The hot, muggy air is filled with the sounds of insects and rustling leaves. The dense underbrush closes in, filled with mysterious animal cries, creating a claustrophobic nightmare. Creeping along, deep in the humid jungles of Guatemala, you, an intrepid explorer, are looking for a lost Mayan city. Or, perhaps, just the nearest Starbucks. Who can tell, because Mayan Escape, this week's room escape puzzle begins after you fall into a mysterious Mayan tomb. How you got there is left to the imagination.
Created by Tomaslav Podhraski, Mayan Escape is a fun little classic room escape. Whomever is buried here must not have been very important as this is an extremely small tomb. Yet a lot of puzzling fun is packed into the four walls of what might be more properly called a tombette. Along with the standard logic puzzles and use of found objects it is really nice to see puzzles usually reserved for larger download games, like slider puzzles and pipe puzzles.
The tombette itself is done up beautifully in 3D with colors and textures that make it feel like the real thing, perhaps minus the stinging insects and biting snakes that you would probably otherwise encounter. A spooky soundtrack only enhances the claustrophobic feel of being trapped underground, leaving the casual gamer wanting to get out.
What makes Mayan Escape so much fun is the amount of polish that has gone into such a basic game. Cursors that change to arrows for navigation or gears to indicate objects that can be manipulated, handy inventory control, kicking sound and graphics, this little gem resembles a chapter in an actual download game. In fact, the quality is such that it is perhaps better than a chapter in some recent download point-and-click adventures on the market.
The act of picking up an object is a little clumsy (click once to get some dialogue, click a second time to actually acquire the object); plus the difficulty of the final puzzle (hopefully you know a little about Mayan iconography) and the short length are only minor quibbles in an otherwise strong, atmospheric, and fun time waster. Mayan Escape is definitely worth the trip (sorry), and experienced room escapers should have a blast without losing too much time from work or sleep or whatever it is you guys do when Weekday Escape comes out. Come, immerse yourself in a game worth experiencing, deep in the jungles of Guatemala (or wherever)...
Walkthrough Guide
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Mayan Escape Walkthrough
General Information
To pick up or manipulate an object: Click on it once to trigger some dialogue, then click on it again to put it in your inventory.
The cursor will change to a gear for items to be picked up or manipulated, or to an arrow to move around.
When the game starts, click through the dialogue to begin.
Good luck!
Exploration
You begin facing a pedestal with a large circular icon above it. There are unlit torches on the wall on the left and right.
On the floor to in the left corner is a pile of pots. Click on them three times to get a piece of paper.
Once the paper is in your inventory you can click on it for a close up. Nice time to learn the Mayan numbering system.
Click on the circular icon above the pedestal.
Once the icon is depressed, click on each of the torches to the left and right to shine lights on the pedestal.
Now click on the top of the pedestal for a close up. Slider puzzle time!
The object is to get the round object from the upper left corner where it begins, down to the lower right corner where the small circle is.
This is a pretty easy slider, but here's a series of screenshots if you need the help:
Screenshot.
Screenshot.
Screenshot.
Once the round object is in place, click on it twice to pick it up.
Nothing more to do here, so turn right.
You are now facing a wall with what looks like part of a pipe puzzle on it.
On the ground below the puzzle is a large wooden stick, click on it twice to take it.
On the lower right corner of the puzzle are two blocks of something (stone, paper, whatever) covering part of the puzzle. Click on the two items to make them drop.
You are now looking at a pipe puzzle with three points of origin, green in the upper left, red in the lower left, and purple in the upper right.
Solve the pipe puzzle so that all of the pipes connect the three points of origin, with no leftovers.
Here's a Screenshot of the completed puzzle.
Hmmm, solving the puzzle didn't do anything. Let's explore further.
Turn right.
You are now facing a beautiful, elaborate door with two snake heads coming out of the top. There are also two basins on either side of the door.
Look closely and you will see a large spider sitting in its web in the upper left corner of the wall.
