Posts Tagged ‘puzzles’
The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime Review
Developed by Trine Games, produced by Jowood Productions and published by BigFish Games
A crime wave has gripped the Hardy Boys` hometown of Bayport! Help the Hardys solve this rash of crimes and unravel the Perfect Crime! It’s up to the Boys and their detective skills to follow the clues and discover an incredibly deep plot in this Hidden Object game. Hardy Boys – The Perfect Crime will challenge you with tough minigames and detailed scenes. Can you find the mastermind behind it all and crack the case?
Story: The Hardy Boys are renowned in their home town of Bayport for their exceptional sleuthing skills. Now a case of unconventional theft falls right into their lap. The threads, when followed back, lead to a hugely complicated and ominous conspiracy of fraud and smuggling. Are the Hardy Brothers up to putting the criminals behind bars?
The game is typically hardyish, centering around the (sometimes annoyingly) precocious highschoolers Joe and Frank Hardy, a little around their parents, and a host of personality-less characters in Bayport, including police officers who are always ready to let the boys play the detective. As you play through the game, you’ll find that The Perfect Crime is a misnomer for this game. The plot simply doesn’t have the finesse to match up to the elegant name, and all the underlying swiftness and cruelty it implies. The lack of interesting material in the plot is tried to be covered by some unnecessary complexity that doesn’t work. Still it comes fairly close, and qualifies as an average Hardyish story. Despite the tidy narration, not as awe-inspiring as a point-and-click crime story could’ve been.
Gameplay: However flimsy the plot might be, playing the game isn’t bad (provided you’ve turned off the music). You start off with great expectations from the starting page – designed like a detective’s scrapbook. For the first few minutes, your interest will be well rewarded, for it starts with one of the best aspects of the game – the witty banter between the Hardy Brothers, Joe and Frank!
Then we move on to the Hidden Object part. This part is easy enough, but that’s the start of all the troubles. Instead of “hiding” objects, they’re reduced to tiny faraway objects that would require you to resort to pixel hunting to pick them up at all.
Hints are provided, probably 3 at each level. I cannot be sure, because the number was never mentioned in the entire game.
And yes, some minigames are provided, but it seems the developers were pretty reluctant to put much effort to it. Three or four separate puzzles of nursery stage are replayed again and again, each more brain sapping than the previous in terms of simplicity.
Graphics and Music: The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime scores poorly in this department too. The graphics going with the HOG are incredibly mediocre, with a narrow angle, unimaginative decoration, and low lighting.
And the music? It is totally unworthy. I turned it off after the first few minutes of the game. Trust me, no detective could work properly with those tracks blaring in the background.
Bottomline: The sole point I loved about the game was the dialogues between the Hardy brothers. Their repartee and sarcasm are outstanding and refreshing after each level of tiring gameplay. If you’re a Hardy fan, this game could qualify on your list of Must Play Games. For others, you might want to try it out for the constant leg-pulling and the well-recited plot.
Rating: 
3 Days Zoo Mystery Review
By Realore Studios, published by BigFish Games
3 Days: Zoo Mystery finds five of the world`s most unique animals stolen! Help Anna track down and return these rare animals to her uncle`s zoo. The ultra-picky zoo inspectors are on their way, so you will only have three days to solve this mystery and save the zoo. This Hidden Object Adventure game is full of challenging minigames and dark secrets. Will you be able to capture the crook and save the family zoo?
Story: Animals from your family zoo are getting stolen mysteriously. You, as the zoo owner’s niece, Anna, must take up the duty of finding the animals. But you must recover them in 3 days – or the zoo will be shut down forever!
The premise is short and simple, but both unexpectedly and refreshingly, it opens to reveal one of the most level-headed, seriously enjoyable and closely knit story in games of such genre. It is satisfactorily long, and although it sometimes drags for the game’s sake, you’ll never feel bored.
Gameplay: Just as the eccentric name might suggest, 3 Days Zoo Mystery has a sense of straight-faced humour in every single character interaction – from the biased sheriff to the clown. Sadly, it has been disappointingly underplayed.
The game unfolds not as Anna setting off right away to bring the perpetrator to book, but rather by she taking the most common method – informing the police. Such sensible steps build this game to be a very good homely tension-free detective game.
As you follow up links around town, moving from suspect to suspect and unearthing mind baffling clues, you’ll also have to do many of the townspeople’s chores for them – like stacking the dishes, serving food, arranging rooms, etc.
