Modern Mystery
Modern Mystery is the escape title of the week this time around. The game, naturally, begins with you trapped in a rather comfy lounge-like room. It's nicely furnished—a bit of abstract art on the walls, a potted plant, two leather chairs, a laptop computer—but you still want out by any means. Go around collecting objects, putting clues together, and solving puzzles in order to collect more objects, hopefully at some point getting one or both of those doors open and terminating your confinement.
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Walkthrough for Modern Mystery
General Information
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When unlocking things, enter the code, then try the handle. There is no indication that you've entered the correct code until you try to open the door.
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This walkthrough includes instructions for the colorblind. The color puzzle resets itself every time you exit it and reopen it, so not to worry if you make a mistake.
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Several of the places where you need to use an item on something in the room have very very finicky bounding boxes. Just keep trying, and maybe move the mouse just a tiny bit.
Looking around and gathering things
Armchairs Screen
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Click on the potted plant on the left to pick up a PLATE. The inventory tells us this is one of nine. Good to know. Back out.
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The table has a locked drawer. Nothing else to see here.
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Click on the shelves to the left to get another PLATE
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Not much else to do here so turn right
Door Screen
Not much to see here -- just a big orange square on the door. Turn right
Desk Screen
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Click on the plant and pick up the PLATE behind the pot. Back out.
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Zoom in on the pictures on the wall and note them.
The left picture has a row of five colored squares on the bottom. The right picture has the letters E and F outlining the blocks of color.
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Click on the desk. Pick up the PLATE on top of the books. Cute drawing -- wonder whose kid made it?
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The drawer has a color combination. Unfortunately, the colors on the bottom of the painting don't work.
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That's all she wrote, so turn right
Computer Screen
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Go ahead and open the top right and bottom left cabinets to get two PLATES. Zoom out, then click on the speaker to collect a BOWL and a PLATE.
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There's also a computer on this screen, which we can't do anything with yet, and a sculpture thingy with a key stuck inside. Nothing else is out in the open so now it's time to solve some puzzles
Locations of the nine tiles
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Behind the potted plant to the left of the chair
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Between the armchair and brown shelves
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Behind the potted plant next to the desk
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On top of the books on the desk
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Top right cabinet
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Bottom left cabinet
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On top of the cabinets, by the speaker
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Top left cabinet
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Bottom right cabinet
Opening Things
The Top Left Cabinet
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The lock wants a four shape code.
Where have you seen four shapes in this room?
Maybe the drawing of the sun, house and path?
Enter the shapes from left to right as they appeared on the note from top to bottom
Circle, Triangle, Square, tall skinny rectangle.
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Take the PLATE and USB FLASH
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Use the USB FLASH on the computer. You must click on the USB slot on the front right of the computer, and the game is finicky about location, so if it doesn't work the first time, try try again.
The Bottom Right Cabinet
The cabinet requires a five-letter combination.
Where have you seen a string of five letters
The clue is from the computer, which says ERROR
But that doesn't work. Why not?
Where else have you seen letters?
The painting clues you to move each letter forward one E->F, R->S and so on.
FSSPS
Take the VALVE and PLATE
The Orange Door
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Use the PLATES on the orange square on the door.
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Click on a tile, then on a second tile to swap their positions
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Open the door
See screenshot if you need help solving the puzzle:
http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/3158/modernmystery.jpg
Looking around - Part 2
The Second Room
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There is what appears to be a fountain in the second room, but there is no water.
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Use the VALVE on the fountain.
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Use the BOWL on the water.
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Note the tiles on the wall behind the fountain. The one in the center looks different, but we can't remove it right now.
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Exit the room
The Computer Screen
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Zoom in on the weird statue thing. It seems to be made of tubes.
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Use the BOWL of water on the top left branch of the statue. Again, the bounding boxes are finicky, so keep trying.
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Take the KEY
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Use the KEY on the drawer on the armchairs screen and take the TROWEL
Opening Things - Part 2
The Color Code Drawer
We have this trowel. Where might we use it?
Go to the second room and use the TROWEL on the odd tile behind the fountain.
Go to the desk screen, and use the tile on the left painting.
The tile has filtered the color of the boxes on the bottom of the painting.
The new colors are ORANGE, BLUE, YELLOW, GREEN, RED
Click the buttons 2, 4, 1, 5, and 3 times, in that order, to enter the code correctly.
Take the CARD
The End
Use the CARD on the door to exit.
And now my commentary: I was disappointed by how easy this game was. I recalled Masonic Mystery as being pretty challenging, but I was out of this one in less than five minutes. Pretty much all it had going for it was the graphics, which were quite good.
