The Cat Lady - Halloween Special Review (PC game)

Susan is no longer with us; she’s gone to the world and, even before her suicide, she’s been gone a long time from society’s apathetic eye. But even after taking copious amount of sleeping pills Susan is still unable to escape her miserable existence as she awakens in a field, unsure of whether this is life, death, or somewhere in between you take control of her life and guide her staggering footsteps through the world, searching for a way out; of where, neither you nor Susan truly knows. Whereas death is supposed to be the end of a story for Susan Ashworth, it’s the beginning.

Developer: Harvester Games

Genre: Adventure/Horror/Point and Click
Release date: December 1st 2012
Platforms: Microsoft Windows
ESRB: M - Mature

‘The Cat Lady’ follows Susan’s journey back to life after she meets an old woman who wants to strike a deal with Susan to allow her the peace she longs for. Susan is instructed to seek out and destroy several monsters that lurk in the world of the living on behalf of the old woman. Despite Susan’s misgivings she finds herself powerless to resist and, after a brutal and bloody way of sealing the deal, finds herself transported back to ‘life’ but with a catch; she’s now temporarily immortal. For many, this would be a wondrous gift but for an exhausted, suicidal woman it’s an ironic curse that points and laughs in Susan’s face as she treks on with her journey and seeks to complete her task just so she can rest her weary soul and finally be allowed to die. 

It’s a cryptic, surreal and often disturbing journey that encourages you to lose yourself in the darkness of depression before guiding you out of it again. This is a game where the monsters are not aliens with guns or gloomy figures lurking down the other end of a corridor, this is a game where you are the monster in the dark as Susan is flung between anger, doubt, regret, fear and anxiety as she longing for death yet craves revenge. The creatures you encounter are reflective of the demons of Susan’s soul that, as anybody who has suffered from depression will tell you, are not easily vanquished. There will be a blood, and not just a little bit, the game is unashamedly macabre and Susan is forced to undergo several brutal deaths only to be cruelly resurrected again. The imagery of the game is morbid as well and at least every single chapter has a way in which the player may allow, or actively encourage, Susan to kill herself. There’s plenty of black humour in the game as well which I found appealing as, though this game touches on very serious subjects, it’s easy to become jaded to the horrific nature of things when you’ve lived with them for so long. Whilst the game has some extreme scenes of gore these tend to be offset by slower, storyline focused cutscenes so it’s not just a blood-fest, it’s a very well written and intelligently explored blood-fest. If anything, I would describe this as a game that is beautifully horrific. 

Whilst the narrative is by far its strongest point the puzzles are actually fairly good, though not extremely difficult, if anything they are there to provide you with a means to an end rather than as something to frustrate you and slow your progression. Since the game is mostly about atmosphere and storyline I didn’t mind that the puzzles were a little easy but, saying that, they were no walk in the park either and I had several moments of backtracking and getting confused as to what I had to do next. Importantly, the puzzles didn’t feel repetitive and the constant switching of environments helped in this aspect as nothing ever felt like a chore to proceed and it was all very much necessary and interesting. Some puzzles feature some obscure clues about how to complete them that are not just restricted to visual ones, there’s a fair few aural cues which are great for the atmosphere of the game. Generally, I found the audio very good even though the voice acting came across as a little stiff now and then and there’s a very irritating sort of static noise that’s quite loud and intrusive yet entirely intentional. I would have preferred that to have been either non-existent or with the option of turning it off as it was distracting and often made the characters hard to hear. The musical score is brilliant and I have no complaints there and, whilst I said the voice acting could be a little wooden at times, it occasionally did suit the atmosphere and I get the feeling that the developers wanted everything to be very drab and unemotional. Unfortunately at times this style did not suit the on-screen events. 

The beautiful horror of this game is wrapped up in its storyline but enhanced by the unique art style that is a cross between animated newspaper cuttings and old Polaroid photographs giving the entire game a gloomy yet striking appearance. Just like Susan’s life, everything feels a little pasted together but despite this the animations are smooth, the facial expressions are detailed and everything just flows so perfectly. Visually, the game feels very much like a 1990s game which for a point and click puzzle game is just the perfect era for me, especially with it being a horror game as it reminds me strongly of much beloved games such as ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream’, ‘Sanitarium’ and ‘Phantasmagoria’. Amusingly, the game also feels quite 1990s due to the very low resolution that it plays in but this doesn’t bother me so much. There are a couple more problems with ‘The Cat Lady’ though that does tend to spoil the experience a little; the controls for instance are fairly unresponsive, especially during dialogue when you’re trying to skip lines you’ve already read. Susan also does walk incredibly slowly and at one point I was quite sure I had time to go make a cup of coffee in the time she walked from one side of the screen to the other. When you’re lost and backtracking to find things, this is extremely irritating though it may just be my own impatience. Simply, a ‘double clicking to skip to the next screen you clicked on’ feature may be good as I recall several point and clicks doing this in the past. 

Complaints aside, I was utterly entranced by this game and it’s by far one of my favourite point and click adventure games, even with the huge spattering of horror and gore that’s been slapped all over the place. It’s a brilliant example of mature themes that have been done right in a way which is thoughtful, sensitive and intelligently where it doesn’t shy away from controversial issues yet doesn’t make a mockery of them either. If themes such as suicide, mental illness, depression and death offend you then this is not a game you’re going to get on well with as it is utterly unashamed in its approach to the reality of how some people want to die and will go to any length to do so. Whilst the gore side of things can be sometimes a little over the top I found it shocking yet, oddly, refreshing as there have been plenty of these sorts of games that never go too far and tend to pull back before things go too far. ‘The Cat Lady’ never pulls back, it’s in it to win it and I love that about it. The story is fantastic, full of emotion, suspense and drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat and second guessing yourself the entire way through. Susan herself is a brilliant character with genuine character development as you see her go from shy, meek and weary to a woman with a purpose, confidence and strength and quite simply it’s a pleasure to guide her through these changes. If there’s one game you play this Halloweeen, make it ‘The Cat Lady’, you won’t regret it.

