Overview: A reboot of the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider series which explores Lara Croft's origin story. 20180130 Part 1:
I played Tomb Raider for the first time. It was exciting.
Setup: I set the graphics to High Quality.
Lara Croft and her bow
Steam Game Time: 114 minutes 20180130 Part 2:
After being pulled away from the game, I was able to return to it. I couldn't wait to experience more of the gameplay and story.
There were several moments throughout the game where I shook in suspense. For example, when Lara is climbing the radio tower.
Lara makes her way to the very top of the radio tower. She's high above the ground. It's tense.
On a different note, the plot of the story shares similarities with the plot of television series Lost.
In any case, I took a break from the game at the campfire located after the pilot.
Steam Game Time: 3.6 hours (total game time) Thoughts: Pros:
+ A griping and emotionally driven story. Exciting to play.
+ Intricate player character interactions with the environments. Makes for immersive gameplay.
+ Fresh gameplay mechanics.
The game's not afraid to give Lara a wound every now and then.
Neutral:
~ The level up system is an interesting gameplay mechanic. I suppose it allows for an experience similar to action adventure games such as Batman: Arkham Asylum and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.
Con:
- Save system intertwined with skill locations. Why can't this game allow players to save anywhere they want? Like any Half-Life or Zelda game?
Major Con:
- Quick time events (QTEs). I never quite understood the point of QTEs. Perhaps they're a reminder of the player character's mortality. I suppose I'd complain less if there was less time between failing the QTE and trying again, but the amount of load time takes away from the immersion. Ironically, I think the intention of a QTE is to immerse the player.
Lara traverses (under) the rope with her hands and legs
[After first 114 minutes] Summary:
With the exception of the quick time events (especially the longer ones), which would benefit from non-lethal introductions before serving up lethal counterparts,* Tomb Raider is an excellent game for it's wonderful story. The game had an exceptional ability for evoking the sense of danger and emotion which Lara was experiencing.
Lara slowly moves along the outside of a mountain, clinging close to its walls while bracing herself against the high-speed winds.
Without elaborating, Tomb Raider stands on the shoulders of giants, taking what has worked well in the action adventure genre, thematically applied it to the Tomb Raider franchise, and added it's own set of improvements (forgive me if these elements already existed in other games) to create a fulfilling gameplay experience.
I would highly recommend Tomb Raider to any fan who enjoys the action-adventure genre.
[After 3.6 hours of game time]
Making upgrades to the rifle.
20180131:
Today I decided to play more Tomb Raider.
I spent some time backtracking, only to find myself unintentionally following the main story again! Though I did manage to 100% one of the areas in my endeavor.
Overall, while I continued to enjoy the game, I found some of the joy diminished and the appeal of the game was not everlasting. That is, I was not addicted to the point to stay up and continue the game throughout the night. In fact - although I don't remember why - I had reached a point in the game where I wanted to stop playing, but had to press on because I hadn't reached a campfire.
Lara meets up with and rescues Roth, the Captain of the Endurance and Lara's mentor.
I was finally able to save and exit the game after receiving the fire arrow ability and defending myself against a group of enemies.
Steam Game Time: 6.6 hours (total game time) 20240227 Snapshot:
Today I randomly looked off to the side to see "Manual" under Additional Content section. I decided to read through it. It reminded me of back in the day where physical games all came with manuals which I would read before playing the game. Often the manual contained the entirety of the story and context. In otherwords, it was assumed that the player would first read the manual prior to playing the game. I certianly miss that experience and I wonder how many times I've complained about a game's lack of tutorial when perhaps th game had a manual tucked away under "Additional Content."
20240227:
Today I picked up the game again and managed to proceed with very little problems in terms of figuring out where to go next, how to fight, and how to move about. I did, however, find that the game was less amazing than I remembered it. The graphics were great, but the movement sometimes felt clunky and the combat sometimes felt unnatural. In terms of combat, I disliked how the enemy came in waves and how the melee characters were invincible to ranged attacks. On the bright side, the story was excellent and while the quick time events can be annoying because of how finicky they can be, they do give a feeling of excitement that can't be achieved through normal course of gameplay. I also thought the checkpoints for the quick time events were generous.
Gameplay Log:
Save file started at 39%. Shantytown.
