Wednesday, April 16, 2014

The Last Door – Chapter 2: Memories [Walkthrough]


General information
Memories is the second chapter of TheGameKitchen’s episodic horror point-and-click adventure The Last Door. If you haven’t played the first chapter (The Letter) yet, do it! You won’t understand most of the story if you don’t. (And check out my walkthrough of the first chapter if you get stuck.) Chapter 2 features a little more adventure game puzzle logic and a little less backtracking. I try to do things in this walkthrough in an “ideal” order to keep backtracking to a minimum. That’s why some actions won’t make much sense at first.

Controls
Left-click somewhere to make Jeremiah go there. Something has been done about the slow walking: If you click an exit twice, you “fast-travel” to the next room. If an object is usable, the cursor changes when you move the mouse over the object. A magnifying glass mean you can look at something, a hand means you can use it or pick it up. Most stuff is only usable after you have examined it, so don’t forget to click some things twice! Your inventory is displayed in the bottom of the screen. This time, there are dialogues! Your icon changes to a speech bubble when you can talk to someone. Your dialogue options appear in the bottom of the screen, you click what you want to say. A speech bubble appears over a character’s head to show you who is talking at the moment.
           Also, there are some “accessibility options”: To enable a dyslexia-friendly font for in-game dialogue and descriptions, press 1. You can add written descriptions of sound to the game by pressing 2. To go in and out of fullscreen mode, simply press 3.

1. Prologue
We start the second chapter again controlling another character. But at least, this time you don’t have to kill yourself. No, you are an old priest who is about to flagellate himself with a whip.
          Pick up the whip. It’s on the small table in the middle of the room. Then click the coatrack to the right to take off your robe. Kneel in front of the big crucifix to the left by clicking the altar. Then click yourself a few times. Amen.
          After a short intro sequence, you control Jeremiah again. You find yourself in a dark forest. Right now, you just have to keep going right and be creeped out. One warning, though: When the psychiatrist starts counting to wake you up from the hypnosis, there is a pretty effective jump scare right after the “two”. You’re welcome.

2. Outside the boarding school
Before we enter the boarding school, we pick up their mail, because we are just that nice. Examine the mailbox to the right, next to the entrance gate. Read the letter and take the postcard with you. Then go left to the fountain. One of the decorative stone eagles broke off and lies on the ground. Pick it up. Don’t enter the (former) school just yet. Instead, continue to walk left past the building until you reach a graveyard. The person digging a grave is the groundskeeper. You don’t have to talk to him, but doing so reveals some details about the school-turned-asylum/hospital. Go left to reach the shore. There is a net lying in the sand and a log a little further to the left. Pick up both. Now you can go back to the front yard and enter the school’s lobby.

3. The lobby
First, talk to the nun at the reception desk to the right. She tells you a little more about the former school and that Father Ernest, whom Jeremiah remembers as his old theology teacher, leads it now. Sadly, the old man doesn’t seem to leave his room nowadays, and you are not allowed to enter it, so you will have to find another way to talk to him. When the nun asks you about your reason for coming back, tell her you “prefer not to talk about it”. You now have permission to explore (most of) the building. Sadly, Jeremiah takes off his sweet tophat now, but I guess all good things must pass. Especially in a horror game. Go left and enter the hospital.

4. The hospital
The first people you come across here are Matthew Vinge (the guy in the bed) and his sister (the woman by his side). Matthew’s wife left him and doesn’t send him any letters, the sister tells you. But wait! The postcard you picked up earlier is from his wife. Give it to Matthew. His sister snatches it and pretends it’s from their mother. While she is reading the card, you can steal the packet of letters from her bag. They are all from Matthew’s wife. Give the poor guy his letters. He chases his sister away and gives you his lucky coin as a reward.
           Now, keep going right, and speak to the nun by the last bed. She doesn’t let you talk to her patient, but she seems very interested in the statue of the Virgin Mary behind her. We’ll use that to lure her away later. For now, click the back door (next to the statue) to unlock it. You don’t have to go through now; it’s just to make backtracking later a little faster. Instead, go through the door to the right to enter the classroom.

5. The classroom
Examine the bookshelves by the door. You’ll find a musicbox. Now, read the letter on top of the far right desk. Keep going left, then read the diary on the desk. You find a photograph of Jeremiah’s graduating class. One face has been scratched out. Strange.
           But you can leave the classroom now. Go back to the lobby, climb the stairs and go through the first door into the nuns’ room.

6. The nuns’ room
There is a dresser by the door, a syringe and a flask of morphine on top of it. You can’t take it just now, but you just know you will! Instead, talk to the nun by the window. The poor woman seems to be really depressed, but nothing you can say will comfort her. Choose either dialogue option, it doesn’t matter. But there is something else you can do to cheer her up: Use the coin to wind up the musicbox. The melody reminds the nun of her youth, and she goes off to … do whatever sad nuns does when they aren’t staring out windows. (You can find out that she drowned herself in the sea, but there is no other reason to go to the beach anymore, so take my word for it.) Now, you can stare out the window! Click it!
           There is a broken pipe under the window. Pull out the dry leaves, so they don’t block the water stream anymore. The hole in the pipe has some really sharp edges, so you can’t interact with the pipe without cutting yourself. Hit it with the stone to blunt the edges. Now, you can put the net in the pipe, so it catches any objects floating in the water.
           Enter the corridor again and keep going right. Open the door and enter the bathroom.

