JennDixie's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4.4
- Helpful Votes:326
- Reviews Submitted:25
- First Review:January 6, 2012
- Most Recent Review:November 25, 2020
- Featured reviews0
Someone is killing the guests at a mountain resort, and you could be next if you don't figure out the mystery and solve a Mountain Crime!
Overall rating
3
/
5
1 of 3 found this review helpful
An "A" for Effort
PostedJanuary 17, 2012
JennDixie
fromLouisiana
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
I love a good murder mystery, especially when the killer keeps mysteriously killing off all the characters so this one started off being my cup of tea. We got to know our "hero" Dr. White (whose reactions to things are pretty funny IMO) and how he gets kinda thrown into this serial killer plot with a host of other people. Good set up, but the farther you go in the game the worse it gets. First off, there are SEVERAL dead folks that you encounter in the game but since we never knew them first and got to know them, we really aren't inclined to care about their fate. I think only 3 of them we met first before they disappear and die somewhere but still we never really got to know them enough to care.
The ending, well I can't really comment on it because my sound cut out in the middle of the what they were saying so I have no idea what happens!! No subtitles to help me out either for some odd reason. I liked the voices anyway, but they were very out of sync with the mouth movements, at least on mine it was. I went through about 2 other scenes besides the ending where they cut out in the middle of conversation.
The journal was good at keeping up with clues and storylines, but the puzzles were so easy that I didn't even need to use it. The HOG's in this game is the kind where you find a picture of the object as opposed to using a list of words. After you find them all, the objects mesh together to fix a broken item in the scene to give you what you need. So it was kind of a mix between a HOG and a FROG, which was fine with me because I like both.
Overall, good game to play, it was fun I just wish my sound hadn't cut out on the end so I could actually know what happened and also that the characters could have been better developed.
I recommend this game!
Help Christine explore the spooky Ashburg Asylum and find her missing grandfather in this dark Hidden Object game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
2 of 4 found this review helpful
Spooky HOG, not as good as "Curse" though
PostedJanuary 17, 2012
JennDixie
fromLouisiana
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
It appears I'm in the minority here. I liked Curse of the Opera waaaaay more than this one, in fact that one is one of my top favorite games. "Asylum" as a stand alone isn't bad, but when you try to mash up the storylines together to make sense of them...they don't. In "Asylum", they seemingly retconned the pasts of the characters from "Opera". They never mention even once about meeting each other in an asylum and saving each other. In "Opera", they say they met during their travels with gypsies and the like and found out they had something in common and decide to take revenge for what was done wrong to them. In "Asylum" they act like they don't remember anything that had happened to them and we get this crazy "evil doctor" story. Um...what? It just lacked the suspense and mysterious feel that "Opera" had.
As far as gameplay goes, everything's fine. It was just the story that I didn't like, since it didn't add up with events that were told in the first game. I believe there is going to be a 3rd game to this series and I can only hope that it is better than this one.
Do I recommend it? Yeah, but only if you think of it as a standalone and not part of a series.
I recommend this game!
Take on the role of a lowly stagehand in an opera company tasked with solving a deadly mystery in an isolated village!
Overall rating
5
/
5
114 of 178 found this review helpful
Great HOG, Tons of Fun
PostedJanuary 17, 2012
JennDixie
fromLouisiana
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
This is one of my favorite games on this site. The mystery of who is killing off the characters one by one is great and lots of fun. The characters are well drawn and the voice-overs even sound good. Some of the puzzles are a bit difficult and a few of the items you have to find are...well, miniscule to say the least but it isn't impossible to find them. It kind of reminds me MCF: Madame Fate if it had a more adventure/point-and-click style to it rather than just strictly HOG and puzzle. It takes a while to play this, I've played it 3 times already since I bought it a year ago and it still takes me over 5 hours. Definitely a must have!
I recommend this game!
Journey into the mythical Snowfall Kingdom and investigate the disappearance of children in Dark Parables: Rise of the Snow Queen!
Overall rating
5
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
Another Winner by Blue Tea Games
PostedJanuary 8, 2012
JennDixie
fromLouisiana
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
The Dark Parables series is one my favorites and this newest one is a welcome addition. Storywise, it combines the tales of the Snow Queen with that of Snow White and there's even a reference to the previous DP game "The Exiled Prince" (which is my favorite thus far). I always love the twists on the fairy tales that DP games do but still keep it in the fantasy world as opposed to making it in the modern world.