Reached Summit Forest.
Setup: I've been playing many games in QHD, but for Tomb Raider I made sure to crank the resolution up to 4K. In the launcher, I set the graphics quality to Ultimate and turned off the motion blur. Also while I've been playing many games on controller, I decided to play Tomb Raider with keyboard and mouse.
Steam Game Time: 10.3 hours (cumulative game time) / 3.7 hours (session game time) 20240228: Gameplay Log:
Made my way to the camp. Slowly took out enemies one by one
Decided to go back to previous locations and collect objects.
: Coastal Forest was already almost complete with just some objective called Ghost Hunter left at 6/10. I didn't go back to it
: Mountain Temple was already complete.
: Mountain Village was the first area I returned to. There was a mechanic that I didn't remember until about halfway into the area: standing near a post, Lara can shoot at a bundle of rope and she'll tie the end off on the post to create a zipline that can be traversed. It would have been good to know earlier. In any case, I got the area to 98% completion. The last objective to complete is Egg Poacher at 4/5 (there are nests with eggs on various roofs)
: Base Approach. This area was at 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/2 and I completed it.
: Mountain Base. I completed finding objects in this area and an objective called Non-Believer was already at 4/5. Not remember what it meant, I looked it up: there are posters on the wall that need to be burned. I went looking for the last one and found it. The area is now 100% complete
: Base Exterior. Skipped this area.
: Shantytown. I had a lot to find in this area. By the end I was at 97% complete with Silencer at 3/4 (break the alarms).
: Geothermal Caverns. Skipped this area.
Steam Game Time: 13.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.9 hours (session game time) 20240316: Gameplay Log:
Reminded myself of "Ghost Hunter": "Shoot and break all ten Skull Totems (Fetches) in the Coastal Forest."
After some trying, used a guide to determine location of fourth Silencer: near gondola pulley
Found four Firestarters. Then looked at a guide to find the remaining two.
Proceeding with story.
Why is it that Lara is being attacked by enemies on this broken pirate ship when her friends were at the shore fixing a boat without problem (as in, wouldn't the enemies have attacked her friends at the shore by this point?)
Hmm... this guy is definitely suspicious now... Lara observes he said he ran for miles and yet he didn't break a sweat. Seems like a great point that the others for some reason didn't catch onto
Steam Game Time: 15.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.2 hours (session game time) 20240319: Gameplay Log:
After much searching, I used a guide to find the last "Previous Inhabitants" location: high above in a crane... far away where no regular person would think to look.... Area complete.
Steam Game Time: 17.7 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.3 hours (session game time) 20240320: Gameplay Log:
Morning Session. 20.3 hours
Evening Session.
Notified of point of no return
Go back to Mountain Village to look for last "Egg Poacher". Found it.
Going to Summit Forest which is only 20% finished.
I completed the area except for a single "Red Cap Roundup".
After a thorough search I tried to use a guide.
When reading the words weren't enough, I tried to use the corresponding map. I went to each of the locations twice over with no success.
I then decided to stop playing and review my screen capture for the original pick-ups:
: When I enter the Forest I had 1/10.
: The second mushroom was the one in the middle (not along the edge) [53:04]
: The third mushroom is about 7 o'clock of the main clearing [57:43]
: Fourth mushroom at 4 o'clock of the main clearing [1:05:38]
: Fifth mushroom at bridge [1:11:31]
: Sixth mushroom at 11 o'clock of the main clearing [1:11:53]
: Seventh mushroom along the path that connects start of zone with main clearing [1:13:12]
: Eighth mushroom is the one to the left at start of zone [1:14:09]
: Ninth mushroom at 6 o'clock of the main clearing [1:21:07]
By deduction, I'm either missing the one near the start of the zone or the one near the wolves
It turns out it was the one near the start of the zone. It wasn't quite where I thought it was pinned on the map and it was hidden behind a tree.
Next was Shipwreck Beach where I was luckily able to spot the last "Mine Sweeper" soon after arriving! In fact, I barely moved from the camp. It did, however, take a while to navigate where I had to be to shoot it.
