Eien

I actually found this game a little too straightforward. Only one puzzle bugged me for a few minutes, other than that it was a breeze. So even though the graphics hold a lot of depth I was disappointed at the length of this game, and I wouldn't give it a top grade. But really beautiful and atmospheric!

Reminded me of Kairo in many ways. Otherworldly geometric architecture, colored areas and mysterious symbols, devices and locations.
Reminded me of Worldgate in many ways. Stellar graphics, item collection and placement (typically of multiple identical/similar items).
Reminded me of Gotmail escapes in many ways. WHY THE PIXELHUNTING?????

This could've been great. I really liked the graphics, locations, music, atmosphere, 'puzzles', but I just couldn't get past the tedious, frustrating, and, worst of all, abundant pixel hunts. They disguise the fact that the 'puzzles' are in fact very shallow and mostly rely on boring searches of the entire game area. Once the clue is found, there's no need to decipher it, the entire puzzle is finding the clue.

I liked a lot of it.
But what I hated ruined the rest. 3/5, and that's being generous.

Beautiful little game here. I had trouble starting out, but after that I got through with minimal difficulty. Loved the atmosphere.

Stuck with no clues as to what to press in the red corricor.

Walkthrough

DISCLAIMER: This walkthrough is intended to be a joke! Don't take it seriously.

Google account:

This bit frustrated me as well.

Plugged the pattern into the panel in the red corridor, but nothing happens. And it still allows me to click on/off each light, meaning it doesn't think I entered it correctly. I know it's correct! Even tried it upside down. What esoteric bit of information am I missing here?

kurt,

I don't think it's you, it's a bug. I was in the same situation. I clicked every button to reverse the pattern, then checked around, then clicked every button to reverse it back, and magically a stairway appeared!

Jury's still out, but I'm not holding out much hope.

Kurt... none of the patterns 'lock' -

Personally, I'm missing the 3rd cylinder - can't find it anywhere.

David,

The patterns do lock - I'm stuck on the third puzzle, and just checked the first two and they're locked.

And David, Cylinder 3 is

No, I found the one by the arch - must be one of the other ones then.

Walkthrough

Does anyone know how to do the puzzle with the four buttons and letters a through f? I have the clue, but I can't figure out what it means.

@Mantus: I tried the same thing. It worked. I'd be surprised if that was intentional. Definitely a bug.

Never mind, there's a walkthrough now. Thanks Matt! :)

Atmosphere: 5/5
"Puzzles": 0/5
Pixel Hunting: -100/5

Not much to add to what anyone's said. I really came to thank thegreatescaper for the Kairo reference. That one's fun. Both of those games remind of me of NaissanceE, which I don't think has been reviewed here (although NaissanceE is more of a platforming/exploration game than a puzzle-solving one).

Never mind, there's a walkthrough now. Thanks Matt!

Thanks for the push, got me much further.

I opened both doors in the room with the 2 dials. Does that left block that won't stay down actually DO anything?

I've now reached a new blue wall at the top of some stairs (I have a clue with numbers & lines, I've tried the numbers but those don't work?) any chance of another push please?

Google account - you put the number that doesn't appear in the code into the panel.

At the end two top buttery sockets looked empty, even after inserting batteries. Same in the ending animation. Bug?

krt1994:

Probably. I didn't have all the batteries the first time around and just plugged in the ones I had. I went back to look for the others and when I got back, two had disappeared. I just restarted, but if they really disappear, this could be a game-breaking bug. Just a warning...

I can't even manage the first area in the game. Once I get past picking up the

none of the instructions in the walkthrough match what I'm seeing in the game. I can't find any kind of a code for the

, and there's no

anywhere.

Whitney Stetson:

As you might have figured out, things are really hard to find in this game. Things don't look like what they are...usually they don't look like anything at all.

The panel is

Bad news: it gets worse. Much worse. I don't know how anyone could just look at the screen and and see the clue to the

I thought that was the

.

argyblarg: I got the outro so I think they didn't disappear, only indication failed.

Loved it, pixel hunting and all. Great graphics, great atmosphere, and very straightforward (get this, do that).

Not, I'll admit, really a puzzler of a game (though the 2 number puzzles did require some thought - click the numbers/click the missing numbers). A bit more like a hidden object game in some ways, or maybe a hidden view game.

But it's certainly a lovely change from all the formula escape games we get nowadays.

As for pixel hunting...anyone else here been around long enough to remember Wogger - and how popular that was? Now, that was a pixel-hunt.

@thegreatescaper, thanks for the tip har har! Right on the money... I missed a thing and your advice was exactly what I needed.

thanks mat. awesome walkthrough :)

finally I complete one of these without a walkthrough (though I was stuck on the first part for a long time before realizing I needed to click on the top to find the clue, enjoyable

Reminisant of Submachine. Though cleaner, less hidden objects.

Maybe it is because of all the horror I have been watching lately, but it was almost creepy, however the music gave it a calm tone. Nice graphics.

This could easily take more twists and turns just by adding another element. A goal or a them. I like the straight forwardness where everything is pretty much just in front of you with no confusing turns right or left. If they added more turns it would have to be set up so if you forgot something it wasn't so far back, even to the point of if you are done with a room it locks you out.

I like it and as others have said it is simple.

I agree this is strongly reminiscent of Kairo, but hey, nothing wrong there - loved that one. But I can't get past the red corridor, only a few moves into the game. I've input the code correctly - I'm certain, but

.
Are rumours of a bug true? Or am I just looking in the wrong place (i.e. everywhere I can access)?

