FishyFemale's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.8
- Helpful Votes:1,171
- Reviews Submitted:113
- First Review:September 23, 2012
- Most Recent Review:January 1, 2023
- Featured reviews0
Status:
End the Charleston Curse before it wipes out an entire family and save a young girl in Witches’ Legacy: The Charleston Curse!
Overall rating
3
/
5
19 of 27 found this review helpful
Wish I'd liked it a little bit more.
PostedDecember 18, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I really enjoyed the trial and couldn't wait to play the rest of it but I was left feeling underwhelmed. There's a place in the game where the story just got confusing. There are too many rooms in the house and I got to the point later in the game where I was just using the hint button to show me where to go and what to do next. Although I loved the gorgeous artwork and the use of live actors, and thought the animations were different and creative, following the storyline later got difficult and ultimately became boring to me. I ended up relying on the hint button just to move me through the rest of the game. I really didn't like doing that but I just wanted to finish it, but it took away a lot of the fun for me.
I'm on the border between recommending or not recommending it. Because of its sense of humor (the sick doorknob, for instance) and the innovative way the devs animated the drawings, I've decided to tip my hat to recommending it.
I recommend this game!
Overall rating
2
/
5
14 of 14 found this review helpful
The demo was interesting but the story fell flat after that.
PostedDecember 18, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
With the almost unanimous recommendations, I don't feel too bad about being the almost lone dissenter here. There were things I liked about this game, like the werewolf theme, the gorgeous artwork, and the helpful hint system. But the story seemed to just plod along and it wasn't always clear what was needed to be done where. There were lots of places to explore and I found myself going back and forth wondering what to do next. There was even a point in the game where it seemed you've done everything and you saw where you were supposed to go next, only to find that you're kept from going there and that's where the game lost me. What you had to do next was so nonsensical and because you had to backtrack so much, it just seemed that the devs did this to pad the game in order to lengthen it. Why didn't they just let you go where you needed to go the first time and lengthen the story there? I was so fed up by this time that I lost interest because I ended up relying on hints too much for my liking just to get through this portion of the game. This is poor story development, in my opinion, and what I liked about The Legacy isn't enough to cancel out the plot holes that disrupted the gameplay. There are many games that are equal in looks to The Legacy that I've purchased and prefer to play because of their smooth and forward progression in their storylines. I did finish playing this game but the enjoyment was lost long before then.
I don't recommend this game.
Overall rating
3
/
5
9 of 10 found this review helpful
Not sure whether to recommend this or not.
PostedDecember 18, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I stumbled across this title when I read a review for another game and Soul Journey was named as a current favorite by the reviewer. Although I don't personally believe in soul travel in any way, shape or form, it was interesting to play it in a game. I've only played the trial so far and am debating whether I'll buy it eventually. I don't think it's good enough to pay half price for it, so I'll probably wait for one of those developer's $2.99 sales or hope it's offered for $2.99 in the COW sale. With that said, I'll say what I liked and didn't like about it.
I didn't like anything about this game right away. I thought the graphics looked very old school in its design, like it was from the 90s. It didn't help that the angel looked more like a lounge singer to me with an Elvis pompadour to boot. The music seemed oddly out of place too with its light, breezy style and the whole thing just seemed a little too weird to be taken too seriously. I guess that's what it ultimately is supposed to be because as I played on, I became aware of myself disliking it less. By the time the hour was up, I realized how much this game grew on me.
I look for something different from the usual things we see in games today. And this one sure is different. There's no wandering around like you'd do in a normal adventure game, but it has a map to take you to the various locations you are to explore. There are irritating things in this game for sure, like being told to go to a certain place to perform a certain task, only to get there and be told you can't do it yet! You first have to go somewhere else to do something, and then go back to the previous place to finally complete the action. This can be tedious if it's required too many times in the game but so far, I've only seen it done once in the trial. The other irritation was the incredibly small items in the hidden object lists. Not all of them are small, just those where multiples of a single item (like beetles) are listed. Not only are they small, they are so well-blended into the background that I relied on the hint button far too much for my liking. It didn't help that I ended up squinting a lot too but maybe this is good exercise for my eyesight or mind.
