Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Time Management
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
3/ 5
Level of Challenge
5/ 5
Storyline
3/ 5
I played Jack of All Tribes and loved it and this was a suggested game that was like it. I enjoyed the story and visuals of Jack of All Tribes more, but this game is far superior in the level of challenge and fun it provides.
You are there to help rebuild after a disaster. You build sources of food and wood, build houses (which provide income) and transportation, rescue citizens and workers, put out fires, and collect gems. Each level has certain tasks and a time goal for gold and silver. The basic concepts of how to make things happen are quite easy.
Getting gold can be quite hard on some levels, but not impossible. I'll admit I gave up before achieving gold on all because you don't have to get all gold to complete the achievement tracking section (rebuilding all parts of a house to make it shiny and new).
My two main issues: 1) you can't queue up actions and you have to wait for the worker to run back to home base, which made it harder to move quickly; 2) there is a good set up, but very little story stringing together the levels.
I recommend this game!
+5points
5of5voted this as helpful.
DQ Tycoon
Build your own Dairy Queen franchise chain. Fast service; quick expansion. Manage up to four exciting locales.
Overall rating
2/ 5
37 of 44 found this review helpful
I gave up
PostedApril 22, 2012
rinacolada
fromDC
Fun Factor
3/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
3/ 5
Level of Challenge
1/ 5
This is a good premise, poorly executed. I couldn't finish/get past the third store and I gave up because it was frustrating as opposed to a fun challenge like some other games' difficult levels.
There is no regularly available power-up to deal with customer patience. There are just cones that randomly appear and aren't necessarily for patience. The staff members are painfully slow and just get in your way most of the time, but there are places where I just couldn't do it by myself. Also, you have to ensure that other stores are run in your absence, entrusting to them to slow staff. All staff costs have to be recuperated, so that puts you at a slow starting place. It seemed that customers were incredibly impatient and quick to dash out.
The basic premise was running a DQ store with various food, desserts, and beverages was fun and had a lot of little tasks built in. I gave it two stars because it was fun until the staff got in the way and it was too difficult to finish without being lucky enough for a heart power-up to appear. I will note that I played the last level I could to about 15-20 times (trying to leave it alone for a couple weeks in between waves of effort) before I just uninstalled the game.
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Time Management, Hidden Object, Puzzle, Strategy
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
4/ 5
Level of Challenge
3/ 5
Storyline
4/ 5
This is a fun strategy time management game. It is not incredibly challenging, but there were a few levels I had to replay to get an expert score. This can easily be beat in a day, but it was still a fun game if you just want a relaxing game in this style.
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Strategy, Time Management, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
5/ 5
Storyline
5/ 5
This is a nice variation of a time management game. It is more of a puzzle or strategy game than it is just rapid clicking.
A couple of things that seemed annoying at the beginning: 1) you can't queue up actions and 2) there are no power-ups to make people walk faster. That being said, once I got used to those quirks, I loved this game!!
You go from location to location building up farmer's markets. There are farmer stalls (raw goods like flour and dairy), vendor stalls (products of raw goods like burgers and cookies), and special stalls (boost revenue and crowds). You can only have a finite number of stalls and you can only do as many things at the same time as you have workers for. You can't set up future actions for your workers.
The challenge is in figuring out what order to do things, what special stands to employ, how many workers to have, and managing transporting of goods/clearing trash/etc.
Beating all the levels isn't much of a challenge, but there are between 5 and 15 levels that are a real challenge. If you get the strategy right the first time, you'll get expert. If you don't get the order of play right, you probably won't. Another challenge is that some levels add a goal once you have the first one or two goals completed. It can be annoying or fun (depending on how it affects you), but if you replay the level, it is the same "surprise" goal.
For added self-accolades, there is also a trophy room for different key events such as breaking down 25 stalls and getting gold on every level at a certain location.
This is a great time management game that is different from all the dashing. I love the Dash and Mania and Rush games, but this is a nice, different game. It may not be for every one, but I got hooked about 30 minutes into the free trial. The first couple levels were a bit painful to get through.
So, I started off really liking this game during the trial. Once I purchased the full version, it went down hill.
There are a few things that are incredibly irritating about this game. First, this game is pegged as time management, but they have these "mini-games" pop up in the middle of rounds that basically involve matching. I don't think the matching is fun and they just add extra levels of matching as the game goes on, so the irritation about that builds.
Second, you queue up actions that trigger mini-games. Once triggered, you HAVE TO finish it before they will let you click on anything else. You can't right click or get out of it and come back. So, you can watch yourself lose a customer because you picked the white fabric when the hat is a gray fabric.
Third, even after you've finished the mini-game, there is an added couple seconds (while you watch something happen to keep you from getting expert score) for the mini-game to make some noise and have a heart swirl around on the screen.
Fourth, there isn't really a challenge in the game except pure luck. You can't get better at timing the actions and the mini-games because the people that come in are completely random. I've replayed levels and gotten completely different characters. The same characters don't have a predictable order of requests to adapt to. There is no way to manage your time for the people that show up in your shop because they are all completely random. If you get lucky about the order (and click on the coffee a lot), you'll get expert. If you're unlucky, it is still really easy to beat levels.
I this game is just a poorer version of others in this category.
+56points
80of104voted this as helpful.
Murder Island: Secret of Tantalus
Welcome to a world of danger and suspense in Murder Island: Secret of Tantalus, a thrilling Hidden Object Adventure game!
Overall rating
4/ 5
7 of 7 found this review helpful
Fun story, not super challenging
PostedDecember 5, 2011
rinacolada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Time Management, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
4/ 5
Level of Challenge
4/ 5
If you like a mystery, this is a fun story. It isn't the most complex of games, the puzzles aren't all that challenging, and even the hidden objects rarely take hints to complete. That being said, i still really enjoyed this game. It was a fun mystery about a series of murders on an island during a class reunion. I got it using a free game credit, so maybe I'm less harsh than those that paid full price for it.