AverageSizeFish's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:2.8
- Helpful Votes:2,910
- Reviews Submitted:173
- First Review:June 2, 2014
- Most Recent Review:May 1, 2017
- Featured reviews0
Status:
Step into the shoes of investigator Frances Keegan and track down a tax evader suspected of murder.
Overall rating
2
/
5
14 of 17 found this review helpful
Absolutely awful - 1.5 stars
PostedOctober 13, 2014
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
The graphics are not of the highest quality and have the same appearance of games made several years ago. The art style is photo realistic and somewhat cluttered. The music has a pointless crescendo motif and is on a fairly short repeat so it became annoying. The atmospheric sounds are minimal but what there is doesn't really match well with what is going on in the game. There are no voice overs.
The story line is severely lacking in any kind of character development and plot development is pretty thin also. You play an investigator whose partner was murdered. This basic theme could be developed into something interesting but, unfortunately, the devs chose not to go that route. Instead you spend your time doing mundane things like getting dressed for work, searching for your phone, and turning on computers. Interspersed with these activities is some of the most banal dialogue I've ever seen in a HOP game.
Game play involves being given an instruction to find something in the current scene. You find it and another instruction appears. This goes on for awhile and then the scene changes or you're treated to some of the boring dialogue. There is also the occasional dull puzzle. Nothing is difficult to find but having the list painstakingly delivered one item at a time is quite annoying. You return to the same scene over again which, given the lackluster appearance of any given one, is very unfortunate. You can move your viewpoint of the area but the panning you can do is so minimal I don't see why the dev bothered with this feature.
This game is in the style of an older HOP game. Unlike the greats of that genre this game has no charm, no cleverness, no humor, no creativity, and no soul. Playing it is, quite simply, a very boring and joyless experience. I'm giving it an extremely generous 1.5 stars because, while it is absolutely awful, at least it isn't offensive.
I don't recommend this game.
Search Margrave Manor to uncover its secrets and discover your family`s forgotten past in this Hidden Object thriller.
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 4 found this review helpful
Fun Classic HOP
PostedOctober 12, 2014
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This is a classic older HOP game so the graphics aren't the phenomenal glossy stuff that more current games have. That said, the graphics are clear and did not stretch on my newer machine. There isn't much in the way of atmospheric sounds but what is there goes with the story. The music is pleasant enough to not be annoying. There are no voice overs.
Game play involves a round of HOS with each being in a different room which you return to throughout the game. There were a few FTD's and "HOS in the dark" sprinkled throughout. Following the HOS you put a torn letter together to find out more about the story. The story is also supplemented by written dialogues your character has with the butler of Margrave Manor.
You receive pieces of a door key puzzle from the butler (1 per round of HOS) and when you complete this puzzle you unlock the final room in the house to discover the last secret.
The game is quite long and is probably best played in chunks rather than all in one sitting. I played it for about an hour or two a day and it lasted over a week. Because the game design is rather simple it is no problem to pick up where you left off even if you don't play it for several days between sessions.
The HOS are of straight list "junkpile" type which I think are fun. They range up to moderately challenging and a few contain one or two items that are difficult to find. The letter puzzles are pretty easy.
This is a game for people who love HOS and don't mind easy puzzles. Those who are looking for an inventory collection component will probably not find what they're looking for here.
I recommend this game!
Prove the innocence of a young queen before she is put to death for a crime she didn't commit!
Overall rating
3
/
5
27 of 42 found this review helpful
Average and unexciting
PostedSeptember 27, 2014
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The graphics are sharp. The art looks almost like watercolor illustrations with a somewhat cartoonish feel. The voiceovers range in quality from decent to annoyingly stilted and wooden. Unfortunately, the healer's voiceover falls into the latter category so you're stuck with her the entire game. The music is very nicely done and fits the action perfectly.
The story is typical. You play the healer called in to cure an afflicted royal person. As usual, shortly after arriving circumstances change and your mission grows to something far greater. The story unfolds mostly through cut scenes and puzzles where completion of a step rewards you with snippets of the kingdom's history. Dialogue with other characters serves mostly to provide you with new objectives.
