RavenCorbie's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4.3
- Helpful Votes:30
- Reviews Submitted:16
- First Review:January 23, 2017
- Most Recent Review:August 7, 2022
- Featured reviews0
Can you stop a powerful foe from taking over Paris?
Overall rating
5
/
5
Wonderful Game!
PostedAugust 7, 2022
RavenCorbie
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Card & Board, Hidden Object, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I'm sick right now, so was looking for a fun, but not too challenging game to play while I sit around my house doing little else. I had remembered liking the other Vermillion Watch games I'd played, and I saw this one, checked the system requirements and went from there -- I forgot to look for a Collector's Edition, in my hurry to get something, and I regret that. It would have enhanced the game quite a bit. That said, I really enjoyed playing it!
Some have said they didn't understand the story. I think this is because it comes together very slowly and some of the early parts might not seem important, but they are. I found the story very rich and intriguing, especially the earlier parts, so this seems to be a personal taste kind of thing.
The mini-games and HOPs were well integrated both into the scenes and into the storyline. There were a few I couldn't complete because of my sick/foggy-headedness, and I actually used the Skip button (I normally hate to, but again - sick), which I appreciated. I never got overly frustrated, and the game kept me engaged. I may even get the Collector's Edition separately. Very enjoyable.
I recommend this game!
Help best-selling author Regina Blacklock solve a 35-year-old murder! Become a part of the investigation and uncover the truth!
Overall rating
4
/
5
Lovely Cold Case
PostedJanuary 27, 2022
RavenCorbie
Favorite Genre(s):Card & Board, Hidden Object, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I played all four of the James Pattersono Women's Murder Club games. I can't remember what made me pick up the first, but I liked it so much I got the others as well. The first three are very similar to each other, and they had some striking differences from usual HOPA games. This game, on the other hand, is more conventional. As a result, I have to admit I liked the other three more. The art in this one was more photo-realistic as others have mentioned, and the navigation was more in line with other HOPA games: finding items, using them, solving different types of puzzles. The mystery element was a little weaker as well, to make up for the added game play. I'm not surprised that most people seem to have liked this one the most. I seem to be an outlier in liking more old-style, text-based games. That said, even though I liked the others more, I did enjoy this quite a bit, and there was still more investigation and actual mystery than there is in most other HOPA games.
I recommend this game!
Overall rating
5
/
5
Short but Lovely
PostedJanuary 28, 2019
RavenCorbie
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Brain Teaser, Hidden Object, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I loved this game. It was short and fairly easy, aside from one puzzle that I would have liked to look up, but couldn't. I eventually figured it out through trial and error. It reminded me a lot of 5 Cards to Midnight, which is my favorite game of this type (I haven't played 5 Cards to Dead Time because I want to finish 5 Cards to Midnight, and I keep replaying it!), but was definitely shorter and much less complex than that game. When you have three suspects and you exonerate two of them, it's pretty obvious who the bad guy is, so that was a downside, but fine due to how short it was. The atmosphere, music, and frame story were excellent.
I recommend this game!
Explore the streets of Paris as you track down the Strangler!
Overall rating
5
/
5
7 of 7 found this review helpful
Nice New Series
PostedJanuary 2, 2018
RavenCorbie
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is a review of Donna Brave: And the Strangler of Paris, Standard Edition for PC, which I completed in full on 12/31/217 in a custom difficulty mode.
INTRO: You play as Donna Brave, an American woman visiting her uncle in Paris, France in the 1920s. But of course, things start getting strange from the beginning! The storyline is a major factor of this game, and I was very much immersed in the story from the start. I found the puzzles and other game elements to be almost distractions because of how compelling the story was, at least at first. Later, the story got lost in the game, which was unfortunate.
GAMEPLAY: (don’t forget to mention the map, if any)
This is mostly an adventure game, with some puzzles and some HO scenes. Compared to other games, there are very few HO scenes, but there are more of them towards the end of the game. In general, I would have preferred more HO scenes, especially since they were so well done in this game. Adventure (or using items to complete actions) is my least favorite part of this type of game, but it was done well in this game and tied well to the story, so I only got bored and frustrated near the end of the game.
This is mostly an adventure game, with some puzzles and some HO scenes. Compared to other games, there are very few HO scenes, but there are more of them towards the end of the game. In general, I would have preferred more HO scenes, especially since they were so well done in this game. Adventure (or using items to complete actions) is my least favorite part of this type of game, but it was done well in this game and tied well to the story, so I only got bored and frustrated near the end of the game.
At the beginning of the game, you only have a few scenes at a time, where you do everything you can and then move on to a new area. But later areas have more scenes in them, and thus, more back-tracking. There is not, however, a lot of moving from one main area to another, so the back-tracking is limited to one or two main areas at a time, which is nice.
