perrers3's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:2
- Helpful Votes:66
- Reviews Submitted:8
- First Review:June 18, 2013
- Most Recent Review:April 26, 2016
- Featured reviews0
perrers3's Review History
A mysterious Owl Man is terrorizing citizens!
Overall rating
1
/
5
2 of 3 found this review helpful
Was this game beta-tested?
PostedApril 26, 2016
perrers3
fromGrenoble
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
Because it doesn't work very well. The only challenge in doing most of the puzzles is in trying to find the right place to click. Puzzles shouldn't be PHYSICALLY difficult, and it's clear that programming here was sloppy and the game not thoroughly tested. A single playthrough should have been enough to catch the kludgy, impossible clicking.
Other issues include the replacement of gameplay with cutscenes, or the ridiculous gimmick of the "deduction", where the player deduces nothing, but is instead forced to talk with NPCs endless times to advance the story. A similar mechanism is the "foresight" button, a spooky woo reverse object hunt with no challenge that launches yet more cutscenes and backstory instead of actual gameplay. Will game designers never learn that games are not movies, and we're not here to watch yours?
(Corollary, dear game designers, no one was ever thrilled by watching screws unscrew or pounding in nails. These things do not need hours of careful animation, nor does the player derive any kind of satisfaction from clicking four times and watching this unscrewing animation four times, instead of going through it once. Likewise, assembling objects in our inventory is meant to be a MENTAL challenge, not a physical one. Adding a bunch of steps using multiple objects picked up together is busy work, not puzzling.)
The side scrolling added nothing except additional difficulty navigating the world, especially given the fact that objects don't match up with hot zones and clicking on anything is a trial. Who are the people rating this game five stars? I honestly do not understand how a person could not notice the poor technical quality, even if they are prepared to accept a passive movie watching experience in lieu of a game.
The only even mildly interesting parts of this game were the little puzzle boxes, which appear to have been lifted from the later ravenhurst games, and which would be a lot more fun to navigate if clicking on things wasn't such a nightmare.
I don't recommend this game.
Without warning, a group of mysterious figures arrives and reduces your village to flames and rubble. What do they want... and who is controlling them?
Overall rating
1
/
5
14 of 16 found this review helpful
Tiresome. Awful. Not a game.
PostedDecember 5, 2015
perrers3
fromGrenoble
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
This is unspeakably tiresome. Will someone PLEASE tell game developers that their third rate movie is not the same thing as a game? And pretending that directed clicking tasks are the same as solving a problem or puzzle is starting to be offensive to the average user's intelligence.
Example: I pick up a bag, then I have to click on the bag in my inventory to open it, watch an extended animation of the bag dumping out a pile of 8 coins, which I must then pick up, one at a time. Why? They're not hidden. They're not disorganized. Are we seriously pretending that this kind of task is the same as puzzle? If I want to pick stuff up and put it away, I'll just stay home and clean my apartment. If there is no discernible difference between your "game" and my household chores, you need to rework it. GAME first, graphics AFTER.
I don't recommend this game.
Save your beloved and rebuild a devastated land!
Overall rating
5
/
5
14 of 16 found this review helpful
The timer is a GOOD thing
PostedJuly 20, 2015
perrers3
fromGrenoble
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
I just wanted to respond to the reviews which say this game is not fun because the timer is too hard to beat. First, for me, this is exactly what makes the game fun: that it's not so simple that you can just play through it in the demo period.
But second, there are ways to do it, you just have to find them. If you can't beat the timer, you can change strategy and find a way through. For me, this is the very essence of a puzzle game: figuring out what to do.
Also, a free bonus tip for those who are stuck, though I was able to make it past the timer on quite a few levels before I realized it myself: check your backpack.
I recommend this game!
Find the cure to save your brother from the Others.
Overall rating
1
/
5
10 of 12 found this review helpful
yet more interactive fiction pretending to be a game
PostedJune 28, 2015
perrers3
fromGrenoble
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
I kept waiting for this to leave me alone to actually play the game, when at a certain point I realized, this IS the game. It's more like interactive fiction than a puzzle ; the only thing making it take any time at all is the long loading time between scenes which could have been avoided by animating less and creating actual gameplay more.
Finally, chasing after my boyfriend or whatever he was; this plotline is a staple of these games, having to find a lost or taken loved one, but something about this one was just finally too much. Do game developers think that because the people playing these games are often women (or more often than the FPS genre, anyway) that we are somehow incapable of connecting to any story that is not about a husband and kids? Because that's not the case. I don't usually much care about the story one way or another, but sometimes a game fails to meet even my low, low expectations for the genre, and this is one of those times. I wasn't even able to finish the demo.
