MildewWolf's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.7
- Helpful Votes:47
- Reviews Submitted:9
- First Review:January 31, 2013
- Most Recent Review:February 14, 2019
- Featured reviews0
MildewWolf's Review History
After being kidnapped, your friend is about to be sacrificed to a powerful demon and it's up to you to save him!
Overall rating
4
/
5
It's no secret - this is a solid game
PostedFebruary 14, 2019
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Puzzle, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
The HOPA genre is a crowded one. A new title is released virtually every day and so it's hard to stand out from the herd unless you add a new game-play mechanic or extra dimension to your game. Released in 2012, this offering from Orneon, a Ukrainian developer, manages both these things by introducing a twist to the usual format.
You are on a quest to find your friend, a journalist, who's been investigating a small town where strange things have been happening and has now disappeared. In fact it seems everyone has vanished - the hotel, clinic, police station and museum are all deserted and with the exception of the hotel, are closed. It's your job to solve the mystery and hopefully rescue your friend. Along the way you will solve puzzles and rummage through piles of objects to find the elusive items that will help you. You'll also find tapes that your friend recorded during his investigations and these will give you some idea of what might have happened both to him and the other missing inhabitants.
So far so meh, but where's the originality? Well, you'll be required to change your surroundings from day to night (and present to past) in order to access a different environment and interact with areas and items that aren't available to you otherwise. Draw a curtain or close a window shade and a seemingly benign hotel room will morph into a dark, creepy Aztec cave with weird statues and other relics from the ancient civilization. Open it again and you're back in the present and the comforting daylight. It's an imaginative premise and is well executed. The cursor will alert you to where you need to perform this action (unsurprisingly it will be near a window) and a glowing cursor will suggest that you might need to change the lighting conditions - for instance solving a puzzle in the Aztec world will change something that isn't immediately apparent and only returning to the daylight will reveal the item that you need to progress.
The playing field isn't massive - there are only 4 buildings to visit for the majority of the game but the day/night dynamic gives you the feeling that it's larger. There's quite a lot of back and forth - finding an item in one building to use in another building and possibly in a different time/light situation and so forth. I prefer this approach to the more compartmentalized "chapter" one where you complete tasks in a confined area and then move on to a new area. So you'll see nooks and crannies at the beginning of the game that need something placed into them but you won't necessarily find the needed items until much later.
This is an older game, so the cut-scenes and video recordings are animated and not live-action. Artwork is a little muddy, especially in the Hidden Object scenes which are a combination of traditional find-the-object scenes and return-the-object scenes where you must replace items from the list somewhere into the scene. I enjoy these as they make a welcome break from the norm. After each scene there is one extra item to take for the inventory but you are told what it is you need to find.
Puzzles are plentiful and reasonably challenging. There's an incentive not to skip any as if you do, 30 minutes are added to your playing time. The final Beat the Bad Guy puzzle was quite arduous and required pen and paper.
The music isn't very varied - there are only a few tracks that loop but they are enjoyable. I got a William Orbit kind of vibe from one of them and another was quite Tangerine Dream-esque. Sound effects could grate on the nerves slightly - there are whooshes and echoey crashes when you find an item on the list in Hidden Object scenes and another sort of whoosh when you change the environment from light to dark.
I played this on the harder difficulty mode with no sparkles indicating items or areas of interest (including, I was pleased to note, Hidden Object scenes), not using the hints and only skipping one puzzle. Nevertheless it only took me 4 and a quarter hours to complete it, excluding the 30 minutes added for a puzzle skip but including a fair amount of time scratching my head and wandering around trying to discover the way forward. If you were playing on the easier difficulty mode with sparkles and used the hint button a few times, you could certainly breeze through it much quicker.
The Standard Edition has no extras but concludes in a satisfactory manner and hints at the possibility of a sequel. The Collector's Edition apparently has 2 quite lengthy bonus chapters which is unusual - there's usually only 1. There's also the usual Strategy Guide and selection of wallpapers that are not included in the Standard Edition. I don't normally feel the need to buy or upgrade to Collector's Editions as the extras don't usually warrant the higher cost but the thought of 2 bonus chapters does tempt me slightly. Whichever edition you choose will provide a few hours of entertainment and a welcome variation on the run-of-the-mill HOPA formula
I recommend this game!
Follow the kidnapper's clues, rediscover Sarah's past and bring her brother back to safety in this action packed Hidden Object game!
