roaming's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:2.1
- Helpful Votes:4,416
- Reviews Submitted:473
- First Review:April 23, 2013
- Most Recent Review:April 24, 2022
- Featured reviews0
Status:
The head of the Maybard family has been murdered!
Overall rating
1
/
5
9 of 10 found this review helpful
No Way!
PostedJanuary 22, 2019
First, the character animation is stiff, like cardboard cutouts. I swear I saw the butler glide across the porch without moving his feet.
Second, I hated the psychic gimmicky puzzle thing you wave around to get "impressions." You can't turn it off, but you can skip it, which is a blessing. I recommend setting the skip refill to the shortest possible time.
Third, when the attorney said he needed to get into the locked crime scene room, he didn't ask the butler or the sister for the key. No, of course he didn't. Instead he told me I would have to go out a window, climb a tree, drop down onto the roof, make a rope out of curtains, and then climb down into the room.
At that point, I turned in my detective badge and walked off the job.
I don't recommend this game.
A killer is on the loose in a remote European castle. Track them down before they strike again!
Overall rating
1
/
5
7 of 7 found this review helpful
Unbelievably Awful
PostedJanuary 22, 2019
roaming
fromTexas
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
I'm so sorry I wasted a game credit on this one. Punished is right, only it's the player who is the punishee. It was so boring, I literally had to force myself to finish the game.
Not only is it boring, but it's also ludicrous, nonsensical, and preposterous. Prime example? The two villains are stranded in a motor boat at the edge of a Niagara lookalike waterfall while you are still running around all over the place finding pieces and parts to repair a radio, and yet somehow they don't go over the falls??? (And oh, by the way, the radio is operated with a Morse Code key, and you have to enter the code for SOS? Please.)
Not only is it boring, but it's also ludicrous, nonsensical, and preposterous. Prime example? The two villains are stranded in a motor boat at the edge of a Niagara lookalike waterfall while you are still running around all over the place finding pieces and parts to repair a radio, and yet somehow they don't go over the falls??? (And oh, by the way, the radio is operated with a Morse Code key, and you have to enter the code for SOS? Please.)
And why is it that none of these brilliant scientists can be of any help to you or themselves? After you save their lives, all they can do is just stand there and hand you something that may help? Not one of them says they'll repair their own devices if you can find something they need. No, you're running around finding and fixing everything.
I don't recommend this game.
Dark things bubble to the surface when the past invades the present!
Overall rating
4
/
5
4 of 4 found this review helpful
Played this game again tonight. Here's my review from 2013 in the Forums.
PostedJanuary 17, 2019
QUOTING VALDY:
"I was very happy with everything about this game. I really can't say that this is a "gloom and doom" kind of game - as some peeps said in the CE forum - but quite spooky.
"I loved the main game - never got bored, and enjoyed the graphics and animations, especially those that appeared in the HOS.
"I wished the developers had added more of the type of the very first HOS, but it wasn't to be. Maybe next time ?? Just don't make the items look near invisible.
"The main game had a very satisfying ending, but then again, an ending that left you wondering..."
END QUOTE
I agree with Valdy, and also with the reviewer who mentioned the sense of urgency lasting all the way through the game! At the end I was mentally screaming, "Oh, no! Hurry, hurry."
A jump map would've been nice, but you don't really need it. The big positive for me? The hint and skip buttons fill very quickly!!
I recommend this game!
Escape from Shady Pines and save the other patients! Explore the mysterious hospital and stop the psychotic doctor!
Overall rating
4
/
5
1 of 2 found this review helpful
Overall, I enjoyed playing this game.
PostedJanuary 15, 2019
Positives: Great graphics and voiceovers. Skip and hint fill quickly. Interesting story. Lots to do. Map is helpful in figuring out where to go and where active locations are. Journal is helpful if you forget a clue. HOS hints don't swirl around insanely like in some games, and they locate objects clearly by encircling them.
A few of the puzzles are very unique. I have a thing about puzzles... I don't play them. The "mind mapping" puzzle sequences aren't skippable, but I found them to be interesting and fun.
Neutral: I didn't listen to the tape recordings, but I never do. HOS are not interactive. That might be a negative for some.
Negatives: You can't use the map to jump to a location. Finding some of the objects in the HOS is quite difficult without using hints.
I recommend this game!
Become the Red Queen and save Chessland!
Overall rating
2
/
5
7 of 9 found this review helpful
Wonderful, artistic graphics. Boring game.
PostedJanuary 10, 2019
The graphics are truly remarkable, but that's where any originality ends.
