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:
A criminal organization searching for an ancient treasure shot your partner!
Overall rating
4
/
5
10 of 14 found this review helpful
A Very Enjoyable Game
PostedSeptember 24, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley.
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I've had a run of games I didn't enjoy very much so I was happy to find this one which I really did enjoy right through the bonus game. The plot is fun but doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about it. The hidden object scenes aren't very interesting but I found the mah jong substitute games went very quickly and nicely.
Other reviewers have said about all that occurs to me except maybe one thing. As i try to think why a game which doesn't boast the flashy touches the central three or four big developers put in , should be so much more fun to me than the big guys' recent games... I come to this. That perhaps it is like the charm of old radio drama which leaves more to the imagination than we have become used to now.
Other reviewers have said about all that occurs to me except maybe one thing. As i try to think why a game which doesn't boast the flashy touches the central three or four big developers put in , should be so much more fun to me than the big guys' recent games... I come to this. That perhaps it is like the charm of old radio drama which leaves more to the imagination than we have become used to now.
also perhaps I am,and some of you may be too, a little tired from the house styles of the familiar developers.
Anyway I am thankful for this game and the pleasure of it and recommend it to you!
I recommend this game!
The love between you and your husband was strong enough to end a war... but is it strong enough to save the world?
Overall rating
3
/
5
14 of 18 found this review helpful
A Great Looking One Trick Pony
PostedSeptember 18, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley.
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
As far as I can see the one trick this game does brilliantly is to have something come erupting up from the floor or out of the ground or wherever in a very vivid way suggestive of great special effects. It does this a great many times. The mild 'huh that's interesting' was for me gone the second time.
Otherwise the game is very vivid and has its inventive touches and a good variety of hidden object game types and puzzles but nothing really new there.
I liked the scenery in the afterlife and the komodo dragon in a tree there(too minor to be a spoiler surely).
The story was to my mind without any features of interest at all. The promo says watch out for treachery on every side. Maybe I have sharp eyes or have played this story too many times already but I had it figured out before taking the first step in the game.
I know a lot of people seem to love this game and you should consider if you can be one of them and then --enjoy! I am wondering if I am burning out on these kind of games...I hope just on this particular plot.
I am giving it a no recommend to do my little part to encourage developers to break new ground in story and character which this game does not do.
I am giving it a no recommend to do my little part to encourage developers to break new ground in story and character which this game does not do.
This is a very talented studio but their high water mark surely came in games earlier this year, in Cadenza which I purely love and in Maze Subject 360.
I don't recommend this game.
Utterly clueless, but full of good intentions, Robert and Laura set out to save their world in this bizarre and imaginative point and click adventure.
Overall rating
2
/
5
14 of 22 found this review helpful
EXPECTED TO LOVE IT. I DIDN'T THOUGH YOU MAY.
PostedAugust 27, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley.
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
First I cannot say if this is a good or a bad game really. But here is what I can say.
*I hoped to like it since some of my favorite games lately have been SE games from secondary developers. some which seemed wildly creative compared to the general run of games.
*For some this game fits that description.
*I immediately understood who the bad guy was and a game that obvious is as to plot not very creative it seems to me. Even the movie Matrix left one doubt for a bit didn't it as to what was going on?
*The humor is mostly not to me very funny and comes through interminable tasks and conversations. There was more R rated material ,as it were ,than common in these games as some point out. not very amusing and I suppose serving if anything the theme of distinction of good guys from bad guys (the latter puritans or hypocrites or likely both). It is not a theme that interests me much sorry.
*An adventure so plot-driven stands or falls on whether the plot is interesting. I dont find it so.
Leaving a game unfinished for almost the first time but I see from a walk through where it goes and ... no I have better use for my time.
Not recommending it because I think maybe a lot of people will also have better uses for their time unless they are of the sort to whom it is just right and (on a couple of games I have been in that fervently happy minority of a game rejected by many ,so understanding that )--enjoy!
*I hoped to like it since some of my favorite games lately have been SE games from secondary developers. some which seemed wildly creative compared to the general run of games.
*For some this game fits that description.
*I immediately understood who the bad guy was and a game that obvious is as to plot not very creative it seems to me. Even the movie Matrix left one doubt for a bit didn't it as to what was going on?
*The humor is mostly not to me very funny and comes through interminable tasks and conversations. There was more R rated material ,as it were ,than common in these games as some point out. not very amusing and I suppose serving if anything the theme of distinction of good guys from bad guys (the latter puritans or hypocrites or likely both). It is not a theme that interests me much sorry.