You do not start off with a map, but do acquire one in the course of your investigation, pretty early on, percentage-wise, and it fits in well with the story. I never checked to see if the map was interactive, but I suspect not, since you always needed a vehicle or other means of transportation to get to the next area and there usually wasn’t much to do at the previous area. Oops, nope, just read another review that said it was interactive. Nice! But it’s even nicer that I didn’t need one :).
There were two main types of HO scenes. The first was your typical screen of objects to find. Sometimes, you needed to find pairs of objects. Other times, there were silhouettes. And still other times, you just had a regular list. On the list, at least on the difficulty setting I used, the items that required additional work were shown in a different color of font. At times, once you found an item, another sparkling item would be uncovered, and it was used to create another item. In general, every HO scene gave you a new inventory item, usually an important one.
The other type of HO scene involved using the medallion. When you had the right item, the medallion would start bouncing up and down. You then open the medallion and place the object into it, and it transports you to a memory. In the memory, can look through a spyglass to find fragments of a new item. When you find all the fragments, you get the item, again, usually an important one.
The mini/games and puzzles were generally well-tied to the plot. For example, one of the earliest ones involves navigating the streets of Paris. Another of them involves analyzing the handwriting on a napkin to find out who wrote the message. And yet another one involving knowing who the members of the club are -- I really liked that idea and would have liked that to have played more of a part in the rest of the game as it did in the Cadenza game, also by Mad Head.
The adventure part was, well, pretty typical of adventure games. You had to make a chemical solution, find specific-shaped keys and/or box insets, and so on. There were a few that were a more interesting, like luring a parrot back to its cage, but mostly it was all about opening boxes and doors and getting stuff out of them and then putting that stuff in other places. Finally, there were some interactive items that, once in your inventory, needed to be combined with other items to make them into a new item. Some of these were really confusing.
CHALLENGE: The game was difficult and confusing at points, and very easy at other points, which made for a nice variety. As mentioned in the intro, I used a custom difficulty, and I chose to enable helpful messages. At times, I found them too obvious, but would have been lost without them. Some of the ways to use objects were very obscure. As I had the Standard Edition, there was no strategy guide, but I occasionally consulted the online walkthrough. I also occasionally used the Hint button. It was a really good Hint button. If there was nothing to do in the current scene, it directed you to the next closest scene to where you could do something, without actually being “used” so there was no recharge when you got to the new location. Then, if you used the Hint again, it would point out where to go next and it would recharge if it was something at that location. It worked well outside of the HO scenes, and I never had to use it in an HO scene, but I suspect it works fine there, too, as the usual problem, if there is one, is only working in the HO scenes and never working elsewhere.
STORYLINE: The story is the center of this game. Without the story, none of the other parts would have amounted to much, especially since they tied in so well to the story. It was extremely compelling at the beginning, but the more you learn, the less compelling it became. I found the end to be a little anti-climactic, and the introduction of a new character to be over-complicating things just to prolong the game. But for the most part, the story was good. It was just a lot better in the beginning of the game than towards the end.
OPTIONS: You have the usual assortment of audio and visual options, as well as five options for difficulty. There are four set levels of difficulty: Seeker (easiest), Adept, Master, and Secret Master (hardest), and one custom option, Alchemist. All the settings mentioned in the descriptions for the set levels are customizable with the exception of penalty for rapid clicking in HO scenes. I didn’t click rapidly so don’t know whether it is on or off by default. I suspect it is probably on because the only set difficulty that doesn’t have the click penalty is Seeker.
AESTHETICS: The visuals, voice acting, and music were all superb, and they enhanced rather than detracting from the game . . . aside from the terrible not-French accents!
Final Assessment: I very much enjoyed this game even though I usually prefer more classic HO and puzzle games to adventure. It really was the story and the Hint button that made the game work for me despite my usual preferences.
CE or no? I think I would have preferred the Collector’s Edition, both in order to spend more time in the game world and for access to the Strategy Guide. Unfortunately, the sale I bought the game in was only for the Standard Edition.
I recommend this game!
Strange Cases: The Tarot Card Mystery
FBI Agent Claire Ellery must follow the tarot cards left by an anonymous source to solve this sinister and bizarre case.
Overall rating
5
/
5
Short but Sweet
PostedDecember 26, 2017
RavenCorbie
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
This is a review of Strange Cases: The Tarot Card Mystery for PC, Standard Edition, which I completed in full on 12/26/2017.
