The Retinal Scanner puzzle logic (spoilers)

[sonicdv]

So, I have this game on gog, but wanted to discuss here since it is more active. Most of the puzzles in this game have been logical and I have been able to progress without a guide. Despite this, the one time I've had to use a guide so far was the retinal scanner. I have no idea whatsoever how you're supposed to figure out you need to use one specific head to get past that or which head to use. I checked all the data logs and none of the ones I found mentioned this lock. I would appreciate it if a system shock veteran could explain the logic of this puzzle to me and how I was supposed to solve this without a guide. Most of the rest of the game has been well designed so I'm willing to believe I missed something, but I want to know what it is.

[Here is my card]

SPOILERS








You need the Abe Ghiran's head.

Found on maintenance level:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2983709911

[Autz]

You need the head of Abe Ghiran, he's on the same maintenance level, at the west. You will see his corpse and head, and a audio-log specifying his fate.

[sonicdv]

I know I need his head, but how exactly was I supposed to know that. I'm asking for the ingame logic behind it. This puzzle seems out of place and badly designed in a game where the rest of it has been very carefully made.

[Thradar]

Originally posted by sonicdv:

I know I need his head, but how exactly was I supposed to know that. I'm asking for the ingame logic behind it. This puzzle seems out of place and badly designed in a game where the rest of it has been very carefully made.

A retinal scanner needs an eye, presumably from someone in authority on the station. Where might one get such an eye? Maybe from one of the decapitated corpses with the head next to it on the same level as the retinal lock .....?

This game doesn't hold your hand. A modicum of logic is required to figure out what to do.

[sonicdv]

Originally posted by Thradar:

Originally posted by sonicdv:

I know I need his head, but how exactly was I supposed to know that. I'm asking for the ingame logic behind it. This puzzle seems out of place and badly designed in a game where the rest of it has been very carefully made.

A retinal scanner needs an eye, presumably from someone in authority on the station. Where might one get such an eye? Maybe from one of the decapitated corpses with the head next to it on the same level as the retinal lock .....?

This game doesn't hold your hand. A modicum of logic is required to figure out what to do.

There's hundreds of bodies with faces but only this single one works? I checked the data logs belonging to this guy and nothing says that he is a person that can unlock the door.

[Cyborg]

It is badly implented. In the original there were several bodies with heads in the inventory. Now this one specific body has a head that can be selected, unlike all the other decapitaded bodies.

[Matuse]

In the original game, there were a -lot- of severed heads around, and they use a particular sprite. Abe's is different so it stands out. Also Abe is mentioned more in the recordings which makes him a more noteworthy person, so when you find what is obviously his body (OG has 2 or 3 audio logs next to his body from him so you know it's him), it becomes more significant.

[Iron Man]

There's just lacks of logic/poor writing at minor points in the game; I wouldn't confuse it with an intellectual challenge. On the one hand, you get zero indication (in the remake, at least) that you need the guy's head. On the other hand, Shodan leaves voice logs that effectively explain how to reverse engineer her security measures in some cases. Is what it is.

[Haruhi]

Originally posted by sonicdv:

Originally posted by Thradar:

A retinal scanner needs an eye, presumably from someone in authority on the station. Where might one get such an eye? Maybe from one of the decapitated corpses with the head next to it on the same level as the retinal lock .....?

This game doesn't hold your hand. A modicum of logic is required to figure out what to do.

There's hundreds of bodies with faces but only this single one works? I checked the data logs belonging to this guy and nothing says that he is a person that can unlock the door.

Theres only one head with skin that you can pick it up. The only other "heads" you can pick up are skulls. The game also intentionally marks it as a quest item to make it a bit obvious. Its a remnant from the original where there were multiple wrong answers with no immediately obvious indications the head was that massively important. Its intentionally remade this way so the new generation of zoomers/games journalists don't get stuck for an hour trying to figure out what to do.

I mean they still will. But they won't be playing hot potato juggling dozens of different wrong heads trying to figure out the answer.

