I have come to the end of my progress in this game because the puzzle in this level requires far more 'twitch' than I can summon up.

POTENTIAL SPOILER

There are no fewer than 22 individual movements to make to complete the journey from one side to the other and with, at best, 2 seconds max on each movement. I can get so far but my hand/eye coordination is simply not up to what is required. Unless there is some way of slowing down the time between the trapdoors opening up (and I'm guessing there isn't) then I guess I will have to bow out.

They follow a set pattern. Watch it a few times, and write it down if you have to.

It took me a couple of attempts doing it on reflex before I had the pattern committed to memory and was able to pass it consistently.

as pax said its a et pattern, so if u watch it a few times you can just press the coordination forward back and sidestep wise. i always do it facing forward (from the entrance area) since there is a..... button on the wall as u travel the plates

I found this one easier than it looks, because it looks daunting, but it's a simple pattern, and not as hard as you initially think to keep up with the closing platforms. Don't give up yet, these things are tricky so that it takes at least a couple tries to complete (or more than a couple ;)

Well, I had already worked out the pattern, hence the counting of 22 steps but after about thirty tries I can still only get about halfway before the opening trapdoors catch me up.

I played the original Dungeon Master, back in the day, and although it had a few 'timed' puzzles, there was nothing like this. It is simply a overlong test of reflex and has nothing to do with role playing or even puzzle solving. IMO it spoils what is, up to now an enjoyable game.

Sure, if I spend the next week practising it I will probably get it eventually but I really don't feel like wasting the amount of time it would take to crack it. Also it doesn't bode well for what awaits in the next levels.

I think the 'twitch' element should be limited to combat and used very sparingly on puzzles.

I think you merely need to learn how to move sideways instead of trying to turn into the direction you want to move into first. That puzzle is really easy, once you memorized the pattern.

Just to make sure, are you making any turns along the way, or only pressing the WSAD keys to move forward/backward/sideways? Because this puzzle is much easier to complete using the latter method.

If I had this problem, I would try to solve it by taking a piece of paper and writing down all of the directions that I'd need to be moving in during the puzzle.

It also helps if you time your key presses to the sound the trapdoors make when they open/close. That way you need not concentrate on the timing, and you can focus all your attention on pressing the keys in the correct sequence.

I wish you good luck, and don't let this deter you from playing the rest of this amazing game.

Well, this is an old-school game. One of the things old-school developers didn't worry about too much was mass market appeal. If you find this game requires more twitch skill than you care for, then perhaps this isn't the game for you.

Also, if you don't like this puzzle, there's puzzles later that you're definitely going to hate. Many of the later puzzles have a time sensitive element to them, so calling it a wash right now might save you a lot of frustration in the future. Perhaps you can partner up with a friend who's into FPS games who can help you out with the twitchy puzzles so you can concentrate on the more cerebral ones?

DONE IT!!!!!!!

Thanks for all the encouragement. It took quite a few more tries, and lots of highly inventive swearing but I got there in the end.

Overall I like the 'old school' approach, being very old school myself but age dims the reflexes somewhat and makes the job a bit harder.

Cheers!

Very few problems in life good old-fashioned swearing cannot solve.

Anyway, congrats on making it! You can thankfully skip the way back.

I see this button and have pressed it but I don't know what it does. Any ideas?

lets say you explore the corner betwene the 2 entrances ;)

Worked perfectly. I was doing the puzzle facing one direction (the wall with the button) to get past it quickly. When I did it again I saw it the opening.

Thanks