It wasn't a bad game, it just wasn't all that. Long yes, about 6 hours at a leisurely pace. Story line was ok, music unobtrusive, hint buttons fast enough...but just got to the end and kind of went, "oh, OK." Purely adventure, no HOGs but lots and lots of other games...with very little real instructions. Had to skip a few cuz they just didn't make sense. I certainly didn't dislike it but I won't bother playing it again. I wouldn't recommend it but I certainly won't tell you to avoid it at all costs...it was just OK.
I actually really, really liked this game. The scenery was beautiful, the HOG's were pretty challenging, the mini games were ultimately easy once you figured out what your were supposed to do. It was the figuring out that was the challenge! I thought the hint button took awhile and I ended up muting the music about half way through because it started to get on my nerves. Great story-line, if not a bit convoluted, but that too just made you think. Technically the voice overs were glitchy, cutting out or not playing all together, but there was also script so to me it wasn't a big deal. There were lots of different scenes to explore and 2 different Victorian manors and I thought that was really cool. The reason I can't give it 5 stars is because I was really, really enjoying it, really getting into it and BAM, it was over. It wrapped everything up, but in voice overs, and I was left feeling "but, but, but!!!" It only took a few hours but I did buy it as a daily special so definitely worth that money, probably not the full price. Has the potential to be great if they just fleshed it out and expanded it.
The first chapter goes back in time which was the part I played in the trial and the only reason I bought this. The rest of the chapters are futuristic, sci-fi which didn't interest me in the least. The graphics were very good but the story line did absolutely nothing for me.
I initially enjoyed it when I first started playing it because it was something different BUT...There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to where and how you will find things, it is literally point and click and point and click. You have to click on every single thing in the room to find what you're looking for and boy did that get old fast!!! The story line was fine if not terribly exciting but the graphics???!!! Very 1990's. Glad I only paid a couple of bucks for it because I deleted it as soon as I was done.
I'm not a big fan of of voice overs and hate live actors but WOW!!! This game has absolutely no animation!!! A drawing of the person speaking with printed dialogue. No actual movement through the game, just clicking on a room to enter. HOGs, HOGs and more HOGs and the mini games were the same 3 over and over and over again...put the gears in the right spot to get them all moving; spot the differences and match 3. Half the HOGs were silhouette and so many were absolutely impossible to even know what they were supposed to be, and frequently were hidden behind each other!!! This would be a good game for either an absolute beginner or a 13 year old girl who loves unicorns. But if you want adventure, a challenge and/or an interesting storyline, then definitely skip this one.
I bought this on the $2.99 weekly special and so glad I didn't pay more. Another reviewer used the word "tedious" and that sums this game up exactly. The story line was weak at best. The music was OK but kept coming and going. Not cutting out so much as just stopping for awhile then restarting. Graphics were pretty good in that the many, many HOGs were easy to see but still very difficult to do. That was the one aspect of the game I was really impressed with. I had to use hints through 90% of the HOGs to get them all because they were that cleverly done. When items were pointed out my general response was, "well duh!". They were so well blended and incorporated into the scenes that it really was a challenge. What ultimately turned me off and just frustrated the heck out of me was all of the to-ing and fro-ing. It could take a dozen steps to get into a building just to find one clue, usually with no idea what to do with it. Or after those dozen steps you get into the building and oops, you need to go back out and look for this and this as well. And there was no rhyme or reason as to where you needed to look, you just ultimately had to continuously go from scene to scene looking for the sparkles. Tedious with a capital T!!! The hint button would tell you where you needed to go next and what to look for once there. Ultimately I probably would never have bothered to finish if it hadn't. If you like lots of difficult and cleverly done HOGs with absolutely no interest in the story line then this is the game for you. If, on the other hand, you like games you can reason through by using your brain, that challenge you to think, give this one a wide, wide berth.
Bought the CE because the game sounded really good and I wanted "the full experience". It was a blast!!! The scenery and graphics were great. I love old houses and with this you would start out seeing it in disrepair then move into the "ghost world" and see it in its glory days. It reached the point where my stomach would clench in anticipation of the switch over because they really did do a beautiful job on the scenes. The HO games were good; not too easy but not where I had to use the hint button all the time. The other mini games were pretty good, some too easy but others really made me think. I loved the fact that they told you when a room was finished, saving me from to-ing and fro-ing, searching rooms for no reason. They did tell you what the next task was, but what they didn't tell you was that there were a dozen steps to get there. Those you had to figure out yourself. No penalty for over clicking and the hint button recharged fast. The hints themselves would show you where to look, but then you had to do the rest. The story line was good, interesting. It didn't introduce so many characters or give you so much detail that you couldn't keep it all straight. A couple of characters that told you what you needed to know without blathering endlessly at you. I played in advanced mode and took my time and it took about 6 hours. The bonus chapter was nice and long too, introducing what I hope is the next chapter in this game.
I should have loved this game. The visuals were great, the scenery beautiful and the story line was fun and interesting... BUT...If you like long, involved voice overs then this is the game for you. Personally I play these games to get away from the real world, and throwing in live action players pretty much ruined this for me. They weren't likable and the acting and southern accents were atrocious. Plus after awhile I couldn't even skip over them and just read up in the journal, and believe me their conversations are LLOONNGG!!! And painful. The HOG scenes were great. Busy but not too, good lighting and those I needed a hint on my reaction tended to be, "Oh clever!". The mini games were completely inconsistent. Some were absolutely brilliant and really made me think. Others were either impossible to do or impossible to understand, even using all 3 hints, and got skipped over. In some ways there was way too much hand holding, telling you exactly where you needed to go and who to talk to next. Other times I was to-ing and fro-ing all over the darn place trying to figure out what they wanted me to do. Also, the "click" area is so small for some things, as in you have to be exactly right on top of it before it will register. Others you're half way across the room, and it keeps opening the same thing. Also, the "inventory bar" is so big it's actually distracting and in the way and you can't get rid of it. I finally just turned the volume down to shut the players up and plodded through to the end. The story did have a good ending and it was a really long game...but I couldn't wait to get through it. Nowhere near as good as the other MCFs.
I purchased this without trying it first based on all the great reviews. BIG MISTAKE!!! The story bounced all over til you forgot what it was you were supposed to be doing. I spent the entire time back and forthing across multiple scenes, getting one measly clue at a time. I ended up forgetting what I was looking for and once found, where it was meant to go.
The HOG were good, but by halfway through I so didn't care I used the hints on a regular basis to get them done and try to get the stupid game over. There were a lot of other mini games that I originally thought were going to be good since there was a little info button to tell you the directions to the game. Yeah, right. The "information" was so generic and uninformative, many of the games I had no idea what I was supposed to do, the others were so easy it was a joke. Thankfully there was a "skip" button and that got used on a regular basis as well.
Frequently I had no idea what my next move was supposed to be...until I figured out that needed information would land in the journal only. What's the point of talking to someone if they're only going to give you half the information???
Because I'm someone who "has to know how it ends", I sucked it up and stuck it out...and boy was that a complete waste of my time. The ending was absolutely absurd!!! It left me going, "huh, that's it???!!!"
What started out as a yawn, ended up being ulcer worthy and I could not get it deleted off my computer fast enough!!!