Am I just an idiot?

[jrinck]

I love the Monkey Island games, especially ESCAPE for the PS2. However, I am HEAVILY dependent on the walkthroughs. I am reasonably proficient at trying all the "obvious" things such as talking to everyone and picking up whatever I can, but it's the "non-obvious" things that have me reaching for the walkthroughs after I've exhausted everything my brain can think of. Am I alone here? Are there really people out there that can play and beat this game without any outside help? I bow to you if so!

 

For example, in Escape, who would have thought to:

 

1. Play the music box to distract Dave.

2. Then steal the wooden hand

3. Then use it to pick up the termites.

4. Then use the termite hand on Ozzie's stick because you somehow knew you could use the resulting sawdust to follow him somewhere?

 

Also, how could someone, on their own, have figured out the key to cracking Daves filing system? And in the same light, figured out that the chess clock could be used as a compass?

 

So, I still love this game, walkthrough and all, but at the same time I feel like a moron for not being able to figure it out myself. Am I in the minority here? Is everyone else out there just that smart and I'm the only idiot?

[Rufio]

i thought all of those mentioned were quite obvious paths to take... but thats just me.

 

adventuregames are not so much about thinking inside the box, its about whats outside of rht norm that ull end up trying and getting to work, most often.

 

this just tells you that you are a more straightforward thinker, thats all, where as people like myself are more random in thought.

 

------------------

[Jack]

I had the same prob... I think cmi is easier.

[Jack]

and, if you do like this you don´t have to play the music box!when you go into the shop, pick up the wooden hand before you talk to him

[Guybrush122]

well, i sorta figured all that out, but i didnt know that was goin to happen. you see i figured the music box would be somethin to hear for dave (all he can do is hear) but when guybrush deduced that dave couldnt hear over the noise i decided to nick somethings: the hand was all i could take. so then, when i went to the bait shop i saw the termit circus. now, no mi game has those kinds of things without signifigance so when i tried to pick em up guybrush said i needed to lure him out. so why not wood? when i put it on ozzies stick it was because i thought it would make him ****ed. so i dont think in unobvious ways but just deduce things to a simpler form

[jrinck]

Thanks for all your comments.

 

I'm beginning to sense to "secret" in these games, and that is to "try everything with everything". The manual hints at that, I believe. Who would think to put cedar chips in a perfume bottle, or to put the skin over the manhole cover, but I guess that's the kind of stuff you have to do.

 

If things "make sense" to do then that's what makes an adventure game great. While it may not be obvious, at least after you do it you realize it was probably more obvious than you thought. MI has a bit of the "makes sense" puzzles, but there are a great many areas where it's either "brute force" or "dumb luck". But it's not just MI, all adventure games seem to follow this path.

 

But EMI is a beautiful game and I enjoy playing it, solving puzzles on my own and with the walkthroughs. It's almost like living a movie!

[Skyclad]

Yeah, on some adventure games, you gotta do a lot of backwards thinking. I remember playinf Companions Of Xanth, and there was this door I couldn't get past. Every time I clicked on the door, my character would just keep saying "the door is ajar". I didn't realize you had to take the door "ajar" to hold water in later in the game, because the door was really a "jar", get it?

[geoffco]

Thanks for your input. If your an idot then that makes TWO of US. I love these games but like you I can't get through them without the strategy guide. I enjoy seeing the graphics & puns.

 

Who dreams these games up Aliens?

[Faith]

i often used walkthroughs, but now i am getting the hang of them. Its justgetting used to the way the games work!

Trust me!

 

------------------

Faith

[Guest murta]

I think I just have a warped brain, 'cos I can pick up any game and go straight through it without being stuck for more than 2 minutes. I've always had a nack for adventure games, since Day of the Tentacle (my first adventure and still one of my favourites). When I come up to a puzzle (like using the skin to make a trampoline over the manhole) I just think "ah, that's a totally stpipd idea murta - it MUST be the right one!". Sometiems I think of even wackier stuff to try beforehand than the programmers have actually put in the game.

Basically, I'm either smart (think not) or insane. Any votes?

[Guest murta]

The worst thing ever was some Roberta Williams (co-founder of Sierra Online) advenutre game, called Mystery House (or something), which had a text based adevnutre game with pics (one of, if not, the first adventure game with pics). Anyway, I couldn't seem to pic up this jug, I kept trying words for like 3/4 hours. Then I looked at the walkthrough ( ) and apparently the American word for jug is pitcher.

What was everybody elses biggest problem in an adventure game?

[MI HATER]

MONKEY ISLAND IS STUPID! SHUT UP, GAYS!@#$%