You need to move your cursor around to see what things are outlined for you to interact with, and where you find them are not always the locations where you need to use them. This may be an annoyance for some but it provides the challenge that's needed in an otherwise sterile looking game. What sold me on tipping my viewpoint to the 'like' side of the scale is the humor. The comments of the characters in the dialog balloons are frequently quite funny and by the time I progressed from being a dog to a bird and then to the old lady, I found the quirkiness to be a little bit endearing. The animation of the old lady in particular really tickled my funny bone, and the odd music by this time seemed quite "normal" to the game. Mind you, I'm not completely sold on liking this game a lot. In all honesty, I'm just to the right of center on the 'like' side of the scale. I guess what I'm saying is that I sort of like this game just because of its oddities. This is a game that was really hard for me to describe so judge for yourself and try it out for an hour.
I recommend this game!
A crime spree baffles Huntsville™ police! Can you help solve the crime?
Overall rating
3
/
5
6 of 7 found this review helpful
Not a bad game, just not for me.
PostedDecember 8, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I own four of the later MCF games and played the demo of this one last week only because I was curious of how the series looked when it first started. I no longer like pure HOGs anymore and once you've visited Dire Grove...well...there's no going back to the old places! So even though I had no intention of buying Huntsville, I was curious nonetheless to see where it all began.
Although I initially liked going to the different locations, it became repetitive when I had to look for the same objects in the same scenes in later cases and I hated that the game was timed. I also hated that only 3 hints were given for each suspect so between that and the timer, you're under stress to find objects that were frequently very small or hard to distinguish. And although I got through about a third of the cases during the demo hour, the same jigsaw type puzzle was used in the crime computer for each suspect, which got boring for me very quickly. I realize I shouldn't be too hard on this game since it was the first in the series, but I got spoiled with the first two Ravenhearsts, Madame Fate and Dire Grove and want more of a variety with the puzzles. I can't recommend this game to gamers like myself who desire more of a challenge, but to those who love the MCF series and want the entire collection, by all means get this one too! It's not bad by any means and is a good starter game for those new to the genre. But newbies might be intimidated by that danged timer which can't be turned off or paused. The later games include both a relaxed and normal (or expert) mode of play, and it would be nice if Huntsville could be updated to provide these play modes to accommodate the skill level of those who want to play the game. I'll still recommend Huntsville because many people who started with this game still love playing it and new gamers seem to keep finding it too.
I recommend this game!
Listen to the Echoes of Sorrow and remember who you are as you explore your memories in this fun Hidden Object game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
4 of 4 found this review helpful
A rather short game but unique and enjoyable.
PostedDecember 8, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
This game has beautiful artwork and had some unique visuals not seen by me before, like the bloody handprints moving up the wall and the animated apparitions. It was very different to see and lent themselves nicely in creating the proper eerie atmosphere for the story. The story itself is sad and scary and could have used more details in describing how and why this particular individual became so interested in the heroine. The overall story is generally good but, in my opinion, needed more rounding out. I liked how you could access only one building at a time around the statue since each building represented a span of time in the heroine's life. The whole game was pretty easy to navigate with not a whole lot to do in each area, so it's a short game and not a huge challenge for intermediates and the advanced player. The puzzles and hidden object scenes were on the easy side with the objects being quite large, and I think beginners would like this game a lot as it offers just the right amount of HO scenes and puzzles. The only thing I didn't like about this game was the long loading times when going from one area to another. As always, demo it first to see how you like it. I did and I'm glad.
I recommend this game!
Set off on an adventure and help your professor with a mysterious discovery in Tearstone, a fun Hidden Object game!
Overall rating
1
/
5
21 of 22 found this review helpful
I just couldn't get into this one.
