We finish off the final Boss. Several hours for me, Much shorter time for you. Also, never doing Hell temple, you can't make me. Alright, here's where I'll rant a bit about the game. This is where I'll get on a soap box and compliment AND Criticize the game (It's important I do both), Because this game is special. At it's core level, it's really an average game at best, but I like it a lot more than that because I like the pros and don't mind the cons... but I know a lot of people that DO mind the cons. So let's start with some aspects. The first of which is Relaying information. This is critical to have puzzles work in a game. This game does a fair job at it, however, it has some holes. The first as that while 90% of tablets correlate to the area they are in at least, another 10% give hints to the bigger puzzles later in the game (In Particular, The Eden Puzzle, the Flail Whip Puzzle, The Dimensional Corridor Puzzle, The Ocarina Puzzle, and the Mantra Puzzle) or just straight up gives you a hint about another area (Such as the hand hint in the tower of ruin). It's OK to have these tablets, but man, does having to keep pencil notes difficult. And while we do have textrax, that's not quite enough. Saving up to 50 hints might be a truckload better than saving 20, because damn, the hints in this game are obscure. In fact, second aspect, the hints are backwards and need work. Some hints are OK in this game, but others aren't. For example, The Isis Pendant. There's two hints for it. One's a good one, the other not so much The bad one was used in a way that didn't make very much sense unless you already solved the puzzle, where they then in hindsight make a lot of sense. One hint for that puzzle is that Isis is perched higher than any of the others in the Temple. So you look in the background but still can't find her. Players won't think to look for a hidden room while they do it. The Better hint is your map, which explained early on, that the room names can be valuable information. So you check every room for a hint an one of the room names is "Isis' Anterior Chamber". If a person's smart enough to know what "Anterior" Means, they know where Isis is now. It's a much better hint. If even that eluded their grasp, they would find it if they used both map programs and noticed the secret room as one they haven't been to before, but that's much further in the game. Anyways, for that puzzle, they really should've emphasized the map in the bad hint. It would continue to enforce the fact that the map is a good tool to solve some puzzles and it wouldn't leave them looking for it for too long. However, in other aspects still, they did a good job. Showing unread tablets as glowing? Brilliant. The Shell horn telling you when you're done? Brilliant. Not having to have an item to save your game and taking 10 centuries to save it? Brilliant. The "Shock and Awe" Factor is a good one for those going in blind. You get them to solve some puzzles for the first go and they reach a magnificent boss, great. Amazing, and depending on how well equipped you are, the boss is either a cakewalk or really hard. Or can be forced into a cakewalk with the gun, but you know what? That's Cool. I'm not too mad about that. Point is that bosses were done well. They each had unique patterns (Some even unique but familiar gameplay, like Guardians 3, 4, and 6) and were fair at certain points. Mini-bosses a little less, but some were hard. Items are also a mixed bag. Items range from "gets you this next item" to "Awesome". Like for example, the Eye of Truth. You only use it to get the Plane Model. It helps you see one enemy more easily. That's it. Items like the Scriptures and Perfume may come too little too late as well. By the time you can get perfume, skeletons are either easy or non-existent. and While immunity to bats is awesome, I could've used it a lot earlier. Thankfully double EXP is always useful. As for general Fun Factor. It's fun sometimes. It's boring often. It takes a special kind of person like me to enjoy it 90% of the way through. A lot of my friends just stopped because a puzzle stumped them or they couldn't find a way forward. Speaking of finding a way forward, while Mulbruk COULD help you do just that, she often times didn't. It would probably be better if Xelpud could actually help you if you're stuck by giving you a hint to a puzzle you haven't solved yet. His E-mails don't really count. There's just some dead-ends that my friends didn't think would lead anywhere but do. One didn't realize the path to the Anubis wasn't a dead end and simply couldn't progress until I showed him. Cripes. It's OK to let your players explore all on their own, but you should give them additional resources to use in case they get stuck or can't find a way to solve a puzzle. It's not for everyone, but for me, it's fun. It's especially fun when you know everything, and are just trying to crush your PB. That's the best part.

• published: 22 Jul 2014
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