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I've slogged along with terrible flash performance, then I get to the end and you have a timed event which is _impossible_ due to your flash effects. three seconds to recognize a click.
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SPOILER The safe number is 1 4 (something) 1. And if you just open safe take evidence and click photos, you finish the ch.1 somewhy.
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I'm currently working my way through the first season of Twin Peaks for the first time. "Damn fine cup of coffee," indeed.
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My gripe with this is the fly in the fish bowl puzzle. It's time consuming since there's little you can do to speed up the process. My second gripe is in part 3. Though it was my favorite part, I'm also one of those that hate slide puzzles. They are a challenge, but it was only a 3x3, thanks for keeping it simple. Part 4 is nice, I also hate it, but nice. Always dislike puzzles that take up time when you know the solution... I'm looking at you fish bowl.
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I had to give this 2/5 because of the sliding puzzle. It was far too frustrating and the walkthrough was full of mistakes and backtracks, so this just destroyed the immersion. These games have a reputation of having puzzles that make 0 sense, but this really killed the experience for me. I like these games, but as a developer, you really need to rethink your puzzles.
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Part 4 first time: Okay I do this and then I, but wait what's this background, am I dying, wait what's happening?? I died NOOOO. 10th time: WHAT THE F**K DO I DO?? Okay I think I might need to look at the walkthrough.
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Fourth part. Me: Okay, what do I do? A minute later. Me: WHAT DO I DO THE DOS! WHAT DOES I DO! WHY IS I DEAD?! ;-; Another nightmare fuel game. I don't think I need sleep anyway.
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I was excited to see another cube escape but this on was terrible. Please do make more but that sliding puzzle and books puzzle were just annoying as hell. 2/5
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fly too slow descending towards the shell? use the green leaf thingies, they push it side to side faster, for lesser push click on the shrimp to pull it fish pushes right. alas I am not fast enough for the final lever but a great game none the less
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There is a lag on this game that I don't remember from the others. I'm having trouble finishing Chapter 4 because I can't get thru my inventory...it won't scroll. I usually rank these games as favorites but just can't do it for this one.
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No idea how to move the books off that shelf. I know there is something under there. Gave up after a good 30 minutes. Definitely killed the game for me.
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Good game. I liked the timed-part of the game, 'cause you have to do it a bit more times to understand what to do. One of my favorite developers!
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Literally cannot finish the last level (specifically the clearing out of the wood in front of the elevator) because of lag...
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While I continue to love the thematic elements, this one had a couple of parts where it felt like everything was just wrong. The fly puzzle was slow and unintuitive, many of the chapel puzzles felt forced and unnaturally mundane in the surrealist world of Cube Escape, and the timed puzzle at the end is unforgiving even when you know exactly what to do.
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I skimmed a walkthrough to figure out what to do for the cabin level and one of the first things it said was "Don't panic.". Thanks walkthrough, that REALLY put my mind at ease...
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SO ... MUCH ... LAG ...
Seriously -- What is it about this serious that just overwhelms my processor? They seem like such basic games that it shouldn't need so much computing power.
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Wonderful again! I did dislike the pixel hunt on the wall breaking, though. I had to use to walkthrough to find where I could find the thing for the cat, to know how to use the typewriter and to see where the cogs had to go in the timed puzzle. I got the timed puzzle in my first try after that, on a laptop with touchpad (Ubuntu 14.04, Chromium 44), with a few misfits with the cogs and at least three 360's with the pipes. So if you have a lag problem, try another browser or something, it is doable! 5/5 PS: fun fact! Vandermeer is not Dutch, but an Americanized Dutch name! In the Netherlands it would be "Van der Meer" or in full "Ruben van der Meer".
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One last thing - I'm surprised that people are complaining so much about the slider puzzle. Have some patience, folks. This episode places more emphasis on logical puzzles han point-and-click ones (which sort of makes sense character-wise, since the "detective" personality is supposed to be figuring things out rather than just exploring and experiencing). Some of those puzzles are going to be difficult. A 3x3 slider is not unreasonable.
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(And apart from the technical issues, that chapter went a bit too far... while I understand the atmospheric effect of time pressure, there was no reason to make the timer so strict; most people just ended up memorising the moves and then trying over and over again to click through fast enough, while knowing precisely what they had to do... that's more annoying than anything. But I wouldn't rate down just for that.)
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Now the bad: I've had to deduct one star from this episode because of the incompatibility with certain browsers (horrible horrible lag). While this problem was present in the previous episodes as well, at least they didn't have a tightly timed chapter. Chapter 4 makes the game literally impossible to complete for people with certain OS/browser combinations (I'm on a Macbook atm and on this system it lags for Safari and Firefox). On their fifth game I would expect the developers to have fixed the issue already, or at the very least to be aware of it so they don't include time-based puzzles. 4/5 until those selective lag issues are fixed.
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Let me take a shot at it: I gather there's a feeling of disgust at something either the dreamer did or happened to the dreamer (symbolised by bugs and other disgusting things throughout). The detective is a fictional identity of the dreamer (Vandermeer is a fake name, since apparently it means "from the lake" in Dutch) symbolising their desire to "outsmart" the dream world and wake up. It is no coincidence that the freakiest chapter happens to the detective; the dream is warning him that the real world is unbearable because something horrible happened. Van Gogh (another Dutch character - the dreamer is probably Dutch themselves) symbolises the dreamer's self-destructive tendencies, since Van Gogh mutilated himself and eventually committed suicide in real life; this either means that the dreamer attempted suicide or that they feel guilty for a murder they committed. The box is probably an element from real life that contains something directly related to the incident.