The Good: 

• Strong character development
• Interesting, captivating storyline that keeps you guessing
• Mature themes done right
• Striking yet low-key appearance is very appealing
• Decent inventory/dialogue puzzles that challenge but don't frustrate
• Very surreal and disturbing atmosphere

The Bad:

• Some audio issues such as hit and miss voice acting/distracting static
• Some may find the use of gore over the top
• Controls can sometimes be unresponsive, Susan walks too slowly

The Score: 9/10 

Final thoughts: "This has definitely become one of my most beloved point and click games, everything about it feels a bit 90s adventure game which I love and frankly it's been too long since I played something this surreal and this creepy."

Among the Sleep - Review (PlayStation 4, Windows/Linux/OS X game)

There are always things we’re going to be afraid of, that much is certain, but it’s the things we are most uncertain of that tend to terrify or aggravate us the most. As children we lacked the understanding that we have now and trying to cope in a world where we’re unable to reason away the existence of monsters or understand the steps to take when you find yourself alone. This helplessness and vulnerability is the very core of what makes survival horror games so terrifying and usually this vulnerability is due to a lack of weapons, an abundance of darkness and a big splash of threat that is often unseen. In ‘Among The Sleep’, you’re dropped right back into the footy pyjamas of a toddler soon after his 2nd birthday party where he received a bite of cake and a slightly odd looking, talking teddy bear. You awake in the middle of the night to a strange commotion in your bedroom and, after you’ve been flung from your crib, you venture out into the dark corridors to find your mother for some much needed comfort. Unfortunately, she’s nowhere to be found. 

Developer: Krillbite Studio
Release date: May 29th 2014
Genre: Survival horror
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4,
ESRB: Rating pending (likely to be a 16+/Teen rating)

Playing as a toddler is in itself a novel experience but what is particularly appreciable is the way in which tasks we would find simple as an adult become an instant challenge for a toddler such as the opening of doors. Although the mechanics can be a little clunky there’s a sort of realism to this as by dragging around say, a chair, you’re not only struggling to walk on two feet but you have to move a heavy object whilst you’re at it. In 'Among the Sleep' you have the ability to switch between walking, running and crawling and quite appropriately the crawling is a much faster way of getting around though, down there, you cannot interact with anything. This presents a problem in that you are significantly more vulnerable when you’re unable to see where you’re headed, interact with things or use your ‘flashlight’ which is actually a light emitted from hugging your teddy bear, awwh. ‘Among the Sleep’ has a fair few puzzles that are more about getting to your destination than solving anything too complex and the game itself is running off a ‘find three items’ objective that are obtained by going through very different areas. You start out in your house, naturally, and then move through increasingly more surreal areas that are wonderfully varied and consistently offer you new and interesting places to explore.

The places you tend to explore are, unsurprisingly, dark. By dark I mean, 'can barely see your hand in front of your face', kind of dark, so that teddy bear hugging I mentioned earlier is an extremely useful feature. As you can only hug your bear when you’re standing upright what tends to occur is a trade-off between being able to see where it is you’re going and getting there quickly enough. This is a surprisingly stressful situation to be placed in constantly as once you’re left alone in the darkness your over-active child’s imagination comes to life and things appear far much terrifying than they usually would do. Whilst the game isn’t necessarily full on horror there’s enough of an atmosphere that will drive you onwards and ensure you never want to linger too long for fear of what’s lurking in the shadows. The game tends to put you through phases of thinking there’s something there, to believing it’s just your imagination, to making you definitely think there’s something there and this rollercoaster of fear and paranoia will make you constantly question everything around you. 

What I’ve yet to mention is how fantastic the game actually looks and almost everything is interactive whether that’s a piece of fruit in the kitchen or a soft toy in your bedroom; everything can be picked up, carried and put wherever the hell you want it to go. All chairs can be dragged around whether you need to move them or not, drawers and cupboards can be opened and generally there’s a huge amount of detail. Even in places you’re not really supposed to explore you’ll still find a very respectable level of furnishings whilst the textures and detail have not been skimped on adding to a rather realistic, if slightly cartoony, feel. The game’s appearance also significantly contributes to the atmosphere of the game and little things like well-timed thunderclaps, partially lit corridors and the ability to hide under furniture at any given time with no prompting results in you questioning yourself about whether you need to be hiding or not. You’ll often second guess yourself in this game and there are some stupidly terrifying moments such as turning a corner and seeing a dark figure looming over you, just around the corner and out of sight, you turn to stumble away and then realise it’s, well, just a coat on a coat rack. You rarely get those experiences playing as an adult as you would almost immediately see its lack of a face but, as a toddler, all you get is the bottom of a coat and a pair of shoes and this whole new perspective puts you at a disadvantage even for seasoned survival horror gamers.

Don’t let me convince you that this game is all about running from your own shadow however as, trust me, there’s something out there to get you and though I won’t spoil it for you it’s definitely something that makes its presence known. Try as you might you cannot deny the tell-tale rattling of a door handle as you watch something unseen opening a previously looked door from the other side. Neither can you ignore turning around to see that, somehow, something you thought was inanimate has moved and now it’s standing right behind you, staring at you, still unmoving and leaving you very little choice but to slide around it, desperately hoping it doesn’t decide to wake up and do anything else whilst your back is turned. 