Okay...this is officially the most frustrating thing I've played in a long time. I'm still stuck on the first puzzle. I've collected the pyramid and the blue and red spheres, gathered the numerical clues and activated the symbol above the 4x5 button panel.

I've clicked the buttons in each row according to the numerical clue I have...

But, nothing happens. I've also tried just clicking the buttons on rows III and V, since those are the only rows actually numbered on the panel. Again, nothing.

If I back out a couple of clicks, there's a clickable point over toward that vertical slot off the right side of the walkway. Clicking over there takes me to a closer view, but I cannot find anything else to look at or click there. Whenever my cursor shows something clickable, it ends up being a "back" movement.

What am I missing here?

I really loved this, although it was a lot easier than other offerings by Skutnik. I would advise people play with the sound on, a lot of the puzzles just let out a sound of the passage opening to let you know you did it, and not all of them lock :/ still an enjoyable way to pass a break though, very atmospheric! In a way that was kinda annoying, I never found out what anything was!

I escaped?

Pondering the beginning and end made me think

I loved the graphics and music (I actually kept the sound on for the whole game, which is rare for me) but I also found the puzzles uninteresting and not enough story. And it WAS buggy; in at least two places I could not go forward and so tried lots of pixel hunting, but backing nearly all the way out and then going forward again (without any new finds or explorations)seemed to solve whatever it was.

(Really, I think I'm waiting for a few more Daymare Town installments.)

Thorzdad - following the whole procedure you mentioned should work. Step by step, as the note suggests.

I'm stuck the same as David. I have...

Problem solved - I checked another site,and got a hint to find the third cylinder - or should I say, the first one....

(I didn't need help to 'solve' that area - so I didn't look at the walkthrough for that room...!)

Also, my laptop screen just isn't big enough to include the top of the game 'window'....

really love the graphics, love the sound, was looking forward to a nice game... but then everything got spoiled rapidly. needed to check the walkthrough once past the left entrance after the left dial already, and even then reading the WT i can't continue. i opened the left entrance, went left, landed in the green hall, went forward... and that's it. the WT says "go right", i can't. not there, not a step before, nowhere i can go right (or left, except the passage). argh! >_
halp?

really love the graphics, love the sound, was looking forward to a nice game... but then everything got spoiled rapidly. needed to check the walkthrough once past the left entrance after the left dial already, and even then reading the WT i can't continue. i opened the left entrance, went left, landed in the green hall, went forward... and that's it. the WT says "go right", i can't. not there, not a step before, nowhere i can go right (or left, except the passage). argh! >_
halp?

"- Go back one screen and look at the panel to the left."

Er, what panel on the left?

never mind. i had to minimize my netbook screen to 80% to see the whole height... and it cut the sides somehow. i found "right". and sorry for the double post before, got an error msg first ~

@Thorzdad - I had the same problem, and restarting seems to be the only way to take care of that. The only difference from the two playthroughs was I didn't get note from the stone buttons clues before messing with the button panel/pattern revealing button on the upper button panel, so that may be part of it.

Other than that, I'm just surprised at the disconnect between the puzzles. Even a color puzzle based on the rooms to force you to backtrack would have been welcome.

I also had a battery bug with this game-

So pretty, so atmospheric, so utterly unplayable. Honestly, pixel hunting is the only game mechanic here. There aren't any puzzles; you just copy the code from each clue into each panel. There are several bugs, navigation is confusing even though the game goes in a straight line, and the game doesn't even fit on a normal screen. How does such an obviously competent designer manage to make something so un-entertaining?

Not bad for a simple set of puzzles to breeze through. I liked this one though I'm always partial to more story. The only real problem I had with gameplay was that the it seemed sticky about the order in which you solve some of the puzzles

Especially...

@SDRanger:

(grrrr...one last comment from me and then I'll let it go.)
It’s a cryin’ shame that the puzzles in Eien all have exactly the same numbers, codes and solutions every time you play. I am thinking that it wouldn’t be TOO difficult to add the element of randomization to a lot of these puzzles…?…giving the game the quality of longevity! I’ve played Eien 4 times now over the past few days, and I have all the codes and solutions totally memorized. It IS a great game, but….…game…over. :(

Stewart Lowther,

I had the same problem when I went above the panel and did that first, then I had to restart to make it work.

I really only could not find about two objects and had to use the walkthrough for it. Had I not played it during the day I would have been able to see them, although one was hidden in a place I likely never would have looked.

So... I suggest playing this with the sound on as well as in the lighting that you can best see dark video on your screen. At night it is darker and I do not have to brighten my screen as much so I see things as they should be seen on my screen.

I'm very sorry - it looks like my walkthrough has caused quite a bit of frustration!
I apologise for being vague in places. Also, the section near the start concerning the panel should read "right" and not "left". That was entirely my fault and I am truly sorry for any inconvenience I've caused.

Normally I am a great fan of Skutnik games, but this one has many problems. As others have said, the puzzles aren't really puzzles; the solution is obvious once you have the clue (note) in hand. The difficulty lies in pixel hunting for the clues, ways forward, little items you must collect. There are elements that draw your eyes, but are useless and irrelevant, but once you click on that random spot--

-- it all seems so obvious and silly.
I might forgive all of this if the game had any charm. There's no story. The setting is oppressive (and not in a good way that makes you driven to solve puzzles and escape), the items you pick up, generic. It feels like a tutorial in the architecture of virtual space. The mechanisms of game play are there, but none of the story or puzzles. So sad.