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999: it’s like a novel

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I've reached the end of the story, but I've not reached the end of the game.  Let's rewind a bit.

999 (with a full subtitle of 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors) is an adventure game, with the core gameplay being based around exploration and puzzle solving to escape rooms.  However, there's not a huge amount of exploration available to the player - instead, the main character (Junpei) explores the ship along with his new-found acquaintances, and the player is informed of this through reams of text.  At times, this is almost like a non-interactive version of an interactive novel ... a novel, then.

What surprised me was how well the text is written.  It could pass for a professional story, with appropriate descriptive language and varied vocabulary.  There are a few occasions where the wording felt slightly off, but each character had their own voice and mannerisms, which led to an accomplished narration.  It's sad that this should be a surprise, but there are precious few games with as much attention paid to their script.


So, having reached the end of the story, I've completed the game, surely?  No.  One of the limited interactive elements of the game is the choice of which doors to go through at three key points in the game.  I ended the last game with Junpei being stabbed in the back, and have since restarted.  Annoyingly, while I can skip through the text, I still need to solve the puzzles again in areas that I've been through before.  But each playthrough should give more information about the characters, and I understand there are six potential endings.  I'm not sure I'll collect them all, but the game is significantly quicker to play the second time around, so I'll see what else I find.

1000 Heroz: completed!

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I can't remember when I first started playing 1000 Heroz; it was some time before September 2011, but I'm not sure how many days I'd been playing by that point.  I went back and completed all the levels at the start that I missed quite early on.  If I wanted to find out, I suppose I could look at every leaderboard and find the first one for which I had a time registered, but doing that involves opening every level and waiting for the leaderboard to open - it's not happening.

Even if I estimate that I've been playing since day 80, that's still over two and a half years of daily challenges.  I've played the vast majority of those; there were times when I had issues connecting, and there were very occasional times when I simply forgot.  I've always caught up on the missed days, though, and made sure that I had gold starred every level.

And then, today ...


Today is the last day.  Day 1000.  It was with a mixture of relief and sadness that I opened the level, not sure what to expect - a really long level, using all obstacles, or a long flat run with a credits sequence?  No, it was a normal level, 20 seconds long, with annoying bouncy blobs.  Not exactly going out with a bang.  The most fun part of the level came right at the start, with a swing just after an up-ramp, where it was tricky to set the swing going without overshooting.  These two scenarios were both seen many times.



And then the level was over.


Unfortunately, Onze has rejoined the RLLMUK leaderboard, meaning that I was unable to finish with a win.  I may have played this game a lot, but that doesn't mean I'm that good at it.  Still, at least I beat everyone else on the last day.  I'm the only UGVM player left, so I did at last win (by default) on that leaderboard.


And with that done, where have I finished?  First, the good news.  Through simple volume, i'm top of the UGVM leaderboard.


As predicted, I wasn't able to catch up with Don Rosco on the RLLMUK leaderboard, though I did make some progress.  My second place has cruelly been snatched by Onze's return.


And where did I place globally?  I am the 330th best 100 Heroz player in the world.


So that's it.  Every level completed with three stars, all relics obtained (including five from the tutorial levels which evidently aren't included in the total below), and all but one achievement gained.  The one I'm missing is for collecting 250,000 gold, which I'm still some way off - and given that you tend to get about 100 gold from fifteen minutes of playtime, that's not something I'm going to chase.


Thank RedLynx for the game.  Thanks to the UGVM and RLLMUK players for the competition.  Thanks to the elite players showing me every day that there were limits to my skill - or my patience and time, at least.  I suspect that tomorrow I'll find myself at a loss of what to do ...

... who am I kidding.

A couple of great posts about 1000 Heroz:

A World of Keflings: to the desert!

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This continues to be excellent, but as stated before I fear it may be rather short.  I've just journeyed to the last region, expecting to find it even more complicated than the second, but in fact it's rather a lot easier with fewer building materials and raw materials to deal with.  I can see that my stay here will be short, probably until I get to trade glass back to the main region.

It took me a while to leave the main region, in fact - I spend a bit of time stockpiling materials and making my trade routes more efficient.  The king asked me to go to the desert, but I had much more important things to do.


Like make sure all the houses were nicely lined up.


And making some fountains.


But I did eventually go to the desert, finding a grumpy old man complaining about the princess.  Hooray.


Surgeon Simulator 2013: it’s completely impossible!

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I believe it's supposed to be impossible to control, but I was surprised just how difficult it is.  It's not helped with my fingers constantly getting caught under ribs and in the bars of the table.

I have completely failed to get anywhere in this.  I just about managed to break open the rib cage in order to get to the heart, and managed to pull out a lung, but that quickly fell on the floor alongside the hammer and scalpels, and I managed to stab myself with one of the syringes meaning that my vision went all woozy.




The second time I played it I did a little better, until I accidentally cut the patient's windpipe.

I can't see me ever getting off the first stage of this.  However, I did somehow manage to get the video into the VCR on the receptionist's desk, and so was able to attempt an extreme heart transplant on the heavy from Team Fortress 2.  No windpipe made this a bit easier.



Not much easier, though, and then my hand got stuck in the table and I couldn't wiggle it out.


I don't think I'm cut out to be a surgeon.

A World of Keflings: do it yourself

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I got this free from Microsoft last year and hadn't heard too much about it, so didn't bother trying it.  If I'd known that it was a real-time strategy game which was broadly similar to Populous: the Beginning, I may have paid more attention.  Yes, there are many differences - directly controlling the main character, having to craft parts to build new buildings, no enemy tribes - but I got the same vibe.


And, like Populous, the game makes hours disappear.  I quickly completed the first chapter, set in the frozen lands, and met the king without a castle.  I built many new buildings and set many keflings on tasks to collect raw materials and transport them between workshops.  I travelled back to the ice kingdom, and built a palace.



I travelled back to the main kingdom, and decided that I ought to call it a night.  I have a feeling that the game won't last me too long, unfortunately ...