Well, you went into the past and now you gotta go back and correct your mistakes. Bummer.
So, I finished what I thought was the game, (a little short, but good,) only to find it’s one in a series. Each is a book and when you finish the book you go on to the next; 4 books in all.
Slow work, but fascinating. Great for a 2011 game! Reasonable skip times for help, imaginative HOS and a story line that keeps pulling you along. A very long game and long bonus chapter. Adventure/Hog lovers will really like this one. And it was published way back in 2011! I highly recommend!
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
5/ 5
Storyline
4/ 5
Typical of this series. Nothing startlingly new, except the standard of good illustration is maintained. Very creative character drawings of the main characters. I must say, their appearance had more personality than their written parts. But it must be acknowledged that this long running series holds up the quality; I’ve bought all 14 games in CE, something that rarely happens.
The story could have been tighter; I was never sure why the writer was there as she disappeared for most of the game, only surfacing when her husband finally found her.
What I wished I’d known: This story may be based on a real unsolved mystery of a 1900's disappearance of 3 lighthouse keepers of the Flannen Lighthouse on the Island of Eileen Mor. It is located on the highest point of the island. These islands in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland, are well known for their fierce storms. During one such, on 15 December, 1900, a ship reported no light from the Flannen isle Light house and further investigation led to finding three of the four lighthouse keepers (There were a rotation, one man being on the mainland for break at any given time) had mysteriously disappeared and only their unused oilskins were found in the lighthouse, the table set with food, the clocks stopped, but no one every found out for sure what happened to them.
There were many theories but despite repeated investigations, the mystery remains unsolved. You can look it up on Wikipedia. It’s a chilling tale and well worth reading about. I will keep this in mind when I replay the game!
Fun note: all the writers “collectibles” were hints on how to get inspiration and organize your writing.
This is without doubt one of the most creative and fascinating games I’ve played in a long while. The imagination of these artists is outstanding. Just when I thought I wouldn’t see any thing new, a new thing came up. This is definitely a mid trilogy game, but important to play before the final one, “Outcome”
I’ve been a member for over 11 years and this is one of maybe a dozen games I give full marks to and my own personal gold star, meaning it is replayable for a long time. It is just awesome.
Charming, beautifully rendered HOG, with German villains and citizenry, and well written story, but from what I’ve seen of the map in the game, it is set south of Walachia (Romania) somewhere near Constantinople in Turkey. Weird. Thus my title above. Anyway, a fun great game, just hard enough, with great story line, FROGs (fragmented HOS) are of, appropriately, machines you put together!) and a nice helper mechanical crow named Matthew. Love it. Fun bonus chapter too, it’s a prequel but isn’t ruined by what you already know.
After a terrible accident, Amy finds herself trapped in Resurrection, a town on the other side of life with a lot of “lost souls”. It doesn’t take you long to figure it out. And now, you just have to figure out how to get back... Given the publishing date, no sparkles or morphs, but for a game made about 10 years ago it has a lot going for it, including bonus play and a strategy guide! If you are a hard core HOG fan this game is for you. Even if you opt for the SE version, it's still a great deal with a free game ticket! A disclaimer here, this IS an older game and when I played it on my 2020 game machine, it would only play in "windowed mode" (i.e., a smaller window set on your desktop) This was a problem over come with an inexpensive magnifying glass which I've often used in the past for difficult to find objects. Unless of course you've got super site, this works. Don't laugh you young sprigs, us old folks are amazing at finding ways around things, after a lifetime of experience! :) Anyway I highly recommend this game!
I really like this series. The devs go out of their way to put in new types of HOS and the stories are always well told.
This one takes place in Austria I think. An exceptional artist, who should know better, agreed to make a copy of a valuable painting and of course the bad guys did not keep their word (gasp!) Her boyfriend, who seems equally clueless and with an equal lack of moral compass agrees to certify the copy as the original (actually this part is a little confusing; it's never clear if he is cooperating with them or just has no common sense.) Add a scheming family out to restore their lost fortune and willing to kill to get it, a plot is made. The sequel _is_ a sequel, and not to my surprise, our artist friend on discovering a stolen diamond agrees it "must be returned" But not with much conviction.
The game is good and has lots to do and discover, but the morality behind it does little to reassure me of the some of our future generations and their ethos.
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
5/ 5
Storyline
5/ 5
A fantastic addition to this series. A fairly complicated plot with a skippy pace and lots to see and do. The map helped a lot when I was undecided where to go next; otherwise it was pretty straight forward logic.
I liked the characters and the solutions were practical and believable. This is a must have for adventure players. Lots more puzzles than hops, but what there was of them were well done. They made up for the lack of big HOS with a bunch of little ones. I highly recommend this game!
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
5/ 5
Storyline
5/ 5
I quite enjoyed playing this game which I can recommend for intermediate players as well as experts as the hints and map are generous. For some reason I did not purchase this when it first came out, but was glad it is still available! A great story line of a complicated and flawed family. I'm not sure what was quite the point behind collecting the two objects in each scene - a decal of a boat and a letter morphing between G and F, (for Grim Façade? oooh bad.) but it was fun. In the end you get to choose the sails and hull color of a very nice ship you inherit, by the laws of the sea!
I literally had hours of fun playing this game and highly recommend it!
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File
Fun Factor
4/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
4/ 5
Storyline
5/ 5
I wasn’t prepared to like this; the first part put me off by how nasty the the bad guys were. (Actually it was only one obsessed bully, but his boss had to know about his methods; another way of testifying to modern ethics that say what ever it takes to get what you want) But it is actually a decent game and the bonus game is a sequel which is nice. And the bad guy was dealt with appropriately and satisfyingly,
Once I got used to not stopping to read the CD’s as I played the game I was ok, although I think it would be better the old way, while you are still in the situation the disk is speaking about. Not as riveting a story as some of the early ones, but decent and worth the CE price.
I recommend this game!
+1point
2of3voted this as helpful.
Mystery Age: The Dark Priests
Stop the Chaos God’s Dark Priests once and for all! Amber must head back to Westwind Village to put an end to the evil for good!
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File
Fun Factor
1/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
1/ 5
Level of Challenge
1/ 5
Storyline
1/ 5
Since this is one of the games that fell victim when Adobe stopped supporting Flash player, you can no longer download flash so the game will run. Too bad...