AverageSizeFish's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:2.8
- Helpful Votes:2,910
- Reviews Submitted:173
- First Review:June 2, 2014
- Most Recent Review:May 1, 2017
- Featured reviews0
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Can you escape from the grasp of a lovestruck ghost?
Overall rating
4
/
5
12 of 16 found this review helpful
Sheer fun
PostedAugust 30, 2014
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
The graphics are sharp and clear.The artwork is well done and the color palette varies by area and is appropriate for each location. The colors are rich and vivid without being eye-popping. The music is unobtrusive and fits the theme. The voice overs are very well done.
Our character has an avalanche fall on her car trapping her in the mountains. After some help from a ghostly dog she is invited to the castle nearby. Immediately upon her arrival she meets the lovelorn Lucian, an obsessive and misguided ghost, who believes she is his long lost fiance. His attempts to "jog her memory" and reclaim her become the focus of the game.
The voice actor for Lucian plays the role with enthusiastic gusto and really just nails the anguished melodrama of it all perfectly. His performance pitches the whole story into amusingly camp territory making what could be a lackluster story into something that had me laughing all the way to the end. You also have the ghost dog, Bandit, to help you. I think he's a great addition to the story. He's cute but not overly so and he behaves like a dog should.
The HOS are of varying types so I rarely ran into the same kind twice. None of them are particularly difficult although a few had one or two items that were tough to find right away. They are uncluttered scenes and list items are appropriate for the story. There is a good number of them and they're fun to do. There was a good number of puzzles and they ranged in difficulty from easy to moderately challenging. The type varied so, again, I never ran into the same kind of puzzle twice. They were fun.
The adventure component is story driven and doesn't have an excessive amount of backtracking. You have a map that shows areas of interest and it will teleport you to where you want to go. The hint button also teleports you should you need it. There are achievements to be earned as well.
There were multiple refreshing moments in the game when I was able to do something right away that in other games involves a ridiculous amount of hunting for the right object to do it. For example, I was able to use my hands to brush away cobwebs and a lamp I needed to retrieve something from didn't have a lock or broken glass blocking access to its contents. I began to really like the game as I started feeling I could trust this developer to not throw silly ridiculous tasks in just to fill the time. I also liked that I reused some inventory items over again rather than foolishly pitching a perfectly useful item aside after using it once.
Overall, what this game lacks in serious challenge is more than made up for by the amusing story of a bewildered ghost fixated on a living woman he is convinced is his long dead bride. It made me laugh and I enjoyed playing it very much.
I recommend this game!
Find magician Andy Fox and his assistant, who vanished into thin air!
Overall rating
3
/
5
6 of 8 found this review helpful
Backtracking marathon - 2.5 stars
PostedAugust 29, 2014
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
The graphics are clear enough although there is some graininess to them. They also appeared a little stretched. Basically the game looks like it was made a couple years ago. The voice overs were decent and the gypsy voice over was very good. The music was unobtrusive and fit the theme.
The storyline is pretty typical for a HOPA game. A magician and his assistant have disappeared while demonstrating a newly invented time machine. You play the detective called in to save them.
The HOS are list finds with one or two interactive items. They are easy and not plentiful. The puzzles are extremely easy. They were so easy they almost seemed like an afterthought tossed in to fill game time.
The adventure component includes a much greater than average amount of running back and forth. You find something in one area and must go back all the way to the beginning of the game to use it. You're rewarded with a new inventory item that, you guessed it, needs to be used in the faraway location you just came from.
The adventure component also suffers from "read my mind" syndrome. As in the tasks you must perform are so silly there is no way to use logic or common sense to figure out what the developer has in mind. I felt like borrowing the gypsy's crystal ball at some points. For example, you need to pick a lock using a guitar string. At another point you have to toss a smoking pipe and a pitcher of wine into a box and they are miraculously changed into a broken hookah.
These tasks are just plain silly and unrealistic even within the context of the game. This failure to create tasks that a reasonable person could figure out without resorting to random clicking became annoying. It destroyed the suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy a game about people disappearing through a magic portal.
Overall, this was just a very silly game with easy puzzles/HOS, and way too much clicking through multiple areas to deliver inventory items in exchange for other inventory items. It was a little better than poor but fell short of even ok. 2.5 stars from me.