[Lugez]

Originally posted by sonicdv:

I know I need his head, but how exactly was I supposed to know that. I'm asking for the ingame logic behind it. This puzzle seems out of place and badly designed in a game where the rest of it has been very carefully made.

While I wasn't predicting a retina scanner puzzle, Abe's head is literally the only named head in the game, and I thought it was noteworthy when I came across it. The second I encountered the scanner, I knew what to do.

Generally speaking, anything that "stand outs" in this game does so for a reason. I personally kept notes on everything weird I encountered. Sure, not everything was relevant but most were and I had an easier time with the game.

[Seamus]

There's an audio log on one of the floors saying that Abe's got access to it. Don't recall where exactly. Just remember I already had his head in my bag when I found it.

[Jigsawn]

I'm with the OP on this one, I had to look this up whilst hunting down the CPU codes.

The game is completely open and often the progression is gated behind missing something in the vast station. Sections of levels are often locked off until the story progresses. Even when you have an idea of your main objective you're never quite sure if you've missed some route, and are barking up the wrong tree in where to look.

In this case I was looking for the CPU node codes (what a mouthful!) and just assumed the retinal scanner would be locked off until a later story beat as I'd had no clues in logs etc about using it. So I was confused whether I needed to scour the whole station, or maybe revisit Executive for something I'd missed, as a way to continue progression before getting the codes. This is a trap that many open world games can fall prey to, even the greats like Outer Wilds, where if you hit a roadblock there are so many places that could potentially be progression points that you end up going around the whole world hunting for that one thing you missed. In the end this is why I googled for the maintenance node just to check that was what I was supposed to do next.

Normally, the game has direct references in the logs to an objective like opening the retinal scanner door. The camera feed outside the retinal door doesn't show the CPU nodes either, which would have helped reinforce that you need to get in there at that stage.

Corpses (including decapitated corpses) and body parts littered around are everywhere on Citadel, so although I had briefly acknowledged the head it didn't stand out at all for being significant. I didn't realise you could pick it up, there's no reason to think to hover over it. And even if you did hover over it, the game has already showed you there are useless gore items like skulls you can pick up which do nothing, so you'd have no reason to want to pick it up. If you actually do pick it up then that's a big clue its important because the description mentions his name and position.

One solution here could be to prompt the player with an written log (i.e. no new voice recording required), where nearby the retinal door you have a corpse with a data stick. The data stick contains a log, saying something like: "We need to get to the CPU nodes behind this door, but Abe's not come back and we need his retinal scan to get in. He was heading into Delta, I hope he's ok..."

That would be a nice little thing making it clearer that the solution does lie on this level, and once you have opened up Delta when reaching this point in the game, if you didn't notice Abe's head first time around, you'd at least be prompted to head there (pun not intended) and investigate for traces of him.

So far in the game the clues in logs etc have been good - just enough to steer you right, and thorough exploration has yielded results for other places I have been stuck. But I feel like this one just needs a nudge in the right direction. I think a bunch of players will get stuck here once they have to get the CPU codes and there are going to be many threads on this topic in future if not addressed in some way.

[sonicdv]

Originally posted by Haruhi:

Originally posted by sonicdv:

There's hundreds of bodies with faces but only this single one works? I checked the data logs belonging to this guy and nothing says that he is a person that can unlock the door.

Theres only one head with skin that you can pick it up. The only other "heads" you can pick up are skulls. The game also intentionally marks it as a quest item to make it a bit obvious. Its a remnant from the original where there were multiple wrong answers with no immediately obvious indications the head was that massively important. Its intentionally remade this way so the new generation of zoomers/games journalists don't get stuck for an hour trying to figure out what to do.

I mean they still will. But they won't be playing hot potato juggling dozens of different wrong heads trying to figure out the answer.

Might depend on the level you play at. I played on the second difficulty and I did not have quest items marked.

[Lucius Caesar]

I noticed it was a named head, and not just "human head (junk)" or something like that, so I figured it had to be important.

[Hash]

I don't recall what log said he had access but if you look at the crew manifest in the manual his name is listed as one of 4 characters in charge of that deck. While he's not the supervisor he is one of the few characters whose corpse you can actually identify because you find it with his final log.