
That posed a problem in obtaining the Golden Seahorse
I figured that the Pirates on Spoon Is would bury my bird with their treasure and all I have to do is listen for it and dig it up.
But where to dig
The two islands I could see where bare
And I could always get the pirates to give me back my bird, so maybe I was missing something..
What if I put a Guybrush tracer on them
Then follow the breadcrumbs till I find a place to dig.
But they always go off in the ship
And they hadn’t gone to another part of spoon island.
I found this out while scouring the jungle listening for “it’s me Guy…”
Ok, so the little pirate said that the tall one won’t let him pick a spot to bury the treasure.
Easy
All I have to do is get the little one to win the staring contest
He’ll choose to bury the chest in the jungle
I’ll put some fish eggs in his pocket, which he will randomly drop
And I follow the bread crumbs till I hear “ it’s me…”
Then I dig
But alas it’s impossible
After more jungle walking and nearly kicking the BBQ
It all became clear
That’s why they always allow me to get my bird back.
I wasn’t suppose to follow them at all
All was clear
I had to melt the bird in the BBQ mold it like a turtle, insert it onto the Chest when the pirates weren’t looking and let them bury it.
That way when they dig it up again they will find two ancient summoning artefacts.
The stupid pirates won’t remember which one is theirs allowing me to claim the seahorse.
All I needed was that BBQ switch, which was attached to the hot tub.
But each time reach for it I learn that parts are on their way.
Easy
Track down the parts which must have been held up somewhere in the sea.
This was turning into a really cool puzzle.
Turning to the map I suddenly found Brillig Island.
The Hot tub parts must be there, there is no other place.
Lets say I was a little disappointed to hear
“it’s me…..”
I like my MI games to be hard
The harder the better
Well thats relative. For you it was hard because you didint find the small island on the first place.
For me, it was the first island i went after leaving JerkBait. So i found the treasure on my first look. And then when i travel to the other islands i was really dissapointed to find out they were just empty and useless.
Well thats relative. For you it was hard because you didint find the small island on the first place.
For me, it was the first island i went after leaving JerkBait. So i found the treasure on my first look. And then when i travel to the other islands i was really dissapointed to find out they were just empty and useless.
I was implying that is was easier than i had hoped.
But a great game, can't wait for the next installment
Well thats relative. For you it was hard because you didint find the small island on the first place.
For me, it was the first island i went after leaving JerkBait. So i found the treasure on my first look. And then when i travel to the other islands i was really dissapointed to find out they were just empty and useless.
I actually went to all of the other islands (or tried to. You can't go to Gelato or Floatsam) even before going to JerkBait.
if you had hints on at even the lowest setting, don't come here and complain about the game being too easy
Seconded. I have hints completely turned off (as I had in Episode 1), the first one I've played through in roughly two hours (I did take a hint from the forums, definitely won't do so in this episode).
I'm now about an hour into the 2nd Episode and so far I
have arrived on Jerkbait, made the two pirates bury their treasure, and helped LeChuck open the treasure chest with the second one. Haven't figured out yet how to get it out of the chest though
.
So far it feels as if it's harder than the 1st Episode but I also think it has improved in every aspect. It just gets more awesome and awesome, I especially loved the intro swordfight.
The cliff where the chest is standing on looks like it can be broken when there's enough weight. I figured me and LeChuck had to stand on it at the same time (and jump or something), but apparently it doesn't work
The only disappointing thing, difficulty wise, was that Elaine kept telling you what you needed to do... distract with the cannon, go to this place, this place and that place for items etc despite having hints set to 0. But all in all it wasn't too easy...
I think that worked, both to give the player a well-defined goal (otherwise we'd just be wandering aimlessly) and to establish Elaine's character as a governor/a bit of a control freak.
She never actually told us how to solve the puzzles, she simply guided us to them.
Anyway, I thought this was a well-balanced episode, in terms of the puzzles. I had a few "LeChuck" moments at times, where I was trying to
use the melted pyrite on those glowling turtle-y lamps, which I then tried to pry open with everything I had, etc.
