Dreamscapes - The Sandman - Platinum Edition

Publisher/Developer: Playrix - Shaman Games

Date of Review:  25 April 2014  (bonus finished 25 April 2014, main game finished 21 April 2014)

Genre:  Adventure  (no HOSs)

Availability:  SE - BFG and GameHouse  :  CE - GameHouse

Story:

Trapped by her nightmares, a young girl needs your help in Dreamscapes - The Sandman Platinum Edition, a chilling journey through the surreal.

As a little girl, Laura was haunted by eerie dreams that dissipated once her dad gave her a dreamcatcher. Years passed without an incident but on the night of her first violin solo, a strange figure appeared and destroyed her dreamcatcher, prompting Laura to fall into a coma. To bring her back, you have volunteered for an experimental procedure that sends you into her nightmare. What will you find?

Help Laura escape her mental prison and overcome the nightmares in this chilling undertaking. Travel through her mind and figure out what keeps her captive in this state. Search for useful items, solve puzzles, and uncover answers. Only by locating all of the pieces to the dreamcatcher will you be able to understand her predicament and possibly help her. Be mindful of your surroundings however, because if you're not too careful, you might end up just as Laura.

Critics give Dreamscapes - The Sandman 4 ½ stars and call it a "haunting experience that belongs among the best titles in the PC adventure game canon". See for yourself when you try the free trial version or download the full-unlimited version of Dreamscapes - The Sandman Platinum Edition today!

Platinum Edition (CE) Extras:

Enjoy exclusive content when you purchase Dreamscapes - The Sandman Platinum Edition including bonus gameplay, an integrated Strategy Guide, Concept Art, a Musical Soundtrack, Wallpapers, and a Screensaver.

  -  12 x wallpapers
  -  17 x concept art - can all be saved
  -    9 x music tracks
  -    8 x screensavers, which are all great!

The Game:

Modes:  2 difficulty modes - Regular and Expert

HOSs:  None

Puzzles:  There are some really original minigames/puzzles that are heaps of fun to play and some of them required quite a bit of thought.  I really liked them.  I had to skip one puzzle as my computer couldn't handle it - it was a platform game.  There are also some arcade and inventory puzzles, as well as some usual ones.  I loved the real 'thinky' puzzles. 

Graphics:  The graphics were okay but nothing special. 

Gameplay: 

I loved the fantastic music and atmosphere.  There's also good lip syncing and voiceovers.  There is also a sliding screen in the hospital room, which I loved as I love games with sliding screens (ie. the screen slides to the left and right when you move the cursor to the edges of the screen.  The game is also non-linear, which I liked, as you could go wherever you liked and pick things up as you found them.  However, the story is linear. 

Note:  You may not want to play if you're coulrophobic (fear of clowns) or myrmecophobic (fear of ants) or isopterophobic (fear of termites).

The Hint Button:  The Hint button gives you hints in a really fun way - a minigame!  If you drag one of the inventory items over to the Hint button, a minigame comes up where you have to turn something over and over in 360 degrees to line all the white lines up so that they form a picture of where you are to use the item and the word also shows.  That was so much fun!  There are also 2 achievements for doing that - one for 5 times and one for 10 times.  I didn't do the Tutorial so I didn't know about this little minigame until I read Wendy's review - so thanks, Wendy!  I'd been wondering what those 2 achievements were for. 

The Black Bar Tips:  A little too helpful but okay.  But I loved some of the black bar comments that I made in the game! 

The Collectibles:  There are 108 "Beholders" to find and then "neutralize".  You click on them once to get them out in the open and then again to "neutralize" them.  There are between 1 and 6 to find per scene, although most had 3 or 4.  You always knew how many there were in each scene as it showed you when you clicked on the arrow at the left of the screen, and when you found the first one it said 1 of so many.  Most were really hard to find as all you can see are the one eye per beholder and often you had to wait for them to blink to see them.  Most are super small and a  couple were only slashes of colour on something as nearly all of them were hiding behind things or in cracks, etc.  Sometimes I had my nose almost on the screen, waiting for a blink to find the last one.  They're found both in the normal scenes and the zoom-in scenes.  There are 3 or 4 different types as bodies - with long legs like spiders or bodies like worms or wings like insects - were attached to the eyes.  I loved finding them and they continued into the bonus chapter, when there were a further 24 to find.  You get achievements for finding all of them in both the main game and the bonus game, however, you can't get the one for finding them all in the bonus chapter if you only have the SE, even though it's displayed in the Achievements Room (the SE has the achievements and Beholders). 

There are also lots of diary pages to find throughout both the main and the bonus games, and the pages are actually pages from a diary which gives the backstory - in the main game they're from 3 different time periods in the girl's life.  I'd strongly suggest you read the diary before finishing both the main game and the bonus chapter as the pages you find aren't in order and you don't find all the pages, so reading the 2 once you've finished collecting all the pages is really interesting as you get the whole backstory at once.  Once you've finished either the main or bonus games you can no longer access the diaries.

Achievements:  There are 14 achievements, mostly earned automatically through gameplay, and they're in both the SE and CE, although, as stated above, you can't get all of the achievements if you don't play the bonus chapter.  They're fun achievements as they're cute little hairy creatures that rule in the Dream World.  When you go to the Achievements (available from the main menu page) they're displayed on their big treehouse, all having fun, like painting, or playing chess, or riding a bike, etc.  However, you have to place them in their spot, like an extra minigame, as you first click on the arrow at the left of the screen that opens up to show you the achievements you've earned up to that point and then you click on them and drag them into position, having to match the little creatures with their silhouette.  I thought that was a great idea!

