northswirl2's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.7
- Helpful Votes:106
- Reviews Submitted:31
- First Review:September 16, 2013
- Most Recent Review:July 7, 2021
- Featured reviews0
The oracle’s strange vision portends cataclysmic destruction!
Overall rating
3
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
Just OK
PostedJuly 7, 2021
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I haven’t purchased a game for quite a while because I am getting fed up with the same old, same old games. This game is better than most, but the things you have to do are still more cookie cutter than not - endless running around, another bee hive you need to apply smoke to, keys to find, and cob webs to clean up! The middle the game devolved to become a tedious pursuit of collecting obscure ingredients for potions and ointments and explosives. I like to play on the hardest setting but there needs to be some logic so it doesn’t turn into a guessing game.
I don’t usually skip puzzles but I did in this game as there were quite a few of those random rotate puzzles. Some puzzles have such a high probability factor they are just plain frustrating rather than challenging. At least one puzzle is a repeat from a previous game (the grey, gold, and silver masks). The only puzzle that really intrigued me was the magnetized gems.
I truly wish BF would provide better ways to search for games. I spend more time looking for a game to play than actually playing one. I want games that get the grey matter working in a thoughtful way such as: The Tower of Beatrice, Rooms, Leaves, and my all time favorite, The Cabinets of Doctor Arcana. I found those games by reading a lot of comments, not by how BF categorized them.
I recommend this game!
Explore an endless dreamland full of inspiration as you complete challenging jigsaw puzzles!
Overall rating
3
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
Rubbing My Eyes
PostedFebruary 18, 2021
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
I am giving these puzzles a 3 (3.5 really), but that is based almost entirely on the gorgeous pictures. I really looked forward to playing, but after doing several puzzles I am somewhat disappointed with the mechanics. Please, make all the gimmicks/counter/ timer/rewards optional so we can just enjoy doing the puzzles. A line around the edge of the whole puzzle instead of just corner notches would be nice. I’d almost prefer the option of a few piles of pieces instead of the initial crowding around the puzzle area. When moving pieces (right mouse button) near the sides, top, or bottom of the full screen, the whole puzzle and loose pieces move - which is annoying. However, what will keep me from really enjoying these puzzles is the slight blurriness of the loose puzzle pieces. Once in place within the puzzle the pieces become very clearly detailed, so I’m not sure why loose pieces are the way they are. I tried every available option - background, brightness, etc., to get rid of the blurriness, but nothing helps. In addition, putting the cursor over the loose pieces produces a yellow outline and a yellowish tint, so placing the pieces by colour is made more difficult. Note: there is an option for traditional shape, so not sure if I have an updated version or what.
I recommend this game!
An amazing starfaring narrative is revealed as you piece together these incredible jigsaw puzzles!
Overall rating
4
/
5
6 of 7 found this review helpful
Nice
PostedFebruary 9, 2021
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is a good game for jigsaw puzzle lovers. There are some lovely scenes to work on - 45 of them in fact! Some puzzles seem pre-set to what type and number of puzzle pieces you get, but others are adjustable. I found 220 pieces worked well. It takes a few minutes to sort the pieces out, but that’s how jigsaw puzzles are. I found putting the edge pieces into the puzzle frame while sorting the piles into similar colours helped, and found the solid green background the best for seeing both the colour and the shape of the pieces. For a couple of puzzles I put the muted background picture in, but to me that made it too easy to see where the pieces needed to go. The game lets you know that a piece is in the right place, but I had the music turned right down and I wonder if you can hear the little ding if the music is loud. For most puzzles the pieces are oriented to go in as seen, but a couple of puzzles made you rotate the pieces. Some puzzles were timed, but it wasn’t difficult to complete the puzzles in the allotted time. As for the story line, I didn’t pay a huge amount of attention to it as it seemed a bit tongue in cheek and geared for a younger audience - even though there is a warning that content is intended for a mature audience?
I recommend this game!
Follow the clues found within these beautifully illustrated jigsaw puzzles to uncover an amazing story!
