Small Town Terror:  Galdor's Bluff

It appears this game will be marketed as a CE because I had to locate 25 morphing crystal balls during the demo.  I found 12.  Is this an indication that the game is going to be way extremely short?  A definite "hmmmm" moment.

In the town of Galdor's Bluff, named after a famous magician, two young boys were taught everything he knew (Galdor).  Then, Galdor passed away and the two young boys grew into men and, it seems, adversaries.  Your character, a Detective, has been hired by one the young men (Thurman) to investigate ... something.  Apparently, young Thurman is fearful for his life AND is concerned someone may try to sabotage his opening show.  Thurman's main fete has to do with fire.  Did he have a basis to be afraid??? Maybe so, as he was burned to death during his "magna opus" performance.  Is it Addington (the other young boy/man)?  Or, is there someone else who bears a grudge against the infamous Thurman?  Is Thurman even really dead??? 

The graphics were really well done.  The voice overs were great!  If there's lip-syncing, that's an automatic boost in praise for me - lol.  

There are 4 levels of difficulty, including the ever-popular "Custom". YAY!  There is also an optional tutorial, a journal I never looked at and a transportable map.  While there wasn't much in the way of "extras" mentioned, I did have to find a collectible morphing (yay) crystal ball in each location.  I found 12 before the demo ended.  THAT was terribly disconcerting.

HOGs were itemized list items.  Mini games equalled HOGs in ratio - IMO.  None were too difficult to accomplish.

I enjoyed the beta enough to play it several times (a glitch/bug during game play caused  me to have to restart several times) but having only ONE collectible item, even though it morphed, isn't enough to warrant a CE purchase ... for me.  As of this printing , I will most likely purchase the SE, unless the final "demo" has a lot more to offer.

Thanks so much for reading.

Magic Gate:  Faces of Darkness


To  begin with, I still don't know, even after playing the beta game and taking copious notes, what the "magic gate" is and who the "faces of darkness" are.  Sad.

Nathaniel and his fiancee, Gloria, move into their "new" "old" house.  As they are unpacking, Gloria shouts to Nathaniel to meet her upstairs to show him something.  They converse and Nathaniel heads back downstairs to look for keys.  Suddenly, he hears Gloria screaming and he dashes back to her - only to see her pulled through a mirror - which then covers itself in a tarp and locks itself.   Nathaniel manages to unlock the mirror and sees Gloria on the other side.  So, of course, he does what any sane person in love would do, he puts his hand through the mirror and steps through to the other side.  He meets many characters during his journey ..... and what a journey it turns out to be. 

The graphics were very well done.  I had a lot of problems with sound.  The music was soooooo LOUD, even after I turned it way down in "Options" that I thought I would have to turn it off altogether because I couldn't hear any conversation.  The sound effects were amazing - babbling brooks, crickets, frogs and an especially annoying whetstone that wouldn't turn off so every time you went into that area that's all you could hear. 

There are only 3 levels of difficulty.  You have a journal whose pages did not progress with the game.  Every time you looked inside it, you had to find the page you were supposed to be on yourself.  There was also a transportable map - thank goodness - because during the beta game, I went back and forth over a gazillion times among the same 7 areas.  I counted them, 3 gazillion, 4 billion, 725 thousand, 121 times to be exact - lol.  It was a gargantuan number of times. 

The HOGs were standard list items but the words were so very small it was difficult to read them.  (Note:  the game did not display across my entire screen but only a portion in the center of it.)  Even though there were a lot of items to look over, the items I needed to find were not that difficult to see.  The mini games were fun and entertaining, even some new and fresh ideas, with some needing patience and perseverance.   There were more mini games than HOGs, IMO. CE Bling?  Unfortunately, other getting a peek at a few Achievements, everything else was locked.  But, there were 26 memory flowers to find AND .... wait for it .................... 26 fantom objects to find.  No, that is NOT a typo.  That's exactly as it was spelled in the Achievement section .... AND when you found one.  But, when you DID find that "morphing object" and the little window popped out to say you had found "x" number of 26, THERE it was spelled "Phantom".  Go figure.  

Things I liked:   
   Collectibles    
    Morphing/Fantom Objects    
   The storyline - that got lost for a while before it picked back up. 

