Cairn, the new point-and-click puzzle adventure by Aaron Price, takes place in a land that is cursed. For centuries, countless have tried to explore it; To discover its secrets. None have returned. Some claim it's coincidence, others say something keeps them from leaving, but you've never been one to take them at their word... The intro goes on like this for a while, but let's speed ahead to the point: You're in a meadow. It's eerie. That monument over there looks like a sliding puzzle. Get to it, dude. Cairn is played entirely with the mouse. By moving to the left or right side of the screen you pan across the meadow to find various ruins, plants, and journal entries. Clicking interacts with them. Explore the world, unlock its mysteries, and find your way home.
Cairn reminds me quite a bit of Myst, and I mean that with both positive and negative connotations. On the good side, Cairn builds its atmosphere perfectly, with a intriguing fusion of the organic and the mechanical that reminds me of the tone of the Samorost series. Also, there are some pretty neat brain teasing challenges. Yes, some of them are a little familiar (or maybe I've just been playing a lot of Curvy lately), but they're well presented and give you that satisfying moment of "A-Ha!" when you've figured out the logic behind them.
Of course... that implies that you've figured out the logic behind them, which brings us to the downsides. Very few instructions are given in Cairn, something that, in no small part, contributes to its air of mystery. However, the logic behind the puzzles can be quite obtuse, even opaque. There were puzzles I solved by brutely forcing every combination, and others that I didn't realizing I was solving until something happened. I don't think I'll be alone in saying that I spent a great deal of time furiously clicking everything, trying to make something happen, then feeling a little dumb when I realized what it was I was supposed to do. Also, there is the game's text. Boy howdy there's quite a bit of it, and it doesn't convey much. It's well-written, yes, but there's only so many ways to say "Man, this place is vaguely mysterious" before you run out of adjectives.
Despite the above, I quite liked Cairn. It's short, it's sweet, and it put my brain through a gauntlet. It's the perfect thing for coffee-breakers looking for a challenge.
Walkthrough Guide
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Cairn Walkthrough
The Five Rocks and the Seesaw
You can solve the puzzles to obtain the rocks in any order. The blue rock is already there.
Gold rock:
On the far left, click all the flying insects and they'll arrange into a pattern. When you've got them all, they'll begin flying in specific directions. Mentally trace their movements and copy them onto the stone below them by clicking the segments; they should look like a triangle intersecting a bowtie. When everything's correct, click the gold rock and move it next to the seesaw.
Black rock:
Just to the right of the sticks is an arrangement of dials. Click each one to rotate it 45 degrees, but each one you rotate also moves another one. The trick is to get four of them correct, then move the last one halfway to its goal, then fix whatever that broke, then fix whatever THAT broke, and so on. The last fix should move the last dial right into place. Then click the center dial until it comes loose, then get the black rock.
Green rock:
Just to the right of the dials is a strange system of vines and circles. Click inside any circle to start the puzzle. If you've played Net or any game like it, you should know the drill: click the circles to rotate them, and connect everything without any loose ends. Start with the circles that only have one possible orientation and work from there. Once it's all done, click the green rock.
Red rock:
To the right, between the mushrooms and the dials, there's a tablet; click it for a close-up. The trick to this puzzle is to place the stones into the holes below them so that every hole contains either a stone or a shadow. When placed, each stone generates one or more shadows corresponding to the spots on it. No shadows should go to waste. When the puzzle is solved, take the red rock.
Once all five rocks are by the seesaw, it's time to solve it. The wind blows in whatever direction the seesaw's down end is on. To balance it and make the wind stop, put the blue and black rocks on one end, and the other three on the other.
Flowers and Sticks
Now that the wind's stopped, it's time to toy with something you couldn't before. See the two purple flowers? Mouse over the one on the right until a little one-leafed thing appears and begins to spin, then click it to make it follow your mouse cursor.
The flying creature will only follow the mouse cursor if you stick close to it, so go back for it if you need to. Note that if you tried this while the wind was still blowing, the creature would immediately crash due to it.
There are two things you need the creature to do for you. First, guide it to the right and get it to pull out the stick stuck in the ground next to the mushrooms (click), then have it carry it to the other sticks and use it to fix the broken one (click again).
