I loved this game! It could have been a little harder, but it's the normal hardness for this game site. This game is almost all puzzles but they were pretty easy. Each scene has lots of things to do, lots to pick up and several puzzles, but only one HO scene. You didn't have to traipse all over the place, I hardly used the map or hint to transport, you were only using about 5 locations until you moved onto another part of the map. The story unfolded well, you didn't forget why you were doing what you were doing, and it even had a good plot twist towards the end. I was happy with the standard edition, there was so much to do I didn't even miss looking for collectables and the story ended well, so I didn't miss a bonus chapter. It usually takes me a while to finish a game because I get bored but with this game I wanted to keep playing. It was a fun game, a puzzle lover's dream. I highly recommed it.
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Time Management, Adventure, Strategy
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
4/ 5
Level of Challenge
4/ 5
Storyline
3/ 5
I really like this game. It's an easy TM game. It's the 'click' type which I like, I hate the 'drag and drop' style. You have 5 different zoos with 20 days in each zoo. Each zoo is themed towards different animals. You have to feed, water, clean, etc. You can play in relaxed, normal, or advanced. You need a set amount of money to pass each day. If you fail you still get to keep all the money you earned to help you with upgrades, so eventually you'll pass. You can also keep any leftover money at the end of the 20 days to help you with the next zoo. There are no 'chain' bonuses for doing the same action in a row. I've finished the game (from another site) in normal mode with only having to redo a few days, and I'm planning on replaying in advanced mode soon. I enjoy TMs but I'm not good enough for some of the harder ones, this one was perfect for me. It would be good for kids, too.
If this game would have had a better story I would have given it 5 stars. A lot of time and effort went into this game, and it shows. It has a jump map with indicators for available actions and a good, adjustable hint button. It's the type of game that's played in sections, only a few map areas available at once so it's easy to walk. The standout feature of this game for me was the amount of things to do in each location. Most rooms had around a half dozen areas/things to investigate and most of the zoom zones had several things to do within them! So when you entered a new room you would have 20 to 30 things to do in there. And that carried on throughout the whole game. There weren't many HOs and they were pretty easy, some of the puzzles were challenging and several of them I had no idea what to do and had to resort to the walkthru or skip button. I haven't been in much of a HOG mood lately, so I didn't enjoy the game as much as I should have, but I still highly recommend it.
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3, Large File, Strategy
Fun Factor
2/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
2/ 5
Level of Challenge
2/ 5
Storyline
2/ 5
I didn't care for this game much. I've never read The Tin Soldier so that might have helped. It just didn't seem very Christmassy. There was very little music and not much in the way of decorations. Just not what I was expecting In a Christmas game. It was fairly easy but the map wasn't very helpful, it transported you but didn't really tell you where there were things to do. This game just really fell flat for me as a Christmas game and I will probably never play it again. I do highly recommend other games in this series, though, A Christmas Carol is my favorite.
This game's story was very weak and typical. The HOs were played twice. Some objects were small or blurry, hard for me to find and I played on a 17" screen. The items found in the main scenes were also quite small, I relied on the cursor a lot and was stuck a few times because I had overlooked things. The hint system doesn't help much but there is a walkthru. The map tells you where things need to be done... sometimes, lol, but doesn't transport. There are only 5 or 6 locations active at a time, though, so easy enough to walk there and not hard to remember what you needed to do. Some puzzles were quite easy; others a bit more involved. I didn't care for the game because of the lack of a story and the hardness of finding items in the HOs.
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Time Management, Large File, Match 3, Card & Board, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
4/ 5
Storyline
5/ 5
I just finished the SE version. It is a very good game and I never felt like I needed or wanted the CE version. The story and gameplay are so good I didn't have any urge to be distracted by looking for morphing objects. I don't care for HOs much, but the ones in this game are good. There's a lot of different types, a whole lot of different types, so you never know what you're going to have to do when you click on one. The puzzles were a nice assortment, and a lot of them, although the last one was too easy to be the last puzzle . The story was good, but in the SE version you don't have the jigsaw puzzles to put together, you just put a token in and get a cutscene. It's a familiar story, but well told, and with a little plot twist to set it apart. The story and the characters kept my interest, I wanted to help the young lovers. The jump map was good, with markers where there were things you could do and the hint would show you a scene and transport you there. No need for a strategy guide. No need for a bonus chapter either, can't imagine what it would even be about, the game finished nicely in the SE version. The game seemed quite long, but it was packed into a small area with lots and lots to do in each scene. There wasn't a lot of going from one end to the other, and even if you walked it wasn't that far. The areas of the castle were easy to remember and navigate to. I highly recommend this game, the SE version is a great option. I give it 5 stars.
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Time Management, Large File, Match 3, Card & Board, Puzzle, Strategy
Fun Factor
1/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
3/ 5
Level of Challenge
1/ 5
Storyline
2/ 5
I bought this game because of all the great reviews, but I didn't like it enough to finish it. I'll probably finish it in bits and pieces but I'm very sorry I bought it. It's just a bunch of the same old, same old. I didn't like the HOs and the mini-games were a joke. There was one that I could have just put my cat on the keyboard and she would have solved it with just a bit of walking around, The jump map showed where every action was left to do, whether you could do it yet or not, so most locations were usually marked and not much help. There was a mirror world so you had to change maps to get to that. There was just nothing about this game that I liked.
I didn't care for this game much. It started off good, with a nice storyline, but the plot disappeared after that and it was just running around doing stuff for no reason. Thank God for an interactive jump map! Some stuff made no sense at all. My pickaxe could break a stone wall, but not the glass over a fire extinguisher. Only a rock would do for that task. I did like the very end of it, it was just the entire middle part that bored me to tears. There were a couple good puzzles, most were pretty easy. The HOs were easy, you could switch to a matching game if you preferred. There are so many better games out there that I can't really recommend this one unless you've run out of those better ones. I will never replay this game. I do tend to rate my games by storyline, though, so if that doesn't matter to you, you will like this game better than I did.
I don't recommend this game.
+8points
11of14voted this as helpful.
Awakening Kingdoms
You are chosen by Queen Sophia to restore her kingdom back to its former glory through fun mini-games and beautiful hidden object scenes.
This is an alright FTP. Seems like you can probably play a half hr. to an hour at a time. You need energy to play an HO scene, and you play the same few over and over, but more items get added into the scene or new areas within the scene open up. You make extra money for quickness. You get lots of different resources in each scene, if you need a certain type for a quest it will tell you which HO is the best for getting that resource. As you replay each scene new ways to play it open up, you start with word list, then picture gets added, now I've advanced to 'riddle'. As you advance more HO locations get added. When your energy runs out and you can't do HOs anymore you can use your resources to build and upgrade buildings. The buildings have mini games in them, jigsaws, swap tiles to make a picture, easy ones like that. You also use your resources to rebuild the Castle, which is ravaged by the war. There are also collections you can trade in for various things. You can have a lot of different quests going on at the same time, and there is a shop you can buy energy or resources at with in-game currency. The music is soothing, the characters are familiar, it's actually a good concept and tie-in with the other games.
There's very few of my games that I would play again, this is one of them. Stunningly beautiful, with jewel tones. The gameplay and storyline were okay, but combined with the sheer beauty of this game makes it a 5 star for me. There's a transporter map which needs to recharge between uses, that didn't bother me because nothing was too far away and I wanted to walk just to keep looking at the scenery. More puzzles than HOs, which I prefer, and the HOs were different types, not your normal ones. I loved every minute of the game and wish I had the CE, it had to have some fantastic wallpapers.