*An adventure so plot-driven stands or falls on whether the plot is interesting. I dont find it so.
Leaving a game unfinished for almost the first time but I see from a walk through where it goes and ... no I have better use for my time.
Not recommending it because I think maybe a lot of people will also have better uses for their time unless they are of the sort to whom it is just right and (on a couple of games I have been in that fervently happy minority of a game rejected by many ,so understanding that )--enjoy!
I don't recommend this game.
A magic bear summons you to help save the neighboring kingdom of Nypha.
Overall rating
3
/
5
22 of 24 found this review helpful
APPLYING A CORRECTIVE
PostedAugust 20, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley.
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
I am writing this review to maybe put a small corrective in the balance of reviews which seems to me to be skewed way to the positive, perhaps because of the recent very fine games Mad Head has produced. This is understandable, Of the major and biggest studios they seem almost the only ones working with loving attention and creativity now.
But what have we here? Given the infinite possibilities of fantasy MUST we have another story starting with a princess to be saved and a lady (in HOPA land it seems men do not engage much in derring-do) setting out to save her and the kingdom and the world too as usual?
In fact the previous Dark Realms (Queen of Flame) seemed more interesting and it is a character from that game , the dwarf balloonist , now engineer of a fantastic train, who for me saves the day and makes me satisfied to have bought the game.
That and the maze which is handled in an original way which shows real fantasy.
That and the maze which is handled in an original way which shows real fantasy.
I cannot give this a 'not" recommend because not only did I get some pleasure from the game but I am sure that many others will enjoy it and perhaps even more than I did since the well worn story may be just what many good folks want.
but I also will not recommend.
but I also will not recommend.
Complete dangerous missions amid dazzling landscapes of prehistoric Earth and alien worlds. Can you complete these thrilling puzzles in order to return home?
Overall rating
5
/
5
32 of 32 found this review helpful
FUN! and Creative.
PostedAugust 13, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley.
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Current Favorite:
Black Viper: Sophia's Fate
(40)Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
A lot of reviews already so Ill just give a few bullet points.
*the puzzles are great. skipping some never bothers me so I did ,but some I skipped even were visually beautiful.
*the game has satisfying length and a well worked out time travel plot. starting with a 'how can this be resolved?' element only becoming clear near the end. most games one sees the ending only too soon and slogs on to reach it with flagging interest.
*the fantasy worlds seemed to me to have especially beautiful graphics. I will mention particularly the one where one meets a sort of Yoda character.
*some real sentiment shown at the end. this is a way to make characters real which few games show an understanding of.
It seems that several of the leading developers are over drawn or bankrupt in creativity, and it is all the more happy to find this game which ,having just played another new game from a big dev. and series which was too boring to me even to think further about enough to review, this game which I thoroughly enjoyed. Think you might too!
...
a further thought on plotting. Like almost all games this one requires suspensions of disbelief which are conventional in HOPA games , for example as to why so few characters, why one does some counter intuitive actions to find items not obviously necessary, why a bomb one found has as dramatic an effect as it does etc. Some of this could be avoidable with further creative thought and a few games have shown that. But this one is still a great pleasure.
*the puzzles are great. skipping some never bothers me so I did ,but some I skipped even were visually beautiful.
*the game has satisfying length and a well worked out time travel plot. starting with a 'how can this be resolved?' element only becoming clear near the end. most games one sees the ending only too soon and slogs on to reach it with flagging interest.
*the fantasy worlds seemed to me to have especially beautiful graphics. I will mention particularly the one where one meets a sort of Yoda character.
*some real sentiment shown at the end. this is a way to make characters real which few games show an understanding of.
It seems that several of the leading developers are over drawn or bankrupt in creativity, and it is all the more happy to find this game which ,having just played another new game from a big dev. and series which was too boring to me even to think further about enough to review, this game which I thoroughly enjoyed. Think you might too!
...
a further thought on plotting. Like almost all games this one requires suspensions of disbelief which are conventional in HOPA games , for example as to why so few characters, why one does some counter intuitive actions to find items not obviously necessary, why a bomb one found has as dramatic an effect as it does etc. Some of this could be avoidable with further creative thought and a few games have shown that. But this one is still a great pleasure.
I recommend this game!
From the makers of the Rite of Passage series comes a ground-breaking new series that's as creepy as it gets.
Overall rating
4
/
5
10 of 14 found this review helpful
Superb but I have one reservation.