Feeling my odds for finding the last "Cairn Raider" to be low, I used a guide to find it. Unlike with "Red Cap Roundup", it was at the first map pin I checked (second from top), having known with certainty that the topmost pin was one which I had already obtained. Note that I was very happy to have used the guide, because this last one was just out in the open but since this area is so large, it would have felt like finding a needle in a haystack.
With Shipwreck Beach completed, I headed to Research Base.
It took me a while, but eventually I found the first such object needed for "Sun Killer". After that I found three more and had trouble finding the fifth.
After trying myself, I eventually tried to use the map pin but I still couldn't find it. So I looked at the detailed guide and it seems this last one was very well hidden.
Completed the game. 100%
Credits were slow
Steam Game Time: 23.7 hours (cumulative game time) / 6.0 hours (session game time) Thoughts: Pros:
+ Love the music and sound effects
+ The graphics and movement seem good with respect to when the game was released, but some of the animation has room for improvement
Neutral:
~ some quick time events make the game feel more exciting and some result in a less immersive experience
~ sometimes a gap appears far and yet when Lara jumps towards it the gap seems to magically shrink
Cons:
- the idea of having some enemies that can only be defeated by melee is silly - especially because triggering the counters feels like a chore (unless I'm doing something wrong)
- completing challenges can sometimes depend too much on using Lara's Survival Instinct, which can feel annoying
Overview: An RPG/tower-defense where the towers are persons. There are six classes: Berserkers, Archers, Healers, Knights, Ice Mages, and Dragons. Each class has it's own set of skill trees and every recruit in your party can be customized (name and outfit color).
Victory is Close!
Setup: I tried playing with the keyboard, but it didn't work well so I just played using the mouse. 20180106 Evening and 20180107 AM Hours:
I played on and off after waking. I was addicted. It was a balance of being easy and challenging.
The game reminded me of Kingdom Rush except it was totally different. I liked the item and skill trees of each character as opposed to the single player skill table of Kingdom Rush.
As an indication of my addiction to the game, I finished playing at three minutes until three in the morning and logged a total of 10.6 hours.
Steam Game Time: 10.6 hours total 20180107 Morning:Steam Game Time: 12.5 hours total 20180107 Afternoon:
I resumed the game after lunch.
Cutscene.
I reached a point in the game where I decided to buy some items and look at character builds; this was after entering the cave where the dragon finds treasure.
I used this webpage: http://defendersquest.wikia.com/wiki/DefenderBuilds
Steam Game Time: 16.3 hours total 20180108 AM Hours:
I almost finished the campaign, but I ended up farming (through Advance) due to the difficulty of the last level.
Steam Game Time: 17.6 hours total 20180108:
I was just casually playing some of the Advance for an hour.
Party Screen and Berserker Skill Tree
Steam Game Time: 19.2 hours total 20180108 Evening:
I finally finished the game (real ending with both players full health). Actually earlier for fun I played the bad ending (not in the cave).
Steam Game Time: 21.9 hours total. 20180109 Morning:
I started playing the New Game+.
Steam Game Time: 24.1 hours total. 20180110 AM Hours:Steam Game Time: 26.3 hours total 20180110 Afternoon & Evening & 20180111 AM:Steam Game Time: 32.3 hours total 20180111 Evening & 20180112 AM:Steam Game Time: 38.5 hours total
20180112 Evening:Steam Game Time: 39.5 hours total 20180113 Evening and 20180114 AM:
I didn't have internet on the plane and so I couldn't sync my save file to my laptop. As such, I started a new save file for Heroic champions only. I played for about 37 minutes. Then, when I got home, I played some more whenever I needed a break.
By the end of the night, I reached the penultimate level of the New Game+. I have yet to play "The Way Out" and "The God-King Walks Again." I only got a blue star for "The Face of Madness."
Steam Game Time: 43.6 hours total 20180114 Evening:
I decided to go back to the beginning to play the Advanced / Extreme levels (of the Standard game, but Heroic champions only).
Heroic Chamions Only.
Amazingly the first thing that happened was Slak took one swipe in Extreme of the first level while Ketta did all the work. That is, they hardly got within her range and died.
Then as I continued playing Advanced /Extreme for each subsequent all the way until "The Face of Madness," I found that in most cases it was easy. With the experience and scrap gains set to 300%, completing a level was a matter of placement instead of insufficient experience and/or equipment. With that being said, there was the occasional level that needed a second run or micromanagement. Still, the levels generally felt easier to play than the corresponding 100% gains with recruits enabled.
