timothya's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4.3
- Helpful Votes:1,143
- Reviews Submitted:192
- First Review:June 24, 2012
- Most Recent Review:December 27, 2024
- Featured reviews0
Status:
Recover the artifact that contains the secrets of H.E.L.P.'s past.
Overall rating
4
/
5
4 of 6 found this review helpful
Great Fun
PostedFebruary 19, 2018
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
One of my favorite series is making a comeback after some weak entries. Yes, as others have noticed, no Sam, who was a favorite of mine as well. Fortunately his picture on the memorial wall had no date of death entry. What we have instead ranks as possibly the most useless H.E.L.P. helper in quite a while, serving principally to have a gun put to her head every so often just to keep the plot going. I'll swap her out for Sam any day.
I had the good fortune to beta this one and the finished version didn't disappoint except perhaps in length. Loved the auction, the castle environs - more of that, please, and was a little disappointed to wind up in yet another South American jungle, but as we were after El Dorado (in Colombia?) I suppose it didn't matter.
Pros: Crisp art, clever puzzles, excellent voice acting. HOs were a nice mix but nothing terribly new.
Cons: Certain of the solutions were a little strained - a club to "untie" a skull? Really? and because of that suffered when the player tried random objects from the inventory and found the hot zones a little too small. One or the other is going to have to give. There is little more infuriating when the very useful Hint button gives you the same solution you've just tried unsuccessfully.
Overall, an excellent entry, something of a comeback for the series. With a little more length, a little more castle, and maybe a little more Sam this one would get five stars.
I recommend this game!
Can you survive the island and save your brother?
Overall rating
5
/
5
8 of 10 found this review helpful
Four And A Half Stars For Mad Head
PostedFebruary 12, 2018
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Great Dev, so my expectations were high and they were met. Straightforward plot, plenty of puzzles, nice balance between them and the HOS. It's a sister-to-the-rescue game, but Bro gets his mouse time in the Bonus game.
Pros: nice bright graphics, very good music, excellent voice acting. Linear, logical plot with not as much back-and-forth as the previous entries in the series. Enough scenery to make it an enjoyable viewing.
Cons: fairly short game, puzzle difficulty (with one exception) is only intermediate and not adjustable. A little more detail on the villains might have been nice.
Overall, a solid entry in the series, with a couple of jump-scares and a happy ending. Very enjoyable game.
I recommend this game!
A vacation becomes a nightmare as you’re forced into an impossible game.
Overall rating
5
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Good For All Skill Levels
PostedFebruary 5, 2018
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Nice, colorful fantasy game, plenty of play, plenty of puzzles, and accessible to all player skill levels, although advanced players are advised to click on Hard on all of the puzzles or they're a little too easy. Quite a bit of back and forth but a very helpful map alleviates that.
Pros: beautiful graphics, immersive fantasy environment, adequate to very good voice acting. Puzzles constructed to be solvable by beginning players on Easy settings, and are still challenging enough to be interesting for more experienced players on Hard. Well done on that!
Cons: plot is a little dark for young players, but resolved adequately if not entirely happily in the end. "It's dangerous to continue, here, take this," is a little overdone. Christine, our damsel in distress, is a bit of a lump, which may annoy some female players.
I could take or leave most fantasy games, but this one's a keeper. I'm really enjoying this series a lot. Advanced players will find this one a little on the easy side but engaging enough to hold their interest. A fine effort.
I recommend this game!
When the clock strikes, London shall burn!
Overall rating
5
/
5
4 of 5 found this review helpful
Another 4Friends Winner
PostedDecember 7, 2017
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Fast becoming one of my favorite Devs, 4Friends has come up with another entertaining mystery game. This time we're a Detective in Victorian London, hot on the trail of the, er, Headless Clockmaker of Big Ben. Work with me here...
