Enter the world of Drawn. Explore the Painted Tower and unravel its mysteries on your quest to save the hope of the kingdom. Can you reach the top of the tower?
If you haven't played Drawn yet, you are sorely missing out. It's no wonder how popular the 3-game franchise has become. This is not your typical Big Fish game. It's so much more: it's a point-and-click adventure woven with inventive puzzles thematically integrated into the game's many rich settings and HO scenes. But what makes Drawn really special is the way it all comes together seamlessly to create a truly magical gaming experience. I found myself drawn into this strange and imaginative world the moment I stepped into the tower.
Poignant and beautiful, the game unfolds through a series of charming paintings that you plunge in and out of as you race through dark puzzle-filled halls to the top of the tower to save Iris, a special girl with the magical drawing abilities. The storyline is riveting, the artwork enchanting. My favorite game of all time is the second of this series, Dark Flight, with Painted Tower at a close second.
So this is the latest from the Awakening folks, and the best I can do to describe it is tell you it's like Drawn meets Moonfell Wood. First of all, the artwork is exquisite. Secondly, it's not much of a HOG at all. There are maybe 3-4 hidden object scenes in the entire game, and when they do occur, you're searching for something you need to advance in a relevant location filled with objects that are relevant to that location (so no hunting medieval battle axes in a swamp). Thirdly, the story line is one that makes you actually care about the characters involved and want to save the girl.
If you're tired of all the HOGs that seem the same, get this game! It's inventive and really doesn't follow the same tired formula. The only negative I have to share is that the mini-games are really easy.
Another triumph for the Drawn team! The artwork and soundtrack are so hauntingly beautiful that it makes me want to weep for Iris and her family. The Drawn series is best that casual gaming has to offer, so if you haven't yet purchased these games, please do so!
Now, admittedly, this was my least favorite of the 3-game series so far. Reasons? Primarily the length--the game is super-short. I think it took me 3 hours total to finish it from start to finish, and I had purchased the CE. Also, not to detract from my rating of the game (because it is superbly fun when compared to all other games apart from Drawn 1-2), it's really hard to compete with how brilliant and inventive the first two games in the series were. So in that respect, this third game wowed me just slightly less.
I can't believe this game didn't get an average of 5 stars! I'm writing this review (I've written only 2 previous, both for games I thought were amazing) because this and the first Drawn are, hands down, my favorite games offered by BF. And I've played hundreds of games from here!
In my opinion, the second is even better than the first was: the story unfolds more fully so you get a better sense of urgency in your quest to save Iris, the artwork is even more exquisite, and I felt that the quests and puzzles were more varied. For example, I LOVED the addition of the pop-up books, and the seasonal wall mural was so gorgeous--and so much fun. If you haven't played any game from this series, you are doing yourself a huge disservice. In terms of originality, story line, artwork, and puzzle variety, I don't think that anyone has made a better game for the casual gaming rubric.
A lot of HOGs do the same old thing over and over--this (if it can even be considered hidden object) game decidedly does not. It was--and has been--my favorite game thanks to its ingenuity, and I'm honestly shocked that some people have given it 3 stars (I guess due to some puzzle difficulty, but I enjoy that and hate the easier games). I'm curious to see what would earn 5 stars if this game does not. BUY IT--you won't be disappointed.
This is a great game--I really enjoyed playing it the whole way through, and that is a rarity. If you're like me and have played A LOT of hidden object games, then you'll agree that they all start to seem the same after a while (you wake up trapped in a mental asylum in an abandoned town that has been frozen in time with no recollection of how you got there only to find out that your family has been guarding a secret portal between the demonic realm and earth for generations, that your sister's husband is actually an evil villain who plans on opening that portal to unleash his fellow demons upon the world, and that your sister will die if you don't stop him since his plan to build a portal-opening machine requires that he harvest your sister's soul shards; you thus must escape the hospital, return to your own time, save your sister, and save the world...) and feature the same redundant and gratuitous hidden object scenes that have you hunting for misspelled obscure items in the dark. Well, fortunately, this game has none of that!
Okay, it's a haunted house. While the story isn't exactly original (yes, there's some soul stealing and some weird ancestral tie-in to the villain that's never fully explained), it makes for a really fresh framework that delivers the game miles away from the typical spooky dark dungeon scenes and does so with just the right amount of whimsy. What you get are 7 very different locations with 4 scenes a piece that are all visually stunning. There's a map that allows you to jump from location to location without having to backtrack constantly. Big plus! Also, the game is more of an adventure than HOG, with only a handful of hidden object scenes. Another big plus. Overall, this is one of the best games I've played in a long time. You won't be disappointed!