Zeusthecat

The Big LucasArts Playthrough

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Congrats on finishing. Another hour wasted on my end and I'm still stuck. My focus right now is on the area around Brink. I'm starting to think that relic will somehow open a staircase that will allow me to go down the cliff. There is a display in the museum that I think supports this idea and I can't think of any other reason the game would have an area with the description of "down".

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Nope. Nothing to do with Brink. I'll just say that you were on the right track previously.

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Still stuck and quite frustrated at this point. I've put in over 8 hours trying to figure this out and I just can't stop obsessing over it. My latest thought is to try going to each panel thing and adjusting the lens to various other positions to see if something happens.

At this point I've hunted just about every goddamn pixel in this game. I also still really feel like there should be something for me to do in that area with the crevice. And what's up with that fucking crack in the planetarium? And why is there an empty beach area? I've enjoyed this game for the most part but now it's starting to really piss me off.

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Just go back and read my first hint. Seriously. It's really very vague, but it'll get you on the right track.

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I'm very close to clicking on that first one thorn. I've still got just a tiny bit of fight left in me.

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Is this the first time you use spoilers?! GASP!

 

Also, thank you again for all this. This is the most excellent way of reliving what it's like to play these games for the first time.  :worship:

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Is this the first time you use spoilers?! GASP!

First time for this game yeah. I'm kind of bummed that I couldn't figure this one out on my own but I can at least take solace in the fact that I did get through a few of the games without using hints.

And the solution to my 9+ hours of being stuck was kind of fucking lame. I mean, Maggie couldn't have remembered that beach area any of the other dozens of times I showed her that tablet? She really needed me to specifically show it to her there? I say fuck that. Oh well, at least that's all behind me now.

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I haven't made much more progress since getting past the part I was stuck on. I got the final metal piece from the island that appeared when I showed Maggie the tablet. Then I placed the metal piece into the alcove and unlocked the final door. This led me to an area with a control panel, some additional consoles, and the fifth lens/panel thing. I had to clear a bird's nest off of the lens and was then able to hit the button on the panel. I expected something to happen here since I had activated all 5 of the devices and aligned all the crystals properly, but hitting the button on this one didn't seem to do anything. Next, I put a few life crystals into the main console in this area but wasn't able to make anything happen since it was still missing a triangle shaped piece. Finally, after getting a call from Brink, I had to save him from the crevice by cutting off his hand. As usual he was an ungrateful asshole.

 

I've pretty much been stuck since going through the whole ordeal with Brink. I've gone back to the alien to ask him about the triangular piece for the console but I haven't been able to use his clues to get anywhere. I think he said something about the map but I can't remember exactly what he said and he won't repeat it, saying instead that he's already said everything there is to say. So I'm stuck again with the same items in my inventory and the one new area. I've spent about an hour so far trying to figure out what I need to do next and haven't gotten anywhere.

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So I'm stuck again with the same items in my inventory and the one new area. I've spent about an hour so far trying to figure out what I need to do next and haven't gotten anywhere.

 

Check your inventory more closely. The alien gave you a rod.

 

The map isn't actually too helpful though, as the image it shows is small and vague. I pretty much worked out where the piece was by going to the one screen that hadn't previously been useful in any way.

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Check your inventory more closely. The alien gave you a rod.

 

The map isn't actually too helpful though, as the image it shows is small and vague. I pretty much worked out where the piece was by going to the one screen that hadn't previously been useful in any way.

I double checked and I don't have any new rod in my inventory, just the rods I had before. I've talked to the alien a few times now and haven't received anything.

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Nope, I was wrong. In the inventory it showed as pale blue, with the name 'Creator's Engraving'. Assuming you have used up all of the conversation topics (you need to click on the 'Alien Device' one several times, then the 'Eye Part' one twice), the Creator places his engraving on the ground in front of himself. The colour in-world is similar to the background, so it can blend in and not be obvious that it's there. Do a bit of pixel-hunting and see if you can find it.

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Thanks for the tip thorn. Sure enough, it was right there in front of the alien and was completely indistinguishable from the yellowish stone background (even though the rod was light blue). I have to call bullshit on this. The alien should have either directly handed them the rod or they should have at least made a comment along the lines of "let's pick up that rod that the alien just placed in front of us". I don't see the point of expecting the player to notice an object on the ground that is colored exactly the same as the background and not have the characters make a single mention about that object even though it was placed right in front of them. 

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The Dig completed! Total play time was 27 hours. I ended up using a total of 3 hints throughout the game: the two provided by thorn over the last several posts and one additional hint to figure out that I needed to click and hold on the button to activate each light bridge.

 

After following the last tip from thorn, I was finally able to use the last rod with the map device to locate the missing green triangular piece. After putting it in the machine however, Brink showed up and took the last of the crystals from us. After a few cutscenes, I agreed to use the machine piece in Brink's device so he could get more crystals and in exchange we would split them 50/50. Unfortunately only two crystals came out and I had no choice but to take both of them since I needed them both to activate the device. This pissed Brink off and he ended up falling off a cliff and dying like an idiot after losing his balance while trying to crush Boston's head with a rock. With Brink out of the picture, we made our way back to the cathedral area with the life crystals and triangle piece in hand. 