I don't recommend this game.
A mysterious artifact has been uncovered, opening a portal to another world!
Overall rating
3
/
5
51 of 61 found this review helpful
Boring but not awful - 2.5 stars
PostedAugust 29, 2014
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
The graphics are sharp and clear. The artwork is somewhat ornate and has a fantasy-like appearance. The colors are vivid, lush, and predominantly gold, pink, and various shades of lavender. The voice overs aren't going to win any awards but they're decent. The music is pleasant and fits the theme of the game.
The storyline is the "swept through a portal to save another world from evil" story that is familiar from so many HOPA games. There are no new details added to it to set it apart from the vast number of games that have already used it. It unfolds through dialogue with other characters and through cut scenes. The cut scenes are very well done and serve to move the story along without becoming intrusive.
The HOS are crisp and not cluttered. They were all of the same list type with a couple interactive items on each list. Each ended with a riddle as the clue for the last object you need to find. They were very easy and there were not very many of them. There were more puzzles and they were very easy. In some cases they were so easy I have a hard time calling them puzzles as much as a test of whether I know how to use a mouse to point and click.
The adventure component is very straightforward and generally linear without an excessive amount of backtracking or running in circles. When you use an inventory item it often needs to be placed very precisely or else it will come hurtling back into your inventory. At times I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do because none of my inventory items would work on the obstacle at hand. Then the hint button would tell me to do something I had already tried. Each time it was because of this fussy point and click problem. Other than that nothing is difficult to figure out. Objectives are clear and tasks needed to complete them make sense within the context of the story.
Overall, this is a very competently made game with the exception of some clunkiness with the point and click interface. The developer obviously has a lot of talent and a good sized budget. It's unfortunate that they chose to waste all of that remaking a game that has been made over and over to the point where yet another is just not that interesting.
Had the storyline been interesting it might make up for the fact that there is absolutely no challenge in the HOS, puzzles, or adventure component of this game. It might even have been able to rescue it from the pastel overflow going on in the art. As it is though there is just nothing to recommend this game for. It isn't awful but it's boring. This is another one of those 2.5 star games for me.
I don't recommend this game.
You’re about to uncover the secret that’s been haunting Blackrow!
Overall rating
3
/
5
63 of 76 found this review helpful
Ok game with annoying features - 2.5
PostedAugust 28, 2014
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The graphics are sharp but drawn in mostly shades of grey and dark blues. The overall visual appearance was, in my opinion, gloomy and monotonous rather than being ominous or mysterious. The voice overs and atmospheric sounds are well done. The music is unobtrusive and fit the theme. The custom cursor has lag and the cut scenes appeared to play in unevenly paced slow motion. This became a little annoying given the large number of cut scenes.
The story is somewhat typical. A starlet has been threatened by an unknown evil doer and you play the detective who is helping her. The two of you crash in a creepy place with a dark history and she is immediately kidnapped. It's up to you to rescue her and uncover the mystery surrounding the town. The full story unfolds mostly through cut scenes and they are numerous to the point where it felt like too many to me.
You have a cute little dog helper who can be occasionally deployed to fetch things from tight spots. I didn't mind him but every time he joins the game he does it in a popup that plays very slowly. You also have a device you can use to scan an area for mysterious forces. An eye indicates when you've found one. Clicking the eye triggers yet another cut scene and then opens an area where you can collect inventory items.
The objectives are clear but occasionally the tasks you need to perform are not. This is mostly due to the somewhat contrived nature of some of the inventory items you need. Because they are so contrived it's difficult to use logic to conclude what you need and instead sometimes I just had to guess.
Even more annoying, several of the inventory items are things which must be assembled before you can use them and this assembly requires extraordinarily exact placement of the cursor in order to accomplish it. There is no visual cue to help you find this sweet spot.
I finished the demo and came across only three HOS. All of them were fairly poorly lit. They were straight list finds with one or two interactive items. One asked me to find a stethoscope which I couldn't find. I finally used the hint and it indicated a bat shaped thing claiming this was a stethoscope. Another asked for a brooch and there were at least four brooches in the scene but only one was the correct one. Other than that the HOS were easy. There were more puzzles than HOS and they ranged in difficulty from ridiculously easy to moderately tough. The puzzles and HOS both suffered from the same lag demonstrated by cut scenes and the custom cursor.
