Alchemia is an absolutely gorgeous new animated point-and-click adventure from Springtail Studio (Tomas K. and Julian Winter). You might remember Tomas' previous work with the Haluz series.
In Alchemia, you play a little hero (the same one from Haluz) after he shoots from the sky a bizarre looking creature. He sets off on an adventure to figure out what happened and to help his unfortunate new companion. Brilliant and imaginative puzzles, illustrations and music abound, and some puzzles will require lateral thinking and problem solving rather than just simply clicking in the right areas and in the correct sequence. An inventory is used for only a very few items, and you will have to drag an item from the inventory to where it belongs in the scene to progress.
Analysis: One cannot help but compare the work here to Samorost, with its surrealistic landscapes of photorealistic images and art as well as even some of the animations and techniques with which some of the scenes are reused. And yet even with all the similarities, there is enough here to appreciate on its own merits. One area that I feel Alchemia falls short in is with the story telling. Most of the dialog presented is banal and unnecessary. I would prefer to leave it up to my own wild imagination as to what is being said instead. Perhaps an option to turn on the dialog only as a 'hint system' would be a nice compromise.
An extended version is promised, although not expected to be free. If there's to be even more gorgeous artwork, illustrations and music, mixed with several new and original puzzles like this first part, then I can't wait!
Walkthrough Guide
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Alchemia Walkthrough
Gearbox
Click the tractor so the gearbox shows up.
Turn the starter key (flashing red light)
Press the clutch (Leftmost pedal)
Press 1 in the gearbox
Use the right pedal to drive forward.
Get the brick that was under the tractor.
Press the clutch and put the tractor in reverse (R), and then press the gas pedal to reverse.
Put the tractor back into "1"
Drag the brick into the gas pedal.
Click the small lever left of where your guy is hanging.
Inside
Click the bucket beside the platform you start on.
After you fall down click on the nose on the right face.
Once the platform falls down enter the cave.
Fridge
Click the wheel on the right
Take the small metal object he gives you.
Click on the small house to the left.
Click ont he metal plate to examine it better.
Use the arrow keys on the house to move the cogs to the correct code is displayed and then enter it on the keypad.
The code is:
Triangle pointing up, Upside down L, -, Hollow square.
After the fridge opens, grab the sausage and leave.
Sausage
Toss the sausage in the right bin
Hit the nose on the face to the right, quickly jump into the bucket on the left or the dog will eat you.
Sundial
Jump across the gap on the top of the crusher
Click on the mechanism next to the windmill.
Click the blinking light to make the sundial work.
Turn the sundial by clicking the exposer gear on the right.
When the shadow is pointing to each time on the bottom, mark the symbol.
The symbols are:
6:00, is the + with the four dots around it, 15:00 is the symbol for Male (The circle with the arrow coming to the top right), and 20:00 looks like the number 24 if it was mashed togehter.
Take the key out of the right lute.
Compare the armor of the first three knights and figure out what the fourth knight should look like.
Observe how each of the first 3 knights are composed of different colors for each of their 3 parts.
Now count the colors used, there are actually 4 different colors.
Using only those colors, create a 4th knight such that all 4 use different colors for each of the 3 parts.
Solution:
Blue helmet, Red shirt, Yellow pants.
Bridge
Click the button next to the upper elevator.
click the button on the elevator above you again.
Once the man disturbs the bees and closes his window go to the lowest floor.
Your guy will walk around to the bridge, and a panel will open up.
Click the blinking button, and use the arrows to match the face.
Turn the knob that appears.
Homonculae
Click the basket. The goal here is to make the basket heavy.
Click the button next to the little guy, and stop when the earth is in October.
Let the apples fall off the tree and put them into the basket.
Pendulum
Click on the blinking button next to your guy.
Click on the knob in the top right corner of the click to boil the water.
The goal is to get the clock to 10 am when the night shift ends.
While the creature is wiping off the glass change the time to 10.
Philosophers Egg
Use the buttons on the crane to pick up the metal and put it in the train.
After you get the metal in the train, and the train comes to a stop, click on the panel in front of it.
Use the buttons on the panel to move the machine lower and to the right. then hit the red button.
Keep hitting the red button to keep the furnace going.
Jump in your friends new body and escape!
You win!
Posted by: Kero | September 7, 2009 10:08 PM