Adventure Gamers - Forums

Here’s the second Nightmare Adventures: The Turning Thorn.

I liked both Nightmare Adventures games quite a bit. They featured some good gameplay and puzzles, a tough and likeable protagonist and a lot of atmosphere. The plot on the second one, Turning Thorn, kind of went off the rails a bit and unfortunately ended on a cliffhanger but it was still a good game.

I checked my purchase history and apparently I bought Witch’s Prison in 03/11 and Turning Thorn in 01/13. I remember being significantly more impressed with Witch’s Prison than with Turning Thorn, but that may have been because it had little competition back in 2011. Of course I’ve never been impressed with “to be continued” endings and that probably factored in too. I remember parts of Witch’s Prison—played it more than once. I don’t remember Turning Thorn.

rtrooney - 17 February 2016 07:10 PM

I did finish the Nevertales: Legends game. It was quite good. I was sufficiently impressed to plan it for Friday’s AGSOTD.

I see I have the first two Nevertales games. I’ll check out Legends.

Here’s another game with a powerful witch (no relation at all to the Nightmare Adventures series we’ve just been discussing).

Witch Hunters: Stolen Beauty is an older game (2012)  that I’ve been playing off-and-on for a year and have finally finished. I’ve enjoyed this game over such a long stretch without feeling lost because the story is memorable but not very deep.

You assume the role of a young woman whose youth has been stolen by Madame Flemet, the dastardly former headmistress of a girl’s boarding school. You return to the now abandoned school to investigate and defeat the occult powers that are allowing Flemet to stay young and (relatively) attractive. Other than the ability to acquire some unusual powers as you progress (who wouldn’t want to animate statues and turn evil things good?), gameplay is a standard mix of inventory challenges, occasional mini-games and list-based Hidden Object screens.

I kept returning to this game over the long haul because of the graphics. The color palette is one I don’t see much in casual games – tones of grey accompanied by pastel colors and the occasional almost-jewel-tone, suffused by cool light. The interiors are gothic Victorian with elaborate wood carvings, cracked tile and parquet floors, gargoyle-like statues, arched ceilings and splendidly rotting draperies. Exteriors contain tumbled-down stone walls, sinuous branches, vines barely clinging to life, rancid pools with water lilies, rust-colored leaves and chipped flagstones.

Really, why does the heroine want her youth back, when age and decay can be this attractive?

Witch Hunters: Stolen Beauty is worth a look-in if you want visuals that are full of exquisite, fading gentility and don’t want a complicated story or fiendish puzzles.

Becky I just tried Stolen Beauty and immediately bought it.  Doesn’t hurt that BigFish had a sale going.
I hate the current trend to intense blue and pink colors. It has to be an extraordinary game to get me to even try one.

Sarahandus—I hope it meets expectations. I’m curious to know what you think of it when you’ve played through.

Becky - Working on Nearwood at the moment, will get to Stolen Beauty next.  I have several recently sale inspired purchases I haven’t played too.

Sarahandus—Nearwood is one of my all-time favorites. I especially was impressed with the opening fly-through. And I liked the fact that it isn’t HO-heavy.

[Had a question but found the answer]

Yep, that’s where I found them.  GOG and Steam were a bust.

Thanks anyway.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in boarding schools lately – this time in the school in Parallels Cross – an adventure-lite game (no Hidden Object screens) that we discussed earlier in this thread. The story begins when your young son scampers away and enters the school grounds. Of course you go after him, and what you find isn’t run-of-the-mill for a school or for a casual game.

It turns out that this is an academy for child prodigies, and there’s a strong scientific focus among the teachers. The teachers have been using ideas from their genius students to speed up and expand their experiments—until something dreadful happens, causing everyone at the school to disappear. You must figure out what occurred and how to partially reverse it in order to rescue your son. Desperation forces you to become a genius too.

The school contains lots of mysterious garden areas with the usual blue mist. You’ll also explore the campus—classrooms, laboratories, student rooms, and an observatory, parts of which the teachers clearly kept hidden from the students’ parents. (Becky’s Advice: when considering sending your child to a boarding school, be sure to check out any room that requires a puzzle-solve to access, before allowing your child to attend.)

Parallels Cross has an interactive map that shows you when an area is completed, and a journal that records certain clues. But the rudimentary hint system mostly tells you that you’re in the wrong place to do anything. I frequently was at a loss as to what I should be doing next (much more of an adventure-game-feeling than a casual-game-feeling).

The puzzles, which include inventory challenges and mini-games, have a range of difficulty, but end up more in the “pretty difficult” zone. Some of these were unusually creative. You can skip most of the mini-games if you choose, though I advise doing lots of head-scratching before you skip, as the puzzles are truly the reason you’re there.

If you’re up for a challenge and for something out of the common way for a casual game, check this one out.