This is a rather unique HOPA. You are FBI Agent Claire Ellery assigned to find some missing girls in a strange town that doesn’t appear on maps or with GPS. When you get there, you find “Tarot” cards left by someone with hints or outright directions of where to go and what to do.
I put “Tarot” in quotation marks because these are not actually Tarot cards. They have blue, red, and green backs, each with a different symbol or set of symbols, but the other sides are blank, and filled in with words, drawings, or shapes used in the game.
GAMEPLAY: The majority of the game play is HO scenes, but you are looking for items to use elsewhere, usually to unlock some other area. In each scene there is one or more colored cards to find. Once you find the card, the card gives you what else to find in the scene. Blue cards give you a straight list of words. Green cards give you silhouettes of items to find. And red cards give you a single object, and you need to find the fragmented parts to recreate that item. When you first look at the red card, the object is on the card in full color; as you find each part, that part disappears from the image until the card is blank or a new full image appears. You can move between images on the red cards and you can also move between multiple cards in the same scene. Whichever image or card is selected is the one you will be finding things for, so make sure to actually select the one you are working on before selecting an item in the scene. If you find a card in the scene, it will automatically become the selected card. For this reason, I usually only “found” a different card in the scene once I had gotten stuck on the current card. Once a card is complete, one of the objects you found will become an item in your inventory, which you can use later.
In each scene, there are also two types of areas you can look at more closely. Gears indicate that there is something you can do there (such as unlock a door) and a magnifying glass indicates areas that you can zoom into (and find other objects or information).
There is also the occasional mini-game. Many of the mini-games simply involve using inventory objects on different areas of the scene. Most commonly it will be a tool that you can use to open an area (removing boards with a crowbar, for example) or a key that will unlock a door, and these are generally obvious and do not require any thinking. There are also some actual mini-games where you actually need to solve some kind of puzzle, and those do require thinking, but I didn’t find any of them particularly difficult.
The scenes are individual locations within a broader area. Each area has around 4 scenes. There is no backtracking between areas, and only minor backtracking to different scenes in the same area. I found that very refreshing. Generally, the first time you get to a scene, you will get all the cards. You may use the inventory item in a previous location, but you will do the most in one scene the first time you encounter that scene.
CHALLENGE: Overall, I found the game to be easy. That was exactly what I was looking for, so no complaints, but it would have been nice to have options. I don’t remember any sparkles, and the hint button recharged at a reasonable rate: not so fast that you could just keep using it, but not so slowly that you got frustrated. There was a skip button for the mini-games, but I found the mini-games easy enough that I never used it. If you over click, whether in a mini-game or in an HO scene, the cursor will be disabled for a bit, but it’s really not much of a penalty. The first time it happens, the game will inform you why the cursor is acting weird.
One thing to note is that when you are positioning an item to use in an interactive section, you need to position it in such a way that the word of the object you are trying to affect shows up. Once I figured that out, positioning was very easy, but I’ve seen some comments from people saying they got frustrated with this aspect of the game because they thought they had it positioned right, but it didn’t actually work. If the word shows up, it will work. I didn’t have any problems with the “claw” game, even though it did take me a moment to figure out how to make it work. Once I did, it was actually even easier than I expected.
STORYLINE: The storyline is pretty basic, so there isn’t much to critique or praise in this area. You are an FBI agent investigating a town that doesn’t seem to be on a map, for three missing girls. The local police are frustrated with the involvement of the Feds, which is pretty much to be expected. For some reason, someone is leaving cards for Agent Ellery to find so that she does not let the case be solved when it seems to be. The cards eventually lead her to an unusual (for the real world, but pretty usual for this sort of game) resolution. There is a bit of a surprise in learning who was leaving the cards, but otherwise, pretty typical.
OPTIONS: Volume of music, sound, and environment, the choice of full screen or windowed, the choice to mute all sound, and the choice of whether to use or not use the custom cursor. There are no difficulty settings in the Options menu.
AESTHETICS: The visuals are not the best. A lot of the items and scenes are grainy, and therefore, it can be hard to distinguish some items, especially for the green and red cards, which are visual themselves. On the other hand, the music is great, and it set the scene without being obtrusive. There were no voice-overs, which I often prefer as the voices can sometimes be grating. Based on the other elements, I suspect the voice acting would have been good in this game, but it was fine without it.
Final Assessment: I really enjoyed this game. It was obviously an older game without many of the bells and whistles of newer games, but also without a lot of the irritations of newer games, such as overly sparkled areas or annoying music or frustrating backtracking. I agree that it is more of a relaxing game than a challenging one, and definitely more of an HO game than an adventure game. I was in the mood for a relaxing/easy game and prefer HO to adventure, so this was a good combination for me, but keep your own preferences in mind before trying/buying it. When it comes down to it, I actually can't think of anything I actively disliked. The story was a little ho-hum, and the difficulty was probably a little too easy, but neither of these really detracted from the enjoyment I had.