3 Days: Zoo Mystery has an added feature – it allows you the use of a Magnotron. What is the magnotron, you may ask. It is a brand new invention by your town’s scientist – it can make objects disappear into a parallel universe! The scope of its use is very limited, but nonetheless, it is a very interesting addition to this bright and cheerful game. And it also gives a chance to the Sheriff to barge in with one of his funny comments whenever you try to make his desk disappear!
Graphics and Music: No complaints on this point at all. Clear, soothing graphics and entertaining music – 3 Days Zoo Mystery makes sure it is perfect on each point.
Bottomline: This is one of those rare Hidden Object/ Adventure/ Detective games which does everything right and leaves no room for complaints. This game is a must play.
Rating: 
Download the full free version from AdnanBoy!
Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvasses Review
By Artogon Games, published by Bigfish Games
Story: Tom leaves for Romania in search of the Philosopher’s Stone while his sister Nelly is enjoying her holiday in Guatemala. But Nelly distinctly smells danger in Tom’s new adventure – he’s gone to the evil Totenkraft’s castle, after all! She must follow suit and save her estranged brother in a magical journey through Totenkraft’s enchanted castle!
Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvasses is that sort of game where it suffices to create a semi-occult atmosphere and use a particularly holey storyline to present a great game. Never in the game is much stress put on any linear storytelling. Nelly does wail a lot about her lost brother, but there it starts and stops.
Gameplay: Playing as the red-headed sister Nelly, you’re required to break the spell and bring happiness to 5 of the Enchanted Canvasses hanging on Totenkraft’s wall if you must find your brother again. Upon successful completion of this, you can enter the 6th portrait – the Boss Level – where Totenkraft is holding your brother prisoner.
Treasure Seekers 2 is a delightful little game to play. Each level is of a healthy length, or made so by the sheer difficulty. The general gameplay is extremely logical and intriguing. A rechargeable hint button is always at your disposal, and you’ll find the need to use quite more than once!
From time to time, as expected, certain well-chosen and well-known minigames will pop up. The Skip button comes in helpful here, as by most chances, you’ll want to skip a few of the puzzles at least.
Graphics and Music: Like puzzles or not, you can’t help being bowled over by Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvasses’ awesome presentation, smooth captivating graphics and sprawling level maps. What more can be said? The game is truly flawless in this aspect.
Bottomline: On the whole, Treasure Seekers is a short but interesting game. While not truly innovative, it is a worthwhile game for casual gamers and puzzle/ adventure game enthusiasts alike. And of course, when you consider the quality of the ambience and the total appearance of the whole game, it is a great loss if you miss this.
A perfect 5 for the Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvasses!
Rating:
Also check out the review to the first part – Treasure Seekers Visions of Gold!
Righteous Kill 2: Revenge of the Poet Killer Review
By Overture Films, published by BigFish Games, 2009
As an investigator in the NYPD, hunt down a copycat killer and try to stop a rash of murders across New York City! Work through multiple murder scenes, collecting evidence and clues, and examine the items in exciting forensic based mini-games. Put all the clues together to determine who the new Poet Killer is before another victim is found, and decide who to trust as the suspects begin to include those inside the police force.
Story: Drugs. Illegal weapons. And a righteous murderer with a poetic inclinations out to make everyone pay. Detective Erica Dean doesn’t need any more to confuse her as she tries to make sense of the series of brutal killings that plague New York City.
A more dangerous and sophisticated plot than the first Righteous Kill that starts brightly but drops pace into the first few chapters and reduces to the same idiocy that was the main fault of the original Righteous Kill game. How long can you watch unworthy incompetent detectives who constantly miss clues about 10 times in each location and get dragged on a noose by the murderer?
Righteous Kill 2: Revenge of the Poet killer also suffers from the shadowy ghosts of the first story. In fact, the general premise is exactly the same – plenty of evidences planted overwhelmingly against one person (note: it is never explained how such farfetched evidence could actually be planted), then the detective starts going after an inconsequential object (in this case, a cheap pen) and then the tides turn in the direction of a completely different person. Only thankfully, this time the antagonist isn’t an obvious suspect.
Clearly, the plot could’ve been way better narrated and included the involvement of the detectives in some way. Otherwise, the story is almost all about one man’s thirst for vengeance – and the official force’s total ineptitude in stopping him.
