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22 people found the following review helpful:
by Andreas Teufel (Poland)
There's something wrong with the part where you have to place doors or exits (can't remember, it's been a while since I "played" this. It just doesn't work at all, so the game is over right there. Obviously there is no explanation how to do it either.
Pure frustration -> 1/5
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AmberShards, December 31, 2009 - Reply
You really think that you know what I meant to do more than I did? *blinks*
What Victor is doing is pedantically lecturing us AGAIN. As for me seeing "enough" of the game, I've seen all that I could see -- which was the point of my review.
Take your hectoring elsewhere, please.
You really think that you know what I meant to do more than I did? *blinks*
What Victor is doing is pedantically lecturing us AGAIN. As for me seeing "enough" of the game, I've seen all that I could see -- which was the point of my review.
Take your hectoring elsewhere, please.
Andreas Teufel, December 20, 2009 - Reply
you just don't get it
if I can only finish half of the game because the syntax is crap, and there is no in-game solution how to do it, this is my personal experience of the game (for the record, I tried half an hour to set the doors or whatever)
nothing pisses an if player off more than being stuck, especially when it's the game's fault
this might also happen to other players, and therefore is a 100% valid opinion
if the game was actually finishable, I would comment on what happens in it, but in my test run, it simply wasn't
also, it's not like I would only bash games, I just wanted to get the games that pissed me off the most out of the way right in the beginning, I have no intention to say anything good about games that piss me off
PS: can't believe how active this site is compared to intfiction.org
you just don't get it
if I can only finish half of the game because the syntax is crap, and there is no in-game solution how to do it, this is my personal experience of the game (for the record, I tried half an hour to set the doors or whatever)
nothing pisses an if player off more than being stuck, especially when it's the game's fault
this might also happen to other players, and therefore is a 100% valid opinion
if the game was actually finishable, I would comment on what happens in it, but in my test run, it simply wasn't
also, it's not like I would only bash games, I just wanted to get the games that pissed me off the most out of the way right in the beginning, I have no intention to say anything good about games that piss me off
PS: can't believe how active this site is compared to intfiction.org
eu, December 26, 2009 - Reply
The first time I played Lock & Key, I got hung up for a bit because the rules for door placement aren't made immediately clear. Each door has two sides, one that can be opened by a silver key and one that can be opened by the gold key. You are required to build a single circuit that permits someone to start at the stairwell, visit the cell, and continue back to the stair with only one key; any other arrangement will be rejected with one of these error messages:
``There is already a path into/out of this room. Not only would offering multiple paths in/out leave the guards hopelessly confused, but the Labyrinth Guild would quite literally have your head for muscling in on their turf without a membership card.''
``The guards' guild insists that dungeons be designed such that every chamber that can be entered with a silver key can also be left with a silver key. No dead ends allowed, not even the cell. You'll have to open a door out of chamber XY.''
``Even the best guards find it difficult to escort prisoners to a cell when there's no path leading there. You'll need to provide a way to get from the stairs to the cell using only a silver key.''
Unfortunately, the explanation of the gold and silver keys when the first door is placed gave me the wrong impression:
``This door can be unlocked with a silver key, one of which will be given to every guard. However, from the other direction the door can only be unlocked with a gold key, which guards will only be given at the end of their shifts and which must be immediately returned to the Dungeon Master. This little innovation keeps the guards from wandering off duty -- unless they're willing to go through the cell to do it.''
It certainly sounds like this innovation is only installed in one door, and, after all, you only see that message the first time you open a door. So under that assumption, the direction that you open any other door will not matter. But in fact it does because you must open doors from the silver key side. Unless the player realizes this, he or she will eventually be confronted with a seemingly spurious ``There is already a path into/out of this room...'' and be much confused.
If in fact this is the issue you mean, then you've got a case: the game has the potential to irk the player because it depends on a concept that isn't clearly explained. And I as a player would like to know that going in, just like you say, so it's fine to take up this point in your review.
The trouble of course is that without playing the game myself I don't know what you mean by ``something wrong.'' Nor did everyone reach the conclusion that it ``just doesn't work at all.'' For a helpful review you need to be specific: what did you think the rules for door placement were, what sequence of actions did you expect to work, and what did the game say when it didn't? And then ask someone who has made it through for help; please don't be so quick to deem a game unfinishable.
Remember, you can revise the review, and we can revise our votes. I at least would be curious to know what wall you ran up against.
