The Water Well
Well, it's almost holiday time. Time for overeating until you burst; time for family; time for that creepy uncle to get sloshed again; time for grandmother to tell that same story one more time. In short, it is a time for stress. Major stress. So this week's room escape will be something calm, soothing, simple, a relief from all of the family "fun" that is to come. Welcome to The Water Well by no1game, the solution to all your holiday troubles. Well, perhaps not to all your troubles (hi cousin Marge!), but certainly an oasis of calm in an otherwise frantic holiday season.
Escape from this quiet little room depends more on use of found objects and simple puzzle solving than anything else. No math here! Just quiet little puzzles and a mysterious well. Navigation is accomplished by arrows at the sides and bottom of the screen. There's even a handy changing cursor to help eliminate all that pesky pixel hunting. There's a surprising amount to find and do in what is essentially a basic four-walled room with minimal furnishings.
Done up in a simple 3D style, The Water Well soothes with its gentle pastel color palette. Nothing sharp edged or shiny here. The style is slightly reminiscent of Robamimi's work, but less "plastic" in feel. Although there are sound effects there is no music to jar you or make you tense, thereby adding to the Zen feeling of the space. Inventory control is very simple with nice gray question marks on inventory items controlling the close ups.
Analysis: This may be one of the easiest escapes ever featured on Weekday Escape, but hey, who needs more stress and head banging at this time of year? Simple it may be, but it is also quite fun and very relaxing at the same time. Experienced escapers should be out in less than 10 minutes, hopefully with a lighter heart and able to face the holiday with a little more equanimity.
There's a lot of combining found objects involved, so those who disdain "construction" puzzles for pure mental effort might find the game a little lacking. And since much of the central puzzle depends on color the game is not very accessible for those with color blindness. Although it is a Japanese game, there is an English version, so no worries there. There's also a way to turn off the sound, but both settings for mute and English must be set before you begin the game, so if you miss it you will have to reload and start again as there are no controls inside the body of the game.
The Water Well is perfect mid-week casual gameplay. When you finish you will be treated to some lovely music and a nice animated scene that is sure to put a smile on your face and enable you to face the holiday ordeal to come. Just remember, good things come to those who wait. Kick back, relax, and take time to plumb the mysterious depths of The Water Well.
Walkthrough Guide
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The Water Well Walkthrough
General Information
Don't forget to switch over to English before you start.
If you want the sound effects off you need to also do that before the start.
Because of the color nature of two of the puzzles, there will be a lot of descriptive directions to help those who are colorblind.
Notice each item in your inventory has a little question mark in the lower right corner. Use the question mark to pull up a close up of an inventory item.
Sofa Wall
You are facing a wall with a sofa and two paintings.
On the left is a blue painting of snowflakes, on the right a gray painting of snowflakes.
There are three pillows on the sofa, from left to right: large pink, small yellow, medium green.
Click each pillow to lift it up. Under the green one you should find a bottle of fertilizer.
Turn left.
Door wall
Oh look, a door! And of course, it's locked.
On top of the cabinet is a small dark brown box with two buttons. Gee, it's locked too, go figure.
Open the top drawer of the cabinet and take the flower pot.
Open the bottom drawer of the cabinet and take the rope.
Turn left.
Desk wall
Check out the cool hanging light fixture by clicking on it for a close up.
Is that a black light? Back up.
On the desktop is a book, click on it for a close up.
Oh look, there's a mysterious gray circle on the desktop, right underneath the lamp.
Click on the book again to pick it up.
I'm sure that 3 x 4 pattern with white and orange dots with an arrowed line running through it means something.
Click on the book again to open it.
Keep clicking on the right hand pages of the book to read.
Look, instructions for growing a plant! Keep reading.
More instructions for growing a plant. Keep reading.
Okay, here's some mysterious code. A picture of a flower. Green = 6, pink = ?, yellow = ?, and is that a picture of the sofa with large to small?
Back up.
Open the left desk drawer. Oh look, a little case.
While the case is in close up, click on it. What a coincidence, a seed!
Click on the seed to remove it from the case.
Pull up the case again. Is that a paperclip? Take the paperclip.
Back up and open the right desk drawer. Darn, locked!
Click just underneath the locked drawer for an underneath the drawer view.