The achievements (as located on their tree) are:
  -  Find all the beholders in the Bonus Chapter.
  -  Find al the beholders.
  -  Wake up Benny.
  -  Find 25 beholders.
  -  Find 50 beholders.
  -  Complete 11 chapters.
  -  Find 5 chapters of the diary.
  -  Get the Sleep Power Locket (Premium Edition).
  -  Put the entire dreamcatcher back together.
  -  Use the HINT button 5 times to learn about objects.
  -  Use the HINT button 10 times to learn about objects.
  -  Complete half the game.
  -  Save Laura from her first nightmare.
  -  Colour the picture.

The Collector's Edition:

CE versus SE:  I recommend the SE but I'm really glad I played the CE (not available at BFG). 
Length:  I didn't time it but I didn't feel it was short.    The bonus was about 90 mins. 
Bonus Chapter:  Not necessary to complete the main story (which ends conclusively) but a good addition.  All new scenes and you get to save the baddie, as well as finish Laura's story.  One good thing was that you can replay the bonus chapter without having to replay the entire main game.
CE Extras:  Bonus chapter, music tracks, wallpapers, concept art, screensavers, plus a couple of extra achievements that you can't get in the SE.
Collectibles:  108 (in SE) + 24 (bonus chapter) really difficult to find beholders, as well as diary pages.
Achievements:  You get some extra achievements in the bonus game, like getting all the beholders and finishing it, that you can't get if you only have the SE. 

My Recommendation: 

I loved this game, especially as it was an adventure game, and I highly recommend it, either the CE or SE.. Fortunately, the SE is enough, as the CE isn't available at BFG, and you still have the Beholders and Achievements in the SE.  However, if you have a FunPass ... Anki ... I can highly recommend playing the CE.  I would also recommend it for anyone who hasn't as yet played any adventure games as this would be a great way to begin as it's a lot easier than other adventure games and is a bit of a cross between straight LFA games and HOPAs.  Just imagine a HOPA without the HOSs.

My rating: 

  I really loved playing this game and I will definitely play it again! 
 

Plagiarii

Publisher/Developer:    Moncarwit

Date of Review:             1 May 2014  (played 30 April 2014)

Genre:                              HOPA

Availability:                      BFG – released 13 November 2013
                                           GameHouse – released 24 April 2014


The Story:

Evelyn awoke locked up in a strange place, her whole life overturned. Even in her strangest dreams, she never could have predicted what extraordinary phenomena would soon overcome her existence: memory loss, mysterious disappearances, encounters with an unknown intelligent species, time travel. Help Evelyn escape her confinement, discover the truth behind these unusual events, present humanity with a priceless gift, and find true love along the way.

    *    Genuinely unpredictable plot
    *    Unique and exciting mini-games
    *    Original Music
    *    Attractive high-definition graphics
    *    Romantic love story


The Game:

Modes:    1
 
Options:    Sound, volume, full screen, system cursor.
 
Widescreen:    No widescreen for me, just curtains down each side.
 
Tutorial:    Optional but you get one anyway.

HOSs:    The entire game is very HOS heavy but I liked the way there weren't any HOSs just for the sake of having them but rather you often had to look for things in a room that you needed.  For example, you needed 12 fuses?  Then that was your HOS; you had to find 12 fuses.  You needed some weapons?  Then you had to find 12 tools that could be used as weapons.  You needed to free some people who'd been held captive?  Then you had to find 12 traps in the room before you could get to the locked door.  However, you also had some list HOSs with a couple of interactions, like opening drawers. 

You go to a room or location and the entire room is a HO scene.  The objects are all pretty much life size so some things are very, very small, like a pill.  I don't think there was a single HOS where I didn't use the Hint button for the last item or two, which were either things that were very small - although seeable - or things that were very well hidden.
 
One fun thing to do in the HOSs was click on objects.  Some of them made sounds when you clicked on them.  For example, if you clicked on empty glass bottles they tinkled.  You never knew which objects – alive or not – would make a sound.  That was fun, like a minigame within a HOS.
 
There’s one really interesting black and white HOS.  The objects are outlined in black on a white background, like sketches, although it’s a scene, and you can only see a very small portion of the screen at a time as you move the cursor around.  Down below are silhouettes of the objects you need to match up (kitchen utensils) and, whenever you found one of the objects, you clicked on it and then moved it over the matching silhouette below and clicked on that.  I found that interesting as I’ve never seen a HOS like that before.
 
Another interesting and unique HOS was a kid’s room and there were 12 words around the room, for example, on a poster, or graffiti, or spelled out in blocks, etc.  You had to first locate each word, then look for the corresponding object somewhere in the room, some of which were very small.  I really liked that one as it was different.

Minigame/Puzzles:     All the puzzles were part of the gameplay.  For example, if you had to eliminate a virus, then you looked under the microscope and there was a minigame to do that.  One door you needed to open had great, big, flat paving stones in front of it and you needed to work out which ones had to be pushed down to open the door.  Some of the instructions were a bit vague and some took a bit of trial and error to work out but they were mostly original and fun, and none of them were difficult.
 
There were also some usual puzzles, like spot the difference and match 2, but they were also a bit different.  For example, you’re having your portrait painted and to have that done you have to find the differences between 2 portraits of yourself – then you get to choose which portrait you prefer and then that portrait is the one displayed on the easel!  I liked that attention to detail.
 
One minigame was putting 30 jewels back into a crown – and some of the jewels were miniscule!  I found that a bit tedious, especially when I couldn’t find where to put one of the big jewels!  I should have looked at the side of the crown, shouldn’t I?
 
You’re able to skip all puzzles.  I skipped one as I simply didn’t have the patience for it.  You had to put glowing things in a jar.  You just had to click on each one and then click and leave it in the jar.  However, the ones you’d already put in the jar kept on trying to escape and as there were so many I just didn’t have the patience to try and get them all.  But I did about half before I gave in in defeat.

