The Silver Lining: Episode 3

[Datadog]

Currently available for download!

And I honestly have to say... what the heck, man? What the heck?!

Okay, so I left the team three months ago to get back to work on all my projects. I did a quick play-through on the rough Episode 3 before leaving, and it was pretty standard with the last two episodes. Now - three months later, I'm checking out the final version, and I can't even begin to fathom what I'm playing here. It's a completely different game. Given how much longer they spent working on Episode 1, I can only imagine that someone on the team is dealing in black magic just to make this happen. The technical and artistic aspect of this episode is way above the last two.

Some general improvements:
-Much more challenging puzzles. This thing took me about 5-6 hours to finish (considering I already knew some of the puzzle solutions ahead of time, that's pretty crazy.) And the puzzles aren't completely insane either. I was stuck plenty of times, but I found that back-tracking often led me to overlooked clues. Also, a few of these new puzzles they added are really good.
-It includes one heck of an interactive action sequence. They really put those 18 new animators to work.

There's still a lot of bugs in there. I had a game crash every 10-15 minutes, so I had to save often. But still, they out-did themselves this episode. It's really worth checking out.

(Also, I voice Stick-in-the-Mud. Yay!)

[Rudy]

One of Datadog's lines: "Hey mister. Can you fall on your lap right where rotten tomato is? It will look like an accident and we can have tomato juice!"

I just finished the episode and it was easily the most lengthy and challenging of all. Not having played it before, it took me about a day to figure out everything. Very good puzzles: not easy or straightforward, yet logical and well-thought. Liked the arcade sequence too. It wasn't too long or hard, and a good break from all the exploring.

The gameplay itself is light and entertaining. Cut-scenes are mostly dark, revealing some shocking facts about the past. I couldn't help thinking "no f-ing way!" during the last scene, lol. Also, a bunch of new Easter eggs have been added. For example:
make sure to check the items before the counter in the pawnshop to get a reference to the Space Quest 1 Easter Egg where Roger Wilco crashed down in the moat of castle Daventry. Graham knows Roger, didn't consider him very good at anything except for cleaning the stables.

Great job from Phoenix and definitely recommended.

[oberonqa]

Yea it's definitely come a long way from the early build I got to take a look at when I joined them as a temporary forum admin. I was really surprised by what what they did with this episode. It's obvious Cez and the rest of the team are taking user feedback to heart and doing what they can to make TSL a great game for the fans.

The visual quality of the arcade segment is jaw-dropping. To see that kind of cinematic quality in a fan-game is nothing short of spectacular. It was a nice change of pace, though I feel that there should have been a little more time in each "leg" of the sequence to allow for error.

This isn't much of an issue when Graham is riding the horse dodging the shadow-serpents, as that is pretty cut-and-dry. However, once Graham reaches the base of the tower and has to go into the carriage to get the key, there isn't much time to examine your surroundings for a suitable way out. The placement of the key is right... but the small window that your supposed to use to escape the carriage appears to be too small for Graham to fit through and there is no subtle highlighting (even a slight light source) which would denote a possible escape route. Your given approximately 24 seconds to get out of that carriage (3 knocks from the shadow-serpents with an approximate 8 seconds between each knock), with the game proceeding to enter the falling over the cliff death sequence immediately after the third knock. To make matters more stressful on the player, the timer doesn't stop ticking for animations or narration. This is an amateur design flaw and essentially screams "click randomly and wildly until you get lucky and find where the designer hid the hotspot".

A simple fix for this segment would be to increase the time-limit in the carriage sequence and add a visual queue that the small window can be used as an escape. The visual queue doesn't need to be grossly obvious... something as simple as moonlight shining down through the window would be adequate. And yes, by increasing the time-limit that gives the player some breathing room and you run the risk of diminishing the tension of the scene that has been established... but sometimes this is necessary. The tension was already established in the horseback chase. Giving the player an extra 10-15 seconds in the carriage is a good idea, as the carriage would be viewed by most players as a spot of momentary safety where they can catch their bearings for a moment. Take the movie Aliens, for example. There is a point where the Colonial Marines go into the heart of the Alien Hive and get their butts handed to them. Ripley drives down in the command center, picks up the survivors, and makes a bee-line out of the nest with the Aliens in pursuit. Long story short, after this narrow escape, the survivors hole up in a segment of the colony and barricade themselves in. We, as the audience, know that this won't work for long... so we expect the Aliens to find a way in. The filmmakers also know that we know this, but use that time to give the audience a chance to catch their breath after the action that ensued in the hive. Tension was not lost by having the characters barricade themselves in for about 20 minutes of screen-time because we, the audience, know the Aliens will break through. But that 20 minutes of screen-time gives us a chance to calm down so we can get the adrenaline pumping again when the Aliens finally do break through the barricade.