You receive a little bird as a helper and it will flap its wings and chirp when you need to use it. Near the end of the demo you are informed it needs to return to its nest and you lose it. Often what I needed to click on to deploy the bird was covered by the black bar and having to wait for that to go away before I could click the target was somewhat annoying.
The inventory collection component of the game is very predictable for anyone who has played a few HOPA games. Objectives are quite clear and the tasks needed to achieve them are obvious. There is a moderate amount of backtracking. There are collectible "healers sigils" in every location and they were pretty easy to spot.
The HOS all have an interactive component although often this is just clicking on something in the scene to scoot it out of the way. The HOS catalog you receive as a CE extra appears to indicate there are 13 in the game and 3 are included in the demo. The puzzles are of average type and all were very easy.
The custom cursor was somewhat laggy but switching to the system cursor solved that problem. At times I had to repeatedly attempt an interaction to make it work but, in general, the game works smoothly. The inventory bar locks. I never needed the map or the hint button so I can't say how well either works. There are three levels of difficulty with no option to customize.
Overall this game is decently made but just not very interesting. Game play is lacking in challenge, the storyline is lacking in originality, and the artwork, while better than amateur, is a far cry from expert. There's nothing really bad about it so I can't say I don't recommend it but there's nothing really good either so I can't say I do.
Enjoy this beautiful adventure set in a unique interactive 3D Thailand! Complete mysterious puzzles and find hidden objects. Prepare for an unforgettable experience!
Overall rating
2
/
5
8 of 12 found this review helpful
Frustrating and tedious
PostedSeptember 22, 2014
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The graphics are sharp and clear but many scenes are dimly lit to the point where they seem murky. The palette is vivid but contains such a limited color range that the game is visually monotonous. The music is unobtrusive and fit the theme. The voice over actors have decent voices that fit their parts but they deliver their lines so slowly that it is quite annoying.
The story has your character, an archeologist, traveling to 1947 Thailand to teach a young boy about archeology. She arrives only to find he has gone missing and it's up to her to track him down. There is a lot of back story delivered in dialogue with a male character, lengthy cut scenes, and little collectible tickets. The story develops at a glacial pace and is painfully dull. It seems to have very little to do with anything else going on in the game so I stopped reading the tickets and started skipping the cut-scenes.
The adventure component involves a lot of back and forth running around. You examine a scene, find nothing of interest, move on, cannot figure out what to do, the hint button directs you back, and all the sudden something of interest has appeared there. Having just examined this scene 2 minutes previously it is really annoying to be directed back only to find the developer chose to place an item of interest there only after making me move forward from a seemingly empty area. This kind of "gotcha" style set-up makes the whole game feel like an exercise in random clicking.
I found only two HOS during the demo period which, for me, is reason enough to not want to purchase this game. I play HOPA games to do HOS and this game has an insufficient number. They were both too easy. There were more puzzles and even more mini-games. These mini-games all involved an exercise of eye-hand coordination that I am simply not looking for in a HOPA game. I found them severely annoying, in part, because the user-interface is so clunky and the cursor so unresponsive to subtle mouse movement.
If a developer is going to include tests of eye-hand coordination in a game they could at least make sure the cursor responds well to a player's hand movements. The "3D" effect was also somewhat poorly done so that when you try to scan around your view keeps popping back to the middle making it difficult to examine the sides. This is unfortunate because things you need to find, including the direction to other areas, is often present at the sides. It became a frustrating chore just trying to examine an area fully.
Between the tedious harping on a back story that was apparently unconnected to the action going on in the game, the excessive use of eye-hand coordination mini-games, the profound lack of HOS, the "gotcha" style adventure component, and the terrible user-interface it's difficult to say which element made me dislike this game more. All I can really say is it had almost zero fun factor for me. 2 stars because I only give 1 if a game is outright offensive.
I don't recommend this game.
Diva's dark talent claims another victim – can you stop her before the curtain falls?
Overall rating
2
/
5
10 of 15 found this review helpful
Boring story & lackluster game play
PostedSeptember 11, 2014
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
The graphics are sharp and clear. The artwork is done in lush, vibrant color and is very well done. The music and voice overs are adequate.
