When I was a kid, my brother and I used to play this game and got incredibly confused with some parts. We worked on it for ages until we occasionally succumbed to the temptation of using walkthroughs. Not being able to fully understand the plot (resembling 1984, Brave New World and the old familiar Star Wars Empire vs. Rebels setup) as we were a bit young wasn't such a problem compared to the almost unsolvable puzzles. There are a few that really grind your gears if you refuse to look at walkthroughs. Being older now did help a lot though. The puzzles that seemed pure trial-and-error back then, now turned out to be in fact quite logic-based. Other still don't make any sense to me. A couple of examples:
When trying to leave the Cygnus Alpha Jail, Feeble has to jump across a field of colored tiles in a certain order. This took me ages as a kid, but this time I needed maybe twenty minutes to figure it out. A lot of saving and loading does help.
When Feeble tries to short-curcuit the jail spaceship, the player has to connect for cables in a certain order. Listening to the beeps that sound after all of them are connected makes the tasks fairly easy and spares you the ordeal of try and error.
In Feeble's brother's laboratory it helps to look at the sheet with clues attached to the wall next to the lab set. It's a tad bit hard to read correctly and you may have to start over and begin anew a couple of times due to false premises but it's entirely solvable without a guide. This took me the longest but when I figured it out I was amazed that I had been able to solve this by pure conincidence as a kid.
The Arcade Part in Metro Prime is probably one of the most aggravating parts of any point-and-click adventure game. The games include:
Dwarf Balancing: fairly easy if all red dwarfs are put on side, while the grey ones can be shuffles around on the other side.
Find the Frog: piece of cake. Just follow it with a pen.
Wizard's Pairs: When the game is announced quickly take a photo of the screen and look at it while playing. Of course this is cheating in a way, but since it's impossible to cheat on the Arcade at all, this method makes up for all the trouble the games cause.
Goblin Beating: If you write down the sequence, it's a treat.
Sorcerer's Challenge: this one look harder than it is. Once all the corner coins are turned it becomes easier. Try to create crosses that can then be turned entirely, leaving no spare coin.
Swamp Stew: The most hated one. I solved it three times (then however, failed the next round---ANGER). Do try it. Use all six ingedients in the first try, in the next tries choose three and use each of them double. It will give you clues to figure it out. In fact, compared to the original Mastermind game, this is a comapatively simple setup (six item, six slots).
I always played one round and then gathere the chips. When the coin flip or the Swamp Stew appeared, I tried and always went into the next round since the possibility of getting one of the easy games was now higher.
One puzzle that I simply couldnt solve was when I had to find out the current stardate. I was able to gather all the information that was needed but could do anything with it.
What were the writers thinking? Feeble and the information he gives the player about what to do next or what might be the missing piece is no help at all. He barely comments on the problems with items or puzzles, leaving you with no hints.
The game has great humor and voices. The gameplay is mediocre and makes you cringe when you're moving the character. He's too damn slow and the inventory is a desaster (I even realized this as a kid, having played Simon the Sorcerer, Monkey Island and others before).
And NO MUSIC? It's simply sad, especially because the sounds contribute a cold and sterile atmosphere to the game that is contrasted by the high-brow humor and sarcastic commentary on societies and their political systems. The somewhat strange ending combined with the lack of relationships to other characters made the feeling of game bitter-sweet. While the first part of it (up to the Arcade) was the most enjoyable and best-written, the quality of writing and plot dropped when it came close to the showdown. The environment didnt feel real and the interactions with the minor characters seemed unbelievable. A notable exception is the destructive, uncooperative and overzealous robot SAM, the absolute highlight of both humor and voice-acting.
So, if you're a fan of point-and-click adventure games, you shouldn't miss out on The Feeble Files. The story is so well built, you can spend ages on gathering information from your Inventory Computer as background. Use the right click to jump the annoying build-up of text on the Oracle Screen. Almost all cutscenes and animations can be skipped by using Esc or clicking. Some of the reviewers on this page unfortunately didnt realize this.
So all in all, the puzzles are hard but solvable (except for maybe the stardate-problem) and the story gripping and fascinating, the voice-acting awesome and the graphics are fine.
