(Crack-FLASH!) Arooooooo! Haha, it worked! Project Timewolf was a complete success! Now I can tell you all about Haunted Halloween Escape, an oldie escape from TeraLumina, and just in time for the Halloween season! The Union of Mad Science called me nuts (and from them that's a compliment!) when I suggested splicing temporally enhanced genes into werewolf DNA to become a time-traveling lycanthrope, but look at me now! I've successfully broken through the spatial-temporal plane to...
Haunted Halloween Escape drops you into a room full of spooky features and creatures. Navigation is nothing to write home about: click the edges of the screen to turn and look around or take a step back (look for the arrow and shaded bar), and click things to pick up or interact with them. Rather than emeralds or sapphires or what have you, this time there are a whole bunch of bats to find, thirteen to be exact, and they don't fly into view until you click on their hiding places so keep an eye out for when your cursor changes. Finding them all is optional, but makes for a good score bonus.
TeraLumina knows how to make a good game; the atmosphere is excellent, with the graphics and sound adding perfectly to it without being too distracting, and the puzzles flow just fine. Even the added challenge of making the game Halloween-themed didn't affect its quality. Plus the game autosaves, so if you need to take a break you can. My only serious gripe is one puzzle that involves counting things scattered around the room, a common pet peeve because it's too easy to miss one and then have no idea what's wrong with the combination when you try to enter it.
Nevertheless, it's an excellent escape, and if you'd like a little Halloween in your day, here it is. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go into hiding before my past self turns up. Who knows what sort of paradox will occur if he finds me...
Walkthrough Guide
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A Haunting Walkthrough
You'll start facing a desk, but you can't get close to it because a ghost is there. Note the X on the ground below. Now zoom in the cauldron; you can't do much with it yet either, but get Bats #1 and #2 from the jack-o-lanterns beside it.
Turn right to face some windows. Get Bat #3 from the window on the right, then zoom in on the middle window and watch the ghouls fly by: witch from right to left, ghost from bottom to top, bat from left to right, spider from top to bottom.
Zoom out completely and grab one of the spiders from the floor as it passes. (Or wait until later and grab a different one.) Now zoom in on the drawers below the windows. Open the left drawer for Bat #4 and a knife.
Check the lock on the right drawer. The same four spooks as from the window, with four directions. Set them the way they passed: ghost up, bat right, spider down, witch left.
Now open the drawer for Bat #5 and some pliers.
Back out and turn right again to face a gravestone, a door, and some other things. Bat #6 is in the cactus. Move the picture above the gravestone to find Bat #7 and a ghost catcher. Just what you needed!
Look at the pumpkins. A little bland, aren't they? Carve them up with the knife. Note the shapes of their eyes once carved: triangle, square, circle, star. There's no way that's not a combination for something.
Zoom out and you'll automatically be facing another turn right, with a skeleton cage. Lift the right couch cushion for Bat #8, and catch the iron meteorite below the cage. Oh, and take the sword from the right wall.
Zoom in on the skeleton. You can't get its hand off and it's wearing a cross you can't reach. Forget the hand for now, but the sword should be sufficient to retrieve the cross. Don't forget Bat #9 in the left lamp behind the skeleton.
Right again. You're now facing the double doors, which are of course locked. Get some candy from the bowl below the mirror, and free Bat #10 from the jack-o-lantern beneath that.
Turn right again to face a coffin. Zoom in and you need a four-shape code. The one from the pumpkins will do: triangle, square, circle, star. Opening it will reveal Bat #11 and a hideous vampire.
You can stick the cross on the vampire's neck to weaken it, but you can't properly kill it with what you've got now. Back away and turn right, and you're back where you started with the desk and the cauldron.
Stick the ghost-catcher on the X below the desk and wait for it to do its job. Now you can safely approach the desk. Open the left drawer for Bat #12 and a key, and the right drawer for a bonesaw. You can use these!
Now, the scroll. "Escape Potion"! That sounds useful! But we need six ingredients� well, we'll worry about that later. Grab the jar in the middle (the eye of newt).
Back away and turn right twice to face the door. Open it with the key for Bat #13, and greet the Reaper hiding inside. He'll leave something on the floor: a jar of toad essence! Just what you needed for the potion.
Turn right to face the skeleton's cage and saw off its hand with the bonesaw. Only one ingredient left and you'll be able to make that potion. For now, turn to face the desk again (three times in either direction).
We left that middle drawer untouched, didn't we? It wants a code� jack-o-lantern, cat, skull, spider? Looks like we'll have to go around and count all the instances of each around the room. I'll save you the trouble: there are 9 jack-o-lanterns, 4 cats, 7 skulls, and 6 spiders.
9-4-7-6� it's open! Take the mallet and stake inside and go use them on the vampire (turn left once) to kill him properly. Now you can pull out his fangs with the pliers. It's potion-making time at long last!
Remember the scroll: "The secret to the order BEFITS the potion". Why was BEFITS in all caps? Throw the Boney hand into the cauldron, then the Eye of newt, then the Fangs, then the Iron meteorite, then the Toad essence, and lastly the Spider.
Get it? B-E-F-I-T-S. If you did it right, a key should appear. Go use it on the double doors (turn left twice).
Oh, great, a vampire's blocking your way out. What does he want? "Trick or treat?" Alright, let's humor him. Give him the candy and he's off� and so are you!
Thanks, SonicLover, for the walkthrough!
Posted by: Mike | October 24, 2012 1:18 AM