Things I disliked:   
   The issues I had with the sound.    The sound the "hint" button made when you clicked on it.  Annoying.  
   The sound that was made when you acquired an Inventory item - VERY annoying.  
    On "casual", the hint button took so long to recharge I took naps waiting for it.   
   How the story line got lost among other things before it picked back up at the end of the beta. 
   Grammatical errors - constantly.  A "whisk" was actually a dust mop. A "ramrod" was actually a "torch" (not the flashlight kind of torch).  That sort of thing. It happened way too frequently.   
    How some of the characters Nathaniel met worked into the story?  It just made no sense.   

 Hmmmm Moments:
    How did Nathaniel know how to make a potion without instructions?  
    Did Gloria know who she actually was.   
    What was the purpose of collecting the "memory flowers"? 

As much as I wanted to really like this game, either it or I failed miserably because I didn't.  I'm not excited for this game's release as it probably won't be a purchase for me.

The link can be found at "beta games" if you want to try it yourself.

Enjoy!   
 

The Emptiness

This is actually a beta game I've been playing for a while now .... in little bits and pieces.  I'm TRULY surprised that the link for it is a BFG link.  I'm equally surprised they would market a game like this.  I find it to be truly out-of-the-box or out-of-the-comfort zone for BFG. 

This is NOT a game that has any humor related to it at all.  NONE.  NADA.  As you read my review, I hope you'll understand why.

Before the game even begins, there is a HUGE DISCLAIMER.  It basically says if you suffer from depression or other nervous conditions, don't play the game.  Everyone else, turn up the volume. 

Maybe it said "mental" conditions.  Could be.  I got into a LOT of trouble when I gave my 2 cents worth about enjoying a game that was so unloved.  It was meant to be a funny comment.  I specifically said I wasn't trying to offend or anger anyone.  Well, someone got REALLY offended and REALLY angry and said a LOT of "things" on a public forum and it just ..... set .... me .... off.  In any case ... back to the game.

 The game starts out with lots of flames.  All the time there are lots of flames.  An old woman in black appears .... promising you ..... everything.    Then, her alter-ego appears.  Also, promising you everything .... in different terms.

The graphics are amazing!  A real room with real furniture and what could be a real situation.  The music is suitably depressing and creepy.  All very PERFECT ambiance.  The voice overs were also .... PERFECT.  Perfect tone to be creepy.
 
There are NO HOGs (hidden object games) or mini games or anything else to make this a "fun" game.  Because, it's not meant to be "fun".  It's meant to be a "horror" game.  It's meant to creep you out, scare the crap out of you and confuse you.  Ready to play?

You get a task.  The first being:  Find the door with the seal.  When you find said door, it takes you right back into the room you started in.  Again, creepy old woman appears with your next task:  Find the spell and bring it to me.  A flaming word appears.  When it stops burning, it appears at the bottom of your screen - gothic type print and all.

There are arrows that you can click on to take you to various parts of the room ... or into another room ... or up stairs.... or anywhere .... except ..... "out".  You "may" get a hint or two in the form of an obscure and random sentence.  "'K'is only a shadow of itself." - not exact, but that sort of thing.  There ARE NOT clues/hints for each letter.  Maybe 3 out of 8/9 letters you need to find.  When you find a letter, it lights up, in flames, then burns out.  When you find all the letters to this "word/spell", you take it to the creepy old woman and get another task.  Want to guess what it is??   Find the door with the seal.  Different door.

To find these letters, you go around the room, moving curtains, looking at things, touching things.  And "things" happen.  A picture goes up in ............... flames.  REAL flames.  A hand jumps out at you.  Like, JUMPS IN YOUR FACE!  A portrait .... well .... I nearly fell off my bed.

The reason I can only play the game in small bits and pieces is because there is a MAJOR glitch/bug in the beta.  The "hints" doesn't work.  This feature is soooo necessary in this game.  It doesn't hold your hand.  It doesn't tell you where to go ("you will find the "O" in the grandfather's clock in the living room on the north wall") - no.  Just 2 or 3 obscure, random sentences that you have to almost "riddle" out.  The rest of the time ... you ... are ..... on ..... your ..... own.

