piltdown_man
Reviews
Haunted Legends: The Queen of Spades (Collector's Edition) (Windows)
Decent enough, short bonus chapter
The Good
This is a decent game. It is not earth shattering and does nothing that I haven't seen before. The puzzles are generally good, challenging without being horrible and although I skipped a couple it was mainly because I needed to be doing something else rather than they were impossible.
The Bad
My main problem with the game was the load time. It loads via the Big Fish Games: Game Manager and it took ages. I had to break my game playing into four or five sessions and in the end I'd fire up the game and go and do something else for a while, like putting the kettle on and making a coffee.
Other than that there is nothing really wrong with the game at all. I did note a few minor niggles as I played but These would not stop me recommending the game to anyone, albeit with caveats.
There may be no penalties for skipping a puzzle but usually, when there is a strategy guide, I have no need to. It was therefore a bit of a shock to turn to the strategy guide and find text saying something like 'This puzzle is different every time so we cannot give you a solution!" There are a couple of puzzle like this and because they could all be skipped it did not spoil the game.
The hidden object puzzles are generally very good but there are three, maybe four, such puzzles in the game where the sought item was hidden inside another item and at least one instance where I had to make an item (I had to fill a cup with hot water). In the games I have been playing recently these items are indicated by a different colour text but not so in this game.
There are fifty two cards to collect throughout the main game. I got them all and was left wondering why I bothered because there was no reward for doing it.
The Bottom Line
This is an older game and allowances have to be made. I guess I've been spoiled by the game's I have played recently. I missed a mini map and the fast travel options some games have. The HINT option only works in the hidden object scenes so when I lost track of where I should be going the helpful "You have nothing to do in this area" message or the arrow telling me where to go next was missing.
By piltdown_man on August 23, 2023
Robinson Crusoe and the Cursed Pirates (Windows)
Good for an afternoon
The Good
I don't play hidden object games very often but having played this one last week and then another awful one this week it seemed important to make positive comments where they are due.
I played this game all the way through. In all it took between five and six hours to complete on the hard setting. Apart from a few puzzles it wasn't that taxing but it was interesting. There is a decent selection of puzzles to be had here, some I have not come across before.
The game had a standard format to each location which was solve a puzzle to unlock the door, find all instances of a specific item before the character will help, then find a list of specific items. However this wasn't adhered to so much that the game became repetitive. Sometimes the initial lock solving puzzle was omitted or in other cases the location was a treasure chest and that was the only puzzle there was. In one instance before the player could enter the 'find the object' phase they had to assemble the pirate from his bones and re-animate him first. Plenty of variety so the game was not boring.
The music wasn't bad, it consisted of a decent orchestral piece that would have been at home in a 50's pirate movie, and although that was the only 'big' piece it wasn't repeated to the point where I turned the sound off.
The drawing was first rate. The pictures were crisp, sharp, stuffed with items and were a pleasure to look at. I did get stuck a couple of times, once I could not find a cat because all that could be seen was a piece of it's tail poking out from behind the scenery, but that's about par for the course and certainly not something I'd hold against the game
The Bad
Not much wrong with this game really, for me they ticked all the right boxes and produced a game that I enjoyed playing. My only gripe is that it was a little bit too easy and a bit too short.
The Bottom Line
This is fun and it's well made.
It's short but it will fill a dark night or a wet afternoon quite nicely
By piltdown_man on April 17, 2023
Montezuma's Revenge (ZX Spectrum)
This gets very hard, very fast
The Good
I liked the way the levels are designed. This is not a form of game I'm familiar with and I found that the levels got very hard very fast.
This is not a game I could rush into, I had to stop and think my way through them and plan ahead.
The Bad
The penalty for getting something wrong is losing a life. You start with five but it's very easy to lose them all and be put back to the beginning.
This is typical of an old game of this type but it's very frustrating nevertheless
The Bottom Line
I haven't played many games of this type and, after a while I remembered why.
The puzzle element sucks you in and it's fun for a while, but having to continually replay the early levels because you mistimed a jump in a later level turns the game into an exercise in endurance and perseverance.
By piltdown_man on February 7, 2023
Urban Legends: The Maze (Windows)
Good puzzles and lots to do
The Good
This is a standard hidden object / adventure game that installs and runs perfectly under Windows 10 - well, it did for me - that's just a bit better than most I've played recently.
Let's get the basics out of the way first.
Is there sound?
Yes there is. There's music which is actually quite good in places and there are sound effects which are also good, however there is no voice acting.
Is there a story?
Yes there is and like a lot of these games it is paper thin and contrived but it works.
What is it like to play?
All the hidden object scenes play the same. Though well hidden I don't recall anything being obscured by another object nor are items hidden inside boxes or behind movable pieces of scenery. I played the game all the way through and I counted twenty-eight hidden object scenes across all six levels. It seems like an odd number so I guess I may have missed a couple.
