pamhamlet's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.2
- Helpful Votes:103
- Reviews Submitted:6
- First Review:March 29, 2012
- Most Recent Review:January 5, 2014
- Featured reviews0
pamhamlet's Review History
The survival of an ancient kingdom has been threatened. Restore the four elements with help from an adorable fairy in this enchanting Puzzle game.
Overall rating
5
/
5
10 of 13 found this review helpful
Different Kind of "Match 3"
PostedJanuary 5, 2014
pamhamlet
fromSo. California
Skill Level:Intermediate
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Fun, beautiful, and challenging! This is not the typical Match 3 where you simply swap tiles to make three in a row. This one is strictly chained tiles, where you create a chain of linked tiles to clear them. The only way to swap tiles is by using a special power up, and even then, you still have to chain through the tiles once swapped, in order to clear them.
NOTE: about the power ups: they are only replenished by making chains; they don't refill automatically. For this reason, you may become flustered when you can't see a chain to be made, and you don't have any power ups to use because they depend on you making chains #heh heh#. Another thing I noticed is that when you start a level there are often several long chains to get you started, then as you progress, long chains become rarer and almost non-existent. But this is what makes the game a great challenge!
There are 64 levels total---16 per "element" of earth, fire, air, and water. All levels are timed, but the clock is generous. In the beginning, things are easy, and I found myself quickly completing levels without realizing how I did it! There were a few levels I had to restart, but I finally got the hang of it, and there is strategy involved. TIP: Don't be fooled when you see a huge field of boulders, thinking you need to clear them all away---the "energy" can flow underneath them once tiles are removed. Following instructions from the helpful fairy keeps you from wasting precious time. Also for each element, there are mini games consisting of spot-the-differences on magic cards.
For those who complained about having to race quickly before the barriers collapsed---that particular challenge does not happen until the very last level, yet it is not that difficult and is still forgiving. If the barriers collapse before you reach your mark, you can still keep going, making chains in other areas and recharging your power ups to move ahead, so don't let that scare you. It happened to me, but I was still able to finish and win the game regardless. Consequently, it isn't fair to consider the entire game a loss just for that reason.
Overall, the game bedazzles with a good magical storyline, artwork, special effects, and a sense of accomplishment when you finally reach the finish with a spectacular ending! Also glad to see there is a sequel!
I recommend this game!
Play through awesome levels, collect Santa’s coins and prepare your house for Christmas with beautiful ornaments and illuminations!
Overall rating
4
/
5
5 of 5 found this review helpful
Cheery Holiday Fun!
PostedDecember 11, 2013
pamhamlet
fromSo. California
Skill Level:Intermediate
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I liked this delightful game! It is a simple match 3 that is geared toward putting you in happy holiday spirits--perfect for the season.
The music is light and joyful, and the icons are pretty and all christmas themed. The powerups are plentiful and animated with exploding effects and sounds. What I liked is that, while the levels do get more difficult as you progress, they are interspersed with smaller, easier grids inbetween so that not every new screen is a wall of difficult chains and blocks to bust. So that provides a break now and then at the higher levels. I took my time and played leisurely over a few days, but I do wish the game had been longer. Once you've completed all the levels and decorated the house, the game is finished, but you can look forward to starting all over again next year!
The cozy, wintery cottage you get to decorate using earned coins is quite lovely, with animated smoke in the chimney and blinking strands of colorful lights to place along the rooftop, walkway and trees. I also wished it could have been kept as a screensaver for the holiday season. So, get a hot cup of tea or cocoa and enjoy this plucky little gem!
I recommend this game!
Help Elise run the very first Sandwich Shoppe in this fast-paced Time Management game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
7 of 8 found this review helpful
Could have been better.
PostedDecember 8, 2013
pamhamlet
fromSo. California
Skill Level:Intermediate
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I liked the theme period and artwork of this game, it was cute. The sandwiches look delicious and made me want to make my own to eat! It looks cozy and inviting inside the shop, so it was attractive to play.
