vingilot's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4.3
- Helpful Votes:87
- Reviews Submitted:3
- First Review:November 16, 2011
- Most Recent Review:January 8, 2012
- Featured reviews0
vingilot's Review History
Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector's Edition
Help Sam rescue his love Anna in Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome, an incredible Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game!
Overall rating
5
/
5
16 of 18 found this review helpful
Perfect game!
PostedJanuary 8, 2012
vingilot
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Dual mode HOPA, light on the H0, heavy on the PA. Advanced mode has sparkles for H0S only, hints and skips load slower. H0S have some interaction and puzzles range from simple to tricky. All puzzles have reset buttons. Journal records your thoughts and clues.
There's a map, which you will use. If you get lost easily in games, you'll use it a lot. There are a ton of locations: three levels and the map for each level fills the entire screen. Locations aren't shown on the map until you've entered them. Map shows your character, H0S, puzzles, areas of interest, locked areas and exits and stairs.
Options include four different volume controls, widescreen and full screen, and also a grainy option, if you want to play the game with movie cinema grain. I did for a little while, but preferred the clear and polished graphics. Eerie, creepy and inventive, not too dark but certainly bleak, this is a psychological thriller in every sense of the word. Music fits the mood and it's fully voice-acted, which adds a lot to the experience. It is closed captioned also, for those with hearing impairments or who don't like playing with sound.
Extras include bonus game (an extra hour at an entirely different location) and it does conclude the game. The SE will be complete but leaves you with a cliffhanger type ending; the bonus game wraps almost everything up. Other extras are the usual concept art, wallpaper and music, and there's also a video interview with the devs.
This is the same dev who gave us The Fool, but you would never guess it. Dorian Gray is as different from The Fool as you can possibly get. They really aren't resting on their laurels here and it shows. Great game!
I recommend this game!
Nightmare Realm Collector's Edition
Journey into the Nightmare Realm and save Emily from an imaginary world that has been taken over by darkness!
Overall rating
5
/
5
64 of 70 found this review helpful
Excellent game and visually stunning!
PostedNovember 16, 2011
vingilot
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
The graphics in the game are gorgeous, the music fits the mood and theme of the game, and the game plays in widescreen on Mac, so the player can appreciate the full effect of the artwork. There's a good balance of HOGs and puzzles. Some interactive items in some of the HOGs. Puzzles aren't too difficult. I don't recall getting stuck on any of them actually. Journal has the typical diary for notes, as well as map and tasks list. There are 33 origamis to find, which unlocks one of the games more interesting extras.
The story starts with a car accident and a dark-cloaked entity coming for your husband. Then it jumps four years to your daughter's seventh birthday, when she's abducted by the same figure coming out of one of her drawings. You have to go into her drawing to find her. Her uncle Peter comes with you but is soon rendered useless. You're then separated entirely and you have to continue on to save your daughter alone.
This is a dual mode HOPA: sparkles, faster help and tutorial in Casual; no sparkles or tutorial and longer hint recharges in Expert. It's a good length and took me a few sessions to complete, maybe about 5 hours total.
The bonus game details what Uncle Peter got up to after he was separated from the main characters and takes you through a nightmare landscape that he needs to escape. There are only a few locations to explore, but the artwork is top notch, as with the rest of the game, and there's lots to do. It took me about 1.5 hours to complete, so a very good length for a bonus game, and one of the more compelling bonus games I've played on any CE game. It adds some background info on the dark-cloaked figures but isn't essential to the core game for those who decide to wait for the SE.
Other extras - concept art, wallpapers (a higher number than other games offer), music files (can be saved) and instructions for creating 8 different origamis.
I recommend this game!
Bluebeard's Castle
Save your sister from Bluebeard’s Castle in this incredible Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
7 of 9 found this review helpful
Good first game
PostedNovember 16, 2011
vingilot
Skill Level:Expert
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
This is the first HOPA from Fanda and it's a worthy debut. The artwork is clear and sharp, the story is coherent, there is a good balance of H0S and puzzles, and it's a decent length. I'm a fast player and I finished in about 3.5 hours. The H0S had an interesting help feature: silhouettes of multiple items after you find the first one (5 feather, 3 masks, etc). Some of the puzzles were quite innovative; I especially enjoyed the theater where you placed the props and got to see a scene from a play.
There are some improvements to be made though. The game is very dark. Even at the brightest setting on my computer and the lights turned on, I was still squinting to see things. The active zones can be extremely picky on where you need to place the item in order to be able to use it. (Tip: move the cursor slowly enough and the item will slip into place for you.) This is a single mode only, so advanced players may find it a little too helpful; lack of a journal does add a little bit of challenge unless you have a stellar memory (or pen/paper handy). Load times between scenes weren't too long for me, but were for others.
Technical issues aside, this is a wonderful game. The developer has promised to fix all these issues in future games, and I for one look forward to their next release.
I recommend this game!