You have the same tasks to perform that you have done hundreds of times. Smoking bees, with a pipe this time. At least it wasn't a smoker. Finding keys, and yes, making a new key to replace a broken one. Collecting coins to buy items you need. Using a nail puller to get boards. Feeding an animal blocking your way. Using a broom to clear a cobweb. Dousing a fire with a bucket of water. Making a torch. Needing a map to make your way through a maze. And so on and so forth.
You even have yet another gadget to wave around when you need to find invisible stuff. Okay, so this time it's not runes floating in the air but pictures of rabbits and cats and other Wonderlandy type things.
I just think it's sad when you have such brilliant artwork but the gameplay is so trite. I wonder if there really isn't much of anything new to be done in HOPA games.
As always, please try before you buy.
What secrets are hidden in the legendary McCordan Library?
Overall rating
1
/
5
2 of 3 found this review helpful
Just No
PostedJanuary 9, 2019
The story held out promise. Searching for lost tomes, what could be wrong with that? That is, until the Red Knight jumped out of a book and I needed to somehow get him back into the book. That's when I quit, but I had been disenchanted (pun intended) well before then because of too much needing a hint and too many puzzles to solve. And speaking of hints, the huge hint button with the flying books (or were they pages?) was really, really distracting.
Beyond the Invisible: Darkness Came is a stunning hidden object adventure game that will challenge even the most seasoned detectives.
Overall rating
5
/
5
7 of 8 found this review helpful
A Welcome Entry
PostedJanuary 6, 2019
This game is like your grandpa who just arrived from the old country. Yes, he's kind of old fashioned, and no, his English isn't perfect, but it's okay. You love him, and you're glad he's here. Plus he writes really poetic titles!
As I write this review, it's so late that it's early, so I'll leave the descriptions of game play to what others have already written. I'll just say that this game is the reason I go back into my archive to pull up some of the older games to play again and again. It isn't taking itself too seriously. A perfect example is the HOS with the spider webs!
This is a definite buy for me, and if I understand correctly there's an earlier 'Beyond the Invisible' game that I plan to check out.
I recommend this game!
Dark Reapers kidnapped your mother and aunt! Will you be next?
Overall rating
1
/
5
25 of 35 found this review helpful
Fractured Fairy Tale
PostedJanuary 5, 2019
First, your sister gets pulled outside your house by a black wraith reaper who plants some deadly magical flowers on your front door.
Then you have a magical thing that you wave around the scene to find magical symbols floating in the air, and that charges up the magical thing so you can use to it get rid of said magical poisonous flowers.
So you do that, but you can't rush out to save your sister from the black wraith reaper just yet. You still have to find some shaped keys to get the wolf statue to drop the door key, because doesn't everybody lock themselves inside the house and then lock up the key with yet more keys which you have to find before you can get the key to unlock the key to unlock the front door?
Then, you rush outside to see your sister sword fighting with the black wraith reaper. Where did she get the sword? I guess the reaper had an extra.
And another thing... in the opening cinematic, there are three little girls all about the same age and the one in the middle gets pulled away by some black smoke. Then it's 30 years later and you're the daughter of the one who got pulled away who is now the queen and you have to go rescue her, which is why you need to rescue your sister who is the other little girl who is also now all grown up.
Whaaaat???? So I a gave up after only nine minutes.
I don't recommend this game.
A couple's fixer-upper is haunted by a fierce creature.
Overall rating
1
/
5
15 of 30 found this review helpful
No Way
PostedJanuary 4, 2019
Well, that was dreadful, pun intended. The dark, colorless, fuzzy graphics and puzzles embedded in HOS (or was it the other way around?) didn't make it any better.
The husband is a jerk. His wife has been terrified and wants to leave, but he wants to stay and spend the night. I'd have gotten the heck out after the wardrobe fell over all by itself blocking the bedroom door and trapping me inside. And who moves into the creepy old house they're flipping? Probably his idea.
I lasted 20 minutes of the demo.
I don't recommend this game.
How much is the famous Liberty Stone worth? A life?
Overall rating
3
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Disappointing
PostedJanuary 4, 2019
It started out great. Beautiful graphics and voiceovers, and an Intriguing mystery. The graphics and acting continued throughout the game, and you don't catch onto the whodunit until close to the end, even with the completely useless tape recorded updates on the plot that you are forced to listen to.
So why did I find it disappointing? To be honest, I think it was too long before you get to understanding whodunit and why. Sounds strange, I know; but I started to get bored about halfway through the game. After that it felt like go there, do that, get a hint, find yet another shaped key, do that, skip a puzzle, get another hint, do that, lather, rinse, repeat. I no longer cared who the culprit was. I just wanted to get through what I had to do to finish the game, including some of the things you do at the end that were just silly, like using a harpoon to stop and drag back a motorboat that's racing away from you. Oh, please!
But if you want a long game with beautiful graphics and decent acting, and you don't care about logic, this might just be your cuppa.