Preamble.
I have played most Quest / Adventure {Q / A} games but somehow missed this one
until about a fortnight ago. Since it was released about 1m years ago, at the
rate of acceleration of computer technology these days, this makes it a real
oldie already !
As usual, I got stuck two or three times (cretin?!?) And hence looked for
Hints & / or Walkthrus.
I scoured all my (several) regular sites and found a fairly good UHS-Walkthru.
Apart from that,
I found only ONE other (pretty good) Walkthru, which appears identically on
more than a half dozen different Cheat / Hint / W.T. sites. It is anonymous, and
I haven’t seen on any site the name or nickname of any author. However, I did
find a few specific Hints at www.neverhood.com .
Most of the puzzles are pretty easy (which is understandable since the game
appears to be aimed at a fairly young age group), but one or two of the
solutions are somewhat obscure and not too clearly described — with due
acknowledgment to all of the abovementioned. Even though most of the Hints
have been given already, I add below some further details and clarifications
for any who may want them.
Some Comments on the game.
I am not a Reviewer, but in my personal opinion Neverhood is far from the best
Q / A I have ever played, but also very far from the worst. Without going into
specific details, it has several very novel and good qualities and also some
rather negative ones.
However, the most infuriating aspect was the Hall of Records (Library). You
are expected to read (or are you ??) a large number of pages (or clay tablets)
which is extremely tedious, since Klayman moves rather slowly and nearly every
‘section’ contains 7 separate pages, each of which has to be scrolled
individually. Unless I miscounted, there are 236 pages in all —- I kid you
not !! Whether you decide to read them or not (you can readily skip all or
part of them!), you MUST get right to the end, since there is an item you
have to acquire there in order to finish the game. Then Klayman has to plod
his weary way back to the very beginning — no quick or easy exit! I
scanned them all, and to me they seem a total yawn, very close to gibberish,
and with no tangible bearing whatsoever on the plot of the game (certainly no
puzzle clues of any importance). The first half at least seems to be a very
weak parody of the early chapters of the Old Testament — but I play games to
relax and enjoy myself, not in order to be ‘educated’ or bored to tears. If I
just want a few hours of reading, even in this day and age, it is still more
satisfying to open books or
magazines! I am aware that some games appear to introduce sequences which
only appear to be there as time-fillers (possibly so that some players will
not complain that the game can be finished in, say, 20 hours or whatever!)
……… But in my opinion, this is going too far !!
Some Hints & Tips.
(1). A very minor issue: – During the fairly early part of the game you
have to open a door which is locked with 3 dead-bolts controlled by buttons
colored orange, blue, and gray / black.
To do this, you have to search all over the territory, and click 3 buttons in
different locales, colored orange, blue, and WHITE ………. A bit of a cop
out ??!
(2). Quite valid, but caused me a fair bit of wasted time and trouble: – In
many Q / ATs you have to press a button or click a switch, etc., in order to
progress. To date, as far as I can remember, once you have done this and
happen to return to the same button, it is either completely inert or beeps or
whatever but causes no further action or progress (or hindrance!).
But in this game you have to be careful! Several buttons work on a flip-flop
or toggle principle (like a light switch). If you click once, you have
achieved the objective (although you don’t see it, since it’s a long way away
!). But if you’re not certain (which happened to me more than once) and click
it a second time, you have negated your first action and when you tramp back
(say) to the dead-bolts, you’ve gained …. absolutely nothing. Putting it a
different way: – if you click any odd number of times, fine —- but if you
click any even number of times …….. zilch !!
(3). The Mouse / Cheese puzzle. I managed to solve this by trial and error,
but it took me some time. Then out of interest I peeked at one or more of the
abovementioned W.T. Тs, and there I noticed clues such as У get the mouse to
follow its noseФ, etc. To clarify this a little:-
Each time the mouse emerges from a hole its nose will be pointing either left
or right. Click on the space (not the hole!) Next to the direction its nose
is pointing. The mouse will jump towards this space. Sometimes its nose will
still be pointing in the same direction but sometimes in the opposite
direction. Either way, enter the hole to which its nose is pointing now. In
just 10 moves every time, the mouse eats the cheese and you’re on your way !
(4). Another puzzle held me up for a while. (N.B. There are random
differences in MANY of the puzzles — sometimes even when you replay them
yourself in the same СgameТ).
There is a panel in which 12 symbols have to be СfrozenТ (from left to right).
It starts with the single left hand position which projects a continuous
series of 12 symbols ending with one that resembles a circle with a horizontal
radius and a wavy line to the left of it — this (final) symbol is further
differentiated since whenever it appears you hear a sort of zither-ey sound
(call this symbol, X). Then the same sequence repeats itself over and over
again. When you press the red button during the short period of time that any
symbol is displayed, that particular symbol is frozen in place and the 2nd
position from the left repeats the same process (the zither-ey sound is always
a signal that one series is ending and an identical one is about to start).