Use the stick on the spider web (several times) to remove the web and reveal an object (green lever). Take the object.
There's a stone to the left of the door in the wall. If you click on it you see it will drop down, but nothing happens.
Take a closer look at those snakes on the top of the doorway.
That snake on the right is missing something!
Looks like he's missing an eye, which coincidentally appears to be the exact shape of the stone we got out of the slider puzzle.
Place the round stone from your inventory onto the snake on the right (remember to click on the stone in your inventory, then click on the snake twice).
The door still won't open, so turn right.
You are now facing the actual stone coffin of this tomb's inhabitant.
There are statues on either side of the coffin, each holding a colored lever like the one you just picked up from the spider web. Take each of the levers.
Maybe there's something useful in the coffin?
But a stone lid can be hard to lever off.
Lever, hmmm?
Use the big wood stick on the coffin to open it. Take the revealed object (mummy hand). Ewww!
Once you've robbed the poor guy's grave, take a closer look at the pictograph on the wall above the coffin.
This might be a clue!
Okay, here's a short lecture on Mayan writing. Although you can see the writing of both letters and numbers in an orderly fashion in the few remaining Mayan codices, for inscriptions and the like they had a habit of creating more stylized writing. For instance, the language had several different pictographs that stood for the same syllable in the language, they would use one or the other depending on circumstances, including the design of the area it was being used. Keeping that in mind, look closely at the highlighted area of the pictograph.
Picture, for instance, the drop cap of an illuminated manuscript (pre printing press) and you will sometimes see a letter so decorative it can be difficult to determine the actual letter.
Look closely at the picture, and notice that the palm fronds (the tops of them) could be lines.
This represents two numbers, one on the left and one on the right.
The numbers represented are 13 on the left and 15 on the right. Here's a Screenshot showing the numbers.
Okay, we've desecrated the coffin, we've gotten the clue from the wall, we've taken everything that can be taken, what now?
Escape
First, turn until you are facing the pipe puzzle.
Remember, there are three points of origin (holes) in the three corners of the puzzle, upper left green, lower left red, and upper right purple.
That also happens to correspond to the little arrow shaped levers you picked up around the room.
Place the levers in the holes that match their colors. The purple lever can only be placed last.
Okay, now something happened. The pipes turned blue!
Does that mean water is now rushing through the pipes?
Turn right and face the door.
Click on that stone switch to the left of the door and see what happens.
Cool! But those stone basins are in bad shape, and probably won't hold the water long.
Once the door opens, use the big wooden stick in the doorway to prop the door open.
Click on the doorway to go through.
All right, there's a doorway out! And also a pit that we need to cross.
Last puzzle time!
Notice that the left stone column has a hand in the top, and is showing some Mayan numbers.
Well, we've got this mummy hand we picked up, perhaps it would be useful?
Place the mummy hand in the top of the right stone column. More numbers!
Now we've just got to figure out the numbers that need to go in here and we can get out!
If you click on the numbers they will change.
The clue is the pictograph above the coffin.
According to the pictograph, there should be a 13 on the left, and a 15 on the right.
Presumably that means the numbers should add up to 13 and 15.
On the left, the top stone changes to 10, 3, 2, and 15.
On the left, the middle stone changes to 1, 6, 15, and 7.
On the left, the bottom stone changes to 11, 7, 5, and 15.
The only possible combination for this column is, from the top, 2, 6, 5.
On the right, the top stone changes to 8, 15, 3, and 10.
On the right, the middle stone changes to 15, 7, 3, and 2.
On the right, the bottom stone changes to 15, 3, 11, and 7.
Since this column should add up to 15, the only possible combination is, from the top, 10, 2, 3.
Here's a Screenshot showing the proper configuration.
Once you've entered the numbers correctly, a walkway will rise up over the pit.
Click on the doorway to escape!
Posted by: grinnyp
|
August 4, 2010 1:26 PM