Pros: very nice graphics, excellent voice acting. The Detective has a sort of amulet-like icon (cringing) which actually turns into his thought process, a rather nice innovation. The journal is useful for a change, in fact, serves to keep the player in the story by reminding that individual how he or she got to this point. Certain of the street scenes are nice enough to just sit there and enjoy. It's winter in London and it looks it.
Cons: a couple of egregious English errors that should have been caught in testing: the player at one point is bidden to look for a "chair" when it's actually a chain to be found. Some shaky labels in the HO scenes. One of the endings is painfully contrived but sweet. None of these is worth taking off a star.
Bonus game is good enough to recover from its absurd premise and is a very nice little Christmas present from the Devs. This one's a solid four-and-a-half, not perfect but so good it fills that fifth star.
I recommend this game!
Can you stop the Revenant before it's too late?
Overall rating
5
/
5
6 of 17 found this review helpful
Lovely Puzzles
PostedNovember 25, 2017
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Superb production values in this entry, the best I've ever seen. Graphics spectacular, voice acting excellent, and the sly humor so necessary to this franchise is definitely there. And the puzzles, oh, yes, the glorious puzzles...
The writing is the only thing keeping it from a firm five stars; I'd give it a strong four and a half, though. We are impressed with the Queen of England's intelligence, since it led her to deposit The Detective in a small, unexpectedly deserted Vermont town from mid-air while the first body is still warm. Her interest in the Revenant likely stems from the fact that England is composed exclusively of spooky abandoned mansions on grim moors populated by ghosts out for blood revenge, so, an institutional interest. Never mind.
Good mystery, nice reveals. The premise is no shakier than most of the MCF series and frankly, we don't care. The "museum" is no more unlikely than the basement of Ravenhearst Manor, after all. HO scenes are sufficient and the puzzles are wonderful, just Rube Goldberg-ian enough to capture the spirit of the series. Game is a little short for all that but delicious. Good and spooky value on the Bonus chapter as well.
The MCF games are very much up-and-down in quality; sometimes they attempt too much, sometimes too little. I'd place this one in the top 5, easily.
I recommend this game!
Save your cousin and his new bride from a horrible beast!
Overall rating
5
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
Best In The Series So Far
PostedNovember 19, 2017
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I was fortunate enough to Beta this one and I ended my review with "Hope you can keep this up", and they didn't - it actually got better! For one thing, it isn't Beauty and The Beast at all, really, although it certainly looked like it at first. It turned out to be a pretty tight little mystery as well with an ending that was both logical and surprising.
Pros: the graphics, as we have come to expect from this Dev, were gorgeous. Smooth game play, puzzles that could get a little challenging now and then even for experienced players. Excellent writing, excellent voice acting, characters that were not the cookie-cutter caricatures we've been seeing too much of lately.
Cons: mandatory female POV that was probably unnecessary but only a little cloying. Why couldn't the player simply be The Cousin? The mystery solution felt a bit grafted on but as I mentioned, perfectly logical.
Overall, a very solid entry in the best month we've had at Big Fish in quite a while. A game that keeps getting better as it goes along instead of stalling is an indicator of quality development. More of this, please!
I recommend this game!
Can you solve an old murder case and save your sister?
Overall rating
5
/
5
7 of 9 found this review helpful
NIce Mystery
PostedNovember 7, 2017
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Full marks for the best mystery game of the year. All of the usual disclaimers - this one will be too easy for some, too difficult for others, and for me it found the just-right zone.
Pros: the writing, mentioned separately below. Great graphics, great voice acting, atmospheric music, and a jump-scare or two. The puzzles are plentiful, some quite challenging. I regret inadvertently playing the last one on Casual because it deserved better. Male POV for a welcome change. Nice bonus game with an interesting ending.
Cons: the plot is very dark, not suitable for children.
Writing: yes, a real mystery! The plot is properly convoluted and the player may wish to keep notes on relationships, because it's one slow reveal after another as the overall plot becomes apparent. Only at the last is the player character's real involvement in the story revealed. Very, very well done.