The adventure component has quite a bit of back and forth running around built into it. Often you find something and have to run back all the way to the beginning of the game to use it. Other than that it is pretty typical with all the usual tasks like using a crowbar to pry up boards and having to wipe dusty surfaces with a special rag rather than with your hand.
Throughout the game you find pieces of decorative glass that you can use to assemble a stained glass window puzzle at the end. There are achievements, collectibles, and a map which I did not need to use.
Overall, the game has too many cut scenes, lag, and overly fussy assembly of inventory items. Aside of that it didn't seem bad although nothing really special either. Given those issues though I would rate this game a 2.5. As always, I round up so it gets a 3 from me.
I don't recommend this game.
The Simmons family is at it again... and you're invited to join them on their cross-country camping adventure.
Overall rating
2
/
5
41 of 46 found this review helpful
Severely annoying
PostedAugust 26, 2014
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
The graphics are clear and the art almost photo-realistic. The soundtrack includes guitar music on a very short repeating loop that rapidly grew so annoying I had to turn it off. The voice over for the homeowner you meet is overly cheerful to the point where it made me grit my teeth and the children's voices make them sound rude and spoiled. When you find find something in a HOS there is flute trill noise that was irritating. I ended up turning the voice/sounds off also.
The story is that a family of four is getting ready to go on vacation. You play, apparently, a servant that the mom and children order to pack, clean, and fix things around the house. Your tasks and objectives include things like putting dirty laundry in a hamper at the behest of one spoiled child and packing another's suitcase while he sits there texting a friend.
The UI is, at first, confusing because nothing is labeled. Your inventory is disguised as an old camper and the hint button is a red car. The menu button is hidden away behind a small square of decorative wood paneling in the upper left corner of the screen. To use an item in the inventory you must first click it and then click a little hand rather than being able to just click it and use it.
About the hint button: it takes 2 minutes to refill when you use it and it only works in HOS. When it refills it makes a car horn beeping noise if you are able to tolerate having the sound on.
The HOS are clear enough although one I ran into had graininess where there was light shining through a window into the room scene. They all have a hidden area that contains some of the items on the list. When I used the hint button it continually highlighted this area whether things on my list were in it or not. Each HOS also has one item with a puzzle piece next to it. When you click this item it expands to show a few silhouette items to find. Other than these two features the HOS are all straight list finds.
The HOS aren't particularly difficult except that sometimes I had to click something ten times in order for the game to accept that I had found it. Oh, and there are sometimes two of something in a scene but the game will only accept one as the correct one. I didn't run into a single puzzle.
The "adventure" component, if you can call any of this that, is minimal. The game revolves around doing a HOS and then moving to the next area to do another HOS.
I was hoping to find this a charming family-oriented game with fun HOS and puzzles. Instead I found it boring. Most kids I know don't want to clean their own room so why this developer thinks they'll enjoy being highhandedly ordered to clean someone else's is beyond me. I certainly didn't. Add that to a frustratingly poorly laid out UI, having to repeatedly click to have the game recognize I've found an item in a HOS, and a two minute refill on an already almost useless hint button and the fun factor plummeted almost to zero for me.
I don't recommend this game.
Uncover dark secrets, find hidden clues, and solve nefarious puzzles, in PuppetShow: Mystery of Joyville.
Overall rating
2
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
Older game with poor fun factor
PostedAugust 25, 2014
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
This is an older game and it was stretched and somewhat grainy on my newer machine. The music was repetitive but tolerable. There were no voice overs or atmospheric sounds.
The story is somewhat confusing and couldn't engage my attention enough for me to tell what was supposed to be going on. Your character lands in what appears to be an abandoned town and you walk around from one location to another with so little story development that I rapidly lost interest. I never met another character in the time I played the game so there was no dialogue to flesh the story out and I had so little back story I couldn't tell why I was there.
