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Help young adventurer Laura Jones and her grandmother discover Nikola Tesla’s greatest invention! After receiving a mysterious package full of clues from the late Tesla, the hunt is on! Solve puzzles, collect the parts needed to start Tesla’s invention, and pass the extraordinary trials. Laura Jones and the Legacy of Nikola Tesla will test your Hidden Object skills as you race against time and the other people chasing down the invention!

- Big Fish Games

Story: Laura Jones is back! This time she’s out to unearth the last invention of Nicola Tesla, the dead genius of her hometown. Tesla invented a marvelous machine before his death, but he dismantled it and hid it around for her friend, Sophie Jones to find. Now Laura, as an ancestor to Sophie, must follow up the clever clues left by Tesla and reassemble the machine – that could provide limitless energy for free!

But who else is out to grab the lost machine?

Gameplay: Laura Jones is a refreshingly good puzzle game. The puzzles are of a wide variety (none are repeated, I think), and mind, incredibly tough! Most of them, at least. Take for example, a puzzle about building the image of a dragon from fireworks. That is one of the most time-consuming and tough mingames I’ve seen in recent times. So go the others too. Luckily, there are alternatives for every puzzle you wish to skip, so no sweat!

The Hidden Object games, which form the main backbone of Laura Jones, have you finding proper, meaningful things having a direct bearing upon the game, and hidden in good places. That’s something unusual for hidden object games – so there’s another refresher for HOG fans! The puzzles about putting together or building things are short and to the point.

The game wouldn’t have been a bother at all if the hint system was slightly better. But no, it has to be horrible. Most of the time, the hint gives verbal encouragements, not even tips!

Ambience: Laura Jones is quite a homely sort of a game. Though the plot has all the makings of an adventure, the execution in a quiet city with old-fashioned people makes it much like, say, a time management game atmosphere without the rush. Instead of jumping down cliffs and snorkeling deep into caves to search for the lost machine, our heroine goes around solving the townspeople’s grievances – like exercising a cat, blowing up a balloon, catching hens and mice – to recover the parts!

The animation is fantastic, and yes, real animation, not low-budget flash games type. The graphics are cheery and colourful, in tandem with the music, but never very detailed or of as high a quality as the animation. Still, it is never much of a bother. The resulting impression is a cheerful and fun game.

Bottomline: The only reason this game doesn’t get a 5 is because of the overtly simple storyline and a clichéd (although promising) plot.

Rating:

This is one of those rare puzzle games published by Big Fish Games that will satisfy every palate. The animation is surprisingly captivating and flawless. The story seems interesting, though it doesn’t have any capacity to twist beyond your view. The game is sort of laid back, with bright, cheerful colours and sunny environs, yet the adventure seems undoubtedly promising. For once, finding hidden objects has a meaning and a direct bearing to the case at hand.

Verdict: Apart from the delicious yet simple puzzles (and just too simple a riddle), the game attracts for its animation and sceneries. Play this for sure.