Gameplay: Finally, Righteous Kill 2 brings some detective feel with it. Now besides finding the same items in a considerably larger variety of locations, you also have to interact with certain elements of the locations to further unlock new objects.
Innovations have been added here and there. Like in find the difference puzzles, you’re not given the traditional nearly identical versions of the same picture – instead, you’re given 4 pictures of the same point taken from different angles. The old fingerprint finding puzzle from Righteous Kill 1 is given a new polish – you’re given powders of different colours for different objects. The game’s definitely spiced up! The internet hacker trapping game has been extended into three levels; however, the light background turns out to be a distraction for this minigame.
The new minigames that have been added strongly resemble those in CSI: New York or Women’s Murder Club. One is “reconstructing the face”, done in a very callous way compared to CSI: NY – it isn’t even a minigame at all in the end. The others include the alchemy-like forensic lab testing games found in Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet. They’re interesting, and unlike WMC: DIS, kept short and only whenever necessary (which is rare, given that you’ve no detecting to do).
As for the actual playing part, you are given a GPS enabled cell phone by Sergeant Vasquez. You flit around New York from one location to another using this. The number of locations, I presume, is slightly greater than before, but they’re still repeated shamelessly.
For those that have trouble finding the items, the new unofficial hint system has been added – you can click on an object in the Hidden Object list to see its silhouette.
Graphics and Music: Righteous Kill 2 doesn’t have as clear and bold graphics as Righteous Kill 1; the hidden objects are also more devious to find. The makeshift animation and the deceit in the name of providing original clips from the movie – which incidentally include only cars driving by – just as in Righteous Kill 1, are enough to drive one mad.
The music is thankfully fine, perfectly accentuating the atmosphere of thrill and suspense in the game.
Bottomline: The plot is better presented and although thoroughly confusing and at times, meaningless, it has some dregs of believability. Neither is it as shallow or predictable as before. The poems are well placed enough to be impressive. Now if only the animation didn’t want to make you boil your head in soda water, the game would’ve been mighty fine. But as it is, a story of a cocky yet “the best” detective making mistake after mistake, this is just an average or slightly above average game.
But a better game than the first one. If you like Detective games and engrossing hidden object games that require your undivided attention for a few hours, play this one.
Rating: out of 5
Three Cards to Midnight Review
Developed by Big Finish Games
Help a lost young lady remember her past in Three Cards to Midnight, an original hidden object game featuring a unique new way to play. Each rich location in this challenging game is full of items hidden in plain sight. Use your best deduction skills to determine which items to find by matching a series of keywords with the items in the room. Complete each chapter to reveal a little bit of our heroine’s lost memory and unravel the truth about her identity. More than the average hidden object game, Three Cards to Midnight also contains original puzzles to solve along the way. Get a sneak peek at this engrossing game with the free trial version, or get the full version and follow our heroine through eight riveting chapters of mysterious exploration. Turn over the Tarot Cards and discover the rich and compelling hidden object fun in Three Cards to Midnight today.
Story: You’re in a dark room. And you can’t remember anything. You’ve just shuffled the pack of cards in your hands, but you can’t recollect doing it. What happened to your memories? What is lost among your store of memoirs? Follow the instructions of the stranger to read your past from your three chosen Tarot cards!
Gameplay: Frankly, Three Cards to Midnight has one of the most innovative premises in recent times. You are given from one upto four words, like “Note”, “House”, or “School”, and a room. Your task is to find all the prefixes and suffixes in the room which can be combined with the given word to form words. Like, for example, you can click on a key on the room to form the word “Key + Note = Keynote.” A completely new idea, but it is surprisingly easier than it sounds.
The plot unravels nicely throughout the game. The game provides you with three modes – Easy, Normal and Gamer. Trust me, the normal mode is a complete misnomer! If you’re a casual gamer, go for the Easy Mode. The other two modes will have you hooked onto the computer for hours. Warning: The Normal Challenge and the Gamer Mode are both for severely interested or highly expert gamers.
There are 10 chapters in all. The puzzles at the end of each chapter are truly spellbinding in their complexity and innovation. Chances are, you’re bound to skip one or two of them if you’re an average gamer!
A disadvantage in this maddeningly puzzling and tough game is the lack of hints and misses. You are given a paltry 3 or 4 hints for each room with upto 4 words. Misses are the number of times you can guess the wrong object to combine with the given word. That also, alas, is limited to 10 or so. Every time you complete 100 points by finding objects, you get an extra hint – but you can’t ever carry it over to the other rooms. Serves plenty of the purpose to keep the game very difficult!