You continue this process until all 12 sites are filled. Only if you have got
all 12 СcorrectТ have you solved the puzzle and continue to the next stage of
the game — if not you start the whole process again, which is pretty
frustrating !
What is the correct sequence of 12 symbols? Opposite the cannon (earlier on)
is a similar panel which projects one single symbol each time you press a red
button. It remains on screen for about
3 seconds and (unless you have a phenomenal memory) I can’t think of any
alternative but to make a rough sketch of each of the 12 symbols and in their
correct order (or maybe use some lettering system ??). Since it’s quite likely
that you won’t have time to make 12 adequate sketches, you can repeat this
process as many times as you need to. In fact it’s worth repeating in any case
since you’ll notice an interesting and vital phenomenon — there are only 11
different symbols here and one of the 12 symbols (always a different one, but
always one of the 11) is always repeated but in the same СpositionТ. Since I
personally found this somewhat puzzling, ITll make it a bit clearer:-
(Although your sequence might be different, I’m pretty sure that the same
principle applies).
In my particular case, calling the 12 symbols (opposite the cannon) A throТ L,
I found that the sequence A —> L was identical every time except for E. The
first time, E was the same symbol as G; the next time it was the same symbol
as J; the next time D; and so on.
Returning to the СoriginalТ puzzle panel: – The (ONLY) correct sequence you
must СfreezeТ (from left to right) is the abovementioned A throТ L, EXCEPT
that when you get to E (or whatever in your case) you must instead freeze the
specialТ symbol X mentioned above.
Hope it’s clear ……….. Simple if you know what you’re doing — almost
impossible if you don’t —- one false move out of the 12 and I advise you to
start from the beginning again (or you’ll waste a lot of time !!).
(five). There is one puzzle which is very easy and obvious —- what is
possibly a bit less obvious is that one aspect of it is necessary for a later
(albeit even easier) puzzle.
Puzzle {a}: – This is only a slightly more complicated variation on the
familiar “pairs” puzzle. You are presented with an 8 x 6 matrix of tiles. I
suggest drawing a grid of 8 columns and 6 rows. As you click on the visible
blank back of any tile, it flips over and reveals a symbol. Sometimes you are
lucky and when you click again you get the same symbol, but generally not —-
this, however, is of negligible importance. You have to identify every one of
the 48 symbols (which doesn’t take long). On your grid mark each symbol (I
found it quickest and easiest to call one which looked like a mustache M, a
radio R, a fire-hydrant F, a head H, and so on). When you have done this, it
is important to count (and retain) all your MТs, RТs, FТs, HТs etc. Each time
I played it I personally got 10 sets of the same symbols (maybe different in
your case); but each time, the positions and numbers of symbols in each set
was quite different. I imagine that the only certainties are that each set
must be an even number, and that the total must be 48.
You then start again from the beginning with any symbol you like (say R) but
you MUST then ‘pair’ it with a second R. You then choose any other symbol (say
H – or R if there are any left), and so on until the end. Again, one slip up
and you start again from the beginning (but the symbols remain identical and
in their same positions, so it’s not very time consuming!).
Puzzle {b}: – Later, you come across a panel with only 3 out of the 10 (or
whatever) of the same symbols that you found in Puzzle {a}. Next to each of
these 3 symbols is a sort of dice set to 1 pip. By clicking on the red
up-arrows below these СdiceТ you simply increment each of the 3 (down-arrows
decrement the pips) to the number of tiles in Puzzle {a} which had that
particular symbol — which is an additional good reason why you had to count
each set in Puzzle {a}. You then click the circular yellow button above, and
that’s it ………. VERY easy !
(6). Caution: – Be rather careful in acquiring the 3rd (СfreeТ) key near the
end.
Explanation: – When you have got all 20 video cassettes, you receive this
key automatically.
I made a bit of a mess of this! I would advise saving BEFORE you pop the
20th cassette into any video-T.V. If everything is OK, all 20 cassettes
automatically flash on and off continuously —–
previously, only the extreme left hand cassette lights up automatically unless
you click another, and then you have to click the trigger above to start any
batch off. Willie Trombone then relates the whole story (this time with no
‘static’ interruptions) from the beginning, and you MUST wait right through
until he finishes ….. after the end, he then adds an additional short spiel
and throws the 3rd key out of the T.V. screen and at you, and you simply pick
it up from the floor below the T.V. set.
Since I had heard different segments of the story so many times during the
course of the game, I didn’t have the patience to listen yet again to the
whole thing (which takes about 6 minutes) from start to finish! So as far as
I can remember, I guess I must have stopped him in mid stream. After that,
although all 20 cassettes were present, I didn’t receive that final speech,
and the key was not always available on the floor, and sometimes I couldn’t
finish the game without returning to a previous save.
SO (I repeat) SAVE before inserting that last cassette !!
28th Jan. C98. Len Green