The storyline was so uninteresting that as I write this, a couple hours after having played the game, I cannot really remember what it was about. When I was playing it I felt I had played it before and I think some of the scenes were from an earlier game by this developer.
There were not many HOS and all of them were of the same interactive type. They were all very easy. The annoying sameness and lack of challenge was made worse by the fact that the point and click system used requires very precise placement of the cursor in order to make an interaction happen. That is, you know what you need to do, you try to do it, and it keeps not happening because the area to do it in is too small and ill-defined. The puzzles were very easy although, due to their design, they take a while to complete. This made them tedious.
The inventory collection component was typical enough that there was never a question of what to do. Objectives are clear as are the tasks you need to perform to achieve them. Unfortunately, it all required a significant amount of backtracking so you never really see very much other than the same old areas over and over.
This developer clearly has a lot of talent and a large budget. I wish they had spent it on something imaginative and unique rather than this very predictable, easy, and boring game. Beautiful graphics are not sufficient to make a game fun or interesting. I was able to finish the demo but I have no interest in purchasing this game.
I don't recommend this game.
When entering another's dreams, you'll have to play by a different set of rules.
Overall rating
4
/
5
23 of 24 found this review helpful
Mixed bag - try the demo - 3.5 stars
PostedSeptember 10, 2014
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The graphics are sharp and clear and the artwork is well done. The game does not expand for a wide screen but this didn't bother me. The music is unobtrusive and fits the theme. Atmospheric sounds are minimal but what is there is well done. There are no voice overs which, in my opinion, is better than poorly done ones.
The storyline is a "relative rescue" story but it is handled very differently than most. Your character, concerned about her sister's well-being, heads off to find out why her letters have stopped. The remainder of the story seems to flip back and forth between reality and dreams but it wasn't always clear exactly which was which. It unfolds in cut scenes and monologues from other characters that you meet along the way.
The adventure component has quite a bit of back and forth built into it which slowed the game's momentum. The tasks are typical fare and not difficult to figure out. The overall objective, at any given time, was less obvious so at times game play felt task driven rather than objective driven. I performed tasks to progress in the game but I wasn't always sure where I was headed.
The HOS and puzzles are better than average and there is a good amount of both. HOS are clear and the objects you need to find are good sized. They ranged up to moderately challenging because some things are just well hidden. The puzzles were of varying types and they also ranged up to moderately challenging. The puzzles and HOS are a strong point of this game and they set it apart from the extremely easy games that seem to be the norm lately.
The user interface works very smoothly and I had no difficulties while playing the game. This is a second quality which sets this game apart from the many games coming out lately that have problems with a point and click system that requires too much precision to get things to work. I don't want to have to search for an unmarked, two pixel sweet spot to make something happen and with this game I didn't need to.
There is a journal that records your activities and gives insight into what is going on. The hint button works well. The game is an SE so there are no collectibles or achievements. There are three levels of difficulty but no custom option.
Overall, this game is a mixed bag that's hard to rate. There is much about it to recommend it including the graphics, ease of game play, and the puzzles/HOS. On the other hand, the storyline is a little difficult to follow and the pace is a little slow due to the back and forth nature of the inventory collection component. From reading other reviews it seems this might be a first game by a new developer. If so, I hope they keep making games because this one shows a lot of promise. I recommend trying the demo. 3.5 stars for effort.
Margaret's soul has been broken into fragments and strewn across multiple worlds. Can you find them all and save her?
Overall rating
3
/
5
11 of 15 found this review helpful
Good quality "magic portal" game
PostedSeptember 6, 2014
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The graphics are clear. The artwork in the portal world is very "busy" and done in very bright colors with high contrast. The combined effect was sometimes visually chaotic to the point where it was not always easy to tell what I was looking at. The music was appropriate to the theme. The voice overs were good as were the atmospheric sounds.
The story is a very typical "rescue your relative by using magic portals" story. Your character discovers his sister's soul has been entrapped by a dastardly madman bent on ruling the world. He has hidden pieces of it in various worlds scattered through an alternate reality that can only be visited through magic portals. You must rescue your sister, defeat the sinister evil doer, and save multiple worlds, at least one of which is a pink and purple fairyland. The story unfolds through dialogue with multiple characters, cut scenes of decent quality, and various documents you find along the way.