There are plenty of puzzles too and by a puzzle I mean something which has its own screen where things have to be manipulated, basically if it had a SKIP button I counted it as a puzzle and I counted forty of these. There are the usual sliding block puzzles, a couple of Simon Says type puzzles, arrange things in the right sequence puzzles, all standard fare. There were no jigsaw puzzles and the game had a few variations that I had not seen before such as combining a sliding block puzzle with gears that turned a cog that opened a lock.
Other than the above there is a lot of activity finding bits of locks, tools etc. to open cases, chests and what have you to get more bits and so on.
The Bad
If I have any quibble about the game it's about the in-game journal and the in-game map. Now this may be me not paying attention but there were a couple of times when I got stuck and I found that there was information in my journal that I don't remember collecting.
I'm also a bit unsure about whether I like the in-game map. Now for me there are two kinds of being stuck, there's the "I have several things that I've partially completed but I can't move on any of them - have I forgotten anything?" kind of stuck and there's the "Been everywhere, done everything - twice, what have I missed?" kind of stuck. Now in the first case I'd look at the journal to remind myself of the story and the unresolved issues or I'd look at the map to remind myself of the locations on the current level and mentally run through what they contained. However in this game the rooms on the map are colour coded and a green room showed me where I could find the next action to do/puzzle to complete. This is good but personally I'd like to exhaust all possibilities myself before resorting to that kind of aid.
When I did get completely stuck the game's help system was excellent, it told me to "Get the xxxx from the xxxx in the xxxx room." and I found that in one zoom screen I'd picked up one object but missed the second.
The Bottom Line
There is plenty to do in this game. Hidden object scenes are only part of the game's content, far more time is spent running around finding 'stuff'.
I played this game over two days. On the first day I solved every puzzle and avoided using the map and the journal as much as possible, however on the second day I wasn't so enthusiastic for some reason and I skipped some of the trickier puzzles that didn't appeal to me. Overall my total play time was still well over five hours, which is around double the play time of some other hidden object adventure games, and could have been longer if I'd played to solve everything.
By piltdown_man on February 5, 2023
The History Channel: Lost Worlds (Windows)
This kind of edutainment does not work, at least not for me.
The Good
I got this game in a three game compilation, it was old and I did not have high hopes but they installed under Windows 10 and ran flawlessly.
The game consists of rounds of spot the difference games, hidden object games and jigsaw puzzles each of which is preceded by a screen of text and followed by a trivia question. These games are all timed with the speed of completion contributing to the player's bonus score.
Overall the games were pretty good. I found the spot the difference games were really tricky with, for example, tiny differences in the size of an object being the hardest kind of difference to spot.
The jigsaws are all similar where the player has to assemble a photographic image, sounds easy but really it's not.
Finally the spot-the-difference puzzles are a challenge because they are well designed and, to be honest, because the resolution is not as good as in modern games.
The Bad
There was educational text content but it was, well in my opinion, patchy. For example there is a lot of material on the Mesoamerican empires but less for the Roman empire which the game itself describes as the greatest and longest lasting empire of all.
For me what is worse is that when the game is replayed all this text is skipped and the player is presented with just a series of puzzles they have already completed. Great for getting a high score but, I think, a missed educational opportunity.
At the end of a round is a multiple choice question that also contributes to the player's bonus. I got a few of these wrong and I swear the question had not been covered in the text.
The Bottom Line
I played this game a day or so ago and, being honest once again, I can remember nothing about the educational content. I do remember that when I played the game I was conscious that the content was stuff I either learned at school sixty years ago or stuff I just absorbed. There is really very little content and what there is is very high level - think summarising five hundred years of history into a single screen. There were some new names, the odd pharaoh or an Aztec/Mayan leader that I hadn't heard of but most of the 'new' content did not register. Bizarrely what I do remember are the jigsaw puzzles, the Roman arrow slinging thing, the Mayan temple, the Egyptian tomb and others.
TLDR: Decent puzzles, play this game for them.
By piltdown_man on January 29, 2023
Witch Hunters: Stolen Beauty (Collector's Edition) (Windows)
As much an adventure game as a hidden object game
The Good
This is a hidden object game. I have the keep case and it says in big letters on the front that this is a hidden object game but there's more to it than that.
Now lots of hidden object games have other content but Witch Hunters: Stolen Beauty played more like an adventure game hybrid than a game that just skipped from one hidden object scene to another. I tried to record the content as I played the game and I counted at least twenty 'proper' puzzles and a similar number of hidden object scenes.* In-between these there's a lot of finding bits of this to open that inventory action so there's plenty to do, in fact I found the main puzzle of this game was remembering what actions remained to be completed.
There is music and there are sound effects but there is no voice acting. The story is better than other games I have played recently and it seemed to go on and on and on, just as I thought I was about to finish the game it threw some more at me.
The hidden object puzzles all use the same format where the object to be found is named, some games use silhouettes, and where the object is hidden inside or behind something else the name is shown in a different colour. There are the usual tricks, for example a QUEEN could be a picture of royalty, a playing card, a statue or a chess piece but in all the puzzles the objects, though well disguised, were visible if I looked hard enough.
