This is more of an interactive movie than a game. Mostly, your hand was held and you were guided through silly tasks. There wasn't really anything to figure out except where to use the myriad bizarre things in your inventory. I liked the first game in the series, but this episode alternates between boring and confusing.
I didn't get to play much of this game, as it froze my Mac as soon as I got to the museum. But what I did play was 75% watching cutscenes. The puzzles were either ridiculously easy or you were left with no instructions as to what to do.
The original franchise, developed by Big Fish Studios, was epic. No developer has successfully reimagined the series since. Try before you buy.
It's unplayable. Throughout the game, the clickable areas are tiny and poorly mapped. In some cases, you can't click on the correct item at all. The first game in this series did not have this issue, but this game is unplayable.
Based on the demo. I found the storyline intriguing, but the gameplay was confusing. My inventory, at times, contained a multitude of rather obscure items, and it was difficult to discern where a lot of them were supposed to be used. This one should have been revised after beta testing (if anyone even does that anymore).
This game—and its predecessor, simply named Nightmare Realm—explore an alternate universe that exists only in dreams...or nightmares.
In the first episode, your daughter Emily, a budding artist, is kidnaped to the nightmare realm for a horrifying reason. It's up to you to navigate the magical environments in the realm, following the trail to rescue her. The plot twist at the end will delight you.
In this episode, your husband is the one in danger. On your quest to save him, you'll discover the origins of the nightmare realm.
Gameplay consists of completing the immediate task, finding and using items and tools, and restoring the various worlds within the realm. It's not a difficult game, though aspects of it are challenging. The beauty of this series lies in the gently unfolding story, while won't fail to surprise and enchant you.
Beautifully developed storyline drives this HOPA...
You're off in search of your husband, who disappeared while on a deep sea dive. Following his trail, you discover an underwater city which was intended by its creators to be a utopia. Like all utopias, this one has fallen into disarray and decay. But there are still inhabitants...and guardians.
The game plays like a standard HOPA. Exploration of the environment is interspersed with hidden object scenes and puzzles. While it's not an overly difficult game, it's a completely immersive experience because the plot is so well written and revealed at exactly the right pace to keep you interested and moving forward.
Years after having bought it (on another site), I still replay it about once a year. Oh, beware a couple of unexpected jump scares.
I expected more autonomy in my designs, rather than just choosing items that fit the customers' exact requests. I mean, why hire a designer when you know exactly what you want?
It became tedious paging through tons of similar items which lacked decent descriptions. And the inventory was rather unorganized. More logical categories would have helped; instead of multiple categories for decorative items, just "wall decor" and "floor decor" would be more intuitive. Also, I would have preferred to choose first the style, then the color. That would have provided more variety.
Lastly, there are a number of bugs. It froze up on me once. I couldn't click on one of my builders because he was behind a couch that hadn't yet been built. And the game kept telling me that curtains wouldn't fit over windows. Plus, it wouldn't play in fullscreen and the window was tiny.
This is definitely more of a time management game than an interior design game...and I would have liked the latter much better. As it stands, messing around with Sweet Home 3D is more fun.
STORYLINE Quite engaging. It's a historical murder mystery involving a love triangle. Eva and Vlad are in love, but Vlad's parents arrange a marriage for him with Lydia. I won't mention who is murdered and how, though. That's up to you to discover.
GAMEPLAY It's technically a hidden object game with puzzles, but the game mechanics are different. There's no inventory; you collect items only as you need them. (Once you realize this, it explains why you can't pick up items you see...because it's not time to use them yet. A bit awkward. If you chance to pick up an item you don't yet need, right click to drop it.) HO scenes are basic lists that aren't difficult. Look to the mirrors for instructions on your next task; these frequently come in the form of poems or riddles that need to be figured out.
PRODUCTION Stunning still graphics with lovely textures. There's not much animation except for when you navigate; you actually move through the environment, which is more realistic. Cutscenes are of the stop motion variety. (I had the volume down so I won't comment on the music, voiceovers, or sound effects.)