Overall

‘Among the Sleep’ is certainly a memorable game and a very unique experience that is well worth a look at, even if you don’t usually play horror games. Whilst the storyline tends to take a backseat during the main chunk of the game it is generally explained through the opening and closing cutscenes with some general illusions to what’s going on as you play. The game is by no means dull however and though it is in no way comparable to gore fests such as 'Amnesia' and 'Outlast' it’s deserving of its place as a horror game due to the undeniably spooky ambiance and the constant fear that something’s about to jump out at you. There are mechanical issues with the game, particularly when climbing on objects, but these can be generally excused as the rest of the game is very attractive with a strong, vibrant pallet and lashings of attention to detail. Occasionally I encountered some frustrating moments of not knowing where to go but generally the game is just about the right level of difficulty and it was probably just me struggling to put 2+2 together though, at times, the puzzles were somewhat lame. The game is unfavourably short at around 3 hours long and I would have definitely preferred a longer game with more build up and some more scares but, overall, the upcoming DLC should settle down the need to spend longer in this oversized world.

The Good: 

• Brilliant storyline, thought provoking ending
• Very atmospheric with a constant eerieness
• Interactive world and puzzle elements are a nice addition
• Looks very clean cut with bold, vibrant graphics
• Sounds fantastic with brilliant voice acting and high quality ambient sounds
• Original concept that was risky for developers but worked out great
• Few scare tactics used, instead more of an investigation into fear
• Playing as a toddler offered up some very interesting and new situations

The Bad: 

• Could have had 'more going on' in it
• Climbing mechanics need to be worked on
• Should have been longer with more build up
• The teddy bear is more creepy than comforting

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "The ending is extremely poignant and made me glad I continued all the way through. I loved the concept of playing as a toddler and am extremely glad somebody took the initiative to put this into a game, now I want to watch everybody I know play it."

Five Nights At Freddy's - Quick Review (PC and Android game)

If there’s one thing that’s going to effectively terrify me it’s those things that are supposed to be innocent, but aren’t. You know what I’m talking about; clowns, dummies, children’s toys, giant humanoid animal costumes, the horror genre has been drawing on the things from our childhoods and turning them into our greatest nightmares long before the arrival of ‘Child's Play’ or ‘Killer Clowns from Outer Space’ so it’s no great surprise to see them in horror games as well. ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ is set during the hours of midnight and 6am as you, the new night watchman at Freddy's pizza place, must attempt to survive with limited defences against some horrifyingly deadly mascots. This is a game where your own paranoia and attempt at protecting yourself will push you closer to sealing your own twisted fate as each and every nervous twitch lowers your resources and, ultimately, your chances of survival.

Developer: Scott Cawthon
Genre: Survival Horror, Point and Click
Release date: August 8th 2014 (August 27th for Android)
Platforms: PC and Android
ESRB: M - Mature

‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ works its way deep into my own insecurities and draws out of me a fear I didn’t even know I had until this game. The enemies you’ll encounter are anamatronic animals that sing and dance for children during the day, annnnd attempt to stuff the new night guard into a suit filled with cross beams and metal bits during the night. Needless to say, this action would kill you so it’s your new priority to survive five nights as the new security guard because presumably he really, really needs the money and values his life less than this. It sounds crazy but who am I to judge, finding work is difficult these days and the fact that you’d have to physically nail me to the chair to get me to stay there is no bearing on what this guy would do, apparently.  As an added extra you can define the AI of each individual enemy for two additional nights where, upon completing all five nights, you'll notice a night six is suddenly available. The reward for completing the seventh night is not just bragging rights at your own stubborn survival but in valuable storyline explanations where you finally learn the dark secrets behind the deadly mascots.

In order to survive five nights at this disturbing pizza place you must carefully manage your power supply whilst monitoring a bunch of CCTV cameras to watch where those dastardly murdering critters are going. They only move when you’re not watching them, reminiscent of the Weeping Angles from ‘Doctor Who’ which can only spell trouble, so by ignoring the cameras they’ll just walk on over to where you’re sitting and tear your face off. The building’s power percentage is tracked in a corner and every time you use a camera, flicker the light just outside either of the two doors to your security room or close the doors to protect yourself it’ll drop how much power is left, significantly so. There’s quite a few cameras and unfortunately a couple of them only have audio feeds so you can only listen to the ominous grinding of their motors as they shuffle down a corridor, worse still, there are plenty of blind spots. Cruelly, those blind spots are mostly right outside the two doors that lead to your little security room so you won’t know they’re in there until they’re either grinning at you around the doorframe or if you manage to hear their, fairly stealthy, movements. 

 
Whilst a lot of survival horror games utilize a player’s fear of being helpless, ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ cranks it up another notch by adding in the complete inability to move. So basically you’re stuck in a tiny room, unable to move and quite possibly nailed to that chair I mentioned now that I think about it, maybe the owners had to resort to brute force with their staff, who knows. Your only line of defence is closing the doors and even then, there are two of them on opposite sides from one another and they use up a lot of power so you can only close them very briefly. You have to survive from midnight to 6am in the morning which takes just less than 10 minutes of your life but at least three years off your life due to the stress it causes. Every night is harder than the last and whilst you’ll quickly adjust to the manner in which you must organize yourself the difficulty intensifies dramatically for the final two nights. The AI of the creatures can vary and they’re fairly unpredictable but generally they’re a lot faster and a lot more intelligent as you progress through the nights. Initially they’ll stay still backstage for the start of the night but, come Night 5, they’ll have mysteriously vanished from their usual spot as soon as your shift starts leaving you to switch between cameras manically, trying to pin point their location. 

