April 5, 2010
Free full length adventure game you can play in your browser.
Is the legandary City of Hetherdale real or only a fairy-tale made up by an 18th century madman? What dark mysteries does it hold? Find out as you play Dr. Heather Montrose, a young scholar destined to uncover the secrets of Hetherdale.
If you’re using firefox, get the Flash Game Maximizer extension and play the game fullscreen!
August 31, 2008
After the big hit that was Azada (still is, really – the walkthrough page gets hundreds of hits everyday, easily.) I waited for its sequel with baited breath. We were promised many things – bigger, better, more Azada-ness.
What I didn’t expect was a shorter game that took only an hour and a half for me to finish and a lack of challenge overall. I can understand that the first one might have been a little too hard for the casual gamer that are used to Match-3’s, but this is ridiculous. Most of the “books” clocked in at just under 3 minutes for me; there’s almost never a question of which object to use, the game held your hand all the way. When I couldn’t find something, the game obligingly points out where it is for me with a penalty of 4 minutes (nothing, compared to the 40 they gave you in the beginning).
When you’re well and truly stuck, the hints system allows for an unexpected way to get a hint without sacrificing time. Simply click on the hint button and see which page allows for a hint, then look around to see what you’ve missed. No need for a penalty.
There are certain mechanics that are somewhat inventive and new, such as the bury-wine-turns-into-vinegar-in-100k-years trick, but even that harkens back to Day of the Tentacle. Some of the puzzles seem to repeat itself; in two cases we had to click on one page, gets someone’s attention, flip back to another page, and take stuff. Of course, the guy turns around so quick we couldn’t get everything at once, so we just kept repeating the motion and he keeps falling for it.
Like in the previous installment, mini-games abound, but this time integrated into the “books” or storyline. No sudoku this time around, or English pegs, thankfully. No slider puzzles either. In trading for the more inventive puzzles, even the mini-games were a bit of a let down. When you finish each book, its mini-game is available for replay. I wish the books themselves were left there for a playthrough as well, but I guess that wouldn’t fit well into the storyline.
Graphically, Ancient Magic is easily the best looking game in the casual market. With its 3D rendered background scenes with proper perspective, the only thing that can compete with it is Dream Chronicles. Even DC doesn’t have the kind of resolution Azada has – 1024 x 768 vs. DC’s 800 x 600. No contest there. Azada’s graphics are sharper and more detailed, objects being picked up are never pixelated.
The orchestral score performed with a real orchestra – no stock music here! – is impressive as well, and while I usually just leave the sound off or very low in games like these, Ancient Magic’s music is worth a listening to.
Is it worth $6.99? You betcha. $20? Not for an hour and a half of gameplay, it isn’t. If you load up the trial and each puzzle takes you 10 minutes to complete, it’s worth it for you. If you breezed through it, wait for a 40% off promotion.
October 13, 2007
I picked this one up a long long time ago when it was new. It’s been so long, all I remember was the beautiful scenery, the sheer large amount of puzzles, and a few weird camera issues. I also remember an alternate ending and really good voice acting all around. Most of all, I remember giant mushrooms. Anything with giant mushrooms must be good, in my book.
Here are some links to get you started:
Mr. Bill’s Adventureland Review – Highly Recommended
Official Website (not much there)
October 11, 2007
In An Untitled Story, you begin as an egg in your nest, and the rest is up to you to figure out. Fight 18 unique bosses, traverse a huge game world, and unravel a mysterious storyline. The single player game features non-linear progression and 5 difficulty levels for extra replay value. Also included is Heist Mode, a multiplayer capture-the-flag-style versus mode. Don’t forget to hook up a USB gamepad before starting, to play it as it was meant to be played.
There’s only one word to describe it: beautiful. To describe it any farther would be spoiling the game for you, so please download the demo and see for yourself.
An Untitled Story is $1, and sold through a PayPal donation.
October 7, 2007
Reality TV shows abound on major television programming nowadays; now, I’m not against that stuff, I just don’t watch it. It’s like gambling. It’s in my nature to be hooked, so, I don’t gamble. Once I found myself sitting glued to Blind Date back to back for something like 6 dates, I decided to make better use of my time and boot up Nancy Drew instead.
PlayDetective: Heartbreakers is almost identical in premise to one of the biggest, longest running reality shows – Cheaters. A couple is having relationship problems, they go to the host, the host hires a private detective, the detective inevitably finds the other partner cheating and finds evidence of such, the host asks the client to confront the partner, and it’s all very melodramatic. Makes for great TV. PlayDetective: Heartbreaks casts you in the role of the private detective, and throws in mini-games to boot.