Overall rating
4
/
5
I'M GLAD I DON'T LIVE IN THIS SUBURB
PostedFebruary 4, 2019
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Hailing from Poland, the team behind this game are of the new breed of Eastern European developers that subvert and shake up the traditional (some might say "predictable") format of the HOPA. Some people like this new approach, others don't. If you played and enjoyed games such as "Secret Bunker USSR" or "The Mystery of a Lost Planet", you may want to check this one out.
A curious mixture of a live action woman standing around looking slightly exasperated when in fact she should be terrified and cartoon panels tell the story of our heroine's attempts to find and rescue her family who have been kidnapped by a mysterious lunatic. In between all that you must find and use objects, solve puzzles and do an enormous amount of Hidden Object scenes.
After a fairly innocuous start in a pretty living room, the game takes a sinister turn which is reflected in the grubby environments - a trashed house, a hideous basement and other squalid locations which may be a bit too earthy and creepy for some. Sound effects add to the grimy feel with dripping water and clanking machinery often being the only things the player can hear. Tasks are of the mechanical kind - this is a game set in the real world, so there's no unicorn horns to collect or pretty flower arranging but plenty of handyman stuff. This gives the game a more masculine feel than most HOPAs and could be a turn off for some players.
The game is quite atmospheric and creepy - the antagonist speaks to you via tape recordings and an intercom system to let you know he's watching your every move and performs a skin-crawling rendition of a children's song which adds an extra frisson of fear. There's also a particularly scary moment when you enter a kitchen - well, I was scared!
Artwork is of the hand-drawn variety and thus suffers from a slight lack of clarity at times. Some of the objects both in and out of Hidden Object scenes are very small and you will have to do a lot of mouse swirling to find all the inventory items in the game's various environments, especially on the middle difficulty level where there are fewer glints and gleams to alert you to an item or area of interest. Hard-core enthusiasts will be pleased to know that there are no glints at all on the hardest difficulty level as well as no hints or skipping of puzzles (yikes!).
One peculiar aspect of the Hidden Object scenes is that they stay "live" even when you've found all the items on the list. Very often there are one or more extra items to pick up after the listed items have been found and this is not made clear to you, although in the first few instances the items will glint (even on the hardest difficulty level) to let you know that maybe they warrant closer inspection. Even when there are no tell-tale twinkles the grabby hand icon will appear when you've found one of these extra items. Sometimes you'll need to return to a previously cleared scene to find an item that's mysteriously materialized since your last visit. Even when the screen has been 100% cleared of all useful items, it will stay available to re-visit. This might alienate some players who are used to the conventional practice of closing off the area once it's finished with.
Puzzles were just right for my ability and I don't remember skipping any, which is unusual for me - there's normally one twiddly type that I have to skip. So experienced HOPA players might find them a little easy. I found them to be enjoyable on the whole although sometimes the instructions weren't as clear as they should have been. However I can forgive this from a team who have English as a second language and I managed to muddle through and solve them. The main challenge of the game is finding all the well hidden, tiny inventory items that are scattered among the general detritus.
Game length is pretty standard for this genre - anywhere between 4 and 6 hours depending on whether you spam the Hint button or prefer to tough things out. If you're a fan of the more "traditional" HOPA games, like the Puppetshow or Grim Facade series for example, this may prove too unconventional and unpolished for your taste so I highly recommend downloading the trial version and not buying the whole thing blind. If, like me, you have a penchant for the Eastern European way of doing things you may be pleasantly surprised by this game.
I recommend this game!
Journey through fantastic landscapes and complete many interesting tasks and exciting puzzles.
Overall rating
4
/
5
2 of 3 found this review helpful
Wave Hello to a Good Time
PostedMay 4, 2017
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Strategy
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Come with me on a journey backwards and forwards through time as we attempt to solve a mysterious disappearance and undo the mistakes that have unwittingly been made...
You arrive at your aunt's house to find that she's not there. Worse still, she has vanished from a photograph of her holding you as a baby, which rather disconcertingly makes you appear to be hovering in mid-air. This is where the game grabbed me and I fell in love with Mike - his reaction to this is hilarious and really well acted. The voice work on the whole was pretty good with one obvious exception but that particular character's not so great acting added to the experience for me. The characters look like real people and graphically the game is a joy to behold. It's bold, bright and brash with beautiful artwork that tries hard to be photo-realistic as opposed to a more whimsical hand-drawn style. There was a slight lag between some scenes but it wasn't long enough to be an annoyance.
