Last I left off I was despondent. I had been playing the game for about two hours and had only killed 7 enemies and advanced basically not at all in the game. Other games were taunting me. Begging me to play them. Its a sad state of affairs when I look at my copy of Dark Seed and go, you know, Dark Seed wouldn't screw me over as much as this game. I mean, I've got a lot of these games to do and I really don't want to be stuck doing this game for twenty hours.
I'd like to add before I started that last time, when I said the sounds were bad, I was using the Adlib setting. The sounds in the Soundblaster setting are fine. I even have walking sounds now. Still that triumphant music when I kill things. The music still has static. That's not annoying or anything.
Given the nature of there being a teleporter here and a button for toggling the door. I figure there's may some kind of door puzzle here. That's not entirely unaccurate. The button turns the door. Its a rotating room, with two walls that block everything off. I'd complain about not having a dial instead of a button, but I should just be grateful I don't have to look for strange indentations. The inside has a gold key. Why, that's what I need to unlock the next door. What do you know, my first thought was technically right. After killing another enemy, at this point I don't know what they are, I find an emerald key. I still think this is poor level design, but gosh if it doesn't make me feel clever after solving a problem.
The emerald door seems to be more of the same. Another monster down, another food item. Stairs down. A long corridor. The two different pillars seem like unnecessary additional graphics, especially when there needed to be better outside graphics.
A couple of guys. Better use the gun against them. Appears to be around 3 or 4-
BLARGH! Kill it! This bad boy takes quite a few bullets. How ironic, considering a werewolf is supposed to be killed by silver, not skeletons or half-eaten people. He keeps spawning as I try to home in on his layer. He eats up a good amount of ammo. Another guy, in a further back corner, sometimes comes up behind me. He doesn't actually get me, just behind me.
After that mad rush of fighting, I have a lot of now safe ground to cover. I think I'm just out of where I started, judging by one of the doors. It doesn't budge, but I can't see very well in it. There's another locked door...that needs a night key. There's a switch, in front of that is a pressure plate. Another pressure plate, by its lonesome. Stairs up, which must lead to that little grotto from earlier.
Yes, it does. With a skeleton and a werewolf. Quickly dealing with the wolfman and carefully dealing with the skeleton, I discover that there was nothing that advances me anywhere. More bullets and health items, but I'm still swimming in those, despite my encounters with wolves. Another quick search reveals my options are indeed the pressure plates. They turn out to be another puzzle. The pillar rotates when you step on one. I solve it completely by accident. I step on the one in front, measuring by the corridor, and then behind.
My reward is the opening of the unbudgeable door. Which has monsters behind it. I'm not back where I started. After finishing them off. I am staring at a werewolf behind a door. There's bullets nearby, and they look like keys before you pick them up. I fight the werewolf, once with a knife. They have some decent reach, these werewolves.
That leaves a door with a pressure plate in front of it. A wooden corridor in front of that. I smell a trap. It is, because of course it is. A few coffins to other dimensions unguarded by their citizens. Don't mind if I do. I'd like some holy wafers soon, but I suspect there's going to be some funny business as a challenge.
What's that, fellas? Someone destroyed your portal home? I have a way of sending you home. There's another of the previous trap. They seem to be forming a parallel corridor. I'm guessing this is going to involve me fleeing across this while I desperately look for holy wafers on the way back.
And now, things go from interesting, to bad. After this, I find another long corridor with enemies. Nothing too bad, but I use my last wafer and there are still some coffins around. Not good, but things go south when I further explore. Monsters start coming out of the woodwork. My inventory becomes full up and I find actual keys on the ground. Traps too, and I don't know if I screwed up there or not. I don't as much die as I reload when it becomes clear I bit off more than I could chew.
Clearly, I have to carefully work my way through here. Since I have a limited number of wafers, clearly I should use them in such a way that provides me with a safe area to save. The game is still giving me a lot of bullets and health. I don't need those yet, but improperly handling this area will screw me over. From the point where I last saved I have a duo of enemies in a small area, then a trio in a large area, another small duo, then chaos after I get the key by the duo's door. I know in that chaos, there's at least one locked door, the key to that door, both emerald, another door which may or may not be locked. A mad dash later and I reach the unlocked door. It leads back across the parallel corridor, but the door behind me can be closed, so no mad dash back. Another key is here, the night key. Apparently night is dark purple. I'm in risky mode, since I don't want to save until I'm sure I made the right decision. Which was a wise move on my part.
The text file mentions that some pressure plates are unmarked. This is a terrible and amazing design choice. Its terrible because right behind the night door is a werewolf coffin behind an unmarked pressure plate. This pressure plate makes you face the other direction. This is terrible because that's a horrible thing to do to a player fighting a werewolf. Its amazing because the puzzle involves getting the werewolf at the right point so when you hit the pressure plate, you can see where the werewolf is and continue on. What isn't amazing is doing this with 0 wafers to obtain a sun key. Its yellow. There's a convenient escape route in the form of a hole in the floor. So, I spend a lot of ammo and health on a werewolf for something I don't even know when I'll need. I better try the other door.
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| Harker's so into guns he still sees them after death |
Oh, good. I had the right idea the first time. The door in the chaos turned out to be full of even more monsters. We're talking five in close quarters. It would be troublesome even with wafers. It also had a switch. It probably does something. That's definitely a 'after holy wafers' switch. I ain't fighting anything in there before that. I may be breaking the game somehow with this method, as there also seems to be a teleporter in front of the way to the parallel corridor. Back to the sun key, the hole takes me back to the four-way corridor. What do you know? The first door I look at needs a sun key. What wonders lie in here?
I chose wisely. I better figure out where this ruby key goes, I think I'll need more than 10 wafers for the emerald key door. Unfortunately, all the doors here are unlocked. It doesn't take me long, as the door I passed as I went into this area turns out to be the golden (or ruby) ticket. It has a switch, but my eyes are quickly drawn toward bullets and another pack of wafers. Sounds like I can afford to handle some wolves. First, this switch. It seemingly does nothing, but I check the starting area anyway, it must have opened the blocked door. Some more items I don't need right now but probably will. A single holy wafer and stairs up.
Back to the forest, I have to navigate through a very confusing maze of trees and pillars. Some obvious puzzles, like stone tiles in the middle of the ground. It rotates you 180 degrees, nothing someone approaching it slowly won't notice. A couple of switches which remove...trees. Its magic, they don't have to explain anything. Another pack of enemies gone, making the removal of the big group of chaos look less enticing.
A set of stairs lead me to a new place, one where I become face to face with a group of the undead. Kill them and destroying their coffins reveals the room has a non-budgeable door and another locked door (silver). I figure the blocked door must lead me back to the original place I went downstairs. This turns out wrong as when I open it I am greeted by two obvious pressure plates. This room turns out to be a puzzle involving the pressure plates and a rotating corner hallway. Which shuts behind me after I go through it.
Well, I guess where I go next isn't a question right now. I open the door and discover a room with more bullets, a switch and a door. At first I think I should open the door with the switch, but I check it first. Its locked and it needs a gold key. You'd think I needed to spam the pressure plate so I can get out, right? Before I do that, I think that the developer is trying to pull one on me. I press the switch and discover the key and some more bullets. I'm swimming in bullets, I don't even need to conserve this stuff anymore. The efforts here are not for naught, as behind this door are all the holy wafers I need.
The room also has a switch, which opens a pillar. A large group of enemies, they're quick on the draw to respawn, but that's nothing my supply of bullets can't solve. And a key, a silver key. I think now is a good time to stop. I'm feeling good about things and I feel that's a good place to stop playing.
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