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fromThe peace sign was a logo designed for the campaign for nuclear disarmament combining the letters N & D, the circle representing the world, eventually making it's way into the psychedelic movement of the 60's in the US
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Adventure Trip reminds me of one of my favorite Vacation game series, they are cheesy, old-fashioned HOG's that don't really have a lot of challenges but they do offer hours of stressless entertainment fun. I loved that this one took us all over the world to the Amazon River, Angkor Wat, the Aurora Lights, the Colosseum, the Coral Reef, Egypt, Mount Everest, Galapagos, Iguazu Falls, Machu Picchu, Mayan, Petra, the Serengeti, Stonehenge, Subterranean River, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall, and Victoria Falls, where the first game was just about London.
You can play in an Easy Mode which has no Timer or Misclick penalties, and the Hint feature recharges in 5 Seconds. The Medium Mode is also Untimed but there is a Misclick penalty of +1000 points and it takes the Hint feature 15 Seconds to recharge. The Hard Mode is Timed and also has a +1000 point Misclick penalty and the Hint feature takes 60 Seconds to recharge. I played in the hard mode and had plenty of time to find all of the items on most levels. I will say that when you misclick, or click too far to the edge of a correct object, it does seem rather harsh to get a GIANT red -1000 points flashed on the screen in huge numbers, it kind of takes away from the whole Peace Sign Vibe doesn't it?
There are 20 Hidden Object Locations (as stated above) that must be replayed several times until all 5 Facts have been found, all 5 Peace Signs have been found and all 3 of the 8-Balls have been found. Peace Signs are only available in the Listed Word Mode and Scrambled Mode types. 8-Balls are only found in the Listed Word Modes, but it will state which collectible can be found in the current scene.
There are several Hidden Object types. Each time you replay the scene, it will be a different HO mode. My only complaint with this scenario is that the items to find rarely change from scene to scene and 99% of the objects remain in the same place and position. If the objects would shift around or the objects to find were randomly generated, it would be much more challenging!
➺Abc: Normal Listed Item Finds. ➺Missing Vowels: Listed Items that are missing the Vowels. ➺Scrambled: Listed Item Finds with jumbled words. ➺Silhouetted Shape: Items shown as Silhouetted Shapes. ➺Pairs: You have to find matching pairs of items. ➺Unlimited Word Mode: Find all the objects matching the clue on the list ➺Unlimited Silhouetted Mode: Find all the objects matching the images shown.
Finding 60 8-Ball's will Unlock the Finale Puzzle, Finding 100 Peace Signs will Unlock the Unlimited Play Mode. There are 100 Fact Objects to Find and they are stored in your Diary (only the ones you have found) and you can purchase 15 Gifts (points are converted to currency) Before the start of each level, you are shown a pictured item of the Fact Object you are looking for in the scene, but it will sparkle at the end if you forget to look for it. This feature could have been a whole lot better if the objects or animals actually had something to do with the location you were in such as Amazon River Fun Facts, right?
After completing the Hidden Object Scene, there will be a Mini-Game variation to play, such as Spot the Difference, Tile Swap puzzles, Match 3 games, Mahjong, Word Search, or Jigsaws Puzzles. I realize that the HOG's are the main focus, but why do the mini-games always get over-looked? The Match 3 games don't accept fast consecutive matches, the word searches are were all in a straight line from right to left? I loved the Swap Tiles & Circular Jigsaws, but it seems that these games just focus on one or the other, why not both? I love HO's and mini-games and would love to see a challenging match 3 game within an HO game if that makes sense?? I want my cake and I want to eat it ;)
Collector's Edition Extras: 14 Extra Locations, 5 extra Mini-games, 21 Wallpapers
ADVENTURE TRIP SERIES LIST Title***Collector's Edition Release Date***Average Rating
1-London (June 29-2019) 3.7 2-Wonders of the World (April 30-2020) n/a
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I've always loved a good old-fashioned Hidden Object Game (HOG) the kind of game we cut our teeth on back in the day, but with better graphics and at least somewhat of a story. Classified: Death in the Alley will not blow the socks off of everyone, the graphics are darker to give the game an ambiance, and the objects to find are somewhat smaller to find, but there are different difficulty modes as I'll explain in a few, specialty objects to find in each scene, and mini-games that help you truly analyze the clues you have discovered in those murderous alleys, so keep an open mind, you may enjoy it too!
