Planet Bob

Continued playing this today. I think I tried about 2 hours on my own, but when almost nothing moved forward, I gave in and started consulting gamefaqs.

 

Things achieved:

 

- Lit a fire on my own! Yay!

- Found a gypsy doll.

- Got rid of the two dogs with a thunderstorm spell.

- Reading gamefaqs I learned that you can scare away the Butler with the spider.

- Found another diary which made me find a star then.

- Reading gamefaqs I realized that I overlooked "scroll 3", which got me another spell.

- Used that spell and so got another one from the gypsy doll.

- Opened the door to the secret maze.

- Opened a secret passageway in the maze.

- Defeating some creatures then got me a jewel.

- Reading gamefaqs then made me aware that there was a hole in the "Magisterium Door", where the jewel fitted in.

- Killed another guardian creature with the fruit.

 

Another cool thing I found out through gamefaqs, was that you can actually drop unnecessary items in the backyard. So I got rid of 2/3 of my inventory. Pretty cool feature actually, so you're not spending too much time on trying impossible things

After doing so, I also got no longer killed by evil spirits, so I guess I may have dropped a "cursed" item as well.

 

Open riddles:

- Get the key from that weird roam-around creature

- Need to open yet another door in the main building

- Find my sister

 

I decided to quit it for today in the first room of the "Magisterium". Once I start consulting a walkthrough, I usually will do it more and more frequently, so I hope with a relaxed mind I manage to continue on my own again tomorrow

I agree, walkthroughs are addictive. For me, it starts with me getting absolutely stumped and frustrated. Then I start referring to it more often; especially if I feel the first solution was overly obtuse and non-intuitive. ("There's no way I would have figured that out!") Hopefully at some point I find myself "I shoulda been able to figure that out on my own" and put it away.

 

Of course, things like HHGttG and RTZ almost required walkthroughs to have any hope of completing them.

Hopefully at some point I find myself "I shoulda been able to figure that out on my own" and put it away.

 

That's the hardest part about it, indeed. I remember a few adventures I gave up completely and just followed the walkthrough. The first Discworld was one of those. I loved the humor, but the riddles were mostly illogical trash.

 

Of course, things like HHGttG and RTZ almost required walkthroughs to have any hope of completing them.

 

Incredible how fast my brain managed to resolve those abrevations, even though I never really played any Infocom title. They always felt like coming with a language barrier in addition to the riddles themselves. I'm planning on playing some soon though, probably starting with LGoP

After a good nights sleep, getting to the grand finale of the game just took another hour:

(Even without the aid of a walkthrough! )

 

 

All in all it was a rather average adventure experience I think. A good start and a good finale embracing a too tedious middle section. I think a lot of adventures suffer from this kind of middle-jam, when nothing goes anymore. The whole ghost house story also had no real surprises, so I don't really recommend playing it.

 

Some future day the "Playing..." series may see its follow-up "Shadowgate", but first it will continue RPGish instead.