I feel every game I don't like I submit the same feedback, and yet nothing changes. Game developers: I don't want to watch your movie or read your fan fiction. I am looking for a GAME, where the challenge is to figure out what to do, not to watch a million cut scenes. Also, once the game is created, please just leave me alone to actually play it. I don't need the thrill of watching you animate screws turning for the 800th time, or the faux verisimilitude of having to chop something three times instead of once, hidden object scenes that are like a penance you have to endure to get back to the game proper, or the ridiculousness of a knife that you can only use once. Truly great games advance their story without a lot of cut scenes and work the player's solving skills, not her patience.
I don't recommend this game.
When your daughter, Emily, is taken over by a mysterious force, you must travel to the Nightmare Realm to search for a cure. But nothing could have prepared you for what you find there…
Overall rating
2
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Terrible controls
PostedNovember 18, 2014
perrers3
fromGrenoble
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
This game had potential: it was beautifully put together and the developers clearly spent a long time animating everything.
Here's the problem, though. Not everything needs to be animated. The controls are slow and sludgy and unresponsive; something as simple as picking up an item from the inventory and using it is unbelievably difficult. It's fussy about the cursor to pick it up and you have to click multiple times, then it's fussy about where to click to use the item and that takes forever. My hand was literally sore after just the trial period. Please, I beg you, TEST your games with ACTUAL USERS before your release them.
As for the puzzles, the difficulties here too were physical rather than mental. What was up with the loom puzzle? And I have never spent so long on a simple towers of hanoi puzzle, just getting it to select the piece I wanted selected. Puzzle games should be a MENTAL challenge, not a physical one.
This game also reprises many of my pet peeves: unskippable cutscenes, characters who interrupt what you're doing to urge you to hurry, the faux verisimilitude (you have to click five times on the glass with the hammer, really? Each click over animated and with a two minute wait? I've entered a portal to the nightmare realm; I think we can all agree that verisimilitude has left the building and just break the glass for me once I figure out what item to use where).
All in all I could not recommend this game, despite the lovely graphics. It's just too annoying to actually play.
I don't recommend this game.
A doctor has mysteriously vanished from a psychiatric clinic, and it’s up to you, hypnotist Maya Anderson, to solve the mystery!
Overall rating
1
/
5
16 of 18 found this review helpful
I did NOT like this game
PostedNovember 1, 2013
perrers3
fromGrenoble
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
This is, like so many "games", more like an interactive movie than a game. I think there are probably people who really enjoy this, but I am not one of them.
I also really wanted to like the interface: it isn't what you see in most games, and it seems like it has the potential to be interesting and fun. In practice, though, it was clunky to use and frustrating (takes multiple tries to pick up an item, attempts to move result in the inventory opening and vice versa). If it could be fixed, it might make for interesting other games, but an innovative interface is NOT a substitute for actual content. Game players, at least this one, like to have something to do other than click through dialog.
I vehemently disliked both battling phobias (skippable) and clicking through endless dialog "choices" which affect nothing and cannot be skipped.
Add to that the fact that apparently the main character is using her cleavage to hypnotize the patients, whose problems are stereotypical, easily solved, and in some cases (native american woman) verging on offensive, and there was just nothing here for me.
I don't recommend this game.
Rescue your abducted brother from eternal darkness in this thrilling Hidden Object adventure game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
1 of 2 found this review helpful
Okay game with poor implementation
PostedOctober 27, 2013
perrers3
fromGrenoble
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
This game seems like it would be a perfectly fun, run of the mill, adventure/hidden object game in that genre we all know and love, but the actual implementation is not very user friendly.
I found that the hotspot for objects (hidden and otherwise) was routinely a little above the object itself. This was also the case for hovering over inventory objects: hover too low and the text appears below the edge of the screen.
In addition, a few of the games were physically tiresome to play; for example, the wolf lock would not allow you to move a piece more than one step at a time, which, combined with the click-somewhere-above-the-object problem, meant that I just skipped it in frustration. A logic game should not be physically difficult to do.
It's a shame because I think that if some of these interface issues were fixed, the game could be very enjoyable.
I don't recommend this game.
An ancient phoenix summons Anna to explore a drifting ocean city, confront the Evil Colossus and save her lost tribe.
Overall rating
2
/
5
8 of 9 found this review helpful
This is a movie, not a puzzle game.
PostedJune 18, 2013
perrers3
fromGrenoble
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Time Management, Puzzle
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I realize that I may not be typical, but I come to these games because I like puzzles. I feel that cutscenes and dialogue are a necessary evil that must be endured to get to the good stuff, the meat of a game, the puzzle that you have to figure out. For me, the ideal game leaves me with an inventory full of objects, a list of problems to solve, and hints available if and only if I ask for them, as I try to figure out what to do.
By these standards, this is not a game. This is someone's movie that they wanted to make, and in which they allow you, the player, to occasionally click on something, but only after multiple cutscenes and dialogues (most unskippable) and tons of overhelping that you cannot turn off. Maybe this is good for some people, but I wish there were a way to flag these games as some other genre than "puzzle" or "adventure".
I don't recommend this game.