You can play in three different Difficulty Modes: *Easy Mode: A Relaxed, Untimed mode with no misclick penalties and the Hint features recharge in 10 seconds. *Medium Mode: A Mid-range difficulty mode with misclick penalties and a 20-second hint refill charge. *Hard Mode: A timed mode with misclick penalties and a 45-second refill charge.
The Map shows available pinned area locations to visit, each scene has 3 available HO modes, Listed Items, Scrambled Words, and Missing Vowels. There are 18 Hidden Objects to find in each scene and I thought the developer did an amazing job of either hiding the objects in plain sight, or slightly out of the line of sight, I literally stared intently for quite some time for a few of the items only to have that "oh, duh" moment, lol. There are two Hints available, the Magnifying Glass will show you a single random item, and the Eye Hint inverts the colors and turns all remaining items on the list to white. The Hints will then have to recharge depending on the timeframe of whichever difficulty mode you chose to play in.
The best part, in my opinion, is finding the two additional "Clues" that aren't shown on the list, but there is a Folder Icon at the top of the screen that keeps track of the Evidence and Clues found. Each scene has a single blue Fingerprint "Clue" and a single "Singularity" Evidence (which looks like a UFO or Saturn?) You must find both of these to earn all three stars. If you miss one, or both, you won't be able to return to the scene to search for them until after you complete the game, so my suggestion is that you search for these items first before finding anything else.
After discovering a specific amount of Evidence and Clues in the Hidden Object Scenes, you will visit the Puzzle Lab Icon to play a mini-game such as a jigsaw puzzle. I'm talking about a decent jigsaw puzzle that actually makes sense, piecing together evidence. After piecing together the evidence you may have to spot the differences between two pages, to check for similarities.
I enjoyed the HO's and the mini-games. The objects may be small and the scenes may be dark, but it's a murder mystery and sure beats the last crime scene HOG game where the items were the size of a couch and you had to keep repeating the scene a thousand times. I have a lot of respect for this indie developer, well done Seven Sails!
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Since when is it cool to keep offering the same game over and over, only bothering to change the graphics and the theme? This may be a decent Match 3 game if you've never played a game by this developer, but for the love of Magic, don't they have a creative spark of original imagination left to give? Can't they come up with anything different between the massive amounts of Match 3 games they're spewing out every month? I can appreciate the fact that they continue to develop games, but at what point does this mass-production lose credibility because they couldn't bother to change a single feature, they simply recycled the last game?
You can play in a Timed or Relaxed Mode of Difficulty in a Swap type of Match 3 game with various goals of making matches of specified Tiles as shown at the top of the board. The tiles are colorful but very similar and at times are very difficult to tell apart from one another, especially the green leaf variations. Tiles inside of Bubbles, Morph (I think they appear when you make large matches, but I'm not positive) which allows you to pop the bubble when the desired tile appears within the bubble.
There are only two types of Obstructions, Chained or Double Chained Tiles that require one or two matches of whichever tile is chained, and those infamous pesky Spiders have returned to spin Webs over random tiles if they aren't removed by making matches under them. (which most people seem to detest yet they still continue to add them to every game because they can't think of anything better to offer) The webs can be removed by making matches with the tiles covered in webs. Some levels require you to drop items off the board, such as Amanda's Book of Knowledge, by making matches under them as well.
Large Matches of 4 or more tile, fills the Energy Meter which allows you to use various power-ups: (the same power-ups that do the same thing in every match 3 game by this developer!)
*Hammer: clears a single tile, gold cell, and/or chain. *Explosive Potion: clears a 3 x 3 area of tiles, gold cells, and/or chains. *Amanda's Bag: clears all tiles of the chose tile, including gold cells, and/or chains. *Lightning Bottle: clears an entire horizontal line including gold cells, and/or chains. *Lightning Crystal: clears an entire vertical line including gold cells, and/or chains. *Magic Bomb: clears a 9 x 9 group of tiles, gold cells, and/or chains.
