Solution for Queensrÿche's Promised Land

Link to page on the game itself.

This document presents solution notes for the game's puzzles and locating the totem pieces. It's full of spoilers, so don't read any further unless you want to.

Some areas are not complete. Additional information is desired (:-).

Overall Notes

For most of the game, if you have the "go ahead" cursor, it doesn't matter where you are on the screen when you click. As you get near totem pieces, it does matter.

It is never necessary to deal with the disaster in order to find the totem pieces.

In general, you find the totem pieces by taking a "side path" near where you enter the world.

The members of the group have two cameos each. One is in the forest world, and the other in each person's world. The ways of finding them are indicated below.

Chris' World, the Lighthouse

Totem Piece: Start at the foot of the stairs by the lighthouse door. Turn around, so that you are facing the way that you came in (to the world). Click once to start walking out of the world. As you go, the path drifts to the right. Click to go ahead, but on the left, on the ground between the rocks. Click left.

Disaster: You trigger it by flipping the big switch at the base of the lighthouse stairs. You solve it by entering one of the numbers that you found in the book in the room at the back of the lighthouse.

Miscellany:

• If you go in the front lighthouse door and wander around, you will find another room. It appears to be a puzzle, but I have not found any way to "solve" it.
• In the room at the back, try clicking on the guitar at the end of the room opposite the door that you came in.

Michael's World, the Obelisk

Totem Piece: You go up the stairs as you enter the world. Don't go into the red-lit tunnel, keep going all the way to the top, turn around, and look closely in the urn on the left.

Disaster: You trigger the disaster by clicking on the column on the right at the bottom of the stairs. To solve it, enter the red-lit tunnel and the first room on the right. The game works by matching the concept to the words. There are three levels. As you match, the words vanish. Trial and error works fine, but a little thought will speed things up.

Miscellany:

• I can't figure out how to get into the room opposite the puzzle solution room.
• Go a little way past the puzzle room, then click on the "picture" on the left wall.
• The gear puzzle is a little tricky. Just move the cursor over it to see where you can click. You click on a "lever" and a wheel slides down. You then click on the "wheel" to line the next wheel up with the next lever, then click on that next lever to slide it along. Continues for three levers.
• The books, too, are easy. There are only three, so at most you have to try two wrong ones first. But think a moment, and you may get it right the first time. You need to click on the candle flame or the glowing gem in the center of the cross. (If you triggered and solved the disaster, the last words left on the screen were "The Cross.")
• The guitars. More a test of patience than a puzzle. But, click on the brick at floor level just below the center guitar. Or, listen to the poem and it will point the way. Literally.
• Michael: Click the light, then again, and you should see him. Click in the wrong area, and you wind up at the dumping ground. You then have to go back to the guitars and try again.
• The dumping ground. As you wander around, there are lots of opportunities to get side tracked to the dumping ground. About all that I can say is that Michael must like it... Me? I thought imagery like that went out with the dark ages. (But it's very well done.)

Geoff's World, the Boat

Totem Piece: Get going on the boat (see below). Go North, then West, then North again to get the boat placed between the two islands. Look right (don't turn the boat) and click on the island to get there. You can touch this man-made object without triggering the disaster. You have to solve the gizmo to get the totem piece.

Click the center wheel on the gizmo twice. This should move the bottom wheel so that what appears to be a double strap is on the left. Then click the bottom wheel twice.

As near as I can tell, it doesn't matter how much you scramble things. Once you get that double strap on the bottom wheel on the left, you then just click on the bottom until it opens.

Disaster: You trigger it by clicking on a bouy (they're along the top of the map). You solve it by releasing the net from all five bouys. The one in the upper right is tricky to click on. You may have to click through your "tail."

"Tail?" you ask. Yes, don't forget to look behind you as you do the bouys. It's really fun as the clock gets toward zero...

Miscellany:

• Launching the boat: Look really closeley at the links on the chain. You know about salt water and metal, causes rust, which weakens the links?
• The worm symbolism is neat. So is sailing off the edge.
• You get underwater by going below decks. Click three times to go forward all the way, then click to go backward (do not turn around!), then click ahead. You'll see.
• Inside SeaWorld, you'll find a big totem piece (not the game one). Click it to get inside the brain. Geoff is in there.
• From the underwater part, you get back to the boat by going up the anchor chain.

Eddie's World, the Guitar

Totem Piece: The totem piece is in the sports bar (see below). Go ahead as far as you can. Click to the right, then click the bar.

Disaster: You trigger it in the subway car. You solve it by going to the tuning pin end (see below), solving the puzzle, then adjusting the four(!) tuning pins (separately) until you hear pure tones. If your hearing or sound card are off, forget it.