By 'proper' puzzle I mean the scene where I had to, say, manipulate objects to open a lock as in rotating dials to form a pattern. Finding the magnet that allows me to get the key that opens the toolbox thus giving me the screwdriver with which I can unfasten the grating to get the missing dial to complete the lock so that I had the dials to rotate is not something I counted as a puzzle.
This is the first time I've tried to record content and I give no guarantee of any kind about my accuracy.
The Bad
The game's strategy guide is a web link on the main menu screen and, for me, this gave the standard "404 Not Found" error. Also my game is a Black Lime release of the Big Fish game and it uses the Big Fish game manager - while this is not a problem for me because I have many of their games I'd prefer to manage the installation, launching and uninstallation myself.
The Bottom Line*
There are three modes of difficulty to this game. I used the middle 'Advanced' setting and finished the game in around four and a half hours. I did use the hint option to point me towards the next location where something needed to be done quite a bit - not because there was a problem with the game, it's just that I was so caught up in the story I wanted to get to the next bit quickly. If I'd diligently searched all locations for the next action then I'd probably have taken well over five hours.
Just when I was thinking that I was getting good at hidden object games and that they were easy peasy I hit this one which was harder and much more fun than many others. Recommended.
By piltdown_man on January 25, 2023
Treasure Seekers II: The Enchanted Canvases (Windows)
Solid, colourful and fun
The Good
This is the second game in the series and in it Nelly and Tom have grown up. Tom's gone off on his own somewhere and Nelly, knowing that he's in trouble, goes after him.
The game is set in six pictures, each of which has a completely different story and they are all self-contained, nothing is carried from one to another.
There are two difficulty settings and a good range of puzzles in this game. In addition to the hidden object scenes I remember playing a painting puzzle, a spot the difference puzzle, a gear puzzle where cogs had to be correctly positioned, a sliding block puzzle, various sequence puzzles, a connect the pipe puzzle, jigsaw puzzles and more.
All puzzles begin with clear instructions and in the lower right of the screen there's a list of the current tasks so the player is never left wondering what to do.
As with the first game in the series the artwork is good and objects are visible but well disguised. There is no spoken dialogue.
The Bad
This is another good, solid casual game that doesn't really have any bad points. It has interesting puzzles and, while it does not set the gaming world alight, it does what it does very well.
The Bottom Line
I finished this game in two sittings and estimate the time it took to finish the game at around four hours, that's on the easy mode and I was not trying to rush through it.
Overall I enjoyed this game more than Treasure Seekers: Visions of Gold.
By piltdown_man on January 22, 2023
Treasure Seekers: Visions of Gold (Windows)
Don't try this at home kids
The Good
A fairly standard hidden object game with a flimsy storyline and a glorious disregard for health and safety.
I grew up in the 50's and 60's where most of the fun things we did are now either banned or illegal but here we have a heroine who does stuff even I would never have attempted. Early on in the game she gathers tools to fix the mains wiring, then she fixes the fuse box, collects her brother and off they go. They build a raft, learn to fish and cook their catch, explore a mine, go underwater, find treasure and still get home before tea. Somewhere along the way they also fire a canon and I think they use dynamite too.
There's no voice acting in this game, the music and the sound effects are OK though I ended up listening to the radio while I played. The artwork is good and the objects to be found, though well disguised, are not hidden behind something else - a pet hate of mine from another game where I was looking for an elephant or something similar and only its tail was visible. None of that here.
The Bad
There's nothing really to dislike here, this is a good solid game. If I had to pick up on anything it would be that the dialogue of the characters is very twee. Phrases like "You brave and clever children..." are not uncommon, it's as though the game is trying too hard to be wholesome.
The Bottom Line
I completed this game in one sitting, play time was around three hours. To be honest I finished it because I do not like giving up on a game and not because I was enjoying it. For some reason, for me, it just did not feel fun to play.
By piltdown_man on January 22, 2023
Mystic Diary: Haunted Island (Windows)
Better than Mystic Diary: Lost Brother
The Good
The game installed and ran flawlessly under Windows 10 in both full screen and windowed modes. There's a good range of puzzles and all of them could be skipped. Everything else was OK with neither the music, the artwork or the story being especially outstanding.
The Bad
No major issues with this game, just a few minor observations.
I have this game as part of a two game compilation. The first game of the series installed as a freestanding game but this game installed as an entry in the Big Fish Games manager. Not really a problem but it may be a bit disconcerting to some.
The game starts in a magician's cottage and later moves to the haunted island. After solving many puzzles in the cottage the time comes to assemble the magician's balloon and head off to the eponymous island. I gathered various missing parts and assembled the balloon mainly to see what had yet to be found and was surprised when the balloon took off because I still had some cottagey items in my inventory and I was leaving unsolved puzzles behind. Later in the game it was possible to return to the cottage so all was as it should have been but at the time I was anticipating running into a dead end at some point. A line or two of dialogue confirming all was well would have been appreciated.