The adventure component has some amount of back and forth running around built into it. Objectives are usually clear and the tasks needed to achieve them are typical enough to not be difficult to figure out. Your sister left your character a little mechanical fairy who can occasionally be deployed to fix broken machinery and you pick up at least one other helpful device later on. There were a few times where an inventory item didn't seem like it should accomplish what it actually did accomplish but this was infrequent.
I ran into four HOS while completing the demo. They were all the same type. Roughly half of the items were straight list finds and the other items required some kind of interaction. Interactions ranged from just clicking on something to open it to little mini tasks like frying an egg. In each HOS there were a couple hard to find items but none was frustratingly difficult. The puzzles varied in type and none of them were difficult. They were, for the most part, fun to do.
The jump map worked very well and shows areas of interest. There are collectible masks and coins. Each collection can be viewed in its own area although these areas were not unlocked during the demo. There are also achievements and the tool bar locks. There are 3 levels of difficulty and a custom option. The custom option does not let you turn off black bar tips. I occasionally had difficulty navigating out of a puzzle pop-up as the area to click back seems quite small but aside from that the game ran smoothly.
Overall, this is a decently made game with a common storyline that just didn't grab my interest. The portal land was imaginative and different than the norm but I didn't care for the art style as it was jumbled and done in highly contrasted pastels. While it isn't a buy for me I think it is of sufficient quality that many people might like it. It's definitely worth spending an hour to try it out.
I recommend this game!
Save your cats and investigate a series of leopard attacks.
Overall rating
4
/
5
60 of 72 found this review helpful
Well crafted and easy to play - 3.5
PostedSeptember 4, 2014
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
The graphics are sharp and the snow leopard animation is very good. The artwork is nicely done and fits the story well. The music is unobtrusive and also fits the theme. The atmospheric sounds were understated but appropriate to the action. The voice overs fit the characters and were pretty good overall.
The storyline is somewhat typical. Strange, and possibly mystic, goings-on have resulted in an influx of wild animals, in this case snow leopards, to your town. Additionally, domestic cats are going missing. You play the town veterinarian who is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and retrieve her own runaway cats. In spite of the feline theme I did not receive an animal helper during the demo period.
The story unfolds through dialogue with a couple other characters and through cut-scenes. The cut scenes are well done and effectively move the story along without becoming intrusive.
The adventure component, from what I could tell in the short demo period, is fairly linear. You start out with a few areas to explore in one location before moving to a new location with a few areas within it. Objectives are clear and the tasks needed to achieve them are typical enough to not be difficult to figure out. There were a few times when the pop up box for a given interaction required multiple attempts to make it work but overall game play was smooth.
There seemed to be about one HOS per location. They were of varying interactive types and they were easy There was a roughly equal number of puzzles. They were of average type and difficulty.
There are collectible posters that you can view in an album and there are achievements with an achievement gallery for you to visit. The map is well made although given the linearity of play, at least during the demo, I didn't need to use it. The game has four levels of difficulty including a custom setting and the tool bar locks.
This is a well crafted game with excellent graphics and good pacing especially for players who prefer a linear adventure component. The storyline is based on a theme typical to the HOPA genre but the demo was too short to know whether interesting twists would develop further into the game. It's difficult to know where the developers are headed with such a brief peek.
I would have liked to see a little more challenge in at least some of the HOS/puzzles but if the story heated up I could settle for what is here. It didn't knock my socks off but I think the game is good enough to recommend giving it a try to see what you think. For me, the game is not a rush to buy game but it's definitely above average. Based on the short demo it appears perfectly suited for newer players and those looking for a relaxed game session.
I recommend this game!
Mr. Turner was surrounded by people who could all benefit from his death, but who actually murdered him? Play the detective in this classic whodunit mystery!
Overall rating
3
/
5
47 of 59 found this review helpful
Just plain dull - 2.5 stars
PostedSeptember 2, 2014
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
The graphics are sharp and clear. The art competently portrays the interior and grounds of the upscale home where the entire game takes place. The voice overs are not particularly excellent but there is nothing annoying about them. The music seemed a bit too dramatic for the story and would be more suited to an action adventure than a meticulous investigation in my opinion.
