No1Game's Find the Escape-Men series has been going on for a long, long time, but it rarely ventures into any sort of cohesive continuity or complexity. You're in a place. So are ten little green men. Find them, solve a simple puzzle or two, and bing-bam, you're out. So it was somewhat unexpected when Secret House 1 seemed to introduce a story where you fainted on the way home from work, and Secret House 2, 3, and 4 followed right along, building a story about... well, you'll have to play for yourself to see, mostly because it's a little strange. Now the final installment is here, and in Find the Escape-Men 86: Secret House 5 your last challenge might be one of the most complex. Just click around to interact and search, and since the cursor doesn't change, you'll want to try everything from every angle... even items in your inventory can be viewed up close with the question mark icon to manipulate or combine!
As mentioned, the Escape-Men games tend to be a little overly simple, so some of the more thinky puzzles in this one come as a welcome surprise. This entire mini-series spin-off has slowly scaled up in puzzle complexity, and this last installment feels like an appropriate cap on them all by providing some challenges that are at once both satisfyingly logical and even a little sneaky. The biggest issue is that it's still easy to miss hidden angles or views because there's no visual indication that something might be there until you click, so if you're stuck or missing something, you have to resort to clicking everywhere on everything. The ending is... uh... the ending... is... something else, which is about the only way I can really describe it other than "cute", "unexpected", "weird", and "what was that I don't even". Still, as odd as it is, Secret House has showcased some great design from a series that's often been overlooked for being too fast and easy, and provides a short, fun break-sized bit of escapery goodness. Hopefully we see more of these interconnected yarns and learn a bit more about the Escape-Men, and continue to see more of this level of gameplay from the developer.
Walkthrough Guide
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Walkthrough
Bookshelf view
There's a purple book with a clue and an escape man.
Left drawer is empty. Right drawer needs a three-digit code having to do with red, cyan, and yellow.
Left door has a can of spray paint. Right door is empty.
On the left side of the shelf, there's a clue with pink and black roman numerals. You can also look behind the shelf on this side, but it's too dark.
On the right side, there's a hook.
Wine rack/barrel view
Two of the wine bottles are different than the rest.
Purple (3rd from left in the middle row) is the only bottle of wine that you can actually pick up. (Apparently, the others are glued down. Which is OK, because cyan-colored wine is just not all that appealing.)
Black (4th from left in bottom row) is a bottle of weedkiller. Such a nice place to store poison, doncha think?
Check underneath the empty shelf for an escape man.
Can't do anything with the barrel for now.
Count the remaining wine bottles by color.
Colorblind hint:
First row is cyan, red, red, cyan, yellow, red.
Second row is red, yellow, (purple), red, yellow, cyan.
Third row is yellow, red, cyan, (black), red, yellow.
Door view
Fiddle with the rotating door until you find an escape man.
Pick up the wine glass.
First cabinet door needs some sort of numeric clue.
Second door is empty.
Third door opens with the pink and black clue.
The roman numerals in the clue are 2, 4, 1, 3. (I know it doesn't really look like it, but trust me.) The 3 is black, the rest are pink. So make every button pink except the third one. (Colorblind hint: click the 1st, 2nd, and 4th buttons exactly once.)
This gets you a set of throwing knives.
Fourth door has a scrap of paper. Turn it over to find an escape man.
Shapes view
There's an escape man on the trapdoor on the ceiling. Use the hook to get it.
The series of shapes on the wall is a clue. Hint: count the corners.
Use the weedkiller on the poor plant that has chosen a totally inappropriate place to grow. This gets you an escape man.
Use the spray paint on the escape-man shape on the wall to get another escape-man. (Unfortunately, it only works once. Apparently, it's a reallllly small can of paint.)
Door view #2
Use the shapes clue to open the first cabinet door. Get the flashlight.
Bookshelf view #2
Use the clue from the wine rack to open the right drawer. Get the corkscrew.
Turn on the flashlight, then use it behind the shelf on the left side to get an escape man.
Use the corkscrew to open the wine bottle, pour it into the wine glass, and get an escape man.
Wine rack view #2
Use the clue from the purple book to put the knives in the barrel. Back up and get the escape man that flew out.
Clue not working?
Did you notice that the book was upside-down?
Exiting
Wait for the green guy to find the exit door, then follow him out. Click through the ending scenes. Marvel at the, um, story.
Posted by: Reka
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February 19, 2014 7:44 PM