Colour Beyond Time

by Jamie Bradbury

Horror
2022

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Classic horror adventure, February 7, 2023
by Lance Cirone (Backwater, Vermont)

The first time I played Colour Beyond Time, it was on the unfinished Adventuron version. I found a bug that prevented me from finishing it, and when the author was alerted of it, he fixed the game and even ported over the third part. With the game now in a complete state (I played version 3.3), I think it's only right to give it another review. For transparency, the text of the original review is in the comments.

Let's start with the plot. Your friend Carble has left you a note: everything rests on you to stop an ancient being from rising from the lake and destroying the world! It's up to you to explore the town, figure out who you trust, and uncover what's really going on. I enjoyed the story, the bits of history you pick up and get to mentally string together, and the way the characters interact. Spoilers, but (Spoiler - click to show)I did NOT expect the hotel manager to have such an important role in the story.

The puzzles throughout felt pretty fair. I kept notes, so I always had an idea of what was left to solve or where I should go next. There is one thing I think I did earlier than intended, though: (Spoiler - click to show)I wound up finding Sasha's hideout before opening the library's archive. Still, it didn't spoil any of the plot, and the puzzles didn't conflict.

Part 3's more intense tone and the way it ties everything together felt satisfying. I liked the plot developments, but it left me with an unanswered question or two: (Spoiler - click to show)We never got to know what happened to Meeks and the hotel manager. The former isn't seen after you escape the hotel, and the latter isn't even brought up as far as I remember. A small graphical detail I liked was the (Spoiler - click to show)increasingly distorted backgrounds. They added to the feeling of impending doom. In order to play this part, you need a password from the end of part 2.

One small problem I noticed throughout was the lack of specific responses or even item descriptions. I got a lot of default responses for examining or trying to take things. Having it say "you can't find it" when I tried to take described items in a room was frustrating, to say the least. Carble even has an explicitly mentioned and illustrated giant window in his room, and I wanted to look out of it and see what I could see, only to get that default response for everything I tried. Part 3 also gave me a few errors: "LISTEN" always printed a blank line, even when it was described that I could overhear someone talking, and "SEARCH" gave me the same text throughout as it did the end of part 2, referring to (Spoiler - click to show)being able to see the well at the bottom of the ocean, from the rowboat, even though I wasn't there anymore. The game also has some typos throughout, but these didn't prevent me from understanding the plot and they never got in the way of the parser.

A few more general notes about the game, and advice for players: Save often, because you can die if you mess up. Still, the game will explicitly warn you when you're in danger. You also have a score counter that you can see by checking your pocket watch; the SCORE command doesn't work. There's a limit on how many items you can carry, but I only ran into this once near the end of part 2. You have a fair amount of junk items you don't need by that point, so it wasn't much of an issue.

Overall, I found Colour Beyond Time to be worth playing. There is a rewarding story and the developer has been very good at responding to my comments and questions. I recommend this one if you're looking for something more old-school.

Note: this rating is not included in the game's average.
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Lance Cirone, February 7, 2023 - Reply
Since I want to keep my original review as reference, but not have it taking up space or getting confused with my main review, here's the text of that:
----
Colour Beyond Time is a promising game that got me interested in its plot and the direction it was heading, but I'm not able to finish it due to a strange bug. TL;DR: don't play the Adventuron version, because it's unfinished and unwinnable. Play the Spectrum version if you can, because it's complete. Read on for the full story.

[...]

There's a puzzle where you need to collect blue flowers (so you can (Spoiler - click to show)distill them and make a way to breathe underwater). Each flower counts as 1/3rd of what you need, and when you get them all, you can move on with the puzzle. The first flower is clued in and I got that just fine. There was also a forest area where I decided, okay, let me look for flowers here. I found one and picked it up... but none of the other areas had any. I started searching other places, and after running around this forest searching and examining everything for half an hour, I was at my wit's end. I checked the walkthrough, which said that there were two flowers there. So I wondered... is this a bug?