At this point, for the second save file, I had yet to play "The Way Out," "The God King Walks Again," "The Face of Madness (Extreme)," and "Super Sheep (Extreme)." Otherwise I had all the gold stars.
Steam Game Time: 47.4 hours
Addicted, I decided to play a bit more. "The God King Walks Again (Normal)." Then some New Game+. However, I stopped after half an hour of playing.
Using Heroic Champions Only.
Steam Game Time: 47.9 hours 20180115 Evening:
D'oh! Today I learned that you can just beat the Extreme and it'll sweep the rewards for Normal / Advanced.
Though I might have learned it too late. Because I was reaching the point where playing the Advanced challenge was hard despite my six Heroes being strong.
Steam Game Time: 54.3 hours 20180116 Evening:
I was close to finishing. However, I was tired and stopped playing.
Addicted, I turned on my laptop and played one more level before going to bed.
Endless Challenge
Steam Game Time: 64.4 hours 20180117 Afternoon & Evening:
At this point in the game, I'm practically left with the tough levels.
Etztli-Tenoch's Forces (Advanced/Extreme): I realized while playing Advanced that the key in this level was to constantly move around my heroes. Actually in Advanced I almost solely moved the Knight (Markos). However, in Extreme, I had to move other heroes in addition to the Knight. For example, there's one wave where the water enemies take a different water route, so I moved the Ice Mage (Wrenna) to that lane.
A Desperate Dash to Freedom (Extreme): I tried going straight to the Extreme level and moved my Heroes around, but I failed. It's possible my choice of skills and equipment were wrong.
There were a lot of hard levels left: A Desperate Dash to Freedom (A/E), Eztli-Tenoch's Right Hand (A/E), The Way Out (A*/E), Following Zelemir (A/E), Zelemir's Army (E), The Face of Madness (A/E), THe God-King Walks Again (N*/A/E)
Full Party and Archer Skill Tree.
At this point, I decided to copy over my Heroic save file to the third slot and hire some new recruits. I'm loaded: 7902K. After purchasing all the recruits, I still had 7693K. They all started at level 44.
After buying equipment, and despite some inefficiency, I still had 6407K. Ha. Anyhow, now it was time to fight. Unfortunately, having more recruits didn't make the levels trivial, because Psi was a limited resource.
Steam Game Time: 71.3 hours**
*Have Blue Star.
**Wow. 71 hours. I think it's been a while since I've put so many hours into a game. [It turns out, while the previous statement is technically true, it did not carry the truth which I had intended. As it is, the statement would refer to seventy-one hours, but the only Steam games I've played which exceed this amount of time are Plants vs. Zombies, Terraria, Dungeon Defenders, and Clicker Heroes.*** However, in my head, I was more likely thinking about any game which exceeded five hours of play. In that case, my statement would have been wrong, because prior to Defender's Quest, I put a total of eight hours into Broken Sword**** with my fiancee, and just prior to that, I put twenty-six hours into Human Resource Machine!*****
So close to finishing with a Perfect (no damage to Azra)!!! Unfortunately, I just barely failed to earn a Perfect..
***Many hours on these games are passive, due to time spent idle or letting the game do something in the background.
****Technically this one doesn't quite satisfy the assumed criteria of addictive gameplay.
*****Runner-ups (less recent, ~5+ hours): Broken Age (20171022-3, 12.8 hours), Mercenary Kings (20171013-4, 5.3 hours), Saints Row: The Third (20171105, 4.7 hours). Honorable Mention (even less recent, 10+ hours): Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (20170707-11, 18.1 hours), Fallout 4 (20170526-7, 12.5 hours) 20180118 Evening:
I was randomly came across some tips for the Super Sheep level yesterday and incorporated some of those tips into some of the levels today with mild success.
I should further note that I was planning to set the game aside for the time being but apparently I was unable to quit. I'm just so close!
Steam Game Time: 75.7 hours
A mysterious woman appears.
20180119 AM Hours:
I tried playing Zelemir's Army (Extreme, NG+) and my Berserker kept dying. Eventually I realized that the Dark Ghoul's Thorns does a lot of damage to the Berserker (because the Berserker deals multiple hits, whereas the Knight has a higher DPS over less actions).