When you have earned enough resources, a star will appear on the right side of the board which allows you to purchase an upgrade. Each Chapter requires purchasing all 4 upgrades to progress to the next chapter. This is the same chapter upgrade, even the same number of upgrade requirements required per chapter as every match 3 game by this developer)
I'm not saying this is a bad match 3 game, it's an enjoyable match 3 game with basic features and obstacles and it's a fairly easy Match 3 game to play, although as I said earlier, it's difficult to easily spot the difference between some tiles like green leaves that vary slightly in shades of green and look very similar in shape. I do, however, have a problem with developers not making any effort whatsoever to come up with the slightest bit of change from game to game. There is absolutely nothing different about this game than any other game they offer, and there are a ton of them!
AMANDA'S SERIES LIST Title***Release Date***Average Rating
1-Amanda's Sticker Book (October 28-2014) 2.8 2-Amanda's Sticker Book: Amazing Wildlife (May 5-2017) 3.8 3-Amanda's Magic Book (March 7-2018) 2.9 4-Amanda's Magic Book 2 (April 27-2020) n/a
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Nobody beats Suricate when it comes to customizable Options. For starters, you can choose to disable or enable the Hint Arrows, FX's, or the Interactive Help tutorial, adjust the Resolution and choose Widescreen or Fullscreen, choose to disable features such as Static Pieces and Mini-Game options, choose a Custom Cursor (extra cursor's available in the CE version) and adjust Volume levels for each individual feature.
You can choose to play in a Limited Time Mode, a Limited Moves Mode, or a Relaxed Mode that gives you all the time in the world to finish levels at your own pace in as many moves as it takes without penalties. After choosing the Type of Match 3 gameplay you then get to choose a Normal OR Advanced Difficulty mode! Hearts give you extra lives and you can trade lives for more moves in Limited Moves Mode.
Each level has several "rooms" to complete. As each room is cleared, you simply click on the Arrow Icon to visit the next room. You can earn Gold, Silver, and Bronze Trophies and any level can be replayed immediately or later on by going to the level map, which is a must-have feature for me personally.
Large Matches will earn power-ups on the board and there are Obstacles such as Yellow Tiles, Single and Double Chains, Dark Fog, Fog Vials, Crates, Stones, Ladybugs who move to an empty cell when matched next to them, Turtles that move and create a wooden box to hide in, and Golden Snails that will move and turn the cell into an extra layered yellow cell, Stone Tiles, Steel Tiles, Iron Maces, Atomic Tiles, Lava Drops, Wooden Boxes, Safe Tiles requiring a specific number or Matches to destroy, Amber tiles requiring a booster or power-up to destroy it, and Locks that require dropping color-specific keys to the bottom of the board.
Coins that appear can be collected with a single click (they will disappear after a brief amount of time) and Bags of Coins must be dropped off of the board by making matches below them. The Coins earned can be used to purchase and upgrade Power-ups in the Shop. Each upgrade makes the power-up more powerful or covers a larger area.
Some levels have Puzzle Levels that will unlock once the other rooms have been emptied. Inside the Magic Room, you can collect more Coin Bags, Gold Stars, and occasionally a Golden Bat. Gold Stars must be dropped to the bottom but Gold Bats can exit any side
Crystal Rooms are optional and it won't affect your progress if you decide to skip them. Crystals are used to unlock the Mini-Games. Tiles inside the Crystal Rooms don't regenerate after making matches so you have to plan a strategy because it's a lot harder when new tiles aren't added to the board.
Collector's Edition version Extra's: 4 Extra Hidden Object Scenes, 4 Extra Jigsaw Puzzles, 5 Extra Wallpapers, 3 Extra Scenes to decorate, CA and the "Making Of", 10 Music Soundtracks, Extra Cursors.
JEWEL MATCH 3 TWILIGHT SERIES LIST Title***Standard Edition Release Date***Average Rating
1-Jewel Match: Twilight 1 SE only (October 28-2015) 4.9 2-Jewel Match: Twilight 2 SE only (January 21-2019) 4.3 3-Jewel Match: Twilight 3 SE (April 26-2020) n/a
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Completed Game approximately 5.5 Hours (including completion of all puzzles & CE Bonus Chapter) 41 Main Game Scene Locations +13 CE Bonus Chapter Difficulty Range: Beginner (unless you enjoy doing the same thing over & over?)
