Escape the Lost Kingdom (Collector's Edition)

The Good
This is quite a decent little game.

The artwork is good. For a hidden-object adventure game the artwork is the key. This game played at 800x600 resolution and the artwork was clear and detailed, I'd have liked a higher resolution but what was there was very acceptable.

The implementation of the story is well done. OK so the idea that a young girl takes her cat on holiday to Egypt doesn't hold water but it serves to get the story started and it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things. The idea of separating the characters at the start and making their initial aim being to solve puzzles so that they can get back together again makes sense. In the early chapters when they are separated Francis has the 'Glyph Vision' goggles and Emily has the Time amulet which gives them different ways to solve their problems but these are minor variations. They all re-unite by chapter four and from then on all tools are available,

There are lots of things to find in this game such as sixteen planks of wood, forty-two feathers of one colour and thirty-two of another, so every room must be searched thoroughly. Getting to the point in the game where these items are needed and being one or two short is immensely frustrating, however the game tells the player when a room has been cleared of objects and puzzles and also changes the colour of cleared rooms on the in-game map. This makes searching for missing items much simpler and prevents the game from becoming tedious.

The game also has a good mix of adventure elements and hidden object elements. The controls are easy to get to grips with and there's an optional tutorial/hand-holding bit at the start for those who need it. There's an in-game journal that helps the player work out what to do in the game while the strategy guide, which can be accessed in-game, shows the location of every object ,where it's needed and how it's used.

The music is pleasant enough and fits the game well without actually being that memorable.

The Bad
It's short. I completed it in around four hours inclusive of coffee breaks, comfort breaks, and family interruptions - so it's a game for an afternoon at most with little replay value.

The game is supposed to have an alternate ending, which may be true, however with games that have different endings there's usually some point during the game where an action or combination of actions determines the way the game ends. Not so in this case. As far as I can see this game has only one ending. I checked the strategy guide, it has only the one ending. I checked the installed game files and found only one set of subtitles for the closing dialogue. So, while the ending of this game may be different to the 'standard' version of the game I've no idea what that ending is. What I do know is that the ending I got was abrupt and unsatisfactory.

The game auto-saves progress. This works well and is a useful feature however when I tried to restart the game to see if I could get a different ending found that it saved progress at the start of the last cut scene so I could not resume the game at all. Not a big problem for anyone unless they're planning on writing a review of the alternate ending but a minor irritation nevertheless.

I didn't like the voice acting in this game, Francis, one if the characters, is a spoiled little boy who irritated me immensely. This means that the voice acting of that character was good enough to be believable which is a good thing. The other characters were OK but not memorable - Francis grated so much I played most of the game with the sound turned down and skipped the majority of the dialogue.

The Bottom Line
A short adventure game with hidden object elements. The 3D sections are optional and are not crucial to the story.

Good while it lasts. It will occupy you for an afternoon and you'll have forgotten it the next day.