Resonance - Now on Steam!

[CaptainD]

Only read if you've already completed the game!

Spoiler

Perhaps I should have spotted that, but I didn't.  I guess Ed was too obviously a nice guy to actually BE a nice guy!  I really had my suspicions about Ray.

Also, did anyone else consider the possibility that Renu was actually an android?  It seemed logical to me both from her role and lack of speech.

Enjoyed the nod to Bladerunner with the origami! )

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[AJA]

Finished it! Very enjoyable, very awesome, probably my favorite AGS game so far. So happy to see all the attention and great reviews you're getting!

Spoiler

Come on, guys. You're spoiling the twist by letting people know there's a twist. Gotta say it was a very nice twist. Twist twist twist.

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[Nikolas]

AJA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im9XuJJXylw

[Crimson Wizard]

Ugh... I saw "Resonance" on a torrent tracker. I guess that means popularity? Depending on your point of view you may be either excited or enraged.

Anyway, I am going to honestly buy this one a soon as I find free time to play it.

[EchosofNezhyt]

Ugh... I saw "Resonance" on a torrent tracker. I guess that means popularity? Depending on your point of view you may be either excited or enraged.

Anyway, I am going to honestly buy this one a soon as I find free time to play it.

Actually Vince Twelve commented on em and basically said that if they like it to support it because he put alot of time and money into it.

And No I didn't Torrent it.

[nihilyst]

I'm not through yet, but this already is easily one of the best adventure games I've played in years. Good writing and many different puzzles that keep you thinking.
Just when will the boxed versions be shipped? (EDIT: Solved; just read your notification.)

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I'm glad people are taking such a shine to the game, it's a testament to nearly six years worth of labor that obviously wasn't wasted.

[Crimson Wizard]

I just bought this one, and to be honest, I was stunned for a minute when I saw the intro. That kind of movie was something I totally did not expect to see in the AGS game

By the way, is there a way to remove item from STM? Since I am that kind of player that always looks to break the game, I put five light bulbs there and now I don't know what to do with them

BTW, the GUI is just awesome.

[CaptainD]

By the way, is there a way to remove item from STM? Since I am that kind of player that always looks to break the game, I put five light bulbs there and now I don't know what to do with them

You can just replace items in your STM with something else.  You really don't need 5 light bulbs! 

[Crimson Wizard]

You can just replace items in your STM with something else.  You really don't need 5 light bulbs! 

Ah. Good to know.

And hey, this is second game I played today where you have to

Spoiler

open vent with a coin.

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Another one is Blackwell Deception. You guys are like sharing puzzles?

[DutchMarco]

I just bought this game on the strength of the demo: good puzzles which weren't too hard but yet challenging. I've rarely had too look at the walkthrough... Which might mean that the puzzles are too easy as I often have to play with walkthroughs... Great work, guys! (and congrats!)

[Crimson Wizard]

Here is something really weird.

Spoiler

I am at the baseball field right after all 4 characters finally joined each other. I exit from the field, and click "Ed's appartament" on the map. If I do that by Anna she sais:

Ed said he was attacked at his apartment

If I go as Ray, he sais:

If somebody was in Ed's apartment we shouldn't go there

Now, problem is I don't remember ever seeing or hearing anything about any attack at Ed's apartment :/. Did I missed something? Am I crazy?

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[Igor Hardy]

Am I crazy?

Spoiler

Surely you must remember Ed's daring escape! There were two separate occasions on which he was attacked in his apartment actually. One time the attacker was that guy in the hockey mask waving a machete - you know, the same one that's been following our heroes.

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[Crimson Wizard]

Spoiler

Surely you must remember Ed's daring escape! There were two separate occasions on which he was attacked in his apartment actually. One time the attacker was that guy in the hockey mask waving a machete - you know, the same one that's been following our heroes.

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Spoiler

Hockey mask?  I remember something about welder's mask...

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[Igor Hardy]

You're right! What I meant was that the welder's mask was kinda hokey.

[Stupot]

Spoiler

He probably just told them that to keep the group away from his apartment and sussing out his naughty plot

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[Vince Twelve]

Ack yes, that's an embarrassing logical inconsistency in the game left by a dialog being edited late in development, and no one noticed the inconsistency because the explanation was already in the head of everyone working on the game, so you just don't notice the lack of any explanation for it.

Explanation:

Spoiler

Right after the rooftop escape, Ed, Bennet, and Anna all regroup at the baseball field for the first time.  In the original (and second and third) draft of that scene, Ed explains that after Bennet and Ed dropped Anna off at her apartment (after talking in the hospital the first time) Ed and Bennet went back to the police station for some more questioning.  Ed then went back to his apartment, but claims someone was in his apartment and they attacked him.  He then caught a cab back to Anna's apartment, worried that she, too, might be in danger and found Bennet sitting outside.  Bennet was "keeping an eye out" to make sure Anna was safe.  While talking, they heard Anna's screams from the roof and headed up the stairs. 

This exposition was all cut because it took to long to explain and because it just confused what really happened.  And then we forgot about this little bit of text when you click on his apartment in the map not making sense any more.

What REALLY happened (Super spoiler):

Amul sent the thug to scare Anna, instructing Ed to go be the hero to gain her trust.  Unfortunately for Ed's plans, Bennet was waiting outside keeping an eye on her apartment and saw Ed on his way in.  You can learn this by asking Ed at the end of the game using the LTM.