Meh. The "feel" of the mechanics were quite clunky, but the puzzles themselves were good.
Obtaining the code for the cabinet with the letters on it spoiled this for me.
Reading about clunky mechanics, I have to ask this: I seem to have the idea how to open the three locks (desk drawer color-lock, plus the shape-lock and the letter-lock on the cupboard right of the door):
the color code seems to be presented on the bottom of the right hand "paintng" above the desk. The solution of the shape-puzzle seems to be the drawing on the sheet that's on the desk. Finally, the letter-lock's solution seems to be the only 5 letter word found in the room, written on the afore mentioned sheet.
Is any of these right? Because I trioed them all and none of the three seem to work. Please, someone just tell me: am I on the right track with any of these thre ideas (and it's only the game's mechanics that's hindering me from opening the drawers) or not?
Thanks.
bio
All right, I finally looked into the walkthru - and found this game is largely beyond my realm of logic. There was no clue i didn't find, still they didn't assemble into a logical system in my mind. Sorry :(
Also: good point-n-clickers dont include the element of trial-n-error - this one does. I mean, there were at least nine different possible five-item color codes I found around. WRONG! A good escape game will provide me one - or more, but then will tell me in a clever clue which one is the one to go with. Not because I'm too lazy to try 9 different sequences, but because escape games (and point-n-clickers) should be games based on logic IMHO. This one is not - at least not in some of the key steps.
bio
I was torn about this one. Arguably, there's a certain amount of misdirection in the game...
...particularly around the meaning of the paintings and the sketch of the path/house/sun underneath them. The labels of the elements on the path/house/sun sketch were meaningless (I wasted some time wondering if the labels related to colors for the color-coded lock, green for the path, yellow for the sun, etc.), as were the colors on the E-F painting and the colors above the five boxes on the left-hand painting. Then, I found the order in which the symbols from the sketch were to be used on the lock to be counterintuitive.
Also, I heartily agree with the comment about finicky hotspots. All in all, not horrible, but not great.
It is an average game, nothing spectacular or any break-through science in escapiology (sic). I agree with the few comments above; the graphics are good, there is a feel of clunkiness (sic), and the clues to the puzzles are not quite logical. The puzzles are easy in some sense, especially if you have played the earlier game Masonic Mystery and have attained a sixth sense for Abroy games "for smart people." Yet, bioLarzen best describes the weird puzzle design that I find annoying in many Abroy games.
At its best, the game is short. It's missing some sort of entertainment feature. The game can become boring quite quickly.
However, it is worth playing. And, thanks to SonicLover for the review. I wonder if emphasis was put on a non-Japanese game. Of which, I have read rumors that there is a new kid on the block, or island as be it, who has two new games out that resemble Tesshi-e and GotMail designs.
I was expecting a Thanksgiving Day escape game today. At least, we got a turkey.
Strained (or nonexistant) logic seems to be an Abroy hallmark. Their two previous escapes (Mendeleyev Myster and Totem Mystery) were even worse. One puzzle featured a checkerboard puzzle, where the sequence of spaces to press down was somehow related to a page of sheet music.
fritware:
The order of the symbols...
...from the sketch make more sense once you consider the rotation of the triangle
I suppose I'm a bit spoiled by escape-creators like Tesshi-e and Minoto... this game was just *lacking* (sounds / smart clues / humour / non-random logic / ...)
The bit of un-logic I found particularly bad was
the orange door. They couldn't have put a grid up there or something to show that it was where you put the 'plates'?
It took me far too long to figure out
where to click to pry that odd tile up in the fountain room.
Either be less exacting with the hotspots, or let the cursor change!
The logic in this one is a bit more akin to classic abstract logic puzzles where the answer has more to do with how the question is asked than the actual question.
If you truly beat it in under 5 minutes, then I must bow to you MmeTurbulence. The game design, alone, was enough to push my clock past that. Masonic Mystery was a bear to beat, even when understanding the logic. This one was a bit better, but it was still not ideal. My suggestion to the designer is to play a few Neutral escape games. Intuitive interface and interaction do not necessarily have to decrease difficulty, and it really does not increase the difficulty of development too much.
I appreciate the effort and it was worth the play through. Abroy, please keep releasing, and improve where you can.
I don't want to down-talk this one, but...well, after playing a decently enjoyable (and especially after playing a great) room escape, I'll go back from time to time and play it again, seeing if I can recall everything I previously had to use a walkthrough on (even if I didn't need one at all).
I don't think I'm going to be breaking out of this room again any time soon.
