Meridian 157: Chapter 3

游戏初期游玩的时候感觉这种探索式的收集物品的解密方式很新颖，场景虽然是静止的但好在美术做的不错，让人很有沉浸感。到了后期掌握了游戏玩法后就有些索然无味，谜题的种类和解密方式趋于同质化，只要熟练使用相机提醒自己有哪些谜题还没解，整体玩下来就很简单了。 游戏的剧情相对比较扁平化，描述了一个很有责任心的工作人员拯救世界的故事。游戏的最后也没有对“Artifact”本身是什么东西给一个解释，比较期待的黑影人的身份也只是一个群体的代表。想要沉浸式解密的话比较推荐，但注重剧情的玩家可能会相对比较失望了。

A long and challenging mystery.

Do I recommend this overall? Yes, as long as you do not pick Hard mode. (I'm glad they realized they need a toggle between Hard and Normal for their next game series) Getting stuck on puzzles in this chapter was annoying because the items that you need to compile for the weighing machine are also the items you need to solve other puzzles. Take that as the hint that I never got. The first time it happened was my own oversight, but the second time it happened was infuriating because it required backtracking to a previous area! The way the game worked in all previous chapters is that once you’re “done” with an area, you’re fully done. Here? Not the case. I completely forgot about the items on that weighing machine because I falsely assumed I was done with their relevance once in the next area. Then I was stuck on the stupid pipe puzzle knowing I was missing a pipe piece but not knowing where it is until I went into a walkthrough and was like “what? that!? ♥♥♥♥ off.” At that point I just took everything from the weighing machine because I refused to be stuck a third time for the same reason… And turns out that wasn’t even necessary. Once I got down to the huge basement level, I started enjoying myself up until I got stuck on the projector. I assumed the wire puzzle was implying it was self-contained based on the various different screw patterns. Turn out nope! The screws had nothing to do with the solution. Infuriated me about as much as the pipe puzzle because I was led astray. And don't get me started on the quicktime event near the end. The Calibration is technically still a puzzle because the movement pattern never changes, but ♥♥♥♥ off with forcing me to restart every time my timing is off. If I wasn't so close to the end, I might have dropped the game entirely from this alone. Also with these types of games I rarely complain about the logic of puzzles in-universe; it's a puzzle game, so I just go along with it. But maaaan, that lock for the fire extinguisher really broke my immersion. It's cute that the protagonist has a quip about it, but there's a fire raging right next to me while I'm faffing with some blocks. I'm glad there's no timing element, but it's just a weird placement for that particular set piece. This chapter is a chocolate chip and ♥♥♥♥ cookie. It has some fantastic moments where I was in the flow, and then it has moments where I was bashing my head against the wall for reasons that weren't fully my own fault. The story itself? I was barely following along. I'll need to read up on the full breakdown after I post this review. Though I will say the way it ended was anti-climactic with how over-the-top dramatic it decided to be.