Origamo from QQP is somewhat dissapointing. The four disks account only for 6 hours of gameplay (time it took me to go through ALL the puzzles). This is a puzzle game bringing back memories of Tetris. You need to match the shapes on the screen with smaller tiles, before you run out of time. The process is extremely repetitive and involves, at times, too much luck as opposed to wits or dexterity.
The graphics are, well, interesting... You will feel like you took off to Nepal or something, and are watching colorful murals. I sincerely believe some major weed was involved in the designing of the graphics.
The music is on the same tone, taking full advantage of a wide array of sound cards. After a while it gets monotonous and somewhat soothing. But once again, there was some serious Karma-Pondering involved in the making of the game, to give it a pseudo-spiritual atmosphere.
You can enjoy this game for the puzzles. The Maze enigma is worthless. If there is such a thing as stuff coated in candy, this is candy coated in stuff. The designers of this piece of software made a pitifull attempt at inflating an OK strategy/dexterity game into something it is not...
The Options -----------
- BASIC : You have infinite lives and no time limits to complete the puzzles. One puzzle completion needed to move one, and puzzles left behind can not be completed later. You can dump up to 50 pieces only.
- MASTER : Little difference from Basic. except for scoring considerations.
- ADVENTURE : You are limited to three lives, and can earn one more for every 500 points you collect. The other difference from the previous options is that you can return to a location and complete the puzzles you left behind.
The Controls ------------
- Left Mouse button: pick up, position or dump a tile.
- Right Mouse button: rotate the tile you have already selected in order to have it feet your requirements.
- ESC: Leave or pause the game.
- F3: Display the High Scores.
Notice that your game is automatically saved under the name you entered. When done playing, just leave the game using ESC and to restart just select the name under which you have been playing.
The Tiles ----------
- Blue : Smallest unit, most useful to fill in the blanks between larger blocks. Do not use them unless you absolutely need them, for they do not come across in large amounts.
- Purple : These are cubes. They can come in handy but mixed recklessly with angled pieces or angled corners, they create a lot of loose holes that, in turn require a lot of the Blue tiles.
- Orange : These are large triangles that are very useful when used in conjunction with all other angled tiles.
- Yellow & Bown : These are angled composites, one being the mirror image of the other.
- Green & Red : These are basically cubes with an extra blue. They mirror one another. They are the best building tool, covering the most space, and freeing the most space once cleared from the incoming flow of tile. Use these in priority when possible. They tend to be more frequently available.
The basic strategy in placing the tiles is to aim at filling up a given background pattern. Whenever a grey pattern is filled, the current tile load at the bottom of the screen clears up, giving you time to complete the puzzle and giving you a shot at a new set of tiles.
When you want to allow more tiles on the screen, or want to get rid of a tile selected by mistake, just drop them on the Dump portion of the screen. Notice that you will not be able to dump any more tiles until the one you just dropped is flushed away. Also notice that tiles fushed away do come back after being flush. So if you want to see new tiles, allow a small delay after removing the tile and before dumping it... It all will become easy after a while.
The Rooms ---------
- Puff & Stuff - Dragon's Den - Dragon's Head - Happy Buddha - Gatekeeper - Two Sisters - Totems - Pyramids - Pharaoh's Curse - Sphynx - Knowledge - Elronian Pillager - Sheba's Mish - Ignorance - Wise One - Fruit of Death - Fruit of life - Wonderland : All starts here. - Sydney's World : Need Mad Hatter's Tea from Alice in Wonderland to enter. - Mentor's Castle - Breathing Water - Mound of Evil : Need Shades from Sydney in Sydney's World. - Mummy - Tut's Brain : Need Skull from Mound of Evil to enter. - Viscious Viper - Tut's Lungs - Tut's Heart - Storyteller - Overseers - Burial Grounds : Need Tut's Brain to enter and resurrect Tut. - Long House : Need to have the Spirit from the Burial Grounds to grant you passage. - Haji's Hungry : Need Food from the Long House. - Future World : Need to be Haji's friend to enter. - Last : Need Orb of Time from Future World to enter and end the game.
As mentioned above, only a few of the rooms are relevant to the game. In order to obtain the needed feature of a room, you need to solve at least one puzzle.
The other rooms are just obstacles standing in the way. You also need only solve one room to be able to pass through, although the game's only interest are those puzzles.
There are 108 Puzzles. The makers claimed 113, but they lied. Moreover, it is interesting to notice that these superstitious morons skipped #13. Sorry for the few entries reading ? or Forgot... I got lost in my notes...
You will discover that the difficult increases with the bonus rating.
- 0 to 250 : Easy Those puzzles require no skill or effort whatsoever.
- 275 to 350 : Hard to EXTREMELY HARD (*) I believe that the hardest levels are within that range and NOT within the next range. In this range, the tiles go by relatively fast and close to one another, enough to let you think where to put them, but too close to allow you to dump them fast. As a result, you must rely on cheer luck to get the tiles you need, especially the Blue tiles. The puzzles: 55 Snow 300 and: 23 Bug 300 Are probably the HARDEST of them all, for you need several blue pieces, and they come by randomly. You can not sustain the flow long enough to get all you need unless you are in fact very lucky. This, of course, sucks, and is a flow that lowers the game overall gameplay.
- 375 to 425 : Very Hard Those puzzles aren't that hard. They will take you a couple attempts to succeed, but only because of the speed or little spacing at which the tiles flow.
All the puzzles are feasible. I played them ALL through, skipping NONE. Estimated playtime: 6 hours in BASIC mode, standard difficulty.