Escapist: It's just being familiar with the "vocabulary" of Ambroy games. After Masonic Mystery (which I really enjoyed) I went to their site and played a bunch of games in their backlist. Their puzzles generally fall into one of two categories: complete head-scratching illogic that can be solved trial and error, or overclued and obvious. In particular
The thing with the filter to reveal the real color code
is something of a cliche with them.
I actually managed to finish this game (I got frustrated/bored with Masonic Mystery and quit), but I still needed the walkthrough. Even then it was difficult finding the hotspots. Especially when
I was trying to pry that tile off the wall in the second room.
It would have been so much easier if my cursor hadn't reverted to an arrow every time I missed the hotspot. Having to click on the trowel again and again as I tried to find the right spot was really annoying.
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Game of the week
Walkthrough Guide
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Walkthrough for Modern Mystery
General Information
When unlocking things, enter the code, then try the handle. There is no indication that you've entered the correct code until you try to open the door.
This walkthrough includes instructions for the colorblind. The color puzzle resets itself every time you exit it and reopen it, so not to worry if you make a mistake.
Several of the places where you need to use an item on something in the room have very very finicky bounding boxes. Just keep trying, and maybe move the mouse just a tiny bit.
Looking around and gathering things
Armchairs Screen
Click on the potted plant on the left to pick up a PLATE. The inventory tells us this is one of nine. Good to know. Back out.
The table has a locked drawer. Nothing else to see here.
Click on the shelves to the left to get another PLATE
Not much else to do here so turn right
Door Screen
Not much to see here -- just a big orange square on the door. Turn right
Desk Screen
Click on the plant and pick up the PLATE behind the pot. Back out.
Zoom in on the pictures on the wall and note them.
The left picture has a row of five colored squares on the bottom. The right picture has the letters E and F outlining the blocks of color.
Click on the desk. Pick up the PLATE on top of the books. Cute drawing -- wonder whose kid made it?
The drawer has a color combination. Unfortunately, the colors on the bottom of the painting don't work.
That's all she wrote, so turn right
Computer Screen
Go ahead and open the top right and bottom left cabinets to get two PLATES. Zoom out, then click on the speaker to collect a BOWL and a PLATE.
There's also a computer on this screen, which we can't do anything with yet, and a sculpture thingy with a key stuck inside. Nothing else is out in the open so now it's time to solve some puzzles
Locations of the nine tiles
Behind the potted plant to the left of the chair
Between the armchair and brown shelves
Behind the potted plant next to the desk
On top of the books on the desk
Top right cabinet
Bottom left cabinet
On top of the cabinets, by the speaker
Top left cabinet
Bottom right cabinet
Opening Things
The Top Left Cabinet
The lock wants a four shape code.
Where have you seen four shapes in this room?
Maybe the drawing of the sun, house and path?
Enter the shapes from left to right as they appeared on the note from top to bottom
Circle, Triangle, Square, tall skinny rectangle.
Take the PLATE and USB FLASH
Use the USB FLASH on the computer. You must click on the USB slot on the front right of the computer, and the game is finicky about location, so if it doesn't work the first time, try try again.
The Bottom Right Cabinet
The cabinet requires a five-letter combination.
Where have you seen a string of five letters
The clue is from the computer, which says ERROR
But that doesn't work. Why not?
Where else have you seen letters?
The painting clues you to move each letter forward one E->F, R->S and so on.
FSSPS
Take the VALVE and PLATE
The Orange Door
Use the PLATES on the orange square on the door.
Click on a tile, then on a second tile to swap their positions
See screenshot if you need help solving the puzzle:
http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/3158/modernmystery.jpg
Open the door
Looking around - Part 2
The Second Room
There is what appears to be a fountain in the second room, but there is no water.
Use the VALVE on the fountain.
Use the BOWL on the water.
Note the tiles on the wall behind the fountain. The one in the center looks different, but we can't remove it right now.
Exit the room
The Computer Screen
Zoom in on the weird statue thing. It seems to be made of tubes.
Use the BOWL of water on the top left branch of the statue. Again, the bounding boxes are finicky, so keep trying.
Take the KEY
Use the KEY on the drawer on the armchairs screen and take the TROWEL
Opening Things - Part 2
The Color Code Drawer
We have this trowel. Where might we use it?
Go to the second room and use the TROWEL on the odd tile behind the fountain.
Go to the desk screen, and use the tile on the left painting.
The tile has filtered the color of the boxes on the bottom of the painting.
The new colors are ORANGE, BLUE, YELLOW, GREEN, RED
Click the buttons 2, 4, 1, 5, and 3 times, in that order, to enter the code correctly.
Take the CARD
The End
Use the CARD on the door to exit.
Posted by: MmeTurbulence
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November 24, 2010 2:00 AM