Pleurghburg - I'm pretty sure it DOES have a dead end

[Stalker]

At the van crash site on day two, all I did was checking the manhole cover, taking the liquid and looking at the van. When I went back to the boss, it triggered the scene where you are sent to find Zack.

Now, afterwards, the crash scene is gone. I didn't take the pipe from it, though, because I didn't consider forcing the van open, and now I have no way to get the bread from the river. Or is there an alternative item I can use? All the walkthroughs I checked only mentioned using the pipe to get it.

[Gilbert]

I can't remember well, maybe there's really a dead end that wasn't taken care of (not awared), but as there're multi-solutions to this game, you better try something else and see if you can still proceed. (As no walkthrough, to my knowledge, contains complete solution at the moment.)

Spoiler

I just read one of the walkthroughs, as far as I remember, the door that the steel key opens (that JESUSCH gives you if you complete his "last supper") is not mandatory in the game, there should be other solutions.

[close]

[ggp]

Theres definately two different paths you can follow, and the choice is made as to weather you take the sample by the van. The walkthrough you've looked at must be for the different path to the one you chose, but it's not a dead end.

[Stalker]

That's possible... I use the walkthrough way too often for the game. While the story is undeniably great, I think the game is overrated in terms of gameplay - then again, it was made in 2001, so I guess it's okay. But there are some things that really rub me the wrong way...

Example:

Spoiler

When the boss asked me whether I talked to the doctor about the authopsy yet, the first thing I did was - of course - to go to his office and talk to him. However, I got the generic "I don't have any questions for you" dialogue. You only get the "real" dialogue after you have given your boss the printout of the encrypted file.

[close]

There are a couple of more things that require something else before they work - very often it's having to look at something before you can do something else.

Spoiler

Examples are climbing the vine trellis to the window ("I don't feel like climbing now"), searching the mayors desk ("There's probably nothing important in there"), printing the file and many others. Quite irksome was the fact that even though I had found a severed hand - and I think he even said something like "I'll have to give this to my buddies at the police station", no police station showed up at the map. And why can't I just buy the bread at the convenience store? That would make more sense than taking wet bread from the river... but the option doesn't even show up when talking to the clerk.

[close]

Those things kinda put me off trying to solve the whole game by myself.

[Gilbert]

That's possible... I use the walkthrough way too often for the game. While the story is undeniably great, I think the game is overrated in terms of gameplay - then again, it was made in 2001, so I guess it's okay. But there are some things that really rub me the wrong way...

There are a couple of more things that require something else before they work - very often it's having to look at something before you can do something else.

Yeah, I understand why the game can be annoying some of the times, more examples:
- You have to click accurate on an elevator's call bottom.
- You have to use the keys on the car every time.

However, since it is sort of a detective game, sometimes it can be hard to make a co-promise between how real the scenarios are and ease in gameplay. In my opinion, these things added to the realness of the game, and was one of main goodness of it (though it's annoying to do repetitive actions, and have to examine first before actions, etc. sometimes). So I'll just say the game is designed that way, which is part of its gameplay and atmosphere.