I reloaded an earlier save, back when I only had one flower (and neither of the ones the forest). I found the first one, picked it up, couldn't find any more. I reloaded the save and found the second flower, in a different area. I went back to the first area, searched, and revealed the flower there. But when I picked up that flower, the other one disappeared. I think collecting either one stops both of them from showing up, but that prevents you from getting another 1/3rd. This seems like a glaring error, and I'm not sure if it's because of anything I did earlier. Either way, it's preventing me from finishing the game. This is a shame, since I really did want to see how the story would end.

Looking at the game's page, I've seen the author respond to a few comments with updates and fixes. They still seem active, too. The game has a third part that requires a password you get from finishing the first and second (the first part being the pretty short beginning segment, the second ending a little after where I got hung up). I'm interested in seeing if anyone else runs into the same bug I did, since it's a pretty serious one. If it gets addressed, I'll definitely want to go back and finish this one.

EDIT (2/3/23): The author has said that the Adventuron version isn't complete. Since I don't have a way to play the Spectrum one, I can't finish the game, but I did enjoy what I experienced until the end point. I can't vouch for how well the Spectrum version runs, but I'd advise you to play it instead for the full experience.
Strident, January 14, 2023 - Reply
Yeah, I'm sure that the author will investigate that issue for you if he's made aware of it. I think this was Jason's first adventure game (or one of his first full length games anyway). Although it was written in Adventuron, the primary output was to DAAD for 8-bit platforms such as the ZX Spectrum. I'm not sure if the two different codebases exactly match up... I know people have played the Spectrum version to completion with no issues. It was received very well on the 8-bit machines.
Lance Cirone, January 15, 2023 - Reply
Oh, I did notice there were two versions! I played the Adventuron one, because it was more easily accessible. There are a few comments, but most of them describe early-game content, so I don't think any of those players reached the flower puzzle.
Denk, February 3, 2023 - Reply
The author had not made it clear until now perhaps(?) but only the Spectrum version is complete.
He wrote: "I never thought anyone would play the web version, which isn't complete. The Spectrum game is complete. If you have Divide and play it on a real spectrum then you can play the graphical version."
You can see the reply here: https://jbizzel.itch.io/colour-beyond-time-adventuron/comments
Lance Cirone, February 3, 2023 - Reply
I'm glad somebody asked, but that's a bit disappointing to hear. I think he should say that the Adventuron version's incomplete on the page, so people know what to expect going in. I don't really have a way to play Spectrum games so I'm probably not gonna be able to finish this one. Still, at least we know now.
Denk, February 5, 2023 - Reply
Good news: The Adventuron version can now be completed. You will have to restart but if you type "lunatic" in the first room, you will start in part II. And once you complete part II you can play part III here: https://jbizzel.itch.io/colour-beyond-time-adventuron-part-3

Hope it is bug free :D
Lance Cirone, February 6, 2023 - Reply
Okay, ran into another problem. This is at the start of Part 3: (Spoiler - click to show)Smashing the window with anything after I left the room gave me a Game Over before I could read the text. After a few more tries to Print-Screen the response, it does seem like the game is meant to continue after this ("you'll have to be quick, or you're dead"), but the Game Over shows up immediately afterwards, saying that the mob caught me and I'm dead without giving me a chance to do anything. Also, (Spoiler - click to show)"listening" for Sasha after I leave my room gives me an empty response, when it feels like there's meant to be something there. I've tried and I can't see any other way to progress, so are these intentional?
Denk, February 6, 2023 - Reply
Quoting:
"J Bizzel 4 hours ago
you must lock the door before you smash the window"

BTW, it would be practical if you got an itch.io account. Then you could communicate directly with the author. In addition, there are a lot of great games on itch.io and you can vote in EctoComp and ParserComp then
Lance Cirone, February 6, 2023 - Reply
Alright, made an account! I'll talk to the author some more until I work it through to the end.
Lance Cirone, February 5, 2023 (updated February 6, 2023) - Reply
Oh, awesome! I'll definitely give it another try. Thanks to the author for fixing this!

EDIT: Finished parts 1 and 2 just fine! Gonna start part 3 now.
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