In any case, I read about the Book of Secrets revealing locations when equipped. So I tried equipping it to see what I could find. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything.
Steam Game Time: 76.8 hours total 20180120:
Last night was the first night I didn't play the game. I suppose things are finally slowing down. But today I'm back at it.
First I decided to read more about the Book of Secrets because the items obtained from them seem OP. With the book equipped, on Standard Game (not New Game+), I was able to find the location. I thought the name "???" would be printed on the map, but it was just a blue dot that wasn't there before. In hindsight, I realized that none of the locations print their name below them, so there was no reason why this location should have "???" printed below it.
Strange Monument
Next I read that apparently each Gold Skull and Unobtainium Skull is unlocked via a series of clues spread throughout the game.
Not wanting to find the clues, I decide to use the Wiki to help me find the clues.
Statues
1.1: Oh. This hint just alludes to the fact that the teeth correspond to keyboard letters and the eyes correspond to arrow keys. I was able to confirm this hypothesis by pressing the arrow keys on my keyboard. At that point, I also tested the number keys and they are the fingers. Finally the spacebar was the flute at the right.
1.2: Confirms what I realized.
1.3: Ah. Yes, the hint references a code, which I entered to get the Gold Skull.
Tips & Hints.
2.1: 1) Maybe "Customize keys in the options menu." 2) I tried looking around their website. 3) I acted on #1 and when clicking custom the only changes were the targets from J K L ; to 7 8 9 0. 4a) I heard some beeps as I opened up Tips & Tricks. There's a little red star that shows up at the top left. Perhaps unrelated, I felt like new Tips & Tricks had been added. 4b) One being a "Public Service Announcement": "This hint is simply included so nobody tries analyzing codes or deciphering enigmas." 4c) The targeting options indicate: front, back, strong, weak or fast. 4d) Unrelated, a cool Tip & Trick* I didn't know before. 4e) "Call your mother, she misses you." 5) I tried typing in UIOPJKL and UIOP7890.
2.2: Hmm. I don't understand. Maybe I should go to the starting level.
2.3: I tried entering PSA, but no avail.
2.4: Ah. Clever. I went to the Tip and did what the this hint suggested to get the answer. THISISNTACODE
*I didn't know you can disable techniques. That's REALLY useful.
Endless 2. (A red star)
3.1: Indeed I previously noticed the map is of a person running. Looks a little like CommanderVideo of the Bit.Trip series. I tried typing "CommanderVideo" but no good.
3.2: Hmm. 1) I was mainly looking at the yellow portion, though I did notice the negative space and perhaps a different creature being depicted. 2) I looked up various 8-Bit characters.
3.3: So I was on the right track, but apparently the solution was much more subtle than I thought. I was going after very big characters (such as Mario, Zelda, etc.). In any case, after searching through various Final Fantasy sprites on the Final Fantasy wiki, I searched "famous final fantasy enemies" in Google images and found an enemy which resembled the map. I typed the enemy's name in, but it didn't work. I tried various related names.
3.4: Hmm. I tried various combinations of the enemy's attack with the enemy's name.
3.5: Doesn't add to what I already know.
3.6: Doesn't add to what I already know.
In the end, I looked up the code and it was just the enemy's name, and it worked after typing it slowly. WTF. Oh well.
Storm the Sheep. (A red star)
4.1: Ah. Clever: C I D W A S H E R E.
Remark: I tested the problem I had from before. Typing the answer too fast resulted in the code not being recognized.
Storm the Sheep casual/normal
5.1: The number of white sheep form the Fibonacci series. At first I typed in Fibonacci. Then I typed in variants of that like Fibonacci number / series/ sequence. Finally I tried typing in the sequence itself.
Storm the Sheep advanced. (A yellow star)
6.1: W W B | W W W | W W W | B B W | W | B B B | B B | W B B | B. Assuming White is Short and Blue is Long: U | S | S | G | E | O | M | W | E. I tried entering it in morse, due to the yellow star (which I assume means it's not keyboard like a red star). It didn't work. Assuming the opposite: G O O U T S I D E. Ah. That makes sense. It took several tries for me to get it. During the last two tries I put on my headphones so I could make sure the tone went through.