Hmmm, a little hole. Wonder what we could use on that?
Pull up the paperclip from your inventory.
Once the paperclip is in close up, click on it to straighten it out.
Close the close up view of the paperclip, then use the paperclip on the little hole. Yay, the drawer is unlocked!
Back up and open the right drawer. A cell phone!
Click on the cell phone to open it.
Wow, that 3 x 4 keypad looks just like the pattern on the book, doesn't it?
How about we apply the pattern from the book to the keypad?
The pattern starts at the upper right button (in yellow), goes to the upper left button (in yellow), proceeds to the middle button in the second row (yellow) and then to the middle button on the bottom row (in yellow).
That would make a code of 3 - 1 - 5 - 0.
Click on the keyboard and it pulls up a keypad.
Enter the code 3150 and push enter.
If you entered the code correctly it should pull up a pretty picture of snowflakes!
For those who can't see colors, the picture is five snowflakes, from top to bottom: Blue, gray, gray, blue, gray.
Close the cell phone.
Back up and turn right.
Door Wall (redux)
Let's look at the little brown box on top of the low cabinet.
There's two buttons, a left button and a right button.
I wonder if we've seen anything that will tell us the pattern to push?
Remember the paintings above the sofa?
Remember the pretty picture from the cell phone?
The blue painting was on the left, the gray painting on the right.
That would make the picture from the cell phone correspond to left, right, right, left, right.
Push the buttons on the box in that order: left, right, right, left, right.
Yay, opening the box reveals a key! Take the key.
Let's get out of here! Back up from the box.
Click on the door for a close up and use the key.
I knew it couldn't be that simple.
Okay, the only door leads to what looks like a janitor's closet.
Take the bucket and the ladder.
Hmmm, there are two switches on the wall, a larger one on the left that needs a code, and a smaller one on the right.
Click on the smaller switch on the right for a close up and click the top of the switch to turn it on.
Back up twice and turn left.
Desk Wall (redux)
Look, the black light is on!
Guess it's time to plant a flower.
Click on the desk for a close up.
Let's follow the "planting for dummies" instructions from the book.
Place the flower pot in the gray circle.
Place the seed in the flower pot.
Place the fertilizer in the flower pot.
And we already have the light source as well.
But wait, we don't have water!
Back up and turn left.
Well wall
Oh look, a convenient well, right in the house.
Click on the well for a close up.
Gee, the water looks really far down.
Pull up the bucket from your inventory.
Attach the rope to the bucket.
Close the close up of the bucket + rope, then use the bucket on the water.
Yay, we have water! Back up and turn right.
Use the bucket of water on the flower pot.
Back up and wander around the room. Keep checking back with the flower pot until you have, well, a flower. This may take a little while.
End Game
Well, let's look at the flower in close up.
Some of the petals appear to be different colors, but it is hard to distinguish under that funky black light.
Go back to the closet and turn off the smaller switch on the right.
Go back to the flower and click twice for a close up.
That's better, now we can see the colors.
I'm sure this pattern means something.
What did the book say?
Notice that the flower looks like a clock face? It even has 12 petals.
The book said that green = 6, and look, the green petal is at the 6 o'clock position.
That would place the pink petal at 9 o'clock and the yellow petal at 2 o'clock.
But what does it mean?
Hmmm, that's three numbers, and the larger switch in the closet had a three digit code...
But what order do they go in?
Remember the other clue from the book about the sofa?
Didn't the sofa cushions also come in pink, green, and yellow?
The book clue stated largest to smallest, which would be pink, green, and yellow (large, medium, and small).
If green = 6, pink = 9, and yellow = 2 then the code would be 9 6 2.
Back up and head to the closet.
Click on the left switch and enter the code.
The code is 9 6 2 if you don't remember.
Once the code is entered click OK.
Yay, we can push the red button now.
Push the red button.
Oh look, it sort of drained the well!
Back up and head to the well.
Click on the well for a close up.
Yep, there's an opening down there. If only we could get down there, we could get out.
Oh yeah, we have a ladder.
Place the ladder in the well.
Click on the water in the well to go down.
Enjoy the ending animation and music.
Posted by: grinnyp
|
November 25, 2009 2:09 AM