Now, mouse over the left purple flower until it produces a brown seed. Pick up the seed (click) and carry it to the stone ball to the left of the valley. Crash the flying creature beneath the ball and a flower will grow, pushing the ball down to the bottom of the valley.
Endgame
What was all this for? Glad you asked. Go get the wind blowing to the left again by picking up any rock from the right end of the seesaw. Note that when the wind blows to the left, it blows into a cave. Normally it comes out of an invisible hole in the bottom of the valley-- you may have seen that with the white seeds-- but now you've plugged it with the stone ball.
The wind is now doing something to the stone ball, but more relevant are the mushrooms. Click them and they'll emit tones. Higher mushrooms emit higher tones. Good place to play a tune, but what tune?
Go back to the sticks. They're repeating a four-note tune over and over. It used to be a three-note tune, but, well, you fixed one of the sticks. Remember it: with the lowest note as 1 and the highest as 4, it's 1-3-2-4.
Go play that tune on the mushrooms and they'll activate the big stones on the far right. Now this is a tile sliding puzzle: most people hate those. Click stones to move them. Just focus on getting one or two stones into place at a time. What you're trying to assemble will look like a donut with the bottom missing.
Once you click the last stone in place, congratulate yourself-- you're out!
Posted by: SonicLover
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August 3, 2011 1:37 PM
Walkthrough:
Black Rock:
Slide to the rock with rings on it.
Notice the slit on the top, as well as on every ring. Perhaps they should be aligned.
Counting outside-in:
1 turns 4
2 turns 5
3 turns 1
4 turns 2
5 turns 3
5x3,2x4,4x6,1x6
Click on the middle ring twice.
Yellow Rock:
Slide to the rock with lines on it.
See all those orange bugs above? Perhaps they have something to do with the stone.
Click on all of them. Does the shape they make look familiar?
Watch the lines that they make when they move. Duplicate it on the stone below.
Red Rock:
Scroll right to the stone above the mushrooms.
You can drag the stones with spots onto the holes.
Each stone has pits on it. Spots are created in the direction the pits point.
You must have a spot or stone in every available hole for all three puzzles.
Counting stones from left to right;
First Puzzle:
2X
XX1
--X
Second Puzzle:
-X
X4
2XX3
X1XX
Third Puzzle:
-X2X
X1X
3X
X
Green Rock:
Slide to the large vine circles.
Click on them to make glowing yellow lines appear.
Perhaps they should be lined up so there are no free ends...
Solution.
Rock Puzzle:
You should have all five rocks.
If you place one of the rocks on the far side of the stick, the wind goes to the right. (You can tell by looking at the direction the flowers are going)
What would happen if you balanced the stick?
Left side: blue, black
Right side: yellow, red, green
Plant Puzzle:
You should have the wind off at this point.
Slide over to the purple flower next to the balancing puzzle. Click on it.
Once the helicopter-like seed has grown, click on it. Wait for it to begin following your mouse.
Slide to the very left, making sure the seed is following your mouse.
Click on the purple bud there, wait for the pod to grow.
Click on the pod. The seed should pick it up.
Slide right to the circular stone.
Guide the pod to the ground left of the stone. A flower will grow, pushing the stone off of the hill.
Mushroom puzzle:
You should have the circular stone blocking the hole at this point, and there should be no wind.
Grow another helicopter seed, and slide right to the wood stick next to the piece of paper.
Click on the stick. The seed should pick it up.
Fly the seed back over to all the other sticks.
Click on the seed when hovering over the broken stick. The seed should repair the stick.
Go to the balancing puzzle and remove a stone to make wind flow left again.
Slide right. Now, if you click on the mushrooms, they make different notes.
Perhaps if you duplicate the pattern from the sticks?
From right to left: 1324
Rock Puzzle:
8-right, 5-down, 3-down then left, 2-right then down, 1-rightx2, 5-up then left, 4-right, 7-up, 8-left, 9-left, 6-down, 3-left, 5-right then up, 8-up, 9-left, 5-right, 4-right, 7-up, 8-left, 5-down then right.
Posted by: MoonlaughMaster
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August 3, 2011 2:46 PM