rosekaufmann's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4.2
- Helpful Votes:18,036
- Reviews Submitted:831
- First Review:April 2, 2012
- Most Recent Review:July 27, 2014
- Featured reviews0
Status:
Join the Scruffs on a fun journey of love and self-discovery as they work together to save their beloved home.
Overall rating
5
/
5
49 of 55 found this review helpful
FUN WITH THE CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN
PostedOctober 21, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
A cute game to play with your young children or grandchildren. Artwork is similar to a cartoon of an extended family with parents, grandparents, 3 children and the family dog (Scruffy). The kids even squabble a bit and grandpa is a hoot.
SCRUFFY HELPS: You’re given a list of items to find and, if you get stuck, Scruffy is only too eager to help you. While in each room, you find a bone (highlighted as you cursor near it) for him. It costs a bone to get his help, but don’t use him unless necessary because, once you’re out of bones, you get no more help.
GAMEPLAY: There are 20 rooms and you begin by searching in only a couple, later expanding to 5 rooms per chapter. The objects to find in each room are not repeated, so you’re always looking for something new. Objects are nicely sized, so you won’t be pixel hunting unless you have a small screen from what others say.
GAME MODES: You can select timed and untimed mode. Untimed is actually timed, but you get a really generous 90 minutes in the latter half of the game to search 4 or 5 rooms (I think you started with 60 for 2 rooms at the beginning).
ANTIQUES EXTRA: After finding everything on the lists, you put together a picture, which will show an antique valuable, which you then must find in 2 or 3 rooms. Scruffy is not able to help in this part of the search, but the items are fairly easy to find and they all have a story attached.
SCRIBBLES: You will also find 20 photos scattered throughout the rooms (they will be on your list of objects) and you will play a game of “scribbles” after finding each one. In scribbles, the little boy will scribble on the photo, which you have to find. Find 15 scribbles and you get a gold star. Collect 20 gold stars, and the kids will show you a delightful little secret. And grandpa has a secret he’s been keeping all these years.
EASY TO PICK UP DAYS LATER: One of the nicest things about the game is that you can leave off anywhere and pick it up days or weeks later without skipping a beat, even if you are in the middle of one of the 15 chapters when you leave the game. So it’s perfect for when the grandkids come over every once in a while. Game took about 9 ½ hours and the characters delightfully entertaining, so it is certainly worth the money.
I recommend this game!
Embark on a thrilling rescue mission in the Town of the Cyclops!
Overall rating
5
/
5
138 of 149 found this review helpful
NEAR PERFECT
PostedOctober 20, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I have nothing but praise for the Margrave Manor games. I have about 450 games and grade them. Less than 15% earn an A (so I know I will enjoy them several times) and the Margrave games have all earned an A. So if you liked the previous Margrave games, you’ll like this one. If you haven't tried them, I suggest you might like what you find.
Storyline: 18th Century: One-eyed Oban was considered a god of the pagans by the Puritans. The town disappeared 300 years ago on an island lost to cartographers and appears every 300 years. Present day: The town has appeared and Tom is kidnapped, presumably by an ominous citizen. Who kidnapped him and not Edwina, and for what purpose, are part of the mystery to be solved. Edwina has to find him before the town disappears for another 300 years.
Gameplay: Lots of things to do and see. Interactive map which provides a bird’s eye view of the town. Map can be changed to “discover” mode which shows where tasks can be performed. Edwina encounters many surprises along the way. Example: Huge statutes guarding the town appear from the ground after Edwina solves a puzzle, and the statutes are another puzzle which must be solved before gaining access to the town. You get the idea – there are a lot of refreshingly unique and challenging but fun puzzles to solve which have a direct correlation to the play on your quest to find Tom.
The production values are outstanding. You do have to think about what to do and how to go about it. The hint system is just that – only a hint. It won’t point you to the exact location or action to take. The artistry is so gorgeous and very detailed that you sometimes just want to relax and look at it. Music changes periodically.
