Screenshot thread

[Darth Roxor]

funny, I don't remember anything about the soundtrack at all

 

[DraQ]

Any other Zachtronics victims here?

Some more puzzles with scores, all optimized for cycles:

This is one of my favorites. Everything fits perfectly.

Water Purifier

It's hard to see, but at least one person managed to do it in 50 or 49. I think 48 would be impossible.

This one has a nice symmetry.

Invisible Ink

These flower shaped molecules are a recurring theme, getting larger and more complex every time.

Alchemical Jewel

They always look nice. But it's disappointing the game doesn't challenge you with one that's too big for one arm to hold and rotate around the center, at least not in the main story campaign.

Timing Crystal

The final puzzle requires some tricky bonding, and the position of the elements couldn't be any more inconvenient if you care about optimization.

Universal Solvent

It's kind of a mess, but it scores well because the 4 salt inputs are being used non-stop.

It's not my favorite Zachtronics game. But there are still some bonus puzzles left with limited space constraints that look interesting.

Looks interdasting.

I still need to finish Spacechem, though.
I think I left it on "Don't Fear The Reaper" boss battle.

 

[HansDampf]

Don't Fear The Reaper is pretty far into the game. There shouldn't be many missions left, though it gets very difficult near the end with ridiculously large molecules and randomized input.
Opus Magnum may look pretty, but its mechanics aren't as deep as SpaceChem's. It could also get tedious very fast if you were just looking to solve the puzzles without caring about efficiency. You always have infinite space to work with and could brute-force degenerate solutions, which is impossible in SpaceChem.

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[DraQ]

Don't Fear The Reaper is pretty far into the game. There shouldn't be many missions left, though it gets very difficult near the end with ridiculously large molecules and randomized input.
Opus Magnum may look pretty, but its mechanics aren't as deep as SpaceChem's. It could also get tedious very fast if you were just looking to solve the puzzles without caring about efficiency. You always have infinite space to work with and could brute-force degenerate solutions, which is impossible in SpaceChem.

OTOH it takes a pretty fucked up person to program in what amounts to two-threaded fungoid language for fun, which is what Spacechem essentially is.

 

[A horse of course]

funny, I don't remember anything about the soundtrack at all

I remember the main menu theme/ambience and that's about it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[Kabas]

The fight against bishop was a hard one i must say. I can bring him down to half hp using my personal stabby stabb combo supported by some serious buffing, by once their duration ends the bishop can mop me very quickly. I was forced to run circles around him spamming minor heals and fire bolts, while avoiding his spells using my character's maneuverability of the motorboat. I don't want to imagine what would have happened if i didn't finish a certain optional quest beforehand.
Eventually, he was brought down.

Spoiler

My ultimate stabby stab combo that brought the bishop down to half hp. I noticed that the character blocks more frequently if you use combos.

He also drops an amazing weapon(which you're quickly going to lose thanks to the plot)

You can also use a death's recollection spell on the dead enemies to get some bonus info and exp.

You're going to get a personal hub in exchange for that staff though. And the access to fast travel stones.

^This guy is apparently in charge of sorting out my trash.

^All my spells are here. I forgot to explore one location, so i had one rune missing. Once i retrived it the book just so happened to contain some decent combat spells i was longing for.
I like rpgs that do this sort of stuff, it feels very rewarding when you find the magical tome and the corresponing rune, which gives you an entire bunch of new spells to play with.
Here is the spooky alchemy lab.

And my uncle is now dead

Even in death he didn't tell me where are my 200 gold i gave him.

I also must say that i regretted my choice of ignoring the strength stat. It governs your carrying capacity and the way this game encourages you to experiment with all the different weapons you kinda want to have a few different types in your backpack. So now my character is a bit more balanced. I hope the soulbringer experts won't be laughing at me.

This thing in the middle is called the seculorum. It shows your affinity to one of the five elements. The more you use the spells of the certain element the more effective this element is, but the other elements will start weakening. Another one of those neat small things that i appreciate.

 

[Baron Dupek]

That combo system works like in the Sacred then?

 

[Kabas]

I didn't play the first sacred that much, neither do i remember much about it's mechanics.

You can assign inside the combo whatever action you want, be it a specific attack type, spell, weapon swap or item use. When you activate the combo your character starts performing all the assigned actions in order. Your character is more likely to parry and block attacks while executing the combo as opposite to you pushing commands like underhand bash or stab at head manually, as i confirmed.

 

[Great Deceiver]

F.E.A.R is like a good wine, it just tastes better and better. The game is so much fun, that I replayed some encounters just because the combat is so good. Replica soldiers are my favourite enemy when it comes to A.I along with the first Unreal and to some degree HL. Nathan Rigg's soundtrack is exceptional as well. Now I'm going onward to refresh my memory with Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate.

Spoiler

This inspired me to play FEAR again and it's just amazing how much FPS as a whole have regressed since 2005. I distinctly remember playing it when it came out and thinking it was a bit too popamole - boy, I sure had another thing coming.

 

[Latelistener]

Spoiler

 

[Astral Rag]

How to die heroically in the first room of the dungeon

Spoiler

 

[DeepOcean]

 

[Great Deceiver]

How to die heroically in the first room of the dungeon

Spoiler

Shadowgate is one of my favourite games of all time. It's also one of the rare cases where a recent remake is actually very good. Have you tried it?

 

[Fedora Master]

ELTHRAI AND ARHAIN

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[HansDampf]

Opus Magnum's bonus chapter.

There should have been more puzzles like this in the game. It's presented like you are working through a book about historically relevant (in universe...) alchemical machines, with short excerpts for each puzzle to give some context about the products you are supposed to recreate, and also some references to the events from the main story. I much prefer them to the dialogue snippets with that edgy protagonist. The entire game could have been made in this style, and it would have been great.

Unlike the regular puzzles, these require some planning on how to best distribute the tasks over the different chambers, without wasting too much space. Some of them are a bit too restrictive, and you end up playing inventory tetris even with just the minimally required elements.

Spoiler

 

[Astral Rag]

How to die heroically in the first room of the dungeon

Spoiler

Shadowgate is one of my favourite games of all time. It's also one of the rare cases where a recent remake is actually very good. Have you tried it?

I've played some of it and I enjoyed it so I decided to play the original first because I never completed it. Will definitely continue with the remake after I finish this.

Which version did you play? I see that the game was released on SNES, Amiga and even on Win 3.1. I wonder if they just differ graphically. I'm playing the emulated Macintosh version that's being sold on Steam.

 

[Latelistener]

 

[Great Deceiver]

Which version did you play? I see that the game was released on SNES, Amiga and even on Win 3.1. I wonder if they just differ graphically. I'm playing the emulated Macintosh version that's being sold on Steam.

I played it on the NES at release and was instantly hooked. As a kid, it took me months to finish, but it was so very rewarding when I finally did. It's a little bit of a pain to control the cursor with a control pad, but it's not the end of the world and you get used to it.
It had some kickass music that I will never forget:



The artwork was pretty cool for this version.

Many of the classic ICOM Mac adventures got ported over to the NES. I also played Uninvited (a horror game, which I also recommend) and Deja Vu (which I didn't like as much, perhaps due to the gangster/mob theme that wasn't really my cup of tea).

 

[Baron Dupek]

nah

and there is more of them inside

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Spoiler

 

[Viata]

This fucking game.

 

[Great Deceiver]

DQ5 is best DQ.

 

[DraQ]

Ally? More like 'alloy', AMIRITE?