7. The bathroom
There is a broken mirror to your right. One piece is protruding from it. Pick up that piece of the mirror. There is a puddle in the lower right shower hole with something shining under the grating. Turn on the water by clicking the tap and flush the shiny object into the pipe.
           Now, you can go back into the nuns’ room to search the net you put in the pipe for the shiny object. Voilà! It’s a glass teardrop. Go back downstairs and into the hospital area.

8. The hospital
Walk to the right end of the room. Now it’s time to lure the nun away. To do so, you just have to fake a miracle! Isn’t that great? Put the teardrop on the statue’s cheek. Now use the mirror to reflect light onto the tear and make it shine. The nun thinks the Virgin Mary is crying because of whatever has happened in this institution and flees the room.
           Now you can talk to the patient she was tending to. He wants you to end his suffering. Jeremiah can either agree to help him or say he doesn’t want to kill someone and find another way to help him. You have two dialogue options:
          If you choose the first option (“I don’t know if I’d have the courage to do that.”), you have to go back to the lobby. Talk to Mother Elizabeth. She will give you a bible to pray for the patient. Great help.
If you choose the second option (“I guess I could find the courage to help you.”), you have to find something to euthanize the patient with. Go upstairs and into the nuns’ room. You can now pick up the syringe of morphine on top of the dresser.
           Whatever option you choose, you have to return to the sick patient’s bed in the hospital now. But he’s gone and only left behind a note saying “Baldwin lies” over and over and over again. Baldwin is the groundskeeper’s name. Let’s check him out! Exit the scene through the door next to the Virgin Mary and enter the graveyard.

9. Outside the boarding school
There are knocks coming from inside the closed coffin. Examine it. “What the hell,” indeed, Jeremiah. You have to find a way to open it. Go to the front yard. The groundskeeper’s toolbox looks interesting, considering your little coffin problem. But the guy won’t let you touch his stuff, so you have to distract him. Talk to him.
           First, ask him to tell you about “this place”, then select the dialogue choice “Tell me about Aberdeen”. His eyes drift off as he begins to tell you about his hometown of Aberdeen. Filthy scotsman! (These dialogue options don’t show up unless you have actually examined the toolbox and Jeremiah realized he has to distract the groundskeeper.) While he is talking, take the nail tool from his toolbox. Now go back to the graveyard.
           Use the nail tool to open the coffin. It’s the guy who wanted to be euthanized! Who would have guessed? Mother Elizabeth comes running out of the former boarding school to help the collapsed patient. Ooh, that means the lobby is unattended now! Go there.

10. The lobby
Search the desk. Then click it again to take the key. (It’s a little hard to spot, it’s on the right side of the desk.) Use the key to unlock the door to your right. Go through this door, and you enter a hallway. Some weird kind of dream/flashback to Jeremiah’s school days begins. Keep walking left and speak to all three of the boys in the hall. Open the door to the far left and enter Father Ernest’s room.

11. Father Ernest’s room
Finally, you meet your old teacher again! Talk to him. Jeremiah will pray with the old man. Father Ernest asks you three questions. You can do it again if you fail to give the answer he wants to hear. The correct answers are, in order:
  1. The sharp sword.”
  2. The endless blame.”
  3. The lost seaman.”
Father Ernest still kicks you out. But you need something from his room. Go back inside. He may be blind, but he can still hear you. You have to move carefully to remain undetected. Wait until Father Ernest makes noise before you move. When he walks, talks or cough, go to the cabinet by the door. Search the cabinet to find a bloody razor. Combine the razor and the log in your inventory into a cutting tool.
           Go back through the corridor, into the lobby, and up the stairs. Walk right until you reach a tapestry. Cut it open with your cutting tool and go through the once-hidden door to enter the dormitory.

12. The dormitory
After a short cut scene, to to the right end of the room. The next thing you have to do is, in my opinion, absolutely insane, but you have to do it: Lie down in the bottom bunk of the bed agains the wall and go to sleep. You will enter a genuinely spooky dream sequence.
           There are notes next to the flickering candles on the floor. You have to read every one of them. Go out the door into the corridor and read the notes here, too. Continue your way down the stairs and into the lobby. Read the note here, then go left into the hospital area. Keep going right and read all the notes on the floor. The door to your right is coated in blood. That’s always a good sign! Open it and walk through to enter the classroom. Read the last note. Prepare for another jump scare. Go left, down the trapdoor. A cut scene plays that some may find disturbing, some hilarious. Let’s just say: If this is anything to go by, the groundskeeper/gravedigger seems to be a little too into his work.
           Jeremiah wakes up in the dormitory. You didn’t notice that trapdoor before. So let’s go check it out in the real world! Go back downstairs and into the classroom. Move left to where the trapdoor was in the dream. Lift the rug in front of the teacher’s desk to reveal ... a hidden trapdoor! Open it and go down into the cellar.

13. The cellar
You meet an old friend again: the patient who wanted you to kill him. His situation looks even worse now. If you agreed to euthanize him, you can use the morphine on him now. If you refused to kill him, your bible is pretty worthless now, and he’ll just die when you enter the room. Oh, also there are a lot of dead bodies. Don’t stay here, it’s creepy! Go right and through the opened doorway. Prepare for a cutscene and to be knocked out.
           Congratulations! You are now buried alive, but you also got the badge Beyond The Veil. Doesn’t that more than make up for it?

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