The story-line is pretty decent with a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Your missing aunt turns up in a newspaper article from the '60s which reports on her tragic death and mentions the fact that she was found in possession of documents from "the future". How odd - what's going on? You find a glove which can punch a hole through time, put it on and WHOOSH! You're off to the past! And then the future! It's all gone horribly wrong and you have to fix it! And do umpteen Hidden Object scenes and puzzles!
The first Hidden Object scene blew me away with its total cuteness - full of brightly coloured and beautifully rendered children's toys. In each scene you will have to find 3 symbols (anchors or snowflakes for example) of different colours to unlock 3 parts of a list of items. There are a few multi-step items in each scene and these words are a different colour to let you know it's not just a straightforward find. There's an abundance of puzzles and mini-games but none of them are particularly difficult and the Skip button fills up almost instantly for the puzzle haters. I prefer puzzles to HO scenes so I was in my element. Some of them are of the arcade type - jump across moving logs, or shoot different coloured virus cells as they slowly move towards you. Some are timed which adds an element of suspense and panic, which I wasn't keen on, I play HOPAs to relax and take it easy and so found these particular mini-games annoying and stressful.
The adventuring aspects were better than average. The amount of back and forth to find items and use them was reasonable - you never had to go too far. Travelling to different time periods and places meant that gameplay was somewhat compartmentalized so there was never the feeling that you might have missed something twenty screens back. I played in the hardest difficulty mode (but I think that only changed how fast hints re-charged) and found it reasonably challenging at times to work out what needed to be done next. The game seemed quite long - I can often finish HOPAs in 2 sittings of a couple of hours but this one took me several sessions to complete. I'm usually glad to finish a game, even a particularly good one but I was sorry to see this one end.
I was particularly impressed by the music. Some of it was really funky and had me lingering in the scene to listen to it for a while. It wasn't always appropriate to the environment however and I could imagine many players would find it grating and intrusive. It's a shame that the music isn't available to listen to independently of the game. You can play some of the puzzles separately but they were ones that I hadn't really enjoyed the first time around so I wasn't particularly interested in playing them again.
So it's a cute, colourful and reasonably easy game. Sounds ideal for family play, yes? Well...almost. For sure, 99% of the game is perfectly suitable for playing with a child or grandchild on your knee and they might be better at those quick-fire arcadey mini-games. But there is one use of quite a strong swear word (think "male bovine manure"). Personally, I laughed because, quite honestly, it was an appropriate thing to say under the circumstances but I appreciate that it's not a word you might want a young child to hear. Also, you very slightly mistreat an animal at one point - honestly, it's nothing serious - in fact the only thing that is wounded is the animal's pride. Again, I laughed, but that's just me. But apart from those two small things I would say it's family friendly, mildly educational and lots of fun.
I recommend this game!
Help Meredith retrieve the ancient tomes and stop the Wizard’s wrath in this hidden object adventure!
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
Orion't you glad I didn't say Botanica?
PostedFebruary 10, 2017
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Strategy
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
My last review was for "Botanica: Into the Unknown" and it wasn't very complimentary. In fact it left me with such a seething hatred of HOPAs that my next game was a straight H.O.G (it was Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby and I enjoyed it very much thank-you). I then decided I needed a nice, calming and fun HOPA or adventure-lite game to renew my love for the genre. I saw "Myths of Orion" in my Game Manager and clicked "Play Now" with some slight trepidation. I wasn't sure if it was going to be another green and purple horror from B*****p (I will not say their name - they're dead to me now). But miracle of miracles - the name Cateia Games appeared on my screen and I knew salvation was at hand.
I'm not as fond of fantasy worlds and story-lines as many gamers, but if they're done well I'm happy to go along for the ride and it was immediately apparent that this was a lovingly crafted realm of elves and other mythological races. The artwork was spectacular with gorgeous lighting effects and the music was relaxing and appropriate for the mood and setting. The voice-overs were well acted and the early tasks had a sense of immediacy which quickly drew me into the game world.
I was also delighted to see that this is what I call an SE+ game - there are hidden things to find and achievements to obtain. I don't normally care much about these things which is why I never buy Collector's Editions but if they're in an SE game I somehow feel more compelled to get as many as possible than if I were playing a CE game. Perhaps it's my private way of showing my appreciation for a developer who doesn't need to put these things in but does it anyway. A custom difficulty setting was another welcome feature and so everything in the garden was rosy (although Auntie Ariel's house appeared to be on fire) and all thoughts of No-tanica (see what I did there?) faded from my mind as I settled down in expectation of a pleasurable and joyful gaming experience.