What makes this game so effective at terrifying the living daylights out of you is how well it plays on your paranoia and nervous twitch reaction to check a camera or check the doorway, reducing your power in the progress. Whilst you need to constantly check where everyone has shuffled off to it’s difficult to reign this in and not flicker constantly, dooming yourself in the progress, and the feeling that it’s your own increasing OCD checking of everything that’s narrowing your chances of survival is very unsettling. What's particularly likeable about this game is it’s an extremely simple yet imaginative concept that breaks away from the current trend of ‘Slenderman’ or ‘Amnesia’ trend of snooping about houses, collecting up notes and newspaper clippings that many horror games are copying. Overall I found this game to be an imaginative addition to the survival horror genre and whilst the overall style and concept is extremely simple it's still a creepy venture into a nightmarish world of grinning, killer mascots and a gruesome story that you're gradually rewarded with.

The Good: 

• Simple, original and very effective concept
• You become your own worst enemy as you double check, triple check everything
• Decent jump scares keep you on your toes
• Disturbing character design
• Very atmospheric, feelings of isolation and helplessness predominant
• Looks and sounds great with very good voice acting
• Final two 'bonus levels' add in an element of freeplay
• Quite a brutal difficulty curve but the challenge is welcomed

The Bad:

• Although Night 2/3 offers up whole new gameplay feature, more variation would still be good.
• Tends to degenerate into careful time management which some may find boring.
  

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: “Some more variation in gameplay would have gone a long way, but this had me constantly jumping out of my skin as the AI are so unpredictable and it’s got such a disturbing atmosphere.”

Murdered: Soul Suspect - Quick Review (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC game)

Exploring the shadowy afterlife of a recently murdered detective is something quite unforgettable but not for all the right reasons. Murdered: Soul Suspect is a mystery adventure game where, after witnessing his own brutal murder, Ronan O’Connor finds himself locked in the ghostly afterlife with some newly acquired supernatural abilities and a mystery to solve. 

Developer: Airtight games
Genre: Action-adventure/mystery
Release:AQ date: June 6th 2014 (JP: July 17th 2014, NA: June 3rd 2014)
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows
ESRB: M - Mature

As you prowl the dark, damp streets of a beautifully detailed town called Salem you’ll attempt to bring O’Connor’s mysterious, masked killer to justice. It’s a tentatively emotional game with a strong, powerful storyline and some very interesting gameplay elements in the way of Connor’s unique, unearthly abilities. Walking through walls, possessing the living and reading their minds all become a natural part of your investigation yet it doesn't take long to discover that these ghost abilities are a lot more scripted and limited than orginally portrayed.
 

Unfortunately this feeling of limitation is persistent as you explore a game which feels painfully unfinished and, overall, just a little neglected. Whilst the environments are striking and extremely detailed they’re let down by how often they’re reused during separate side missions. Whilst the game tends to come across as an open world romp it quickly becomes apparent that there's a lot less to explore and, even if you did, there's not much to find anyway. The game features a fair few side missions but these quickly run out about midway through the game leaving you with nothing else to do but doggedly pursue the main storyline as you try and ignore characters repeating phrases like, ‘Sorry, can’t help you’ when you attempt to talk to them. 

During the missions themselves the writing tends to be quite poor with a lot of inconsistencies and some rather poor characterizations, for example one woman, with no mental health concerns, promptly committed suicide simply due to the suspicion her boyfriend was cheating on her. O'Connor tends to be generally quite thick and, even when things are obvious, he still murmurs to himself in utter confusion about what's going on. The search for clues too is agonizingly boring as things loll about in plain sight and, when trying to piece together evidence by selecting one of several options on screen there's very little challenge as any wrongly selected pieces of evidence just grey out. You can complete every mission through trial and elimination and, in cases where speaking with witnesses, there's no option to slyly question them and usually asking them plain outright is enough to solve the case. There’s this general sensation that the developers never quite got around to implementing as many side mysteries or free roaming aspects of the game as they’d have liked to and, for the missions which are present, they're all rather low quality in and of themselves. 

The enemies that you encounter start off as rather threatening and a little spooky but as soon as you realize how generic and easy to avoid they are then any lingering fear is quickly snuffed out. Whilst you can directly confront them there's alternatively a plethora of hiding spots called soul residue that, by slipping inside them, renders you completely invisible to any demons mooching about. Now, there's nothing wrong with hiding spots but these are excessive in number and, besides, there's no way to be discovered once you're nestled inside one anyway. The lack of variation in enemy encounters and the enemies themselves renders them little more than an annoyance than something challenging or eerie but, by this point, you begin to wonder if there’s anything worth fighting for anyway.

The painfully short length of the game doesn’t help matters as the entire campaign will take up a very modest 10 hours of your time with the potential to be even shorter if you’re not up for exploring everything. With only one difficulty level, one which feels incredibly easy, there’s not much room for re-playability either so in this sense some players may find it unfulfilling as there’s not much room for improvement. The complete lack of challenge and the fact that you cannot ramp it up a notch is rather damming but there is some thought put into how players can get more hours of the game. In a rather distinctive ‘L.A Noire’ fashion you can earn percentages and badges at the end of every mission based on how many clues and pieces of evidence that you find, in this sense if you find that you missed some evidence and only achieved 80% on a mission you may attempt to retry it though, truthfully, there seems little point in doing so. The gameplay is extremely repetitive and mostly ends up being a hunt for clues in various, similarly designed buildings before watching cutscenes. 

Murdered: Soul Suspect has a brilliant storyline that never reveals too much at once and which is, right up until the end, gripping. The voice acting is superb and the graphics are bleak but atmospherically so. Unfortunately, that’s all it really has going for it as the characters are lacking in personality and the game, whilst boasting style, lacks substance. Even O’Connor, the one person who should at least have something going on, has very little personality and not particularly likeable due to his rather stereotypical persona. It’s a shame because this game has a brilliant premise and could have been so much more but it seems as though it’s unfinished with gaping holes littering every aspect whether that’s a lack of dialogue with NPCs or a lack of variation in side mysteries. If the game as longer with much more content then it would have been a fantastic edition to the much unexplored territory of mystery detective games. L.A Noire this is not and, currently, it’s far too overpriced for what is essentially a 5 – 10 hour game of scripted repetition.