This game has a good story, but that's all it has going for it. Domini games used to be highly anticipated, now they have joined the hundreds of others whose games have become so linear the fun factor has become extinct. It's become a vicious cycle, the fans demand more challenge but more challenge means more work from the developer, the developer doesn't want to put forth more effort or work harder to think outside the box because let's face it, they won't make any more money now, will they? So the developers copy and paste puzzles, hidden object scenes, even graphics, and use the same, "already thought of tasks & story scripts" from game to game to cut production costs. This particular developer tries to mask that fact by stretching the game to 5 or 6 repetitive task chapters, we see the same unimaginative game scenario and buy fewer games, the developer thinks fewer people are interested in HOPA games (they don't see the root of the problem) The next game that comes out has even less, eventually, no one cares, the vicious cycle continues until the developer gives up and goes out of business. Who could blame them, would you want to do all that work fork for $6.99?
I have a solution! Why not offer a Gold Edition for more money? Something that developers are willing to pour their heart and soul into? If you don't want to spend more money the CE & SE HOPA's would still be available. This way, the devs would have an additional genre to keep them afloat, and gamers would finally have their thirst quenched. I have listened to people suggest hundreds of HOPA games from their library, to keep people entertained during the COVID outbreak stay-at-home orders, and every single one of them are older games BEFORE 2015! That says it all folks, that says there was a huge change in this genre and NOT with the player themselves, otherwise, they wouldn't be playing and suggesting the older games, right!
Gadgets/Helper: Dark Romance is usually about 2 lovers being torn apart by unseen forces as you swap between players. This clever writing team (surely someone else was in charge of the tasks?) changed things up a bit with a journal that as one person pens an entry in the year 2000, it appears to the person in the year 1985...Nice! You will still swap between two characters who never meet...or do they? Collectibles & Morphing Objects (CE Version Only): Domini always gives you plenty of CE Bling, but these were some of the most uninteresting collectibles and morphs imaginable. You can enable/disable the Collectibles availability Tabs and choose whether or not to show them on the Map as well. There are 15 Morphing Police Evidence Items (with descriptions) 15 Scraps & Notes to go along with a gazillion Missing Notes because in Domini-World everyone litters) 100 Zoom Zone Bucks (because stealing other people's pocket-change coins was immoral so they upped the ante to committing a misdemeanor?) 15 Ugly Boring Furniture Items for Robert's Room (purchase with the stolen hundo, why not, it's harder for the police to trace used furniture, besides some of the money came from the bad guy, totally justifiable) Hidden Object Scenes: There are 13 Hidden Object Scenes +4 in the CE Bonus Chapter and an alternate Match 3 Game available, which btw, doesn't allow you to make consecutive matches quickly. (you have to wait for all tiles to stop falling before you can make the next match) They include Interactive List Finds, Silhouetted Shape Finds, Keywords in Sentence Finds, Missing Keywords in Sentence Finds, Replace Items into the Scene, Swatches Finds, This Plus That Equals Finds, and Combo Silhouettes (find items that match the description of two combined items) Unlike their last game, some of these scenes were located in interesting locations or took place over multiple scenes. Mini-Games: There are 21 Mini-Games +8 in the CE Bonus Chapter. You can choose to play them in an Easy or Hard difficulty mode and you can choose which mode to have them start out in the Custom Setting (you can still switch between modes for each individual game) I lost count of how many times I had to enter codes to open locks & doors...this is considered a mini-game? Here are a few brief descriptions of some of my personal favorites: 1-Switch levers to connect ladders & bridges to advance (a cool game but way too short) 2-Move officer to phone booth without getting caught by burglars (shouldn't this be the other way around?) 3-Place all shapes onto the grid. 4-Grab 2 fuses at a time and move to correct slots.