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That's what happens when you work on a game so long.  You get so close to a story that it's hard to see the big picture.

Well spotted!

[nihilyst]

Spoiler

What REALLY happened (Super spoiler):

Amul sent the thug to scare Anna, instructing Ed to go be the hero to gain her trust.  Unfortunately for Ed's plans, Bennet was waiting outside keeping an eye on her apartment and saw Ed on his way in.  You can learn this by asking Ed at the end of the game using the LTM.

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Spoiler

I thought the rewinding-feature was intended for situations which would cause death or major harm to the player character (with a little exception in the nightmare sequences, which at least had a real life counterpart). But when the thug broke the door or one were too slow to cut the rope before he reached Anna, time rewinded as if to suggest that he (would have) killed her. But if the thug wasn't intended to kill her, but just scare her, and Ed didn't show up to 'save' her, what would he have done instead? Say "Booh!" and leave?

Also, you said earlier that the vault had a second entrance, through which Ed could escape faster than Ray and Bennet and which Dr Morales built for the sake of convenience. Doesn't this defeat the whole purpose of a vault? Okay, there's still the fingerprint detector, but if that's it, he could have placed the computer in the lobby instead.

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But that's just nitpicking. I absolutely loved Resonance. The writing was superb, the story immersive, the characters all different, but likeable. The puzzles were clever and not only dipped in for the sake of it. All those different software interfaces, the little details; and the graphics ... just wow
Voice acting was good, but -- with some plopping sounds and different recording quality -- could have been done with better equipment.
I quite liked the STM and LTM, though IIRC the STM wasn't used that much in the second half of the game. I also hated to backtrack to certain locations just because I forgot to put something into STM. And in the end, I think, STM could be easily ditched, whereas the LTM had many different purposes and uses. In fact, there weren't too many instances when STM had been used in an overly clever way, but many instances when LTM had.

Didn't have much trouble with the phone tracing puzzle; I thought Bennet explained well how to do it, and for me, it worked the first time I tried. I sucked at the wiring puzzle; I figured out how to do it, but decided it wasn't worth my time, so I consulted a walktrough
One thing embarrassed me:

Spoiler

The puzzle when you have to use the magnet to get the key from the locker, I was sure that I have to go all the way through the sleeve with the key's teeth facing upwards. I did a facepalm when I found out you could just go all the way around the jacket. Duh! (But to be fair, I had to try that a few times, too, because the game wouldn't let me use the entire left side of the locker.

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And one thing that bothered me most: I think I mentioned it before when the demo was released, and I don't know if it's just me, but on my PC the mouse cursor snapped onto hotspots as if they were magnetic. Don't know if it's a bug or a feature, but it made the game a lot more tedious than it should have been, mainly because it didn't snap on dead center. On small objects (like the metal pole in the subway), the cursor stopped before it, and when I tried to move my mouse, the cursor either remained on its place or suddenly jumped away so that the cursor now was on the other side of the pole, but again not on it. I hated this, and there were many occasions like this in the game. Did someone else encounter this?

Anyway. Great game! I recommend it. Four and a half stars out of five

[Crimson Wizard]

That's what happens when you work on a game so long.  You get so close to a story that it's hard to see the big picture.

Hah, I feel a relief. For a moment I seriously thought there's something wrong with me. That's what happens when you play games at night

I really like the puzzles in this game. Especially the keyboard panel, and ornament safe one (trying to figure the latter now).

The coded journal, on other hand, was too easy to crack. I am not kidding. I really suggest game devs stop using that type of cypher when you just substitute one symbol with certain letter (is there a name for them?)! English language is too vulnerable to brute-forcing when encrypted like that. That was pretty silly of me not to use the Anna's LTM hint, but even without one it was possible to read whole thing in 15 minutes.

Spoiler

First noticable thing is "XXXX XXXX," on the first line which looks exactly like a greeting. It took seconds to guess that should mean "Dear Anna,". Next line starts with "X'X" which probably means "I'm". Next come 2-3 letter words like 'and', 'the', 'is' etc. That was enough for me to, speaking metaphorically, find the loose thread and start pulling it out. Later though I realized it would be even easier to start with dates: each journal entry has a "XXXXXXX, NN" at beginning where NN is a number of day; guessing month names would reveal a lot of letters already.

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[Tramponline]

when you just substitute one symbol with certain letter (is there a name for them?)

Yeah, it's called a 'substitution cipher'. 

The coded journal, on other hand, was too easy to crack. I am not kidding. I really suggest game devs stop using that type of cypher ! English language is too vulnerable to brute-forcing when encrypted like that. That was pretty silly of me not to use the Anna's LTM hint, but even without one it was possible to read whole thing in 15 minutes.

I'm not quite sure, why you come to this conclusion. You solved the puzzle exactly the way it's supposed to be solved. That's successful game design in my book. Anna's LTM doesn't really give you that more hints anyway.
Besides you are probably aware, that you could start a personal ('secret') scientific jounrnal in a much different way than:

Spoiler

Dear Anna,

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*hint, hint* *nugde, nudge* 

Besides that puzzle is completely optional and just grants the player some additional background info - a bonus if you will.