The Good:

• Voice acting is top quality
• Lovely, detailed environments
• Powers acquired gradually
• Great premise of solving your own murder 
• Gripping storylin, a little disturbing

The Bad:

• Very scripted feel
• Lack of content 
• Repetative missions 
• Easily defeated, generic enemies 
• Quite buggy (as of July 2014) 
• Extremely short
• Side missions poorly written
• O'Connor painfully thick
• Characters lack personality

The Score: 4/10

Final thoughts: “Soul Suspect appears to be lacking some soul, I’m very disappointed as this could have been something really quite special.”

The Last Door - Chapter 4 Walkthrough

The Last Door, Chapter 4, Ancient Shadows is a point and click horror game from The Game Kitchen, an indie company who brought this game to life through donations and kickstarter, and what a game it is. Ancient Shadows follows on from Chapter 3, the Four Witnesses, after the drama-tic (hah) events of the last chapter we find Devitt travelling to visit his old friend Alexandre in his home in the countryside. What could go wrong.

Before we begin, if you're interested you can also check out my full review of The Last Door here. 
Or... 

If you've come too far then you can find your way back to the walkthroughs for Chapter 3 here, Chapter 2 here, or Chapter 1 here.

Now that that's out the way, let's get on with the final segment of The Last Door, Season 1.

Chapter 4, Ancient Shadows

Hints without spoilers:

I don't know how to develop the envelope: There are instructions in the room on what order to do things, you'll also need a red bulb and cannot do it in darkness or white light. You'll need a way of tinting the pre-existing one, not fixing the shards on the floor.

I don't know how to work out the clock puzzles: Read the notes around the house that relate to the clock and make sure to work out the time difference between the upstairs and downstairs clock. The upstairs one needs to read the time mentioned in the notes but only the grandfather clock can be changed.

I have a blue crystal thing, now what: Look around the house, inside and out, until you notice something different in somewhere you've been before. Follow the signs from there.

What do I do with the telescope: Have a good look through it and check in your inventory to see what the view may resemble then, looking through the telescope again, click the areas that are highlighted in the item you have.

What are the strange symbols for: The three important ones unlock a puzzle in the same room you're in, look around the room then match up the symbols with the positioning of the locks.

Full walkthrough for Chapter 4

Prologue:

Click on Devitt.
Click on the table.
Click on Devitt again.
Click through the dialogue and scenes.

Chapter 4:

Click through the conversations and go through all of the dialogue options.
When you regain control of Devitt, walk all the way left to the next screen.
Walk all the way left again before entering the house.
This is the foyer, go upstairs to begin with and enter the first room.
Talk to Alexandre and exhaust all dialogue options.
Leave the room and walk to the right into the next part of the corridor.
Open the chest and pick up a hook.
Go back downstairs and into the foyer.
Exit the room via the back archway to enter the parlor.
Cross the parlor and exit via the door on the far left.
Pick up the oil lamp on the table.
Walk to the far left of the room and read the note.
Go through the door on the far right to exit out into the back garden.
Pick up the rope beside the well.
Use the hook with the rope to get a grappling hook.
Use the grappling hook with the well to receive a brass bird.
Examine the grave then head to the gate at the back, unlock it and head through.
Walk to the far right and note the door to the greenhouse with the bar across it.
Remove the bar then open the door and head inside.
Walk to the far right until you see the statues, a bottle of Vitriol is between them. Pick it up.
Leave the greenhouse and head back into the house then upstairs again.
Walk down the corridor to the right, into the next part where the chest is, then enter the room on at the far end.
In the study examine the note and invoice on the table.
Examine the fireplace then pick up the black envelope from inside it.
Leave the room and enter the final door on the back wall.
This is a photographer's developing room, pick up the Cyanide on the back table and read the note on the floor.
Examine the light hanging from the ceiling then pick it up to receive a lightbulb.
Leave and go back downstairs then out the front door.
Walk to where the greenhouse is then look to the back where you'll see the exit to the forest.
Leave through these gates into the forest.
Walk along to the right until coming across a deer.
Use the lightbulb with the deer to get a red tinted lightbulb.
Go back to the house then the photographer's room.
Use the red tinted lightbulb in the hanging light.
Put the envelope in the sink, pour the Vitriol on it then the Cyanide, finally use the tap to rinse it off.
Click through the scene then leave the room and go into Alexandre's room.
Talk to him then pick up what he drops to receive a a clock hand.
Put the bird in the clock near Alexandre before examining the clock face.
Leave the room and go back downstairs to the foyer.
Use the clock hand in the grandfather clock.
Turn the hands of the grandfather clock until they read 3:00 (hold down mouse button)
Once the clock reads 3:00 click the switch beside the clock face.
Go back upstairs to Alexandre's room.
Pick up the blue object on the floor to receive the bird again.
Examine it then open it to get a key.
Go downstairs and out into the back garden.
Use the key with the trapdoor to the cellar.
Enter the cellar and move a little to the left to examine a set of drawers.
Open the drawers and take out the shovel.
Exit the cellar and use the shovel with the grave outside.
Use the Vitriol with the lock.
Pick up the blue object to receive a canvas.
Exit out of the screen then examine the canvas.
Walk back, via the front garden, to Alexandre's room.
Read the note on the wheelchair,
Exit out onto the balcony and pick up the object in the statue's hands to pick up a cristal.
Walk all the way back to the cellar only this time walk through to the far left.
In the laboratory, read the note then walk to the right until you see an opening in the wall.
Head inside into a makeshift observatory.
Use the telescope then use the canvas to note the positioning of the constallations. 
You need to click the stars that match up with the ones highlighted in the canvas.
Check out the image below if you're having trouble.

