The Mulldoon Legacy on the forgiveness scale

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I thought I’d undertake The Mulldoon Legacy shortly, and would appreciate to know where it lies on the forgiveness scale before starting.

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I haven’t played it yet. I’m scared.

Let us know how you fared, brave sir.

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I’m plugging away at Mulldoon Legacy very slowly - I still have 100 points to go, so I can’t vouch for the whole game yet.

I’d say it’s nasty/cruel on the forgiveness scale, but not by design. Jon Ingold’s tried hard to make the game forgiving. For example, some actions take you to a new part of the game world abruptly, but you’re expected to play on and use what you find there to get out - you’re not screwed if you haven’t found the item you need before going there.

I’ve found one or two situations which I don’t think are winnable, but maybe I just didn’t spot how you were supposed to get out of them. Usually, they were obviously bad moves right after I’d done them - dropping an item down a hole where you can’t get it back, say. The only outright cruel situation I’ve found so far (puzzle spoiler, but without giving much of the solution away): save before you cut the painter, because if you’re not careful the boat can leave without you. (It might be possible to reset the boat, but I didn’t see how in the walkthrough I’m using!)

Basically, it might be cruel, but it’s not Curses cruel. Save often and you should be okay.

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Thanks, I think I can live with that.

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I’ve now beaten The Mulldoon Legacy. A couple of extra things to add:

  • At least one scene in the game is buggy, and I got into an unwinnable situation twice without knowing how. Game mechanic spoilers, vague plot spoilers: the third mosaic scene. Twice, I wasn’t able to get into crucial locations despite having the object I needed. I think putting the object inside your character’s clothes breaks the game. As always, making a back-up save whenever there’s some big change in the game state is the best insurance.

  • There is one deliberately cruel puzzle late in the game, where you won’t have your solution confirmed until 100 moves after it’s too late to change it. You get a warning and a chance to change your mind before you commit to it. The puzzle has a logical solution. It’s the best puzzle in the game, imo. I think the cruelty is just to stop you brute-forcing it.

What I said before still stands - The Mulldoon Legacy is not mean-spirited, but save often anyway.

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Well done! I haven’t started it yet, but am even more looking forward to it now.

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Congratulations!

Thanks for the insider intel.

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Thank you. I owe a lot to pjg’s walkthrough.

(Although I have to say, it’s a very efficient walkthrough, and it’s very hard to look up the puzzle solution you need without giving away bits of other puzzles. You guys can ask me for hints if you want when you get around to Mulldoon Legacy.)

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Thanks. I’ll get back to you on that after I get through Finding Martin. (In a year or two :slightly_smiling_face:)

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