And a comment on some of the other reviews: I did not experience the constant flashing some reviewers have spoken of. There is one scene with a window where the light from a lighthouse passes, but that was clearly there for a reason, and it was only in the one scene.
CE or no? I do not believe there is a Collector’s Edition of this game.
I recommend this game!
Can you break an evil curse and save the day?!
Overall rating
3
/
5
2 of 3 found this review helpful
Not What I Expected
PostedDecember 18, 2017
RavenCorbie
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
This is a review of Christmas Stories - A Little Prince, Collector’s Edition, for PC, which I completed in full on 12/17/2017 on Casual Mode.
OPTIONS: At the beginning of the game, there are two types of options: regular options and gameplay options. In the main menu, you can adjust the volume (music, ambient, speech), graphics, and choose the type of cursor/indicator. In the Game Play options, you have Casual, Detective, and Super, which correspond roughly to Easy, Intermediate, and Difficult. There is also a Custom tab where you can choose among different options, such as visual sparkles, skip and hint icons, indicators on the map, and so on. I went with Casual because I’m enjoying challenging myself in another game (3 Cards to Midnight), and I wanted this one as just a fun thing to do when tired from that game.
GAMEPLAY: This is a game that involves moving between areas, doing some hidden object scenes, looking for objects in the area, combining objects with other objects, and completing mini-games. I think there was a fair balance of all types. There are also collectibles to find (puzzle pieces, morphing objects, and wedding guests), but I mostly forgot about those.
If I had known that Elephant, the maker of this game, was also the maker of the Chimeras games, I might have given it a pass. I never finished Chimeras: A Tune of Revenge, despite all the glowing reviews, because I disliked all the backtracking. Maybe if I had played it on the easiest setting I would have liked it more. But even on easy, as I played in this game, I really dislike doing 1-3 things in one area, then moving to Area 2 and doing 1-3 things, then back to Area 1 for 1 more thing, then back to Area 2 for 1 more thing, which is usually to access Area 3, where you still can only do 1-3 things, then back to Areas 1 and 2. It’s very frustrating on harder difficulties because I like to really search and “finish” an area before moving on to the next one. But that’s not how these particular games are made. This is a taste thing rather than a failing with the game, so if you like that type of thing, this might be a great game for you. Still, I find that it adds a type of difficulty that is more tedium than actual difficulty.
The hidden object scenes were pretty easy. I didn’t really need to use the hint button at all, and I found the objects rather quickly. There were different variations, such as finding objects by their description or having a silhouette instead of a word. All of them had some sort of interactive element as well. There were also two hidden object stories where you see the illustration of a story, and as the narrator reads the story, one word is highlighted, and you have to find the object indicated by the highlighted word. Those were pretty easy, too.
The mini-games were mostly easy, too, but there were a couple I eventually gave up on. Unfortunately, the Strategy Guide was not always helpful.
The combining of objects with other objects, whether in an interactive area of the setting or in your inventory was probably the most enjoyable part to me, but there were several where it was very obvious and repetitive (I cannot think to name all the times there was an empty space for a shape and you just find that particular shape to put in the empty space).
When I noticed them, the collectibles added a nice surprise to the rest of the game.
There is an interactive map and an interactive helper. On easy, the map indicates areas that still have collectibles and areas where actions can be performed. You can click on the room/area you want to go to, and that will move you there.
CHALLENGE: I played on easy, so I can’t complain too much about it being too easy, so I won’t. The only exception would be the hidden object scenes. I found everything very quickly, and even the interactive parts of the scene were really obvious. I don’t think the objects actually change in the harder modes, which is why I feel it is fair to critique. On the other hand, all the backtracking makes me really glad I was playing on easy. I used the map a lot to help me figure out where I needed to go next and to set aside my completionist side that wanted to do everything I could in the room I was in (by looking at the map, I could see that this would be a fool’s errand as I’d already done everything). Later in the game, I was more used to this, so it didn’t bother me as much, but without the map, I would have been really frustrated. As I mentioned, there were a couple of mini-games I was unable to complete even on easy and even with looking through the Strategy Guide. One puzzle involving moving planets I never even really understood how to move the planets at all. The Strategy Guide entry on that puzzle also did not make any sense to me. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the telescope search and some of the other mini-games.
