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Casual Friday

Sorry for the delay. Had a few things that needed my attention before I could get to the Friday post.

I’m kind of breaking a rule here. It is usually my thinking that by the time the third game in a series comes out, that is the last “quality” game in that series. Most of the time this is true.

This screenshot is from Grim Tales - The Stone Queen. It is the fourth game in the Grim Tales franchise. And while it isn’t quite as good as the third game, The Wishes, it’s still pretty good. Things start to fall apart in game five and go downhill in a hurry after that.

Don’t get me wrong. When we last saw Brandon in The Wishes he was around seven years old. When we next see him in Stone Queen, a mere ten months later, he is in his late teens or early twenties. He is in a coma, and we need to save him. So this is taking on some fourth game strangeness.

The Stone Queen in the title is a goddess of sorts that rules the mines. She is a benevolent goddess until something goes wrong. The mines were once communally owned by the people in the little town where Brandon went for a summer vacation. Unfortunately someone started buying all the mining properties. Once he owned them all, bad things started to happen in the mines, and this greatly pissed off the Stone Queen.

When you first enter the town, you see the results of her vengeance. There is wreckage everywhere, and the few people that failed to escape her wrath have been turned to stone. Except for Brandon and the doctor who watches over him.Turns out that Brandon and the Stone Queen had a little fling and fell in love with each other. (I know this sounds wierd. And it is. And this sounds like a bad fourth game, but, as you play the game, it starts to make sense in a very strange sort of way.)

Anyway, your task list has grown exponentially. In addition to curing Brandon, you must restore the stone people back to their natural state, repair the wreckage, appease the Stone Queen and re-unite the star-crossed lovers. Plus a few side tasks you will run across along your journey. The game, from Elephant Games, is not short. I’d say it lasts a good eight hours. And that’s for the standard version. I didn’t play the CE version, and have no clue what’s in the Bonus Game. So I can’t say whether it adds to the experience or is worth the extra $$.

The graphics are excellent. Voice acting is “good enough” which is to say it isn’t annoying. Music and effects are good, although I had to turn down all sound-related stuff to about 35%. The Hints are not typical in that they don’t guide you to where something needs to be done. Rather, when you hit the Hint button a text box opens that tells you where you have to go. In HO scenes and in your current location, if there is an action available, the Hint system acts as you would normally expect. There is a Skip button, although I think I only used it on the tedious-type puzzles. I.e., those that you know how to solve, but refuse to go through the 200 steps required to arrive at the solution.

Good game. Worth a purchase. But, as far as Grim Tales games are concerned, Stone Queen is the last game in the franchise that I can recommend.