Just Pine Games' latest escape game, Alexandria Escape, also free for iOS and Android, plops you straight into ancient antiquity and demands you find your way out. You've gotten yourself trapped in some dusty library in the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria and it's up to you to leap through a series of escape game puzzles to get free. The game's got an extremely attractive Greco-Roman style going on, with a fair amount of historical accuracy to boot. Sure, the game requires some suspension of disbelief through some of the wackier puzzles, but our hat's off to the art department for going the extra mile to give history buffs something to nod knowingly at. Click to navigate your way around the room, collecting the odd knickknacks that you'll combine and use in every possible way. Seriously, these Alexandrians had steam power, gears, and the written word, but they couldn't warp their brains around a Hide-A-Key?
In escape games, you come for the art and stay for the puzzles, and Alexandria Escape has both in spades. The game does feel a bit front-loaded at times, with your first few minutes spent stuffing your inventory with everything that isn't nailed down, followed by a somewhat duller section while you try to figure out what goes where. Alexandria Escape never becomes obtuse, however, and diligence will pay off splendidly. It's a delicate balance between being subtle and being obnoxious and this game manages to pull it off, making each pause in the action feel like a challenge rather than a roadblock. It's not especially long, escape game veterans will likely blast through it in about the span of a lunch break, but sometimes you need a little short and sweet. Oh, and there's a free mobile version too! So check out Alexandria Escape and prepare for a hearty dose of historical intrigue.
Alexandria Escape (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)
Android:
Get Alexandria Escape
Walkthrough Guide
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Walkthrough:
The rooms has four walls: 1) one facing a water urn; 2) one facing a door; 3) one facing a device with pipes, and 4) one facing a window.
1.
Starting with the water urn, click on the second bookshelf from the left. Collect the mysterious book and the gear on the bottom shelf. The book contains information on the element 'air', plus a symbol (click on the book in your inventory to read it). Collect the second mysterious book on the top shelf. This one contains information about the element 'earth' (click on it to read). Turn back.
2.
Click on the water urn to zoom in. There is a coin slot in the top. If you click on the urn you get a message that you have to pay for water. (Harsh!) But click on the bow at the back to collect it.
3.
Turn to face the wall facing the door (turning once right).
4.
Click on the second bookshelf from the left (the one next to the door). On the top shelf, click on the large gear (your second one) to collect it and click on the old looking book to collect it. This one contains no information, but if you're like me you'll probably click on it a million times anyway, thinking: It's a book; I've got to be able to open it somehow. Instead, click on the fist in your inventory, then on the book to 'force it'. Now you have ripped a page out of your book, you vandal! Note the sunlight now coming through the hole - we'll be coming back for you later...
5.
On the second shelf, collect the coins, the red book, and the bottle (now in sunlight). The red book contains information about the element 'fire'. Turn back.
6.
Turn to face the wall with the device with pipes (turning once right)
7.
Click on the circular plate on the wall on the left to collect it, and click on the crossbow in the right hand corner to collect it.
8.
Click on the device to zoom in on it.
9.
Collect the screwdriver (on the right side of the pipes). Click on the panel below the pipes to open it. Click on the magnifying glass to collect it. Put your gears in the device. (We're still missing one gear.) Turn back.
10.
Turn to face the wall with the window. Click on the rope on the floor (to the left side). Then click on the window to zoom in.
11.
Collect the second empty bottle.
12.
Click on the boat in the distance. It looks like a whole fleet coming to attack! The best thing to do is CLEARLY to attack them first with a crappily-made ballista cobbled together from rubbish I find lying around... but we still needs some extra junk first. Trust me. Turn back.
13.
Turn to face the wall with the water urn again, and click on the urn to zoom in. Put your coins in the urn the make it go. Click on the water to collect the screws. Click on the bottles in your inventory, the 'use' the bottle on the water to collect one bottle of water (you only need one). Turn back.
14.
Turn to face the wall with the window again. Click on the window to zoom in. Put your crossbow on the wooden stand in front of the window.
15.
Click on the screws in your inventory, then on your screwdriver to 'combine' them. Click on this screws/screwdriver combo, then on the crossbow to screw it in place.
16.
Click on the wooden bow, and add it to the crossbow. Click on the rope, and add it to the wooden bow.
17.
Click on the crossbow handle to fire the weapon. The ships are apparently sufficiently terrified of being attacked by a child's toy crossbow fired from what looks like two kilometres away (that's 1.24274 miles for you Americans) that they fire back, blowing a hole in the wall behind you. Through the hole is another room. We need to get a few more things first however.
18.
Click on the gear in front of the hole, which fell down during the attack.
19.
Click on the device to zoom in on it. Click on the gear in your inventory to add the final piece to the device (an 'engine' apparently).
20.
Click on your bottle, then on the air coming from the device to collect some. (And here I had been trying to huff into the bottle with the 'Breath on it' function in my inventory.) Turn back.
21.
Turn to face the wall with the door (turning once left). Click on that second shelf from the left again to zoom in on it.
22.
Click on the magnifying glass in your inventory and combine this with the paper (also in your inventory). 'Use' this paper/magnifying glass combo on the sunlight. To create 'smouldering paper'. NOW click on the 'Breath' function in your inventory, and 'use' your breath on the smouldering paper to make 'Flaming paper'. Turn back.
23.
Turn to face the wall with the device and the BIG hole (turning once right).
24.
Click on the hole in the wall to go through to a second room containing four pedestals and a statue of Aristotle.
25.
'Use' your plate on the dirt to collect some.
26.
Each pedestal features an image of a triangle with or without a line. Use the information from the books to put the correct element on each pedestal. From left to right these are: water, air, fire, earth.
27.
Aristotle loses a ball. Bad luck Aristotle.
28.
Click on Aristotle’s ball to pick it up. Apparently this is an 'Aether', which Wikipedia tells me is (in alchemy and Greek mythology) the supposed fifth element, the personification of the "upper sky", space and heaven.
29.
Click on the hole again to go back through to the original room. Turn to face the wall with the door (turning once left). Click on the door to zoom in on it. Stuff the personification of the upper sky, space and heaven into the hole in the door. You're free! Here's hoping the rest of your day goes well and isn't, for instance, full of Game of Thrones style pillaging once that fleet of ships lands in your port...
Posted by: BillyTehKid
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October 26, 2014 2:12 PM
How do I edit a post (or walkthrough)? I can't see an edit button sorry. In answer to Gabe Puratekuta:
There are three gears. The first is on the bookshelf to the left of the fountain. It's on the bottom (visible) shelf. It's lying on its side, to the right of the three scrolls that are on the same shelf, and on top of a two books (blue and white). The second is on the bookshelf to the left of the door. It sounds like you found this one. The third only appears after you get the ships in the distance to attack. It ends up on the floor by the hole blown in the wall.
Posted by: BillyTehKid
|
October 27, 2014 1:16 AM