My jubilation was muted a little when I encountered a Hidden Object scene. Ah yes, I'd forgotten that Cateia make some of those games now. I prefer their pure adventure games but I'm not totally averse to a few Hidden Objects and the first scene filled me with optimism that the game would be fairly light on them. It was a basic list with very few items which seemed like a token gesture and I hoped the game would continue in this vein. It didn't. Hidden Object scenes are in fact, plentiful and hard-core purists playing on the toughest difficulty level may be slightly miffed to see that they sparkle. However, it's kind of necessary because all the scenes repeat many times and sometimes you'll play a scene, place an inventory item in the next screen and return to find another round of Hidden Objects waiting for you immediately. To counter the feeling of "oh no, not again" each return visit plays out slightly differently each time - you may have a word list followed by a silhouette list for example. The most annoying ones are when you're given one item at a time and can't move on to the next item until you find the preceding one. I'll be honest - I like my Hidden Object scenes to be straight-up word lists with no extra faffery and one scene in particular was like the video-game equivalent of nails down a chalk-board - you had to click three times to clear away black swirly smoke or evil energy or something (gah! Who cares? Why is it even there except as a gimmick?) and then find eleventy tiny beetles and twelvety tiny black roses and the black swirly stuff kept coming back so you had to click 3 times to drive it away again. And again. And again. Urge.. to.. kill... rising...
The playing area was split between your house and three other-worldly dimensions that you accessed by finding crystals. The action in these other worlds was pretty self-contained and when you'd finished a world it wasn't necessary to return to it which made for a more compartmentalized, episodic feeling. I prefer a more open world environment personally but I know many HOPA fans like it, as it's easier to return to a game after a few days knowing that you're at the beginning of a new area and don't have to worry too much about what's gone before. .
Puzzles are my favourite part of these types of games and most of the puzzles were doable for me. Some were trickier than others but the lure of a lovely achievement or two for not skipping made me persevere on the types of puzzle that would normally make me throw my hands up in the air and skip. I found some of the instructions a bit vague and some of the controls were awkward and cumbersome. I usually enjoy the act of solving puzzles but these somehow seemed more of a chore than fun. Eventually a box stacking puzzle did me in as I failed to understand what shape I was supposed to make. The adventuring aspect was very satisfactory though - item use was logical and I enjoyed having to find items to make various potions.
I thought the game was a little short - playing on custom difficulty with most help turned off and using no hints, it took me 4 hours and 10 minutes to complete. Much of that time was spent looking for that last elusive hidden object in a scene, multiple resets in puzzles and the inevitable moments of "what do I do now?" running around. If you were a competent player who was happy to use hints for the odd item and didn't mind skipping a puzzle here and there you could probably rattle through much quicker.
So poor old Cateia haven't been able to totally placate me but to be fair, they had a hard task ahead of them and most of the "problems" addressed in this review are down to my personal preferences. Technically the game ran flawlessly on my steam-powered XP machine and it flowed well - there were very few times when I was really stumped as to what to do next. I can't give it 5 stars as I only really reserve those for games which totally blew me away and "Myths of Orion" failed to do that. I can give it 4 stars though and a hearty recommendation if you like fantasy HOPAs with lots of Hidden Object scenes and a few extras.
I recommend this game!
Use your botany skills to survive the strange new planet of Botanica. Can you find your way back to Earth in this thrilling Hidden Object adventure?
Overall rating
2
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
Into the Unplayable
PostedFebruary 7, 2017
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Time Management
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I once played a great Boomzap game. I loved all the shades of green and purple and found the mechanics of completing an area and moving on to a new one a refreshing alternative to the massive playing field that requires you to traverse distances that Mo Farah would think twice about. Then I played a few more games from this developer and the episodic game-play and garish hues started to grate slightly. Having just finished Otherworld: Shades of Fall and finding it a little hand-holdy and easy, should I really have jumped straight into yet another Boomzap game? Perhaps not. However, I started off loving it - the music was lovely and relaxing - the green and purple scenery was beautiful and made me want to linger in every screen and there was actually a plot, which combined with interesting tasks and intriguing characters made me want to keep playing to see how the story would develop.
