My Shivers playthrough

[notbobsmith]

I just started playing on Sunday. I'm enjoying myself a lot more than Lighthouse. It's straightforward puzzle solving without the item hunting. It does bear a similarity to The 7th Guest. So far, I'm finding this easier. In both, there's the "How does the puzzle work?" part followed by the "How do I now solve this?" part. I seem to have an easier time figuring out the first part. I am making steady progress. I have 111775 points, though I don't know what that means in terms of progress. I've found a few jars. Speaking of which, that is one thing that is a bit of a nuisance. I've found a few of the jars, but I can only carry one at a time. So I have to go hunt around to find where I left them.

[adeyke]

That single-item limitation is annoying, yes. It might help to focus on exploring and puzzle-solving first, while writing down which jar/lid is in which room.

[BBP]

In Shivers the points don't really matter. On my first playthrough I had over 500,000 but that was mainly solving the same puzzles over and over (because I thought that was necessary to open a door).

In the Shivers manual you can find of each puzzle what the objective is.

[notbobsmith]

In the Shivers manual you can find of each puzzle what the objective is.

That makes things a little too easy, I think.

[adeyke]

I'd say that figuring out what the puzzle is asking you to do is part of the puzzle. Also, that's what the character has to do; they don't have an instruction manual. So I'd put looking up the objectives in the same general group as asking for hints or reading a manual: there's no shame in it, and you' can do it if you want, but you do risk ruining your experience if you do it too often or too quickly.

[notbobsmith]

Still making progress. I caught 3 of the creatures so far. I also found the in-game map which makes navigating a lot easier. One puzzle is being kind of a pain. It's the one with all the red marbles. I know what I have to do, but it's not easy. I'm not sure if I am messing things up when I first start.

[adeyke]

If it's the one I'm thinking of, with the cross-shaped board, that's another classic game included as a puzzle. Wikipedia even has an article on it, but it includes a solution, so don't look if you don't want to see that.

I'm not quite sure anymore (it's been a while), but I think I did look up a solution for that one instead of solving it on my own. It's a rather long and unforgiving puzzle.

[BBP]

Good luck, that one's hard! And as adeyke mentioned, it's a classic puzzle, which is why I wasn't too concerned when I decided to look up the solution.

[notbobsmith]

The tricky thing is that I don't know if how I'm approaching the puzzle is right. And there are so many moves, if I think I was getting close, I have to start over without knowing how I got to that point. I think I've solved all of the other puzzles accessible to me at this time. The other one is with witch doctor drums which I think will open up another room.

[notbobsmith]

Okay, I used the solution. I don't think I was going to figure that one out anytime soon. Puzzles are one thing, but solving something like a Rubik's cube is another (not quite as bad, but up there). I actually did have the right approach with the first few moves. On to the drums.

[notbobsmith]

Still making progress. I think I'm almost done. I have 454675 points and 7 captured spirits. I think I just have a few puzzles left. One is an actual puzzle where I have to make a picture of an Aztec god. This has actually be harder than I thought. Then I need to figure out what to do in the hidden room upstairs in the Funhouse area, but I have a few ideas about that. So far the game has been pretty good.

[BBP]

Nice! That's the Pentominoes puzzle you encountered, it has some notoriety. but it's one I love.

Have any of the Ixupis jumped out at you yet? Other than the one at the underground lake that is unskippable?

[notbobsmith]

I just finished last night (final score 539675). Overall I thought it was very good. I definitely enjoyed this more than Lighthouse. The puzzles were generally challenging and didn't feel like the game was trying to cheat you. The once exception was probably the Peg Solitaire one. That may have been a bit to demanding. Figuring out how to play was easy enough. I get the impression people spend a lot of time trying to find solutions for this. I think my only real complaint was that you could only carry one item at a time, which meant a lot of hunting around to find the matching half and then finding the location of the Ixupi. And the Ixupi could more around too, so this meant a lot of wandering around. Also, at the end of the game, they open up one of the areas so you can get new information. The problem with this is that you have no indication that something has changed in a room that I've already explored. But these are minor complaints.

I really liked the music. Usually I don't notice that kind of thing, but it really stuck out for me.

Nice! That's the Pentominoes puzzle you encountered, it has some notoriety. but it's one I love.

Of course, I didn't find the in-game clue until after I solved it!

Have any of the Ixupis jumped out at you yet? Other than the one at the underground lake that is unskippable?

They did at first. I usually restored to a previous save since I was worried about my life bar. Later I figured out how to avoid them.

So that's it. I'll give it another go to see if I missed anything.

[notbobsmith]

Finished it again. Not too much to add. My final score 438275 which is quite a bit lower, but I guess that is because I didn't use the elevators as much. I did enjoy this more than The 7th Guest (since they are relatively similar). I though the puzzles were done better and while the story isn't exactly ground-breaking it at least made sense and had a resolution. But I am definitely interested in Shivers 2 if/when GOG releases it.

Other observations:
I really don't think a newspaper would print a picture of someone's mummified remains.
Beth got a report card/evaluation at the end of September? One month after the school year starts?

[BBP]

Ah, Shiv 2... Shiv 2 has quite a story!
I can recommend getting a CD version since they come with an audio CD. Collector's installer works a treat too!

Glad you like Shivers, I love it! It looks so beautiful and has so many great puzzles!