The last puzzle in the game is a 'Simon Says' type of musical sequence puzzle, I think I did three or four rounds of this and reached a point where I was faced with an eight note sequence with more to follow when I chose to skip the puzzle. Once I'd skipped the puzzle there was a very short sequence that ended the game, so short that I missed it, and there was no way to view it again without replaying the entire game.
The Bottom Line
Another hidden object game which, like the first game in the series, is pretty standard for the genre and therefore doesn't really do anything wrong yet doesn't manage to stand out from the crowd either.
The puzzles are good but not impossible, the artwork is OK, and the game was fun to play but for me there's no replay value and nothing that makes this game memorable.
Time to complete: three and a half hours.
By piltdown_man on January 20, 2023
Mystic Diary: Lost Brother (Windows)
Short, nicely done, nothing special though
The Good
The game installed on Windows 10 with no problems and ran flawlessly in full screen mode.
This is a pretty standard hidden object game. It has the usual sparkly areas to show the player where to look for a hidden object scene and a magic magnifying glass to locate puzzle solving objects in the wider scene. The game has a series of tutorial messages that appear in the beginning of the game, these cannot be toggled on/off nor can they be skipped, however they are not intrusive and they soon go away.
The artwork is good but not photorealistic. There are both sound effects and music, they worked well with the game but were neither outstanding nor memorable so I played the game while listening to the radio. There is no voice acting.
There is a decent range of puzzles, and all of them can be skipped.
The Bad
Another decent game that follows where many have gone before, that means it doesn't do anything new but it also means it doesn't do anything wrong either. What I've listed below are minor quibbles that I noted along the way.
The hidden object scenes come in two basic kinds, one which shows a silhouette of the object and another which names the object. Both work well but non US players should remember that an eggplant is not a plant - it's an aubergine, and a pickle is a gherkin.
There is a skip function for the puzzles but for the other scenes there is only a hint function which shows the player either where to look or where something needs to be done. This did confuse me once, easily done I know, because the hint button just told me what I already knew. Eventually I realised that having the object I needed wasn't enough, it had to be combined with something else. Until the penny dropped I was stuck and the game's help system was of no use.
The Bottom Line
The game was completed in just under three hours. I did use the hint button two times which possibly shortened the play time but I also went AFK for a bit so three hours is a pretty accurate game length.
It's a solid, OK game that I'll have forgotten in a couple of days.
By piltdown_man on January 16, 2023
Empress of the Deep: The Darkest Secret (Windows)
An average game that looks a bit dated now
The Good
This is not a new game by any means so I was pleased to find that it installed and played under Windows 10 with no problem.
Playing the game was very easy. Apart from using the keyboard to enter a player id everything else was done with the mouse. There's a decent help system which, for puzzles, gives you one hint and then the option to skip which I confess to using.
There's the usual journal that records the story etc as the player progresses through the game, it also has an in-game map but you cannot use it to travel between locations.
As for the puzzles, well there's a good mix of hidden object scenes and other puzzles, often solved puzzles rewarded me with items I needed to unlock another puzzle. I did not keep a record as I played through but I remember
Nowhere in the game was there a timed puzzle though there are parts where the game tries to create a sense of urgency, nor are there any 'Simon says' or sound based puzzles.
The Bad
This puzzle has just about all of the things I hate to find in a hidden object game though, thankfully, not too many of them. The main irritations were:
Other irritations were the voice acting which, though clear, seemed to lack emotion and inflection, and the artwork in general which was not as sharp or as crisp as it needed to be which is probably due to the game's age.
The Bottom Line
I played through this game in around three and a half hours, this was not an attempt at a speed run or anything, it's just how long it took me. Yes I did skip two puzzles but I also wasted time looking for bats and so on.
The music is good but not memorable, the writing is good English - I don't remember any spelling or grammatical mistakes, and the story hangs together well. However, though a pleasant way to pass the time it never really drew me in or gave me any 'I wonder what happens next?' moments.
By piltdown_man on November 2, 2022
Dark Arcana: The Carnival (Windows)
Solid game but shorter than expected
The Good
This game is a decent mix of puzzles and hidden object scenes.
It has good artwork, decent music, a good hint system, a walkthrough, achievements and voice acting. It is not groundbreaking but it does everything I want from a casual game and it does it well.
There were a couple of occasions where I was floundering around wondering what to do next, they were frustrating but they were entirely my fault because I'd forgotten about the in-game map. There was one other occasion where I had to resort to the walkthrough because an item, a piece of chalk as I recall, was so well hidden that I just could not see it.
The Bad
This is down to personal taste but in the beginning in one of the early scenes the little girl cries pitifully "Will you find my mommy?" in a whinging American accent. I think she was meant to be cute and endearing but it felt like a really bad moment from a really bad American film.
Apart from that and being shorter than I expected there's nothing really to dislike about this game.