Then it all went tragically, horribly wrong. Placing an inventory item somewhere would require several tries until I found the sweet-spot. Using multi-step items in a Hidden Object scene was a similarly aggravating affair. Puzzles were less of the logical kind and more of the trial and error kind and many of them suffered from the same nit-picky need for precision of cursor placement. Eventually I came across a puzzle where I had to slide tiles around in a frame to make a picture. I was amazing at these when I was about 6 but now I find them difficult. I'm not one to give up though so I gamely tried to slide the pieces around. Except that some of them wouldn't move. No matter how much I clicked and slid my mouse they would not budge. I have been gaming since 1975 and own over 1000 games from the Atari 2600 to the Xbox 360 and have never rage-quit a game in my entire life...until now. So well done, Boomzap. If nothing else, you hold the "honorary" position of the first developer to force me to rage-quit in 42 years of gaming. Half an hour later, my shoulders were still locked rigid from the incredible tension and frustration that slider puzzle generated in me. I play games to relax, not to end up needing to see a chiropractor.
I doubt I will finish this, as I'm treating it as any other game that I consider "broken" and although I don't like to leave reviews for a game if I haven't completed it, I feel it would be remiss of me not to review it for these glaring technical defects. Unfortunately I have the sequel sitting in my Game Manager and although it is apparently a superior game, I really don't feel inclined to play it or any other Boomzap game for some foreseeable time.
I don't recommend this game.
Can you solve the mystery of a lost planet and rescue the crew of a spaceship in distress?
Overall rating
5
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
SUBVERTING THE GENRE FOR THE BETTERMENT OF GAMERKIND!
PostedDecember 26, 2016
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Think you know what makes a good HOPA? Well, think again. Playing this, it soon becomes apparent that we've been doing it wrong all these years. The developers of The Mystery of a Lost Planet are here to show us a new way. A better way. Prepare to have your preconceptions shattered, because this game tears up the rule book and makes its own rules. It's old fashioned in many ways - some won't appreciate the 4:3 aspect ratio and the lack of character animation and audible speech. But despite these "shortcomings", this game manages to bring an entirely new slant to the (some might say) stale and stagnant HOPA genre.
Modern, standard HOPA conventions are thrown out the window - are you playing on easy mode and expecting sparkles out the wazoo? Well, you'd be wrong - while doorways or passages to other places light up when you mouse over them, other areas or items of interest only have a very subtle glint to guide you. And I suppose you think you'll find a Hidden Object scene within the next screen? Wrong again - the next screen IS the Hidden Object scene. And then later, something else might happen there. Or maybe not... Ah, here's a Hidden Object scene. I can tell because there's a domino and a hat and many other incongruous items... but where's the list? What's going on? It's all a lot less predictable than the games we're used to. The Hidden Object scenes themselves offer a challenge by not always having a changing cursor for interactive components. Here, the developers are taking you back to what a Hidden Object game should be about - observation. The clues to the interactivity are there but you need to really look for the solution. Another unintentional layer of difficulty is added by a few mis-spellings and mis-translations but strangely, these always add to the fun for me.
Maybe you're a pro and playing on the hardest difficulty mode? Good luck - you're going to need it. There are no instructions for the mini-games and while in easy mode the PDA gives you a decent amount of information, including alerting you to the presence of various things that you might not otherwise notice, hardest mode gives you very little info. This presents an extra challenge because sometimes the cursor changes to let you know there's a hot-spot but sometimes it doesn't. What? Surely this is breaking one of the most fundamental rules of HOPAs? Maybe, but get used to it because in these cases, it's clear the developers want you to look, really look at everything, rather than simply focusing on the cursor and waiting for it to change. And they want you to use something else too - your brain. I'm not the sharpest tool in the box but I eventually managed to get to the end of the game without a hint. There is a reward for playing in this higher difficulty mode in the form of a little extra back-story, which once again, unconventionally doesn't happen at the end of the game but somewhere along the way. It's totally non-essential to the main game but it's a nice little touch and adds an incentive to replay.
The mini-games/puzzles were different and a little odd. No instructions in hardest mode means some head-scratching is inevitable but none are impossible, even without guidance. If you're unsure, just fiddle about with the components a bit - again if you use logic and experimentation, the solution should reveal itself. I was determined not to skip a puzzle and I almost succeeded but had to give up on the second part of what turned out to be the last puzzle.
