kandinsky's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4
- Helpful Votes:3,130
- Reviews Submitted:100
- First Review:November 26, 2014
- Most Recent Review:September 9, 2024
- Featured reviews0
Status:
Stop a madman from taking over a city using a mind control device!
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 4 found this review helpful
Stay to the end!
PostedDecember 27, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
On the details other reviewers have said as well as may be said. It is a long game, If totally enthralling for some, less so for others and certainly the HO scenes while well made are as repetitive as the music. I found as I went along ,taking it up and putting it aside, that I almost quit feeling the plot insufficient to fuel what obsessive compulsive tendencies I have. BUT then coming towards the end, just in my experience which may or may not be yours, it picks up momentum and opens out into a place where fantasy and reality join in a delightful way. So this recommendation to stay with it!
I recommend this game!
Bring an end to Mr. Dudley's reign of terror!
Overall rating
5
/
5
16 of 16 found this review helpful
An Ideal Wrap Up!
PostedDecember 22, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is a really satisfying game that gives everything it sets out to. A conclusion to the story of Dudley and Louis which is somehow very pleasing and in the final stage of the story, beyond the main conclusion and serving in place of a bonus chapter, we learn who Dudley is.
It is also a wonderfully weird adventure which will appeal to anyone who liked the dimensional forays of Buckeroo Banzai or Dr. Strange or Howard the Duck.
And it is satisfyingly long... but...
but this is where a problem perhaps appears. How to make a HOPA longer without adding a numbing quantity of puzzles and scenes which are not really necessary to the plot. At one point in particular I felt the job at hand of freeing
a potential helper got almost lost in task after task back and forth over many locations.
I can understand if someone marks the game down for this but it is not all that easy to make a game long without adding the equivalent of filler is it? Anyway this game does not succeed in that.
Yet more than in most games I felt real stirrings of adventure, going through a door between worlds, getting on a roller-coaster, and at the end laying out the four runes of a name...
recommending it then.
It is also a wonderfully weird adventure which will appeal to anyone who liked the dimensional forays of Buckeroo Banzai or Dr. Strange or Howard the Duck.
And it is satisfyingly long... but...
but this is where a problem perhaps appears. How to make a HOPA longer without adding a numbing quantity of puzzles and scenes which are not really necessary to the plot. At one point in particular I felt the job at hand of freeing
a potential helper got almost lost in task after task back and forth over many locations.
I can understand if someone marks the game down for this but it is not all that easy to make a game long without adding the equivalent of filler is it? Anyway this game does not succeed in that.
Yet more than in most games I felt real stirrings of adventure, going through a door between worlds, getting on a roller-coaster, and at the end laying out the four runes of a name...
recommending it then.
I recommend this game!
Leonardo da Vinci needs your help! A tyrant has conquered Florence and he is destroying all works of art and science!
Overall rating
4
/
5
8 of 8 found this review helpful
Great to see Leonardo in a game, even a flawed one.
PostedDecember 22, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Leonardo Da Vinci is endlessly fascinating and also elusive as a personality which we can trace really only in his paintings and in his science, and now in a hidden object game. The game pushes his genius over the top ,in effect adding the fruits of Einstein's work to his, There is a mysterious lady and there is the saving of the Benois Madonna. What more can one ask from a game developer?
well one could ask for a little more interesting game play and villiany that was not of the rule the world type of Fu Manchu absurdity, and a less passive role for Leonardo
than he has for the most part of the game but...
But if historians leave Leonardo a mystery to contemplate then surely ERS studios is to be commended for making this endlessly fascinating figure present in the HOPA world. Mark them down one star with a sigh for the game's limits.
well one could ask for a little more interesting game play and villiany that was not of the rule the world type of Fu Manchu absurdity, and a less passive role for Leonardo
than he has for the most part of the game but...
But if historians leave Leonardo a mystery to contemplate then surely ERS studios is to be commended for making this endlessly fascinating figure present in the HOPA world. Mark them down one star with a sigh for the game's limits.
I recommend this game!
Show off your solitaire skills as you sail the seven seas!
Overall rating
5
/
5
8 of 8 found this review helpful
A DELIGHT!
PostedDecember 20, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
A wonderful pirate fantasy adventure and quest through all the scenes of imagined piracy to recover ones true love. The progress of the journey is by played solitaire hands which will not please a purist in solitaire having about the relation to that game that fairy chess (with any number of queens or rooks etc) does to over the board play. Nonetheless the challenge is real and if, like a reviewer or two here, you try to rush through the journey you will find it impossible. One needs to play and replay and build up a supply of cannon balls to clear the way through the scenes ahead and to also equip one's ship and acquire all the add-ons. Well, play it and see!
I have tried other solitaire based games but found none like this in enchantment and fascinating quality.
It also has great replay value, have played it through twice and keep it bookmarked to replay specific locations whose play I particularly enjoy.
In return for this pleasure, this review!