The Bottom Line
It's a decent game that passed an afternoon but in a week's time I'll probably have forgotten it.
I started the game at 2:30pm and playing on the 'Advanced' mode, the middle difficulty option, I finished before 7:00pm. Allowing for the usual coffee and comfort breaks this means there's about three and a half to four hours gameplay in the main game. The bonus adventure was completed in under an hour. The game was enjoyable but it just didn't seem long enough, if I'd paid full price I would have been disappointed.
By piltdown_man on October 20, 2022
The Treasures of Mystery Island: The Ghost Ship (Windows)
Decent, solid game
The Good
I recently completed The Treasures of Mystery Island: The Gates of Fate, which I enjoyed, this game uses the same format but has fewer cut scenes and different characters.
The game has the same mix of hidden object, or hidden object shards if we're being picky, and point and click style puzzles as the Gates of Fate and in my opinion having fewer cut scenes improves the flow of the game. The puzzles are varied and occasionally a little forced but they are always logical - they did not do things in the order that I wanted to do them but in the end I could see why.
The story is pure nonsensical fluff about a wrecked ship, helping ghosts find peace, and using alien/ Atlantean technology - it was never made clear which - to prevent a disaster being triggered by a solar eclipse. One of the things that surprised me was the scale of the game, it felt really big. The in-game map is split into four sections, each with fifteen plus locations, and many locations are visited multiple times. Then, when I thought I was close to the end, another chapter with new locations opened up.
As the story is linked to a solar eclipse and there is an in-game timer that pops up every so often warning that the eclipse is due and there's not much time to save the world. Fortunately this timer bears no relation to real time at all so, while it adds to the gaming experience it's still OK to take a comfort break in the last thirty minutes.
There are a couple of underwater sequences and, thankfully, the game does NOT use one of those 'running out of air' timers which I find really irritating.
The game can be played in both windowed and full screen modes with a selection of screen resolutions available in each. It did look sharper when running in a small window but I found playing full screen suited me better. The artwork is good and the placing of the items is clever and I had to use the 'Hint' feature several times.
There is no voice acting in this game and I did not miss it. The text is in English and it is good English, probably better than mine, and I don't remember any spelling, grammatical or glaring misuse of words in the whole game. A couple of the puzzles are sound based, playing a sequence of notes to crack an acoustic lock and using a stethoscope to open a safe. None of these requires the player to actually listen to anything, I didn't, as there visual clues are available for each.
The Bad
This game does not do anything radically new but it does what it does very well.
The Bottom Line
I started playing this game at around six o' clock and I finished around half past midnight so there's a good six to seven hours of gameplay here, more if you play on expert mode and don't use the hint button to find that last hidden item.
I enjoyed this game and recommend it, lots of things to do and not much filler.
By piltdown_man on October 9, 2022
The Treasures of Mystery Island: The Gates of Fate (Windows)
A decent length and not too hard
The Good
This is a hidden object game but it's a style that is new to me, instead of searching for random objects I was often searching for components of, say, a shovel. When I found all the parts the object became either a tool I could use somewhere within the game or a piece that I needed to complete a puzzle. There are plenty of 'standard' hidden object scenes too and in nearly all cases the objects were in plain sight - one of my pet hates about hidden object games is being asked to find an elephant when only the tip of its tail is on display.
Here, where an object was not in plain sight it was usually hidden inside a locked drawer or chest and that puzzle had to be solved to complete the scene. I liked the fact that there seemed to be no penalty to clicking a lot while looking for that last piece nor is there any penalty for using the hint function which, by the way, recharges quite quickly.
There are lots of point-and-click type logic puzzles too, redirecting the flow of water, using a stethoscope to crack a safe, balancing scales, repairing electrical circuits and so forth. Plenty to keep me amused. There's a SKIP button for, I think, all puzzles which is useful if you come across one that's just too hard.
Now for this kind of game to work the artwork has to be good and it is. The game plays in both a window and full screen with a choice of resolutions. I tried both and the game the game played flawlessly in both. The hint system works well too but you have to listen to what it is saying, something that took a while for me to catch on to. For example in one scene I had to find a dozen things, I found eleven and I could not find the last one. No problem thinks I, I'll use the hint button because that will show me where the * thing is. Not a bit of it! The hint system said I had to complete another task in the same room. Now, in this room was a locked chest and I was sure that the item I needed to complete this other task was in the chest but I could not open the chest because I only had eleven of the twelve things I needed. It seemed like a 'Catch 22' situation until it dawned on me that by going to another room I could solve the puzzle the hint system was pointing me at, that would allow me to unlock the aforementioned chest where the missing twelfth piece was hidden. There were a few occasions where this device was used and once the lesson had been learned the game became a lot less frustrating.
The music is decent, not the sort of thing I'd want to listen to all day but pleasant enough. There is no voice acting and only a few sound effects but, to be honest, I didn't miss it at all.