The intro would appeal to the younger generation, but it later changes to something that you might like listening to. Voices are English with British pronunciation. There are HOGS every so often (but not as often as puzzles). The objects are good sized but still the HOG is not too easy because many of the objects are so cleverly hidden that it’s easy to bypass them. The developers constructed a very well-crafted and polished game.
I recommend this game!
Prepare for a mind-bending journey into the realm of the weird in Haunted Halls: Revenge of Dr. Blackmore! Brace yourself for the unexpected in this exciting Hidden Object adventure!
Overall rating
5
/
5
64 of 77 found this review helpful
TERRIFIC FOLLOWUP TO GREEN HILLS
PostedOctober 19, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Lots of interesting things to do and see in order to beat that creepy tentacled Dr. Blackmore at his morbid game. The HOS are very different and fun. Graphics are top-notch and the storyline is terrific. The animals add another unique entertaining dimension. Really cool puzzles and ways to progress the game. Having to do several steps to acquire or do something is a lot of fun and adds another challenge to the game. As always, ERS sets the bar quite high for other developers to follow. A great followup to Green Hills Sanitarium. Can't wait for the next one.
I recommend this game!
Live through Thomas Seawise’s adventures! Help Thomas find clues in the odd world of Harmonia and find his missing grandmother.
Overall rating
3
/
5
NIGHT BE A FAMILY GAME
PostedOctober 18, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Panaramic vision. Find fragments. Inventory items can be combined before using. Collect anything that gleams red (they’re rubies and you’ll get a hammer that will set it free from whatever is holding it). About 15-20 minutes into the game, I thought it was aimed at children (due to dialogue and type of artwork) which doesn’t mean that adults can’t like it with the same enthusiasm, but I think children would have trouble doing the puzzles by themselves.
Didn’t know how to evaluate majority of the game because the good seems to have an offsetting problem, so you have to determine yourself which outweighs the other. Here’s my take:
1. Foreground is bright, but the background is frequently dark, making it difficult to find anything. Although you can freely use the hint button to find things and it recharges really fast.
2. Items in the tray may appear to be a brighter color (say purple), but in the HOS, it is greyish or beige. Can make it difficult to know you actually found something.
3. The inventory tray can be locked into place. But sometimes what you’re looking for is under the tray, which keeps popping up when you move your cursor to the bottom of the screen. Solution is to temporarily change your screen to windowed until you’ve gathered the objects.
4. Dialogue is written. Sometimes, it is too fast to easily read. Some people may see the dialogue as childish.
5. There was one occasion where you had to press 3 pieces of a puzzle in a statue, but unless you had the statue in a certain location, the puzzle kept disappearing if you guessed wrong. Became annoying.
1. Foreground is bright, but the background is frequently dark, making it difficult to find anything. Although you can freely use the hint button to find things and it recharges really fast.
2. Items in the tray may appear to be a brighter color (say purple), but in the HOS, it is greyish or beige. Can make it difficult to know you actually found something.
3. The inventory tray can be locked into place. But sometimes what you’re looking for is under the tray, which keeps popping up when you move your cursor to the bottom of the screen. Solution is to temporarily change your screen to windowed until you’ve gathered the objects.
4. Dialogue is written. Sometimes, it is too fast to easily read. Some people may see the dialogue as childish.
5. There was one occasion where you had to press 3 pieces of a puzzle in a statue, but unless you had the statue in a certain location, the puzzle kept disappearing if you guessed wrong. Became annoying.
I can only say try the game for the entire hour to see what you think of it. A half hour may not give you a true flavor for the game because the intro is not how the game plays the rest of the time.
I recommend this game!
The Spirit of Wandering: The Legend
Join an adventurous captain`s search for her lost love in this romantic Hidden Object challenge.
