It can't be easy to always be on the road. The constant back and forth between locations, the many nights away from home, the endless string of bland hotel rooms; after a while, even the smallest bit of extra hospitality might be enough to make your day. It's nice when hotels go the extra mile, right? A fruit basket, super-fluffy towels, maybe a glass of complimentary champagne…lovely. In all seriousness, though, I think that the good folks over at G-Sensor, the new escape game from Japanese developer HILG, have gone just a wee bit overboard in their eagerness to please their patrons.
As the game begins, you, an unnamed business-person, have just checked into your room at Uncle Boo's Hotel. You see a questionnaire on the desk; it thanks you for your stay and asks if you have any demands. Cheekily, you write that you wish to be placed into a "safe room" (an odd request, to be sure) and, exhausted, promptly fall into bed. Just as you drift off to sleep, a strange voice echoes in your head: "Certainly, Sir." The next morning, you wake in a different place altogether! It certainly is "safe"; locked up tight, you'll need to solve puzzles and figure out the mechanisms of the room in order to escape. It was nice of the hotel to honor your request so thoroughly…but really, couldn't they have left you the key?
G-Sensor has many of the qualities of a great escape game. It's clear that, especially in regards to the game's puzzles, HILG had some really creative ideas; the last major puzzle in particular I found to be innovative and exciting. That being said, it seems that at times the game does not possess the necessary clues to make the logical leap from problem to solution (this is despite an in-game hint system, which I found to be nearly useless). There are many intelligent and interesting puzzle elements embedded into G-Sensor, but this lack of logical fluidity makes it harder to fully appreciate them. Happily, however, while the game can sometimes be unnecessarily frustrating, it never becomes unplayable and always remains entertaining.
The game's graphics are pretty good, if a bit bland in color, and I'm not sure that they explain G-Sensor's surprisingly long load time. The interface is simple, classic point-and-click, and the inventory system is easy to use. The game does have a bit of pixel-hunting, but nothing terribly excessive; make sure to click all the obvious angles and you should be fine. There's a save feature, which is nice, and the background music can be toggled on and off. As I mentioned earlier, the game does have a hint system; it seems sporadic at best, however, and the Japanese-to-English translation (specifically in the hint system, the rest of the game is okay) isn't great. On a related note, although some of G-Sensor's loading text is in English, make sure to press the language selection button before beginning the game. The button will say "Japanese" when you first see the loading screen; pressing it will change it to "English."
Despite not having quite the professional polish of some other high-quality room escape games, G-Sensor is nonetheless solid, well-plotted and very enjoyable; what deficiencies may exist are mainly made up for by the game's excellent puzzles. So, let's help this hapless traveler:
Walkthrough Guide
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Just for those who want it...
WALKTHROUGH
(please excuse the fact that this is my first walkthrough so I hope it's ok!)
opening screen - click on the chair, lifting the cushion, to receive a purple battery.
If you click behind the sofa, you will find a bottle containing blue liquid
go right and explore through the cupboards - you should find a remote control, a gold symbol and a wine bottle, containing the elusive battery!
Turn right again, and examine the flower arrangement to find the screwdriver. if you look at the books to the right, you will find a clue for later in the red backed book.
in this same screen, click below the TV to find a little white circle. to the right of this is a switch, which when pressed will turn on the light (little white circle!) revealing some numbers - this will be useful later :)
turn right again, so you are facing the green cupboard. open the doors and take the magnet bottom left. Use this magnet on the bottle containing the battery
this caused me a lot of trouble too, but the best way is the view the bottle with the magnet selected and click the base of the bottle until it attaches - then keep turning the bottle until the battery is sticking out of the top :)
now you have both batteries, you need to put them in the remote! i didn't need the screwdriver for this, but you may do, just view the remote, click the batteries so they are selected them click on the remote. it should flip over and the back should come off to put the batteries in
back to the picture in the green cupboard - the red glasses indicate the code for the TV - remember them in relation to the yellow glass (i'm not sure if this changes or not)
go to the TV, click the remote, and then the tv and a keypad will appear. remembering the order of the red glasses, type in the order and press check. this should open the far left cupboard underneath the TV.
inside the cupboard, you should find a magnifying glass and a mug
you will need to keep going back between the green cupboard and the tv, entering several codes that the green cupboard gives you into the tv, which in turn open the cupboards below - please note: the following spoilers include the appropriate codes!
1: use magnifying glass on the yellow glass to reveal 3971 - this will open up the 2nd cupboard, producing a hammer and wire outlet
2: use the hammer on the yellow glass, to reveal 2935 - this will open the third cupboard, giving you a little black key and a fork
3: click the curtains to open them, and use the key to open the window. zoom back out, click on the table, and it will reveal 9581 - this will open the final cupboard, giving you the green liquid wine bottle - you must note the positioning of the red tea cups as well :)
the red cups give you the final code of 278, which will produce a design on the screen - take note of this ;)
zoom out completely, and turn right. behind the potted plant, you will find the wine bottle containing red liquid
turn to the door and examine the white box next to it. you will need to put in the right colour wine bottle to the corresponding colour (you will need to turn all of the bottles round, so the bases are facing upwards). click to the right of the white box, and it should reveal a plug socket. insert the wire outlet that you have here. this should activate numbers on the bases of the bottles. type in these codes into the boxes in front of them. this should now open the door!
this isn't the end though!!
open the door, put down the toilet seat, and click the blue picture. if you click the left side (i think!) it should reveal a screw, undo that, and click the right side so that the picture is now pointing downwards.
now return to the TV, and the white light under it. place the fork over it, and turn it on. now look at the numbers again
8936
remember the pattern on the tv? combine that with the numbers now shown to reveal the code for the safe in the toilet!
1296
return to the toilet, and look for the arrow pointing up. insert the code into the box to reveal a silver symbol.
turn to face the wardrobe/cupboards, and click on the yellow rectangle next to it. insert the symbols here. if you look at the symbols, you will see that they are also arrows, indicating a direction. facing the cupboards, follow the gold symbol direction first, clicking on each cupboard door in turn, until they are all open. then close them following the silver symbol.
the cupboard has now become a ladder, click the panel on top of the cupboard and insert the beer mug, to form the handle. inside you will find a small grey handle
return to the toilet, click the little grey area to the right of the cistern and flush the loo!!
I hope that this is ok, and that i haven't missed anything out!! :)
Posted by: peroxide555
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April 22, 2009 7:09 AM