The Bad
The game's description starts with "At the end of their first adventures, Lisa and Alex were sent back several decades into the past..." which explains the quite abrupt start to the game - there's a very short cut scene and we're off. I didn't mind that, I just assumed that this is the way the developer's of starting a game. What I didn't like was the ending, I felt the game just seemed to stop pretty much like this spoiler-free paragraph.
The Bottom Line
I started the game yesterday and finished it today, all told around seven to eight hours gameplay. Despite the odd ending I can recommend this game because of it has plenty of puzzles and a decent hint system, if you pay attention to what it says.
By piltdown_man on October 8, 2022
In Sound Mind (Windows)
Worth trying
The Good
This game was free on the EPIC store this week so, although psychological horror stuff isn't my normal kind of game, I thought I'd give it a go. I'm pleased I did, especially because the game has an easy 'story' mode that cuts out a lot of the fighting.
I play a lot of old games and the first thing that struck me was that this is, to me, a beautifully detailed world, albeit in a dark, grimy, dirty, post apocalyptic sort of way. There was an excellent attention to detail wherever I looked, from the odd apartment numbers to the water effects. When listening to a cassette tape, which involves following a path somewhere, there's a huge cassette looming dim but dark on the horizon.
On a more practical level I really appreciated the way key rooms have their names over the doorway.
The game has music which, to be honest, I've completely forgotten. I remember noticing it and then it just faded into the background as it's supposed to do and did its job. The sound effects do their job well too. There are odd little sounds to be heard as you move around, not all of them can be explained or traced to a source but I came across no superfluous unnecessary scary bangs and screams.
The game has voice acting and it is good too and what pleased me most was that there wasn't that much of it. Most of the spoken dialogue is in the phone messages from someone who calls to taunt / threaten us and the cassette messages that are found throughout the game and very little else. The player's character does have some lines but they don't go into long explanations nor do they make silly comments. If this was real and I was in this situation I wouldn't be talking to myself either, well at least not aloud, so the game played the way I'd live it, if that makes sense.
The Bad
I died. It was entirely my fault and not unexpected, as I was experimenting with (aka taunting) something very bad just to see what happened. Still, dying sucks.
The Bottom Line
This is not 'my kind of game'.
It is a good game but it just didn't hook me. I played for four or five hours and I died. After dying I went to bed and came back to the game the next day and I realised that I was restarting the game not because I was enjoying it, it was more a case of 'I've started so I'll finish'. So I'm pulling the plug on this one.
Would I recommend it? Well, that's a tough one because, as this is not my normal genre, I have no frame of reference to compare it with. On balance I think this is a good, well made game, so if you are a fan of the genre, of this kind of dingy setting and of things that attack from the dark, then I'd recommend this game. If you're not already a fan then I don't see this changing your mind.
By piltdown_man on March 19, 2022
All Dream Long, a Flower Storm (Windows)
Delightful
The Good
This is another game that I picked up some time ago on Steam when I was collecting as many free games as I could. Many have been average at best but this one is a bit of a gem. Apart from getting stuck on a couple of puzzles, more likely to be my error than a game flaw, I can't really fault this game.
Looking back on the game I realise that there isn't really much of a plot, it starts in mid dream and gradually progresses towards waking through five chapters. I really like the way the designers didn't make their dreamscape all wacky and zany, it gave me the impression that the dream was taking place inside an ordered mind.
The artwork is clear, stylish and uncluttered.
Each chapter has its own music, I liked some and disliked others, but all were well chosen.
I played entirely with the mouse and had no issues at all.
The Bad
Everything about this game just works. I had a problem with saving a game, my error, I forgot to do so and had to replay the music puzzle, but apart from getting stuck a couple of times I had no issues.
The Bottom Line
This is a quiet little game that oozes style, just look at the configuration screen, the save game screen, and the inventory, all of which are clear, uncluttered and classy.
There isn't a great deal of story but the gentle journey and its accompanying puzzles are enjoyable and well done.
Recommended. But remember to save!
By piltdown_man on March 18, 2022
Adventure in My Head (Windows)
Short and not for me
The Good
The game was free on Steam and, thankfully, it was very short so very little time was wasted playing it.
The artwork is big, bright, childlike (by design) and according to some of the Steam comments it was done using MS Paint. I'm not a big fan of this sort of artwork but here it worked.
The Bad
There are a couple of points in the game where it just freezes for what seems like no apparent reason. I'm sure this is not a bug and that it is done to add to the atmosphere but it is frustrating not to know whether the game has crashed or not.
I did not like the music at all and played the game on mute.
The Bottom Line
The game is very, very short. It is so short I struggle to describe it as a visual novel, more a visual notelet or visual postcard, and there isn't really any plot or story. I only encountered one question right at the end and the only difference it made was to the final image.
I played through the game three times just in case the story grew or expanded with additional replays but got nothing more. Not recommended.
By piltdown_man on March 16, 2022
Detective Solitaire: Butler Story (Windows)
Does not live up to the ad blurb
The Good
It plays, it works flawlessly, the cards are easy to read, but at the end of the day this is just a card game.