BOTTOM LINE It's an extremely linear game. You have no choice regarding what to do next, but are guided from one task to the next. Even so, the challenge level is higher than most HO games being released today with their 30-second HO scenes and childish puzzles. This game requires neurons. It plays more like an old-school adventure game, really. And it's a beautifully immersive experience.
You're off to meet your boyfriend at your family's cabin. When you arrive, he's not there...but someone else is. Excellent backstory about the origins of the Hookman legend, but I can't really say more without spoiling it.
This is more of an adventure game than a HO game. Gameplay consists of a series of logical tasks for which you generally need to find supplies. Each scene also includes at least one firefly; finding them earns you more hints. There are also some pretty good puzzles to solve.
Storyline = excellent Gameplay = very good Level of Challenge = good Graphics/Animation = good Sound/Music = very good
You receive a black crystal and a note from Kales explaining why you must return to Rhem. When you arrive, Kales tells you your quest is to find nine golden fragments.
Fair Warning: This is game for experts in the adventure game genre. It's packed with exceedingly difficult puzzles. I recommend three things: 1. Be observant about your environment. Clues and puzzles are everywhere. 2. Take copious notes. The clues you find are frequently obscure, but the information is needed, so you have to figure out how to interpret it. 3. Make yourself a map. It's easy to get frustrated when you know where you need to go, but can't remember how to get there.
The puzzles are nearly always multi-layered in that several steps are required for the solution. Your path will, at times, be blocked until you discover how to open doors and gates, rotate bridges, and the like. This is NOT a "casual game," but one you'll be playing for days, possibly weeks.
Storyline = Minimal, but enough to give your tasks context. Gameplay = Brilliant with lots of innovation. Level of Challenge = Extremely difficult, but easier if you are observant, take notes, and draw a map. (The clues you'll find always lead logically to the solution. There's never an, "I don't get it" moment.) Graphics/Animation = Fairly static and not overly detailed with some procedurally generated landscaping. However, I'd rather have awesome gameplay with bare bones graphics than lousy gameplay wrapped in state-of-the-art animation. Sound/Music = Good, nicely ambient.
I recommend this game for adventure game fanatics, folks looking for a challenge, and puzzle lovers. I loved it and wish the previous episodes would be updated for modern computers.
...but waiting for the characters to walk to the next location was extremely annoying. It made me lose interest. If this game were upgraded with better navigation, it would be excellent.
Similar to The DaVinci Code, follow clues from one historical site to another to find Excalibur. To fund your journey, people will send you requests for items and photos at the sites you visit (HO scenes which are much more challenging than today's pro forma games). There's quite a lot of dialogue, but you can click through it as fast as you can read. Storyline = 5 stars Gameplay = 4 stars Level of Challenge = 4 stars Graphics/Animation = 3 stars (only because it's outdated in 2018) Sound = 3 stars (a bit repetitive)
Find items for customers in a variety of locations, including coffee shop, movie theater, park, gadget store, museum, and more. If you find all fifteen items before the timer runs out, you can go for the bonus item. (Note: The timer is quite generous, IMO, so don't feel overly rushed.)
Find the question marks in each scene to earn more hints. Each scene also includes collectibles: a sock monkey and five pigeons. At the end of each week, you'll be renovating the movie theater inside and out, choosing from three styles for each feature of the building.
Storyline = Ok. Just the minimal plot required to make sense of the gameplay. Gameplay = Good, for a straight up HO game. Graphics/Animation = Not bad, considering this is an older game. Sound = Mixed. I turned the music off, but the game sounds were good. Level of Challenge = Good. More challenging than today's parochial HO games.
Based on the demo, this game is interrupted by dialogue far too much. The player's character even talks to herself, and every time this happens, the game comes to a screeching halt until she's done talking. So much unnecessary commentary that delays gameplay.
I've owned this game since it came out, and it remains one of my favorites to replay. The storyline is well-developed and progresses at a perfect pace; sufficient information is provided that you know what's going on, but there are still twists and events you don't expect.