An original and innovative electronic soundtrack accompanies us on our journey. I enjoyed all the music and there were some unusual sound samples used at times. The artwork is truly stunning - the alien landscapes are imaginative and beautifully realised. Ship interiors are authentically monochromatic and industrial. The game characters look like real people. Also authentic is the need to find useful, realistic items. We don't need an earring, an old love letter and something that I'm not entirely sure what it is but I'll take it anyway before venturing onto a strange planet that we just crashed into. I'd rather have the more sensible ration pack and medical kit. Apart from the story-line, everything is based on realism and logic.
Games, like movies, are capable of spanning a massive spectrum, from the latest blockbuster extravaganza from ERS or Elephant to low-budget, independent efforts and if you compare the newest MCF game to the newest installment of a successful Hollywood franchise, then consider this game to be something like a Dogme 95 film in the sense that it's invented a whole new and at the same time old back-to-basics way of doing a very familiar thing. It's raw, it's unconventional but most of all it takes players who prefer the more traditional game mechanics provided by the bigger studios out of their comfort zone. They don't "get it" and therefore probably don't like it. That's OK. No game can satisfy everyone's tastes. Players who cut their teeth on adventure games of yesteryear will perhaps appreciate it more, as (in the hardest mode) it offers a reasonable amount of challenge. The one thing all players will agree on is that this game is very different from the norm - whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you...
I recommend this game!
Puss in Boots just showed up at my office with a request. Help investigate the kidnapping of his beloved and delve into a world full of secrets!
Overall rating
2
/
5
4 of 5 found this review helpful
A Crying Shame
PostedDecember 26, 2016
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
I'm always on the lookout for SE games from smaller (often Eastern European) developers as many of them turn out to be hidden gems. This is a strange one that seems to be a love it or hate it affair. If you like voice-overs, grammatically correct English, a coherent story and a game that looks like it was made within the last few years you might want to give this one a miss. If you like games that are challenging (although not necessarily in a good way) and different then you may want to take a chance.
The tone of the game seemed good at first - a gritty film-noir type detective story with a twist. Our chisel-cheeked heroine (who also appears to be in the "Detective Riddles: Sherlock's Heritage" games) is on a mission to save her Dad who, as a young man, looked suspiciously like Benedict Cumberbatch but has recently aged very quickly and needs a cure. At the same time she's been hired by Puss-in-Boots to find his kidnapped wife. But from the start there are some ominous signs. We have a magnifying glass that we need to use sometimes to detect a "secret" area within a scene. This is totally unnecessary and seems to be there just to complicate the game somewhat. There's a helper or two. I'm not a fan of helpers (unless it's a robot) but to be fair neither are particularly cutesy and they both serve a purpose. One is called Vince and looks like a meerkat and is used to retrieve things that you can't reach. Occasionally he just happens to find something without being asked and also talks to you now and again. The other is an un-named phoenix that lights or burns things. Better to have a permanent phoenix than forever be looking for matches or lighters I guess.
As I played through the game more niggles appeared - a barely adequate translation meant that the script wasn't zingy and clever, like a proper noir detective story would be but clumsy and nonsensical instead. The gameplay seemed uneven - sometimes there'd be some back and forth to acquire all the items you needed to solve a situation and sometimes everything would be within one or two screens. The music was uninspired and unvarying and the visuals were merely OK.
One major gripe is that I played the game on the highest difficulty and I'm pretty sure I was told that skips and hints were available in that mode (I NEED those things). And yet, if I asked for a hint in a Hidden Object scene all I'd hear is "You need to look around a bit more" from Vince. A couple of times I accidentally clicked the hint button (because I thought I had to click on Vince to activate him) and again I got told to look around a bit more. And either I was being Mr. Magoo or there was no skip on the mini-games, which luckily was only a problem once with a puzzle where you had to put some characters in their correct rooms in a doll's house. The solution was easily found, thanks to the game forum but I would never have worked it out myself in a million years. I found the rest of the mini-games to be on the easy side.
The Hidden Object scenes were tortuous affairs. Graphics were a combination of grainy and blurry and moody lighting didn't help with visibility. Many items were of the multiple step variety which I'm not overly keen on anyway. If they're done well, fair enough but there was inconsistency in the help you were given to work out what needed to be done. Some items were hidden under another item and there weren't usually any clues as to which items they might be (no cursor change), so you basically had to click everything. Several times I had to resort to a video walkthrough to find an elusive multi-step item. Eventually I dreaded encountering a Hidden Object scene. Unfortunately the adventuring aspect, which should be the meat and potatoes of any HOPA game, just didn't resonate with me. I didn't feel engaged with any of the characters or compelled to progress - it was simply a case of taking care of business and moving on the next area.
