Black Olive Games' newest point-and-click adventure series begins with Tainted Olive: Chapter 1, where you take control of Silvian. Silvian's mood has been bleak lately and his luck only seems to go from bad to worse when he runs afoul of the local thieves guild, who, as it happens, don't take kindly to people trying to run out on their debts. A job posted by the local church to investigate the sudden silence at one of their heavily guarded orchards seems like a good idea, both in terms of cash and an excuse to get out of town for a while, but before he can leave, he has some unfinished business to attend to. To play, all you need to do is click to interact anywhere your cursor highlights with a white glow, and the map you gain early on will let you travel from place to place. Friend, this is one maudlin game, so hopefully you're in the mood for some bleakness and some sad doo-doo-doo music.
Though the story is extremely text-heavy, your actual choices are fairly limited and so are any actual puzzles. The game does some clever things with its puzzles, but they stutter somewhat from poor explanations or awkward interfaces. This first chapter of a planned six part series shoulders the burden of introducing us to a new world, one vastly different from The Grey Rainbow. A lot of it is interesting, like the Blood, the Five Hundred Year War, and the importance of olives, but not everyone will appreciate the jarring breaks to the story the narrative often takes to infodump it in your lap. If you can stand the bumps, however, Tainted Olive is a curiously engrossing game that feels like it has the potential to open up into an even more creative world. The risks it takes with its puzzle design might make it seem rough around the edges, but they stand out from the pack. Chapter 1 itself is on the short side, and don't expect to finish with more answers than questions, but the series shows a lot of promise, and later this year we'll see if it can continue the momentum.
Walkthrough Guide
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Tainted Olive: Chapter 1 Walkthrough
Well
Pick up the STICK leaning against the side of the well.
Read the note pinned to the stone wall to collect the Town Map.
Click the Town Map and select the circled area around the Basilica.
Basilica
Click the left arrow to enter the building.
Speak with the priest and accept his job offer.
Take another look at the Town Map and travel to the circled area around the Town Gates.
After the short scene, select the Town Map again and go back to the Basilica.
Click the right arrow to turn towards the courtyard.
Talk to the woman by the fountain. Ask her "what is it you need help with?" and then offer to "take the box and try to find a solution" to start a minigame.
In the first half of the puzzle you must arrange the tiles to repair the scrambled image.
First, drag the dark tiles left or right on top of another dark tile to swap their positions. Dark tiles can only be swapped with each other if they are in the same horizontal row.
When a tile switches from dark to light it will lock in place, indicating you've put it in the correct spot.
Once all the tiles have been correctly placed, you can click to rotate them.
When all the tiles of an entire row are rotated to the right positions, a line of text will appear in the grey rectangles at the right side of the puzzle.
After you finish the picture of the peacock, you'll need to assemble the lines of text into a complete song for the second half of the puzzle.
Click and drag a line of text to move it up or down on the page.
There are key words in each line that offer a clue as to where it belongs in the song.
The line about a trickster in a "fight" for instance would fit perfectly with a line that says "take up arms".
Similarly, a "light" that can "shine a path" would of course "serve as guide," so those lines must go together as well.
Solution
Katya will give you a GEM after you complete the puzzle which will appear between the Town Map and the inventory bar.
Clicking the gem reveals all hotspot in the current scene.
Now open the Town Map and click the lower right building to travel to the Smithy.
Smithy
Take the piece of IRON WIRE hanging from a nail on the wall.
Combine the IRON WIRE with the STICK to make a HOOK.
Click the blacksmith to speak with him, then offer to find his stolen hammer.
Open the Town Map again. This time, select the farthest left building to travel to the Inn.
Inn
Speak with the innkeeper and agree to find a lobster for him.
Use the Town Map to travel to the Dock.
Dock
Click the fisherman sitting on the edge of the dock.
First select "speak really loudly" to learn about the Ratman who can get you maps.