, and there were other moments where I knew exactly what to do.
None of the puzzles were illogical or frustrating, and some were really really clever, even if they were easy (the LeChuck one). Overall, I'd say that the puzzles were a complete success...although, yeah, I wouldn't mind scaling up the difficulty in later episodes.
I tried something a little different with the hints this time (Still affected by what setting you have hints at). Not all of the hints come in the form of Guybrush just blurting out something as you walk around. This time I integrated more of the hints into the gameplay. Sometimes new dialog options would appear for characters you talk to. Sometimes just clicking on objects you have clicked on before will offer new descriptions to point you in the right direction. Sometime other characters will offer hints when you exit a dialog with them. I think there are even a couple of instances where the camera does something different when you click around the environment to highlight things you may have missed before.
I always play without hints but this actually sounds interesting enough to make me replay the game with hints all the way up.
Oh yeah: playtime was something around 4 hours. Maybe a little less then 4 hours but the length was still okay and it was definitely longer then Wallace & Grommit Episodes 1-3.
I found this games very easy to complete! Dint really need to think hard how to slove most of the puzzles. All the way through this chaper I was waiting to see an old character from the past I like the little tunes though Largo's music and the music from the 3rd Monkey Island, "I pirate I was ment to be........" a very nice touch. We just need to see Stan, Murray, Largo and Wally! Good chapter though!
Agree... way to easy... only had one snag (finding the small island on the map).
I think the main problem is the FREAKING episodes!!! It narrows down the environment and therefore also the options....
There are like 3 people to talk to in each episode so far...
And STOP destroying the sound for the benefit!!?? of having the download size limited to 200Mb! Whos dumb ass idea was that...
I wonder what the thought process was....
A - Each episode is now 800Mb what do you thing about that?
B - That wont work, people will not have the time or patience to download that much.
A - Eh, Ok lets cut the soundquality down to below minimum, and lets make the game a bit easier to, so those that want to finish the game on their coffebreak can do that (exaggeration but still...)
And STOP destroying the sound for the benefit!!?? of having the download size limited to 200Mb! Whos dumb ass idea was that... I wonder what the thought process was.... A - Each episode is now 800Mb what do you thing about that?
B - That wont work, people will not have the time or patience to download that much.
A - Eh, Ok lets cut the soundquality down to below minimum, and lets make the game a bit easier to, so those that want to finish the game on their coffebreak can do that (exaggeration but still...)
Perhaps they're trying to cater for people with slower internet connections so that everyone has a chance of downloading it within a reasonable amount of time? Admittedly I noticed some horrible hissing coming out of Elaine's mouth, but I can live with it.
Perhaps they're trying to cater for people with slower internet connections so that everyone has a chance of downloading it within a reasonable amount of time? Admittedly I noticed some horrible hissing coming out of Elaine's mouth, but I can live with it.
Ok, I personally can live with it taking a whole night, as long the game doesn't cut corners.... but fair enough.... but this also means that there is a huge restriction on the amount of characters/voices/dialogs/people to meet and interact with. Which in turn brings up my beef with the episodes strangling the game. :mad:
It's too short! It's not hard enough! I want my money back!
...
That was just a sam and max quote.
Finding that island had me stumped. When I finally realized it though, I wasn't actually annoyed, I don't mind an observation puzzle, as long as it's not too bad. Made it feel like an old monkey island.
That's pretty funny, because as soon as I started looking for that treasure, something clicked: "Brillig Island!". Bigger than the two other ones, and honestly, there was something about that rubber tree...
I don't think the game is to easy, I fits perfectly.
I hit my bumbs and holes on the way, but it didnt take too long to figure it out.
The only problem I have with the game/episodes is.... THEY ARE TO SHORT... make them last longer. I want to play more.
If every episode would just last a little longer then 3-4 hours, and then afterwards have to wait another month for the next episode.
All I want to say is... The game is fricking AWESOME... gimme more please.. and fast
I don't think the game is to easy, I fits perfectly.