Royal Records Room, Cutscene Act V, Scene 3 (long text) (A red star)
7.1: Darn. I have to read that?
7.2: Hmm. I don't know. I tried looking around.
7.3: Yes, from the first look I figured it was a cryptogram. But I was too lazy. In any case I went through the first act scenes. I wrote down his first message as "ABB CDBB EFDG ABB HIJFKI LIMMIBM" and ran it through quipqiup.com (a cryptogram solver). The first hit seemed likely: "ALL WILL JOIN ALL BEFORE VESSELS." To check this I use this translation to translate his next word: (V)(backwards B)(M)(M)(pitchfork)(P)(Ob). From the cryptogram solution, [A] = (pitchfork) = A, [B] = (pyramid of squares) = L, [C] = (chalice) = W, [D] = (hourglass) = I, [E] = (NP) = J, [F] = (backwards B) = O, [G] = (P) = N, [H] = (backwards Y with extra prong) = B, [I] = (backwards C) = E, [J] = (V) = F, [K] = (M) = R, [L] = (rectangle_rectangle) = V, [M] = (mushroom) = S. So the next word is FORRAN(Ob). Uh. Doesn't make sense. I updated my solution to have [my letter] in addition to (symbol) = real letter. So his next word was [J][F][K][K][A][G][N]. This changes the solution to "ALL WILL JOIN[.] ALL BECOME VESSELS[.] COMMAND[.]" So now [J] = (V) = C and [K] = (M) = M. And we gain [N] = (Ob) = D. Thus to translate this long message...
? ? I ? | IV
V (backwards N with prong) E (lowercase h) | (table with T) E | (upside down V) (upright pitchfork) (lowercase h)
V E (lowercase h) O (upside down V) (backwards N with prong)
(upright pitchfork) (lowercase m with hook) O, (backwards K with D) V | E (D) (small) V ? ?
(lowercase m with hook) (backwards K with D) V | I (W) | V
Oh, some, maybe all of the letters are upside down. Upside down: (pitchfork), (pyramid of squares), (chalice), (mushroom), (backwards Y with extra prong), (V), (M), (Ob)... I think they're all upside down. Actually (rectangle_rectangle)
At this point I decided to take a screenshot so I can manually translate the picture instead of transcribing it to my blog.
Among words I can read, I entered this into quipqiup:
"IV VKEN WE CAN VENOCK ABOQV BQV IM VAL WIN MOQVK SKQV POQR MOVKA IS ONE BAD VLI VKEP SAP" which solved to
"IT THEN WE CAN TENOCH ABOUT BUT IM TAK WIN MOUTH SHUT YOUR MOTHA IS ONE BAD TKI THEY SAY" after several iterations of fixing certain letters.
So what I thought was "V" was actually "T".
Then as I was trying to figure out more letters, I realized it's read from bottom up:
"THEY SAY | THAT CA(?) | EZTLI TENOCH | IS ONE BAD | MOTHA | SHUT YOUR MOUTH | BUT IM TALKIN | ABOUT EZTLI | TENOCH | THEN WE CAN | ?I? IT"
Which I searched on the internet and found the following lyrics: "They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother - (Shut your mouth) | But I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft - (Then we can dig it)."
I first typed "Shaft" Then I tried typing the whole message. After trying a couple of times, I read through the other hints.
7.4-7.8: Doesn't add to what I already know.
7.9: WTF. Regardless, the number of times I had to retype it was annoying. On my successful attempt, I typed at a fairly fast pace, but slow enough for the click to register. This helped curb my final frustration.
Royal Records Room, Battle (A red star) (Note that for Extreme, the red star is followed by a blue star)
8.1: At first I had trouble even finding the level. It was one of the levels in the cave. 1) When I loaded it up, I first thought perhaps it looked like a Space Invader. But looking up imges, I didn't see any matches. 2) Then perhaps I thought it might have to do with the pattern of tiles used, but there didn't seem to be any obvious patterns. At least there were, it wasn't binary and it wasn't Braille.
8.2: With this hint, I revisited the idea of the possible pattern I saw in 8.1. That is, every tile has two spots, and either the spots are partially filled (left or right), both filled, or neither filled. But what would that translate to?