 

I ended up getting stuck again for another hour around this point. I used the crystals and triangle piece on the console but couldn't figure out how to make anything happen. Upon talking to Maggie, she indicated that all five light bridges had to be pointed at the center hub for the machine to work. I thought I had already done this previously but I went around again anyways and hit the button on each one again and had no luck. Then I spent a bunch of time going back through all the areas doing pointless shit before I finally got fed up and resorted to using the Universal Hint System (I think I was just ready for the game to be over at this point). It turns out I was supposed to click and hold on the button for each light bridge to make the bridge extend. Considering every single interaction in the game besides this one involved a simple click and release, I found this solution infuriating. Seriously, why the fuck would anyone think it was a good idea to randomly make the player hold the click button down in this one limited circumstance without making any attempt to broadcast that this was even an option. Anyways, after finally turning on all the light bridges, I was able to get Maggie to start up the machine which ended up killing her in the process. Even though I had promised not to use a life crystal on her, I did anyways because I'm a dirty liar and as soon as she came to, she realized what had happened and jumped off a cliff to kill herself again. This left nowhere else to go but across that light bridge and as soon as I started to cross, a big dog beast ran onto the bridge to scare me off. Luckily, I was able to quickly dispatch him by turning off the bridge and, after turning it back on, I was finally able to enter the eye and finish the game.

 

Overall I enjoyed this game a great deal up until where I got stuck for 9+ hours. I feel like the puzzles were difficult, but fairly logical up to this point and there was a steady flow of progress in the puzzles and story. However, after hitting that part where I was stuck, the rest of the game was very fucking irritating. I also felt that the story was pretty good until the answers and explanations started coming, then it kind of lost it's luster. I would have preferred that the characters stayed dead and that Boston wasn't the hero of the universe but whatever. 

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If you have a save, you should do it again except this time don't revive Maggie.  You get a slightly different ending.

 

While I really love the setting and atmosphere of The Dig, I completely agree that the puzzle design is pretty weak.  It's a good example for me of a game that I think of as a "favorite" but not necessarily "best".

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I remember those animated cutscenes at the end were especially cheap looking, more like King's Quest VII, especially coming off the heels of Full Throttle.

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Yeah, all the close-up on face cutscenes in this game look a bit cheap.

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I started

 

The Curse of Monkey Island

 

I haven't made it too far yet. After choosing Mega Monkey mode (I assume this is the standard puzzle difficulty and the other one is easy mode?) I watched the opening cutscene and then had to figure out how to escape from LeChuck's ship. After talking for a bit to the pirate that was in the room with me, I discovered his true identity (yay Wally!) and made him cry by telling him he was a shitty pirate. Once Wally became a sobbing, unresponsive mess, I picked up a nearby ramrod and Wally's hook and, after poking around a bit, I discovered I could combine them into a ramrodhook device. After looking out the window and talking to the floating skull out in the water, I then discovered that I could use the ramrodhook to pull in his detached arm which happened to still be holding on to a cutlass. Then I tried to use the ramrodhook on the skull but ended up just knocking it into the water. Finally, I was able to use the cutlass to cut the rope that was attached to the cannon and, after a little more toiling, discovered that I needed to fire the cannon again (I had already destroyed all the ships with the cannon at this point) to free myself from the room.

 

After firing the cannon, the ship capsized and I found myself stuck in a room full of random objects and a single exit above me that seems to be out of reach. I was able to pick up a diamond ring and a bag full of wooden nickels but so far haven't managed to figure out what to do next. I've tried using some of my items on everything in the room but haven't had any luck yet. There is so much shit to interact with that I suspect I'll either eventually find the right combination of items to use or I'll have to pixel hunt to find an obscure item somewhere in the mess that will help me reach the exit.

 

At first the aesthetic changes for this game were pretty jarring for me. After becoming accustomed to the sprite graphics and lack of voice acting in the earlier games, it didn't immediately feel like I was playing a Monkey Island game. However, as I've been playing I've started to warm up to the new aesthetic and it is perhaps not as out of place as I thought at first. It is a pretty impressive shift from the look of all of the games that came before it. I'm not quite sold yet on the voice acting though. It seems pretty good from what I've heard so far but I'm just a little disappointed that they don't quite sound how I expected them to in my head. 

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Curse is my favorite Monkey Island game.  There are so many things I love about it but I won't spoil them yet.  I think technically Mega Monkey mode is supposed to be the hard mode and the other mode the standard one, but it's not really that much harder so your statement is mostly accurate.  Basically, it just adds a few steps to most puzzle solutions.

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Wow, you jumped to the next game quick!  The Curse of Monkey Island is wonderful.

 

It's interesting that you find the visual/audio shift so jarring.  This is of course similar to what most of us experienced, but I would have thought that coming from the special editions would have smoothed this transition somewhat for you, especially with the Curse actors being called back for those remakes.  Or did you play the first two exclusively in classic mode?

 

On The Dig: I agree that the story kind of fell apart toward the end.  I'm certain a more intriguing incarnation of the plot was to be found in one of the earlier attempts at the game.  Now that you're done, you can enjoy stories about some of those failed productions.  We collected a few here.

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Hey this is one of those few LucasArts games I haven't played!

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Wow, you jumped to the next game quick!  The Curse of Monkey Island is wonderful.

 

It's interesting that you find the visual/audio shift so jarring.  This is of course similar to what most of us experienced, but I would have thought that coming from the special editions would have smoothed this transition somewhat for you, especially with the Curse actors being called back for those remakes.  Or did you play the first two exclusively in classic mode?

 

On The Dig: I agree that the story kind of fell apart toward the end.  I'm certain a more intriguing incarnation of the plot was to be found in one of the earlier attempts at the game.  Now that you're done, you can enjoy stories about some of those failed productions.  We collected a few here.

Thanks, I'll have to check those out. Overall I really dug The Dig, it's just that those last few puzzles and the ending just kind of put a damper on an otherwise awesome experience.

And so far I've only ever played the classic versions of MI 1 and 2. I purchased the special edition versions after the fact and I plan to replay both after I'm finished with these last few games.

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The things about The Dig that I remember are pretty much everything except the puzzles.  I really liked the story, landscapes, characters, theme, all of it.  It's just a shame the puzzle design was kind of weak.

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