This is a walkthrough post for "Pandora's Box", a fascinating and complicated quest in Vampyr . It spans through several main missions and is connected with a subsequent brilliant puzzle that opens a secret vault which, in turn, rewards you with a cool weapon, a special collectible and an achievement. Main mission "Unnatural Selection" : after you find your way via the sewers to reach the Temple Church area but before you go to meet Aloysius Dawson, run around the perimeter of the church to locate an underground passage. At the end of this passage, an Indian fortune teller, Usher Talltree, will be sitting surrounded by curios, doing his magic. Talk to him to get one important hint for Aloysius Dawson, and also have him offer you his quest, Pandora's Box, to find his stolen notebook. If you have enough money, you can ask him to "read the cards" and every time you do this, he will give you hints on several residents. I skipped this part, since it is
Resident Evil 4 Remake - New Game / Hardcore Playthrough (No Bonus Weapons)
So we finally have the long-awaited remake of Resident Evil 4 in our hands, and I must say it was very worth the wait. I love the evolution of the story, its new-found gloominess and melancholy and the depths to which the characters were explored. The game is gorgeous and it has managed to have combine its nostalgic
vibes with a modern touch. The environments are amazing, the character
design is fantastic. The new Louis is a feast for the eyes, both looks and character- wise, and Krauser
looking and sounding like Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner is a great
evolution. I like how Ashley now looks more her age and the revamped Salazar is already iconic (and bears an uncanny resemblance to my grandmother). As for our lovely Leon, he is poetry in motion as always.
I am playing in New Game and on Hardcore difficulty, with regular inventory, not using any bonus weapons or items, nor the Body Armor. I also go for all the treasures (at least I think I got all of them, because I deliberately didn't buy the maps to test my memory), and I do all the Merchant's requests, except for the "Egg Hunt" because I needed both Golden Eggs to kill Salazar (yes, I omeletted him to death). Egg Hunt rewards you with 3 spinels if you complete it, so it's not big deal to skip it, since you can find extra spinels anyway by smashing stuff or by killing knights.
The remake has many similarities with the original, but they are mostly in relation to the settings and the scenery. There are some changes that are interesting, and some new additions that are quite thrilling. There are major differences in the Castle, which looks more majestic and spooky than ever. Some new rooms are particularly charming, despite the dangers that they hide. The Ballroom, for instance, used be the bane of my existence because of the bugs which, incidentally, are back and in insane numbers, but as soon as I figured a strategy to take them out carefully one by one, I was able to notice the room more and appreciate it as it deserves. The Ballroom is a setting that I think will be iconic in the future. The environment brings to mind the eery halls in the movie "The Hourglass Sanatorium" and if you don't run around in panic trying to kill or get away from the bugs, you will be able to see that as they are floating around, they do look like they are dancing (since they have occupied the Ballroom!).
I love how Luis's role and character were both expanded and developed in the remake, and
how much more essential Jack Krauser became now in connection to Leon's
past. On the contrary, Ada's role is very limited, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact I think it's the best thing for both the game and her character. As I have mentioned in older articles in my main blog, I always had the impression that Ada appeared in the games for the sole purpose to serve as a distraction for Leon and would show up out of nowhere in order to save the day, sometimes unwillingly cancelling Leon's (and our) previous hard work. Now her character is far more fitting to her spy status, and Leon acting rather cold and sarcastic towards her is a lot more convincing, taking the past events into consideration. The great twist of the remake that has Krauser fatally attacking Luis instead of Saddler gives a highly dramatic tone to the story, and subsequently the fact that it is Luis the one who saves Leon from Krauser instead of Ada during their knife fight not only adds more depth to Luis's character, but also draws new lines between himself, Krauser and Leon, making the connections between the three characters a lot more complex and worth exploring.
