The Big LucasArts Playthrough

[Trip Hazard]

Great game though it undoubtedly is, there are some bullshit puzzles in Full Throttle, and the wall-kicking is probably the chief offender 

[thorn]

Welcome to the puzzle Tim Schafer regards as his least successful ever!

[Zeusthecat]

Well at least there is only a small, finite amount of items and areas that I have access to so hopefully I can brute force it. Although i'm kind of concerned about how the codes on the bike parts come into play. If they represent some kind of pattern for some thing then shit's about to get real (shitty).

 

Now that I'm hearing that this is a notoriously bad puzzle I am pretty damned determined to solve it without hints. We'll see how that goes.

[thorn]

There seriously aren't any hints we can give. Just keep kicking.

[Zeusthecat]

God, if I have to translate the meter ticks into Morse code and then map that to one of the codes from the bike then I quit video games.

[Zeusthecat]

My god I found it! After another half an hour of kicking the wall I found a spot that made a very faint clicking noise when I kicked it. So I kicked again after the meters stopped and the hatch door opened.

 

That was a lot of wall kicking. Tim Schafer has a sick sense of humor.

[syntheticgerbil]

It's weird to compare the wall kicking difficulty you had compared to the Cave Fish goggles difficulty I had. Seems like a matter of luck sometimes. Somehow I never had an issue with the wall kicking because I landed within the first few tries on the right spot. I wasn't exactly sure where to kick either, but I did see that nice little spot since I guess I always had my monitor contrast turned way up as a kid.

 

I remember being somewhat annoyed with the numbers you were talking about but it's probably not a big deal if you just write them down. If I recall I preferred to not use pen and paper and just double clicked to room warp as fast as I could with one of the numbers in my mind still.

 

Speaking of the double click room warp, this is essential to adventure games. I noticed Tim Schafer mentioning that a lot of the team did not want double click on Broken Age when watching his Full Throttle playthrough. That should really be on the player whether they want to take in the scenery or not. I know when you lose a save game or something goes wrong, double click and cutscene skipping can very quickly get you back to your previous spot in an adventure game.

[BigJKO]

Yes, double click to fast-forward to the next screen is essential in the late game, IMO. When you've seen all the scenery it becomes really repetitive to walk through it every single time..

[Zeusthecat]

Full Throttle completed! My total play time was about 9 hours and I did not use any hints except for the couple posts here encouraging me to keep kicking that wall (which I would have probably given up on at some point if it weren't for those posts).

 

After finding the secret door and making my way into the factory, I went down the hall and found two locked doors and another room with a crazy old lady that called security every time I entered the room. Since there was nothing I could really do I went back to the main office area and noticed the safe on the floor. I had previously written down all of the codes from the bike parts so I quickly got the safe open by using the only code that had 6 numbers with no letters or dashes. After I retrieved the key card and film reel from the safe, I went back into the hallway and unlocked the door that had the card reader. Inside that room I found a movie projector with two levers and another locked door. It was at this point that I hit another wall and was stuck for about 45 minutes. I tried over and over to shut down the projector and sneak into the next room thinking the purpose of this puzzle was to distract the old lady so I could access the room she was in. On the bright side, I got to see a lot of funny dialog with the security guard she kept sending after me and some more good dialog between her and Ripburger each time I shut the projector off. After much toiling I eventually happened to try using one of the levers twice in a row and saw that the lever had a third position I could put it in. That was the big breakthrough I needed and from there I quickly found the necessary position for each lever to cause the film to get burned up. This finally distracted the old lady long enough for me to go into the next room, project the evidence onto the screen behind Ripburger, and play Corley's will. Then Ripburger ran off, Mo assumed leadership of the company, and Ben and Mo rode off into the sunset.

 

As Ben and Mo were riding off into the sunset I expected to see the credits roll but instead I saw Ripburger ride up and smash into them, sticking them both to the grill of his tank vehicle. Then I was presented with a few fast paced, mini puzzles as we rocketed down the road. First, I had to open the grill to expose the fan. Then after finding that none of my items could be used to stop the fan, I discovered that I could grab Ripburger's cane when he reached out to close the other compartment after I opened it. Once I had his cane I was able to stop the fan, climb through the engine to the back of the cab, and then use the crowbar to loosen the nut on one of the fuel lines before ripping it out. Then somewhere in the midst of this chaos some of the Vultures driving a wingless plane zoomed up behind us and forced the tank into cargo bay of the plane.

 

At this point we were heading right for the gorge I had jumped earlier and there was limited time to stop the plane. So i went up to the controls and after much trial and error eventually found that I needed to raise the landing gear to stop the plane. After doing this, Ben jumped down to stop Ripburger from shooting Mo and in the midst of this, the plane came to a screeching stop at the edge of the gorge. This caused the tank that Ben and Ripburger were fighting on to launch back out of the cargo bay and left it dangling over the gorge. Ripburger was left hanging on the edge of the gun turret and shot at me each time I tried to climb back down to safety. Unfortunately I couldn't reach him so I was forced to climb into the cab of the truck and go through another trial and error sequence with the truck's controls before finally finding that I needed to turn off the gun controls to send Ripburger straight to hell. Then I made my way back to the cargo bay of the plane and rode my bike out of the plane is it exploded around me. Then the explosion reflected in Ben's sunglasses as he rode away in slow motion saying "burn baby burn" (turns out Ben was really David Caruso in disguise).