As always in these games, the graphics are some of the prettiest I've ever seen. I love the fragmented object games which are sort of like HOGs but instead of a list of objects to find, you have pictures of the "fragments" of a single object to find and put the object back together with.
The only problem I had was that "Snow Queen" is relatively shorter than its predecessors "Curse of Briar Rose" and "The Exiled Prince". If you want the full effect of the game, I highly suggest buying the CE version, as you get the bonus game of "Hansel and Gretel", which helps explain the backstory of the main game. I know it helped ME understand it.
To sum up, if you have to choose either this game or "Escape to Ravenhearst" which came out around the same time, I would have to suggest this one (see my review for EtR for reasons). I am looking forward to the next Dark Parables game and have no doubt it will be great!
I recommend this game!
Return once more to the haunted grounds of Ravenhearst Manor to uncover new details about this poignant saga. What you find could very well be the final chapter of this riveting story-if you escape.
Overall rating
2
/
5
3 of 4 found this review helpful
Not my favorite MCF...
PostedJanuary 6, 2012
JennDixie
fromLouisiana
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Escape from Ravenhearst is well named because by the time you get halfway through it, that's exactly what you want to do...ESCAPE!
I've never been a big fan of the Ravenhearst series so I'm definitely in the minority here, but I'll admit the previous 2 games were definitely more fun. When I play a MYSTERY case file game, I expect to be solving a mystery...not trying to do a rescue mission to 4 whining ghosts and trying to escape some madman's reproduction of his childhood/young adult life. There's absolutely no mystery to solve, you're just trying to save the Emma, Rose and Company AGAIN and try to make sense of what the heck Charles is throwing at you.
I'll give the game credit for being disturbing, because there were definitely a few "what the heck, really?" moments. Creative but disgusting. The game itself isn't pretty to look at because of this, but it is well animated. I just felt that the animators had taken a step back though. The previous 2 MCF games (Dire Grove and 13th Skull, my 2 favorites) looked so real that it was almost like they just photographed on location instead of animating it themselves. In "Escape" it goes back to similar style of "Return to Ravenhearst", which I suppose isn't that bad but we've already seen that they can do better. Also, the green screen effect is pretty bad, like it was in "Return", you know where it's obvious it's a green screen? In Dire Grove and 13th Skull, the characters really look like they belong there so I felt they were definitely superior in that aspect.
Another BIG thing is that there are NO HIDDEN OBJECT SCENES. Okay, there's like 2 of them, but they are extremely well hidden and you don't have to do them in order to progress in the game. Instead we have these "morphing" objects and you have to stare at the screen in one place just hoping that maybe you'll see one. Very hard on the eyes.
Also, the Journal which is normally your best friend in these games... it is completely worthless in THIS game. It doesn't do a good job recording clues or anything but that's probably because there's not any to solve seeing as how this isn't even a mystery game. It's basically recording Master Detective's gripes and complaints about how crazy Charles is and how disgusting the surroundings are. Humorous, but completely useless when you need to solve a puzzle. Instead, you have to backtrack to where you THINK you saw a clue at which is extremely annoying.
That takes me to the Bonus content that is to be expected with a Collector's Edition. There isn't any for this one. No wallpapers, screensavers, bonus chapter, nothing. I think someone said that the "bonus" is playing a few extra morphing object games but really, who wants to do that? I felt it was a burden more than a reward for shelling out a few extra bucks. The only reason I even bought the collector's edition was so I could get a free MCF badge pin that was offered on its release date. If you buy the SE, you will not be missing out on anything, trust me.
And this last thing is really just me nitpicking but I always imagined Master Detective being a dude. That's just me. I know the voiceover at the end of Madame Fate was female, but I just dismissed it and continued thinking of him as a dude. In this game, obviously M.D. is a girl. It was kinda distracting, and closer to the end of the game it gets pretty laughable. When this game tries to do creepy on a personal level, it's more funny than scary. I mean, what if a straight male player was playing this game? This would definitely be awkward for him come time to a certain part in this game and if you've played it then you know what I'm talking about. It has something to do with rings and asking you to slip into something comfortable.
In closing, I just didn't enjoy the game. The sound and visuals are good and it was a challenging game but the storyline just really wasn't there. There was no plot really. Just you wandering around with Charles giving you a tour of his life to make you feel sorry for him, which of course doesn't work so the game is completely pointless in that aspect. It was just all shock value. You're better off playing one of the other MCF games, the ones that actually have a mystery in it and not just a bunch of scary images.
I don't recommend this game.