MSBAM100's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4.7
- Helpful Votes:8,578
- Reviews Submitted:240
- First Review:January 11, 2013
- Most Recent Review:January 27, 2024
- Featured reviews0
Status:
When a new romance blossoms, the door to mystery opens in Love Alchemy!
Overall rating
4
/
5
19 of 30 found this review helpful
The Artist Did It
PostedDecember 31, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
So you fall in love with Charles via the Internet and agree to meet him at his castle in Europe at Christmas. Charles is an artist and the castle and town seem to be out of the 18th century or so, including the soft music playing in the background. After a lovely, romantic evening, Charles leaves on business and says to explore the castle.
So what you find is several incarnations of Charles, including a painting of what seems to be his great-grandfather, but looks just like him. You find a loveletter to Mary from Charles during the war. You find several paintings of various women all locked in some misfortunate trap, all of whom loved Charles at some point and place in time. You go through the paintings to rescue the women, and receive the Tears of Love they each shed for Charles. Each set of tears adds to the love story of the French Charles de Ras and Ariel, his wife. Of course there is a demon...............
So it is an excellent story line wrapped in a game that is not so excellent. There are only two levels of play. The inventory doesn't lock open. The introductory tutorial tips can't be clicked away, although you can skip the tutorial. The HOS are all lists, and sometimes the last item on the list cannot be clicked on -- you need to use a hint to actually remove it from the HOS. The Hint button only works randomly - or else takes a very long time to refill! There is jump map - no activities marked, however. Almost no puzzles included.
If you can put up with these idiosyncrasie, you have a decent story line to follow, and 8 women - including yourself - to rescue. Plus Charles. Try before you buy!
I recommend this game!
An invitation from your long lost mother leads you to a mysterious facility deep below the Atlantic Ocean.
Overall rating
5
/
5
77 of 96 found this review helpful
Dream a Little Dream.........!
PostedDecember 28, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is an interesting story with a unique premise from GOGI You were left at a London orphanage in 1957 with only a necklace and now 25 years later you receive an invitation to take a cruise on the Emerald Maiden to find your mother. In 1957, Dream Corp also just happened to invent their dream machine, powered by ancient technology discovered in the Amazon. Is your mother the scientist?
To move the story along, there are lots of videos (at least 12 or so) from film reels you discover. Plus, your main contact on the ship seems to be a hologram of an old man who gives you hints every so often. You meet a young scientist who seems real and tells you your mother is on the ship. You find a HelperBot to reassemble. There is a monkey running wild in the ballroom. A shark tries to attack the ship's skylight. And someone has cracked a glass panel allowing water to seep in. Did I mention the cruise takes place under water?
There are so many stories going on -- the Director of Dreams seems a little bit crazy and destroys the elevator! But it makes you want to play past the demo to see how everything gets resolved. And the Dream Corp logo is slowly being replaced by a new logo -- a sideways "I" within a circle. Hmmm!
The extras include a Bonus Chapter, the Strategy Guide, Character Profiles, Art, Sketches, Wallpaper and Movies. There are 16 - or 20 - roses to collect, an interactive map with Objectives, and 4 modes of play, including Custom. There are three types of HOS -- interactive with pictures, lists, and silhouettes. The puzzles are easy, and the hint button - on the left side - points to the direction you need to go.
The demo didn't send you on any dreams, but you did find a card for Paris - where Alice Williams #your mother?# got married! Another storyline!
This is a fun game with a lot of twists and turns that are different from most of the current HO type games. This is a buy for me!
Stop the bitter Spirit of Cold from killing your ancestors!
Overall rating
5
/
5
38 of 46 found this review helpful
Save your ancestors and save yourself!
PostedDecember 26, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is the 5th game in the series and it doesn't disappoint. You still have portals to go through and save some innocent soul from a disaster. Only this time, it's your ancestors, and if you don't save them, you won't be born! Your ancestor Koturi, the Owl Spirit - hence the owl flying around the game - gave up being immortal to marry Sheenah, his true love, instead of Wenonah, the Spirit of Cold. So Wenonah's a bit peeved and decides to wipe out all of Koturi's descendants. Koturi appeals to you to save your bloodline. The first save is your grandmother, whom Wenonah is about to lure into jumping off the roof. But then the demo ends! Of course, everything is covered with snow and ice by Wenonah!