STORYLINE: The storyline, to be frank, was pretty insipid. When I saw there was a fox and that the prince’s bride was Rose, I had high hopes that they were actually taking inspiration from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Unfortunately, that’s really the ONLY inspiration from that book. It was a nice touch that the music was a French Christmas carol, but I was really disappointed that so many of the characters had English names. And the storyline had nothing to do with the story of The Little Prince other than Edward’s love for Rose, but it wasn’t the innocent childlike love and the idea of being children and animals was a “curse” or bad thing rather than a blessing. Setting aside my expectations and disappointment with regard to The Little Prince, the story on its own didn’t have much to offer. The plot was trite and overly simplistic. I guess that’s probably due to it being a Christmas game, but I felt like it was just not interesting.
AESTHETICS: The graphics were good. I particularly liked the map and the way that it showed a little view of the scene when you hovered over a particular area. I found the placement of the fox annoying. He was just too close to the map, so half the time when I was trying to click on the map, I clicked on the fox instead. Then, I had to click again somewhere else -- there was no way to “cancel” having the fox selected. There was also a bit of a pause after telling the fox to do something, so everytime I used the fox, I thought he wasn’t able to do it. The music was a little loud in the very beginning opening section, but otherwise fine. Voice acting was pretty good.
Final Assessment: I am glad I got this on sale, and it wasn’t a waste of time. In general, I would still recommend the game, as it was playable and there were some very enjoyable parts. But it’s not a game I will play a second time, or explore all the other bonus content.
CE or no? The only part of the CE I thought was useful was the Strategy Guide, but I did use it a few times. I’m not sure it’s worth double the cost.
I recommend this game!
An evil magician has put the village of Luzio under his spell! Rosalie must follow her Tarot cards and rescue the villagers.
Overall rating
4
/
5
Fun Casual Game
PostedMarch 29, 2017
RavenCorbie
Favorite Genre(s):Card & Board, Hidden Object, Mahjong, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
This is a review of The Tarot Misfortune, Standard Edition for PC, which I completed in full on 03/28/2017.
GAMEPLAY: The gameplay is pretty basic. At the beginning of each chapter, you turn over 3 Tarot cards, and the narrator gives an explanation of what each card means and a very vague idea of what you need to do (for example, explore other areas, stay focused, etc.). Then, you will have a number of HO scenes and occasionally the use of one or more inventory items to unlock a new location. In most HO scenes, there are a number of colored Tarot cards to find -- that is, you are seeing the back of the card, and in different colors (red, purple, blue, green, etc.). You also need to find other objects. Occasionally one or more of the objects you find in an HO scene will become inventory items that you can use at the same or a different location, but they don’t become inventory items until the HO scene is over. In some locations, there is a glowing Tarot card. If you click it, you get a “find the differences” puzzle between two versions of the same card. Finding all the differences gives you a clear hint about an obstacle later in the game. I liked doing these, so I don’t know how difficult it would have been to figure out what to do without the hint, but I don’t think it would be impossible. At the very end, there is a multi-stage mini-game to defeat the Magician.
CHALLENGE: There was not much challenge in this game. Occasionally, I used the hint button, but only when feeling lazy, not when feeling completely stumped. The main challenge is sometimes seeing open “doors” to other areas. The Forest Camp area is particularly difficult to notice if you aren’t aware that it exists. The mini-game at the end is laughably easy.
STORYLINE: The storyline is also pretty basic. You “wake up” in jail to find out a magician has enslaved the rest of the town. You are also missing most of your Tarot cards that the Magician has spread all over town. You have to find the cards and use them to defeat the magician. At the end, there is a final mini-game to defeat the Magician. The tone is very much sweetness-and-fluff both in terms of the artwork and in terms of the theme.
OPTIONS: There are very few options: music and sound effect volume, custom cursor, and full screen. Of particular note, there are NO difficulty settings.
AESTHETICS: The aesthetic is, as I mentioned in the “Storyline” section, very light. Yes, there is a Tarot theme, which some associate with darkness and the occult, but here, it is very far from that side of Tarot and witchcraft. The colors are very bright. There is no voice acting, and the music is very repetitive, but pleasant. I did turn both the sound effects and the music down quite considerably. Finally, there are the cards themselves. They are very beautiful and also family friendly. Of particular note, at the end of the game, you can click on cards to see the credits. I normally don’t care much about seeing the credits, but I enjoyed this version.
Final Assessment: I enjoyed this game, but not as much as others. It was simple and very casual. The story was engaging, but not compelling. I liked finding the Tarot cards in the HO scenes. So I recommend this game, ideally on sale or with game credit. There’s nothing bad about the game, but it’s not amazing either.
CE or no? As far as I know, there is no Collector’s Edition of this game.
I recommend this game!
Jess Silloway has just woken up and does not remember the last few weeks. Help Jess remember the past using mystical tarot cards.