Once you get inside the tower, it's pretty straightforward as well... except it's very difficult due to the position of the camera to see that the door Graham opened with the key is wide open and that you must close the door before moving towards the stairwell. If you do not close the door, one of the shadow-serpents will dart into the room and kill you. This is obviously a visual clue that the door is opened, but since the shadow-serpent can (and frequently does) clip through the tower walls when it comes in to grab Graham, it's not much of a clue. Given the fact that Graham closed the carriage door when he entered the carriage... the player is left to assume that Graham would close the door to the tower after entering. The fact that he does not forces the player to not trust Graham, and by extension, the designers.

This can be easily fixed by either having Graham close the door when he enters the tower (like he closed the door to the carriage)... or adjust the position of the door so that it is easier to notice that the door is open and not just a part of the wall.

In both instances, the death text you receive is the same, which says sometimes it's better to keep to the shadows and not needlessly stick your neck out. This text is ambiguous and not even remotely relevant to either of these situations.

Overall though, great work. Hopefully my critiques will reach the proper channels and something can be done.... but I know the good people at Phoenix have their hands full at the moment... so I don't plan on holding my breath.

[Tawmis]

I still haven't downloaded Episode 2.

[AndreaDraco]

I still haven't downloaded Episode 2.

Me neither

[Collector]

It is bugged. I downloaded the smaller package and it immediately found the folder containing the first two episodes, probably from one of the many, many registry entries the first two made, but then told me that it could not find correct versions in that folder. After downloading the full package and installing it, it seemed to run OK, until randomly the audio kept cutting out to be replaced with VERY loud noise. I haven't gotten very far, yet. It will have to wait until I have more time.

[MusicallyInspired]

I still haven't downloaded Episode 2.

Me neither

I don't blame either of you.

[Tawmis]

I still haven't downloaded Episode 2.

Me neither

I don't blame either of you.

It's more that I have a VERY short attention span of late (well, of late being "the last 10 years or so!")... And unless it's in front of me, I am often distracted and forget to go around and get it...

Which is why I was saying, it's a shame that TT's version of King's Quest is going to also be episodic.

[Rudy]

It is bugged. I downloaded the smaller package and it immediately found the folder containing the first two episodes, probably from one of the many, many registry entries the first two made, but then told me that it could not find correct versions in that folder. After downloading the full package and installing it, it seemed to run OK, until randomly the audio kept cutting out to be replaced with VERY loud noise. I haven't gotten very far, yet. It will have to wait until I have more time.

A patch has already been released. Though if you want to be sure to run it properly, it is recommended to download the full 1.1GB version (containing all 3 episodes) and not "continue from episode 2" in the episode selection menu, but start the episode 3 clean.
The "continue from episode 2" selection revealed several issues, such as a locked door in Chessboard Land (which was opened in episode 2) and discussions with certain characters without a "good bye" option.

[audiodane]

...and discussions with certain characters without a "good bye" option.

I've known some people over the years that don't let you say "good bye" either ...

[Rudy]

...and discussions with certain characters without a "good bye" option.

I've known some people over the years that don't let you say "good bye" either ...

But those didn't get you hopelessly stuck in a game .

[Tawmis]

...and discussions with certain characters without a "good bye" option.

I've known some people over the years that don't let you say "good bye" either ...

But those didn't get you hopelessly stuck in a game .

Isn't Life the ultimate game, with no Restore?

[Collector]

...and discussions with certain characters without a "good bye" option.

I've known some people over the years that don't let you say "good bye" either ...

But those didn't get you hopelessly stuck in a game .

Isn't Life the ultimate game, with no Restore?

And no "Try again?" option.

[DeadPoolX]

I still haven't downloaded Episode 2.

Me neither

Well, I still haven't downloaded Episode 1.