Overall rating
3
/
5
3 of 4 found this review helpful
AVERAGE HOG
PostedOctober 18, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Although this is basically a straight HOG, it is a different storyline of familiar tales. It also provides a twist to the typical HOG gameplay. Storyline: The pirate’s ship was suddenly attacked on the eve of your wedding and all crew killed (including your significant other). You play the pirate captain and your mission is to free your crews’ spirits by finding several of their cherished things from life. Graphics are gorgeous, crisp and clear; dialogue adequately tells the story.
Gameplay: HOS – There are several locations to search for each crew members. Instead of the typical list of objects to search for, you get a description of the item (example: an unlighted tool for smoking means a pipe). [Since there are no puzzles, per se, I guess figuring out what item is described is the puzzle.] After every 5 or 6 objects you find, you look for one of a crewmember’s cherished items, which fade in an out of the scene, by using a magical orb to locate them. You repeat the process until you find 5 cherished items per location. After all locations have been successfully searched, the crew member’s spirit is freed to do whatever it is that free spirits do. It does get tedious near the end.
You start with 200 coins and earn a few (about 10 or 20) each time you find a cherished item. A hint costs you 60 coins so you have to manage how often you really need a hint. Excessive clicking will also cost you coins without warning. Every so often, you will reach a level where you just click on gold items to earn additional money, but you don’t really earn very much. Once you run out of coins, that’s it – I’ve taken one full point off for that because who wants to be unable to finish a game because the clues can be so obtuse at times that you run out of money to buy a hint. When I buy a game, I expect I will be able to finish it - I expect others would feel that way also. About 4 hours long.
I recommend this game!
Embark on an epic adventure into the unknown as you search for Capt. Walsh and his missing crew of adventurers.
Overall rating
3
/
5
41 of 48 found this review helpful
I LIKED IT
PostedOctober 17, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Length: about 4 hours. I don’t know how people can say they played almost the entire game during the demo because it is rather long (you go around the island). I completed each stage rather quickly (1-3 minutes), with the exception of the puzzles (which have no clues). You might want to read "puzzles" below.
Storyline: explorers are sent to Rajini Island near Thailand and the world has lost touch with them for 3 months. You are sent to rescue them. While searching the island, you also learn about the goddess Rajini (for whom the island is named) and her mortal lover.
Gameplay: You get 5 hints in casual play for each stage. Each scene has about 3 stages of these: spot-the-differences, find 20 of something (food is a popular topic), the normal HOS list and finding silhouettes. The background of all scenes is a lush tropical island with a lot of greyish-whitish and sandy stone ruins. The objects are well blended, so expect to find a lot of green items in trees and shrubbery, white and sandy items in the ruins. You might have a normal HOS list, then silhouettes (with new items suddenly appearing) in the scene, then find 20 clocks which also suddenly appear. That is to say, the background remains the same, but the objects can change up to 3 times before moving on to the next scene.
Puzzles: After completing all the levels associated with a scene, you might wonder what to do because you are still in the same scene with no direction. Do this: First, look to see if you have any hints. If not, you are now at a puzzle. Second, look to see if there is an outline in your inventory which you must then find before you can complete the puzzle. Third, move your cursor around until you find something that has a description; it will be used in the puzzle. Fourth, for the puzzle itself, look in your journal because the clues for solving puzzles are sometimes there. There are no hints for the puzzles, and no walkthrough that I found, so you will have to go to the BF forums for help if you get hopelessly stuck. The puzzles do get tougher.
There is some animation which is good; music is okay. Graphics are good, except the backgrounds are very similar and objects are very well blended into the backgrounds. The ending was rather abrupt. If you play the demo and get to a couple of puzzles, you will know the flavor of the game. Some of you will be bored. Others will look forward to the challenges presented by the puzzles.
I recommend this game!
Your honeymoon turns sour when a madman kidnaps your husband, forcing you to expose Houdini's greatest trick.