PostedDecember 8, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
As an experienced gamer, I'm always willing to try new things when I read that a game is different from the norm. So I went into this one with an open mind knowing that it might take some time to grow on me. Okay, I made it well into the third chapter when my hour was done but it couldn't have come fast enough for me. I actually like the wandering around that a good adventure game entails, but trying to find the items needed in the various scenes here seemed unusually difficult for me. It didn't help that I found the music strange and obnoxious, which has never happened to me in a game before, and each scene was visually unappealing to me for some reason. The way a game looks holds tremendous clout with me and affects how much I like it, but I felt just slightly nauseous during the whole hour. And some of the places, like putting the items into the holes, took many clicks before the game accepted them, which frustrated me even more and made the gameplay a chore rather than fun. It just took too long for the game to proceed smoothly and it didn't hold my interest at all. Whether this game is more for beginners or the advanced crowd is up for debate because I think it comes down to how much patience you have with what you're presented with. I just didn't like what I was seeing so I couldn't enjoy playing this game. I really lost interest early on but wanted to complete the trial hour in order to write a fair review, but I didn't like it any better when time ran out. More power to those who bought this game and played it through to completion more than once. Obviously, there's an audience for it and I hope more games like it are made for those who appreciate them. I'm just one of those who don't, but there are many games on BF that I love and will continue to play so there's room in the gaming world for all of us.
I don't recommend this game.
A rash of murders has struck, and it’s up to you as an FBI agent to find the murderer in Mystery Valley, a dark Hidden Object game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
8 of 10 found this review helpful
Not a great game but it's certainly not bad either!
PostedDecember 6, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I love spooky games with vampire themes and the title intrigued me, so of course I had to try it. The hour demo sold me on purchasing so I waited for the next sale since I'm financially strapped right now. I bought it during the Thanksgiving half off sale but the very next sale that came only a week later offered it for $2.99! I wish I'd have gotten it for $2.99 instead. Not only to save needed funds, but also because I don't think I would have paid the $4.99 if I'd played the entire game first.
It's not a bad game by any means but it's certainly not up to the standard of "great" like many games deserve to be named. The story starts off interestingly enough but seems to grow thin during the last chapter. Maybe it's because I didn't realize that I was so close to finishing it that the ending seemed so abrupt and anticlimactic and the vampire theme seemed almost nonexistant to me. Although the ending provided closure, it just didn't seem to be enough and the story could have unfolded more and better at the end.
With that said, there was a lot that I liked about Mystery Valley. I loved the look of the artwork. The scenes are hand-drawn and very gothic looking. It reminded me of the way pictures looked in storybooks I read as a child. It was very different to see this in a game and I appreciated seeing it here. I hope Big Fish has other games that use these kind of illustrations in them. Mystery Valley is an older game so I don't want to criticize too much, but I know computer graphics were still very good 2 years ago so the character animations could have been done better. Especially towards the end with the guard. His movements were embarassingly sophomoric looking and very choppy. It distracted me from the story because I noticed how bad his movements were. The scenes with the other characters when they were in conversation looked to be of another kind of design, very cartoonish. I didn't like this much because it didn't contrast well with the other drawing style that was presented in the background (the gothic backdrops). The cartoon drawings with its pale colors against the dark, gloomy backdrops were just too much of a contrast for me to keep from being distracted and it took some enjoyment away from the game for me.
Yes, the settings are somewhat dark and gloomy as they're supposed to be for this story, but there are plenty of burning torches around that give enough light to see well. It looks especially beautiful in the final chapter when you're faced with a hallway with passages opening to the sides. I just really enjoyed exploring there and there is plenty to do. The hidden object scenes were challenging with some items blending a little too well into dark corners but the hint button was always there to point them out. And the puzzles/minigames were not too difficult but required patience to figure out but the skip button was always available as well. Sometimes I just used the skip when I wanted to get on with the gameplay even though I knew how to solve a particular puzzle. I just grew impatient.