That said, I would love to see a future DLC accounting what happened to Luis between the time that he called Leon while he was just entering the Castle with Ashley, telling him to meet him in the Courtyard and later in the Ballroom and until Leon finally found him in the Depths because obviously something unexpected happened that made him run away from the Ballroom and hide down there. Maybe he bumped onto Krauser and stole the Amber from him, which could be the reason why Jack informed Leon that he was "restoring stolen goods" after shooting Luis and taking the Amber back.
I am starting off with Leon's default inventory, then I switch from the default handgun to the Red9 when Leon finds it in Chapter 4. I use the first shotgun (the one found in the village) until Chapter 6, when I buy the Riot Gun and keep it till the end. I buy the TMP for Chapters 5 and 6 specifically, and the Bolt Thrower mainly to use it for the Savage Mutt quest. In the Castle, I buy the Broken Butterfly which I use mainly against Krauser, Saddler and a few other strong enemies. I buy one Rocket Launcher to kill the Verdugo in Chapter 10, since he is an optional boss and he would take tons of regular ammo to go down. Besides I see this as a tribute to the original game which would offer us one free Rocker Launcher to use against whoever boss we wanted; and almost always I would choose to kill the Verdugo with it.
Finally a few notes from a technical aspect. The game seems more or less well-balanced, although sometimes it feels like certain situations and sequences are made more difficult for difficulty's sake. I like a good and demanding challenge, as long as there is some logic behind it, something that isn't always the case here. For example, random enemies seem to have their HP instantly boosted up when you are seconds close from leaving a tough area. On two instances, archer enemies managed to hit Leon with (apparently ghost) flaming arrows, although I had already stunned them, not leaving them time to fire one. Enemies seem to teleport out of thin air to attack you when you are in a vulnerable position (ie, while reloading a weapon or while being momentarily stunned after accidentally stepping into flames and you are unable to grab your gun). That said, it is not difficulty per se that is frustrating, but the fact that certain tough sections are very messy (a good example of this is the Twin Garrador room: if you don't defeat the twins in time, you will be overwhelmed by enemies spawning from every possible spot in the room). The final boss fight is all over the place, mainly due to the insane amount of flying insects that always get in the way, sometimes even
preventing you from attacking Saddler when he is stunned. But I guess
that's what he trained them for anyway.
As much as I love replaying Odyssey, in my opinion nothing beats that first time exploration and discovering everything from the beginning. For this reason, I decided to record a playthrough in New Game, where I start from Level 1 and get everything from the start. There is a lot of grinding of course, which for some people may be tiresome or boring, but personally I enjoy it in this kind of games, and Odyssey especially which, moreover, is among the games that I love the most. My intention was to reach Level 99+, but after covering everything (and more), the highest that I managed to achieve was Level 82. What I cover: Basically all the stories and everything that is on the map, namely: -The main Odyssey story -The modern day story -The Gates of Atlantis (the four artifacts) -From The Shadows (the Cultists questlines) -Legacy of the First Blade -The Lost Tales of Greece and the two special blue-colored bounties -The Heir of Memories including the three Underworld episodes (Elysium, Un
Next up in my Tomb Raider Nostalgia Playthrough Series is Tomb Raider 3, the third installment of the classics. There were quite a few innovations in this game compared the to the first and the second, the most memorable being the fact that, after the first section was completed, you could play the subsequent three adventures in any order you wanted. Like in Tomb Raider 2, a brief but fabulous bonus level would unlock if you completed the game with all secrets found. Since these playthroughs are going to be a one-time thing - that is, I will probably won't be replaying the classic Tomb Raiders in full, any time soon at least - I am trying to cover as much stuff as possible. Random kills or pickups that have no interest or are simply in the regular path, may be left behind, but I do find all the secrets and if there is exploration involved (including pickups) in areas that are optional, I go for them as well. In this game in particular, I am referring to the legendary River Ganges l