There are 15 cases in the entire game, and each one plays about the same way with different story lines. You are presented with the facts of the case, then you follow your suspect around with a video camera from a perspective that’s only really possible if you were in a helicopter (or a very high building), and you are given a certain number of days to collect a specific number of evidence. Each scene comes in twos: a scripted “cut-scene” and a screen where you can act by either finding and playing the mini-games or collect evidence.
To collect the evidence you rely on three things: a phone call from the partner, a eavesdropping device, and a camera. Using them is simple enough. All you have to do is buy it in the store and click on them in the main interface during a game screen. Each one of these cost $100, and sometimes using them might not collect any evidence (a photograph could end up being completely innocent.) In order to make money we run into the absurd but fun part: mini-games.
The mini-games are mostly conventional: match-3, swap tiles, multiple choice quiz, the Cryptogram, and lastly, the Polygraph. Match-3 is self-explanatory, as it is the usual match-3 to break tiles. Swap tiles is a jigsaw puzzle where you swap the pieces, with a little bit of help. Each edge of the pieces are color-coded to aid you visually, since the images in them are two/three toned. The multiple-choice quiz asks you questions based on the client/suspect profiles as well as the time/date/place of your investigation. The cryptogram lets you decipher a text-message. As for the Polygraph, it works like a normal Polygraph. You get to guess whether your suspect is lying by the wavy lines. I still have no idea how it works. (Just like a real Polygraph, it seems.)
One of the special features in PlayDetective that it doesn’t tell you about is the variable difficulty level. If you fail a question in a quiz, your timer slows down to give you more time for the next question. If you keep letting the timer run out in the P0lygraph it does the same. It’s a smart timer that ensure the game doesn’t get hard enough to be impossible on medium. In the Match-3 or swap tiles games you can also restart the mini-game at any time.
Now, on the surface, this all works together very well. Once you start getting into the game, Heartbreakers is a bit of a non-game. It’s more of a TV show. You follow the characters around (you can fast forward or skip this part) and when the opportunity presents itself (in the form of your buttons lighting up) you can buy and use the tools. Once you do you either find out that the situation was completely innocent or the suspect is guilty of something. If you make a mistake by not collecting an evidence, the game will boot you out of the mission and make you start it over.
In other words, it’s really a very linear adventure game in the guise of a casual game. If you replace the text in cutscenes with real actors, this could be an old FMV game. Unfortunately, the graphics are dated with “pixel” styling and isn’t likely to draw the average casual gamer in. The music, however, is typical of an old black and white private eye movie.
PlayDetective: Heartbreakers is not a bad game, by any means. It takes a complex subject and simplified it enough for anyone to get in there and play, adding enough casual elements to draw in a casual audience. If you enjoyed Cheaters, the show, you might just get drawn into Heartbreakers’ stories of infidelity. It’s a pretty long game, and it saves in the middle of missions. At the time of this review, it’s slightly buggy, but there are no show stoppers.
You can download PlayDetective:Heartbreakers on the Kayogames web site, as well as try an online version that plays right in your browser.
August 26, 2007
All the adventure games I’ve seen on BFG before were older ones or simpler ones like the Nancy Drew series; so when I logged on this morning and saw Return to Mysterious Island, I was quite pleasantly surprised.
I picked this one off the shelf when it was new, and it was definitely a pretty good adventure game. It had great puzzles, a unique inventory system (which is used in all the newer games by the same developer), a survival meter which isn’t often seen in adventure games, and a lot of great puzzles. There are multiple ways to solve puzzles, which is definitely a plus.
It’s a bit short, and the story a bit sparse, but definitely a lot here to keep an adventure gamer occupied. If you’re a Gameclub member, this game’s a must buy!
July 26, 2007
This is a complete video and graphical walkthrough of Dream Chronicles. I didn’t include the gem locations – I’m not a completionist. I’ve moved all the google video files to Youtube since gvideo has proven to be extremely unreliable. <_<
[edit – looks like I've outgrown my fish bowl. I'm uploading images to a new file host as I type. Check back in an hour and we should have the images back up.]
Pick up the diary off the floor, then pick up the matches off the mantelpiece, click on the matches and use them to light the heath.
Find the items circled here and use them in the mosaic ceiling.
Turn on the light in the room, then turn on the lights in the doll house.
Build a bridge.
Pick up these chalks and use them on the tree house pictures.
Locations of the stones used to spell out “LYRA.”
Here are all the items you will need to build the wagon.
Then, just build the wagon and pull it.
Click on three items, and the switch behind the crystal ball. The bookshelf covers will open.
Locations of all 8 cards. Two of them are only accessible after you’ve opened the covers. Click on the symbol on the wall.