The music is lovely throughout and appropriately moody for the type of environment you are exploring. The one glitch I found in the game is during the final chapter when all the sound just cut out. It just stopped...all the music and ambient sounds just stopped! I checked the options to see if somehow the bars were reset to the off position but they were still all the way to the right like the last time I moved them there. I had to completely close out of the game and open it again to get all the sound back but at least it worked! Speaking of the sounds, there are wonderfully creepy ambient sounds all around, including whisperings at one point, to increase the spook factor. And let's not forget those scare moments like you see in the preview. Unfortunately, those are few and far between and are seen early in the game. I wish there had been more of them scattered throughout. But what you do have scattered throughout are the ghosts that suddenly appear. They hover and move slowly in and out of random scenes so just when you've forgotten about them, another one appears! It's fun and they look like the spooky girl from the movie "The Ring". Another fun thing that cranks up the creep factor are the passing shadows that frequently occur. Like the ghost images, they appear in random scenes but are very effective in maintaining the mood. These are the things that I loved about this game. It's visually and audibly atmospheric but the glitches bring it down a notch and are too distracting that it interrupts the enjoyable gameplay. The typos and misnamed items in the HO scenes add to it, as well as the abrupt and unclimactic ending. I just think the ending could have been developed better and longer. So overall, it's not a bad game by far, but just not enough to give it more than 3 stars for a really fair evalution by me. Like I said, if I'd known I could have bought it for $2.99, I would have as I like it enough. It's definitely worth playing the trial hour but definitely not worth the full price for it. Not even the half off price. Use a coupon or wait for another $2.99 sale. I'm no longer buying games at the half off price. I have a stockpile of played trial versions that I'll wait to buy for $2.99 and I'll just play my other dozens of games until then.
I recommend this game!
Called into a small city from the capitol, you have been put in charge of solving a string of mysterious murders!
Overall rating
4
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
It could have been just a wee bit better.
PostedDecember 5, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I really wanted to give this game 3.5 stars but since it isn't possible, I bumped it to 4 since it isn't bad enough to warrant only 3. However, the game played very slow on my computer. I expected more from the developers of this game since the later games in this series run much better for me. Even an old game like Dire Grove runs perfectly on my computer and that one requires much more speed, memory and hard drive space, so I can't understand why this one dragged so much. Even the forums have many complaints on the slowness of this game and no fix has been made for it as far as I can tell. I'm surprised that so many people say that this is a short game but I can only surmise that it's due to the fact that it ran so slowly on my computer so it seemed like a long game to me.
Other than that, there's a lot to like about it. I loved the moody soundtrack, which was appropriate to the different settings, and the ambient sounds of the outdoors were eerie and realistic. And I absolutely loved the fact that there's no in-game hint system available other than for the hidden object scenes. This is a true adventure game like the way a real adventure game is supposed to be. Gamers today are too spoiled by the always available hint button (and I'm guilty of being spoiled too), but playing this game takes me back to the adventure games of old when there were no graphics and everything was text based. You had to use your imagination to think outside the box of where to go and what to do. This game provided that and I enjoyed it immensely. I did have to consult the walkthrough twice but most things made sense as to what to do next. The backtracking wasn't too bad because the scenes looked different enough from each other so that it was easy to remember where I needed to go next. The hidden object scenes were minimal and uncluttered, and the hint system filled quickly within them. The artwork is gorgeous and colorful, and I especially liked the animation with the characters as they talked and moved. Some people say the fortune teller's accent was terrible but I was more bothered by why the narrator's was Australian! I thought this story takes place somewhere in the UK or even the US but not Australia.
Other than the slowness of the gameplay, I found the plotline to be a bit confusing. Trying to remember all the characters' names and their individual stories was difficult but maybe it was because of my frustration with the slow fading in and out of each screen that I didn't pay enough attention to the details. And I hated the audible sigh that occured constantly each time you acquired an inventory item. It is unnecessary to the game and is just annoying. The only glitches I found within the game is the journal, which provided clues to things long after I'd already found them myself. It seemed to have the pages going backwards instead of clueing me in as to where to explore next, so I found the journal to be largely unhelpful. And there were a couple HO scenes where the objects in yellow were supposed to be hidden behind something else but were out in plain view. This is a minor glitch but if it's supposed to be hidden, then hide it! The puzzles/minigames were an easy challenge, not too difficult, but many required patience which added to the game length nicely. The skip button was always there and filled quickly for those who can't wait.
