Sky blue and ocean blue, those are the eponymous Two Blues of Tomatea's latest escape masterpiece. You know the drill if you've played this developer's work before, but for the uninitiated, everything's controlled with the mouse: click when the cursor's tip glows to zoom in on, interact with, or pick up things, and click the edges of the screen when the black bars appear to move around. Eventually you'll presumably solve all the puzzles in the room, a distinctly nautically flavored room this time, and escape from it.
Two Blues is very, very Tomatea, with intuitive puzzles, masterful graphics and sound, clues that can be hidden in plain sight and yet still baffle you just enough, and a few classic puzzles (yes, that IS a corner-controlled wobbly picture). It's clear that Tomatea values every good quality of an escape game equally; the visuals are masterfully crafted to create a perfect atmosphere without being too distracting, the soundtrack is neither bland nor disruptive, and the puzzles are just difficult enough to be entertaining. All this weaves together to produce an escape that is not to be missed. So come with us, escape the dull gray of everyday life, and put some blue in your day.
Walkthrough Guide
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Two Blues Walkthrough
You'll start facing a ship wheel mounted on a wall. Zoom in on it and note that you need some sort of color/symbol code for that panel in the center. Also note the rings on some of the wheel's spokes: one up, two down, three right, four left.
Nothing else to do here yet, so zoom out again. Now check out the title above the wheel. "PEACERS"? Looks like you can swap the letters around by clicking them, but you don't know what to spell yet.
Zoom out again and ceck out the end table towards the right; take the tile on it. It's apparently one of a set of eight. You're done in this view for now, so zoom out and turn right.
Now you're facing a shelf and two paintings. You can zoom in on the painting on the right, so do so, then click it again to flip it over. Take the Morse code sheet, then zoom out.
You can zoom in on two shelves here. One has a sextant with a telescope that's screwed in place, and the other has a ship-in-a-bottle with a key inside. You can't fuss with either yet, but you can grab a tile from each of the two shelves.
Zoom out and turn right. You're now facing an old-fashioned desk and the door. The door, naturally, is locked, so let's check the desk.
It looks like the top of the desk is locked with some sort of sixteen-light lock. You allegedly know the code, but you don't, so let's leave it alone. Zoom out and turn right one last time.
A wine rack and two more paintings! This time you can zoom in on the left painting. You can click its corners, but you get a "no clue how to solve" message. Aha, it's one of THOSE puzzles. Zoom out again, there's more to look at.
Grab the tile from the shelf on top of the wine rack, then zoom in on the rack itself. The drawer in the center wants some sort of three-symbol code you don't have. Well, we're out of things to look at, so we might as well give up.
...Wait! Those wine bottles on the rack are arranged a little oddly. In fact, I think the rack itself is four rows of four, just like that panel on the desk. Transfer the positions of the seven bottles to the panel, make those squares green, and that combination will open the desk.
Inside the desk you'll see four drawers, another tile, and a book. Take the tile, obviously. Now let's leaf through the book.
A sextant contains a telescope, good to know. Some data on the horoscope signes (sic), color-coded by element. And a picture of a ship with "escaper" written on it. Now you have all the info you need to solve a few puzzles.
But first, the desk drawers. On the right, one needs a key, and one needs a two-button code. On the left, one needs a four-letter code and one a four-direction code... wait, four-direction code? I think we have that!
Set the four dials according to the rings on the ship's wheel we started at: first up, second down, third right, fourth left. Then open the drawer to see... a collection of fish hooks. You can take the third one from the left, so do exactly that.
Hey, look at the way the remaining hooks are pointing. I bet we could use that for the two-button code! Transfer the directions the hooks' points are pointing to the buttons: right-right-left-right-left-left. You'll get a screwdriver and yet another tile for your trouble.
Now, let's crack open that case in the wine rack. Because the panel is blue, the three symbols from the Water section of the notebook are the solution, so copy them down, enter them, and open sesame! You're now one corkscrew richer!