Graphics:    Although HD and clear, the graphics looked a bit old-school but fine.  There were realistic backgrounds with cartoon-like drawings of characters, with no animation and no lip syncing.
 
Music:    All original music that was fine but I didn’t think it really suited the game.
 
Voiceovers:    There were no voiceovers.  Everything was text with no animation.

Gameplay:    The story is in chapters so would be easy to just do one chapter at a time.
 
You enter a room (or occasional outdoor location), find the collectible crystal (if you can), do the room HOS, do a puzzle or two, then you’re automatically taken to the next scene.  Only at the very beginning, when you wake up not knowing where you are or even who you are, and one other location, are you able to walk back and forth between several rooms at will.  After that, you’re just automatically taken wherever you’re going next as soon as you finish the puzzle.  So no wandering around and no getting lost.
 
You do get a few inventory items in the HOSs but these are used straight away in whatever puzzle that room has, so you never accumulate a huge inventory and then have to try and remember where you need everything.

Hint Button:    The Hint button is invaluable for those really hard-to-find hidden objects.  It also turns into the Skip button during puzzles.

Map:    As stated above, there’s no wandering around so no need for a map.

Black Bar Tips:    These tell you what you need to do in each room, so necessary.  For example, it told you that you needed to find the 12 traps/dangerous animals in the room before you could free the people – and that was your HOS for that room.

Collectibles:    Yes, there are collectibles in an SE!  There are 36 crystals to collect, some of which are very, very, very small and very well hidden.  I only found 33 out of 36 but that was enough to give me the 6 bonus scenes at the end, which are just 6 pictures and text that finish the story for you.  The 6th one is a picture of the 2 guys who created the game, telling you that the next game will be the prequel to this one, where you’ll find out what happened to the main character (ie. you) before you woke up in the hospital, not knowing where you were or even who you were.  That’ll be interesting! 
 

My Recommendation: 

Length:    It’s definitely not a long game.  It took me somewhere between 2½ and 3 hours but I’m a slow player and I kept trying to find those last tiny hidden objects, so I spent longer than usual on the HOSs.  I read that someone did it in an hour and only used 2 hints – which I find very hard to believe.   Someone else said that they took 2 hours, and that I believe if you’re a player who rushes through games without taking the time to stop and appreciate the graphics, story and gameplay.
 
Difficulty:    This is a very easy game as there’s no wandering around and everything is very straightforward.  However, the instructions for the puzzles were a bit vague and I had to do a bit of trial an error to work some of them out – you’re told what to do but not how to do it – but I just found that that gave it a bit more of a challenge and also made it more life-like as, if you were really in that situation, you wouldn’t be given any help.
 
My Recommendation:    I certainly recommend this game for anyone who has a FunPass, even if it’s just to play some unique HOSs and puzzles.  I’d also recommend this game for anyone who wants an easy game or who likes straight HOGs with some puzzles.  It’s also short and relatively easy so would be great as a fill-in game. 
 
However, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone purchase this game, unless you wanted to support the developers who have made a good effort for their first game.  It’s too easy, there’s no widescreen, the graphics are old-fashioned with no voiceovers or animation, and there’s no adventure.
 
There were only 5 names plus a composer in the credits, and this is the only game I could find for them.  So, if this is the first effort of a very small new team then it’s a great first attempt and I can’t wait to see what they do with their next game, the prequel.
 

My rating: 
 
     I liked playing this game but nothing special  (although I liked the originality)

 

Last edited by stusue (May 22, 2014 10:58 am)

Black Rainbow

Publisher/Developer:   Cateia Games

Date of Review:             4 May 2014  (played 29 April 2014)

Genre:                             Adventure  (no HOSs)

Availability:                      Legacy Games for $2.95 until Friday, 9 May 2014
                                         Coming to both BFG and GameHouse


Story:

Help Helen escape the burning village; guide her through the dark and dangerous forests and help the people of Amazonia. The evil behind the curtain is far bigger and more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined. It's up to Helen to restore the balance in this hidden and unexplored world. Will you survive the impossible?

    *    Find your way out of the dark forest of the Amazon!
    *    Search through dozens of hidden and sacred places!
    *    Solve dozens of exciting mini-games!
    *    Numerous animated, colorful locations to explore!


Gameplay:

Collectibles:    20 stone skulls
Companion:    None
Diary:    Notes, Help (cursors, etc.), Achievements and Game Statistics (time, total clicks, hints used, etc.)
Gameplay:    Adventure with lots of inventory puzzles (challenging) and minigames (easy-medium) - no HOSs
Graphics:    Superb adventure-style - 3D background with 2D people (CAGE engine) - water looks real
Hint:    Directional - there's an achievement for not using it
Modes:    3 - Casual, Adventure, Challenge
Map:    Confusing jump map (it's back to front, left is right) that indicates available actions
Music:    Very atmospheric
Tutorial:    Optional
Voiceovers:    Really good
Walk Indicator:    Shows available exits from the scene - you can turn it on and off at will

Minigames/Puzzles:    24

The game is mainly adventure (walking around a huge gameplay area with lots of locations) and doing puzzles to do things like opening doors, lowering bridges, etc, which often happen in other locations.

A lot of the minigames/puzzles are gameplay/inventory ones.  There's a lot of - you need to open something (door, lock) and you have to look around for a mechanism with a puzzle to open it, or some inventory puzzles, which may be somewhere else entirely.  You may have to go to another room and do some sort of puzzle to activate something in another room.  When you've done whatever you needed to to do to activate whatever it was you needed to activate, you see the activation in a little animation and so you know where it's just occurred and you can go there.  I loved this as it wasn't straightforward at all and was real adventure. 