There is a lot of to and fro running around gathering inventory items that appear to have no purpose. Meanwhile, you're constantly running into obstacles that need inventory items you don't have and cannot find. When you finally do find something that works all it does is uncover a puzzle that is missing pieces you don't have so you cannot complete it.
The HOS were present in a moderate amount but were all pretty easy. They are list types with no interaction and often contained several multiples that needed to be found. This doesn't bother me but I've seen other reviewers complain about it so it seems worth mentioning. The puzzles ranged from easy to difficult but none were very engaging. To be fair this may be because I was already annoyed at having to run around finding an inventory item only to receive a puzzle instead of being able to get through the door I thought the inventory item was going to open.
The game also suffers from the "magic item" syndrome. For example, a glass panel says it wants something heavy to break it but the weights you have won't do the job. Instead you have to keep running around until you collect the "magic" rock that for some reason is the only heavy thing that can do the trick.
To top off the annoyance factor, the game's inventory is stored in this odd fan shaped structure that you have to unfold and scroll through whenever you need something. It was clunky and poorly thought out.
Overall, this is an older game with a confusing and unengaging storyline. There is so much running around for non-intuitive inventory items that I rapidly lost interest.
I don't recommend this game.
The Statue of Liberty is missing! Investigate the disappearance of one of the most important symbols of the United States!
Overall rating
4
/
5
46 of 52 found this review helpful
Fun HOP with light adventure
PostedAugust 25, 2014
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
The graphics are sharp and clear. The art style is crisp and realistic which fits the theme of the game. The music is somewhat repetitive but so unobtrusive that it didn't become annoying. There are few atmospheric sounds and they were well done. There are no voice overs.
Your character is an FBI agent who arrives on Liberty Island to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the Statue of Liberty's flame. She meets a few other characters on the island but it is largely uninhabited having been recently evacuated.
Game play involves investigating various locations around the island. At each location, which you return to multiple times, there is almost always a HOS and, usually, a puzzle. Completion of a HOS/puzzle rewards you with an item needed to progress in the game or perform a puzzle. The story unfolds through dialogue with other characters and brief monologues from your character, the FBI agent.
Throughout the game and in HOS there are Statue of Liberty symbols which reveal interesting facts about this monument when you click on them. Objectives are clear as are the tasks you must perform to achieve them. You rarely have more than a few items in your inventory at once and the things you have make sense in the context of the story.
The HOS are very well done with excellent graphic quality and good sized items to find. They range in difficulty from moderately tough to pretty challenging. You return to each HOS at least once. The puzzles range from easy to difficult and were fun to do. I ran into four during the demo but I did not get to the end of the allotted game during the hour trial period so others may run into more. When performing puzzles that require assembling an object a gear on your cursor indicates a potential placement spot although it gives no hint as to what should be placed there.
There is only one difficulty level which is fine with me. Arrows indicate where you can move from scene to scene, eye symbols replace sparkles to indicate a HOS, puzzle pieces indicate where you can do a puzzle, and a magnifying glass shows where there is something to be done. The various popup boxes must be closed by hitting an X. The custom cursor cannot be turned off and the UI is drag and drop. The drag and drop component works very smoothly but I found the cursor to be just a bit laggy.
Overall this is a fun HOP game with lots of HOS/puzzles and a minimal inventory collection, aka "adventure", component. The story is interesting and the game plays smoothly. I enjoyed it and recommend it for people who prefer a game that is HOS/puzzle-heavy and adventure-lite.
I recommend this game!
Amazing Adventures: Around the World
Travel to unique and exotic locations around the world to help find the most expensive gem ever known - the World Diamond.
Overall rating
4
/
5
Older HOP good for the whole family
PostedAugust 23, 2014
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is an older game and the graphics are just a bit grainy on my newer machine. The quality is still good enough for the game to be enjoyable though. The music is appropriate and unobtrusive. There is no other soundtrack.
You are searching for the pieces of a valuable diamond and your search takes you to wonderful, scenic places all over the world. In each location you perform a few timed HOS and a mini-puzzle. The HOS occur in scenes appropriate for the location you're visiting and they are nice to look at. They are not difficult at all even with a timer. I was able to complete about half the game during the hour demo.
The puzzles are also pretty easy but fun. As you leave each location you will learn a little bit about the location and its historic significance.