Towards the end, the game suffered a few glitches and some slowdown. The glitches weren't game breakers - exiting and re-entering the game made everything work properly but it just added to the frustration and boredom I was already feeling. This seemed a very long game for me but perhaps it was because it became a chore to play about half-way through. A warning to arachnophobes - there is a largish spider towards the end of the game and a few tiny ones in Hidden Object scenes.
I can usually forgive a game with bad translation and less than stellar audio-visual effects because very often the story and game-play is still good or novel enough that one can overlook any short-comings. Two examples spring to mind - "Secret Bunker USSR" and "The Mystery of a Lost Planet" - both have translation issues and an unpolished finish but both make up for it with great story-lines, interesting tasks and in the case of Lost Planet, outrageously unconventional game-play. This game fell very short of those two diamonds in the rough.
I don't recommend this game.
Rescue your daughter, Hannah, from the clutches of an evil witch before it's too late in this chilling Hidden Object adventure game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
Gothic and dark but not really a Saga...
PostedSeptember 11, 2016
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
An ERS game without Hidden Object scenes? Sounds good to me. I'm sort of in the middle when it comes to Adventure games - I find some of the hard-core pure Adventures too difficult for my feeble brain but many of the HOPA games offered on this site can be a little too easy. For me, this game is pitched perfectly between the two extremes - it plays exactly like your standard ERS HOPA game so it saves on exit (unlike some Adventure games that require you to manually save) and it doesn't have a disorientating 360 degree view - it just doesn't have any Hidden Object scenes. Playing on the hardest difficulty level I found it challenging enough that I had to refer to a walk-through a couple of times (I don't use in-game hints for some reason I've never quite understood). I appreciated the fact that the hardest level did what many games promise and yet fail to do which was to provide hardly any black bar tips and no sparkles anywhere and this total lack of help made for a long game that I found mostly enjoyable.
However there are some issues that stop this game receiving a higher rating. The first let-down is the opening scenes which make no sense to anyone British. The use of live actors was unnecessary and badly done. The story could have been told equally as well with traditional animation. Well, I say "story"... as with every ERS game I've ever played, an evil *somebody* has kidnapped someone dear to you and you must rescue them. And that's pretty much it. Along the way you have to save someone else and erm... do stuff - suffice to say it's not really a "saga". I'm not expecting "War and Peace" in a casual game but some semblance of a plot is required to provide any kind of motivation to continue playing, otherwise it becomes a mechanical chore. Having a scary witch or a luminous green tree monster pop up every now and again does not constitute a story-line. Lack of any major plot developments made the different locations feel unconnected to each other so everywhere felt the same and I could never remember exactly where I needed to be which led to a lot of back and forth. I actually like trudging backwards and forwards between scenes and normally never feel the need to take advantage of a jump-map but this game could dearly have done with one. Not since "Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome" have I been so enraged at the amount of back and forth in a game. Seemingly in recognition of this, after finding certain items the game opens up a portal to take you to where the item can be used which reduces some of the traipsing around but there's still far too much.
So if a game doesn't have Hidden Object scenes then surely the puzzles make up for them? Sadly, no. I'm not Einstein but even I found the majority of them to be ridiculously easy. Two or three at most were a real challenge and I admit to skipping one puzzle that required you to reconstruct 3 faces by swapping pieces around. The only real challenge to the game was remembering where you needed to be and then getting there.
A 3 star rating is not a condemnation of "Gothic Fiction: Dark Saga". It's not a bad game and I'd play it again at some point. But it's not a great game either. Realistically, this is a 7/10 game or 3.5 stars. If this had been from a small indie developer I'd probably have rounded it up to 4. In fact an indie developer would have been more imaginative and creative with the concept and would have probably deserved those 4 stars. A larger developer like ERS can and should do better on the imagination and execution front and only gets 3. I still recommend it to anyone who likes the mechanics of HOPA games without the Hidden Objects and who doesn't mind little to no plot and interminable to and fro.
I recommend this game!
Take on the role of d'Artagnan in his quest to become a Musketeer! Journey to Paris and protect the Queen's honor!
