I Don’t Remember Buying This, Episode 2 - Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, Part 4 Post 3 FINALE
So, after fighting past two penguins (it was boring so I have NO pictures) I end up finding a stack of three crates
You might be able to see that the right elevator goes up higher. If you go up there, you find a locked door and an open airshaft you can't get to. So, the solution is obvious: Push the pile of crates over and bring them up on the elevator. The problem is, if you try to push the bottom crate it gets pushed out from underneath the other crates
This is not how this would work at all
So, there's a puzzle here, and it's the absolute dumbest thing in the world. Here's what you have to do:
Position a crate above where the right elevator is, as seen above.
Position a second crate on top of the left elevator
Trigger the elevator, bringing the left box down to the ground floor, and moving the right elevator up underneath the right box.
Move the left box underneath the right box, and trigger the elevator. This will move the right elevator down onto the box. The box will phase through the bottom of the elevator and end up on top.
Trigger the elevator again, moving the bottom box up. It will phase through the floor and push up the upper box, resulting in the two boxes being stacked on top of each other.
Repeat for the third box to get a stack 3 high
You know what? I called this a puzzle, but it's not. It's a workaround to get around the fact that there's no real physics at work in this game, so pushing the bottom box won't cause the two other boxes to move at the same time like it should.
Seriously, that's a basic thing. Stack three random things you've got around you RIGHT NOW on top of each other, and push the item you put on the bottom. Assuming you made a stable tower, the result is all three objects moving (or none of them moving if they're obscenely heavy). This is a result of a force called friction, which prevents things from moving forever once a force is applied to them. The items have friction with each other, so if the bottom item has sufficient force applied, friction prevents the top objects from staying still while the bottom item moves beneath them.
Anyway, you use the stack of crates to get into the airshaft:
And follow said airshaft into an area crawling with penguins
(Ignore the talking penguin, he just complains for a while)
So, since I'm up here and the penguins don't see me (even if they could you can only shoot left or right with no angling in this game) the obvious choice is to take control of one and explore for a bit.
...But this exploration doesn't really get me anywhere (apparently I'm not supposed to be over here at all: Jumping down into the room just leads you back to the stacking puzzle room, and you have to take the elevator back up to the airshaft since you can't climb back into the one you got in here from) so I head in a different direction and end up
Accidentally triggering a collectible I didn't know about. I guess? I dunno. I ended up hitting all three flags and only got an achievement, so whatever.
Eventually I figure out what to do: You can use the airshaft to get through the locked door that was underneath the shaft that we first went into (apparently it opens from one side) and from there, you can push one of the crates in the stacking puzzle onto a different elevator, into an airshaft (don't ask how you push the crate through when you can only get through the crouching sections by rolling the whole way) and eventually...
I actually got a little bit confused here. There's an elevator shaft on the other side here, but when you go to the top you can't jump high enough to make it to the next area:
I guess I need to get the crate over here? You can open that locked door and push it through here:
But you still can't get high enough. It's almost like you need... to stack up... multiple...
YOU HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE THIS
They don't even change the puzzle! It's the same shit, put boxes at the bottom of an elevator shaft and drop the elevator with boxes onto it so they stack, it just takes longer because they spread it over like 12 rooms instead of keeping it in just one!
This is the definition of padding. The puzzle isn't difficult, it's not hard to figure out what to do since this is literally 5 minutes or so after the first one (if even). It's just busywork to pad out the game.
At least I get some mildly amusing dialog for doing it (and an achievement for stacking all three of the boxes, since you apparently only needed to do two)
...Aaaaaaand it was about this point that my buzzer went off, signalling that I had played for an hour and could FINALLY stop playing the game.
Honestly, though? The game's not terrible. It's not great by any means, but it's an interesting if baffling premise that's done decently well all around and looks pretty alright. I've got some issues with some of the level design choices, but I didn't hate my time with Rocketbirds when I was done, which is more than I can say about Ravensword.
The game is about 10 bucks on Steam, and if you're interested in what you see you might get your ten bucks worth of entertainment out of this. If it's on sale for five bucks or less, I might even recommend it! I feel like I was pretty close to beating it, too. I almost want to keep playing to get to the end.