Overall rating
5
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
Great Tarot-based Hidden Object Game
PostedMarch 26, 2017
RavenCorbie
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Card & Board, Hidden Object, Mahjong, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is a review of 3 Cards to Midnight, for PC, which I completed on 03/25/2017 in Challenge Mode.
GAMEPLAY: The gameplay is pretty predictable, but I loved it. The way it worked was that in each Chapter, you had 3 Tarot cards to explore. Clicking on a card brought up an HO scene. For each scene there were 2-4 words. For each word, you had to find items that combined with the word. For example, if the word was Flash, and there was a light, you could click on the light to create “Flashlight”, and the word “Light” would appear to the right of the word Flash. There were boxes for each word, so you always knew how many words you had to find before the word and after the word. Camera, for example, could go before Flash. Once you found all the word-parts for a particular word, there was a cut scene. At the Challenge difficulty, you start each scene with 3 Hints. If you find a certain number of word parts, you get a fourth hint. After finding a specific word, a puzzle is activated. You can choose to play the puzzle anytime after it has been activated, but I always chose to do the puzzle last. The puzzles were not difficult, and all of them included both instructions on how to solve the puzzle and a Skip option. I don’t like skipping puzzles, and I did not have to skip any of the puzzles in this game, although I did occasionally refer to the online walkthrough. If you use up all the hints and click on too many wrong items, you restart the entire card. When you finish all three cards, and their respective puzzles, you move on to the next chapter. There are seven full chapters and a finale. The finale is a bit anti-climactic. You choose 3 cards, and then the scene plays out based on the cards you chose. There’s actually nothing to do after choosing the cards besides seeing how the end plays out.
CHALLENGE: There are three options to choose from at the start of the game: Easy, Challenge, and Gamer. There is no actual change in difficulty between Easy and Challenge other than that in Easy mode, you do not need to find all the words, but in Challenge mode you do. I don’t remember the description for Gamer mode, but I think there are fewer hints. I found that Challenge was just right for me. I did occasionally need hints, and I think I had to restart most of the cards. Sometimes the words didn’t make sense, and in one case, I misunderstood another review on this site and avoided clicking on a “right” item.
STORYLINE: The story is very compelling. Not only does the mystery grow more interesting and ominous, but the twists are executed in such a way that they are really twists. I didn’t expect any of the twists, and the plot kept my attention and interest all the way to the end.
AESTHETICS: This is a Noir-style game with Art Nouveau styling throughout. The Tarot cards were made specifically for this game and they were beautiful and appropriate. They matched the rest of the game while retaining the base imagery of the Tarot. This was masterfully done. The voice acting was also excellent. I did not really notice the music.
Final Assessment: I am very glad I bought this game. I really enjoyed the HO scenes and the puzzles, and I loved the storyline. I was also impressed with how the Tarot was incorporated.
CE or no? There does not seem to be a Collector’s Edition of this game at this time.
I recommend this game!
You’ve been invited to the long abandoned Paris Opera House. Find the phantom and discover the torment of this tragic hero!
Overall rating
3
/
5
3 1/2 Stars
PostedMarch 12, 2017
RavenCorbie
Favorite Genre(s):Card & Board, Hidden Object, Mahjong, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
As my title states, I think I would rate this as 3 1/2 stars overall. Here's the breakdown of my thoughts:
This is a review of Mystery Legends: Phantom of the Opera, Collector’s Edition, for PC, which I completed on 03/12/2017.
GAMEPLAY: The game play consisted of finding objects to unlock areas and/or puzzles. Occasionally, finding the object involved an HO scene. There were a lot of different areas in the main game, and just a few in the bonus game. There were usually only a few things to do in one area before needing to move onto another area. Because of this, it was difficult to keep track of where things were and where things were needed. I tried writing it down, but with only 1-2 things for each area at a time, it became tedious, so I stopped writing things down. Therefore, I relied mostly on the map (which showed objectives) and the guide (which was sort of like a walkthrough, but easier to use without running into spoilers). As a result, I found the game either too hard or too easy. I am also learning that “adventure” is my least favorite part of “Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure” games (HOPA), because I guess I don’t have the right kind of logic to understand what objects to use where or to remember to go back to previous rooms to see if something has miraculously shown up that wasn’t there before. I find that kind of wandering around irritating.
Another part of the game play involved reading the journal to understand the plot and some of the puzzles. I really enjoyed the use of the journal, and had some head-bashing moments when I went to the Guide to find out the objective of a puzzle only to find out that the answer was in one of the journal entries.