Insert the “opposite” symbol cards.
Locations of all the photographs.
Locations of all the stones needed in the ground mosaic.
Talk to the ill manner plant until it agrees to help you, then kowtow until it opens the door. 🙂
Here are all the parts.
Build a statue:
Locations of the masks to open the theatre box with, as well as rope to tie the curtains back.
Open the theatre box.
Locations of gears and stick.
Locations of the weights in the main screen. The “25” unit is on the scale in Tutti Fruitti.
Here are the items that you can pick up from the town for weighing, and …
… Fruits that can be used for the same purpose in Tutti Fruitti.
Once you click on the gate at the end of town, you’ll be presented with numbers. Just weigh your items accordingly. If you run out of room in your inventory (very annoying, btw) you can always leave them on the posts near the gate. I can’t exactly give you what items to put on the poles – the weights of the items are randomized.
Pick up the 5 pieces of signpost and build it in the middle.
Now build the light.
Once the light is on, click on the left tree trunk and arrange it to look like this:
Then on the right tree trunk and arrange it like so.
First, find the four symbols scattered around the map. Then click on the door.
Now click on the raised buttons on the ground and arrange the symbols like so:
Turn on the lights and fix the stairs.
Locations of the photos to put on the wall.
July 24, 2007
Have I ever mentioned that I’ve played adventure games since the first King’s Quests? I’ve literally played every single one of them that was worth playing. Heck, I even played Y2K. (Which, by the way, was not worth playing.) So when Dream Chronicles was first announced, I was quite excited. An adventure game for casual gamers!
Dream Chronicles (DC) is a typical first person adventure game, except that it is completely linear, and all the objects that you need to solve a given puzzle is usually near or on the same screen of the puzzle so there’s never any backtracking. Adding to the game is a number of “fairy jewels” that you have to pick up along the way that represents themselves on screen as colorful marbles. That would add to a “score” at the end of the game.
Puzzles in DC are a mixture of logical inventory puzzles (such as attaching wheels, washer, and nut to a spoke of a wagon) and riddle puzzles. What I mean by “riddle” puzzle is anything that doesn’t involve putting an inventory object on another – kind of like the 7th Guest. There’s a lot of “put this bunch of icons in sequence” as well. Mostly they are very logical.
Most of the time, however, you’d be spending object hunting. You’d be given a hint as to what you’re looking for, and off you go to look for it. Until you find every single last item, you can’t solve the puzzle and move on to the next screen. If you’re stuck long enough, the object will twinkle. These things are hidden adventure game style versus what casual gamers are used to; there’d be a corner sticking out of a book or a scrap coming out of the bushes. If you happen by them, however, the tooltip will come up letting you know what you mouse just moved over.
Some things are extremely small. Other times you’d find yourself peering into the darkness of the monitor thinking “what the heck am I looking at?” Since there is no setting to adjust brightness, you could end up with the dreaded adventure scenario of “pixel hunting.” Which I had to do many times. Most of the time when I found something I wouldn’t notice any change in the scene from before.
Another note is the linearity – once you finish a room, you can’t go back to it, and once you’ve finished the game, there’s really no point of playing it again aside from raising your score. That’s one thing about adventure games that doesn’t mix well with the casual game genre – there is little, if any, replayability in adventure games. Since DC also dumbed down the adventure part of the game by making all objects for a puzzle available in the same room as the puzzle, the game also goes absurdly fast. You could easily finish this in a couple of hours or less.
The art in DC is absolutely stunning for a casual game, and typical for an adventure game. The music is lovely, and the sound effects doesn’t stick out. There’s definitely a whole lot of production value here – beautiful adventure games are costly to make. That’s what makes casual games so lucrative – one puzzle with many difficulty levels = one game. Adventure game? Many scenes, many puzzles, many items … = one game.
As more casual games developers are looking to revive the adventure gaming genre by making them casual, I can’t help but feel that this is taking two steps back. Instead of spending $20 on a game you could finish in a couple of hours, why not pick up The Longest Journey at Staples for $9.99? It lasts for hours and hours, and the art is just as beautiful, if not more os.
July 11, 2007
Thought I’d update this walkthrough to include full size images. So here they are!
Boiler Room
Cellar
Guest Saloon
Kitchen
Lobby
Clock Room
Entry
Homestead
Spare Bedroom
Backyard
Garage
Porch
Wine Cellar
Balcony
Drawing Room
Gallery
Pantry
Library
Indian Room
Nursery
Trophy Room
Bathroom
Billiard Room
Corridor
Master
Study
Attic
East Tower
July 2, 2007
Not a perfect game, but you get the idea.
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