Blaugust: Hercule Poirot The First Cases

Before we knew the little Belgian detective with his distinctive mustache and little Gray Cells, he was an officer with the Belgian Police Department.

He had an illustrious start to his career, making headlines.

His luck changes with a shootout in which a man dies, and he is blamed.

Now Poirot has been transferred to the country side, where he judges Flower Shows.

Alas, Hercule. Luckily a young woman comes to him as he’s on patrol asking for help with the theft of a bracelet in the manor she works in.

Examining the area, he finds clues that tell a conflicting tale about how or whether an intruder may have entered the house to steal the bracelet.

I could only look at the ladder leaning against the house, and voila, the entry point! It was not to be, as the ladder is very rickety. It could however, be used by someone very bold at another point along the perimeter of the house.

The real key to solving the mystery, and the sections of the mystery, is developing and making connections on a “mind map”. It’s all there for you.

While I am admittedly not logical, I did not see some of the logic behind some of the connections. I did finally earn entrance to the inside of the house to continue the investigation.

Puzzles, Maps and Logic, Oh My! (IntPiPoMo #3)

I’ve no logic. I like puzzles. I’m impatient, though, and need to slow waaay down. I’m so used to fighting my way through every game, I’m prone to missing the simplest things.

The Darkside Detective

I started The Case over again. Examining every pixel, I saw I had missed quite a few things. Don’t forget to look under the bed.

I’ll need to get in the habit of talking to people several times in case they suddenly have some new information. Backtracking has always bugged me, but it’s a built in feature to the kinds of games I’d like to play, apparently.

With the proper tools, you can decipher a “demonic doorway” as they call it in the game.

And stepping through, the Detective rescues the sweet little Alice.

Case Closed. It turns out I did miss a few things, but I wasn’t trapped in the room, you just need to pixel hunt a bit at the bottom of the screen to get the down cursor.

Sherlock Holmes The Case of the Silver Earring

I looked up how to use your inventory after my last session. A right Mouse click opens your inventory and journal. It turns out Sherlock says “I need something” when he wants you to make available his magnifying glass or test tube or something from inventory.

Now I could retrace my steps and properly pick up items, and read the notes in the journal. The house is a maze of closed doors. I’m printing the map and labeling the rooms, argh.

I felt like I’d exhausted conversational options with everyone and looked in every room carefully, but Sherlock can’t leave the mansion because he hasn’t examined all the clues. Let meeeeee out!

Nancy Drew and the Tomb of the Lost Queen

This is my favorite of the three. Before heading to the tomb, there’s an Antiquities tent that’s full of useful items and information. One is a grid map of the tomb itself.

Puzzles abound. I thought I was pretty good at jigsaw puzzles, but this one just didn’t make any sense, though I got it eventually.

The inside of the tomb itself is impressive, just beautifully illustrated.

I haven’t explored everywhere yet, but so far there was an unusual sliding tile puzzle. Not my specialty, but I didn’t whine for my Sliding Tile Puzzle Master Spouse, did I? No. I got it.

There’s a hieroglyph puzzle that I got about halfway through, and I went to find him. He had it solved so fast. Logical minded soul that he is. I think he would really like these Nancy Drew games.

I did try looking at hieroglyphic alphabets , but the puzzle gives you three letters to start. The symbols were the same as used in hieroglyph alphabets I found, but they give you three beginning letters in the game puzzle and those did not match the alphabets.

I like them all, I’ll keep playing. May logic come my way.

12 Pictures in this post and we’re up to 40 of 50 for IntPiPoMo so far.

Tales of Detection IntPiPoMo Week Two

I thought I’d look at three of my detective/mystery games from my Steam Library for this week’s IntPiPoMo. I chose games I haven’t played yet at all. I did some real house cleaning of my installed Steam Games, including uninstalling ESO, to my surprise, which I apparently don’t plan to play again for awhile. So poof!

The Darkside Detective

The DarkSide Detective is a game I followed while they were in development. It turns out to be a slightly humorous take on Hard Boiled Detectives.

There are two case files to choose from. Very old school graphics.

I like to start at the beginning, so I chose Malice in Wonderland.

At the scene, Officer Dooley pretends to be shocked by the sudden appearance of Detective McQueen. He’s just goofing around.

There’s been a disappearance. The father of the child is a weird, hard man who isn’t interested at all in what may have happened to his child. The mother is in the daughter’s room in hysterics, the Nanny is inexplicably hanging out in the parents bedroom.

I made my way as far as a closet with a Darkside Doorway, but it appears I missed an object in my investigation. Now, I’m stuck in this room and can’t get back out to look for it. These things happen to me. I’ll start the case over.

I know it shouldn’t, but the lack of facial features on the characters bugs me. Just a couple of dots for the eyes, even…

Nancy Drew The Tomb of the Lost Queen

Nancy is off on a dig in Egypt as an assistant, when a dust storm wipes out much of the dig and hospitalizes the professor in charge.

Another of the assistants, Lily, decides to take immediate charge of herself and Nancy. There’s a new Boss in town. So busy! So efficient!

She tries to block Nancy’s exploration of the tent, particularly the bunk belonging to the Professor.

So much for non-linear, I tried twice in a row to look in another guys luggage and got Fatal Error! You’ve lost the game! or some such. Hmpff.

There’s a bit in Nancy’s own Spartan trunk, but I’d expect a cooler room for her, frankly.

Finally there’s access to the Professor’s trunk and its loaded with books, and more importantly his notes. Someone, however has torn off a page from them.

Also in the tent is an ancient board game. By chance.

Happily, our Nancy won over the sneering Lily.

Time to say goodbye to Home Sweet Tent for a bit. I think I’ve looked at everything in it I can get to right now.

Adventure awaits! I think the Dig site itself is next.

Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Silver Earring

Sherlock and Watson have been invited to a soiree at the home of Sir Bromby. As he takes the podium to speak to his guests, he’s shot dead. Good thing Sherlock is here to investigate.

All three of these games are point and click to move and to interact. Sherlock is a bit stiff in all ways. He asks most guests and staff the same questions. Wandering around the house (with an astonishing number of doors) he finds items that look interactive but he says he “needs something” with no clue as to what, instead of picking them up.

There were two bits of paper he picked up in the dining room, but I couldn’t see how to view those. This is my first Sherlock game, my first Frogwares game, so I don’t have the long practice with the UI most players would.

There are odd bits of “clipping” with characters half in and half out of furniture or architectural features. Note the Chef popping up (mostly) from the cellar.