Depending on how well you’ve performed in each room, how many hints you’ve used and whether you’ve skipped the puzzle at the end or not, each Tarot card you choose is assigned a specific star rating. By the end of the game, you must choose your best two cards to beat the game. As a result, you’ll find you need to do some of the rooms over and over again to get the things right.
Ambience: The first cutscene that greets you is pretty impressive – it is 3D graphics, although with low scope, but well animated. The graphics go downhill from there. Seriously, the graphics are cracked due to too much zooming, and they lack the clarity and colour necessary for a decent Hidden Object game. Nowhere in the game did I find an Options menu, where I can change picture quality or the resolution, so I’m bound to take it that the picture quality’s that bad. That is a major drawback.
The music improves as the game progresses and you get more into the game. It nicely brings out the dark mysterious undertones of the plot and the heroine’s struggle to come to terms with her own history mired in occult magic and desperate plots of murder and betrayal.
Bottomline:
The novel idea for the game and the plot filled with suspense are the chief reasons for the average gamer to try out this game. It is a reasonable game, long, different flavoured and with an awesome cinematic narration. This game is a must play for all. For most, however, making their way through the game without a walkthrough would be an impossibility.
Rating:
Download the full free version from AdnanBoy!
Laura Jones and the Secret Legacy of Nicola Tesla Review
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!
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:
The Flux Family Secrets: Ripple Effect Review
“A mysterious family has contacted you and holds the secrets of your past! Fix the errors in time in this exciting Hidden Object game and take your rightful place in the Flux family! Explore famous historical sites like Hatshepsut`s tomb, the Wright Brothers` workshop, Benjamin Franklin`s study and many more. Flux Family Secrets: The Ripple Effect has you realign the timeline by finding misplaced objects scattered through time and solving clever puzzles.”
– BigFishGames.com
Here is another well-done satisfactory and fulfilling puzzle game from Skunk Studios that is going to be remembered for a long time.
Story: You play as Jesse, a girl without a past. How far will you go to regain your history? Jesse is revealed to be a member of the Flux family, which has the extraordinary power to travel through time. But Veronica of the same Flux family is looking to distort history with this power! Will Jesse be able to stop it? And what has this to do with her past?
[Note: The narrative is average, but very suitable for a game where you don’t want to bother with the plot. Also, the explanation of the “ripple effect” is balderdash, as you’ll see; but it’s forgivable.]
Puzzles: Why I say this is a fulfilling game is because the puzzles are very intelligent, and there is a pleasure to solving them. Mind, not all can be solved by the average player – some need to be skipped. But in general, the puzzles are of an incredible variety and somewhere between moderate and tough. And they make sense (yes, even the hidden object ones). You need to collect historical artifacts scattered in pieces in the wrong age, and put them back where they belong. Amelia Earhart, William Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus, Abbey Road Studios, Albert Einstein, Queen Hatshepsut, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Confucius and the Wright Brothers – these are the persons throughout history who’ve lost their prized possessions due to the ripple effect. What I really liked was that each one of them has a separate room and separate music suitable for his/her age. And you get to do their bidding for them – including finding Einstein’s E=mc2 equation and Shakespeare’s plays!
Not more than 4 to 5 hours of play is needed to finish this the first time. The second time, well, the puzzles get tougher, the computer opponent becomes more intelligent and the objects are hidden in even more improbable places, so naturally, the time required goes up by a few more hours.
PS: I played through the game the second time, and it actually takes a good 1 hour less. Seems like the games’ not so tough the second time as it demands.
Graphics: The graphics and the special effects are truly awesome. Same goes with the music. Watch out for Confucius’ room, it’s so grandly and designed that you’d have a hard time picking things out!
Bottomline: Truly a puzzle game, this is a very interesting play simply for its variety of mini games. Cool graphics and music create a grand ambience reminiscent of the respective ages. Definitely play this if you’re a fan of the hidden object or puzzle genre. Bonus? There is soon to be a sequel.
Rating:
PS: Are there some easter eggs throughout the game? In Einstein’s room, their was a knife carving on a drawer – “Mozart has the combo.” When you assemble a radio, it also speaks out the same line. Columbus’ table has a writing under the log book, “Beware of Veronica.” So what do you think, easter eggs or reference points for a sequel?
Visit Big Fish Games for more info and the trial version.
Visit Mininova for the full version.
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