Firstly, I have to say, the game itself is great, the graphics are beautiful, the story thoroughly engaging, the puzzles can be at times frustratingly hard but you can always skip if you don't seem to get anywhere. HO scenes are well rendered so you're never having to guess what an object is. But it is very short and the bonus content (mini games which are a repeat of the puzzles in-game and HO scene) doesn't really make up for that. Not interested in wallpapers/music etc so overall I have to say I don't think it's worth the price. I was lured in by playing the demo but expected the game to last longer than 2 hours. HO games for me don't really have replayability so its a bit expensive for a one-off. Would have given it 4 or 5 stars if it had lasted longer.
What appears to be an interesting game ruined by repeated crashing. It can crash at start-up, during a level (annoying) at start of a level. Within 10 minutes of gameplay it will crash anywhere between 2 and 10 times. This is by far its biggest fault. As this appears to be the makers' only game hopefully this means they'll address this issue.
Otherwise - a bit more open-endedness in terms of upgrades in game might have made the gameplay more interesting, being able to upgrade characters / shop would have been good at any level not just at predermined level half-way through. Movement feels clunky at times, characters move oh so slowly, even with speed upgrade no noticeable difference. Annoyingly if you try and replay a level to get a better score it wipes the next level's result so you have to play that again as well and so on, and at the more difficult levels this is very off-putting.
Positives are nice graphics and interesting take on time management/dash style games. Bought on sale otherwise probably would not have bothered. Needs a few more elements to make it truly interesting.
I've only played the original gourmania and this one...the zoo gets a tedious and the restaurants repetitive. The graphics especially the food scenes are way better than the original but overall the first gourmania wins hands down in terms of keeping your interest. This is very much for children in terms of the zoo and the ease of the restaurants
A few things make this very annoying...the scrolling screen that you have from the 3rd hotel onwards..they've done it for one of the hotels in the other games and really it's just an annoying way they've settled for of making level more complicated without having to think about different elements they could have included. It's very basic compared to the other two jane's hotel games but it is from 2008 so should have expected that...wouldn't waste the money on this one..out of the 3 games jane's family hotel is overally the best.
This has to be one of the most boring ho games I have ever had the displeasure of playing. Comic book linking just straight unchallenging tedious ho scenes...nothing more than that...at least you can see the objects in the scenes though.
It crashes a fair amount, in about 20 minutes of gameplay it crashed 3 times, usually right in the middle of a level. Even more annoying than that is that the food/drink items you're meant to pick to make up dishes for customers don't always draw properly so you're left hunting around on the screen for something which isn't actually there...you have to use the hint a fair amount to find them but usually once you have they'll always be in the same place. Other bugs seem to be that certain levels are impossible to achieve expert level on as you're limited by the time and therefore the customer you'll have. All in all it could have been a really interesting variation on the hidden object/time management but it just ends up proving frustrating due to the crashes/bugs
...I'm finding it hard to fathom how a game from 2008 is worth $20...it's pretty interesting in that the hidden object scenes you can actually see items...so many ho's seem to think hiding everything in darkness or giving a vague outline for an item that could be a beach ball or an orange is okay...so in that respect this game has got it sorted...still wouldn't pay $20 for it though.
Got as far as entering a profile name and watching the opening sequence. Crashes every time once you press play..luckily just the demo but not likely to pay out $14 to have the same thing happen...might be osx yosemite or just a bug but not worth the risk.
Played 25 minutes of the demo and found it incredibly boring.. a lot of ho scenes were difficult to spot things in mostly because items were not defined enough and far to small to be able to identify..all in all far too tedious for me, and certainly not worth the $20 price tag
It's a bit buggy but then I'm running yosemite now, when you quit I have to go into options and select windowed mode so it quits in this otherwise when I relaunch it's frozen and won't do anything. Crashed quite a few times, annoyingly after getting to the end of the restaurants, so had to do over.
As far as I can tell having played this all the way through there are no extra restaurants or '10 levels' as compared to the standard edition. It seems the only bonus content is 6 extra upgrades for the shop, screensavers and a strategy guide which you won't need if you've played these games before.. I wasn't interested in screensavers/concept art or trophies which don't add to the gameplay in any way, I was thinking there'd be bonus levels to play or an extra restaurant. Very misleading wording macgamestore! So feeling a bit cheated...save your money and go for the standard edition for $9.95.
First for 2.99 it's not bad...but..annoying points...
1. the music, even though there's an option in menu for turning music off or down it doesn't affect the music that plays during all the long cut-scenes and while waiting to start the level..also it seems to have a mind of its own and turn itself on while you're playing levels..
2. It could have been a really good game if someone somewhere had paid attention to their programming...all levels apart from 2 or 3 per hotel at the end are impossible to get expert level on whilst nearly all the levels in the last hotel from the 'chain' are possible to do this...
3. the upgrades, learning and shop interfaces are confusing and well thought out..the choice for what you can buy learn seems arbitrary at best and mostly bears no relation to what can actually help you achieve the goal or expert goal for a level...at the end of the day getting your goal is the purpose and if you can't do that because you can't choose the upgrades that will enable you to get enough customers do to so is just frustrating
All in all, it's a bit of a slog, messy, confusing, poorly thought out and the graphics are pretty naff but for under $3 you can't complain too much
Can confirm this does not display correctly for osx yosemite..bottom part of screen doesn't show which mean trying to complete hidden object scenes or see the contents of inventory is pretty much impossible..shame as it looks like a good game, graphics are good, puzzles are interesting
Would have liked to get further in this game but unfortunately whenever I click on anything that brings up a window it's white so stuck at the first puzzle. Wish they'd sort out games before releasing them. Before you buy download the demo, luckily I did.
Annoying repetitive sounds, tedious ho scenes, about once a year is the only time you'd want to play this and really you'd be better off trick or treating a blank wall in preference..
The graphics of the ho scenes are so bad you can't find anything...all the objects have been painted way too small. To add to that the metro system, again the logic of this is totally flummoxed by the badly drawn map..you end up having to guess what line each destination is on by trying every single platform for the train, which means that's the line you should be on...in the hour long demo, I found myself leaving it after 30 minutes (3 tries) as it was just boring beyond words.
Unfortunately the developers decided in their infinite wisdom to create such a darkly atmospheric game, some of the HO scenes but all of the 'open' world scenes are really difficult to look at and spot things in...found myself squinting hard most of the time and that detracted from any enjoyment of the game...
Can't find a great deal positive or negative to say about this game...it progresses well enough, mixing match 3 with HO, though majority from playing the demo seems to be match 3, have to agree with previous reviewer that the sounds when matching are satisfying and cathartic...that said though there's little in the way of plot or storyline and can get repetitive...if you're looking for a straight match 3 game and just want to go through the same motions you could probably do worse but overall I found little to recommend it..the graphics are nice and it doesn't have that busy overall feeling that a lot of match 3 games have that can actually leave you very stressful...can't comment on the spider as I only got as far as the demo and that's where I'll leave it
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