Bonus Chapter (CE Version Only) Your augury lessons from Anna Lovelace (sounds like a lady of the evening name, what's ya been watching guys?) are abruptly interrupted when the police arrive to inform Anna that she is their prime suspect in the disappearance of Officer Marsh...no questions asked there or at the po-po's office...this will all make sense when I am older la la la..."Olaf" This is an above average-length chapter spanning over a whopping 13 scene locations with 8 additional Mini-Games and 4 Hidden Object Scenes. You will continue your search for the final 4 Morphing Police Evidence Items, 3 Pieces of Trash, I mean Scraps & Notes, and 12 Zoom Zone Dollars which allows you to purchase the final decorations for Robert's Room. Collector's Edition Extra's: (CE version only) 15 Wallpapers, 15 Concept Art Pictures, 5 Music Soundtracks, 29 Movie Video Cutscenes, 40 Achievements (the same achievements offered in all of their games and notice how you earn them in the order shown AND you earn them when you didn't really earn them because they are given to you at specific set-points, not by randomly earning them. In other words, you won't earn the 5th achievement first because that's not when the game is programmed to award them...seems rather disappointing now doesn't it?), 16 Replayable Mini-Games, 16 Replayable Hidden Object Scenes, 15 Morphing Police Evidence Items (with descriptions) 15 Scraps & Notes to go along with a gazillion Missing Notes, 100 Zoom Zone Bucks, 15 Ugly Boring Furniture Items for Robert's Room (purchase with looted money) 5 Main Chapters +Bonus Chapter, and a Built-In Strategy Guide (you won't need it)
DARK ROMANCE SERIES LIST Title***Standard Edition Release Date***Average Rating
1-Vampire in Love (March 9-2014) 3.7 2-Heart of the Beast (May 22-2015) 4.0 3-The Swan Sonata (November 15-2015) 3.8 4-Kingdom of Death (May 20-2016) 4.0 5-Curse of Bluebeard (November 11-2016) 4.4 6-Romeo and Juliet (March 26-2017) 4.4 7-The Monster Within (October 6-2017) 3.3 8-Winter Lily (February 16-2018) 4.2 9-A Performance to Die For (August 24-2018) 4.0 10-Hunchback of Notre Dame (March 8-2019) 3.4 11-Ethereal Gardens (October 4-2019) 3.3 12-Ashville (April 24-2020) n/a
MYSTERY TALES GLASSES GADGET BROKE-REPLACED BY PHONE GADGET WHICH ALSO BROKE-REPLACED BY CAT ON HIS 10TH LIFE-HIS CHANCES OF SURVIVAL ARE PRETTY SLIM!
PostedApril 23, 2020
pennmom36
fromCrying Uncle dates back to the Roman Empire when Roman children would cry out "Patrue, mi Patruissimo," or Uncle, my best Uncle because in Roman times an Uncle carried the same status & title of respect as a Father.
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Completed Game approximately 5.5 Hours (including completion of all puzzles & CE Bonus Chapter) 25 Main Game Scene Locations +10 CE Bonus Chapter Difficulty Range: Beginner-possibly Intermediate
UNCLE, UNCLE! Question: How many games in how many different series can one developer make with the same cliche tasks, the same exact puzzles, the same features, the same over-saturated graphics, the same collectibles, and the same ridiculously boring storylines? Answer: All of them!
Gadgets/Helper: First of all, the Mystery Tales Detective used to be a Female Detective and now She's an Uncle Detective? She used to have those infamous Mystery Tales Glasses that let her not only see ghostly caches but interact and use those items in the real world. In every game, those glasses would break driving HOPA gamers nutz. After years of enduring the broken glasses gadget, fans were treated to a new form of technology...a paranormal Cell Phone which allowed us to speak with the dead! Of course, as most cell phones do, it broke as well...yea, new technology is on its way! Nope...we don't get treated to the latest and greatest mobile upgrade, lets recap: the Paranormal Gadget went from the Mystery Tales Glasses to a Mystery Tales Cell Phone to a Cat named Morty? In all fairness, Morty has the ability to travel between the land of the living and the land of the dead, so he's still a paranormal gadget. We also learn that cats at this stage are in their 10th and final life stage which is a good thing I suppose because I don't seem to have a very good track record with Mystery Tales Gadgets! Morty has a rather sarcastic attitude (my favorite type of humor) and he is rather adorable with his bi-colored eyes. His services are only used 6 times in the main 6 chapters and a couple of times in the CE Bonus Chapter, but because his cuteness factor is off the charts, and because he is on his 10th life, he gets a gadget pass!
