Take heart all you folks that are getting whipped by Half Life 2: Episode 1, for here I am stumped on what is generally recognized as the easiest adventure game of all time. I hold my head down in shame.
The puzzle that kicked my ass was the musical cave one where you have to (re)create a little tune to proceed. I had no idea what to do so I try a few random tunes to see if any hints are revealed, but I didn’t notice anything. I go read the FAQ and it turns out that the tune was played a bit earlier when you did something. But hell, the tune didn’t register in my short term memory. In fact, I couldn’t even remember the tune being played at all. I tried to get that tune played back again, but couldn’t do it.
I could have brute forced the recreation of the tune, I believe there were 3^4 permutations, which isn’t too terrible, but fuck that…
I knew what I needed to do (it DOES show one of the Morlock guys playing the tune to do something earlier), but I wasn’t paying attention to the actual tune when it was first played, so I needed to reload and listen to it again. The puzzles in that game are few and far between, anyway, so I doubt you’ll get stuck again.
What are you talking about, this is the worst puzzle in Dreamfall by a mile. I had to hit the boards for this one too, and I am glad I didn’t spend any more time on it because I never would have figured it out.
Actually, I’m wrong. It shows the Morlocks playing it later, but the first time you need to do it, you had only heard it because it’s what plays when you activated the crane or whatever it is (memory…fuzzy).
I’d missed it too, as my wife and I stopped for the night and saved right after we got to the top of the waterwheel. Damn if I could remember any tunes at that point, and we’d knocked out the fishers. I didn’t think to relisten to what happens when you power the waterwheel.
The puzzle is totally easy, guys. Come on. This is child’s play we’re talking about. The only problem is the spawning Morlocks wouldn’t necessarily be triggered into walking up to the cave all the time, and it was a hassle to wait, or to go back and forth trying to set off a worker’s arrival, etc.
If you walked back and forth from the waterwheel to the little temple entrance, then hid in the lower area near the water, a Morlock would appear and open the gate. If you scared him away, you could repeat the process over and over until you figured the puzzle out.
I loved that puzzle! Especially the way the sequence of notes are also used in the soundtrack. Something told me when the notes first played that they were going to be part of a music puzzle.
Wow. I guess you’re one in 98,325 people who would think that.
Seriously, this is game design 101. Never have the only hint to a puzzle be a one-off that can only be triggered once. How they could ever think anyone would remember what seemed to be background music that only played once could eventually be the solution to a puzzle is just plain piss-poor design. It looks like they let the combat designer put one puzzle in the game as well.
