Topic: Broken Windows - Chapter 2 *AVAILABLE NOW*

[ddavey1983]

BROKEN WINDOWS - CHAPTER 2

 

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2462-broken-windows-chapter-2/

You are inexperienced Police Constable Jack Burton, seconded to CID and thrust into the middle of an escalating murder mystery in a dead-end town. Can you stop the killer before he strikes again?

This is the second episode of a humorous three-part point and click adventure game inspired by the Police Quest series (albeit with no dead ends or deaths!)

Broken Windows Chapter 1 was chosen as a Pick of the Month on the AGS website for March 2020. Now play the eagerly-awaited (I imagine) second installment!

Hope you enjoy it.

[SarahLiz]

I just started playing it about an hour ago, I really like it!  Dang that grumpy June though, she’s no fun.  Lol!  I recently completed the first chapter and really enjoyed it as well...

I’m stuck already, so I’ll most likely be posting a question or two in the hints & tips section shortly.



One thing I did notice was that if you exit the building (into the parking lot), once you go back inside the initial cutscene replays all over again.  Just fyi...

[Shadow1000]

One thing I did notice was that if you exit the building (into the parking lot), once you go back inside the initial cutscene replays all over again.  Just fyi...

I was going to post the same issue; I'm probably stuck at the same point (even though you didn't specify)

Note to other players: press S to save and R to restore. It took me some time to figure that out. Save/Load are not included in the interface.

[SarahLiz]

You might be farther than me, Shadow--I tend to need help in a game earlier than most--but I just posted in the hint section right now.

[KyriakosCH]

This looks pleasant

[Shadow1000]

You might be farther than me, Shadow--I tend to need help in a game earlier than most--but I just posted in the hint section right now.

Nope. I checked the hints and you're way ahead of me

[ddavey1983]

Hello all

Thanks for your feedback! I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Thank you for pointing out the car park bug. I’ll be remedying that next time I get a chance (that’s what happens when you release a game then immediately go on holiday for a week without a laptop). I should say that it doesn’t make the game unwinnable or anything, it’s just weird and incongruous!

Te save/load controls are in the readme but I appreciate on reflection that no one (myself included) ever reads the readme. I’ll add them to the game’s description.

Further key controls are: T to toggle points sound on/off, X to restart, Q to quit, + and - to control walk speed.

Thanks again!

[blur]

It's not worse than the previous episode which was very good.
Though there might be another bug:

Spoiler: ShowHide

Geoff is not visible in the church hall and his cigarette pack therefore drops out of nowhere.

[ddavey1983]

The Geoff bug is a surprise. It didn’t do that when I played it through before uploading it. I can’t thibk of how that would even happen without checking the code. I’ll have to have a look at that when I can access my laptop. Glad you enjoyed it otherwise though!

[SarahLiz]

Just finished the game!  It's really a great game, I enjoyed the heck out of it.  Here's a few of my thoughts:

1.  I didn't get the Geoff/church bug, so I'm wondering if I either wasn't paying attention, or if it's even occurring across the board for everyone.

2.  I'm happy to know that you'll be adding the save/load (etc.) instructions to the game as well.  I knew how to trigger them, but only because I happened to read the "readme", and like you said, many people don't usually do that.  The walk speed increase button (+) is much appreciated too because without it, I felt like the character moves across the screen way too slowly.  (Not a big deal at all, just something I noticed.)

3.  The gameplay was a lot of fun for me.  I liked the narrator's sense of humor, and although there's not a unique response for EVERYTHING you try to do in the game (which I'm sure would take forever to write and code), there are some pretty funny lines that cracked me up.  The sense of humor and comedic timing in this game in general was really good, imo.  Even Geoff eventually had some pretty good one-liners and grew on me.  He was obviously meant to conjure up Keith vibes from Police Quest, which was fun as well.

4.  The graphics (as in the first chapter) are really nice...a little pixel-hunting but not too bad.  Nothing obscure or that the player can't handle anyway.  The puzzles were fair I think--I had to get a few hints but I seem to ALWAYS need hints, so if I can get through a game without needing a complete walkthrough, that's a win for me. 


I feel like I might know where Chapter 3 is headed...and I'm really excited to see what happens once it's released!  Congrats on a great game and thank you for making it!

[Shadow1000]

I finished the game this morning and I really enjoyed it. Most of my comments are similar to SarahLiz:

- I think the strongest point of the game was the humour. I'm not talking about silly belly-laughs; I mean some CLASSIC lines. This game is, really, REALLY funny. I think that a lot of references were aimed for a British audience but for the most part...WOW. Each character has his/her own personality.

- I am really happy that the walkspeed can be adjusted. I would have preferred to see the controls and save/load in the game interface. I think it would just be more polished that way.

- Graphics, animation, sounds are superb. A lot of work must have gone into finding an appropriate sound effect for SO many actions. Many game authors find a way to put a lot of gameplay into as few rooms as possible because creating rooms is so time consuming. I have to take note of the number of rooms for the length of this game and it shows that no effort was spared to add that extra polish. Backgrounds are quite detailed and aesthetically pleasing.

- As far as the puzzles and story: the story was about the same as chapter 1, which I really enjoyed. I did manage to complete chapter 1 without any hints, but I did need a few from the hints forum. I explained the first two that I needed help with. In addition, I got stuck because

Spoiler: ShowHide

I just did not see the ladder

. I also spent about an hour and a half with no progress because

Spoiler: ShowHide

I missed certain hotspots on the ledge

So, for me the pacing was not as smooth of an experience as I would have liked it but the vast majority of it was a pleasure to play.

As far as the ending....

Spoiler: ShowHide

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Like the others commenting, I'm ready for Chapter 3!

Cheers!

[heltenjon]

I finished this yesterday, trying to play all the nominees through to the end. It's a very good installment, and as usual I can second all of Shadow1000's observations. The game is great, effectively combining humour in loads of dry wit observations and dialogue with a pretty dark and violent storyline. This can be a difficult line to thread, but this game series manages seemingly without effort.

These games are written like it's one long game, but segmented into smaller "levels" with their own puzzles. This is a very good way to avoid dead ends, but it also requires lots of locations and extra rooms, like in the police station. I think this adds lots to the atmosphere, giving an extra feeling of being there.

The puzzles are very well thought out, often depending on manipulating the people in question. And the characters are so well-written that they have their own personality, making me chuckle when I find the correct way of making someone bend to my wishes. It's a good puzzle when you feel that you couldn't have solved it that way if there was another person involved.

I finished it with 100 of 101 points, so I guess I will backtrack to find the one that got away...