Overall rating
3
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
Just OK
PostedFebruary 9, 2021
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I played ‘My Jigsaw Adventures: The Source of Power,’ and enjoyed it, so I thought I would backtrack and try ‘A Lost Story.’ The story was pretty basic, but certainly sufficed. The art work would be great, on a wall, at a distance, but the large brush stroke blurry aspect and the large amount of dark, muddy colours, especially the fifty shades of purple, was frustrating and too hard to do. I put the grid on and the muted picture on a green background which helped a lot to see the pieces shapes, but gave my eyes an after image of purple/magenta, which probably didn’t help with differentiating among the multitude of purplish looking pieces. I don’t mind sorting pieces as that’s what jigsaws are about, but, when I had to quit because my eyeballs were in need of a rest, the game saved loose pieces in place if I sorted by colour, but did not save loose pieces in place sorted by shape, and I had to rely on shape near the end because so many pieces were dark and had very little picture definition. Note: if you finish and a piece is missing press the shuffle button and the piece will show up as it’s just hiding, sometimes in plain sight (on top of the puzzle). I did finish the game, but got increasingly dismayed by the colour choices.
I recommend this game!
Mononino and the Treefruities are facing another disaster. With the leaves of their home tree once again scattered, your help is greatly needed.
Overall rating
5
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
Whew!
PostedAugust 29, 2020
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Well, that was a challenge. Some of the puzzles have straight forward clues, others can’t be taken as shown, and you sometimes don’t know if you will get a clue later or if you have all of what you need already. I had to get about half a dozen hints from walkthroughs -mostly because I thought I had figured out the clues and had tried many approaches and things weren’t working. It was kind of frustrating to see what needed to be done - I did all the heavy hauling with the clues only to be stymied because the top is not the bottom in my world. Also tricky is you can get to the last piece of several of the stand-alone puzzles and be wrong, but that was OK - it just got the brain juices flowing. The stacking rings puzzle, the numbers crossword puzzle, and the puzzles involved with directing the drops were my favourites because, even though challenging, I had a grip on what needed to be done. I just wished there had been more of those linear self-contained types of puzzles rather than the cryptic clues ones where you have to guess the orientation. Did the developers just toss a coin - oh let’s make this one mirror image, or upside down? I really disliked the three coloured squares and Y figure and just gave up. I would have skipped it if possible. But, all in all, despite the game being frustrating at times, it is light years ahead of those cookie cutter, spoon feeding puzzles that dominate the market. I sincerely wish BF would have a better sorting system. I look for challenging games and this one went under my radar for a long time only to be discovered because of someone else's posting.
I recommend this game!
Travel to mystic lands and help the Treefruities recover the lost leaves of their home tree. Search for clues and master puzzles during your journey.
Overall rating
5
/
5
Darn, it's over!
PostedAugust 19, 2020
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is an excellent and totally engrossing game that takes a lot of brain power. The game tests your thinking in many ways and will help you build on your skills, from patience to pattern recognition. A word of advice: don’t assume you have clues to do things right away as they sometimes come later in the game, and if you have missed something you might have to backtrack. There are some really challenging puzzles, not just the stand alone ones, but also the put two and two and two together ones. For some reason, the doors that spit out a check marked paper just frazzled me - I started out with wrong assumptions and fell down a rabbit hole of thinking. There are good walkthroughs out there if you get stuck. It’s a special person that can play the whole game without having a question or two. If you like a challenging game, this is it. I loved the little glimpse of a certain endearing spaceship in one scene. I look forward to playing the second game in the series, but will rest a bit first. There needs to be more of these wonderful and challenging games.
I recommend this game!
Take on a thief’s quest to recover a sorcerer’s recipe book from her deadly tower!
Overall rating
5
/
5
My Brain Needs a Rest
PostedAugust 2, 2020
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
For the most part, this game was a lot of fun, despite the occasional “bleep, bleep” words I uttered because it was quite challenging at times to find and figure out a lot of cryptic clues. If you play like I do - with slow deliberation (and jotting down notes) - allow lots of time to escape each room. If you quit you need to repeat that room. I quit two rooms right near the very end of each because nothing seemed doable and I actually thought I ruined something. I went to a walkthrough to get just those specific clues. The game can be VERY tricky. If you miss a small clue you can be stymied. I tended to click through captions quickly because they repeat if you accidentally click on those areas, but sometimes the clues might be in those captions. Also, to my detriment, I had false ideas of my own as to what needed to be done. Sometimes you just don’t know when you have done something right. If you have a good memory, or take notes, repeating a room is easier than expected! In fact, it’s astounding how little time it takes to find and repeat everything once you know what to do. I absolutely did NOT want to repeat the firefly collecting which was really, really hard - aging fingers? aging brain? wrong technique? Despite having steam coming out of my ears from the effort, those little flies sure prompted me to finish that room without quitting. I used a walkthrough at the very end of the game (on another computer so I didn’t have to quit) because I couldn’t figure out what pieces to put on the ring stone and from there I just wanted to finish the game as it was more interactive than the rest of the game and I was tired. All in all, I was sad to have the game come to an end!
