How do you open the hatch?

[Stillmoving]

I have broke the ice turn the wheel and tried to lift the hatch, no go. So do you lift the hatch? :angry:

[Linux.Blue]

You move your hand (mouse) over the hatch, and hold down on the left mouse button and move the mouse up.

[Akong]

You move your hand (mouse) over the hatch, and hold down on the left mouse button and move the mouse up.

It can be a little tricky in the beginning. I think I had problems with it too, which was made infinitely worse by the fact that I was slowly dieing. It all worked out in the end, though, and contributed to a more tense and suspenseful sequence.

Edit: When I say slowly, I of course mean very rapidly.

[deanswood]

Ok I have just spent 40 minutes trying to open that hatch. I am not usually totally inept at these things but this is ridiculous. I am told this is a good game but actually, I can't tell because it seems to be impossible to get past the first scene.

May I suggest in future a little more testing on the interactions with these things is probably in order as I am clearly not the only one to have this problem and instead of being tense and suspensful, it is just annoying.

[Young handsome guy]

Grab the closest edge to you and pull it up after turning the hatch.

Don't keep trying if it won't lift, grab a different part then try again.

[Yuhaney]

May I suggest in future a little more testing on the interactions with these things is probably in order as I am clearly not the only one to have this problem and instead of being tense and suspensful, it is just annoying.

You need to grab the handle, circle your mouse like you would move your hand in real life to turn the hatch until it unlocks and then pull it up by moving your mouse up.

It ain't just normal "click-to-activate" game, which makes it better than many of the other games.

[Fleet]

I was going to post a a topic about this, but seeing as this is here...

I too am having lots of trouble getting this hatch open. I am not a "dumb" gamer, and have tried various combinations. The best I can do is lift it a little bit, after which it does not move and I have to drop it. Spend several minutes trying to get this open...Have not succeeded.

edit: this is very annoying. The hatch opens an inch...i can repeat the same movement, and nothing will happen.

[jens]

Having a different angle or crouching can help, you can also grab it and if you use the move keys to move towards the hatch at the same time it should help lift the hatch.

[Skaruts]

I only lost the time needed to go back and get a stone, cuz I already had played the tech demo beforehand. Which really helps.

Basicaly you must first think, where or how is that going to move, then you simulate that movement with the mouse, keeping in mind to NOT grab it where the hinges are. The hatch is tricky on that too. But the hardest ones are levers, for me. All the rest is cake. Walking, like jens said, works too, but especialy for heavy crates and such. Sometimes just moving the mouse isn't enough. Think of it as pulling really hard with your tongue bitten.

I have read that this has been improved for Amnesia. But even still this was one of the greatest things I noticed when I first played it.

[nofsky]

Have you ever tried to open a door, in real life, by pushing it on the side close to the hinges? It's much heavier than if you push on the side of the handle. The same principle applies in Penumbra. It's easiest to open a hatch by pulling close to the edge opposite of the hinges. Similarly, when you open a valve it's much easier to grab it on the edge instead of in the middle.

If you need to move something heavy it can help to grab it and then move yourself with WASD instead of moving the mouse. Also keep in mind that you are also an object in the game so you can't open a hatch if you're partially standing on it (of course, there is no player character model so you can't actually see if you're standing on it).