You have four modes of play including custom. The extras include the Bonus scenario, wallpaper, art, screen savers, movies, music, mini-games and the HOS. You get a Strategy Guide - not needed yet - and a diary, an interactive map, locking inventory, and a hint button that points to where to go instead of taking you there.
You can collect snowflakes that will buy items for fixing up your house in the collections room. The achievement awards appropriately represent a Christmas dinner - since the game takes place on Christmas eve. You also get a feather that you use to enlarge items -- hard to decide when to use it but it gives you a hint!
I am assuming you have to rescue at least three relatives or so, going back through different portals, which is how the previous games worked. Another fine game from our ERS friends to keep us busy during the holidays!
I recommend this game!
The epic conclusion of an amazing trilogy in Adelantado Trilogy: Book Three, a thrilling Time Management game.
Overall rating
5
/
5
76 of 91 found this review helpful
Finally, Book Three!
PostedDecember 23, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I love this series! I was so excited that Book Three was finally out, I replayed Book Two from beginning to end plus the extra round, just so I could remember how we got to where we are in Book Three!
You are still Don Diego, and this time your Indian girl friend Milintica - whom you rescued from an arranged marriage in Book 2 - has been carried off by cavemen. So now you must search for her. You still get to build gardens, and woodcutters, and sawmills, and granite mines, and silver mines. You build watch towers to expand your territory.
There are still 10 Chapters, 5 each in Part 1 and Part 2, plus a bonus Chapter. And a Relaxed Mode, for players like myself who want to take their time and enjoy the game. You still fight the occasional dinosaur and caveman. One new quirk is some of the barrels explode, so you have to build a hospital to fix up Don Diego and various other sick Indians along the way.
You still need Money, Land, and Survivors, as well as Secrets, to progress to the next level. And Don Diego still needs Strength, Speed and Oratory skills. If you haven't played Book 1 and Book 2, I recommend you try them as well! You don't need to, in order to play Book 3, but they are great fun! What a great holiday present!
I recommend this game!
Time is running out for a worried bride! Locate her groom in a town plagued by mysterious drownings.
Overall rating
3
/
5
29 of 39 found this review helpful
Not so Blissful
PostedDecember 21, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I did the beta of this game and it has not changed since then. The game is OK, but the graphics are not the same quality as other current releases and the story, while OK, seems a bit forced. And my most pet peeve - the inventory doesn't lock open -- how annoying!
You are a detective who has been hired by Molly Huggins, whose fiancé Tommy Drake has been missing for a few days. You wander around Tommy's house and the town of Lake Bliss collecting clues, which include some Zodiac cards, a 200-year old calendar page, and some newspaper articles of other men who have disappeared. The opening shows Tommy trying to walk on the Lake by spraying a red substance. It appears he falls in and drowns.
You receive a "spectral fluid jar" with which you are supposed to collect the pink mist that occasionally shows up, particularly with a beautiful woman who drives away. The body from the morgue seems to turn into a zombie and gets up and walks around town and also into the lake. The story is a bit convoluted, but not hard. It is pretty obvious where you need to look next.
The HOS are lists, although at least one is a fairly simple FROG. The mini-games are not unique -- you have seen them before. There is a notepad for your journal and objectives, and a simple map that allows you to teleport and see what areas have active clues. There are achievements, and 54 collectible dragonflies. There is a bonus chapter, as well as the normal CE extras for music, art, wallpaper and music.
I recommend this game, but not as a CE. Its simplicity makes it more of an SE.
I recommend this game!
You’re on a train in the middle of nowhere, and a band of dangerous thieves demand you tell them where to find the Hope Diamond’s shards. As the newest Hidden Expedition recruit, you’ve got to find the shards before they do…
Overall rating
5
/
5
41 of 53 found this review helpful
Gaming fun plus education!
