This game is more adventure than hidden object. The music is nice, graphics are well done, and vocals are good. Excellent strategy guide, and a map that lets you teleport to active task areas, which are marked by gold lilies. The journal is good as well. Outside of hidden object scenes, the hint points in area needed to travel. There are collectables, too.
There are dead bodies, a nice man that was helping you is killed, and you get shot at...
There is a lot to do in this game. Different kinds of puzzles, finding scents and combining them in a mini-laboratory to make needed liquids, doing favors for some people so they will help you in return, creating official documents so you can do more investigating...
WIth so many pluses, you might wonder why I gave the game only three stars. This game did not grab me. It was boring with the same old, same old........ No excitement factor. However, play the demo yourself. You might just love it.
Everything is good about this game except that it's a short game. The hint system is very good, so you don't need a map. You also have a button to click for arrows to tell you which directions you can go. Great vocals and graphics. Music is appropriately adventurous. The journal is good as well. You find a little gremlin who is both a pest and a helper. There are more than a hundred creepy little observers (spies) for you to collect. You progress through several different adventures to save Laura. Each adventure is a different game, and you don't backtrack. At the end of each adventure, you get a piece of her dream catcher. When the dream catcher is complete, you've won...
The best part? NO hidden object scenes! Yay! Plenty of good puzzles and objects to assemble. First, you have to find the different parts of each object.
I knew this game was a short one, because I got the achievement for finishing half the game 10 minutes before the 60 minute demo was over. But this game was so much fun, I bought it anyway.
Graphics are good, but not great. Storyline is very good, and so are the vocals. I personally liked all the cut scenes. Journal is good as well. No map, but in casual mode, none is needed. Hint points toward task, or in direction needed to travel. Music is repetitive, so I turned the volume down.
Even though this game has hidden object scenes, it's really an intuitive adventure game- i.e. think on your feet:
1) I just got an object, but what is it for? Have I already been somewhere I could use it?
2) I just found a new task. What kind of object would work here? Are there any objects in my inventory that would work? If not, I'll need to be on the lookout for something else that would work.
For expert Adventure gamers, this game might be too easy, but I really liked it.
Good Strategy Guide, but Strategy Guide is not needed in casual mode. Puzzles, Hidden Object Scenes (HOS) etc. are easy, and hint tells you what direction to go. There is a map that lets you teleport but the map does NOT show where active tasks are. Journal is a diary. Graphics a bit old school. Music gets boring after a while. Good vocals, what little there is of them. In order to turn vocals off, you have to turn all the sounds off, except the music.
This hidden object game has wonderful graphics, voice-overs and music. You can turn off the voice. A Map that lets you teleport, and that clearly tells you where you have tasks to do. If you move your cursor over an area on the map, you see a picture of the scene and a list of objectives for that scene. Very good strategy guide. I did not see a journal. Collectables, which include your helper, a baby phoenix that can pick up objects out of fires, and it can light candles, torches, etc. You also collect cursed cards and "Lost Pets" from "Beyond" (another dimension).
Played in casual mode, this game is very easy. There are a LOT of hidden object scenes. There are also puzzles, objects to find, and things to assemble.
Beautiful graphics. Great voice-overs. Soft background music fits the storyline. Journal has diary and list of clues. No map. Outside of Hidden Object Scenes (HOS), hint points to direction needed to travel. Collect golden horseshoes in each scene. Combine inventory items to create needed objects. Easy puzzles. Objects in HOS are well camouflaged, which is a plus for me.
The story is important to me, but the story got lost with all of the HOS/puzzles. You meet ghosts who ask you to do them a favor so their souls can rest. You have a fire to put out, but before you can put it out, there are several HOS and puzzles, plus a lot of back and forth traveling. You are asked to hurry, so you can save lives, but again, you're too busy doing HOS and puzzles. Those lives are lost.
This game also has items from other time periods. There were no record players in 1799; they hadn't been invented yet.
If the story is not important to you, this game might be a lot of fun. Try the demo first.
At first I wasn't sure if I liked this game, but by the end of the first hour, I was hooked, and bought it. So glad I did.
Very task-oriented, intuitive game. You have to ask yourself, "What would work here? Where could I use this?" Although there is a dark story with sinister music, the constant flow of puzzles, objects to assemble, etc. dominate the game. Most of the puzzles are different- not the standard ones found in games today. Very good graphics. Well done vocals. Hint points to direction needed to travel outside of hidden object areas. Good strategy guide, although it isn't needed in Casual Mode. Journal has diary, tasks, and short descriptions of the main characters. Map that lets you teleport. There is a lantern in parts of the map to show active tasks. Although there are hidden objects in this game, they're usually not the standard type. Instead, you are asked to: "Find 12 ___" and you usually have to adjust/fix the scene to find some of the objects. In HOS with lists, you have to use the first object to adjust the scene so you can find the second object, which you then use, etc.
Each scene has at least one collectable- a fairy. There can be other things you need to click on, as well.
This dark fairy tale game was fun for me, even though I usually like the story to be prominent. The puzzles, mini-games and tasks were different enough, and good enough to keep my interest.
Eerie music fills the air in Vienna, where shadows terrorize people in the streets. Two musical prodigies have gone missing. Can you save them without striking a single false note?
Background music is beautiful, but very repetitive. Strategy Guide is good, with both text and pix, depending on which you prefer. In casual mode, the strategy guide is not necessary. Outside of Hidden Object scenes, hint points to task, or in direction needed to travel. Good journal. No map, but it's not needed. Most of the puzzles are easy in casual mode. Some are slightly difficult. Two types of hidden object scenes: standard with a list, and find the shapes. In find the shapes, you use one object to find the next.
The story is Good Against Evil. You, the game player, are an expert at fighting evil spirits. Although there are differences from the last two Maestro games, this game has the feel of "Same 'ole, Same 'ole" ... "Been there, done that." I'll pass, but play the demo, you might like it.
Beautiful graphics, excellent music and voice-overs, and a good strategy guide. In casual mode, the hint system is so good, you really don't need the strategy guide. A map that lets you teleport. Lots of talking which I enjoyed, but you can turn the vocals off. There is a lot to do in this game, which is a huge plus for me. Different kinds of puzzles, gathering objects to be used later-- sometimes in HOS, other times to fix things, to assemble things, etc. And the story is a very good one that grabs you right away. That is, if you're the type of person who likes a good story with your game.
Although there are HOS, this game is mostly an adventure game. Plenty of puzzles and objects to find, items to assemble, etc. Very good journal with objectives, notes, etc. Music is a bit somber and mysterious and fits the game. Vocals are good. Very good graphics, excellent strategy guide. Outside of HOS, hint points to task or direction needed to travel, which will be good for the SE version, because I didn't see a map. Since this game is about artists, it makes sense the characters would appear to be hand drawn. In casual mode, this game is easy to moderately difficult.
At first, I wasn't sure about this game, but it drew me in, and I was hooked.