Overall rating
3
/
5
101 of 110 found this review helpful
NICE AVERAGE GAME
PostedOctober 17, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
This is a nice average game. There are many things to do simultaneously and you carry inventory until it can be used. The contrast between found and unfound objects in the HOS list could have been sharper. The images in the HOS were frequently indistinct (and not always because they were in shadow). The “association” mini-games in which you match objects to an associated object (ex: matching a banana with a monkey) make use of previously seen HO scenes. Although there was a lot of detail in the environments, they were a little crowded. Not too challenging - no frustration. Pleasant game to while away the time, but nothing exciting.
I recommend this game!
Help Nelly find and save her brother from a mysterious Romanian castle and discover the secrets of the Philosophers Stone!
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
ENJOYABLE FAMILY GAME
PostedOctober 15, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Nothing new in this game, but it is fun to play (HOS are fill-in the circles and you get a task list). It is the 2nd in the Treasure Seekers series, and I like it better than the first. Nelly must provide characters in 6 enchanted painting with a happy ending before she can find Tom, who got lost looking for the Philosopher's Stone because he couldn't wait for Nelly to accompany him. So you have a large variety of scenes (no back and forth between paintings) and tasks appropriate to the scenes and characters.
Graphics are bright and detailed, with a few nicely-done animations throughout. Wide variety of mini-games and puzzles, ranging from easy to moderate in difficulty. Appropriate for family play. It is difficult to get stuck and you can, of course, skip mini-games. About 4 hours at a leisurely pace.
I recommend this game!
Adventure runs in the family! Join Nelly and Tommy in their quest to retrieve their pirate grandmother`s hidden treasure!
Overall rating
3
/
5
9 of 9 found this review helpful
EASY BUT FUN
PostedOctober 14, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Prequel to the Treasure Seekers series. Siblings Nelly and Tom are adventuresome youngsters seeking the hidden treasure of their grandmother, a pirate captain. Enthusiastic but sensible Nelly has her hands full keeping her eager but optimistic daredevil brother under control while he pursues his fantasies. Right mix of HOS and puzzles. HOS are fill-in circles and puzzles are tied to the game and are relatively easy, becoming progressively more difficult.
Don't know what people mean when they say there is no direction. Gameplay is straightforward; the characters' dialogues lead you directly to the next action. All you have to do is find the basic items (designated with pointing cursor) which turn into the circles needing to be filled.
Good story, brilliant and crisp graphics, realistic sound effects and animation, and interesting dialogue interspersed throughout. About 4 1/2 hours (probably more with touchscreen, at least until you get used to the moves). [I played about ¼ on touchscreen, which I’m still learning.]
I recommend this game!
Help Cassandra find her missing ring and unearth the strange secrets of her family`s heritage with magic tricks and fortune-telling wisdom!
Overall rating
3
/
5
8 of 9 found this review helpful
VISUALLY BEAUTIFUL
PostedOctober 12, 2012
rosekaufmann
fromLos Angeles
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Pros:
Buy additional hints [3 types] by collecting the gems in each scene.
Choose timed or not.
Nice variety of puzzles and tricks (yes, tricks!).
Different types of clear, crisp HOS.
Interesting storyline.
Buy additional hints [3 types] by collecting the gems in each scene.
Choose timed or not.
Nice variety of puzzles and tricks (yes, tricks!).
Different types of clear, crisp HOS.
Interesting storyline.
Cons:
Holds your hand in play.
Too much awkward dialogue [you're constantly clicking to get to the next sentence].
Too much detailed instructions for puzzles which also require you to click through each sentence. I mean how many instructions do you need to do a HOS or a spot-the-differences (not many of the spot puzzles)
Holds your hand in play.
Too much awkward dialogue [you're constantly clicking to get to the next sentence].
Too much detailed instructions for puzzles which also require you to click through each sentence. I mean how many instructions do you need to do a HOS or a spot-the-differences (not many of the spot puzzles)
I recommend this game!