The Bad
I hate it when games are over-sold. I played through the first level and partway through the second. I was promised that:
- I would meet new characters (nope)
- I would try to figure out how the butler is involved in it all (nope)
- My emotions may run wild! (Erm, it's a card game, not going to happen.)
- There would 'never be a dull moment' because the game has 'super exciting levels'. (Well, the layouts are different but the game does not change.)
However the main disappointment was that after ninety minutes there was no sign of Detective Butler nor was there any sign of a crime.
The Bottom Line
Once again I played the Big Fish time limited full game download.
This is a good solitaire game which will take hours to complete but, at the end of the day, it is the same as many other themed solitaire games.
After playing the game for the trial period would I buy it?
Probably not. There are many similar games out there that are free and this is nothing special.
By piltdown_man on March 11, 2022
Ms. Holmes: Five Orange Pips (Collector's Edition) (Windows)
Good. Not great but definitely one of the better ones
The Good
Big Fish Games have an option to download and play the full game for a short time to evaluate it before buying. I had ninety minutes playing this game and my comments are based on those ninety minutes.
This is one of the more accessible hidden object games. There is a story and as well as hidden object scenes there are puzzles, there is an inventory and in some cases objects must be combined to produce a tool to solve a puzzle. All of this works very well. When objects need collecting there are numbers, for example 3/4 to show three of the four have been found. Where different objects need to be combined one will have a '+' sign beside it.
There is voice acting in the game. Sharlotte Holmes ( really dislike that spelling ) reminded me of Lara Croft, very drama school English, and it seemed odd but sort of right. Oscar Watson was a little more stilted but both were very clear. There is music too and it's OK, not something I'd want to put onto my mp3 player.
The artwork throughout is good. It is easy on the eye, detailed but not too detailed to be confusing. Personally I hate hidden object scenes where the object is, say, an elephant and all that is visible is the end of its tail on a half hidden photograph. I found nothing like this in Ms. Holmes And The Orange Pips.
Ultimately though the game stands or falls on its puzzles. The puzzles I played in this game were all fairly standard, such as 'find the pieces of this broken amulet, assemble them and use the result to open the casket which gives a piece of something else ....'. However there were a few twists to standard puzzles that I had not seen before which I liked.
Some games like this offer a Match-3 puzzle if a puzzle proves to be too hard for the player, here the option is to skip the puzzle completely. Having played both options recently I think I prefer the way this game deals with that situation, it's less disruptive to the gameplay.
The Bad
I did find the game stuttered a few times when I was dragging an object around on the screen with the mouse. This may be an issue with computers like mine which is coming up to its eighth birthday, it may be the game but most likely it could be the things I was running in the background. Whatever the cause, I have not noticed this on other games I have played recently.
The Bottom Line
If you are a die-hard fan of this kind of game then you'll probably already have it.
If, like me, you've played the time limited version with a view to buying, I'm not so sure. This is a good game. The problem is that there are many many games like this and although this is good it is not that good nor is it that different to stand out. I would happily buy this game if it were on sale or part of a discounted collection but I would not pay full-price for it. There are too many similar cheaper alternatives around.
By piltdown_man on March 2, 2022
Allura: Curse of the Mermaid (Windows)
Nothing special but entertaining nevertheless
The Good
This is a simple tile matching game. There are many games like it and this doesn't really break any new ground.
The game is mouse controlled and it is pretty standard as games of this type go. The player is very quickly introduced to tiles that have to be cleared by matching shapes, locked tiles that need to be used in two matched sets to be cleared, shapes that morph into a different picture and so on. It is all very colourful and it plays flawlessly.
Being a mermaid related game the shapes have a sea theme, shells, starfish, coral and other things I could not identify. They are all bright and easy to identify even when locked - covered by one or more strands of seaweed.
I have played many games like this and some have many easy levels before the game becomes challenging. This game seemed to become challenging quite quickly which, for a puzzle game, is a good thing. There is a timer on each level but, thankfully, taking a while to clear a stage did not seem to incur any penalty points.
The game is accompanied by some very pretty piano music which I really enjoyed. If I were playing the full game I'd probably disable the sound effects to enjoy it properly. There is voice acting which accompanies the storyboards and that's pretty good too.
The Bad
This is a minor point but as you play the story unfolds which is fine but I missed an in-game map to see how far I'd come and how much of the game was left.
The Bottom Line
I played the Big Fish Games demo version which allows one hour of playing the full game for free and the time just flew by - so it had me hooked right from the start. This is a simple fun game that is pretty standard. I wasn't expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised by it.
By piltdown_man on March 1, 2022
Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens (Windows)
Disappointing
The Good
Before I go any further I must say that this is NOT a bad game, it just didn't work for me.
After playing Simon The Sorcerer 3 I was pleased that this game looked and played sooo much better. The combination of 3D characters and a 2D background worked so well. The gameplay was smooth and it worked flawlessly, for me, under Windows 10. I especially liked the little animations in the background, there were woodpeckers flitting around the trees and log cabins, moles digging holes and so on. These were unexpected, amusing and well done.
