Played this game this evening and I honestly though there was so much going for it and that it truly was a wonderful game. I was also enamoured with the way it has stuff in the manual saying things like, "don't worry, you won't have to remember everything you hear to complete a puzzle much later on!"

And yet I'm at the very, VERY end of the game, and upon consulting a walkthrough have discovered that I can't complete it because I didn't pick up an item two thirds of the way back.

Bah. Really, really annoyed!

Hehe, :) just bought game and enjoying begining of story. Btw in manual (or Quick reference guide) its stated in Hints you should pick up every item you can as you never know when you need it

Well you don't technically get an option to pick this item up...

Really soured my very good feelings towards this game!

I'm playing The Longest Journey now and am feeling a lot better.

Wow. You just missed the whole point of the game.

The whole point is to explore the setting and the effects you can have on the story. There are no dead ends in the game just bad endings.

I don't mind getting a multiple ending, but ending up kicked off the train or killed isn't really an "ending", is it! It's a failure, and you're meant to rewind and try again.

But if that results in having to replay two thirds of the game... Well, that's infuriating.

You can't tell me that it's NOT infuriating because...well...I am infuriated ;)

Replaying two-thirds of this wonderful game doesn't sound infuriating to me, especially when the whole game is built with this in mind. Of course you're meant to rewind and try again, the game is built on the premise of playing through the same sequences over and over, trying different things, speaking to different people, and seeing how things play out differently. Using a walkthrough defeats the whole purpose in my opinion, those dead ends are part of the game, and you're missing them.

There is about 30 endings from about 4 or 5 are non fatal i think

A dead end right at the end of the game which requires you to replay over half the game is infuriating!

Just because I've come within one item of the ending doesn't mean I haven't played many other options in my route to getting there!

If there are other non-fatal endings then a clue as to how to reach those would be amazing as it would give me the incentive to try different stuff. Getting kicked off the train / killed aren't really "endings" to me.

I felt this the way you did when I first bought the game 13 years ago and couldnt get past the 2nd CD because I didnt know you had to steal the key, take the gold from Kronos' car then show it to Shmidt...etc. I know how you feel though, thankfully I remembered how to play this time around after not playing it for many years and got the correct ending. I take it you forgot to trade the beetle for the whistle and therefor couldnt finish the game.

If you are talking about missing the whistle, there is an alternative way of getting it near the end without having to trade the beetle, just rewind to after you have unlatched the passenger carriages and you can still find it there somewhere...

I know when I first played the game I ended up getting stuck at a few points so I asked my dad to buy me the strategy guide that Christmas. :P The part that got younger me that I can clearly remember is all the stuff you have to do in a short amount of time to not make August take his gold away when they stop in Munich. I kept failing miserably so the guide helped a lot (I was putting all my searching into the wrong part of the train, the solution was at the other end).

I had to do the exact same thing all those years ago. I had to buy the strat guide to get past that part as well. Its probably the hardest part of the entire game.

Obviously, you mean either Kronos or weapon, not August and gold :).

I'm with you on this, and I'm glad people are realizing, after having been lured by gushing reviews, that the fundamental design of this game just doesn't work. The fact that no other game has attempted something like this since The Last Express shows the particular mechanics of this game just isn't conducive to enjoyable gameplay.

i've been playing it for about an hour and absolutely HATE the game :)

Graphics are poor, the constant jerky way the characters move is annoying, after all, if some of them can walk smoothly why can't the rest? I hate that it's set up as a long narrow screen - nothing but a 'gimmick' as if you're on a train but, believe me, I've been on thousands of trains and that's not what it looks like.

I'm having trouble seeing why this game got such stellar reviews. I'm thinking another hour and then I'll probably just ditch it and delete it.

Worst thing I've bought on GOG so far, IMO. :(