I did this on hit the road as well. Actually, Hit the road was one of those games I got stuck on and it took a long time before I finished it(first time I played it was back in 1995 or 96, but I finished it for the first time in 2003). I find it so annoying when an illogical puzzle ruins my gaming experience, so better to apply a walkthrough instead if one gets confused.
I remember getting stuck with the Frog Rock puzzle on HTR.... good times
But there is one thing that is worse than obscure puzzles: puzzles that require pixel hunting. I remember that while playing Gabriel Knight 1 I got stuck for that. I put the game on the shelf for over a year just because I couldn't find a darned pixel painted differently at the beginning of day 10 (I even found a bug that gave you 1 extra point). Same happened with Gabriel Knight 2 (There seems to be a pattern) at the scene at the side of the lake (couldn't find the right place at the railing that I needed to click)
So as long as S&M does not have pixel hunting puzzles I'm happy.
I really had no problems with the puzzle logic of Episode 6 - it flowed very well for me. The only time I got stuck was getting into the lunar lander - I, being an oldskool "must get inventory" type adventure gamer, got my hands on the antenna the first chance I got, but my problem was that I had no idea you could interact with the lunar lander door. It looked a lot like just another part of the same object and I never thought to mouse over it. I think that using the antenna on the lander itself (which i tried!) should have triggered the same event, or at the least triggered Sam to say something about the door.
I really liked Max giving out hints. He's usually pretty useless, to quote a line of dialogue. The hints did a good job of being helpful without giving away too much, while simultaneously remaining fairly clever dialogue. My only problem is the use of the word "hint..." seriously takes you out of the game. Sam should ask Max instead, "Help me out with something," or something similar.
I didn't complain about the difficulty. I complained about two specific puzzle which were UNFAIR, meaning - I couldn't have found them up without pixel hunting (
finding the antenna since I didn't know the USE COATHANGER TO GET CAR KEYS trick
) or randomly using objects with items(
Making Leonard puke, since I didn't click on him at the beginning of the game, and therefore had no way to know he had been eating the deed
). I think some of the puzzles in Abe Lincoln and Reality 2.0 (and also some of the puzzles in this game) were difficult in a good way, and not unfair.
I'm surprised to find that people haven't heard of the coathanger trick before - I mean I've never used it, and still know about it. I don't know why it matters, though. You can see the window's open, you can see the lock, so think of something you can stick down there. As someone else said, everything in these games is worth exploring; I didn't pick the coathanger up straight away either, but that was my fault for not being observant enough. You didn't have the clue you needed regarding Leonard because you didn't explore the possibilities enough there, either. If the game were about telling you explicitly what to do at every turn, without investigating for yourself, it would be no fun whatsoever.
(THIS ENTIRE POST IS A SPOILER)
1) I didn't like being able to USE max as a hint system. This is because (a) I think it's weird to be able to ask Max "Can you give me a hint?" - makes you feel like you're playing a game.
I disagree. Not sure if you actually listened to any of the "hints" but they were perfectly crafted not to give the puzzle away - AT ALL. Most of the time they were just silly responses or a clue to steer away from something.
2) I think some of the puzzles this time were a bit unfair (i.e, I was stuck a few times, and when I accidently solved the puzzle I didn't bang my head and said - how didn't I think of that!?)
Agreed. I wonder where all the people who said that "old skool" hard puzzles would make the game "better" are??
Specifically:
I) the antenna has been there forever and there was no reason to suspect we could take it this time.
Actually, I think that was pretty logical, given the very specific shot of the window being slightly open and the door lock being in sight.
II) There was nothing that hinted that we should make Leonard throw up. When Sam used the throwing up thingy on most characters, he just said "I don't want to see him throw up", and there was just no reason to suspect Leonard had that deed inside him (unless I missed something)
There was, but not after Max had been separated, which was a bit of a design flaw. Before that you were told specifically that Max had fed Leonard the Deeds to the US.
3) Just a tiny grump - in this episode, for some reason, I got kinda annoyed with getting stuck into Max while walking (the wheeeee thing). Last episodes it was cute, but this time for some reason Max just kept getting in my way all the time.
Again, agreed. No idea why it was changed, but Sam should always keep walking after hitting Max otherwise it's just. very. annoying!
Just wanted to comment that despite those three things, the episode was still pretty good, and the fact that it's my least favorite just goes to show how great this season was
Episode 6 was easily the second best in my opinion. Good stuff TT!!!