Collectibles & Morphing Objects (CE Version Only): There are 15 Post Card Collectibles and 15 Morphing Objects that are actually quite small and slightly more challenging to spot than the usual Domini bling. There are 63 Zoom Zone Heart Tokens that can be used to purchase 15 unappealing Boudoir Decorations. Domini never changes their bling, they just change the name but they always have 15 morphs, they always have 15 pictures or postcards, etc, they always have some type of coin to buy the same 15 decorations. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but now that they have stepped up to the plate to fill the eipix game-slot gap as well, that's a ton of the same thing on a weekly basis, so a little change would be good, if not expected!
Hidden Object Scenes: There are 13 Hidden Object Scenes +5 in the CE Bonus Chapter and an alternate Match 3 Game available, which btw, doesn't allow you to make consecutive matches quickly. (you have to wait for all tiles to stop falling before you can make the next match) It's almost as if Domini just gave up, or threw this game together at the last minute because the HOP's are some of the least creative they've ever done!. Most of them were Find 12 Items Finds or Spot the Differences and the scene locations were about as uninteresting as it gets. There were a few Interactive List Finds and Silhouetted Shape Finds but nothing remarkable.
Mini-Games: There are 19 Mini-Games +9 in the CE Bonus Chapter. You can choose to play them in an Easy or Hard difficulty mode and you can choose which mode to have them start out in the Custom Setting (you can still switch between modes for each individual game) I can honestly say that I didn't enjoy any of these mini-games because they were just plain ole boring! Most of the puzzles required swapping tiles or moving tokens along a track to their matching slots, which are the same variations offered in all of their games, It's a slippery slope when you can't envision fresh ideas when releasing several different games each month.
Bonus Chapter (CE Version Only) Wind back the clock in this average-length prequel about a cat-napping witch named Belladonna. This is an average-length chapter spanning over a whopping 10 scene locations with 9 additional Mini-Games and 5 Hidden Object Scenes. You will continue your search for the final 3 Morphing Objects, 3 Postcards, and 9 Zoom Zone Heart Tokens (of varying amounts) which allows you to purchase the final Boudoir Decorations.
Collector's Edition Extra's: (CE version only) 5 Wallpapers, 10 Concept Art Pictures, 4 Music Soundtracks, 23 Movie Video Cutscenes, 40 Achievements (the same achievements offered in all of their games and notice how you earn them in the order shown AND you earn them when you didn't really earn them because they are given to you at specific set-points, not by randomly earning them. In other words, you won't earn the 5th achievement first because that's not when the game is programmed to award them...seems rather disappointing now doesn't it?), 16 Replayable Mini-Games, 18 Replayable Hidden Object Scenes, 15 Morphing Wedding Gifts,15 Postcards, a gazillion Missing Notes, 63 Heart Tokens, 15 Boudoir Items (purchase with Heart Tokens) 6 Main Chapters +Bonus Chapter, and a Built-In Strategy Guide.
MYSTERY TALES SERIES LIST Title***Collector's Edition Release Date***Average Rating
1-The Lost Hope (January 25-2014) 4.0 2-The Twilight World (January 24-2015) 3.5 3-Alaskan Wild (August 29-2015) 3.9 4-Her Own Eyes (February 18-2016) 4.1 5-Eye of the Fire (September 29-2016) 3.4 6-The Hangman Returns (January 26-2017) 3.8 7-The House of Others (June 29-2017) 3.9 8-Dangerous Desires (October 14-2017) 3.1 9-The Other Side (March 17-2018) 3.0 10-Reel Horror (September 9-2018) 4.2 11-Dealer's Choice (April 4-2019) 2.9 12-Art and Souls (October 17-2019) 3.5 13-Till Death (April 23-2020) n/a
fromI've discovered a suspicious-looking maple leaf during my crime scene investigation. This leads me to the conclusion that the adjacent maple tree is the culprit which can only mean one thing...autumn has arrived?