Overall, this is a very easy older HOP game that's good to while away a little time when you don't want to stress your brain too much. The locations are fun to visit and learning a little bit about them was interesting.
The game would be perfect for a person just beginning to play HOP games and even more so for someone who wanted to play a game with their kids. There's nothing in it inappropriate for children and they can learn something while they play.
I recommend this game!
PuppetShow: Lightning Strikes Collector's Edition
The women of Paris are being turned into puppets! Can you find out who's pulling the strings?
Overall rating
3
/
5
49 of 62 found this review helpful
An ok game with some poor features - 2.5 stars
PostedAugust 21, 2014
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The graphics are clear but the colors are so misty and pale in some places that the game looks faded. The atmospheric sounds were good and the music was appropriate to the theme. The voice overs were a mixed bag for me. Some sounded good while others were wooden to the point where they became annoying.
The story begins as the airship our character is on crash lands in a small town with a carnival or circus visiting nearby. The companion with us on the airship vanishes once we get to the ground and, inexplicably, is never seen again in the demo. Our character is immediately recruited to help solve a mystery involving disappearing young women. He is aided periodically by other characters including a small boy and a fortune-teller. The story unfolds through the use of, in my opinion, an excessive number of cut scenes. Every time I turned around there was another cut scene. It interrupted the flow of the game.
Game play involves entering a location which usually has one or two areas of interest within it. Often the game will pop up a very large black bar at the top which tells you that you need to find a specific object. The object is often very large, very obviously placed, and the only thing there which looks remotely of interest. It was annoying having the game tell me to click on something which so blatantly needed to be clicked on.
Once you click on the object your work in that area is often done and you either head forward or fall back to the location where the item is clearly meant to go. There is a lot of to and fro running around built into the game but nothing is difficult to figure out and you generally have only one or two tasks on your list of things to do at a time.
One of the locations had a tutorial box that continued popping up every time I went there in spite of the fact that I clicked Skip on the box each time. It finally went away when I just bit the bullet and performed the tutorial action. Very irritating.
There are few HOS and they are very, very easy. Often what I needed to "find" was so prominently displayed that I felt I was merely proving I knew how to use a mouse to click a screen rather than looking for something. There was a larger number of puzzles but they were all very easy. Many of them seemed to be the type where you need to figure out an unknown sequence by randomly clicking various elements in the puzzle until you stumble on the right one. Not a fan of those.
The UI is point and click but often it required very precise placement of the mouse in order to register the click. Fussy UI's like this make it difficult for me to feel immersed in the game.
Overall, while there was some creativity present in both story and puzzles, this game didn't hold my interest. It has too many cut scenes and not enough challenging game play. There were so many annoying features I felt tempted to give it a 2. It isn't all that bad though so I'm erring on the positive side of 2.5 and giving it a 3.
I don't recommend this game.
Agatha Christie - Death on the Nile
Hercule Poirot investigates a thrilling murder mystery and must find hidden clues, interrogate suspects, and much more.
Overall rating
4
/
5
1 of 3 found this review helpful
Fun Who-dunnit HOP
PostedAugust 19, 2014
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is an older game and the graphics are still sharp and clear for the most part. There is some stretching on a wide screen but nothing serious. The music is fairly mellow jazz that fits the theme well. There are no voice overs.
The story is based on the novel by Agathe Christie and it's a who-dunnit with you playing super sleuth Hercule Poirot. The setting is a cruise ship and there is murder afoot. The story unfolds through dialogue and cut scenes between rounds of HOS and a puzzle.
Each round entails you selecting various rooms on the ship and investigating them for clues. Each room is a HOS. After you've gone through 6-8 rooms or so you do a puzzle that simulates the analysis of the clues you found in the HOS. The puzzles are of varying types and none are very difficult. The HOS, on the other hand, can be quite challenging. Each round is timed but I never ran out of time during any round. Once you've done the puzzle there is a short cut scene which advances the story.
Overall this is an older HOP game that is likely to appeal to people who like HOS and puzzles. It's well-crafted, still looks good on the screen, and I thought it was a good purchase. I had fun playing it all the way to the end.
I recommend this game!