I have tried other solitaire based games but found none like this in enchantment and fascinating quality.
It also has great replay value, have played it through twice and keep it bookmarked to replay specific locations whose play I particularly enjoy.
In return for this pleasure, this review!
Welcome to Holy Mountain Hotel, where all criminals are punished.
Overall rating
3
/
5
5 of 6 found this review helpful
Needs Editing
PostedDecember 19, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
If this were a manuscript one would send it back for editing. It has good things, and especially what others have noted , the unique interactive hidden object scene at the end.
It has other elements which are certainly good enough if for no other reason than that Elephant is a capable workshop.
But much of it, both in the plot and in the games and puzzles, is the mixture as usual.
It does have some juice to the story because of the question of what happened to James, can we find him alive and rescue him?
But that is also where the greatest breakdown is. Yes, if you play through to the alternate ending as I did , you will find something unclear at the end. But alternate endings here as (in my game experience ) usually if not always , are offered when neither ending works. And the reason the endings to the story of James don't work very well is because he is not developed in this story as a character reflecting on his life and experiences and so having one
appropriate end. If I were editing the story I would find a way to an ending different from either of these proposed which deserve the comment games make when you misuse an inventory item "you need to think this through."
It has other elements which are certainly good enough if for no other reason than that Elephant is a capable workshop.
But much of it, both in the plot and in the games and puzzles, is the mixture as usual.
It does have some juice to the story because of the question of what happened to James, can we find him alive and rescue him?
But that is also where the greatest breakdown is. Yes, if you play through to the alternate ending as I did , you will find something unclear at the end. But alternate endings here as (in my game experience ) usually if not always , are offered when neither ending works. And the reason the endings to the story of James don't work very well is because he is not developed in this story as a character reflecting on his life and experiences and so having one
appropriate end. If I were editing the story I would find a way to an ending different from either of these proposed which deserve the comment games make when you misuse an inventory item "you need to think this through."
Nonetheless a qualified recommend. I dont regret the hours spent and likely you may not either.
I recommend this game!
Namariel Legends: Iron Lord
Escape prison, defeat an army of mechanical soldiers and destroy the Iron Lord’s dark power!
Overall rating
5
/
5
5 of 5 found this review helpful
A Real Adventure for Some
PostedDecember 11, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Im giving this five stars because I found it kept calling me back to play until I reached the end and having done so I felt it had been a fun and satisfying journey.
The downsides which will make it not for everyone are easy to find and include:,lets see, music you will ignore or turn off, a hint system which will not get you past stalls of 'nothing to do here' everywhere if you miss something(in this case look up the video walk-throughs), steam punk graphics and more mechanical devices to repair than you might see in about any other game, no hidden object scenes to vary the rhythm of finding things and assembling them and solving puzzles, and absurd moments in the plot, which stated baldly is nothing special, kingdom overrun and oust the usurper, moments such as a shower by a character which seems to correspond to an hour or more of real time, and then there is no interactive map.
For some these will be enough to make it impossible to enjoy,
The downsides which will make it not for everyone are easy to find and include:,lets see, music you will ignore or turn off, a hint system which will not get you past stalls of 'nothing to do here' everywhere if you miss something(in this case look up the video walk-throughs), steam punk graphics and more mechanical devices to repair than you might see in about any other game, no hidden object scenes to vary the rhythm of finding things and assembling them and solving puzzles, and absurd moments in the plot, which stated baldly is nothing special, kingdom overrun and oust the usurper, moments such as a shower by a character which seems to correspond to an hour or more of real time, and then there is no interactive map.
For some these will be enough to make it impossible to enjoy,
But it has a fascination, as other reviewers have said, which drew me into the game more deeply than most games do. The various goals of the quest to overcome the Iron Lord acquired a rare urgency and intensity for me and may for you. I do not in any case know another game much like this.
By the way the name Urfin which appears in the story I suppose to be taken from the Russian continuation of the Oz stories "Urfin Jus and his wooden soldiers" which has a parallel of plot. The developers, Shaman Games, however are not Russian but Ukrainian and I hope they will make more games for us with this level of fascination and if possible with some technical improvements. (sound,hints, map etc )
Help Meredith retrieve the ancient tomes and stop the Wizard’s wrath in this hidden object adventure!
Overall rating
5
/
5
10 of 11 found this review helpful
Something special happens here.
PostedDecember 9, 2014
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
The special event of the title is one of the reasons I am giving this a full five stars. It is the failure of an operation prepared for by gathering stuff and combining it and finding things and making something and then ...it doesn't work and one has to go back to the drawing board. I do not know when I have seen that in a game and this brief unpredictability is surely refreshing! and there is at least one other operation that does not produce immediately the result expected.
Beyond this the game somehow grew on me as I played it--the graphics are not the best, the story moving through three worlds of orcs ,men and elves to recover three magic books and then face the evil mage, is not exactly new, the hidden object scenes repeated in the same places too many for my taste and yet...and yet it has a charm ...partly maybe that I want to like a developer,Cateia, other than the better known ones and to imagine that it may become even more quirky and interesting in future games!
