This is really just another been there, done that game, but it might be worth a half off sale, or wait for the SE. It's very pretty and not too saturated with pinks and purples which is a relief! The one other positive thing is that instead of skipping puzzles, you can play a Match-3 game which I've not seen before. The story line isn't all that great and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure of what it is...it just melds into all the other story lines that have come out the past year or so. The SE version would be worth it for the Match-3 because no guide needed for any of the puzzles. All in all, pretty, but not engrossing.
I refuse to pay a CE price that doesn't have a custom option in this day & age. So either I have to endure a whole mess of annoying sparkles telling me every single move to make (an absolute pet-peeve of mine) just so I can get available actions on the map, or spend the way too much time wandering around wondering what to do? Unacceptable.
I was getting a major deja vu while playing the demo last night and then it hit me....I've played this before! I went back and downloaded Enchanted Kingdom: A Dark Seed and played it again and whaddaya know, almost the same exact game. I'm not saying I didn't thoroughly enjoy it, because I absolutely did. What I'm saying is I don't want to pay for the same game twice. Honestly, if you want to know reviews of this game, just look at the reviews from Dark Seed. Nothing much left to say, so get busy clicking that "Not Helpful" button! lol
Why can't more games be like this? I was starting to lose hope that there was nothing left in the Big Fish tank, but this game made me breathe a sigh of relief.
The graphics are outstanding and the games aren't brain busters, but they're creative and fun. Put those together with an actually interesting story and you have a real winner here. I took off 1/4 star for the games being just a tad easy.
If the game continues to be this fun after the demo, I'm in for a good day.
Who else is sick of saying/reading the words "Cookie-Cutter"? This is laziness at it's max and frankly I'm tired of it. Wooden characters, boring game play, lackluster story line, same regurgitated games and not ONE redeeming quality to this thrown together game.
It's depressing to watch really good game's series sink lower and lower with every release. It's so obvious there was no love put into this game, or any games Eipix has slopped out for the last year or so. I don't know what else to say, except the excitement of seeing a new game come out is no longer there, so I think I'll take a break from BF for awhile.
What can I say? The game moves along nicely, but it's getting hard to separate one game from another anymore. So far in the demo there has not been one puzzle or hog that I haven't done a thousand times before. I'm thinking it's time to find another pastime, because it looks like we've seen all there is to see in the HOG world. There isn't much else to say....it's just another "been there, done that" game, but in all fairness to the creative teams, how many more ways could there be to hide objects?
I wonder if the devs are getting as tired of reading poor reviews as I am of writing them. I'm just going to cut to the chase and say the story line was making me yawn after 10 minutes, I couldn't of cared less about any of the characters, the puzzles were about as challenging as opening a Ziploc bag and I'm not even exaggerating when I say there were three (maybe four? I might have slept through one) "if you move one, some others might move too" puzzles within 15 minutes of each other. What stopped me from even completing the demo, was the moment I knocked over the lantern into the filing cabinet causing a fire and then hearing (this is not verbatim) "They're trying to destroy the evidence!" Ummm.....I'm the idiot that knocked the lantern down...who's "they"? I'm not being sarcastic when I ask if there is just nothing more they can do creatively. Have we seen everything there is to see? I know I'm not the only one who would rather wait for one great CE game a week, instead of five cookie cutters with no thought behind them that are just a waste of time and money. I am writing this review exactly an hour and a half after release......let's see how quickly it will be posted.
Okay, so this isn't the best game I've ever played or anything, but it's far from the worst. I was super close to giving up on Eipix altogether. I'll keep this short, as I'm too lazy to go into heavy details....we have Sunnyglow and Pennmom36 for that (thankfully) I am a big fan of the match-3 alternative to the hog's though, so that's a plus. Map is good (like always) mini games are pretty much run of the mill Eipix style, so nothing new here. The one thing it has going for it is that the story line is pretty cool and I'm actually wanting to know what's going to happen next....which has been severely lacking in this year's Eipix games. So kudos for that. Hey! I give credit where credit is due. All in all I'm liking it and will be purchasing it with the BOGO sale today. Thanks for taking the time to read this and Happy Holidays, Fishies!! PLEASE be kind to each other!
Favorite Genre(s):Family, Hidden Object, Large File, Puzzle
Fun Factor
2/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
3/ 5
Level of Challenge
2/ 5
Storyline
1/ 5
I have my 9 year old Grandniece visiting and thought this would be a cute game to play together. Well, when a 9 year old looks at you and rolls her eyes, you know it's not a good game. The graphics were just okay...at best. The story line and voice overs is what had her rolling the eyes and exclaiming "Oh, brother!" The level of challenge was laughable, with only one mini game causing even a little pause to work it out. We quit after a little while and I reinstalled a few of my old Christmas games (Nutcracker, Tin Soldier, A Christmas Carol and Puss in Boots) and we had a ball with those. I went back and finished this one and it just never got any better. Silly is okay, but bad is just, bad. I'm a bit confused at the rave reviews....those reviewers either have never played the old ones, or they forgot how magical they were and have gotten used to the sub par games coming out lately. Maybe next year.