Cosmonauts Studios’Eternal Threadsis a future-set first-person survival puzzle game where every decision a player makes will impact the outcome. Released in 2022,Eternal Threadsis a game that lives up to its name. This atmospheric and aesthetically eerie first-person is a classic case of Newton’s Third Law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.Eternal Threadsoffers players the chance to control “Forty-Third”, an individual from the future looking to manipulate the past, in his quest to save the lives of several notable individuals.
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Given the nature of deep-divedecision-making puzzle games, it’s hardly a surprise thatEternal Threadscan be both pleasurable and difficult while being rewarding and frustrating all at the same time. And, while players may fall in love with the narratives they influence and the characters they intend to save, the depth and impact of in-game decision-making is sure to test several players’ resolve from time to time. These tips will help get budding players started in the world ofEternal Threads.
6Listen
Set in thenorth of England,Eternal Threadsbrings together a cast of distinctly British characters with distinctly English voices. From Mancunian to Liverpudlian accents, the game introduces several characters whose every word is potentially significant. From the start, players will be inundated with dialogue that is both mundane and interesting they should listen to everything and dismiss nothing out of hand.
Every bit of speech uttered by the game’s lead characters can, and almost certainly will, indicate an area of further exploration and decision-making for Forty-Third. Decision-making is going to benefit from listening carefully to both the words that the characters say and the tone that they say them.
5Explore Everywhere
In the same vein as dialogue, the environment in which the game is set should be explored down to the last detail. Players find themselves roaming freely around an English home, observing and manipulating the behaviors of its occupants in aneffort to avert disaster.
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The choices a player decides to make will almost certainly be influenced by items in the environment. Every room, wall, corner, and surface area should be explored by Forty-Third. Additionally, rooms are ripe with furniture which often hold the key to solving puzzles or information in the form of notes or pictures that may affect a player’s decision-making.
4Complete Available Events
Every decision a player makes will reverberate throughout the story and impact on whether Forty Third is or is not successful on his mission. Making what might be considered the ‘wrong’ decision can lead to a variety of disastrous outcomes that includea potential apocalypse. The stakes are high! With that in mind, gathering as much information as possible before making time-manipulating decisions is going to be vital to success. As such, before making those decisions it is wise to explore everywhere and listen to everything in all the ‘events’ available to access.
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Each available event will reveal more information and further decisions for the player to make. It will be beneficial to be familiar with all available information from all events before making big decisions, though what a ‘big decision’ is will be highly subjective.
3Be Patient
Eternal Threadsincludes a lot of dialogue and plenty of reading for players to consume. Additionally, it is a complex puzzle game that by its very nature is going to take a patient mind to master. But, in terms of pragmatic patience, decision-making should be viewed with a great amount of initial caution.
Attempting to manipulate events from the off may be tempting, but there are a couple of reasons why this is not a wise idea. Firstly, as mentioned last entry, gathering information before making big calls will always be preferable. Secondly, given the potential to manipulate things almost immediately, it is wise to be patient and get an understanding of how events initially unfold. If one begins to make time-altering decisionsbefore having a baseline grasp of events, the changes a player initiates can become hard to keep track of, and things may become confusing. So regardless of a player’s intuition, it is much better to hold fire and be patient when deciding to manipulate time.
2Consider Significance
Listening carefully and exploring every room and every available event is a good start in accumulating decision-influencing information. As players become more familiar with the gameplay and setting, they will also become more familiar with the characters. Understanding as much as possible about these complex personalities, from habits and body language to admirable traits and flaws, players are going to maximize their chances of a positive outcome.
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By considering how every behavior, word, or action might be significant in the grand narrative players will pick up on recurring themesthat may need further attention.
1Take Note(s)
Whether physically or mentally, taking note of as much as possible is going to help. While it is not always easy to keep track of the Butterfly Effect-like decision-making and consequences, it is a good idea to try. Take note ofrecurringthemes and patternsno matter how mundane or irrelevant they may initially seem. What initially happens at each event? what is in the environment? what do the characters say? how do they say it? what gestures do they make? and how do they behave? this could all be relevant.
Eternal Threadsis an eerie puzzle game that requires an attentive and patient player to manipulate time with great care if they are to save these intriguing characters.
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