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KeybordzLady Kestrel

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Casual Games Thread

Total Posts: 6

Joined 2019-09-15

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Thanks for the recommendation of Vermillion Watch! I’m wrapping up Enigmatis and then will jump to that.

Unfortunately though, it looks like there’s some supernatural elements.

My girlfriend wants something with no fantasy, sci-fi, or horror elements. Which damn, takes out a LOT of titles. I guess folks really skew towards those genres for HOPA titles?

We DID play through Artifex Mundi’s Noir Chronicles and that was a solid time. Really easy though, with the game only presenting you with 2 or so scenes at a time.

There’s a part of me that likes that easygoing spirit, but there was a decided lack of “aha!” moments.

I hear Dead Reckoning might be up my alley?

     
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Total Posts: 5035

Joined 2004-07-12

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I suggest you try Angelica Weaver - Catch Me When You Can. There is some time travel, and you have to talk with a ghost or two. If you can get past that, it’s a great detective story.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

Total Posts: 6

Joined 2019-09-15

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Oh yeah! I actually Angelica Weaver a month or two ago and had a blast - really clever little title.

Also I know its fantasy/horror adjacent, but good lord is Enigmatis 1 and 2 good. Excited to start part three soon!

     
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Total Posts: 5035

Joined 2004-07-12

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The subject of Adventure A: A Puzzle in Disguise has come up here and on a few other threads. It’s a really good game, and it’s on sale at GOG for $3.99. It’s either a Sophisticated Casual or an Adventure Lite depending on your point of view. Very similar to Emerald City Confidential in that regard.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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Total Posts: 5035

Joined 2004-07-12

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Just finished replaying the Enigmatis trilogy. It’s a shame that Artifex Mundi is no longer turning out games like they used to. Number 3 is far and away the best produced of the three. But number two is the winner for best story. Number 1 more than adequately set the stage for what was to come.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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Total Posts: 5569

Joined 2008-01-09

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I enjoyed the Vermillion Watch games and the Enigmatis trilogy very much, too.  However, I played Ms. Holmes: Five Orange Pips a couple of weeks ago and was not impressed.

     

Carpe chocolate.

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Total Posts: 5035

Joined 2004-07-12

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I agree. The original ACD story revolved around five individuals who disguised themselves with beards and hair dye so that their mothers would not recognise them. And they used the disguise to break into a bank. This is nowhere similar to the original.

The ending was WTF. And the bonus game didn’t relate to the basic game in any way.

So this, to me is a 1/5 stars.

That said, there have been some Dark Tales games “supposedly” based on EAP stories that are surprisingly entertaining despite the fact that they have no relation to the original story.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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Total Posts: 5035

Joined 2004-07-12

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Just finished playing Family Mysteries - Poisonous Promises. Despite some glaring flaws, such as pretty bad voice acting, the game, itself, is quite good. While this is the third in the Family Mysteries series, I had never heard of it before downloading the demo. After reading the storylines of the other two on BigFish my conclusion is that there isn’t much to the series concept. That is, there is no character continuity from game to game. At least as it concerns the main protagonist.

The main story is that you are charged with investigating a murder. Poisoning is the root cause, but the method of delivery is unknown. Your main objectives are to find the killer as well as the reasons the murder was committed. There are at least seven characters in the game. You will be interacting with all of them. Evidence will be acquired. Interestingly the method of displaying evidence and reaching conclusions is remarkably similar to the method used in the Enigmatis games. Although this is definitely not an Artifex Mundi game. The game designer is Brave Giant. Just like the game series, this is a designer that I’ve never heard of before.

There are a few “action” sequences. Three are fight sequences. Not to worry. All three are completed not by trading punches, but by solving match-three games. Sounds strange, but it works well. There are more hidden object scenes than I would like, but they are very well done. So it wasn’t all that bad. A few variations were actually quite fun. There is an interactive map. The other quibble I had was that there seemed to be momentary lags after some scenes before the cursor becomes usable. There were two puzzles that required dragging objects through a maze where the cursor wouldn’t work at all. Since I hate mazes, I was more than happy to wait the minute or so before the Skip button became active.