I hit my bumbs and holes on the way, but it didnt take too long to figure it out.
The only problem I have with the game/episodes is.... THEY ARE TO SHORT... make them last longer. I want to play more.
If every episode would just last a little longer then 3-4 hours, and then afterwards have to wait another month for the next episode.
All I want to say is... The game is fricking AWESOME... gimme more please.. and fast
I agree 100% with this.
If only the episodes were longer, this would be my favorite game ever
Comments
OMG! Game designers learning!
what ever will come next???
Only joking! I think it's great you are listening to the feedback.
the best things in life ARE the things you dont notice till their gone.
Mainly
The hints were well done. I had them turned down, and I didn't feel they ever intruded when I didn't want them to. There was only one that I actually needed, but it sure saved me a bunch of frustration. Guybrush said
Anyways, overall, the difficulty was spot on, like the first game. I just think the puzzles were a little less tightly designed this time around.
It wasn't until I'd finished the game & come on here after that someone told me it was red... not cool TT.
Not that easy then. I replayed it earlier & finished it in 1hr 30min without skipping any dialogue.
There's a
I finished the first game in two days (not spending all day each day of course) and I finished the second one in a few hours.
HOWEVER I didn't have the hints turned completely off so I have no clue if I got some hints without realising.
But I don't have a huge problems with it being easy. I'd rather spend most of my time playing than spending most of my time trying to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do.
It feels shorter to me than a chapter of the previous MI games (that is, if you do everything in order, already know what to do, etc) but that could be because of how it's cut into chapters rather than being all together.
I do feel like I spent more time doing things I knew weren't useful (like misleading LeChuck in every possible way, reading all fish jokes, looking at items at least twice to see if it changed...), but the thing is, these were all entertaining and part of the Monkey Island experience (because it was all funny. Well, the fish jokes weren't that great, but you know what I mean).
If feels to me, if you just want to rush, do the bare minimum and finish the game as fast as possible, you might feel the game is lacking.
But if you take your time, enjoy the ride, try everything you can, etc, it's already a most complete game.
I still find it short (I'd find almost every length too short :P), but for what I paid it's a good length.
And I liked the fact that what I was supposed to tell people seemed obvious to me, because it allowed me to try everything else first.
To be honest I don't think you can make episodic adventure games that hard and still good - generally things are only really hard if they're illogical. And then you hit a point of frustration.
I love Mark's idea though - seamless hint integration sounds MUCH better and less experience breaking. I'm kind of tempted to do the game again to hear the hint dialog.
What? Are you kidding me? It was a lot more frustrating than chapter one! Also, it was less straightforward!
Definitely varies from person to person. I'd estimate that chapter 2 took me half the time of chapter one. I also didn't get stuck, except once when it took me some time to find a certain item (starts with a
I just didn’t see it
That posed a problem in obtaining the Golden Seahorse
I figured that the Pirates on Spoon Is would bury my bird with their treasure and all I have to do is listen for it and dig it up.
But where to dig
The two islands I could see where bare
And I could always get the pirates to give me back my bird, so maybe I was missing something..
What if I put a Guybrush tracer on them
Then follow the breadcrumbs till I find a place to dig.
But they always go off in the ship
And they hadn’t gone to another part of spoon island.
I found this out while scouring the jungle listening for “it’s me Guy…”
Ok, so the little pirate said that the tall one won’t let him pick a spot to bury the treasure.
Easy
All I have to do is get the little one to win the staring contest
He’ll choose to bury the chest in the jungle
I’ll put some fish eggs in his pocket, which he will randomly drop
And I follow the bread crumbs till I hear “ it’s me…”
Then I dig
But alas it’s impossible
After more jungle walking and nearly kicking the BBQ
It all became clear
That’s why they always allow me to get my bird back.
I wasn’t suppose to follow them at all
All was clear
I had to melt the bird in the BBQ mold it like a turtle, insert it onto the Chest when the pirates weren’t looking and let them bury it.
That way when they dig it up again they will find two ancient summoning artefacts.