You can't die in this adventure game (at least I didn't) but I did keep getting my fingers chopped off in one of the minigames!    In some of the minigames to have to time moves perfectly - like putting your fingers in between moving swords to press buttons to turn something on or open something up.  It was SO much fun!    What I didn't realise straight away, however (as I tried to do all the puzzles/minigames without reading the instructions, just like in real life), was that you could click on the swords when they were far away from the middle and they'd stay there briefly, giving you a bit of a window to press that button.  There are some really cool minigames in this game and totally unique as most are just part of the gameplay.

Inventory:

I loved the inventory tab, which has fast left/right arrows so that you don't have to scroll all the way back or forward to find an item - and you collect a lot of inventory items (I collected 124!).

Using your inventory items was sometimes a bit tricky - and sneaky!  One time I had to open a huge stone lid and I had to put gold coins on top for a puzzle.  I placed the gold coin I had and expected to find the other 3 during the game and then go back and place them there and do the puzzle.  Well, what I didn't find out until I worked it out later, was that I needed that gold coin in another puzzle in another area to change normal coins into gold coins before I could put all 4 in the original puzzle to open the stone lid.  I loved that as it wasn't straight forward at all! 

Map:

You have a jump map but I found it confusing as everything seemed to be back to front, as what's on the left side of the map is actually on your right side.  I got SO confused running around as the world is huge with so many different places.  You also end up with a couple of different portals to jump back and forth (eg. to a floating island, 1 of the portals had 3 choices) but you have to remember which portal you need to return to to get to where you want to go as they're located in different areas.  I often had no idea where I was and got totally lost!    And I loved it!    And the map is on, I think, 4 parchments for the different areas. 

However, as it's a jump map you can always get to where you want to go easily and it shows available actions.  As there are so many locations it's split into 4 (?) different parchments for the different areas with little circles for each location.  If you click on one of the circles a little thumbnail picture will come up, showing you which location it is and what it's called.  You can then click on it and you jump there.  Sometimes you have to go from one end of the game to the other and I'd use the map to orientate myself and then work out how to get to where I needed to go, then hit the road without using the jump map.  However, as it was back to front, sometimes I'd use the map when I just needed to go one scene and still went the wrong way and had to keep checking the map. 

I love wandering around in any game as I love getting to know my way around and, in this game, boy did I feel a huge sense of accomplishment and had a huge grin on my face once I'd worked out how to get to a certain location.  But don't get discouraged as I played on Challenge Mode, refused to use the Hint button so I'd get the achievement, and refused to use the jump map as I simply prefer to get lost wandering around.  If you play in one of the easier modes, use the jump map and hint button, you'd have no problems moving around and knowing where you need to go.

Collectibles:    20

You can collect 20 stone skulls.  I thought they were all fairly easy to spot (start out easy but get progressively harder to find - small and camouflaged or hidden) but, apparently not, as I missed one and you can't go back to find it once you've finished the game.    I've suggested to Cateia that they allow you to go back through the game and find any missing collectibles before you're kicked out of the game and to the credits at the end of the game and Ivan said they'll look into that and see how feasible it is. 

One of the skulls was even hidden behind the diary right down at the bottom left of the screen, which I thought was a bit sneaky.  And not every scene has a skull so you never know if you've missed one or if there isn't one in that scene - which makes it harder.  A couple of the skulls were found in zoom-in areas, and that's all there was to find there.

Achievements:    12

The achievements are nearly all performance based - listen to all dialogues, several for collecting the stone dragons, for not skipping minigames, etc - a couple game based - 2 for completing the game in different modes.  There's even one for finishing the entire game without using the Hints!  And there's no SG or walkthrough!   

Combiner (inventory use):

Just like in Tales From The Dragon Mountain 2: The Lair, this game also uses a Combiner.  If you have several pieces of an object in your inventory, or if several inventory objects need to be combined, when you click on the location where you need to use/combine these objects, a ring of small circles containing silhouettes of each object or part of an object will surround the location and you have to put the inventory object in the correct circle.  The object will then either be put together and placed in the location, or, if several objects need to be used together to do an action, that action will automatically be done for you once the last object is placed.  It's very handy as you know exactly what you need somewhere (although some of the silhouettes were a tad confusing as I had no idea what they were supposed to be. 

Miscellaneous:

    *    There's a mechanical skull and I loved the animation
    *    Parts reminded me a bit of Myst, wandering around out in the open
    *    Starts in the Amazonian jungle then goes sort of old jungle/Sci-Fi mix
    *    Click on everything!!!!!
    *    There are 2 underwater areas and they're amazing with the sun-dappled effects
    *    All the water areas (lakes, 1 in a cave) are amazing and look almost real
    *    I finished in a tad under 4 hours but it seemed a LOT longer I got so immersed in it!
    *    If you play in Easy mode, use the jump map and hint, and skip the puzzles, it would be shorter

Statistics in Diary:

The following are my stats in the diary after I'd completed the game:

Player:    StuSue
Elapsed Time:    03:56:58
Difficulty Mode:    Challenge
Achievements Unlocked:    10/12
Read Diary:    18x
Total Clicks:    3904
Hint Used:    0x
Items Found:    124
Skulls Found:    19
Minigames Solved:    24/24
Minigames Skipped:    0/24


My Recommendation:  

I loved this game, especially as it was an adventure game, and I can't recommend it highly enough! 

I especially recommend it for all adventure lovers, or for those who'd love to try one as this one's really good and easy if you play in Easy mode, use the jump map to find where there are available actions and to jump, and use the Hint button. 

If, however, you prefer more of a challenge, you have that option by playing in Challenge mode, by not using the jump map, not using the Hint button, and by trying to play all the minigames/puzzles without first reading the instructions.