 

So this was a really good game. The voice acting and story telling were probably the best I've experienced so far. The whole "gritty motorcycle gang heavy metal badass" setting isn't something that really appeals to me but this game did it so goddamn well that I found myself completely absorbed by the story. It was also a nice change of pace to play a game with a little bit more of a serious setting although I think I generally prefer the goofier adventure games. As far as the puzzles go, these were definitely some of the toughest yet. Most of them seemed pretty fair despite their difficulty and generally left me feeling smart and satisfied after solving them. I'd say the main exceptions to this were that stupid fucking wall kicking puzzle (I want that hour and a half of my life back) and the two trial and error menu puzzles at the end. For me, the most difficult puzzles aside from the wall kicking one were the junkyard puzzle and the gas tower alarm puzzle near the beginning. If I hadn't played 9 LucasArts games back-to-back before this one I wouldn't have stood a fucking chance with a lot of these puzzles as they really seemed geared towards people that are very familiar with their previous puzzle tactics. Even then I'm surprised at how many unexpected things they threw at me.

[SecretAsianMan]

I also dislike the gas tower puzzle, for reasons I already outlined.

 

Two questions:

1.  Did you stop the plane right away or did you let it go long enough to actually go into the gorge (because that will happen)

2.  Did you ride the bike out of the exploding plane the first time, or did you try to just run away on foot (this little puzzle always cracks me up because the bike is hidden out of sight of the player until you walk to the side, whereas Ben would clearly be able to see it)

[Zeusthecat]

I also dislike the gas tower puzzle, for reasons I already outlined.

 

Two questions:

1.  Did you stop the plane right away or did you let it go long enough to actually go into the gorge (because that will happen)

2.  Did you ride the bike out of the exploding plane the first time, or did you try to just run away on foot (this little puzzle always cracks me up because the bike is hidden out of sight of the player until you walk to the side, whereas Ben would clearly be able to see it)

 

I crashed into that gorge many times as I was going through the trial and error of those last couple puzzles. I think I tried every single option for each menu puzzle and for some weird reason the last option I tried was the correct one for both. So I "died" a lot during this sequence.

 

As for the escape, I did ride the bike out of the exploding plane the first time. I just happened to walk to the left as soon as I had control, saw the bike, got on it, and made my glorious escape.

 

For some reason, as tough as it was, the gas tower puzzle didn't really bother me too much in retrospect. It took me quite awhile to find that little hiding spot but once I had solved it it seemed reasonably fair.

[syntheticgerbil]

Please tell me you chucked a bunny into the truck fan!

It was also a nice change of pace to play a game with a little bit more of a serious setting although I think I generally prefer the goofier adventure games.

It's funny, I feel like a lot of people avoid adventure games because they think most will be too cartoony for them. To a degree it is true most of the adventure games probably lie on the comedy/dorky/cartoon end of the spectrum but there are enough serious ones out there. However I guess the issue then is since most adventure games are bad games, then there's a higher chance a more serious game will suck.

 

I think I probably got sucked into adventure games originally for the funny stuff, but I think I grew weary of that type a long time ago. There's nothing worse than a dialogue driven game with tons of bad jokes.

[Zeusthecat]

Please tell me you chucked a bunny into the truck fan!

 

Not just one bunny, ALL of my bunnies. They served their purpose and I figured I should send them off the proper way. I also like that when I "used" the box of bunnies on the truck fan (I still had a box of them and a whole bunch of individual bunnies) Ben threw each one in individually and I just had to sit there and watch as he slowly cleaned out the whole box.

 

I think I probably got sucked into adventure games originally for the funny stuff, but I think I grew weary of that type a long time ago. There's nothing worse than adialogue driven game with tons of bad jokes.

 

I still really enjoy dumb, goofy humor, as I've made painfully obvious on these forums. So for me the LucasArts games are hitting all the right notes with most of them being dumb and goofy while also providing very challenging puzzles and interesting stories. And yeah there are some bad jokes but even those don't get to me because I just admire what they were trying to do and how often they got it right.

 

Thinking back on the LucasArts games I've played so far, Secret of Monkey Island really stands out as having the absolute best delivery of humor. None of the other games quite hit the comedic timing and sarcastic delivery of lines that I witnessed in that game. Some of the funny scenes that really hit perfectly and stuck with me from that game are the interactions with the shopkeeper, the part where the mast breaks off of the ship right after the salesman finishes telling you how amazing the ship is, and the whole segment where you are on your ship and the crew refuses to help because they'd rather just sail around the Caribbean. I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make with any of this, just reflecting on how awesome that game was.