After the puzzle, put the cristal in the telescope then look through it again.
Note the symbols that match up with the three stars you just selected.
Open the cabinet in the room and enter the three symbols making sure the Altair symbol is at the bottom. (Far right is a U shape, bottom one is a sort of trident and the far left one is a vertical line with two wavy lines through it)
Examine then pick up a syringe from the desk.
Go down into the pit and use the syringe with Alexandre.
Sit in the chair.
Give the syringe to Alexandre.
Click through the dialogue and scenes.
Walk continually to the right.

End of Chapter 4.

And there we have it... the end of The Last Door and consequentially this walkthrough. Luckily, it's only the end of Season 1 as Season 2 is currently being developed; provided they get enough backers for it to be released of course! I hope you enjoyed the game and the ultimate cliffhanger it's left us all on again, if you also enjoyed this walkthrough don't forget to comment and +1 and so on and so forth :) I hope to see you all here next time when Season 2 makes its debut! Happy gaming!

The Last Door - Chapter 3 Walkthrough

The Last Door, Chapter 3,The Four Witnesses is a point and click horror game from The Game Kitchen, an indie company who managed to publish this game using Kickstarter. Following on from Chapter 2 we follow Devitt as he awakens in a strange place with no hope of getting home anytime soon. 

If you're interested you can also check out my full review of The Last Door here.

If you've come too far then you can find your way back to Chapter 2 here, or Chapter 1 here.

Housekeeping aside, let's get on with the game!

Chapter 3, The Four Witnesses

Hints without spoilers:

I need some way of seeing in the dark: Finding a working lightsource in this chapter requires a lot more steps. Start by finding an empty lamp then head to places where it's wet to find traces of oil. You'll need to seperate the oil before using it though.

I don't know how to navigate the fog: Unless you have the parchment you're not at the correct point in the story yet. The puzzle is heavily audio based so make sure to turn your sound all the way up and listen out for the correct sound, listed in order in the parchment, whilst searching for hidden exits.

How do I enter the green door behind the mausoleum: If it's still locked try walking a few steps and wait for a noise. Check the door and if nothing still happens try checking it again.

I have a feather but I don't know what it's for: Is there something in the house or garden that you have yet to collect? You don't need to use it outside of the house/garden so keep looking around and seeing what you can use it with.

I don't know what to do with the violin: You need to find her final resting place, are there any places where she seems close by? Try turning up your speakers and following the sound of her voice.

 

Full walkthrough for Chapter 3

Prologue:

After each line of dialogue click into the darkness.
After freeing yourself you'll experience a dream and a flashback.
During the dream in the snow covered forest keep walking to the right.

Chapter 3:

When you awaken examine the ticket in your inventory.
Exit the room to the left.
Keep walking to the right through the screens, including the market, until you see a man leave through an iron gate.
Walk through the doorway beside the woman then examine and use the water dripping from the pipe.
After drinking, walk back towards the exit.
When you awaken, leave the area and head back to the market.
Exit the street using the upper exit where the cart originally was.
Click through the dialogue.
Head up the stairs then talk to the gypsy lady by the fire if you want your fortune read.
Afterwards, pick up the lamp beside her to receive an empty lamp.
Follow the man through the various screens until reaching an area too dark to continue through.
Return to where you first were after the cutscene ended, where the stairs are.
Leave via the upper-left exit where you'll see a dead end and a street lamp.
Go through the door into the butcher's shop.
At the far right of the screen you'll see four bars on the wall that make up a puzzle, hit them in this order: 2, 1, 4, to open a passage.
Enter through the secret passage and pick up the empty bottle on the floor.
Exit the butcher's shop and the dead end to return to the street. Go up the stairs again.
Go through the large archway then into the sewer enterance at the right-hand side of the screen.
Use the empty bottle with the puddle of water to receive oily water.
Exit the sewer and backtrack to the butcher's shop before going back into the secret room again.
Use the bottle of oily water with the device beneath the small window.
After the water has been removed from the oil, use the empty lamp with the device to receive a lamp.
Return to the gypsy woman by going up the stairs in the street and light the lamp using the fire in front of her.
Return to the dark house where the man entered earlier.
Examine the coat on the back wall and take the gloves from the coat's pocket.
Go upstairs and enter the first room you encounter.
Examine the fireplace then use the gloves with the hot embers to retrieve a doorknob.
Talk to the old woman sat on the bed and go through all the dialogue options.
Stand by the fireplace and click through the game.
Afterwards, examine the heap of items in front of the fireplace to receive a broken porcelain mask.
Exit the bedroom and carry on down the corridor to the left. 
When you reach a ladder, climb it and play the piano.
Examine the stuck key then use it to receive a small key.
Leave the attic and walk to the left until you reach a door with a missing handle. 
Use the doorknob with it then enter the room.
Inside, draw back the curtain to the bathtub.
Examine what's inside it then take the wig.
Click on the record player to stop the laughter, then click on it again to notice a difference.
Leave the bathroom and carry on to the left before reaching a final door.
Enter it then talk to the violinist inside.
Go through all dialogue options then pick up the musical score on the table nearby.
Leave the room and return to the attic.
Use the score with the feather inside the large cage to grab the feather.
Return to the first bedroom and use the small key with the wardrobe.
Take the red dress from inside it.
Go back downstairs only this time go through the door on the right to enter the garden.
Move to the right and examine the tree stump before using the feather with it to collect some resin.
Use the resin with the broken porcelain mask to fix it.
Return to the violinist and put the dress, fixed mask, and wig on the mannequin by the window to receive a violin from the violinst.
Talk to the violinist and exhaust all dialogue to be given a black key also, this opens the mausoleum. 
Leave, and go back outside into the garden.
Continue to the far right and use the black key with the door at the end to enter the mausoleum.
Walk to the far right, following the dirt, and enter the hole in the wall.
Try to open the green door then walk away a little, you'll hear a noise.
Try to open it again, then when that fails, try once more.
Enter the door to find yourself in a bookshop.
Carry on through the store until you encounter a man reading in the next room.
Talk to him and go through all the dialogue, noting the name of the book he mentions.
Walk through the doorway to the left and keep going until you see a white page on the floor; read it then carry on to the left.
Note the missing book page stuck in the tree branch then read the book on the floor.
Walk back a little then go down the hole beside the tree.
Carry on through the next area and leave via the lefthand exit.
In this area you're in a deeper part of the sewers, walk to the right until coming across the bottom of the tree.
Use the violin with the huge crack in the tree trunk.
After the scene, walk all the way to the left, ignoring the way you came in, and exiting out onto the streets.
Leave via the upper-left exit then go down the stairs to see that the street has changed.
Pick up the parchment from the tree root and read it.
Afterwards, follow the man into the fog.
Examine the parchment again, the puzzle will require you to follow the sounds listed by leaving through hidden doors in the fog. Don't exit through any doors until the noises next to it matches the one in the note starting with wind, then birds, then sea, then silence. 
Walk along to the left until you hear wind, search for a door nearby and enter it. Do the same for birds and sea until finally you have to search for 'silence' which is a little trickier. Make sure you listen carefully and wait a moment before going through the door.
If you do accidentally pick the wrong door you'll end up at the beginning of the fog and will have to start over again.
When you solve the puzzle, click through to the right and enter the final room.
Walk down the middle of the aisle towards the stage before talking to the man.
Click through the dialogue and pick 'True Philosophy' when the option appears.
Take the mask from his hand and watch the ending scene.

