Unfinished adventure game manifest

[prog]

Deus ExWorking on it. Good game, though now that I've gotten the hang of the controls I wish I were playing on a more difficult skill level; at the cowardly level I chose, direct hits from enemy gunfire tick off 1-2 percent of your total health. This doesn't give you much encouragement to bother with stealth.


Chrono Trigger Working on it, picking it up every few months. Nearing the end. (Uh oh.)

Myst IV This is a good game but I haven't touched it since January. Will surely have a hankering to get back into it in due time and will probably stick to it until it's done, then.

GTA: Vice City Last played a year ago, after a year-long break. I've been feeling like trying again, actually. I have already complained at length about the pacing issues I have with this whole game series. But it's so fun when it actually works...

Silent Hill 3 Will probably not touch again. I was making great progress with it, er, a year and a half ago, then got to a hard part and took a break. Have picked it up twice since then and made no progress either time. Stopped caring.

Pytho's Mask An Emily Short text game that I never got all the way through. The one play session I had with it ate up a morning at the Diesel, a couple of years ago. (I love playing text adventures at the Diesel.) I really ought to try it again; I think it's the only one of her games I haven't played through, and it's one of the shorter ones.

Fallout 2 Last played in early 2003. Liked it a lot, right up until I hit the endgame. I can't really recall why I didn't sally forth, but I didn't.

Trinity Yes, the old Infocom text game. Last played in mid-2001, back in the O'Reilly days. Got all the way to the endgame, didn't know what the hell I was doing, stopped. Have felt vaguely bad about it since then.

Suikoden II Last played in 1999. Got all the way to the endgame, but was depressed as hell about an utterly random plot twist that occurs near the end of the midgame, and didn't feel like making the final effort.

Lunar: Eternal Blue Last played in 1996, during my brief slackful post-graduation period. Got all the way to the final boss and died. The last save point was at the very beginning of its dungeon. Didn't feel like trying again. (This game had some severe problems with long, unskippable cutscenes prefacing tough boss battles.)

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Trinity is very cool. I might even remember enough of it to help, although I played it a very long time ago.

What's Myst IV about?

[prog.livejournal.com]

Basically, Atrus' boys (whose prison books get fried at the end of the first game) are alive and well and causing a ruckus. Once again you get to save the day by exploring, working more crazy steampunk machinery than ever before, and having numerous "conversations" with people by walking up to scenery-chewing actors and staring silently at them while they talk. OK, the flailing actors annoyed me (they always do) but it's a lovely game.

[cramerica.livejournal.com]

I tried Myst URU but it required wayyy too much commitment to a really boring journey IMHO, plus the "live-action" element really detracted.

The one I feel bad about not finishing was Zork II, back in college. I got hung up on the diamonds maze and never went back.

On the other hand, I felt no compunction at all for quitting "Sorcerers Get All The Girls". In that one, there's a certain "time-sensitive" action near the beginning of the game. If you don't do it then, you won't be able to finish the game, and you can't go back. In addition, the game doesn't tell you that your game can't be completed, and so later on, you're in an impossible situation but don't know it. Much flailing ensues. Pathetic.

[prog.livejournal.com]

That's a classic design flaw that was pretty common in the old skool. Hitchhiker's Guide had a few real humdingers (two words: dog, sandwich), and I cringe when I think that it's still in circulation and therefore still many peoples' concept of what text adventures are like.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Also, Myst IV != Myst URU, in case there was some confusion. URU was made by original Myst developers Cyan, and was meant to be the lead-up to their Myst MMORPG, which died in beta. Myst IV is by Ubisoft.

[cramerica.livejournal.com]

ya, I haven't played myst IV but seem to remember hearing it went back to basics (I liked Myst and Riven).

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

The only one of these I played through is Suikoden II. There were a few possible endings. One of the weirdest was when one of the girls comes up to your character and does a 'Lets just run away from it all together' speech. The game actually lets you accept her offer and after a few battles as you flee you eventually get a 'The End' with an image of your character and the girl sitting on a hill watching a sunset or something.

I liked S II enough to buy S III when it came out. It took a while but I played through it too. I REALLY liked that one although I wish there were more than 1 token 'bat-person'.

I have Suikoden IV but haven't gotten very far in it. One of the problems I have is that during the sailing scenes you can barely go 2 inches without hitting a random battle -- rather annoying.

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

If you and Nanami run away, la la la, the hero gets slapped by someone who had been working for him as a statician and then, if you finally decide to leave, you/hero and Nanami walk off-screen and there's a painting of a log cabin out in the forest, and the game ends on that note forever and ever. No ending credits.

If you win but forget about a promise you made to your pal/enemy Jowey, it shows him waiting for you somewhere at the end.

In the happy happy joy joy ending, I forget what the final image was.

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

I ... don't want to make people load this graphic. I'll provide a link to it.

I scanned a picture of the "before and after" scenes for the "log cabin with Nanami" ending. It looks grainy because it's from a guidebook and the original pictures were fairly small.

http://www.wintervision.com/~serocki/cabin.jpg

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I remember checking the walkthrough for Trinity, and then not feeling at all bad that I'd had to. I don't even remember why though.

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Nobody ever remembers that you get a second chance with the dog and the sandwich.

[prog.livejournal.com]

That will be the first bumper sticker I will put on my next car.