CHALLENGE: As I mentioned in the GAMEPLAY section, I found it to be either too hard or too easy. I spent most of the time relying on the Guide and the Map, but the Map was not all that useful, since it didn’t say which rooms had something to do in them, just rooms that had unmet objectives . . . and some of those objectives relied on objects found in other places. So, I would go to a room with an exclamation point, only to find out that actually, there was nothing to do there yet. The main exception was the HO scenes, which I found to be very well done. Hovering the cursor over an item showed its silhouette in the Hint mirror, similar to how it works in Midnight Mysteries series. I really like having that option, especially since the Hint function is very specific. I also thought that the puzzles were well done. There were times when I chose to look at the Guide, since there were never any actual instructions, but I almost always regretted it as there was usually a clue in the Journal.
STORYLINE: The storyline was good and entertaining, but I took two points off for the lack of a decent ending. Others have already commented at length on this, but really, they should not have ended on a question mark (in the main game) or non-answer (in the bonus game).
OPTIONS: Here, too, the game suffers. Yes, there are some decent performance and visual options, but there are no gameplay options and no difficulty settings. Areas of interest sparkle, and you cannot turn that off. The Hint button only works once at a time, and then it takes a certain amount of time to recharge. The map is not interactive; you cannot click on a room and go there, which is really irritating in a game that involves moving around as much as this one does.
AESTHETICS: The game is gorgeous. Even though I was tired of the gameplay, I still played the bonus game (which I enjoyed more than the main game as I was able to figure out more on my own) because of the graphics, style (font choices, etc.), and music. The Phantom’s voice was very well done. I was not too fond of the protagonist’s voice, but I don’t really like voiced protagonists anyway.
Final Assessment: Overall, I enjoyed playing the game, but I will probably not buy others in the series. I loved the aesthetic and the storyline, but was irritated by the gameplay and frustrated by the lack of an ending.
CE or no? I would say no. The “original novel” is the original Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, but it’s a pain to read in the format it’s presented in, and based on what I’ve read so far, seems to be identical to the Kindle edition you can get for free at Amazon. The bonus game was a lot of fun, but very short, and not worth double the price of the main game. Finally, you get access to a list of players (including fictional players) ranked in order of fastest time. A secondary statistic, Accuracy (in the form of a percent), is listed as well, but has no impact on your rank on the list. The bonus game pretty much leaves you at the same point you are at at the end of the main game, so no real story reason to play it.
I recommend the game itself, but not the CE.
I recommend this game!
The history of Ravenhearst Manor is shrouded in mystery. Unlock the secrets within this episode of Mystery Case Files™.
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
Ravenhearst Review
PostedMarch 7, 2017
RavenCorbie
Favorite Genre(s):Card & Board, Hidden Object, Mahjong, Puzzle, Word
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is a review of Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst, Standard Edition for PC, which I completed on 03/06/2016.
GAMEPLAY: The gameplay is extremely predictable. That is not a complaint, but an observation. You start the game with one diary page. The goal, at the beginning of the game, is to assemble the diary. You assemble the diary by “finding” the diary pages within Ravenhearst manor. However, you don’t really find the pages themselves. Instead, you are given access to certain rooms. Unlike more modern Hidden Object Adventure games, you don’t really go into the rooms. When you click on a room, you get an HO scene. The basic scenes remain constant for each room, so for example, the Parlor will always have the same items in it. Each scene has eight objects to find, and you need to find a certain number of objects to get a diary page. This means you will usually be interrupted in the middle of an HO scene with a message that you have found all the items. Between each diary page, you also have 6 Hints you can use. The Hint button creates a sparkling circle around the area where the object is, but it’s a very large circle, so you sometimes will still have to look. There is one item in one room that is practically invisible, but I was able to find it eventually. Clicking too much and too quickly results in a time penalty, but it only happened to me once when I was frustrated about the invisible item mentioned earlier. Other times, if you misclick thinking you found the item but didn’t, there is no penalty. It’s only when clicking repeatedly and quickly on one object.
While you can simply click on some rooms, others are locked with puzzles. You usually only have to do one door puzzle between diary pages. These are pretty difficult. There are no instructions, but there are usually a lot of things you can do, and through trial and error, I was often able to figure out what to do next. There are also clues like letters, numbers, and patterns in the puzzle rooms, too, which can help. Finally, unlike most games of this sort, the Hint button still works, and assuming you still have any of the 6 Hints, you can use it to get a hint on the next step in the puzzle. If you take a long enough time, a phone will ring, and you will get a pop-up message asking if you want to skip the puzzle. If you choose to do so, you will lose both time (5 minutes) and all your hints. There was one irritating puzzle that I had to skip. It involved manipulating the image of a joystick with the mouse, and my hand continually cramped up while attempting it. Also, I would sometimes be near the end only to find out that the mouse was no longer actually holding the joystick, so when I moved my mouse, nothing happened, and I lost the game and had to start over. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what to do or how to solve the puzzle; it was purely a physical difficulty. What was particularly irritating about that one is that I spent a lot of time on the previous part of the puzzle, even going to look up more information, so the fact that I had to skip the puzzle and lose all my hints over a physical difficulty when I had mentally solved the puzzle really annoyed me.