My rating: 

  I loved, LOVED, LOVED this game! 
 

Forgotten Books: The Enchanted Crown - CE


Publisher/Developer:         ERS

Date of Demo Review:       10 May 2014  (demo played 10 May 2014)
 
Date of Review:                  17 May 2014  (game played 15-16 May 2014)

Genre:                                  HOPA

Availability:                           BFG


Note:    I copied my demo review (in black) and, without changing that at all, simply added to each section after having finished the game, both the main game and bonus (in blue).
 
 
Story:

Your curiosity is piqued when your librarian friend shows you an ancient book that seems to have no ending. As you open the book’s pages, a character in the story begs for your help! All at once, you’re swept into his magical kingdom - where a monstrous threat is bent on destruction, but your path is blocked by a mysterious pen re-writing the story. Can you find a way to free the king from his chains, and rid the land of Eldor from danger before the final hourglass runs out?
 
The Collector’s Edition includes:

    *    Explore four new story worlds and earn new achievements
    *    Complete your set of collectibles
    *    Complete a picture with the paints you've collected
    *    Use the available Strategy Guide
    *    Wallpapers, screensavers, music, movies, and concept art


Options:
 
    *    Music volume
    *    Sound volume
    *    Voice volume
    *    Full-screen
    *    Wide-screen
    *    Custom icon
 
 
CE Extras:
 
    *    Bonus chapter (Explore four new story worlds and earn new achievements)
    *    7 wallpapers
    *    16 concept art, which can be saved
    *    8 screensavers
    *    14 movies
    *    4 music tracks, which can be saved
    *    16 replayable HOPs
    *    15 mini-games
    *    Workshop – just 28 photos of the developers, not very interesting as you don’t see the work
 
 
Gameplay:
 
I loved the animated opening.  It’s crystal clear (unlike some of the later scenes) and smooth.  It’s also very dramatic.
 
I also really liked the story and I loved the way the book is being rewritten as you enter scenes.
 
After playing:    Unfortunately, there are only a few more rewritten scenes using the pencil after the demo.

Collectibles:    18 paint jars (you just pick them up in zoom-in areas, no need to look for them)
Companion:    None
Diary:    Once again a scroll with the story
Gameplay:    Usual standard HOPA quests
Graphics:    Usual ERS graphics, but some crystal clear, some a bit blurry, great animations
Hint:    Directional and will show you if items need to be combined in the inventory
Inventory:    Bottom as usual, sometimes you need to combine items to get another
Modes:    4 - Casual, Advanced, Hard, Custom – can change at any time during the game
Mode, Custom:    Tutorial, Sparkles on active areas, Sparkles on HOPs, BBT, Hint and Skip (off or 5-200 secs)
Map:    Jump map, with each scene shown as an open book, a pair of glasses show where you are
Morphing Objects:    No
Music:    Good
Quality:    Usual ERS quality
Sparkles:    Yes – active zones and HOPs – depending on what mode you choose
Strategy Guide:    Yes – but I doubt you’d need it as the hint would be enough and it’s not difficult
Tutorial:    Yes – depends on which mode you’re playing in
Voiceovers:    Good but a tad OTT – no lip sync for people, but they have animation while they’re front and centre on the screen when they speak – one heron had beak syncing – you can fast click through speech or skip
 
After playing:    All the animals have some form of lip syncing, none of the people.

Difficulty:
 
The gameplay and difficulty is typical for an ERS game.  You need to remember what you need where, as in all HOPAs, but it’s not difficult. 
 
After playing:   
 
This is actually quite a difficult game for an ERS game.  I read that ERS had upped its difficulty and it’s true.  It’s not a hard game but you definitely have to think about what to do next and where to go, and the HOSs, HOPs and minigames are also more challenging than usual.

Black Bar Tips:
 
I loved the black bar tips and comments and would probably leave them on to play the game as they were funny and I was LOL.  A lot of the black bar tips/comments I came across in the demo were hints, rather than telling you outright what you needed.  For example, right near the beginning there are clams that are covered with vines and the black bar comment is, "I will have to claw my way through this one".  A bit later you find a claw that you use to cut the vine.
 
After playing:   
 
Unfortunately, the BBTs didn’t continue with the great, funny, hint comments after the demo and I ended up turning them off (I was playing in Custom Mode) but it was too difficult without the BBTs and so I turned them back on.  It was either have the BBTs or constantly using the Hint button to know what to do and where to go.  I didn’t feel like wandering around endlessly or wracking my brain trying to work out what was needed so turned them back on, as no BBTs means NO BBTs.  A couple of times when I didn’t have the BBTs turned on, I had no idea what was needed in a zoom-in area as it wasn’t at all obvious, even after I knew what was needed; it was like, “Oh, okay. I’d never have thought of that.”.
 
HOPs:   16    (main game – 13 … bonus – 3)
 
I only came across 3 in the demo (but I was taking notes so didn’t finish the demo, which someone said was short).  The first one is played twice, the first time you have to find all the gold objects with slight interaction, the second time was silhouettes and everything removed the first time were gone when the HOP was revisited.  The second one was silhouettes where you then had to put the objects back into the scene to get one of the other silhouette objects, or you had to move things, turn things, etc. to get objects, some of which were progressive.
 
After playing:   
 
I loved the HOSs/HOPs!
 