The sound was good with pleasant medieval-like music burbling along in the background. There are background sounds too but they never intruded or sounded out of place. Overall the sound quality and the sound balance was spot-on.
I think what I liked most about this game is that it didn't try to be too innovative. The controls just felt right and behaved as expected, there was nothing new to get used to. Putting the mouse pointer on an object gave an icon which clearly showed whether I could look at it or interact with it - I don't remember a time when I had to make a choice between looking or using - so gameplay was straightforward and, well, natural. The game has a map function which allows fast travel between locations, this is a good feature and is nicely done.
The final thing I liked about this game was its length. There came a point where I thought I was near the end only to find it went on and on and on. At the time I was playing half-heartedly and really only wanted to see the ending so this was a bit of a mixed blessing.
The Bad
There are some clever puzzles in this game and many of them are quite logical, however I did have several "Where do I go now?" moments and only completed the game with the help of a walkthrough. When I read through to the point where I was stuck my general reaction was "WTF! I'd never have tried that!" because the solution was kinda surreal. There was only one occasion when I thought "I should have got that" and that was when I was well into the game and, frankly, by that time I just wanted to see how it ended.
What killed this game for me is what made the other games ( well Simon 1 & Simon 2 ) so enjoyable - they were funny and this wasn't. The voice acting, like the game, was competent but the lines were being delivered by someone doing their job and not by someone who was having fun themselves. There are jokes in this game and the best did raise a smile but no more than that.
The Bottom Line
I finished the game in three evenings which equates to around fifteen hours gameplay. I did get stuck and I did use a walkthrough, if I hadn't used a walkthrough I could have been playing a week or more.
Take away the fun from a Simon the Sorcerer game and you have, well, just another game. It's good and it's competently done but it is not memorable nor is it outstanding.
By piltdown_man on February 28, 2022
100 Hidden Frogs (Windows)
Forget the first ninety plus frogs
The Good
There are many games in this series but this is the first I've played - mainly because it is free on STEAM.
As expected it is the artwork that makes this game. The game has one continuous line art drawing that scrolls vertically as the mouse cursor approaches the top/bottom of the screen. There is no colour, just black lines on a white background, simple but effective. I had expected the frogs to be disguised and perhaps only partially visible, what I had not expected was the variety of shapes - considerable artistic license has been used here.
So the artwork is good and so are the game mechanics. Once I identified a frog and clicked on it it turned green. I had no problems with the game failing to record a click. Scrolling was a little faster than I would have liked but that's something I quickly became used to. There is no in-game help and no hint system.
Overall the game was very easy to pick up and play.
The Bad
The game has music. It's an up-beat techno loop that's not that bad but I could not find a way to turn it off so that I could listen to my own music.
The Bottom Line
I anticipated this being a very frustrating game so I was very careful and very methodical. In the first pass I found ninety five frogs, in the second pass I found four and that left me, as I'd feared, with a search for the last frog. That did not take too long and as a result I finished the game feeling very positive, consequently I'd recommend this game. If I'd not found it, it would probably have been a different story.
For me it was the search for the last few frogs that was the most interesting and where the real gaming began.
Conclusion: A fun game that's easy to pick up and play.
Would I buy others in this series? Probably not. I've played one and I can see why this series of games is popular but I don't see any replay value here.
Time to completion around fifteen minutes.
By piltdown_man on January 23, 2022
Lara Gates: The Lost Talisman (Windows)
An OK game but short and not that challenging.
The Good
It loaded without a problem via the Big Fish Games manager, which was reassuring for some reason.
I liked the artwork in general. It's not photo-realistic and it's not cartoon-like either. The rooms and corridors within the school are nicely done and some of the hidden object puzzles had me magnifying the screen to try and find that last object.
The music and sound effects are well done too. The music was very gentle throughout and the evil atmosphere was created by what sounded like whispered voices being played backwards. There are no jump-scares and loud noises to upset younger players.
The story is incredibly flimsy and does not stand up to scrutiny at all but it's enough make this a game and not just a string of puzzles. The ending seemed to set the scene for a sequel but, if it was ever made, I've not been able to locate it.
The Bad
I was playing on a Windows 10 machine and I had a couple of crashes with General Protection errors. The game always restarted from the exact point of failure and it wasn't really a problem - just a little worrying at the time.
The Bottom Line
This is an 'old school' hidden object game with just the one style of hidden object puzzle. Playing it in 2021, seven years after it was published by Black Lime, it shows its age and even in its day I think it would have been just an 'OK' game. It does what it does reasonably well but other games of the time did it better.
It is a short game. I started playing just before six pm in 'Casual Mode' and I'd finished by around nine thirty pm. Allowing for comfort and coffee breaks there's just three hours' gameplay here.
Pleasant, nothing special, no replay value.
By piltdown_man on June 24, 2021