I have to disagree on the antenna puzzle comment, it was one of the best puzzles in my opinion. I quickly found the hanger, as I clicked everything in the office to hear Sam's commentary.
The Deed puzzle I kinda solved accidentally by trying to make anyone with a stomach throw up! I actually missed the significance of Max saying he fed the deed to Leonard and only figured out later what to do with it.
The whole issue on the hint system: Not to be pedantic, but for all those complaining that the word 'hint' does not fit in with the universe or characters, I believe (have to check again) Sam does not actually use the word 'hint' in his dialog. He says something like "Could you help me with something little buddy" or somesuch. The dialog choices usually are only an indication of where the dialog is going and has been since episode 1.
I found the hint system aided replayability, because after finishing the episode, I replayed it just to hear what Max would consider as hints!
The only thing difficult about the moonlander was that I didn't see the door as a seperate item at first. So I tried lots of things on the lander but that didn't do anything
And of course I played with it first time I got the chance so I knew the engine burn.. I tried the spoon-capsule in the microwave at Bosco's first. That gave the hint 'not hot enough', weeeeeell.... that's fixable
I grabbed the coathanger at the start of the episode 'cos I click on all stuff in the office to hear comments and descriptions
The deed got me stuck because I didn't recognize it as something valuable at all.
It's good to see I wasn't alone in wanting the earthquake machine to get into Huge's room ;-)
My problem with the whole earthquake machine set of puzzles is that once you've completed the first step,
getting the deed from Leonard
, it's essentially just a string of chores to arrive at the conclusion.
Sybil wants land, so you sell it to her. No prizes for guessing where to take the 6th huge wad of cash in the season, and then there's only one place you CAN use the earthquake machine
, regardless of whether or not you thought about the puzzle. The one other restriction,
waiting for Sybil to have a change of heart
, isn't a puzzle, it's just a matter of waiting until the right stage in the game. I'm not saying it was wrong to have a puzzle that couldn't be completed at the time - that's perfectly fine - but to have the solution magically appear
(no pun intended!)
, rather than, say, acquiring some new items that allowed me to progress with a bit of thought along that previously dormant chain, was a bit disappointing.
She won't buy the U.S. until after the 'blissification', although you can offer it to her.
Sounds like you missed out on that entirely Which is kind of my point - things have to be pretty simple for you to solve them without realising!
That reminds me of something that happened when I was playing Reality 2.0.
I customised my car randomly, without realising it was part of a puzzle, and by chance hit on the right combination (a 1 in 64 probability, if I remember rightly that there were four colours to choose from)!
So the firewall thing seemed a bit pointless to me. I only found out it was a puzzle on these forums.
*Is sick of spoilers* I wonder if anyone who hasn't completed the game will actually be reading this kind of thread?
*Is sick of spoilers* I wonder if anyone who hasn't completed the game will actually be reading this kind of thread?
I guess you could mark the thread itself as 'has spoilers' and be done with it
About the thing I 'missed', there simply was no need to do that or look into (buying the thing from Bosco) before the bliss thingie happened. After that you get stuck and NEED it. Besides, getting the cash was the most difficult puzzle of the episode for me so I post-poned it
I tend to do things out of order, usually when I can't solve one thing I jump to the next first.
[sarcastic mode]
As opposed to a talking dog and rabbit, a rabbit president, a talking giant head, ...
[/sarcastic mode]
If you have the opportunity, check the comics, I doubt you'll find those any less "silly". Besides Max explains how they made the car fly to the moon at the beginning.
Spoiler:
Its orange and they still have plenty left in the tank
After selling the deed to Sybil the Desoto is "canadian". But in the credits, it's american again. What happened?
That is a very small goof.... personally I was more pissed by the lack of references to Brady Culture, considering the role he had in episode one and the fact that all the other season characters* were in the credits. But overall, that was one of the best closing credits I've ever seen (Gotta love the song and the final scene)
Still, criticizing an episode for a credit goof.... harsh
* Spoiler
The other being Hugh, but he was present in spirit
I thought about putting Brady in the closing credits... he was going to be... but it proved too tough to get an alternate shaved-head version on such a quick turnaround, so he got left out Hopefully we see him again someday.
Comments
But there is one thing that is worse than obscure puzzles: puzzles that require pixel hunting. I remember that while playing Gabriel Knight 1 I got stuck for that. I put the game on the shelf for over a year just because I couldn't find a darned pixel painted differently at the beginning of day 10 (I even found a bug that gave you 1 extra point). Same happened with Gabriel Knight 2 (There seems to be a pattern) at the scene at the side of the lake (couldn't find the right place at the railing that I needed to click)
So as long as S&M does not have pixel hunting puzzles I'm happy.