Some of the HOSs were part of the gameplay and not just stuck in for the sake of a HOS.  For example, for one HOS that you play twice (I think you play them all twice) you zoom into a table that has lots of fruit and flowers on it and you put the basket that’s in the inventory onto the table.  Then you get the silhouette of different fruit one at a time to find and put in the basket.  You then need the fruit for a minigame that was fun and had two different difficulty levels that you can choose between and swap between as you play the minigame.  Each time you switched between them you’d start again so I’d play the easy level first then, when I got to the last one, I’d switch to the hardest level to start all over again.  It was fun but easy in both of the difficulty levels.  The second time you visit this HOS you first have to find a book which goes into inventory, then you put the book on the table to collect flowers and you actually have to turn the pages to get to the next flowers (great attention to detail).
 
One of the HOSs was a twist on the usual – instead of finding x lots of 2 matching fish (in a right/left reflection) you have to find 10 unique ones amongst all the matching ones, in an underwater world that’s moving.  The reflection is right to left but isn’t an exact reflection as there are lots of unmatched sea creatures.
 
One of the HOSs is a chest of drawers with 3 drawers and the objects can be found outside the chest or within the 3 drawers.  What was great was that, unlike a lot of other games, the object list didn’t change as you opened or closed drawers, so you never know which objects are to be found where.  Bravo!  It makes it too easy when the objects listed are highlighted when you’re in the scene where they’re located.  Also, some of the objects were only seen when you’d found other items.
 
There are also some interactive silhouette HOPs.  I loved one of the progressive HOPs with a clock – there are 2 puzzles within the HOS and they’re quite challenging.  I had to take notes for one of them. 
 
Alternative Puzzle:    There’s an alternative puzzle you can play if you don’t want to do the HOSs/HOPs (but they were so great I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to play them).  I don’t know what it’s called but I used to play it all the time as a kid.  You draw dots in rows and columns on a piece of paper and then you take turns to draw a line between 2 dots.  Whenever you can close a square with one line you claim that square and put your initial in it.  When all the squares have been claimed, whoever has the most wins.  In this case it’s a beautiful playing field instead of dots on a page but the mechanics are the same.  It also has a Casual or Hard option.

Minigames/Puzzles:    15    (main game – 13 … bonus – 2)

I only remember coming across two in the demo.  Both were original and easy.  One took me a few tries to get right and the other was an arcade game (and I loved the way the beavers stuck their thumbs up when you got them).
 
After playing:
 
The minigames/puzzles are either original or have twists on typical ones.  There’s a really cute M3 with jellyfish.  At some point after the demo, it seemed that all of a sudden I had lots of inventory and was suddenly doing lots of puzzles, which I loved.  Not the inventory, as I hate scrolling through a lot of inventory to find what I need, but I loved all the puzzles.
 
Just like the HOSs, in some of the puzzles I needed an inventory item that I didn’t yet have and so had to remember where they were so that I could find them again once I had the item I needed in inventory.  This added to the challenge of the game.
 
The puzzles/minigames are definitely more challenging than ERS’ usual ones.  They’re not difficult but definitely not easy, either.  They just take a bit of thought and they’re not short.  For example, one of the puzzles is where you have to separate strings so that they don’t cross.  However, in this one there’s a twist that you discover when you’re trying to separate the strings.  It’s also more challenging than usual as, not only do you have to separate the strings so that they don’t cross, but you also have to put the stars on points to form a picture!  I normally love this type of puzzle and this one was even better – and it took a lot more thought and a lot longer than usual.
 
HINT:    There’s a minigame with 3 levels where you have to bring 3 animals to life (from pictures).  You can always tell which tile starts the line as one of the ones that can go there will have a rounded end, so you can always know which one to start with if you look closely at the tiles before you begin.

Collectibles:    18    (main game – 13 ... bonus – 5)
 
There are only 18 paint jars to collect and they’re in the zoom-in areas.  They’re just sitting there with other objects and you just have to click on them to collect them when you get the hand.  So disappointing as there’s no fun in just picking collectibles up without having to look for them.  I don’t class that as having collectibles, just more inventory items, even though they don’t go into your inventory but rather to the collectibles/achievement page as they’re related.  You collect paint jars and then your achievements are scrolls, a palette and paint brushes in a jar.
 
After playing:   
 
My opinion of the paint jars as merely inventory items that go into the Collectibles/Achievements room hasn’t changed.  I’d hoped that maybe as you continued to play they became more difficult to find but no, unfortunately.  I’d also hoped that once you’d collected them all maybe you could actually paint the pictures you acquire as achievements, but no.  You simply collect them and as you collect them more colour is added to the paintings you’ve acquired.  That’s it.  So disappointing and what a wasted opportunity.
 
Achievements:    11

There are 11 achievements and I got one in the demo – I got the palette for simply saving the tree – so not an achievement, just an acknowledgement that I’d done something in the game that I’d have to do anyway to continue.  As stated in the collectibles, these scrolls, palette and paint brushes are used to paint pictures.  Each scroll can be opened up on the easel and then you can paint a painting but I don’t know how that works.  I don’t know if any of the achievements are performance based as it doesn’t say what they’re for.  There are 9 scrolls and I think there are maybe 9 story worlds you have to fix (as it says you explore 4 more story worlds and get extra achievements in the bonus – so 5 in the main game and 4 in the bonus?) and I assume you just get a scroll once you’ve finished and fixed each story world – hence maybe no performance-based achievements at all.
 
After playing:
 
Not a single achievement is performance based.  Every achievement is simply for doing something that you have to do in the game.  Really disappointing.  I’d hoped that you actually get to paint the paintings once you’ve got the scrolls, or I’d really hoped that maybe you had to put the pictures together in a jigsaw puzzle or something first.  But no, they were simply there, you simply clicked on the paintbrush and they were painted. 
 
Once again, what a wasted opportunity!  They could have had the pictures as jigsaw puzzles, which you then had to paint by numbers, or icons, or something, and which were then your wallpapers.  But no!  The paint jars were in your face so that you couldn’t miss them, then the scrolls were acquired simply by playing the game, then you opened them, clicked on the paintbrushes, and they were painted.  End of story.  I was so disappointed.
 
