Part 4: Submachine 3: The Loop

Part 4
Submachine 3: The Loop


Click here to play the game yourself

This game starts with some cool music.
♫ Thumpmonks - Submachine 3 - Intro


The gif's framerate makes it hard to tell, but we're moving downwards at incredible speed through a series of identical rooms.










I'll say right now, this game is probably the most difficult to LP in the series. If you're not trying to solve the puzzles yourself there's not that much to see. So I'll try to keep the pace up for this game.

In this starting room we can do only one thing: pick up that device on the ground.


The device appears on screen. I've seen it called the Compass or the Navigator. We'll be needing it soon.

Grabbing the Navigator also makes the cover move from that button in the middle. In the standard version it's not possible at this moment to go through the doors or climb the ladders, all we can do is click the button. But in the HD version, it's possible to leave at this point. There are four new Notes hidden around the HD version of this room, and I'll post their contents during this update and the next one.

Anyway, let's press the button.


We fly off to the right at great speed and end up in a room similar to the one we started in. We also get passwords in this game, to restart where we left off if necessary. Some of these passwords are actually Polish words.

I think I'm gonna be sick...

We can now explore.

♫ Thumpmonks - Submachine 3 - The Loop


To the right of the room we ended up in, we find this map room. The X shows our origin (the room we were just in, with the Passage machine), while the dots show rooms that are important. But who cares about maps. Let's just go further right.


As you can see, the Navigator acts as a sort of coordinate system. The left number shows our x coordinate, relative to the origin at the Passage machine, while the right number is the y coordinate. We can actually keep going forever in any direction, there seems to be an endless number of these empty rooms.

Looking down the corridor, this seems to go on forever. Where am I? Does this place even fit under the ground anywhere?

I mean, there's got to be some kind of software limit, but I don't know what it is. I tried going 100 rooms out, and the Navigator just keeps counting. Luckily, the puzzles are mostly located close to the origin.

According to the map there's something in the room above the Map room, coordinates 1,1. Let's check it out.


There's a kind of valve _{(It's more like a wheel-shaped switch, but what do you call that?)}, and when we turn it, the bottom light of the Navigator turns blue, while one of the top lights turns green.


Turn the valve in the next room over, and another Navigator light turns green.


There's six of these valves, and when we turn them all, all of the Navigator's lights turn green and the Passage machine unlocks. The big light on the bottom of the Navigator indicates how a puzzle is going: red = not started or reset, blue = in progress, green = completed.

This first puzzle is as easy as they get, it's probably meant as a tutorial on how to read the Map room and how to navigate the Loop. Let's use the Passage machine.


Going doooooooown...

Another one of those things? How many are there? This entire place seems to repeat in more ways than one.


Hmm, a whole lot of stuff to the top right this time. Every marked room contains this device.


If you click on it, a number appears. To solve the puzzle, you have to go to the room that number represents and activate the device there. Do this six times in a row to unlock the Passage machine.

The puzzle is actually less obvious than it seems, at first I didn't realize those numbers correspond to coordinates at all.



This seems like a good time for the first Note from the HD version.
I don't know who wrote this, but somehow I don't think it was Mur. Who else could've been here, though?


We end up at the location of the third puzzle. I think it should be clear by now that this game is rather different from Submachine 1 and 2, in that the puzzles are completely self-contained, and there's not really anything else to see.


Six rooms of interest this time. Let's start with the top right one.


The buttons let us increase and decrease all the numbers except for the top right one.


RTL
The top middle room has a valve we can't do anything with yet, while the top left room has another device with numbers. In this case, the number in the top left is stuck.

The same pattern is mirrored in the rooms below the Passage machine.


This puzzle is solved by having all four number devices match. In each one, a different number is stuck, so you have to check out every one to get the full solution. Each of the number devices makes a light on the Navigator go green. In addition, each pair of number devices unlocks a valve. Turn both valves to get the final two lights on the Navigator go green, and to unlock the Passage machine.




Urgh... how far down does this place go, anyway?


The marked rooms are a bit more scattered right now, and they all have the thing you see in the right picture. This one doesn't seem to do anything though.


Bingo. This puzzle isn't too hard. Just turn the knobs in the order they have been numbered.



Before going on, another HD Note.
There's no obvious order to these notes, by the way. I'm just posting them in an order that seems sensible to me.

Shit, I don't even want to imagine how horrible it must be if you wander off and can't find your way back because you don't have this coordinate thing. I'm glad I found it right away... Let's just hope it helps me find a way out of here. I'm starting to get kinda thirsty, and this doesn't seem like a place that would have a water cooler.


Another fast transport down, another subtle colour change.


All the rooms are to the top right. Last time that happened, it was a puzzle involving coordinates. In the rooms, you can use the buttons to pick letters.


It's as simple as it seems. A = 1, B = 2, and so on. Just set each room's letters to the coordinates of that room.


The puzzle wasn't too interesting. I'm glad to say that the games that come after this are more like Submachine 2, in that there's much more to see and do in the rooms. This game does matter in the overall story though, by establishing that the Submachine contains a seemingly infinite area. Let's move on for now.




Seven dots, scattered around. Let's start with the one just to the left.


We can use the buttons to cycle through the runes. Let's go to the other marked rooms to find some hints.


Once again the obvious solution is the correct one. Just place these runes at the indicated positions on the screen.


Press the button on the floor and if you got the runes correct, all lights turn green at once.


Alright, we're about halfway done with this game, so I'm going to end the update here. Next time, we'll try to find a way out of The Loop.