PostedDecember 19, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
The Hidden Expedition games are always great fun and a learning experience. This one doesn't disappoint. As the game opens you are held captive by Marcel Robideaux & Sons Antiquities Dealer gang whose main method of dealing is stealing the antiquities. They are on the trail of the Hope Diamond shards which are supposed to heal the elder Robideaux who appears to be dying. You escape by jumping out the window of the train, and the story picks up 3 weeks earlier when you are invited to the Smithsonian Castle.
You receive a postcard from H.E.L.P. and some puzzles to solve before you are allowed to join the team. You solve a riddle to get you H.E.L. P box which contains your journal, your list of objectives, FACT cards and your achievement awards. The FACT cards are the educational part of the game -- teaching you about the founder of the Smithsonian, Jame Smithson, the designer of the museum, and Harry Winston who mailed the HOPE diamond to the museum using the good old USPS!
The first HOS is a three-parter, finding gems, then finding mineral symbols, then finding a list of items. The graphics are crisp and clean and easy to see. The puzzles are cute -- matching up bobble-head dolls with their famous namesakes is one.
You get a choice of four modes - explorer, expedition guide, journey master, and custom. The hint button refills quickly and I didn't need the skip button. You also get a strategy guide, a bonus puzzle, and the normal extras of movies, pictures, music, HOP repeat and puzzle repeat.
You also have 20 achievements to accomplish, 17 morphing objects to find within the HOS, 20 FACT cards, 49 Smithsonian emblems - one in each scene evidently - and a locked souvenir room that will unlock after the bonus puzzle is solved. Lots to do, in a easy to follow game, worthy of the CE title.
I recommend this game!
The mystical Silver Arrow has been stolen from you on the eve of your wedding. Without it, you can’t marry your beloved Prince Philip! Can you track down the arrow in time?
Overall rating
5
/
5
30 of 34 found this review helpful
Recover the arrow, marry the handsome prince!
PostedDecember 12, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This is the fourth in the Spirits of Mystery series by ERS, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. You are the Princess, and Prince Phillip shot his Silver Arrow into your window to declare you his bride to be. Unfortunately, evil Mortis hired the evil sorcerer/shapeshifter Basil to steal the arrow so she can marry Phillip instead. You and Phillip have 24 hours to recover the arrow from Basil, or else Phillip must marry Mortis!
Basil takes the form of a panther, and is so mean he hurts your dog and best friend Sky. But your nanny gives you your great-grandmother's recipe/potion book which luckily contains a healing recipe. All you have to do is find the special room in the tower where granny concocted her medicines! Along the way, you meet up with Romas the bird-like lingbeast, who is a master of all languages, even animals. He helps you talk to Sky, and eventually you heal and bandage his hurt leg. Roma also lets you talk to termites who want a tastier tree -- and you just so happen to need them to chew one down for part of a bridge. Hooked yet?
This is a fun adventure with both mini-games and HOS. The HOS are NOT lists - at least in the demo- but "place the item in the picture" type, or silhouettes of objects that interact with the HOS to get the next object. The mini-games are unique -- fill a cup with water while figuring out where the water stream will go next. None are too hard so you don't have to skip or even use a hint -- which of course gets you an Achievement! The achievement trophies seem to be wedding related - a nice touch.
And then there is the Tower -- instead of collectibles, you find pearls that translate to money, that lets you clean out and repair the tower, and eventually decorate and furnish. You can remove spider webs, moss, repair holes in the floor and the walls, etc. Kind of fun!
There is a Strategy Guide which I haven't needed, a quick refilling hint button, an interactive teleporting map with activites marked - depending on if you choose Casual, Advanced, or Brave Princess mode - and a locking inventory. There are the normal parts of a CE - wallpaper, music, bonus game, etc. I don't think the developers missed one thing in designing this game. And the prince is very handsome! A definite buy for me.
I recommend this game!
You're called to a health spa in the Alps, where an evil professor has something terrible in mind for his unwitting patients.
Overall rating
5
/
5
24 of 29 found this review helpful
Insanity Rules!
PostedDecember 7, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I love this game! I played the beta and have been waiting for this to be released. What a great Christmas present!
Anyway, you are a detective with the Agency of Anomalies who is summoned by Renee to the sanitarium where her husband Alfred has been a patient. According to Renee, Alfred now wants to end their marriage. However, Renee is under control of Prof Gerome Sens, who is brain washing his patients to serve the needs of the Brotherhood. But Renee does help you by giving you a bracelet to resist the mind control devices scattered around the grounds.