The story is a typical whodunnit with you playing the lead detective called in to investigate the murder of a wealthy man. Your list of suspects includes a handful of people distinguished only by the fact that each is a complete stereotype commonly seen in stories about murdered men and detectives. There is nothing unexpected or even slightly original about the story at all. It unfolds through cut scenes, boring dialogues, and occasional silly monologues from your character.
The adventure component takes place entirely within the dead man's home and involves quite a bit of to and fro activity. The scenery there just wasn't visually interesting enough for me to want to spend this much time looking at the same rooms over and over so all the circling around became boring. I kept hoping that the detective would get to do something other than prowl through the same area for the umpteenth time but it never happened.
There were many details that just felt silly to me also. For example, the detective refuses to investigate the bathroom because there's too much steam and she cannot shoo a tiny lizard without a squirt bottle. To call this contrived is being kind. It's really just downright ridiculous.
There were a decent number of HOS. They were straight list finds alternating between text lists and silhouettes and they were easy. There were also a few scenes where you find fingerprints while viewing the screen through a pale green mist apparently meant to simulate some type of magnifying device. These were even easier than the HOS. The puzzles were of varying types and generally pretty easy.
Overall, this is not a very exciting game. The story is simply too familiar to be even remotely interesting to me and the game doesn't make up for this with appealing scenery or challenging HOS/puzzles.
It may be that later in the game the detective finally gets out of the mansion or an interesting character is introduced. There might even be an unforeseen plot twist. I will never know because when the demo ended I felt like I had completed a dull chore rather than spent an hour doing something that's supposed to be enjoyable. This leaves me unwilling to purchase the game to find out.
I don't recommend this game.
Solve the mystery of a seaside town as you uncover your lost memories.
Overall rating
2
/
5
5 of 7 found this review helpful
Absolutely abysmal - 1.5 stars
PostedAugust 30, 2014
Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
Graphics and sound were acceptable. Not stellar but nothing wrong with them either.
You play a guy whose girlfriend is kidnapped and your objective is to save her. You have an adorable dolphin friend that you can call with a whistle and he helps you navigate the waters which make up a large part of the island environment the game is set in.
Game play is ridiculously contrived and frustratingly lacking in any logic whatsoever. Early in the game you watch your girlfriend get violently dragged into a house by the bad guy against her will. Shortly after that your dolphin friend gets imprisoned in a cage suspended out of the water. At this point you have her screaming to you for help and your dolphin friend is suffering or maybe even dying.
So what do you do? You do things like scrounge around in an abandoned fisherman's shack for a broken record which you carefully glue back together. You then paint a silver coin gold, give it to a crow in exchange for gold cufflinks, melt those down in a ladle that you had to find, carry the ladle containing molten gold to another site where there's a coin press, and make a new gold coin.
Having done these non-intuitive things, after a lot of back and forth running around for obscure inventory items, you then take both coin and record to a fountain in the middle of town to insert the record into it. Then you pay the fountain with the gold coin so it will play the record. A fountain that serves as a jukebox? Really? In what world exactly?
Meanwhile, your girlfriend is still kidnapped and your dolphin friend is still dying. What do these tasks have to do with the story? Why exactly would anyone do all these ridiculous things while their loved ones are in harm's way? How is anyone supposed to guess what idiotic thing this developer wants you to do?
Oh, and when you use the hint button it doesn't help and it refills at a glacial pace. It told me to go back through many scenes so I could deposit a wrench onto a bed next to a broken boomerang. Doing so got me nothing. My girlfriend was still kidnapped and my dolphin friend was still dying while I was locked into this trail of nonsensical tasks that had nothing whatsoever to do with anything that could reasonably be expected to help them. Your guess is as good as mine about what a broken boomerang had to do with the story.
I have never seen a mish-mash like this in any game I've ever played. I wanted to save my girlfriend and my dolphin friend. Instead I got this trail of crazy that made no sense whatsoever.
This is easily one of the worst games I have ever played and I couldn't last longer than it took to just save the dolphin. It couldn't be more awful if they had tried to make it awful. Spare yourself the agony and don't waste any time even bothering to trial it.
I don't recommend this game.