Miscellany:

• You find the ticket to the subway by the control dials. Head between them, then turn and head back. It should be on the ground.
• There are six destinations. From top to bottom:
   
  amp/puzzle/tuning pins
  talk show
  back to forest
  sports bar
  museum
  guitar base
  
• To go to a destination, click it on the map and wait. Do not click more. You have to wait for the animation to finish and the doors to open. If you get hasty, nothing happens.
• The talk show has two questions. To win, answer "yes" to both. (The first may be "no" if you haven't been to any other worlds.) Eddie is the talk show host.
• You solve the puzzle in the tuning pin end by trial and error. Or, at least I did.

Scott's World, the Floating One

Totem Piece: As you enter the world, you'll get to the viewer. At the platform, turn right. Keep turning right until you have gone about 3/4 way around. Click to go into the abyss.

You're in the city at the top. Go ahead to the elevator. Click the down button (may have to turn first). Go all the way down. Leave the elevator. Keep going until you get to the corner (about four clicks). If you turn around, you'll see a couple of wrecked cars, a building corner, a crane, and a view down the street (not a complete list of views).

When facing down the street, you'll see the street, the monorail track, and a blank building wall on the left. There is also a lit street lamp. (You can tell that it's lit because it casts a glow: all the street lamps have white or gray bulbs so they appear lit, even though they are not). Click the street lamp. The world will appear to go party "wire frame:" that's OK. The totem piece is to the right.

Disaster: While looking through the viewer, click the space lab. The disaster is triggered by entering the lab. Go right to the corner, then turn left and follow the corridor to the left. At the second corner, you'll see a machine. Go past it and follow the corridor again. The drum machine is in the third corner (you'll have gone about 5/8 of the way around).

OK, now you're at the machine. Ignore the black squares: they're a bug. The goal is to re-unite the two halves. (Yes, I know, it seems backwards. When I first solved it, I thought I had lost!)

The buttons are in two banks, on the left and right (ignore the colors). Assume that they are numbered as:

     L1  L2  L3  L4  L5          R1  R2  R3  R4  R5
     L6  L7  L8  L9  L10         R6  R7  R8  R9  R10

Click as follows:

          L1 -> R3
          L2 -> R10
          L3 -> R4
          L4 -> R9
          L5 -> R7
          L6 -> R1
          L7 -> R8
          L8 -> R5
          L9 -> R6
          L10 -> R2

Miscellany:

• It pays to look at all the sights in the viewer.
• In the lab, I could never get to the fourth corner.
• If you activate the machine in the second corner (the one in the shortcut view), you get kicked back to the viewer.
• Scott is under the pond. Enter the island part. Click on the tree on the right. Keep clicking to have the roots grow. Cross and click on the tree with the totem symbol. After it flies away, you are left turned to the pond. Click.
• Having gotten the totem piece, keep walking to the next corner. Turn left twice. You should be looking at the corner of a large, smooth building with a streetlamp in front. Click the streetlamp and this building will also go "wire frame."

Forest World

The forest world is where you wake up. It has the Big Log cabin, a columned-structure (the "mausoleum"), the entries to all five worlds, appearances by all five members of the group, and five "shortcuts" to the worlds.

• Legend:
   
  CH (blue) - Chris Himself, in a tidepool
  CJ (blue) - jump to Chris' World, a crow. When you walk down the path, a crow flies off. Turn the way the crow flew. You will see two big trees, with the crow near the upper right (looks like a blob). Click the crow.
  CW (blue) - Chris' World
  EH (red) - Eddie Himself, off a baseball home plate
  EJ (red) - jump to Eddie's World, a fence
  EW (red) - Eddie's World
  GH (brown) - Geoffrey Himself, in dunes
  GJ (brown) - jump to Geoffrey's World, a crystal
  GW (brown) - Geoffrey's World
  MH (gray) - Michael Himself, in a tree
  MJ (gray) - jump to Michael's World, a jeep
  MW (gray) - Michael's World
  SH (green) - Scott Himself, in a rock
  SJ (green) - jump to Scott's World, in a box
  SW (green) - Scott's World
• The Hidden Path is just that: you blunder through the brush, just like in a real forest.
• The Map is not to scale, either apparent or by number of clicks. The real paths are not straight.
• The Weird Thing is some sort of structure/object. I haven't found a way to get close to it or get a good look at it.

Password

As you explore the worlds, keep looking at how the "save game" password changes. But, if you want to jump ahead to the end (and the hidden song), here's the final one:

qAAAAAQ