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After reading granny's review I wasn't in any rush to play this game (gr8 job btw ;) because it was evident that this was the same repetitive HO game as the last two in the series. I love a good old-fashioned Hidden Object Game but I don't want to search the same scene over and over, looking for the same ridiculously out of proportion objects, objects which btw are just thrown all over the scene without even attempting to hide them, until I've gone completely mad! I wouldn't even mind the repetitive scene scenario if the objects to find were different each time...how hard can that be? If I were truly investigating a homicide or any crime for that matter, I'd start by trying to find out who trashed the crime scene and threw a manhole cover in the tree? (I'm leaning towards an alcoholic as my prime suspect...see inclosed game)
I really liked the first Hidden Investigation game, and I thought that perhaps Brave Giant would take our advice and make some adjustments going forward, but clearly they haven't. The hidden objects never change position or location from scene to scene and the objects are really random and have nothing to do with an actual investigation. Once again, I had issues with clicking on objects too quickly to be accepted, which is ironic because you are awarded extra points for fast, consecutive clicking?!
The goal is to Investigate the Crime by searching for the same objects in the same scene over and over until you "master" the level and earn the required 5-Stars to progress the investigation which unlocks new scenes. Each time you investigate the scene, the Hidden Object mode is different, such as Standard Listed Items, Silhouetted Shapes, Multiples of the same object, or Scrambled Letter variations.
You can zoom in to the scenes and there is an available Hint and Magnet feature that collects any object on the list when you drag it around the scene but it takes a while to recharge...you probably won't need any of these features.
Although there isn't a Timer, the faster you complete the level, the more points you'll earn, you can earn a full star or just a portion of a star depending on the amount of time it took you to complete the level. The Stars earned by completing the Hidden Object Scenes are used to examine evidence and solve the case in the form of a mini-game.
HIDDEN INVESTIGATION SERIES LIST Title***Standard Edition Release Date***Average Rating
1-Hidden Investigation: Who Did It (August 18-2019) 2.2 2-Hidden Investigation: Homicide (January 20-2020) 2.3 3-Hidden Investigation: Crime Files (April 22-20) n/a
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I wasn't crazy about this Mosaic game, the graphics weren't very pretty, and there are no Tile variations to choose from to give the puzzles more depth. I definitely didn't like the way the board pulsated when filling in large groups of numbers, which I'm assuming was to make it appear magical? Every time I'd cross-off or X a cell, the proceeding sound gave me the impression that I had just made a mistake, and I had a hard time "envisioning" some of the completed pictures which I would never have guessed what they were had they not been labeled.
The tutorial was very vague, although it does explain the basic "how to solve a Mosaic Puzzle" the features themselves are not explained, such as the Wand and the Magic Mirror functions As you fill-in various cells, you'll uncover Flower icons, Crowns, and F's (for Fables?) which refills the Hint, Wand, and Magic Mirror features. It appeared that the flowers refilled the Wand but what does a flower have to do with a wand and what does the wand actually do? What does the F icon do, does it refill the Magic Mirror, does the crown refill the hints? Why wouldn't you have Wands to refill the Wand feature, Mirrors to refill the Magic Mirror, and a Question Mark or a Wolf to refill the Hint feature? What do these features do? I am told that I'll lose a Star if I use a Hint but not if I use the Wand or Mirror but it should tell me what those features do as well?
You can earn up to 3-Stars per level and the tutorial does tell me that stars are deducted for making mistakes but If that's the case, why are there 3 available stars per perfect level, but it shows 6 slots for mistakes? Do you earn a -3 Stars if you make 6 mistakes on a level?
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I love some of the Solitaire games by this developer, but as the first reviewer stated, this one is just another solitaire game. It's plain, it's basic, it's kind of boring, and it doesn't have that "gotta play just one more level" kinda vibe to it.
There are 3 Card Fonts (in case you don't like the one with no color?) and 6 card back designs, with a whopping 5 Trophies to earn in three categories each.
There are 4 Solitaire Variants but neither the BF synopsis nor the demo tells you what they are other than the first available which is a Golf style Solitaire. Each of the 4 Solitaire Categories has a ton of levels, at least according to the first one which has 42 levels! Although this developer is known for having the same level layouts in all of their games (they just change the story and the theme) they did change these level layouts, but some are the same level layouts. You are required to complete at least 50% of the levels before the next variation is unlocked.
You can earn up to 3 Stars per level, and you can replay any of the levels as often as you'd like. The money and points you earn can be used to purchase Number-specific Wildcards or Jokers, however, there is an 8-Card limit at any given time, but if you are patient, they are given to you for free in some of the levels. Undo's aren't free, and I have had issues with every solitaire game by this developer where several deck cards flip over at the same time as if I were rapidly multi-clicking the deck, which forces me to use my points to buy an Undo (sometimes several, depending on how many cards flip) simply because it skips past a playable card or cards!