So the first patient you encounter is a newspaper man, who has been convinced by the Prof his newspapers only published lies and he now publishes what the Brotherhood wants him to publish. You get a Brain Device that lets you penetrate the patient's mind, which opens up an alternate reality. So you must play both scenes in order to solve the problem and free the mind of the newspaper man. Pretty cool!
The HOS are different -- put back the missing tools into their tool kits, put pieces of a picture in place in the scene, or find the item from a list of silhouettes. The mini-games are unique, but solvable (I didn't skip any!). The Hint Button refreshes quickly. The map is teleporting and gives clues. There are three modes of play, 25 achievements, and 31 cane collectibles, plus a bonus adventure and a strategy guide, which I didn't need.
Great game with interesting story line.
I recommend this game!
Jo's Dream Organic Coffee 2
Help Jo open a new coffee shop and win the grand prize at the prestigious Coffee Festival!
Overall rating
5
/
5
44 of 51 found this review helpful
Own your own Starbucks!
PostedDecember 6, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Current Favorite:
Jo's Dream Organic Coffee 2
(60)Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This game is a time management gem. You aren't really limited by time -- I am not good at hurrying! -- but you do have to serve your customers by closing time. But there is plenty of time to accomplish each scenario, and eventually you get to hire baristas and waiters to help you.
You goal is twofold -- perform the tasks that appear to gain points to level up, and earn enough money to purchase some of the items needed to perform the tasks. You have 10 levels to grow your shop into, and you can take as much time as you need to reach each level.
Some of your tasks involve improving the outside of your building with signage, balconies, and trim. Some involve expanding your menu by buying the machines that allow you to make expresso, American, latte, cappuccino, chocolate, or tea. You can add syrup or toppings or milk or ice to make even more drink combinations like a chocolate expresso or a carmel latte. Your barista always knows the menu by heart, so I let her make the complicated drinks!
You can expand the inside of the café by cleaning up and adding tables. You can improve the inside décor as well with plants, lighting, wall hangings and a fish tank. All of your improvements should apply to tasks that give you the experience points to reach the next level.
You can add up to 2 baristas and 2 waiters as you reach higher levels and they improve as they gain experience. You can add a courier for delivery orders and musicians. Eventually I got to the point where my people serviced the customers and I kept the refills going and handled the deliveries.
This is a fun game that I played for hours over several nights, and can be replayed. Certainly worth a coupon!
I recommend this game!
Everyone deserves a second chance – even the stingiest of them all.
Overall rating
5
/
5
6 of 9 found this review helpful
Just in time for Christmas!
PostedDecember 5, 2013
MSBAM100
fromTampa, FL
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Match 3, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Wow, I love this game! Last Christmas they gave us the Nutcracker, now we have Ebeneezer Scrooge. And what a back story they are building! So you are the niece and Scrooge sends for you because he is having visions and thinks he is dying. The letter is delivered by a carrier pigeon! Talk about atmosphere!
Anyway, it seems Scrooge became mean because he fell in love with Belle but lost the ring and she married some one else. There is a "good" angel who helps you and can animate things like a mechanical bird. And the "bad" angel who stole the ring from Scrooge and wants him to remain miserable. He conjures up an imp who steals Scrooge's diary that you need to read so of course you have to capture the imp.
The puzzles are wonderful and multi-dimensional. A four-figurine match #instead of the normal 3 towers# opens up to a wonderful Nutcracker scenario where you have to place all the pieces in the correct places. And there is a Scrooge storybook to solve with each page contributing a bit to the back story with a clever unique puzzle first.
Plus, throughout the game, Christmas carols play -- The Nutcracker Suite, of course, and the First Noel and a few others -- just in the demo. You get to collect 34 penguins but I only found one so far. The four modes of play are named White Christmas, Frightful Flakes, Snowed In, and Blizzard Blitz, showing some designer humor here. The achievements are balls on a Christmas tree. Even the HOS have a bit of a twist to them. What a wonderful Christmas present from Elephant!
I recommend this game!