This is a walkthrough post for "Pandora's Box", a fascinating and complicated quest in Vampyr . It spans through several main missions and is connected with a subsequent brilliant puzzle that opens a secret vault which, in turn, rewards you with a cool weapon, a special collectible and an achievement. Main mission "Unnatural Selection" : after you find your way via the sewers to reach the Temple Church area but before you go to meet Aloysius Dawson, run around the perimeter of the church to locate an underground passage. At the end of this passage, an Indian fortune teller, Usher Talltree, will be sitting surrounded by curios, doing his magic. Talk to him to get one important hint for Aloysius Dawson, and also have him offer you his quest, Pandora's Box, to find his stolen notebook. If you have enough money, you can ask him to "read the cards" and every time you do this, he will give you hints on several residents. I skipped this part, since it is
This is my playthrough of Resident Evil 4 Remake in Professional difficulty, New Game, and No Damage mode. The "no damage" part was the real challenge, of course, because of certain traits that the game has that make such a mode quite frustrating. The remake is nothing like the classic Resident Evil4 when it comes to attempting a run without getting scratched. Technically, the original was more difficult but it was set up in such a way as to allow you room for planning out an effective strategy. The Knights room, for instance, the room where, in the original game, you find the King's Grail, has very limited space compared to its counterpart in the remake, which is the room where you find the Lion's Head; but the way the enemies move and attack, you can organize your strategy a lot better than in the remake, where the knights wiggle their heads so much and so fast that landing a successful headshot on them feels like some kind of impossible feat. In the remake, alth
The last playthrough in my Tomb Raider Nostalgia Series is that of the very first game, both of the classics and the series as a whole. The original Tomb Raider game is a pure vintage gem with so much sentimental value that it makes up for the fuss that you have to go through in order to decently run and record it on a modern computer system. The resolution is a bit low in the main game, but everything is smooth and running well in Unfinished Business, the Gold expansion, which, by the way, is one of the two classic Tomb Raiders that I have played less (along with The Lost Artifact, as I mentioned in my Tomb Raider III report). Now playing UB again, I remembered why: although it is beautiful visually and very elaborate as far as gameplay and puzzles are concerned, I soon got fed up with those mutant mummies with their annoying (insert non-decent characterization here) screeching noises. Regardless, the Gold expansion, like the main game, is a lovely game, and very interesting too fr
A playthrough of Resident Evil 3 Remake in Hardcore difficulty. I am using the default inventory (no shop items) and I am not taking any damage. There are a lot of things that I like about the remake of Resident Evil 3, and a few that I'd rather do without. I love its atmosphere and overall design, which give out this compelling claustrophobic feel, and the fact that it is action-based, although I admit that I was looking forward to a revamped version of the Clock Tower, the Park or the Cemetery and the Clock Tower puzzles. And I do not like certain aspects of its gameplay that could have been great additions if they were implemented in a more player-friendly way. More specifically, the game has a set of mechanics which, although in reality are more elaborate than those of Resident Evil 2 Remake, in practice they don't offer you more flexibility. I am talking about the Dodge and Perfect Dodge moves, two evasion techniques that are supposed to save your life when you are in a de
This playthrough is a new and improved "No Merchant" gameplay of Resident Evil 4 in Professional difficulty, New Game, this time with the addition of the "No Damage" rule. A "No Merchant" playthrough of Resident Evil 4 means that you completely ignore the merchant throughout the whole game, which means that not only you cannot upgrade your weapons and your attache case at his "store", but moreover - and most importantly - you cannot buy any other guns from him. Plainly put, you are limited to your default inventory as is, plus the very few extra weapons that you come across in the game itself, namely the Shotgun (chapter 1-1), the Broken Butterfly (chapter 4-1) and the two Rocket Launchers (chapter 3-3 and Final chapter). The "No Damage" part of course consists in sustaining no injury at all. I saved a lot in this playthrough, and I also had to reload a lot. Sometimes because Leon would get hit, but most of the times because I thought I
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