Overall rating
5
/
5
32 of 32 found this review helpful
A Diamond in the Rough
PostedJanuary 31, 2013
MildewWolf
fromProbably slumped on the sofa, Great Britain
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Please be aware that this is actually half a game - the second installment (The Three Musketeers: Milady's Vengeance) carries on from the moment this game ends - therefore the ending to this first installment is a somewhat abrupt and unexpected cliffhanger. You play as d'Artagnan and leave your home village on your knackered old horse to travel to Paris and enlist in the Musketeers. Once there you find yourself in an atmosphere of intrigue, conspiracy and secret love-affairs. Not being particularly acquainted with the story of The Three Musketeers, I can only assume that the game's plot follows that of the book and I was quickly drawn into the story and eager to see how it would progress.
This game is perhaps best described as an R.P.G.- Lite. As with any typical Role-Playing Game you explore your surroundings, talk to people, go on missions and quests and engage in combat. You level up and you raid chests, barrels and crates to gain items and money to upgrade your weapons and clothing. However unlike the majority of R.P.G.s, the story isn't open-ended (being based on the book, it has to follow the story) and you have to do most tasks and quests in a certain order. You can't get lost as a set of footprints leads to where you need to go, although you can turn these off for more of a challenge. Also there aren't pages of menus to wade through or a million stats to attend to (just 4 - attack, defence, honour and musket fire-power which all improve as you level up and can be further improved by equipping weapons and clothing) and you don't have to worry about magic or mana or whether you can survive a lightning attack with the hat you're wearing and all the other complications that deter many from playing R.P.G.s. In fact combat is simple yet effective (and authentic) - it's in real-time and is semi-automatic. You click on an opponent to engage them in combat, but then d'Artagnan pretty much fights the duels himself, thrusting and parrying with no user input needed. You have no control over defense and so you will take damage. However you can control your attack somewhat - when an opponent appears to sweat it means he's vulnerable and quickly clicking on him will make d'Artagnan perform a highly effective thrust of his sword. Pressing the O key on your keyboard will dispense a healing ointment for when you are dangerously close to death - a handy noise and flashing life gauge tell you when you're low on health, so keep a finger hovered over that O key, click on the sweaty foes and you'll dispatch them in no time. Many confrontations can be avoided by simply ignoring them or running away, but if you're anything like me, once you've got the hang of combat you'll be riding around looking for trouble. And there's trouble a-plenty if you do go looking - people are being robbed, women are being insulted, ruffians are telling you that you smell - your honour demands satisfaction, so en-garde!
Despite the game's linearity there are optional side quests to fulfill and it's worth ignoring the footprints leading to your next mission now and again to ride off and explore towns and villages that you're not asked to visit as part of the game's plot. Who knows? You may find interesting people or a dandy item of clothing to purchase. You can gamble at one of the Paris inns and play tennis at the tennis court. On the whole you're free to wander around most towns and houses between the game's main quests although there are a couple of missions (usually involving escorting people) that have to be done straight away. If you get distracted by a ruffian or simply don't realise that it's a time-sensitive mission you get a gentle game-over with a retry button so it's no big deal - that tennis match will just have to wait until your escort duties are over.
Experienced R.P.G. players may find this a tad too simplistic, hand-holding and linear but for anyone who fancies dipping their toes in the genre, this game is a gentle introduction. As it's only half a game it could be a short experience if you slavishly follow the footprints and don't take the time out to explore, so don't be afraid to wander a little and talk to random strangers. There is a lot of humour to be experienced during some conversations and other details like the sound of hooves clopping on cobblestones, the fact that your outward appearance actually reflects the clothes you're wearing (unlike many games where you look the same no matter what clothes or armour you have equipped) and the music add a great deal of atmosphere to the game. It's clear the developers have lavished much love and attention on this project.
A couple of small gripes prevent me from giving Queen Anne's Diamonds 5 stars, the main one being that there is only 1 save slot. To be honest it's not a big deal due to the game's overall linearity except at the very end of the game. I wasn't expecting the game to end when it did and after the credits rolled I was dismayed to see a message telling me that if I wanted to finish all the side quests I would have to start the game again. So it would have been nice to have had the chance to go back to an earlier save and finish up that danged tennis quest. But this is a minor quibble and my true score for this game (if I could give it) would be 4.5 stars. Oh what the heck, I'm feeling generous - I'm rounding it up to 5.
I recommend this game!