At first, things were fun learning all the new ingredients and breads to make up sandwiches, plus the quirks of certain customers (like the gentleman who always wants EVERYTHING on his sandwich). By about level 35 though, things started getting tedious and tiring, and my wrist and arm were aching from clicking so much even after taking breaks. Elise was the only worker in the shop; no helpers. Upgrades to the shop appearance stopped happening half-way through, so that was a let down--it needed more pretty options to hold my interest.
The restaurant started getting crowded and patrons all grouped in clumps so it was hard to tell who had which thought bubble and I often clicked on the wrong person because they were all overlapping. I didn't like the way the ingredients were laid out as Elise kept circling around, back and forth, wasting time and often stood in the way of condiments so they were hard to click onl
I played untimed mode, but when the big message popped up "Level completed!" more lines of patrons still continued to come through the door expecting to be served, so I went ahead and did that, but I never understood the point of that aspect.
Overall, the game is fun up to a point, but then becomes repetitious and makes my arm sore. It could have had a lot more going for it with some changes and additions. Still, I would recommend this game perhaps if on sale.
I recommend this game!
A lone FBI agent has come to the Haunted Hotel, from which no one can escape, until its mysteries are unraveled.
Overall rating
1
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Warning: Dreadful, no fun at all.
PostedDecember 8, 2013
pamhamlet
fromSo. California
Skill Level:Intermediate
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
1
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
Gah! Where do I begin? The awfulness of this game is almost amusing! I can't believe the developers thought this was a fun game, and it is hard to believe some here gave it 5 stars. The story was lacking depth and connective logic and I found myself not caring about anything or anyone.
Every HOS has exactly 30 items to find in each scene. Yes, 30, most all of them teeny tiny obscure objects, that often repeat in each scene: thermometer, feather, chess piece, sunglasses, baton, guitar pick, match sticks, button and a fly. Boring. A "cone" was a pine cone in one scene and a traffic cone in another, and a "beer can" was completely white and looked more like a spool or pouch of cloth, not a can at all.
Each HOS pretty much follows one right after the other, with easy-cheesy puzzles inbetween. After I finished putting together a picture using puzzle pieces, it then became another HOS scene with 30 MORE objects to find. If you use the hint button too many times, you'll get a message on screen scolding you, saying, "No More Hints!" and that's exactly what it means.
I could not and did not care to even finish this game. I wasted about an hour of my time, all the while listening to repetitious music (one song was a rock guitar solo that sounded similar to Jimi Hendrix playing lead to "All Along the Watchtower" in a HOS scene. I like Jimi, but that's not what I want to listen to over and over when I'm trying to relax and play a quiet computer game. That and all those annoying sound effects, shuffling papers, crunching, knocking, clicking, buzzers, and constant coughing.
The only game I've played worse than this was the original Haunted Hotel, of which I also did a review. Don't waste your time with this one. Nothing to see here.
I don't recommend this game.
After using your Ancestor’s Mirror to explore Castle Fairwich, you are sent back in time on a brand new quest!
Overall rating
5
/
5
28 of 28 found this review helpful
Good, engaging storyline
PostedApril 3, 2012
pamhamlet
fromSo. California
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Card & Board, Strategy, Time Management, Mahjong
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This was an intriguing time travel mystery story which held my interest and I actually cared about helping the protagonist get her time machine working again to save her granddaughter and all the other train passengers. It is a ghost story, but not frightening or spooky. Perfect for moms and daughters to play together. I give it 4.5 stars.
THINGS I LIKED: Find and shoot the tin can in every HO scene. Find the mirror to gain extra hints. Solving puzzles without skipping also gains you extra hints.
I appreciated the well-thought out adventure and how it all comes together (even if it was far-fetched!). The story has a logical flow as you move around town accomplishing your tasks. You do not have freedom to explore wherever you wish, but you do enter every building and room in town sequentially, as it is appropriate to your quest. Some places you do revisit.
The graphics are nicely done: pretty scenery in a ghost town setting. I also appreciated the good use of spelling and grammar when reading dialog, notes, and journal pages. So refreshing!
I did not find the objects in the HOSs tiny or overly hard to find. They are easily recognizable and I never got frustrated. In fact, I only had to use 2 or 3 hints in the entire game to find objects. But I tend to be very patient and don't like to rush through my games. The HO scenes are interactive---some items are completely hidden under or behind other things, so you may need a tool to uncover them, but the cursor changes shape and makes a faint click noise as you run it over those objects, so it helps you find them. You can also use your hints if needed.