PostedAugust 4, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley.
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
So much about this game attests to the dedication and attention to detail that people at Mad Head put into making their games at a time when other comparable developers seem to be mailing it in. I like in particular the sense of real danger for the player, although the danger is more apparent than real and the player seems in fact to always have a safety net and that too is good. And the same careful balance in using the fear factor, although things do jump out at you from time to time, players with this or that phobia probably will not be traumatized.
I have one reservation and that is this: the game out-does on its own ground ,it seems to me, games with the "phantasmat" type of storyline. If having done that storyline once and for all we could set it aside then well and good I would say, it was fun enough, although it rests as a story on ideas about life and death which I do not fully accept , but hey! However my fear is that the vein will continue to be mined long after the originality is gone.
I love most of all maybe, of the games from the 'big' developers , this dev's two stories of jazz in New Orleans. I am thinking that can be because I love jazz of course but also the music with is freely moving light and shadow , kind of frees us from everything that is repetitious and tired and almost requires finding what is fresh and new.
Of course we all have our preferences but this word for mine ,not to replace anyone else's but maybe to give voice to something some may feel.
But I enjoyed this one, with this one concern,
I recommend this game!
Enter the world of Drawn. Explore the Painted Tower and unravel its mysteries on your quest to save the hope of the kingdom. Can you reach the top of the tower?
Overall rating
5
/
5
14 of 15 found this review helpful
Best game of 2015 Too. Two Thoughts.
PostedJuly 28, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley.
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This classic pure adventure game is the best game Ive seen this year, 2015, so a use of this review is to tell late comers that they need not fear it is out dated.
On the contrary it sadly puts to shame much of what is done today... Let me having said that add two points.
On the contrary it sadly puts to shame much of what is done today... Let me having said that add two points.
First. It is not at all easy unless you use the hints and of course the available walkthroughs. Then it is not difficult at all. It is difficult to find a middle ground of a feeling of satisfaction from solving and finding while of moving forward with the very fine story. I think the reason hidden object scenes are used so much in games now is because anyone can eventually find things in a limited space , they require no thought nor do they have risk of failure. For me , since my priorities are character, story and setting it is only too easy to blow through it with help, enjoying it immensely but losing a little satisfaction of work done.
Secondly ,what we have been talking about above too, it is sad that there are not many ,or hardly any, such games being made now. Developers have gone for the easier sort of game to turn out and also to receive for players increasingly used to the hopa games as they have developed. I will not say the new path of development is a dead end, I hope it isnt. But there should be a way to also develop along the line started in the Drawn games and perhaps in the long run that could be the more loved and even popular form of game. these thoughts...
I recommend this game!
It's the end of the world... at least in Oakville.
Overall rating
3
/
5
19 of 26 found this review helpful
House with only a Basement to the First Floor
PostedJuly 13, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley.
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I thought about not writing a review perhaps on the principle that great reviews and instant classics are better for the genre than mixed or bad reviews. Still I think both gaming and even this particular game can withstand a note raised that I have not seen elsewhere.
First the game is state of the art and has everything that this developer has in its bag of tricks which is quite a bit. The HOs are varied (now including their pick up of assemblage from Blue Tea) and the plot holds ones interest.
First the game is state of the art and has everything that this developer has in its bag of tricks which is quite a bit. The HOs are varied (now including their pick up of assemblage from Blue Tea) and the plot holds ones interest.
Without something else that would touch or interest me this is not enough to make it enjoyable for me... too jaded, too off to one side in interests etc? Perhaps.
One point I will make is that the universe of the characters has two levels it seems, ours of everyday reality and one beneath it into which one may fall. Even innocents can be drawn down into the basement of the world. The only defence is an amulet which can hold back the dark a bit.
Now it seems to me that the real world has a third level at least and that is of a second floor. I am not speaking literal beliefs necessary, though I have some myself, but of the simple psychic reality of the inner world of the mind.
Why do we never have a child have a beloved toy, say a teddy bear, which then is seen as a stereotypical "angel" of all the sentimental images and which then later is seen as a good but 'terrible' force which one can hardly bear to be in the presence of...a force like that of nature but strange to daily experience... and then after the test is passed of being able to trust the deeps above knowledge, there is again the beloved teddy bear of childhood.
there is a free plot for any developer...
I don't recommend this game.
Prepare yourself for a perilous journey across the world in order to save your niece from imminent danger.