I really liked Max giving out hints. He's usually pretty useless, to quote a line of dialogue. The hints did a good job of being helpful without giving away too much, while simultaneously remaining fairly clever dialogue. My only problem is the use of the word "hint..." seriously takes you out of the game. Sam should ask Max instead, "Help me out with something," or something similar.
I'm surprised to find that people haven't heard of the coathanger trick before - I mean I've never used it, and still know about it. I don't know why it matters, though. You can see the window's open, you can see the lock, so think of something you can stick down there. As someone else said, everything in these games is worth exploring; I didn't pick the coathanger up straight away either, but that was my fault for not being observant enough. You didn't have the clue you needed regarding Leonard because you didn't explore the possibilities enough there, either. If the game were about telling you explicitly what to do at every turn, without investigating for yourself, it would be no fun whatsoever.
I disagree. Not sure if you actually listened to any of the "hints" but they were perfectly crafted not to give the puzzle away - AT ALL. Most of the time they were just silly responses or a clue to steer away from something.
Agreed. I wonder where all the people who said that "old skool" hard puzzles would make the game "better" are??
Actually, I think that was pretty logical, given the very specific shot of the window being slightly open and the door lock being in sight.
There was, but not after Max had been separated, which was a bit of a design flaw. Before that you were told specifically that Max had fed Leonard the Deeds to the US.
Again, agreed. No idea why it was changed, but Sam should always keep walking after hitting Max otherwise it's just. very. annoying!
Episode 6 was easily the second best in my opinion. Good stuff TT!!!
I have to disagree on the antenna puzzle comment, it was one of the best puzzles in my opinion. I quickly found the hanger, as I clicked everything in the office to hear Sam's commentary.
The Deed puzzle I kinda solved accidentally by trying to make anyone with a stomach throw up! I actually missed the significance of Max saying he fed the deed to Leonard and only figured out later what to do with it.
The whole issue on the hint system: Not to be pedantic, but for all those complaining that the word 'hint' does not fit in with the universe or characters, I believe (have to check again) Sam does not actually use the word 'hint' in his dialog. He says something like "Could you help me with something little buddy" or somesuch. The dialog choices usually are only an indication of where the dialog is going and has been since episode 1.
I found the hint system aided replayability, because after finishing the episode, I replayed it just to hear what Max would consider as hints!
And of course I played with it first time I got the chance so I knew the engine burn.. I tried the spoon-capsule in the microwave at Bosco's first. That gave the hint 'not hot enough', weeeeeell.... that's fixable
I grabbed the coathanger at the start of the episode 'cos I click on all stuff in the office to hear comments and descriptions
The deed got me stuck because I didn't recognize it as something valuable at all.
It's good to see I wasn't alone in wanting the earthquake machine to get into Huge's room ;-)
That reminds me of something that happened when I was playing Reality 2.0.
*Is sick of spoilers* I wonder if anyone who hasn't completed the game will actually be reading this kind of thread?
I guess you could mark the thread itself as 'has spoilers' and be done with it
About the thing I 'missed', there simply was no need to do that or look into (buying the thing from Bosco) before the bliss thingie happened. After that you get stuck and NEED it. Besides, getting the cash was the most difficult puzzle of the episode for me so I post-poned it
I tend to do things out of order, usually when I can't solve one thing I jump to the next first.
And the thing with the car flying to the moon is very silly.
As opposed to a talking dog and rabbit, a rabbit president, a talking giant head, ...
[/sarcastic mode]
If you have the opportunity, check the comics, I doubt you'll find those any less "silly". Besides Max explains how they made the car fly to the moon at the beginning.
Spoiler:
That is a very small goof.... personally I was more pissed by the lack of references to Brady Culture, considering the role he had in episode one and the fact that all the other season characters* were in the credits. But overall, that was one of the best closing credits I've ever seen (Gotta love the song and the final scene)
Still, criticizing an episode for a credit goof.... harsh
* Spoiler
And what exact did Sam do to Hugh Bliss at the end when he defeat him? Was it with gas or something, cause I didn't understood what made him go away?
In the end he got
Ah okey thanks for the answer.
Jake are you a part of the Telltale Company?
FYI: If the name is in italics, the poster works at Telltale (or was an intern)
I'm afraid jmm has already beaten you to this fact!
By those statements you can infer that Deidra (Squinky) is working at Telltale, is she?