Bonus Chapter:
 
No idea how long it is nor what it’s like as it’s not shown in the SG and no one’s finished the game yet and commented about it in a review. 
 
After playing:
 
The bonus has absolutely nothing to do with the main game at all, which ends conclusively.  It’s just you trying to fix all the havoc the rabbit has caused in four other books.  There are some characters in it from the main game but the story is totally separate.  Once again you have an awful lot of inventory items.
 
The bonus chapter was of a good length, about 1½ hours.  It was fun but there were only 3 HOPs and 2 minigames/puzzles.  The rest of the time was spent simply going back and forth from one book to another (there are four and you have to remember which is which and what you need in each – I strongly recommend you make notes or else you’re going to be doing an awful lot of unnecessary travelling from book to book), finding inventory items in each one that were needed in the others.  
 
There’s also a portal in each book where an animal from the main game has come through and you also go into and back out of each of these four portals into one scene each in the main game.  You revisit HOSs from the main game in these scenes but all the items in the scene have changed.  Not only are the lists 100% new but every object in the scenes are new.
 
Length:
 
No idea.
 
After playing:   
 
I didn’t time how long I played but it certainly wasn’t short.  I played it over two days and was doing other things at the same time so I can’t judge how long it took.  I just know that it seemed to be quite long.  The bonus was about 1½ hours.
 
Strategy Guide:
 
The SG in the demo only shows the first 2 chapters and the first 3 collectibles.
 
Main game  –  pages ?
Bonus chapter  –  pages ?
 
After playing:
 
Chapter 1  –  pages 2-8  –  Magic Forest
Chapter 2  –  pages 9-15  –  Old Castle
Chapter 3  –  pages 16-21  –  Way to Royal Palace
Chapter 4  –  pages 22-30  –  Palace
Chapter 5  –  pages 31-36  –  Prehistoric World
Chapter 6  –  pages 37-40  –  Temple out of Time
Bonus  –  pages 41-57
Collectibles  –  page 58
 
 
Miscellaneous:  (after playing)
 
There was some great attention to detail.  For example, the clock in the library shows your local time whenever you go back to it!  I just wished it also kept tally of how long you play.  I also loved the racoon (in the bonus) that’s pregnant and she holds her extended stomach just like a woman does.
 
I noticed at the beginning that the spoken speech didn’t always match the written text, but it didn’t change the meaning, and only occurs a couple of times.  The name of the world in the book – Torelian – was pronounced differently by several different characters, which I found amusing.
 
The game starts with not much running back and forth as there are only a few scenes per location and you move on once you’ve finished there.  However, as the game progresses you get more and more inventory and you start running back and forth more and more.
 
Sometimes the game was very silent with no music for quite a while.  It was really weird whenever this happened in HOPs as then it was deathly silent as there were no ambient sounds at all.
 
One problem I came across was when I changed something in a zoom-in painting and then there was nothing else I could do, even though there was obviously something still to do.  So I exited the scene and immediately clicked on it again and then I could enter another scene through the painting.  I think you should have been able to immediately enter the painting without having to first exit.
                                                                                                                                      
HINT:    always check the tops of scenes as I sometimes missed something you had to do as they were up in trees, for example, and I hadn’t checked up there.

 
Negatives:    (after playing)
 
One negative thing was, for being a game about a book that’s being rewritten with the pencil, after the demo that only occurs another couple of times, which I found really disappointing.  They could have made so much out of that, which is what I’d been expecting and was one of the reasons I got the CE.
 
Another – which I really didn’t like and found annoying – was that sometimes when I had to use an inventory item in a zoom-in scene I had to place it exactly where it was to go or else it didn’t register.  Sometimes I thought I must be trying to use the wrong thing but no, I just hadn’t placed it on the exact spot it was to go.  I also had problems clicking on some things in the HOSs as I had to click on exactly the one pixel that registered and sometimes it took a while, clicking on every pixel that made up that object.


My Recommendation:    SE – not CE
 
I really enjoyed what I played of the demo.  I liked the story, the graphics and animation, and the gameplay with scenes being changed when you enter them.  Yes, it isn’t very difficult, but I liked the dark story that takes place in a book that’s constantly being rewritten.  I’ll need to read a lot more reviews before I decide.
                                                                                 
So I recommend the SE but not – at this stage – the CE as I don’t think the extras are worth double the price, sale or no sale:
 
    *    there are no morphing objects
    *    there are only 11 achievements and they all seem to be story based and not performance based
    *    the collectibles are really only inventory objects that go into your achievement room
    *    replayable HOPs and minigames don’t interest me as I never have time to replay them
    *    painting the 9 scroll achievement pictures doesn’t interest me either

I also don’t think such a simple game is worthy of CE status.  Unless I read that the bonus is super long and really interesting with the 4 extra story worlds, I’ll stick to the SE, either with a PCC or during a BOGOF.
 
After finishing both the main game and bonus:
 
I loved playing the main game and it’s certainly a lot more challenging than I’d thought from the demo, the gameplay, HOPs and minigames/puzzles.  Unfortunately, even though the bonus chapter was quite long for a bonus and it was okay to play, I felt really let down and disappointed with all the CE extras, bonus included, which spoilt the fun I’d had playing the main game.  Although I don’t regret having got the CE at the price of an SE, I really regretted not finishing the bonus with the same great feeling I’d had after having finished the main game.  I was also really disappointed with all the extras, as they hadn’t lived up to my hopes and were just there and meant nothing.
 