Overall rating
2
/
5
14 of 15 found this review helpful
Seems Inattentively Made
PostedJuly 7, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley. wishing for more carefully worked out games.
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
I started with the hope to quite like this game, first of all because of the romantic promise of a quest in Inner Asia to beyond the world's end. It could have been a delight like some old movie one watches with popcorn in hand.
Maybe it will be for you but for me it was mounting disappointment.
This is peculiarly hard to review I find because as it is said the devil is in the details and yet If I detail too many particulars it risks to spoil your chance to judge for yourself so I will be brief. Others have pointed up the shift in time seemingly from a sailing ship at the start to a plane to even much later technologies in the hidden object games. I will just note also the appearance of Nordic Runes where Tibetan script would have fitted. an example surely of inattention. At other points kings of the past look with crown and all like European rulers from HOPA central casting.
The settings and the awareness of Tibetan culture seem to me unsatisfactory and the quest and its resolution beyond the edge of our world in the hidden place Tibetans call Shambhalla and comes to us as also Shangrila--well you judge for yourself.
The hidden objects were easy to find, but there seemed rather too many HOGs, the puzzles were not fun for me or especially interesting.
All in all this game may please you ,and good for you if so because that is why we play these games. It did not please me at all and for that reason ,seeing this game as a failure to work more intensely and make a memorable adventure, I cannot recommend it.
Maybe it will be for you but for me it was mounting disappointment.
This is peculiarly hard to review I find because as it is said the devil is in the details and yet If I detail too many particulars it risks to spoil your chance to judge for yourself so I will be brief. Others have pointed up the shift in time seemingly from a sailing ship at the start to a plane to even much later technologies in the hidden object games. I will just note also the appearance of Nordic Runes where Tibetan script would have fitted. an example surely of inattention. At other points kings of the past look with crown and all like European rulers from HOPA central casting.
The settings and the awareness of Tibetan culture seem to me unsatisfactory and the quest and its resolution beyond the edge of our world in the hidden place Tibetans call Shambhalla and comes to us as also Shangrila--well you judge for yourself.
The hidden objects were easy to find, but there seemed rather too many HOGs, the puzzles were not fun for me or especially interesting.
All in all this game may please you ,and good for you if so because that is why we play these games. It did not please me at all and for that reason ,seeing this game as a failure to work more intensely and make a memorable adventure, I cannot recommend it.
Who is the Crimson Thief? Can Mortimer piece together the clues to finding all the stolen items? There is much more to this new mystery than meets the eye.
Overall rating
5
/
5
39 of 45 found this review helpful
So much more fun than most new games!
PostedJuly 1, 2015
kandinsky
fromNew York. Hudson Valley. wishing for more unhralded games as enjoyable as this and one I nod to in current favorites.
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Adventure
Current Favorite:
Black Viper: Sophia's Fate
(40)Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I found,thanks to another reviewer, this game --made in 2011 but newly from Big Fish--which for me is so much more fun than most of the new games!
It is a travel around the world through a series of cities finding stolen objects, in each city collecting items which one can use to access the place where the object is concealed.
Once one gets into the way the game works ,circulating around a series of venues in each city picking up a thing or two in each and then returning , it is not very difficult and the hint system works very nicely. Where one is on ones own is in the puzzles,although a walkthrough is available online, which are really fun and hard enough to be quite challenging. Repeating the lightning fast series of moves through the basic positions of kung fu required some thought and a little doggedness for example.
It is a travel around the world through a series of cities finding stolen objects, in each city collecting items which one can use to access the place where the object is concealed.
Once one gets into the way the game works ,circulating around a series of venues in each city picking up a thing or two in each and then returning , it is not very difficult and the hint system works very nicely. Where one is on ones own is in the puzzles,although a walkthrough is available online, which are really fun and hard enough to be quite challenging. Repeating the lightning fast series of moves through the basic positions of kung fu required some thought and a little doggedness for example.
I give the storyline a one star mark down because there is really no relation between what Mortimer does and what a detective in our real world would do. I mean to go to to a square and find garden shears and then to a garden and use them to get a hidden ladder and then back to the square to climb to some innocent person's balcony and smash their flower pot with a hammer also picked up in order to find a key in the soil and then go across the square and use the key etc... this is pure fantasy but accepted on its own terms it is as enjoyable as a more rational procedure.
All in all it is playfulness pure and simple and Mortimer a delightful character and the thief a villain of just the sort that a sunlit fantasy world needs. If you have this sort of playfulness or respond to it, then this is a game for you!
I recommend this game!