[Trip Hazard]

I still really enjoy dumb, goofy humor 

 

Me too! Give Toonstruck a whirl if you haven't already. It's pretty dumb and extremely goofy, occasionally annoying but also studded with slapstick jokes, withering put-downs and a bit of S&M in the unlikeliest of places. 

[Zeusthecat]

Thanks for the recommend! Sounds like my kind of game. 

[syntheticgerbil]

I still really enjoy dumb, goofy humor, as I've made painfully obvious on these forums. So for me the LucasArts games are hitting all the right notes with most of them being dumb and goofy while also providing very challenging puzzles and interesting stories. And yeah there are some bad jokes but even those don't get to me because I just admire what they were trying to do and how often they got it right.

Oh, I meant mostly funny adventure games that aren't by LucasArts. For instance, I once played this god awful piece of shit (also known as Bud Tucker):

 

And this broken game called Down in the Dumps:

As well as Koala Lumpur, who tried so so hard to charm me with his horrendous Indian accent:

 

Why did I do that to myself?

 

But I did find this gem in my trek through tons of shit games. U.F.O.s:

 

It looks an animates a lot like a super fluid Ren and Stimpy, but the atmosphere and humor is much closer to Courage the Cowardly Dog.

 

And I really did enjoy Stupid Invaders while I'm talking about cartoon alien games. It's not a shit game even though it has a lot of shit.

 

Sorry to be a downer, but I personally would not recommend Toonstruck. I only slogged through it as a kid for the cartoons and animation since the puzzles and story were extremely mediocre. Also for whatever reason the dialogue in Toonstruck is incredibly long and drawn out. Not exactly Longest Journey long but for a game that takes place in a cartoon world there sure is a fuckload of talking. I swear getting through a full dialogue tree with some of the characters goes well beyond 10 minutes. This is another reason why LucasArts games work, because they tend to do all of their exposition through scenery, actions, and animations instead of having some guy blab about their life story. And if that ever does happen, it's written pretty concisely. The only drawn out moment of expository dialogue that compares to a lot of other wordy adventures is maybe LeChuck explaining his evil plan near the end of Curse of Monkey Island.

 

I feel like instead of playing Toonstruck, you'd be much happier watching some Ren and Stimpy episodes and then playing Day of the Tentacle again. Then you can top it off with a viewing of Who Framed Roger Rabbit for good measure.

[manny_c44]

I always wanted to play stupid invaders, but it's not on GOG.

[thorn]

This is another reason why LucasArts games work, because they tend to do all of their exposition through scenery, actions, and animations instead of having some guy blab about their life story. And if that ever does happen, it's written pretty concisely.

 

With one exception: Escape from Monkey Island. It's all reasonably well written, but the dialogue trees just go on and on and on... And it's not just the player selecting an option, Guybrush saying a sentence then the NPC replies with a sentence or two; the responses go on for paragraphs!

 

Disclaimer: Working from memory here.

[syntheticgerbil]

I think you're right Thorn, I kind of forgot almost all of the shopkeepers in EMI really want to drone on about whatever is going on with their backstory.

[BigJKO]

Just to throw it in here, I think Stupid Invaders is really stupid and kind of shit. It looks fine, but it's a drag..

[Trip Hazard]

Also for whatever reason the dialogue in Toonstruck is incredibly long and drawn out. 

 

This is true, I can't even deny it. I personally thought that much of the dialogue was very funny, and was happy to listen to more of it, but there is always the option to skip lines of dialogue if you're fed up of someone, or simply stop "melting the ice" and just get on with beating the game.

[Udvarnoky]

So next up for you is THE DIG, huh?  Well, as you're slogging through it just know that the two games that come after are great.

 

I kid, sort of.  I love the atmosphere of THE DIG but I've never been a fan of its puzzles and you should know that it's even more serious than FULL THROTTLE.  LucasArts always had great voice acting, but the performances here (or perhaps the technology used to implement them) isn't always up to the challenge of the heavier dramatic material.  Gerbil is right in that you've been spoiled

 

The one other asterisk I would append to THE DIG is less its own fault - it looks a bit worse, technically, than FULL THROTTLE because it was in development so damned long.

 

I do enjoy that one-click-does-all interface, though.  Seems that was Telltale's influence on their pre direct control titles.

[Zeusthecat]

So next up for you is THE DIG, huh?  Well, as you're slogging through it just know that the two games that come after are great.

 

Yeah. I think I recall SecretAsianMan saying he enjoyed this game a while back but I think that's pretty much the only mention of this game that I've seen. From what you're saying it sounds like this one is on the lower end of the spectrum?

[SecretAsianMan]

I fully acknowledge that the Dig isn't as well designed as most of the other games, but I still like it because of the setting and atmosphere.

[Udvarnoky]

I'd put it on the lower end, yeah, but it's a relative thing because as everyone will keep qualifying, you are playing the best of the genre.  "Lower end of the spectrum" for LEC adventure games is still probably the 95th percentile in the context of adventure games in general.  THE DIG is legitimately good, but a lesser god in the LEC pantheon.  The story of its long, troubled development is kind of amazing, though.