8.3: This hint continues to push the idea that the message is contained in those tiles. Because the remaining tile choices in the level are identical. So why create different tilings just for that section? Why not create a couple of unique tiles for every part of the level. In fact, looking at the sprites closely, they're all the same except for the choice of which stone is black/white. Maybe I'll treat it like a cryptogram.
A bw B bb C bw D bw |E bw| F bw G wb H wb D
F D I bb J bw |B | K ww L bb F L
H D J D |F | B D M bb D
D F L K |H | D I K K
E N bb O bb K |F | P bb H N
Maybe it's just four directions (A = bw, B = bb, C = wb, D = ww)
ABAA|A|ACCA
AABA|B|DBAB
CAAA|A|BABA
AABD|C|ABDD
ABBD|A|BCB
But without knowing which letter corresponds to which direction, that's 4*3*2 = 24 possibilities!
8.4: Probably doesn't add to what I already know.
8.5: Doesn't add to what I already know.
8.6: Probably doesn't add to what I already know.
8.7: This hint makes me reevaluate my previous assumptions. Perhaps it's better to think of it as 0 = bb, 1 = bw, 2 = wb, 3 = ww.
1011|1|1221
1101|0|3010
2111|1|0101
1103|2|1033
1003|1|020
8.8: This hint suggests that I have to actually just straight up use on and off from the stones.
01000101|01|01101001
01010001|00|11000100
10010101|01|00010001
01010011|10|01001111
01000011|01|001000
Which in 8's is:
01000101 01011010 01010100 01001100 01001001 01010100 01000101 01001110 01001111 01000011 01001000
And apparently that spells ETZLITENOCH. However, typing this doesn't work.
8.9: Doesn't add to what I already know. Well. It says that's not the last step, but I don't know the next step.
8.10: Doesn't add to what I already know.
8.11: Huh.
8.12: Interesting... (Though why? What part of the puzzle alludes to this?) In any case, I translated Etzli to Blood, but Tenoch doesn't seem to have a translation. It's just a name of a group of people.
8.13: Doesn't add to what I already know.
8.14: Interesting.
Royal Records Room, Battle, Extreme Challenge
9.1: I started looking at the number of enemies but nothing clicked.
9.2: Ha! 4 8 15 16 23 42 2 12 2 24 24 6 12 16 4. I tried decoding with an alphanumeric decoder. It came out gibberish.
9.3: Uh...
9.4: Hmm. I guess I strayed off course.
9.5: Lol. I didn't see that coming.
Royal Record Room Cutscene Act V, Scene 3 (short text)
10.1: Uh. What's the short text?
10.2: Oh, I see. Well, I didn't know where the message was contained. Eventually I found it on the monolith on the right. It's actually:
YNNEJ
LLAC
That which you already have
11.1: Hmm.
11.2: Interesting. 1) I tried going to New Game+ and entering Jenny's phone number. 2) Does this mean modding the save file? 3) I also tried the code for Statues.
11.3: Huh.
11.4: Well I've tried two of them. But what about hint 11.3. 1) I tried Jenny's phone number backwards. I tried "ETZLITENOCH" backwards. Tried code for Statues backwards.
11.5: Hmm. I tried the code for Statues using WASD instead of arrow keys and IJKL instead of arrow keys. I tried typing "GOOUTSIDE". I tried typing "FRUITBLOOD".
11.6: Hmm.
Remark: I think 11.5 is not accurate. I hate entering with the flute.
Steam Game Time: 82.7 hours total.
Unfortunately, none of the strategies I built around these books were OP and I could not complete the levels I wished to complete.
Steam Game Time: 85.1 hours total 20180121 AM Hours:
Addicted I played the Standard Endless 2 Survival past 100. I got to 223 when I was tired and instead of squeezing out some more rounds I just let Azra die.
The Face of Madness (New Game+, Extreme). Essentially my solution.
Steam Game Time: 87.0 hours total 20180121 Afternoon and 20180122 AM Hours:Steam Game Time: 90.7 hours total 20180127:
Today I decided to do some number crunching.
