Puzzle design flaws? [Chapter 2 spoilers!]

[Jammet]

Let me say, thus far I've loved the game, but there are, in my eyes, flaws with the puzzles designs in chapter 2.

When I finally took Murray with me, that affects one of the crew to get hungry and stop paying attention to the hold, thus allowing me to traipse about less restricted. To me that's flawed puzzle design. Because why would me picking up an unrelated item, cause that shipmate to get hungry? There is no connection at all. And I was at a loss of where to go and what to do next, when all of a sudden, this guy acted differently for "no" reason.

Then ....

I had to use the hint system here to understand what "Laundry time" means. To me, laundry time means just washing clothes. If it at any point said "Laundry press" or something like that, I would have gotten the hint, aber never needed the hint. And yes, this is also a problem with the graphics style, because I never visibly saw an actual laundry press there. It was a heap of rubbish after it was broken. To my recognition, just that. If it didn't say something about Laundry there, I would have thought it was some kind of steering wheel that's broken off the handle.

[slartibarfast1989]

Welcome to Monkey Island

[Mettanine]

Originally posted by Jammet:

I was at a loss of where to go and what to do next, when all of a sudden, this guy acted differently for "no" reason.

Maybe you being at a loss was precisely the reason for the behavior change. Some sort of failsafe if the player takes too long to escape the hold perhaps.
I've always done it the (as I thought) intended way and escaped out the porthole. Gullet never left his spot until he found me putting Murray into the potion.

I agree about the laundry press. I didn't recognize it either. I've also never seen a laundry press like that in real life, so it was quite a stretch. Who knows, it could be this game's "monkey wrench" ;)

[GAMING_Alligator]

The guard never moved for me no matter what I did with Murray (at least until the guard got ... otherwise dealt with). I had to grease the window screws a few times until I got out of it. Are you playing on easy mode?

The laundry press puzzle did have me a bit stumped. I don't think the game actually calls it a "laundry press" and it wasn't obvious to me that that's it could be used for Murray.

[Mettanine]

I've played both modes, but the greasing the porthole is always the solution. But I never saw Gullet leave. Until the moment he gets tossed off the ship he has always been standing guard in front of the hold, limiting my access to those parts of the ship (Galley and Flair).

[stigmaoftherose]

I had no trouble recognizing the laundry press for what it was and to use it on Murray, and you do grease the porthole on both modes, but on hard you have to grease each screw first and remove them with the knife.

I've already beaten the game 6 or so times, beaten both modes at least twice, and there are definitely design flaws in this game but the act 2 puzzles are not them.

the fact you broke the laundry press means you are on hard mode as it doesn't break on easy and if you escaped the hull the proper way and not with the gullet fail-safe going off then you would have 3 screws which you would use to fix the broken device and recognized it as a press for the skull.

[GAMING_Alligator]

Originally posted by stigmaoftherose:

I had no trouble recognizing the laundry press for what it was and to use it on Murray, and you do grease the porthole on both modes, but on hard you have to grease each screw first and remove them with the knife.

I've already beaten the game 6 or so times, beaten both modes at least twice, and there are definitely design flaws in this game but the act 2 puzzles are not them.

the fact you broke the laundry press means you are on hard mode as it doesn't break on easy and if you escaped the hull the proper way and not with the gullet fail-safe going off then you would have 3 screws which you would use to fix the broken device and recognized it as a press for the skull.

Yeah like always with these games, what's obvious to one person is another person's "worst puzzle in the whole game". I guess that's part of the charm.

[iamnid]

I escaped the porthole and when I went down the stairs I saw gullet guarding the hatch. If you don't immediately walk out, he will mention he is hungry and then walks into the kitchen. I hadn't even picked up Murray by that point

[gungadin22000]

Originally posted by slartibarfast1989:

Welcome to Laundry Island

Fixed that for you.

[yo.saf]

This comment is awaiting analysis by our automated content check system. It will be temporarily hidden until we verify that it does not contain harmful content (e.g. links to websites that attempt to steal information).

[der.dida83]

I'm also pretty sure you have to grease the porthole to escape. I actually took a very long time to figure out this puzzle ( greasing the screws ) and Gullet didn't leave his post (or stop throwing crap down the ladder). Also doesn't he say at some point that he doesn't need to eat?

Also I'm kinda sure I couldn't pick up Murray at this point.