Love the ERS games and this one doesn’t disappoint. This is a well-developed storyline with premium class gameplay. 3 modes of play: casual, advanced and hard – you can change modes at any time during the game. Widescreen available. You have a diary which includes notations from outside the game play – an improvement over those diaries that just retell exactly what you already discovered without other details. Separate level selectors for voice, sound and music.
Location graphics are superb and interesting – beautifully conceived and executed details. HOS are crisp and clear. Puzzles are varied, interesting, and a pleasure to solve. The narrator that announces the ERS games should have a voice-over role occasionally - very pleasant to listen to. The music is not the spooky Twilight Zone music that you’d expect with the walking undead environment - doesn't send shivers up your spine so I can play at night.
STORYLINE: Play a disgraced police officer who is now an occult investigator and who has the gift of seeing people’s memories by touching. You’re called to the death scene of one of the nothingman’s victims (he leaves nothing on the victims but a mark and none can be identified).
GAMEPLAY: Straightforward. Somewhat linear. Graphics could be crisper, although there is nothing wrong with them. No problem identifying objects in the fairly clean HO scenes. A journal gives you additional information not apparent from the gameplay.
OTHER STUFF: Casual and expert modes of play. Choose whether you want to maintain the aspect ratio or show sparkles. Good mystery to unravel.
STORYLINE is about a mad scientist who is trying to mind control people by contaminating their water supply with coca serum , among other things. You must stop him as well as collect your sister from his grasp. Your FBI pal has succumbed to the serum, so you might as well save him too.
GAMEPLAY: Nonlinear. The HO scenes that were large and relatively uncrowded were easy; those that were darker, more crowded and composed of old rusty-looking junk were more difficult. Puzzles were varied and easy to moderately difficult. Hints helpful and recharge rapidly. Start out with a few centralized locations, expanding into quite a few. An interactive map would have been helpful after more locations were added.
OTHER STUFF: 2 modes: casual and hard. Diary. Widescreen available. It has a satisfactory, but a most WEIRD ENDING.
Three modes: casual, advanced and hardcore professional. Journal; interactive map. Mechanical spiders with live actors create a mysterious atmosphere that grabs your attention right away. Storyline was more interesting and unique than I thought it would be; and it’s spot-on today as bullying is a hot topic these days.
Graphics are world class – usually the color palette is bluish cast for this type of story; here the colors are vibrant and worldly. Interactive HOS with useful hint system. Wide variety of puzzles with varying degrees of difficulty. Well thought-out story and gameplay. Not too much backtracking. Game will hold your interest throughout.
Nice balance of HOS and puzzles. Two modes of play. Three locations: castle, cursed island and evacuated village. Travel between the world of the dead and the undead. You enter the different realms through mirrors. Hint system is fairly decent – tells you when there’s nothing left to do at the location or showing you where you can do something. Linear play, so it’s hard to get lost. Nicely developed gameplay.
Graphics are rather gloomy in the land of the living; a little brighter in the land of the undead. HOS may be a little dark for some screen resolutions. You have to find missing pieces before puzzles can be completed. Little spirits are frequently floating about. You’ll find quite a bit of material strewn throughout the locations (newspapers, notes, journal entries) that you'll want to read. Interesting cutscenes.
Two modes of play. Widescreen available. The HOS are not crowded and objects are very big. Puzzles not difficult. Click on the little animal darting around and he makes a cute little sound if you get it before he hides. Graphics seem overpowering to me and take some getting used to. Very bright – was the artist going for purely futuristic or purely fantasy or a combination? The artwork gives the game an identity, but it’s difficult to figure out what that is. Characters seem out of this world. In some ways – both childish and not. The developers may have been aiming to please both adults and children with the storyline and physical environments. Try it for something quite different.
Great adventure tragedy-romance story – appealing and believable. Relaxing music; gorgeous locations.; wide variety of clever puzzles; good blend of HOS and puzzles with the adventure. Beautiful narration – could have used more just to hear her voice. Delightful to see HOS such detailed and picturescque graphics instead of the drab, overly crowded and dilapidated-looking HOS found in so many games today.
The developers put a lot of thought into the intertwining plot and, as with the other Dana Knightstone stories, did a fantastic job of putting the gameplay together to move the story forward smoothly and effortlessly. A very well developed and polished game. Her games are among my favorites. On casual mode, took 7 ¾ hours; well worth the money
Great adventure tragedy-romance story – appealing and believable. Relaxing music; gorgeous locations.; wide variety of clever puzzles; good blend of HOS and puzzles with the adventure. Beautiful narration – could have used more just to hear her voice. Delightful to see HOS such detailed and picturescque graphics instead of the drab, overly crowded and dilapidated-looking HOS found in so many games today.
The developers put a lot of thought into the intertwining plot and, as with the other Dana Knightstone stories, did a fantastic job of putting the gameplay together to move the story forward smoothly and effortlessly. A very well developed and polished game. Very long game; well worth the money
Sinister looking graphics with music apropros to the creepy atmosphere. Good HOS and puzzles. HOS are good sized objects and not excessively cluttered. Story development is good. Settings for music and sound special effects. 3 modes of play – easy (casual), difficult (professional) and in-between. V/O are better than average. Usually, it’s fairly clear what your next actions need to be, but if you get stuck, the hint system in casual is fairly specific. Hints recharge very fast in casual mode. There’s nothing new in the game, but it is a well-developed specimen of the genre.
Quite a few reviews said the game was short, so I kept debating whether to buy it. I’m glad I did; it didn’t disappoint at all. Just the main game took 4 ½ hours on casual – just the right length for me; then add the bonus play for more than another hour.
STORYLINE: 5 children, each with their own nightmares and fears, have been captured by Dr. Blackmore who is feeding off those unique fears, which many of us suffered from as children. Each child’s story is well thought-out and is a stand-alone, so the end of each is a good “take a break” spot.
GAMEPLAY: Very polished. Right amount of difficulty – not too easy and not so difficult as to be exasperating. Is generally easy to figure out what to do next as there are a limited number of scenes for the intro and each child. Environments are unique to each child – and it doesn’t feel like the same story is being told 5 times with only slight differences. HOS are not too crowded and are nicely sized. Each has their own type of nightmare. Nice mix of HOS with puzzles. Right amount of difficulty – not too easy and not so difficult as to be exasperating. Fun gameplay. Stories are unique and easy to follow - no getting lost in backtracking.
The funniest thing that happened in the game: you have to kill 3 vicious plants. After axing the first plant to death, a second plant unexpectedly eats the axe. What a chuckle for an otherwise serious subject. Game well worth the money.