Some may find the game too easy, some too hard, but for me it was the best mystery game of the year so far.
I recommend this game!
Can you find out what's targeting young men in Paris?
Overall rating
5
/
5
17 of 18 found this review helpful
Full Value On This One
PostedOctober 27, 2017
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Best entry in the series so far. This one was puzzle packed, coherent, and with a long, wonderful bonus game. Definitely CE-worthy!
Pros: Gorgeous graphics, excellent voice acting, straightforward plot, and plenty of puzzles, some quite original and some original twists on old standbys. Certain were quite challenging, none of them impossible.
Cons: Minor, really. The villains were sketchily drawn, and the music, although quite beautiful, needed a little more variety.
Overall, a really top-notch entry with plenty of challenge for an intermediate or advanced player. Lots of game play, generous bonus. And great puzzles.
I recommend this game!
Can you break free from your nightmares in time?
Overall rating
2
/
5
10 of 13 found this review helpful
Disastrous
PostedSeptember 12, 2017
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
Will somebody please tell me what in the world I just played? Come on now, I don't mind a little mystery but this was absolutely incomprehensible. It was actually a very solid game until just before the end, where it fell apart, and all of a sudden we were through, but with what?
Pros: Beautiful graphics, adequate voice acting, rare male POV, smooth play and with one exception great puzzles. Music was the customarily excellent job done by Clean Cuts.
Cons: What happened? We were going along well and apparently the Devs ran out of interest or time. We were left with total confusion over who died, who attended the graduation. and what any of it had to do with the mysterious villains. The game just stopped. It fell apart with the gravestone slider puzzle which was utterly opaque, and once skipped - I hate skipping puzzles - once skipped led us to the denouement if you can call it that. Infuriating.
Huge potential with this game, and the player feels as if he had the rug pulled out from under his feet with the story line. I love this series, I love this developer, but this one's a loser.
I don't recommend this game.
Can you uncover the truth behind a string of strange thefts?
Overall rating
5
/
5
9 of 11 found this review helpful
We're Not In Kansas Anymore
PostedAugust 11, 2017
timothya
fromSandpoint, Idaho
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
The third in the Vermillion Watch series and I'm hoping not the last.
Pros: gorgeous graphics, wonderful game design incorporating a multi-pathed solution set, smooth game play, plenty of puzzles some of which were nicely challenging, adequate to very good voice acting, writing good enough to justify a separate mention below, and a surprise ending (or is it?) that ties the three games together. This is one of those games where you linger from scene to scene to soak up the atmosphere.
Cons: not much. Certain puzzles suffered from twitchy controls, the second elephant puzzle resetting way too easily. I quit it in frustration with the solution in hand because I couldn't control the mouse finely enough to stay in the path.
Writing: very appealing steampunk setting with nods to period literature that ranged from awful puns to hilarious contrasts with the original characters. Order Zero is Oz, of course, and our Dorothy is now a bounty-hunting action heroine and Toto a sleuth hound, all in addition to the previous cast of characters such as Edgar Allen Poe and Phileas Fogg. Captain Ahab makes an appearance, as does the daughter of Captain Nemo. None of these is remotely like the original, which is part of the fun. Loved the plot, the development, the denouement.
Game Design: also merits special mention. As the previous two games, this is multi-pathed. At several points the player is left with a choice, some of which do not affect the game, some of which do, or at least the solution path. The logic flow was very complex, the zoo in particular being a work of art puzzle-wise. Some of it stretched the limits of logic, for example, how were we supposed to know how to make that collander? The trusty map was the player's only clue unless he or she wanted hit the very useful Hint button.
I just loved the game. Beside the plot, characters, and puzzles there is a sly humor that keeps it from getting overly pretentious. A secret compartment in a peg leg? Come on now, well, OK, it was pretty funny. And lots and lots of lovely puzzles. This one's a five for me. More of this, please!
I recommend this game!