So I wholeheartedly recommend the SE as it’s a great, fun, challenging game with some fantastic HOSs/HOPs and minigames/puzzles.  But I don’t recommend the CE as the bonus chapter doesn’t live up to the main game and the extras are disappointing.
 
 
My Rating:
 
    I loved playing this game    (main game)

 

Last edited by stusue (May 19, 2014 2:05 am)

Origins - Elders of  Time - Platinum Edition


Publisher/Developer:     BlooBuzz

Date of Review:               22 May 2014  (played 28 March 2014, first posted 29 March 2014)

Genre:                               HOPA

Availability:                        SE  -  BFG  -  released 21 July 2013
                                            PE  -  GameHouse  -  released 26 March 2014


The Story (at GameHouse):

Find the lost island and reveal its secrets to understand your father's mysterious disappearance in Origins – Elders of Time Platinum Edition, a hidden object adventure that will transport you to another time and place.

As Lisa, you are alone when your mother is killed in an accident. For 20 years, you have wondered about the mysterious disappearance of your father, and now it's time to investigate. What clues are left for you to follow? Who can you trust? You must be curious and clever all at once while you overcome challenges and puzzles that stand in your way.

Let your quick wit and imagination lead the way when you play the free trial version or download the full version of Origins – Elders of Time Platinum Edition today! Better yet, purchase and download the full-unlimited version to enjoy exclusive content including bonus levels, beautiful wallpapers, and an original soundtrack.

    *    Follow the unfolding of an adventure story full of unexpected twists.
    *    Challenge yourself with clever puzzles and mini-games.
    *    Encounter characters who may help or hinder your progress.
    *    Unlock the exciting bonus chapters.
    *    Enjoy exclusive content including stunning wallpapers, concept art, music,
                and an embedded game walkthrough.


The Game:

The following is my post in Finish your games challenge - 2014 that I posted on 29 March after I'd finished the game - main game and bonus.  It was posted before I started my review thread, so it's not as detailed as my more recent ones.

stusue wrote:

I played Origins: Elders of Time PE yesterday, - the CE version at GameHouse, not the BFG SE version.  I'm not sure why BFG didn't offer it as a CE as it has a bonus chapter, SG, several jump maps (there are several locations and lots and lots of scenes - I just used the Hint button to get around), collectibles, achievements, the usual extras, and it was long, as was the bonus chapter.    And, with the 50% sitewide discount at GH at the moment, it's the price of an SE. 

I really liked it.  It's mainly adventure with an interesting storyline and a few puzzles and HOSs thrown in for good measure.  Some of the puzzles were super easy but they got harder as the game progressed and some were original and fun.  The HOSs were hard!    But fun!    I have no idea how how you could possibly get the achievement for doing a HOS in under 30 seconds.    You have interactive list HOSs and some small ones where you have to find parts of an object in order to build it so you can use it.  They were all hard because the graphics weren't as clear as some other games.  However, in the interactive list ones, not only do you have the straight list objects to find, but also some interactive ones and some needed more than one interaction, but you also had several in each HOS where you had to find maybe 3 or 5 of several objects, which may not always have been the same thing (eg. bulb could be a light bulb or a plant bulb).  There were also some that weren't objects and you had to work out what they were (eg. "sleep 3" were three "Zs"!) or you needed 2 or 3 objects to make something (eg. "hunting scene 2" was a hunter and a deer).  And some of the objects were hidden really well, as in hidden behind things, so you had to not only look for the objects but also find maybe just a bit sticking out from behind something.  So the HOSs were hard but fun and definitely thinky.    So how you could possibly do one in under 30 seconds I have no idea.    However, if you, like me, get stuck finding that last object or 2 or 3... you can always choose the easy alternate golf solitaire game. 

There weren't all that many puzzles but they were original and fun.  Some were easy peasy but, as I said, they got harder later in the game.  Some took some thought, however, but all were fun.  There also seemed to be a lot more puzzles in the bonus game, which took me about 90 minutes, and that was hitting the Hint button continuously to get to wherever I had to go, so longer if you wanted to remember what you had to do next and where to go yourself.  The bonus game isn't necessary but was good and gets you off the island and back home.

One major negative, though, is the SG, which I didn't find until I was near the end of the main game.    The SG itself is fine but you'd never use it in the game.  One reason is that the Hint button takes you to wherever you need to go (or you can use the jump map that shows where you have things to do if you choose the easier of 2 modes) and then, if needed, it shows you what inventory item to use where.  It doesn't help you with the puzzles, though.    However, if you want to check out the SG, you have to totally exit the game back to the main page, then open "More Info", then open the SG!    Then go back to the main page before restarting the game.  Not a good place for the SG.  I mean, who'd think to look in More Info to find the SG?    I couldn't see any way to access it in the game. 

But I didn't find all the collectibles!    What you collect I thought you'd need as part of the game (I didn't realise they were just collectibles) so didn't pay too much attention to them, picking them up when I found them (I don't think they were in every scene and a couple of times I think I found more than 1 in a scene), but thinking you'd have to find them all to do something.  But I was obviously wrong.    Oh, and that's a weird thing - there's no room or anything to showcase the collectibles (they're really boring, anyway) and the only way you know how many you have is when it shows that you've found maybe 8 of 20 when you find one.  Another oddity in the SE version is that you still have achievements but you don't know what they're for or what achievements there are as the achievements are listed in the Extras and the SE version doesn't have the Extras on the main page, and all the achievements are named and that's all that shows up when you get one.  So, you get an achievement but you have no idea why and you can't find out in the SE version!  That's weird. 

..
My Recommendation:    SE and PE (especially the PE) 

I definitely recommend this game, either the SE at BFG or the PE at GameHouse.


My Rating:

    I really liked playing this game!
 

Last edited by stusue (May 22, 2014 10:59 am)