End of Chapter 3.

So, everything's starting to come together... Hmm... Interesting... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough and Chapter 3 of The Last Door, the walkthrough for Chapter 4 can be found here so you can get right on with completing Season 1 of this awesome game. If you enjoyed this guide please comment or +1 or something so I know you didn’t hate it and so on and so forth :)

The Last Door: Collector's Edition - Full Review (Free game/Collector's Edition PC game)

‘The Last Door’ is a door worth opening as what you’ll find on the other side is a solid, spooky and extremely well crafted game that manages to be both horribly unsettling and wonderfully enthralling. 

Developer: The Game Kitchen
Genre: Horror adventure 
Release date: May 20th 2014
Platforms: PC, Mac and Linux
ESRB: Rating pending

Created by the indie company, The Game Kitchen, ‘The Last Door’ is a point and click horror game that borders somewhere between quietly creepy and in your face horrifying. This compelling game will have you intrigued from the start as the beautifully orchestrated music plays and the sharp graphics drop down into a pixelated art style that makes you wonder why the developers have opted for this low resolution feel. Discard any initial reservations you had about its appearances as this is an extremely well made, well-polished game that is more than worthy of worldwide recognition.

Story and gameplay

The game is set in Victorian England and, after an incredibly morbid prologue, your character receives a letter from an old friend with a rather cryptic message on it. Prompted by the potentially serious implications from the letter you set out to Sussex to the lavish manor house that your friend owns but upon arrival it appears empty and abandoned. As you search the estate for clues you’ll uncover dark secrets, skeletons in the closets and a mystery that will only be explained by travelling across the country in subsequent chapters. The four chapters of this game were initially released separately and they still feel like very short standalone games that all follow on from one another, though that’s not a bad thing. If anything the use of cliff-hangers is very appealing as it builds up your anticipation to continue playing and makes the game feel even more riveting. 

The use of episodes splits the game into nicely manageable segments as it will take several hours to complete the entire thing though the quality of the chapters does vary and, whilst each episode has its own strengths and weaknesses, the inconsistency makes the problems glaringly apparent. The first chapter for instance excels in atmosphere and emotion whilst being the shortest and easiest of all the chapters. In the second episode there is a greater depth of experience but some of the descriptions of items have been watered down to either simple statements or overly explanatory ones which, compared to those of the first chapter, hinders the feel of the environment. That said, these are very minor issues and as a whole  the game plays fantastically with a strong focus on suspense and anticipation rather than gore and violence. 

As is standard in point and click games your advancement is dependent on solving puzzles and, in this case, the puzzles are inventory based. This means that you’ll be frequently be searching for things you can pick up before using them on objects in the environment or combining them into something new. Often, things can be difficult to locate as the pixelated surroundings conceal things wonderfully but by scrolling over objects that can be examined a magnifying glass does appear so you’re not left helplessly confused at what something is. Overall the game gets harder as you progress which eases you very nicely into the game though there’s nothing agonizingly difficult about any of the puzzles. Though you’ll likely get stuck now and then the puzzles are all fairly logical and not in the least bit obscure so, once you figure it out, it becomes painfully clear what you had to do all along. That said, the puzzles are varied and interesting and usually revolve around trying to access some place or another as you’re generally being led on a journey to constantly discover a secret that is hidden. 

Something that is particularly appealing is the game’s tendency to change the perspective that you’re playing through by quick insights into other characters or, most importantly, dreams and flashbacks that Devitt experiences himself. This continual shifting results in a richer and deeper understanding of the storyline and also the chance to do something a little different. I imagine that a constant focus on Devitt in the present time could have easily become restrictive and monotonous so it’s a welcomed addition to an already captivating game. Breaking up the gameplay experience through the employment of these dreams, flashbacks and briefly controlling other characters is not the only trick that the developers have up their sleeve as each chapter brings something new to the table. Whilst the first game is just you on your own subsequent chapters add in other character to talk to and the introduction of conversations is surprisingly powerful. Every chapter beginning starts with something shocking or disturbing that’s entirely different to the start of the last chapter so, whilst the game is short, you do cover a lot of ground and are treated to some intimately haunting scenes. The characters are well introduced, have interesting dialogue and talk in a manner fitting of the era. There are a lot of letters and diaries present in the game that you read for backstory and they’re very manageable in length and not in the least bit dull. Often, letters contain clues for puzzles and I enjoy how they not only had an atmospheric purpose but a practical one too.