Like others have already mentioned, the ending just sort of comes at you like an assault and it's over. There's no climax to the story and there's not enough time for any anticipation to build up when, all of a sudden, the end scene plays out showing all the details in about 30 seconds flat. That's no way to wrap up a story like this, as different as it is for one about werewolves, but I just think it could have been fleshed out more.
I recommend this game!
Search for clues, solve puzzles, and unlock new areas as you visit spooky locations, master mini-games and locate Hidden Objects!
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
It's a short game but there's a lot to do here.
PostedNovember 20, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I originally demoed this game close to a year ago but didn't like it enough to want to buy it. But since I'm such a sucker for sales and it's the COW for $2.99 now, I played the trial again to see if it would grow on me. And surprisingly for me, it did! I've played a lot of HOPAs since my first go-round with Dollhouse Story, so I got a lot further along in the demo and liked it enough to buy it now. I just finished it so it's a short game, giving me around three hours of gameplay on casual mode, but there's a lot to do with minimal backtracking. Serious gamers would not want to spend more than a DD or COW price so either grab it now or use a game coupon if you're considering this game at all. It's an easy game with puzzles that can be skipped but I only skipped a couple when I grew impatient and wanted to just get on with it. There's a map but it's not transportive but you don't need it anyway because the hint system is very helpful in pointing out which direction you need to go. And the hints recharge relatively quickly during the hidden object scenes, which are quite nice and are not junk piles. You won't need to consult the walkthrough either because the hint system is so effective, and each section only allows you to go a certain distance so you really can't get lost. This makes for very easy gameplay and I like that sometimes as a welcome break from harder games. This game also has some surprising twists and turns in the plot so any "faults" in its design can be easily forgiven. The animations are wonderful and the graphics are crisp and colorful, which are always big selling points for me. Dollhouse Story is not the best game I've ever played and it's certainly not the worst either, but it definitely deserves a look.
I recommend this game!
Dr. Sigmund Fraud has been released from the asylum, and is up to his old tricks. Help Detective Ravenwood track him down!
Overall rating
3
/
5
7 of 7 found this review helpful
A truly bizarre game.
PostedNovember 3, 2012
FishyFemale
fromDetroit, MI
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Large File, Match 3
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The original game made me sick to my stomach and this one didn't make me feel any better, but at least the quality was much better! I tend to gravitate to the dark and creepy and am always on the lookout for my next fear fix. This series intrigued me because of the adult warning labels, but I hated the first game and expected the sequal to be better since it garnered decent reviews, so I decided to give it a whirl. This one didn't disappoint and is actually quite well done in its originality. The imagery throughout is beyond bizarre, so for those of you who tend to get squeamish at weird-looking pictures, I suggest you skim through the walkthrough to see how these images affect you. You come across some of them more than once so if any of them make you feel bad in any way, you might want to skip this title.
I only played the demo but was impressed with how the story played out and how you moved through the different scenes. The minigames were also interesting and varied. Seeing the victims in their individual states was difficult for me, so the squeamish factor really kicked in at those times. Although this game is definitely creepy by my own standards, I won't be buying it. I debated about it for a few minutes as it's different from what I usually play and I liked that about this game, but it just did not make me feel good when I played it. I play games for fun and relaxation and I realized that I would never choose Time Lies over the dozens that I own that are actually fun and make me feel good when I play them. Time Lies is a game separate from the rest and has its fans who enjoy playing it but I'm guessing it's not a huge following because of its subject matter. It will appeal to those who go for this brand of horror and to those people in this specialized category, I would recommend this game. But for the rest of you who play games for the same reasons as I do, I cannot recommend Time Lies in good conscience. I don't wish to sway anyone's opinion, however, so do demo it first if you're on the fence about it.
I don't recommend this game.