The graphics are charming and play beautifully with the fantasy theme. The music is wonderfully ambient, and the voice acting is excellent. Gameplay is a nice variety of exploration and puzzles with a few hidden object scenes. It's not horrendously difficult, but presents enough of a challenge to keep you interested.
I highly recommend this one, as well as the first episode, the Curse of the Severed Heart. Inertia doesn't currently have plans for another episode, but I hope there will be more adventures of Edwina.
The story is surreal, which I like, and the puzzles are challenging. But I see no way to make this game fun...here are the problems:
• The POV constantly shakes and wobbles as if my character is attempting to walk around a pirate ship during the perfect storm whilst dead drunk. It gives me a headache, and the player should be able to shut off the effect.
• Navigating is a nightmare. Setting the sensitivity makes no difference in the ability to accurately control the cursor. Low sensitivity merely makes the mouse movement slow, while high speeds it up. But no setting makes it possible to control the movement of the cursor with any accuracy at all. The result is that you're constantly chasing the cursor, trying to line it up with the object you want to click...with limited success.
• Accessing the inventory is an unnecessary multi-step process. First, bring up the panel. Next, select the item you want. Finally, choose whether to look at, combine, or use it. Really poor design (not improved by the navigation issue). It would have been better to have the inventory panel at the bottom of the screen and scrollable, with look at (magnifying glass) and combine (plus sign) right next to the item. Otherwise, a click would mean "use."
• Puzzle controls are not standardized. One puzzle used WASD to navigate and choose, while another used X and Z to navigate. What's the point in making them different? Other than to be annoying, that is.
I really want to finish this game, but every time I play, the issues I've described make me so frustrated that I no longer care. Especially the navigation, which I wouldn't force on my worst enemy.
In all honesty, this is the single best FPA I've played since the Myst and Rhem series.
The environments are beautifully moody, well-rendered, and filled with mindbending puzzles that become more difficult as the game progresses. The storyline is engaging and presented at an excellent pace. And just when you think you have it figured out, there's a twist that blows your mind.
This plays like an old-school adventure game, so pay attention to notes, clues, signs, symbols, and the like. An overall brilliant game, and I hope to see more from this developer...and soon!
...with puzzles that actually challenge and objects that are truly hidden.
Most of today's games in this genre present HO scenes you can complete in 30 seconds, because everything is in plain view. Each HO scene in this game took awhile, and all had interactive objects.
The puzzles ranged from fairly simple to frustratingly complex. One of them took me nearly 30 minutes to complete.
The storyline...if you crossed the movie Jumanji with the Redemption Cemetery series, then improved the gameplay, you'd get this game. The heroine attends a Halloween party at her friend's inherited farmhouse, only to discover a heinous historical plot that has trapped her friends...unless she resolves the ghosts' issues.
The graphics were excellent, with lots of attention to detail, fairly good animation, a beautiful palette, and one of the scariest posers I've ever seen. Play it and tell me you don't jump out of your seat when Jack's fiery spectre appears. I wish more HO games tried this hard.
...and the benchmark by which I measure game storylines. Most fall short. It's hard to top a fictional race of people with the ability to create universes by writing books, isn't it? Most developers don't even try, sadly.
The environments are as beautiful and heartbreaking as I remember them; the animation just brings them more to life. Gameplay remains as much of a challenge as it was originally, and when I finished playing, I had pages and pages of handwritten notes, diagrams, and clues.
I also had a deep sense of accomplishment, something most modern games don't provide because their puzzles are far too easy. When you've solved the underground labyrinth in the Selenitic Age, you tend to scoff at childish puzzles like matching pairs, the Towers of Hanoi, 12-piece jigsaws, and Simon Says. That's not gaming! It doesn't even require neurons!
Lastly, the music remains one of the best game soundtracks in the history of gaming. I've listened to it regularly for more than 20 years; it still makes me smile and whisks me off to the island of Myst. I'd love to see realRIVEN and the entire series updated for modern computers.
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