Turn around, we can do some things on that shelf now. At the sextant, unscrew the screw (it's silver, you can't miss it) and nab the telescope. At the ship-in-a-bottle, undo the cork with the corkscrew and... discover you still can't reach the key. Darn.
Let's solve that nameplate above the ship's wheel. Remember the page of the notebook with the ship's image? Swap the letters until they spell "ESCAPER" and you'll get a Tomatea-brand battery. (I've always wondered, why do escape game developers always use themselves as brand names within their games?)
Now, the ship's wheel itself, more specifically the center. We've seen its four symbols in the notebook, so let's set the colors so they match: yellow (don't click), blue (click twice), green (click three times), red (click once). You'll open a compartment where two batteries would fit. Pity we only have one.
We'll come back to that. Did you notice when you solved the ship's name that blue lights lit up over four letters? C-A-P-E? Try that on the lower left drawer in the desk. You'll crack it open and get yet another tile and a compass.
Say... we haven't used that telescope yet. Try it on the windows beside the ship's wheel and you'll see a lighthouse flashing a signal. Use the Morse code sheet to translate it: S-W-E-N. Now where could we use a combination like that?
Have you looked at the compass? Its four directions are buttons. Press S-W-E-N like the lighthouse told you to to get a key. The key goes to the upper right drawer in the desk, containing the last tile and another Tomatea battery.
Put the two batteries in the ship's wheel, then close the compartment to see a sequence of lights light up: upper right, lower left, upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left. There aren't a lot of things a sequence like that can go to.
Go tease the corners of the painting to the left of the wine rack in the same order and it'll move, revealing a panel that's low on tiles. You should have all eight by now, so put them in, then rearrange them until they're properly organized. (Hint: start at the corners, and keep an eye out for tiles that look like they mesh perfectly.)
You went to all that trouble for a pen and ink?! And you don't even have any paper... but I can think of another use for that pen. Take it, then examine it and combine it with the fish hook to make a hooked stick.
Use your new apparatus to fetch the key from the ship-in-a-bottle. Since the only thing that's still locked around here is the door, I don't think I need to say another word.
Posted by: SonicLover
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October 17, 2012 9:06 AM
Hint-through
To use this, look up the item or location you�re stuck at (e.g. can�t open [x]), and see if the hints get you on the right track.
Locations (i.e. things you can�t pick up)
Anagram
You can just solve this (if you�re good at that sort of thing), or there�s a hint in the notebook
Ship's Wheel
(4 symbols with colors): look in the notebook
Add batteries
Ship-in-a-Bottle
Need corkscrew, pen, and fishhook
Zoom in on the pen nib
Desk top
(4�4 puzzle): look at the wine bottles
Top left drawer
(3 dials): look at the ship�s wheel (Solved or unsolved, doesn't matter)
Bottom left drawer
(4-letter code): look at solved anagram
Top right drawer
(key): open the compass
Bottom right drawer
(2 buttons): look at the fishhooks (after you�ve taken one)
Wobbly picture
look at (solved) ship�s wheel
Wine rack drawer
(3 blue symbols): look in the notebook
Items (things that go in your inventory)
Batteries
1. anagram 2. top right drawer
Compass - the round tin you get from
the bottom left drawer
look out the window
Can�t see it? Try the telescope.
Still won�t let you open it? Have you picked up the Morse Code sheet?
Corkscrew
Look in the wine rack drawer
Fishhook
Top left drawer
Key
Look at the ship-in-a-bottle
Morse Code Sheet
Look behind the paintings
Notebook
Desk top
Pen
Solve wobbly picture, then the puzzle behind it
Puzzle pieces
1. Round table to the right of windows
2. Next to ship in a bottle
3. Next to sextant
4. Middle of desk
5. Bottom right drawer
6. Bottom left drawer
7. Top right drawer
8. Top shelf of wine rack
Screwdriver
Bottom right drawer
Telescope
Look at the sextant (need screwdriver)
Posted by: Reka
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October 18, 2012 3:09 PM