Beyond this the game somehow grew on me as I played it--the graphics are not the best, the story moving through three worlds of orcs ,men and elves to recover three magic books and then face the evil mage, is not exactly new, the hidden object scenes repeated in the same places too many for my taste and yet...and yet it has a charm ...partly maybe that I want to like a developer,Cateia, other than the better known ones and to imagine that it may become even more quirky and interesting in future games!
I recommend this game!
The Rat King's wand has fallen into the hands of a vengeful baron. Team up with your new friend, the Tin Soldier, to stop him!
Overall rating
5
/
5
12 of 20 found this review helpful
Enchanting Rescues of the Soldier and of its Author too!
PostedDecember 5, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Just at the beginning I felt I stuck in a rerun of the location of the first Chrstimas Stories: Nutcracker which I enjoyed but not all its clumsy backtracking. But then the enchatment set in and apart from what others have mentioned, the beautiful evocations of Christmas lights and colors and toys and magic, and the often inventive puzzles and hidden object games(could do without the match two type but maybe some will especially enjoy these) apart from these things i would like to point up the depth of character given to the tin soldier, his terrible experience of war, and his uncertainty as to whether Nina will accept him with a leg lost. This would seem to have been the problem of Hans Christian Anderson as well and first of all , an uncertainty of being lovable by women, and this accounts for the sad ending of the original tin soldier story which this game narrative uses as a starting point to a redemption not only for the soldier but perhaps for Anderson who appears as a character and speaks of his work and promises a happy ending. I would praise also the references to other Anderson fairy tales, to the nutcracker and to Christmas Carol but I think this theme of redemption through accepting to love gives the story an unexpected depth. Nina is just a stock figure , damsel in distress, and perhaps something more, some additional lines making her more real, might have been possible. but still there is something magical and unique here and I recommend the game without hesitation.
I recommend this game!
You've been called to investigate a strange purple tide. And that's when the mermaid shows up...
Overall rating
1
/
5
17 of 20 found this review helpful
Purple tide in the tea makes me blue.
PostedNovember 29, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
Gosh what a mess. Incoherent story. An attempt by eipix to do things blue tea does, or did, in graphics and hidden object scene layout and so on and failing in the way a bad mimic does doing voices. When it is the voice of someone one loves being poorly imitated, or ones own, one feels not amused and maybe a little offended or even angry.
Blue Tea was ,is?, my favorite developer for their unique ability to express the faerie quality of fantasy...is it a case of ,in lines of a play directed to a dreamer "nowadays the world is lit by lightning, blow out your candles.." ? I hope they may be in a position to come back and put the blue in the tea again where it belongs.
I don't recommend this game.
Save your friends and escape from a deadly game!
Overall rating
5
/
5
14 of 14 found this review helpful
Almost beats the problem of HOG genre plotting
PostedNovember 26, 2014
kandinsky
fromNew York
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Others have covered most of the points of this game very nicely so I will just make one comment and that on the plot.
I find that in game after game as soon as I understand where the plot is going the fun vanishes as I slog on to find elements for an alchemical mix or whatever it is that will put paid to the bad guys. Some games have little mystery from the beginning but this one does and it almost breaks through the plotting problem by the device of the game within a game and the uncertainty at least for the first half of the game as to whether Evan the recruiter of players is on the side of the players or of the game masters and indeed the game then has a quality of mystery and even fright ... If only they could have kept the mysterious question of who was who and what the game was about mysterious a little longer. At least for me once that is lost the thing becomes a matter of playing it out to the end ...and nowadays (is it game burnout a little?) I let some games go unfinished. So for the plot and the pleasure it gave for longer than usual in these games Im giving it 5 stars. The other aspects are well done, graphics, sound , some relatively interesting hidden object scenes and so on, but only in plot does it seem to approach a breakthrough the genre seriously needs.
I find that in game after game as soon as I understand where the plot is going the fun vanishes as I slog on to find elements for an alchemical mix or whatever it is that will put paid to the bad guys. Some games have little mystery from the beginning but this one does and it almost breaks through the plotting problem by the device of the game within a game and the uncertainty at least for the first half of the game as to whether Evan the recruiter of players is on the side of the players or of the game masters and indeed the game then has a quality of mystery and even fright ... If only they could have kept the mysterious question of who was who and what the game was about mysterious a little longer. At least for me once that is lost the thing becomes a matter of playing it out to the end ...and nowadays (is it game burnout a little?) I let some games go unfinished. So for the plot and the pleasure it gave for longer than usual in these games Im giving it 5 stars. The other aspects are well done, graphics, sound , some relatively interesting hidden object scenes and so on, but only in plot does it seem to approach a breakthrough the genre seriously needs.
I recommend this game!