The first time I played Lock & Key, I got hung up for a bit because the rules for door placement aren't made immediately clear. Each door has two sides, one that can be opened by a silver key and one that can be opened by the gold key. You are required to build a single circuit that permits someone to start at the stairwell, visit the cell, and continue back to the stair with only one key; any other arrangement will be rejected with one of these error messages:
``There is already a path into/out of this room. Not only would offering multiple paths in/out leave the guards hopelessly confused, but the Labyrinth Guild would quite literally have your head for muscling in on their turf without a membership card.''
``The guards' guild insists that dungeons be designed such that every chamber that can be entered with a silver key can also be left with a silver key. No dead ends allowed, not even the cell. You'll have to open a door out of chamber XY.''
``Even the best guards find it difficult to escort prisoners to a cell when there's no path leading there. You'll need to provide a way to get from the stairs to the cell using only a silver key.''
Unfortunately, the explanation of the gold and silver keys when the first door is placed gave me the wrong impression:
``This door can be unlocked with a silver key, one of which will be given to every guard. However, from the other direction the door can only be unlocked with a gold key, which guards will only be given at the end of their shifts and which must be immediately returned to the Dungeon Master. This little innovation keeps the guards from wandering off duty -- unless they're willing to go through the cell to do it.''
It certainly sounds like this innovation is only installed in one door, and, after all, you only see that message the first time you open a door. So under that assumption, the direction that you open any other door will not matter. But in fact it does because you must open doors from the silver key side. Unless the player realizes this, he or she will eventually be confronted with a seemingly spurious ``There is already a path into/out of this room...'' and be much confused.
If in fact this is the issue you mean, then you've got a case: the game has the potential to irk the player because it depends on a concept that isn't clearly explained. And I as a player would like to know that going in, just like you say, so it's fine to take up this point in your review.
The trouble of course is that without playing the game myself I don't know what you mean by ``something wrong.'' Nor did everyone reach the conclusion that it ``just doesn't work at all.'' For a helpful review you need to be specific: what did you think the rules for door placement were, what sequence of actions did you expect to work, and what did the game say when it didn't? And then ask someone who has made it through for help; please don't be so quick to deem a game unfinishable.
Remember, you can revise the review, and we can revise our votes. I at least would be curious to know what wall you ran up against.
Andreas Teufel, December 26, 2009 - Reply
ahem... I can't see how my review gave you the idea that I "played" L&K recently... it's been more than a year when I found out the hard way that not all of Adam Cadre's games are gold (don't get me started about Shrapnel), so I really can't remember what problem there was exactly, just the frustration with the unsolvable unexplained situation, which is the KEY statement of my post
ahem... I can't see how my review gave you the idea that I "played" L&K recently... it's been more than a year when I found out the hard way that not all of Adam Cadre's games are gold (don't get me started about Shrapnel), so I really can't remember what problem there was exactly, just the frustration with the unsolvable unexplained situation, which is the KEY statement of my post
Victor Gijsbers, December 17, 2009 - Reply
The fact that this game has an average of 3.5 stars did not suggest to you that the part with the doors does work after all?
Lock & Key certainly does work and is in fact pretty interesting. I don't think its central game design works, in the final analysis; but it is certainly not unplayable.
The fact that this game has an average of 3.5 stars did not suggest to you that the part with the doors does work after all?
Lock & Key certainly does work and is in fact pretty interesting. I don't think its central game design works, in the final analysis; but it is certainly not unplayable.
AmberShards, December 18, 2009 - Reply
I see you couldn't pass up the opportunity to tell someone else that their experience or that their opinion is invalid. Stay classy.
I see you couldn't pass up the opportunity to tell someone else that their experience or that their opinion is invalid. Stay classy.
Rob Maule, December 17, 2009 - Reply
According to the HELP command: "You can open a door from the room you're looking at to any neighboring room simply by issuing the command (OPEN A DOOR TO THE EAST, say, or simply OPEN EAST); to get rid of doors, type REMOVE followed by the direction of the door to remove."
Also, the solution suggests: (Spoiler - click to show)The easiest way to build your path is to start in cell A1, use the command "JohnHenry" and 'move' along the path. Don't forget to use "JohnHenry" again to turn off the tunneling. You can also use "open south" or "close north" or similar.
Previous | << 1 >> | NextAccording to the HELP command: "You can open a door from the room you're looking at to any neighboring room simply by issuing the command (OPEN A DOOR TO THE EAST, say, or simply OPEN EAST); to get rid of doors, type REMOVE followed by the direction of the door to remove."
Also, the solution suggests: (Spoiler - click to show)The easiest way to build your path is to start in cell A1, use the command "JohnHenry" and 'move' along the path. Don't forget to use "JohnHenry" again to turn off the tunneling. You can also use "open south" or "close north" or similar.
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