If you unlock the "Mirror-Mirror" gameplay at the end, all it does is replay the exact same game all over again, only everything is facing the other way, as if you held a mirror up to your screen and saw the scene and house from that perspective. I assume this should probably add to replay value. Otherwise, all game play remains the same.
THINGS NOT LIKED: If I had anything bad to say about this game at all, it would be the many HO scenes. For those who love them, you are in luck. Regardless of their number, the HOSs and mini-games were fun and not overtaxing...no penalties and lots of hints, so I still found them enjoyable. A satisfying game overall.
I recommend this game!
Check in to the spooky Haunted Hotel and immerse yourself in a thrilling adventure!
Overall rating
1
/
5
52 of 63 found this review helpful
Awful! Do not waste your time or money.
PostedMarch 29, 2012
pamhamlet
fromSo. California
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Card & Board, Strategy, Time Management, Mahjong
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
1
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
This is the worst game I have ever played, and I've been gaming for years. This had NO fun value whatsoever. Lots of corners were cut here. It was a very poorly thought out and cheaply done product.
First, the whole game takes place inside of an elevator of a hotel---you are inside of it looking out through the doors into the hallway, with rooms on either side of the hallway. That's it. You never move from that spot. To seemingly "move" around the hotel, the doors to the elevator simply close before your eyes, and when they open again, it appears you are on another floor. Then you just click on one of the doors to the rooms, and are shown a HOS---lots of them, in succession, which are not sharp or bright. They look grainy, a bit monochrome, and some parts of the screen have a misty cloud-cover over areas that further obscures object clarity.
The entire story begins and unfolds from a journal which you have to read yourself---page after page of text. It is type written out AS YOU READ it, it is not already printed; therefore, if you have to go back a page to reread something again, you cannot simply turn back to the previous page without the entire page being re-typed, from top to bottom, all over again, line by line, very slowly, while you wait for the page to fill with text. On top of this, there are many spelling and grammatical errors, lack of punctuation, with occasional double words or words that don't fit the context. At one point, his interest was "peaked" instead of "piqued." Then you must read and reread this poor attempt at writing skills, to figure out the whole story. Ugh! Tedious and annoying.
You never interact with any character, not even the cat. You must read about everything in your journal with its few, bland pencil drawings---no color whatsoever The repititious background noise is like the sound of a lit furnace in a basement. There are constant "coughing" noises which was dumb. I thought whoever it was in the background could use a lozenge.
Be careful of the HOSs--you only ever get 5 hints, and they are all TIMED. The hints flash by very quickly and do not linger over the object, so you could easily waste your hint by never finding whatever was there! Because of the mist, some hints I never even saw where they landed! Some of the objects are under others, so you could use up all your hints and never find the object you are looking for because it is under something else. Also, the cursor must be exactly on the object, so if it is a tiny piece of string, or a line drawn on a paper, you have to get the tip of the finger of the cursor exactly touching that string or line. You cannot just place your cursor over the object and click. I must have clicked on a pencil-thin "lightening bolt" (shaped like a zig-zagged line with an arrow on one end (?), drawn on a scrap of paper) 4 times before getting just the tip of the cursor (which is shaped like a hand with fingers, not an arrow pointer) exactly on the very thin line of the "lightening bolt" before I could pick it up.
Does anyone know what a "trilby" is? Well, I didn't, but it's a man's bowler hat worn in England. Also, a "pin" was actually a clothespin, yet I was looking for a straight pin, a safety pin, or a decorative brooch of some kind.The intermittent arcade-style puzzles throughout are so easy as to make one yawn from boredom. There is no skipping, although there is no need.
Oh---again watch out with the HOSs, if you click too many times you are penalized: the game kicks you out completely, says you "lose" and you have to start the game all over again from the very beginning! Not from the point you left off! When that happened to me, I just shut the game down and will never play it again. It was pure agony to get through it as far as I did anyway, and then be kicked to the curb? Not for me! A complete waste all around.
I don't recommend this game.