The stupid pirates won’t remember which one is theirs allowing me to claim the seahorse.
All I needed was that BBQ switch, which was attached to the hot tub.
But each time reach for it I learn that parts are on their way.
Easy
Track down the parts which must have been held up somewhere in the sea.
This was turning into a really cool puzzle.
Turning to the map I suddenly found Brillig Island.
The Hot tub parts must be there, there is no other place.
Lets say I was a little disappointed to hear
“it’s me…..”
I like my MI games to be hard
The harder the better
For me, it was the first island i went after leaving JerkBait. So i found the treasure on my first look. And then when i travel to the other islands i was really dissapointed to find out they were just empty and useless.
if you had hints on at even the lowest setting, don't come here and complain about the game being too easy
I was implying that is was easier than i had hoped.
But a great game, can't wait for the next installment
I actually went to all of the other islands (or tried to. You can't go to Gelato or Floatsam) even before going to JerkBait.
Seconded. I have hints completely turned off (as I had in Episode 1), the first one I've played through in roughly two hours (I did take a hint from the forums, definitely won't do so in this episode).
I'm now about an hour into the 2nd Episode and so far I
So far it feels as if it's harder than the 1st Episode but I also think it has improved in every aspect. It just gets more awesome and awesome, I especially loved the intro swordfight.
The cliff where the chest is standing on looks like it can be broken when there's enough weight. I figured me and LeChuck had to stand on it at the same time (and jump or something), but apparently it doesn't work
No hints please!
I think that worked, both to give the player a well-defined goal (otherwise we'd just be wandering aimlessly) and to establish Elaine's character as a governor/a bit of a control freak.
She never actually told us how to solve the puzzles, she simply guided us to them.
Anyway, I thought this was a well-balanced episode, in terms of the puzzles. I had a few "LeChuck" moments at times, where I was trying to
None of the puzzles were illogical or frustrating, and some were really really clever, even if they were easy (the LeChuck one). Overall, I'd say that the puzzles were a complete success...although, yeah, I wouldn't mind scaling up the difficulty in later episodes.
Me neither. I had more problems with the broken Tiki and the other tikis in Episode 1 than any puzzle in Episode 2.
I always play without hints but this actually sounds interesting enough to make me replay the game with hints all the way up.
Oh yeah: playtime was something around 4 hours. Maybe a little less then 4 hours but the length was still okay and it was definitely longer then Wallace & Grommit Episodes 1-3.
I think the main problem is the FREAKING episodes!!! It narrows down the environment and therefore also the options....
There are like 3 people to talk to in each episode so far...
And STOP destroying the sound for the benefit!!??
I wonder what the thought process was....
A - Each episode is now 800Mb what do you thing about that?
B - That wont work, people will not have the time or patience to download that much.
A - Eh, Ok lets cut the soundquality down to below minimum, and lets make the game a bit easier to, so those that want to finish the game on their coffebreak can do that (exaggeration but still...)
Perhaps they're trying to cater for people with slower internet connections so that everyone has a chance of downloading it within a reasonable amount of time? Admittedly I noticed some horrible hissing coming out of Elaine's mouth, but I can live with it.
Ok, I personally can live with it taking a whole night, as long the game doesn't cut corners.... but fair enough.... but this also means that there is a huge restriction on the amount of characters/voices/dialogs/people to meet and interact with. Which in turn brings up my beef with the episodes strangling the game. :mad:
That's pretty funny, because as soon as I started looking for that treasure, something clicked: "Brillig Island!". Bigger than the two other ones, and honestly, there was something about that rubber tree...
I don't know, maybe that's just my hunches
I hit my bumbs and holes on the way, but it didnt take too long to figure it out.
The only problem I have with the game/episodes is.... THEY ARE TO SHORT... make them last longer. I want to play more.
If every episode would just last a little longer then 3-4 hours, and then afterwards have to wait another month for the next episode.
All I want to say is... The game is fricking AWESOME... gimme more please.. and fast
I agree 100% with this.
If only the episodes were longer, this would be my favorite game ever