S_haron's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4
- Helpful Votes:71
- Reviews Submitted:2
- First Review:February 12, 2012
- Most Recent Review:July 3, 2013
- Featured reviews0
S_haron's Review History
A doctor has mysteriously vanished from a psychiatric clinic, and it’s up to you, hypnotist Maya Anderson, to solve the mystery!
Overall rating
3
/
5
17 of 20 found this review helpful
Who's it for?
PostedJuly 3, 2013
S_haron
fromAtlanta, GA
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Large File, Strategy
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
I only played the demo hour, but I couldn't get past the images of women in this game. It's a shame because it seems like it was geared to adolescent girls targeting subjects like loneliness, love, shame, etc. But really, a psychiatrist with her deeply revealing top? And you can buy even sleazier outfits? A female officer in a skin-tight suit? Maybe it was really made for adolescent boys.
I don't recommend this game.
Become an Art Mogul by bidding at exciting auctions, completing lucrative requests, exposing fakes, and much more!
Overall rating
5
/
5
54 of 55 found this review helpful
I don't know much about art, but I know what I like
PostedFebruary 12, 2012
S_haron
fromAtlanta, GA
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Large File, Strategy, Brain Teaser
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
For those of you who love Chocolatier and have tried similar tycoon games, this game satisfies. Where some others were poor Chocolatier imitations or the play was repetitive and boring, Art Mogul gives you a lot to do in a game that is smooth and user-friendly.
The goal is simple: to discover and buy paintings at a low price and sell high. Along the way you buy and stock your own theme museums in different cities. You can acquire paintings by purchasing from galleries, auction houses, or discovering an original in a café.
When purchasing from an art gallery, you are given the opportunity first to match objects in the paintings with pictures of the objects in a row below. The more matches you make, the lower the cost of the paintings during that visit.
Buying through an auction requires matching pictures of objects with their counterparts in the paintings too. This time you and three competitors are bidding on a painting, although the bidding amount is automatic. You bid first and then a competitor will bid. When he or she bids, a picture of an object will appear in a window below the painting. You have only seconds to click the matching object in the painting before the object picture disappears. If you miss it, the competitor becomes the high bidder. If you are successful in finding the object in the picture, you become the high bidder and that competitor is out of the bidding—you “stunned” them. Do that to all three competitors and you win. The best-case scenario is to stun each of them on the first try because every time you or they bid, the cost of the painting goes up. Miss on too many tries and the eventual cost will be more than the painting’s value.
The third way to acquire a painting is by discovering an original in a café or bistro. Here you have to be careful to make sure that the painting is an original and not a fake. You do that by comparing the painting with a photocopy of the original. If you are lucky enough to find an original, you can make a huge profit. I found that the game is very liberal in the number of originals you can find in these places, and that the forgeries were pretty easy to spot.
When you decide to sell to the galleries, you must keep in mind that different art houses prefer different types of paintings, and that varies throughout the game. You can see what types are wanted by clicking on that gallery’s sell button. At the bottom there will be pictures of objects copied from different paintings to give you a clue as to what paintings will sell there at a good price. The best sell scenario is to have a painting with 3 of the objects shown for the maximum price.
You can also sell to the auction houses, but only through special requests. When you visit an auction house, click on the request button. Occasionally there will be a request to find a picture with a particular object. If you find it and sell it to the house, you can make a big profit.
A plus in my book is that the hidden object episodes are not timed except for the auctions. My advice in that case is to take time to study the painting first before you begin to bid. You may run across the same painting more than once in a gallery or café, and that can work in your favor when bidding too. As I progressed though the game I noticed that there are only a few objects in a painting that are hot spots, and they will be the same every time you encounter that painting. Therefore I knew where to look for the objects thrown up by my competitors in some cases.
When you buy your museums you are given a choice of themes to order your paintings. Once you decide on a theme, you look for paintings reflecting that theme to stock that particular museum.
I usually hate “hidden object” games, and I guess this is technically a HOG/tycoon hybrid. But in this case the hidden object part makes sense and it actually makes you look at the paintings in detail--something I have never really done before.
I just started playing this game yesterday, and there are only three drawbacks I can think of so far: (1) I would have liked to create my own themes for the museums rather than choosing from a list; (2) I don't see where there could be any big payoff at the end other than getting rich (although that doesn't really bother me); (3) the game has to end.
I love this game.
I recommend this game!