Good and bad about the second episode

[jaeger]

Finished Black Plague yesterday after only two evenings of gaming... What to say?

All in all, I say the first episode (Overture) was way better than the second. Let me get into detail on why the logic puzzles failed miserably.

The game started well with logical puzzles, like putting planks over loose ground, standing on boxes, etc, but quickly took a turn for the worse as the solutions to various puzzles started becoming more like old-school puzzle or memory games, not utilizing the splending physics engine at all.

You know sort of how to solve the puzzle, you just can't find the stuff you need. Searching is boring. Imagine making a game where you repetitively look under pieces of rubble for ten minutes. Zzz. Also, the inventory-based solutions are sometimes far-fetched and, well, it's not as fun to use inventory items as it is to use items that yield to the physics engine.

The final and most annoying portion of the game are the dream and trial sequences. While the rest of the game is packed with eye-candy and atmosphere, these parts of the game are butt ugly and have some really boring trial and error puzzles involving switch flicking and pushing boxes on icons.

If there's a third episode, or similar game in the making, please make sure that all the logic puzzles use the environment. One should be able to walk into a room, find the stuff one needs and be able to think ones way out of it rather than doing trial and error on buttons/switches. Endless searching and testing is not fun.
I was starting to get really bored and by the final trial sequence I just didn't care at all about the story any more as it started going from excellent scifi horror to quasi-philosophical X-Files mode.

The game is still worth purchasing and playing, but if you expect brain knocking puzzle solving you will be dissapointed. The environment, music and sound effects are extremely well done and balanced. As usual, big big cheers to the programmers, musicians and artists!

As a final suggestion to the game and story writers at Frictional: next game must have maximum amount of environment interaction and make puzzles from that interaction.
Also, the game must be closer to 40 hours than 5!

Cheers!

[Cerberuser]

That's funny, I'm the exact opposite. I think the physics puzzles are the worst, because they're so immensely easy, you just drag a crate a bit further, or put a wooden plank lying not far from you there to make a slope, and you can continue.

The most fun for me is searching rooms for clues. Like the puzzle to find all chemicals was my favourite.

[eliasfrost]

I must agree with you Jaeger. We got hyped with the physics-based puzzle game, but only a few actually was physics-based. I want more puzzled that uses the physics in the game. Not just putting boxes upon each other, then jump onto them to get to the place you wanted.

Your last sentence. I agree there too, the future game needs to be longer. Yes, they are newcommers, but a game that you can finish in one evening is not enough. It should take at least 10 hours, or even a day to complete a game.

No offense frictional, but I have played longer mods for games. Such as get a life for HL2. It is easier to make a mod than a game, it's faster and so on, but c'mon. =/

[Penumbra]

I agree completely. The game was more like a scavenger hunt. I hated going from room to room to find stuff to open a door or to have to search for all thoes chemicals.

And the puzzle I really hated was opening that glass door. Who would put a random wrist band on and then inject themselves with an unknown substance?

[Thaliur]

And the puzzle I really hated was opening that glass door. Who would put a random wrist band on and then inject themselves with an unknown substance?

I don't know... probably someone who read the notes about the wristband that measures your heart rate and blood pressure, the door that reacts to an emergency signal sent by the wristband in case of dangerously low life signs and the substance that slows down your metabolism to a near-death state?

Honestly, I thought all the puzzles made perfect sense, except for the mixing machine. Any normal scientist or technician would have put labels on the buttons, but I guess they were all a bit crazy down there.

[Penumbra]

lol, I guess I missed that note. My bad. ^_^

[Penumbra]

by any chance did that note say that the glass door was bullet proof or something? I also was wondering why the glass wouldn't shatter if I threw something at it.

[Thaliur]

by any chance did that note say that the glass door was bullet proof or something? I also was wondering why the glass wouldn't shatter if I threw something at it.

It was a quite... persistent door, yes.
I admit throwing stuff at it was also my first attempt to get through ^^

But if Penumbra used that amount of realism it would get really easy I think. A throwm rock should break a human's bones, quite likely even the skull of a Tuurngait

[Penumbra]

True, and a hammer could easily nock down all the locked doors.