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Review
Didn't quite finish the game, but I figured I should leave my thoughts here since it doesn't have any other player reviews at this point. This is a pretty straightforward "get the keys" parser game with plenty of rooms to explore in detail, given a slight humorous twist from its misanthropic alien perspective. It's not as blatantly meta (up to now) as I expected from the blurb.
Personally, I stopped when I had (Spoiler - click to show)gathered three of the four puzzle box pieces. I assume the fourth is in the safe, which I have no idea how to open. I'm just not feeling motivated enough to ransack all the rooms again, even with the vague guidance from the hints. Also, looking ahead in the hints, I'm afraid (Spoiler - click to show)figuring out the final puzzle, given my current lack of demolitions knowledge, might require the sorts of internet searches that raise some flags.
Sorry to leave it there — I would have liked to see how it all turns out. This is probably a better game for more experienced old-school parser fans.
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The solution to opening the safe is (Spoiler - click to show) written in glow-in-the-dark paint in the apartment living room. This was one of the puzzles I originally struggled with. You must wait until Night to do this. Passage of time is not a matter of waiting. It involves completing certain milestones. For example, the time-of-day changes when you travel to the house. Robbing the gas station is another milestone.
At Night, inside the apartment is too dark to see in without a working flashlight (flashlight: house, batteries: gas station), and to see the message you have to turn on the lamp to charge the paint, and then turn off the lamp to read it. Issue is the apartment's fuse box was blown. Take a new fuse (found at house) and put it in the fuse box. The fuse box is in the hallway closet inside the apartment.
I copied and pasted what this discovery looks like:
>turn off lamp
You turn off the light, and darkness envelops the living room. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you can see a message written on the wall in glow-in-the-dark paint.
>x message
(the message written in glow-in-the-dark paint)
Above the floor lamp, written using glow-in-the-dark paint, are directions for opening a combination locked safe.
[Now you know the combination to the safe.]
Once you read the message, the game will automatically unlock the safe. You do not need to remember any codes. Just return to the office.
Another useful trick about managing the puzzle box is that you need two things: A panel and the panel's solution. Almost all the solutions are found in notes and messages scattered throughout the gameplay. It seems like you have mastered most of this already, and you are correct that the sliders panel (Spoiler - click to show) is in the office safe. The solution for it is the slip of paper found in the blue bedroom’s closet at the house. If you read this and then put the gears panel in the puzzle box, the PC will solve it for you.
The brass key inside the puzzle box will (Spoiler - click to show) unlock the chest in the apartment bedroom, allowing you to obtain the device causing the signal error.
Don't feel the need to go back and replay it all over again. Just keep this as a future reference. Feel free to ask for more hints, I’ve played this game several times.
Also, I'm not sure if you feel this as well, but there is a bit of a lag time in the gameplay. It takes several seconds before the game responds to my command. I wonder if that discourages players.
Ah, thanks! I wasn't feeling hopeful about getting hints, should have known not to underestimate the IF community. (Spoiler - click to show)I actually have all the solutions for the puzzle box, just overlooked the clue about the paint. For some reason I assumed from the start that the paint would need to be used in something, rather than read. Unfortunately now I'm getting an error when I try to load the game (I also was seeing some lag, especially when moving between locations), but maybe I'll get back to it another day.
No problem!