Once you have found all the items you need, you will get a message saying you have found a diary entry. This brings you to a new screen where you assemble a jigsaw puzzle. These puzzles are very easy as the picture is in the background and the pieces are all different shapes. You only see a certain number of pieces at a time, but there’s usually always one easy one -- either a corner, a side, or part of a face that is very obvious. This also means you don’t have the problem where you have too many pieces all on top of each other and covering the actual puzzle area like you do in a lot of more modern games. You do sometimes need to rotate the pieces, which you do by right clicking rather than left clicking. If you left click a second time, you let go of the piece and it returns to the bottom of the screen. That said, you don’t need to hold down the left button. Once you have clicked it once and put in the puzzle area, you can stop clicking and right click to rotate, then just move your mouse to move it into place. The puzzles are all in a greenish hue with pencil-drawn illustrations. Once you have completed a jigsaw puzzle, you get to read the diary entry as it scrolls over the image. Then, you can find it again in the diary itself.
Once you have assembled the diary, you have a new objective, which I will not spoil, other than to say that it involves more hidden object scenes and at least one more puzzle. I found this final stage much easier than the previous part of the game. I would say I spent at least 90% if not more on the first part, then breezed through the last part. That made it somewhat anticlimactic.
CHALLENGE: I have to say that the level of challenge was perfect for me. The HO scenes had some objects that were easy to find (especially during the Endgame), while others had me pondering and looking for a long time, and still others required a hint. I consider the nearly invisible item to be TOO much of a challenge, but that was the only one like that. Similarly, I was able to solve almost all of the door puzzles through the trial-and-error beginning, which led to insights about the puzzle. There were a couple I needed to look up, but overall, they were just hard enough to keep me interested but not so difficult that I wanted to give up. As I mentioned earlier, the jigsaw puzzles were very easy, but that made for a nice break between the harder sections of the game.
STORYLINE: I enjoyed the storyline, even though I predicted most of the story. There were a few strange moments where the diarist would end at a spot that no actual diarist would stop, and the presence of a third character, considering how she was brought into the story, did not make much sense. That said, despite the predictability and occasional lack of logic, I did enjoy it.
OPTIONS: There are very few options. At the beginning, you can choose between two modes: Master Detective (timed) and Relaxed (extended time). Penalties, as mentioned above, result in the loss of Time, which means that they’re relatively insignificant if playing in Relaxed mode. I must note that I played in Relaxed mode and thought that it meant it was untimed. As a result, I frequently left my computer without pausing (you can pause by going to the Menu), and spent a long time looking for one object rather than moving on to a new room after finding as many as I could quickly, and I never encountered any worry about time, so I would have to say that the time is extended to the point that you might as well consider it untimed.
Hints are limited to 5 between diary pages. They refresh each time you get a new diary page, and that’s the only way you can get more of them. I don’t usually skip puzzles, and when I do, it’s only when I know I can’t solve it, so I am not sure whether the phone/skip option is available at the very beginning of the puzzle or if it takes time to charge.
AESTHETICS: This is an old game. The visuals are obviously dated and not particularly interesting. Many of the same scenes are in a different place in a different room rather than each room being unique. This adds to the difficulty, but not to the aesthetics. There is no voice acting. I also did not notice music, aside from the intro. There are sound effects, and they can get annoying, as it is the same effect repeated over and over in the same room. It could be a clock ticking or a cat meowing.
LENGTH/VALUE: Overall, I really enjoyed the game, and want to play it again to see if I can beat my time, which shouldn’t be too difficult since I didn’t pay any attention to time the first time. I will note that I do love HO scenes, so if you prefer games with more puzzles or adventure, this might not be the game for you. I found myself excited about the new diary pages, too, even though I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen in the story (and I was right). I spent over 7 hours on it and enjoyed most of it, aside from the invisible object and the annoying “puzzle”.
Final Assessment: I recommend this game to those who enjoy HO scenes and like the feeling of nostalgia that comes with playing old games.
CE or no? I don’t know whether there is a CE version of this or not. Mine had a place for a Strategy Guide, but I was unable to use it, so my version is definitely not a CE. I don’t know what I might be missing if there is a CE, so I would have to say that the Standard Edition is very good on its own.
I recommend this game!