AITD: Chapter 3

DAY 3 – CHAPTER 3

TIME SPENT: 1 hr
ACHIEVEMENTS EARNED: 10 (The Molotov Cocktail, Countdown to Death, Basic Combination, The Sticky Bomb, The Air Bomb, Cocoon, Fire Bullets, Toasted Eggs, The Glowstick Bomb, PAINFUL ANSWERS)
FOCUS: Puzzles

In this level, you need to first navigate your way into a building via a series of ledges, half suspended cars, pipes, etc. It’s actually a really fun sequence, with some good puzzles to boot. My favorite involved a bus that was seesawing over a ravine. You need to get in the back of the bus and exit out the front without tipping it too far. It wasn’t exactly a stumper (look at all those corpses in the bus!) but it was a perfect example of what I was talking about before – the puzzles making sense in the context of the game. Later, I actually WAS stuck before realizing that a door at a 90 degree angle above me may have something above it that would drop once the door was opened.

After this sequence you enter the sewers, where more puzzles await. Most are simple in execution, and again make sense in the game world. Wires need to be removed from the water, doors without handles need to be blown open, inventory items need to be combined, etc. The only time frustration really set in was near the end, when some black liquid ripped off from The X-Files kept killing me. You need to use light to keep it away, but for whatever reason the light I was using (and that had worked perfectly fine before) wasn’t good enough. I don’t particularly care for inconsistent enemy behavior in a game, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Plus, it was part of a multi-part puzzle that I enjoyed, even if it was slightly “gamey” (why would a gas valve be located at the bottom of a pool?). There was also some action involved, and like I suspected, shooting and fighting is getting a bit more natural.

The only downer was another driving sequence at the end of the level, which again was marred by poor collision detection. You need to jump a gap, and your car will occasionally get stuck or clip something that you can’t actually see, resulting in reduced speed and thus not enough momentum to get across the gap. Blah.

Otherwise this was probably my favorite level so far – it was challenging, but I didn’t need to repeat anything more than 2-3 times, which is fine. Not too much of the story was revealed, allowing you to just play for the most part. And as an achievement point whore, I much enjoyed seeing my score rack up so much over the course of an hour.