I played the SE version. My guess is that it took me a little over four hours to complete. Play the demo first. If you have an available credit you might want to use it here.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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Total Posts: 8471

Joined 2011-10-21

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I just finished two Android casuals (that were free on the Google Play store for a few days). I shouldn’t have bothered…

The Hunt for the Lost Ship
+ no HOGs
+ variety of moderately ok clued in puzzles
+/- ok graphics, some poorly stitched-together scenes
- in-game hints require extra purchase (not that you really need them)
- no story whatsoever apart from a letter at the start and a letter when finishing
- fast-travel between locations only available with extra purchase

Alice Trapped in Wonderland
+ no HOGs
+/- variety of often poorly clued in puzzles
- poor graphics, most scenes are VERY poorly stitched-together
- no story whatsoever apart from a letter at the start and a letter when finishing
- ends on a massive cliffhanger, feels incomplete

Basically, they’re the sort of casual games that give casual games a bad name. I wouldn’t consider playing Trapped in Wonderland 2 even if it was also free.
Don’t waste your time and skip these games.

The Hunt for the Lost Ship - 1.5/5
Alice Trapped in Wonderland - 1/5

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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Total Posts: 5035

Joined 2004-07-12

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I know I have (justifiably?) criticised ERS, now AMAX, games for beating their games into the ground. Nevertheless, I sometimes have no choice but to play one of their games. Lately I’ve not been playing many new casual games. I’ll play a demo, and cross the game off my list. So I’ve been replaying old games, and god knows I’ve got a large inventory to choose from. But that isn’t always satisfying either.

So I took a chance on the SE version of Puppetshow: Fatal Mistake. My opinion is that the franchise started going downhill with game four, so this was going to be a challenge. To my surprise the game wasn’t all that bad. Of course you first have to get by the implausibility of puppets/automatons/drones/etc as sentient beings. With that out of the way, there’s a fairly good story. Music, voice acting, graphics are quite good. Certainly up to ERS standards. The puzzles have some variety, running the gamut from classic random list to silhouette to finding multiples of an object. One rather clever puzzle required finding 12 Nuts. After finding 11 of the Nuts, as in Nuts and Bolts, the assumption is that you need to look for one more of the same. Nope! On the back of a wooden box is the image of a walnut etched into the wood.

The major, and I mean MAJOR, shortcoming of the game is that it is terribly short. I finished the game in about two hours. That’s not a lot of gameplay for the money. Still, if you’ve got a free game credit to spare, or find yourself looking for a second game in a BOBO sale, you might want to give it a shot.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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Total Posts: 5813

Joined 2012-03-24

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Thanks Tim for the recommendation. I gave the demo a shot but truthfully didn’t get beyond about 20 mins - it wasn’t for me to the point where I’d tried & bought the complete New York Mysteries: The Lantern of Souls but on launching a game the next day accidently launched the rest of the Puppetshow demo instead of NYM & couldn’t think why I’d wasted my BF points on buying it.

NYM of which I’ve played a few of in the series I much preferred although I wasn’t crazy about the few HO screens with shapes rather than lists although they were interactive in that you had to find one thing to move on….

     
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Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

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Currently GamersGate are having a sale of Alawar Games and I thought I’d post the link in this thread as well as posting in the discount thread.

GamersGate Alawar Sale

     

Life is what it is.

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Total Posts: 9

Joined 2014-10-18

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Anyone can suggest me a good HOG game from 2020 or 2019 (even 2018), being good? Any genre, but a cool one.

     
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Total Posts: 5569

Joined 2008-01-09

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I enjoyed playing the first Adam Wolf game by Mad Head Games not too long ago, but it’s not a new one.  It has an investigative feel to it and the object scenes are actually fun.  I’m looking forward to the second one.

     

Carpe chocolate.

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Total Posts: 9

Joined 2014-10-18

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Lady Kestrel - 25 September 2020 10:49 PM

I enjoyed playing the first Adam Wolf game by Mad Head Games not too long ago, but it’s not a new one.  It has an investigative feel to it and the object scenes are actually fun.  I’m looking forward to the second one.

I take note of it. Thanks, really.

     

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