Real people are used.  A real room.  Everything is REAL.  So is the fear and the confusion ... and more fear.  Because you begin to desperately want to get to the next task.....but you don't want to see anything else horrifying or scary or something that will just make you "gasp" from the suddenness and unexpectedness of it.  But.  You WILL want to keep going.

I've played games on BFG that have had disclaimers before and laughed at the obsurdity of it.  NOT this game.  Take the disclaimer seriously.  If you have certain "nervous" or "mental" disorders, this game will definitely get to you.  And, no, it's not like "the room", where you have to get out of a room.  That's fun - all fun and games and done in real life now.  THIS is unique unto itself.

I actually watched the beta walkthrough video on uTube .... several times. So, I know what's coming in my next task.  Already, I'm NOT looking forward to it.  But, it's wired in me.  I HAVE to keep playing.

Yeah.  It's THAT kind of game.

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/27527/the-emptiness-survey/index.html


 

Redemption Cemetery:  Island of the Lost

. Wow!  Wow!  and one more Wow!
  Wow.  Okay.  I think I can STOP being stunned with this game now.  Nope.  Wow.


 The storyline starts off basically enough.  You are in a small plane, headed for a storm (of course there's a storm) when out of the clouds, directly in front of you appears......something horrible ..... something ...... evil!  Before you can contact anyone with your coordinates, the plane goes down, on an island ... in a cemetery ..... Redemption Cemetery. 


The graphics are amazing.  For a dark and creepy series of games, this has continued that dark and creepy schematic.  The voiceovers are spot on perfect!  Absolutely perfect!  From the frightened child to the evil creature to the lonely fisherman.  Sound effects ... also spot on PERFECT! 


There are 4 modes of difficulty ranging from casual to hard with custom at the end.  Here's a twist to the old "custom" setting:  If you lower the hint recharge time ... you increase your skip recharge time.  A happy medium?  30 seconds for each ... smack in the middle of the "ruler".  Your also told you can change your difficulty during game play but I was unable to during the beta game.  I had to exit the game and start a new profile.  I hope this gets fixed before the game is marketed.  There was no journal but you did get a transportable map ... which was also very dark and creepy with a sinister looking lone candle marking your objective points.  Yes....I said POINTS!  I LOVE a game that shows more than one objective area at a time.  That's it for ..... things. 


HOGS (hidden object games) were interactive list types.  You could play an alternative ball shooting type game ... but I didn't.  Mini games were new and updated games I'd never seen before.  In fact, I had to skip one that seemed relatively easy but, I guess, the instructions just weren't clear enough for me.  The ratio of HOGs to mini games seemed fairly even. 

Game play:  You meet a spirit who was a fisherman with a family.  One day, his boat capsized .... in a storm (is there a pattern here?).  He made it to this island but could never make it off.  A creature, who lived on the despair of people's souls hunted him .... until .... well, he IS a spirit now.  You continue to meet spirits on this island.  Your ultimate goal is to make it to a lighthouse that you can see in the distance.  But not so fastThis IS a Redemption Cemetery game.  There is another story here that will tear at your heartstrings.  But, I won't give THAT away.  You really need to try this demo and find out. 


While there are no "extras" shown, throughout the game there are clues as to what to expect.  Achievements.  Collectibles?  Not too sure.  There are "elements" of 4 or 5 books that you have to find.  Once all the "elements" of a book are found, you will learn more of the story.  I was confused here, I must admit.  I found all the elements of the first one - there were 3.  I heard more of the story .... sad.  But, there was also a puzzle piece and when I clicked on it, I had to put together a jigsaw puzzle.  Not large, by any means, but definitely not a cakewalk either.  Afterwards, what was the point of this endeavor?????   Don't have a clue.  Hope it's explained in the marketed game. 

I have several games in this series ... unfortunately, not played yet.  I did play the demos and can honestly say, in comparison, this one has set the par waaaay up for the next one.  It's gripping, edge-of-your-seat suspense.  This is one game I will definitely be waiting for. 


Please take a trip to the Island of the Lost and .......

 ENJOY!


CANNOT say enough about how much I enjoyed this demo and how engrossed in it I was almost from the very moment it started.  Another one destined to be purchased.  CE or SE .... can't say yet .... but another in my long list of unplayed games.  Sigh.