I was able to win with Book of Blood and Crystal Patch for The Way Out Extreme. Crystal Patch was essential for me to catch the Worms that spawned from the Monstrosities. I also balanced and moved the necessary fighters to clear as much of the wave early as possible.
The number crunching resulted in moving my points to just Swing, Smash, and Counter for most Knights.
I next tried to tackle Zelemir's Army (NG+, Extreme). However, I had trouble figuring out the proper strategy. Someone posted he/she used a lot of archers, some knights, and frost mages (with one equipping the anti-worm weapon) with Book of Blood and Book of Plagues. Using these books together with my strongest mage (Wrenna) and the anti-worm weapon in mid lane, I was able to complete the level.
Full Party and Azra's Skills
After Zelemir's Army, I hopped right into The Face of Madness and tried the all-in strategy. However, it didn't work and I switched out Book of Plagues with Furious Start. I also then went back in with the slow strategy of building up a bank of Psi. There were some close moments, but eventually I was able to get a steady flow of Psi until I felt comfortable moving some of the unused backline around to fight Zelemir.
I tried following a guide (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1b6slm) for the final level (NG+, Extreme) but I had some trouble with it, so I decided to farm. Then I played Storm the Sheep (Extreme). At first I thought I wouldn't be able to come up with the damage, but the sheep only made it a little over halfway before being defeated. I had all six Archers on it, Healers buffing all the attackers with Inspire, Wrenna (Ice Mage) with Archshepherd Stave+ constantly slowing it, and finally two or three Knights DPSing it. Sometimes I had a Berserker applying Rage to it.
Steam Game Time: 100.8 hours total 20180128:
I used "The Halls of the God-King" to farm the last two to three levels of all my recruits (from 57 to 60). The process is fast by setting down the necessary recruits and then leveling them up while the game is running at 16x.
After a lot of trial-and-error, I finally defeated this level.
So finally I try to play "The God King Walks Again" again. I tried making some tweaks to the set-up of the guide. It seems that the same exact strategy somehow doesn't work in this new HD version.
As such, I decided to look for a new strategy. I tried the following: "4 Archers in the center, Knights and Ice mages near all exits. I did put 2 Knights, two mages and a dragon in the line directly leading to Azra, healers covering everybody. I found that I needed to do a lot of damage/slowing there, to destroy that blue snakes and the armored dudes going for Azra. 2 archers maxed out, rest on 3, all Knights 3, one healer with Zeal maxed out in the center too. Rest of the points spread out. No warriors at all. I found it difficult to keep them alive. Archers + Slap totally dominate the level." It seems like the strategy replaced Berserkers with Rage with Book of Blood.
Eventually, I started trying my own strategy. And, frustratingly, when I finally got a strategy that seemed to work, I repeatedly ran into a "Null Object Reference." Finally, however, I was able to complete the level!
Steam Game Time: 107.6 hours total.
Giving back, I write up a guide for the level.
Endless Challenge 2 (New Game+). Not such a challenge at this point in the game.
Finally I played the Endless 2 NG+ and (Light of Glory level) to get 100% Achievements.
Steam Game Time: 109.8 hours total. Thoughts: Pros:
+ Difficulty can be fine-tuned via options.
+ Hours of strategy
+ Targeting options allows for deeper strategy
Neutral:
~ Customization
Cons:
- The game was buggy and I continually ran into a "Null Object Reference" error which was annoying.
- Respecing characters takes a long time. There should be a way to save/copy skill trees or at least give players an option to max out a skill.
Overworld Map (Level Selection)
Summary:
At 110 hours on record (with some hours spent researching builds), Defender's Quest comes in third for hours spent on tower defense games (after Dungeon Defenders and Plants vs. Zombies) and fifth overall (where Clicker Heroes and Terraria clock in more hours). I'm not sure on the exact reason why I put so many hours into Defender's Quest, but I enjoyed the game and would recommend it to fans of tower defense games. Note that my three next most-played tower defense games are Bad Hotel (22 hours), Orcs Must Die! (17.7 hours), and Kingdom Rush (8.0 hours). 20240217 Comment:
I used to not rate video games with a number, but now I do. Coming across this post, I remember having a real great time with it and felt like it deserved an honorary rating. I shall give it an honorary 5.6, although it could actually have a higher or lower rating. Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten (PC) (2012)