Now choose to "eye the net next to the fisherman" to try to steal it. The fisherman will request that you find him five rats in exchange for the net.
Open your Town Map and click the circle that appears on top of the cave to travel to the Ratman's Lair.
Ratman's Lair
Pick up the RAT 1/5 on the floor in the space of the doorway.
Collect RAT 2/5 above the vines on top of the right wall section.
Click Ratman to speak with him.
First ask about the blacksmith's missing hammer. Ratman will give a clue to its location - "by the north-eastern wall, near the city gates. You might have to search some unexpected places to find him."
Next ask about the "map of the Woods of Unrest" etc. and then challenge Ratman to a game of Mora to begin another minigame.
The game of Mora is played in 3 rounds. Each player secretly chooses a number between 1 and 5, then tries to guess what the sum of the two numbers will be between 2 and 10.
Click the hand symbols on the left to select the number of fingers you'd like to pick, then select one of the numbers on the right to guess what you think the total number of fingers is.
Use logic to narrow down the possible solutions! For example, if you were to choose 5 fingers, you automatically know that the lowest possible solution would be a total of 6, since your enemy can only throw a 1 at the lowest (any total from 2-5 would thus be impossible!).
You're pretty much certain to lose the first round, so just complete it as quickly as possible. After round 1 is over, immediately challenge him again to play round 2.
In this round you'll notice something is different. Your GEM has appeared on the table! If you click it, the GEM will highlight the number of fingers your opponent has chosen and the total that your opponent will guess. Use this knowledge to beat him at his own game!
So, let's say the gem highlights 4 fingers and the number 9. This means Ratman has chosen 4 fingers and he will guess the sum is 9. Therefore you cannot pick 5 fingers or he will win! Instead, pick any other amount, like 2 fingers, and select the new correct sum which in this case would be 6.
Repeat this pattern until you win the round. As soon as it's over, challenge Ratman to a third and final round.
In the third round you'll still be able to use your GEM to cheat, but it'll be a little more difficult to guess correctly.
Now there will be two hands selected and you'll have to guess at which of the two is the one that the Ratman has actually picked.
Sometimes you may have to guess, but most turns you'll be able to use the process of elimination described in the step explained above.
To clarify with an example: if the both the 1 hand and the 5 hand were highlighted by the gem, but the highlighted sum is the number 3, then Ratman obviously can't have actually picked the 5 hand. You'd therefore know he's truly chosen the 1 hand and can defeat him in the same way you did at round 2!
Win three times to complete the third round and defeat the Ratman.
Once you've beaten Ratman in the minigame, he will reward you with the DETAILED MAP.
Open the Town Map and click the circle that appears above the wall near the city gates to return to the Well.
Well
Click the arrow above the well to look inside.
Collect RAT 3/5 on the upper left edge at the top of the well.
Use the HOOK from your inventory to pull up the HAMMER by the dead thief's body at the bottom of the well.
Select your Town Map and travel back to the Smithy.
Smithy
Collect RAT 4/5 on the floor beside the bottom of the barrel of swords.
Give the HAMMER to the blacksmith. In exchange you will receive a SWORD.
Reopen the Town Map and use it to return to the Inn.
Inn
Collect the RAT 5/5 on top of the table in the middle of the room.
Use the Town Map to travel to the Dock.
Dock
Give all five RATS to the fisherman in exchange for his FISHING NET.
Attach the FISHING NET to the HOOK to create a FISH-CATCHER.
Click the arrow beside the fisherman to look into the water.
Use the FISH-CATCHER to collect the LOBSTER from the water.
Open the Town Map and go back to the Inn once again.
Inn
Give the LOBSTER to the innkeeper to receive your favorite DICE and LOCKPICK TOOLS.
Take a look at the Town Map again. The circle at the Town Gate will reappear - click it to travel there.
Walkthrough by Trinn!
Posted by: Dora
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February 15, 2014 9:36 AM