There is an End Game Icon Banner that appears when you are nearing the end of the deck. The banner is located at the top of the screen which... A: is a bad placement in the first place, most solitaire games choose to put this feature on the deck itself instead of making the player mouse up to the top of the screen??? B: covers or at least partially covers any remaining cards on the board that is on the top, so was this an after-thought?
I love Solitaire games, and I will admit that I own several by this developer even though they are basically the same game with a different theme. I have played the original Magic Cards Solitaire so many times that I know the level layouts by heart, so they are decent games that I enjoy playing. This game was okay, not bad, not great, and certainly has nothing dynamic about it to entice me to purchase it. The levels are super easy, so much so that I was able to complete around 25 of the 42 levels offered in the one-hour trial version with 3-stars.
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I didn't purchase the CE version of Beyond the Kingdom 2 because the developers locked all of the CE content information. You had to play the entire game to even find out how many levels were in the main game, let alone the CE bonus levels, which is absurd! Since then, I have talked with people who have played the entire CE version, on the pond friends forum who've stated that there were only 39 main levels and 10 bonus levels and that none of the CE extra's were very impressive, so I'm happy with my decision to wait for this Standard Edition.
I was really surprised when I downloaded this Standard Edition version today because all my stats from the CE version carried over. All of the achievements I earned on the CE demo were still showing, and it was starting me out on the last level I completed in the CE demo (not at the beginning of the very first level. Most games are a completely different game version and it doesn't recognize that you played the previous version. From what I can tell, this Standard Edition version just has the same 31 Achievements offered in the CE version, and I'm assuming the same amount of Main Levels (39) but that's about it.
They have changed a few features since the first Beyond the Kingdom game and they added a Relaxed Difficulty Mode to go along with the Casual and Challenge Modes. I love the feature that allows you to change difficulty modes on each individual level without losing your progress. They have also added an option to enable/disable the Green Light Hints (green highlighted circled tasks that indicates you have the necessary resources to complete the task) which is really cool (also has yellow and red highlights available)
The graphics are decent and I'm glad they brought back those pesky Little Shop of Horrors plants, I think they are unusual and make the game more interesting. Each level is crammed with resources to collect but they are still the usual tried and true till you're blue tasks of gathering blueberries and whatever the red stuff is from bushes, giant ham hocks left out in the blistering sun, wood that has been freshly cut and neatly stacked (that was nice of whoever I stole the wood from) and treasure chests to pilfer gold (arrr, hope the pirates don't return anytime soon!)
There are the usual repairs of bridges, potholes, tree blockages, weeds, and leaves to remove, revitalizing buildings as well as the usual construction of Farms, Sawmills, Fisherman Huts, Goldmines, Quarries, Barracks, Huts for workers Hunters Huts (so the Archer has a home, apparently the Archer who hunts with a Bow & Arrow versus a gun btw, is an expert in explosives...hmmm?)
The Druid does his Druid Duties Dutifully, once he gets paid with dried bushes of course, and each level has a specific goal to achieve for different characters you meet along your Kingdom-bound journey, such as, getting the Gorgon to drive away stormclouds, or chasing away enchanted sheep which was a cool concept but wouldn't it have been really cool if the enchanted sheep were Morphing Sheep to collect?
I refused to purchase the CE version because of their lack of transparency tactic. They were asking me to take a huge leap of faith and trust that their "locked" bling was worth twice as much. If I've purchased several games from a particular developer, I kind of know what can be expected because of their track record, so hopefully, this developer will pick up on the fact that "hiding" the treasure (in this case, ALL of the collector's edition extra's including the number of main & bonus levels) is sometimes okay...IF the discovered treasure is a decent haul.
I think this Standard Edition version is the better route to take due to the fact that the CE bling was so disappointing. I actually liked Beyond the Kingdom 2 more than the original BtK Time Management game!
BEYOND THE KINGDOM SERIES LIST Title***Standard Edition Release Date***Average Rating
1-Beyond the Kingdom 1 (October 10-2018) 4.3 2-Beyond the Kingdom 2 (April 19-2020) n/a