A final critic I have is to do with the controls as in order to pick up items you must first examine them using the magnifying glass. I’m still somewhat undecided about this but the constant need to examine an object with one click then pick it up with another does become fairly irksome and, at the start of the game, it tended to result in me skipping over items thinking I had already obtained them. Of course this error went away as I adjusted but I prefer the option to both examine and immediately pick up things to not necessarily make the game simpler but rather make it less irritating. Other than this the controls are very easy to operate, the camera is perfect and the inclusion of skipping to areas you have already visited by double clicking on the exit saves a few long and boring walks. In a game where you may be stomping up and down the same corridor numerous times, this can only be a good thing.

Graphics and environments

The most important aspect of a horror game is its ability to scare you, or at least make you feel uneasy and apprehensive, and ‘The Last Door’ manages this fantastically partially due to how well the environments are portrayed. Walking through a pitch black corridor with nothing but a tiny light is as terrifying as it would be in any well-made horror game and whilst it could have been easy for it to lag behind its competition it is far from doing so. The environments are extremely detailed, spooky in some places and quite lovely in others. There’s plenty to look at and interact with and great care has been taken to flesh each individual room or area with enough decorational items that simply exist to add to the overall feel of the place.

Though you are initially restricted to the manor and its grounds you’ll travel to different places throughout the subsequent episodes and not once will you feel boxed in by limiting environments. Despite the low res quality of the game there are some truly beautiful scenes that are perfectly detailed and perfectly executed. The views of distant rolling landscapes and the layered, overcast skies remind me in turn of an obscure Van Gogh painting in that there’s such little information but the balance of hues and shades still results in a near perfect representation of what it is depicting. History buffs will also appreciate the many nods to the typical Victorian lifestyle and everything from Devitt’s travelling gear to the adornments of the interiors is perfectly in tune with the era it is illustrating. 

Low resolution pixelated art styles are definitely taking more precedence in games and it goes to show that graphics simply aren’t everything. If anything I found the retro graphics to enhance the experience of this game as it played on the notion that there was something there, in the dark, something that you couldn’t quite see. The game manages to limit how much you can see, not only through actual darkness but by also removing that customary clearness and crispness of graphics that we’ve come to rely on so much. What this results in is your imagination running a little wild and the game is fully aware of this with as it applies very delicate, subtle graphical shifts that impact the atmosphere in huge ways. For a game to be able to produce a constant unsettling unease whilst not falling back on gore and high definition monsters is, for me, very impressive.

Music and audio

In a game that provides no spoken dialogue it was imperative that all remaining audio was done to perfection, and it has been. The music is strong and intense and, especially during the opening credits, it has this inexplicable ability to instil the feeling that you’re embarking on some dangerous and mysterious journey. During gameplay there are periods of complete and utter silence that may occur when entering a room or between music tracks and, when the music stops, a great sense of danger instantly washes over you. I remember one occasion where, standing in the back of an old school room the music stopped entirely leaving me alone in a silent, dead room. Then came a noise; a noise I’d not heard before in that room despite having visited there several times, it was muffled and distant but sounded distinctly like some trapped animal or cry for help. Without the ability to explore further I left immediately, even after returning to the same spot, never heard that noise again. It’s moments like this that build you up and make you feel like there’s something waiting for you in the dark, behind a corner, something that may jump out at you. It’s extremely atmospheric and these odd little sounds that come out of nowhere, like the tapping on a window, are profoundly powerful.

Overall

This is one of my favourite modern point and click game’s and I thoroughly enjoyed the care and attention that has been poured into it. The variety of environments and perspectives that the game gives you adds an additional layer of detail and stops the game from being repetitive and boring. The story itself is curious with a mixture of themes bordering strongly on the occult but mingled in with the subjects of insanity and madness which is very nineteenth century. You can tell the game is strongly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s works not only from the presence of crows who consistently feature in his works but of little details like the bird tapping on the glass in a home owned by a man who’s descended into madness whereas, in ‘The Raven’ the tapping of the raven sent the narrator into insanity. Likewise, the presence of blind black cat in one part of the story is a direct reference to another of Poe’s work; the Black Cat and there are plenty of other bits and pieces in there too, considering Poe was active during the same century the game was set it feels even more appropriate. History aside, this is an indie game with a difference and is well worth a play as it is beautifully orchestrated, wonderfully written and very well designed. You may or may not find it easy and I imagine it depends entirely on how much of the genre you play and how intuitive you are. The Game Kitchen is currently fundraising so they can complete Season 2 of ‘The Last Door’ so there’s plenty more in the pipeline if you enjoyed this fantastic game. 

The Good:

• Very atmospheric with lots of suspense. 
• Beautiful music, flawless audio.
• Decent, logical puzzles.
• Appealing graphical style.
• Nice range of environments.
• Layered, interesting storyline.

The Bad:

• A little too easy in places.
• Some chapters are weaker than others.
• Controls can be annoying.

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: I love, love love love, this game and cannot wait for the next season. It would be better had it been longer but they're bringing more out so it's all good.

‘The Last Door’ is currently available to be played free. If you want the game with additional scenes and achievements you should pick up the Collector’s Edition of the game instead for just £7 from Steam, here. More details, including where to play it, can be found on their website here.