2. The Gallery - Episode 2: Heart of the Emberstone General hints and tips

The game world is divided into three main areas, which you can go back and forth between fairly readily. Certain rooms and side-areas are not open at the beginning and need to be unlocked. One subarea will close for good once you've gone through it. There is no save system, per se. The game automatically saves upon completion of certain tasks or movement from point A to point B. Certain rooms and features will reset each time you return through a load screen, allowing you to return to the original state (in fact, you want to take advantage of this for some achievements). Required game plot tasks (e.g., unlocking doors) are permanent once completed, however, and do not have to be repeated.

One achievement is mutually incompatible with a number of other achievements, so the game requires two full play throughs to earn everything. On the first play through you should explore thoroughly, soak in the atmosphere and lore, poke into corners, read books and notes and data pads and enjoy the game. The second run will be a speedrun (required for an achievement); the target time is 93 minutes, but you can easily do it in about an hour if you skip all of the exploration.

Movement in the game is predominantly done through a teleportation mechanism known as blinking (you can change movement type in settings, but most players seem to prefer blink). If you are not familiar, you look at where you want to go while holding a button on a controller (a target appears where you are looking) and then release the button to instantly move there. Almost all of your movement will use blinking. What you will certainly forget is that this is a room-scale game! Within the confines of your playing space, you can walk around, look behind things, kneel or crawl, reach up high (if your ceiling allows it). There will be times you'll find yourself struggling to blink into a certain location and/or direction when all you have to do is take a step or two forward and turn your body. Remembering it's a room-scale game and you can walk a step or two will save you a lot of time and headache and adds to the immersion.

Depending on the type of object, there are two primary ways you interact with them in the game. Some objects can simply be picked up, examined, held, thrown, etc. A small subset of these can be placed in your backpack. Just like the first game, to open your backpack, reach behind your head with one hand, pull the trigger to grasp, then bring your arm forward with the backpack in your hand. Its outline will appear and you find a spot floating in space where you can release the trigger to place it open. Once it's open you can choose an item by touching its image, which causes it to appear in the center section, where you can then pick it up and play with it. Dropping the item will cause it to reappear in the backpack. To put the backpack away, grasp a handle, pull it back over your head behind you and release it. Only a handful of objects are actually transportable (fewer than the first game) so you will not need to use this very much. A few items are in your backpack to start, including a flashlight and a cassette player.

The second mode of interaction is using the specially gloved hand (right by default, but changeable in the settings) to use (essentially) telekinesis to move and manipulate objects. This takes a bit of practice but is a key part of the game and you will be introduced to it right at the beginning. Objects that can be manipulated this way cannot be picked up directly, and visa-versa.