I recommend this game!
Can you stop a deadly evil waiting in an abandoned school?
Overall rating
2
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
Missed the Mark
PostedJuly 20, 2020
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The stories (yes, there are more than one) were different, but the plodding game play and so many HOS took away the interest, edge, and spookiness. There were illogical things to do and lots of “fillers.” Too often you get things in the inventory ahead of time that make no sense to what you need to do. I know getting inventory ahead of time is common in a lot of games, but in this game, where the element of urgency is supposed to be prominent, it was annoying. When an object could finally be used somewhere some odd extra step was needed, or you couldn’t easily find the exact spot in the scene to place it, or you had to switch back and forth to the other dimension. The HOS, which you could not skip, were too numerous and uninspiring. I just clicked all over the place - at least there was no penalty. Some of the puzzles were okay, but, unfortunately, there were only a small handful of what I would call puzzles - I don’t call fitting this or that into or with this or that a puzzle. During the middle of the second story I switched over to easy game play just to get the game over with. As for the conclusion --- really? --- that served no purpose! I’m not interested in playing the bonus game at all.
I don't recommend this game.
When Leitan Keyes, a famous inventor, finishes his latest invention a sudden visit from the future will shatter his world.
Overall rating
3
/
5
4 of 6 found this review helpful
Different but the Same
PostedMay 28, 2020
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This game wasn’t totally engrossing for me as there weren’t any “sweat to solve” puzzles. Although the graphics are different, the sci-fi /tech aspect is window dressing over the usual game play - you spend most of your time finding this to open that. In its favour, the game is linear and logical within its context. The story is quite good, and I don’t usually pay attention to the story that much. I liked the cute coffee stain in the office container - someone has a sense of humour. The commentary is sometimes needed as there are unusual gizmos and gadgets. There are some spelling errors and odd language. It was annoying to get black clouds that slow you down in the HOs even though the scenes seem designed to require searching through a lot of choices. I really dislike most HOs so I switched to playing pairs, but the developers didn’t change the choices of pairs from one HO to the next. I started out hopeful with the game, but interest waned while trying to escape from the building, and then the helicopter, and then the mine. All the grey-blue metal seemed kind of dispiriting. This game will be great for HO lovers, and those who like to blow things up, and those who want the usual game play cloaked in sci-fi, tech graphics.
I recommend this game!
What's more important - the fate of the world or the destiny of your family? Find out in this amazing hidden object adventure game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Sometimes less is more
PostedApril 14, 2020
northswirl2
fromBritish Columbia Canada
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
There was so much potential here, but there is too much talking and third person video. The game is mostly an Adventure type of game rather than HO or Puzzle, although there are those elements too. Whatever happened to self-discovery, or a few subtle clues? On a game’s hardest setting there should be few to no hints, but there they are - scene after scene with explanations or comments about what needs to be done. Sigh. I kept thinking the game would have been so very much better without all that spoon feeding. When I had to hook up the extension cords so that lightning? could get to the trailers I started losing interest and ended up skipping that puzzle, which I normally never do. If developers are going to make puzzles challenging, make the whole game somewhat challenging so players get into that mental mode instead of having to slog through easy game play and an overabundance of chatter from (sometimes annoyingly flippant) characters. The wavelength puzzle seemed weirdly random to play. I skipped that puzzle too, and wondered if I wanted to continue playing because puzzles are my thing and I was skipping them. I persevered, and later puzzles seemed much better - some were difficult, but you can figure out the solution. I really did try to give the game a chance, but often found myself wanting to quit after playing just a few minutes because of the natter, natter, natter, so I started skipping through those parts when I could. I don’t think I missed much. I give the game 3 stars because there was a lot of effort put into developing the game, and it is heads above so many other games - but, for some reason trying to stuff the game full of everything for everyone just didn’t click. There’s that old saying - sometimes less is more.
I recommend this game!