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chuckroAnother bundle of point-and-click adventure games, using the same formulaic build as the Artifex Mundi games, for the most part. They drift a bit more in terms of quality and variety, but are ultimately more variations on the theme.
Nearwood - Collector's Edition - A bit more in the adventure/puzzle item combination genre than the Artifex Mundi games and with better production values (it's very pretty); but it still has plenty of brainteasers and hidden object puzzles. The story of Jane searching a mystical otherworldly realm for her parents and saving the inhabitants is totally trite, but that's not what you're playing for. (Though credit to them that “otherworldly fantasy” isn’t otherwise well-represented by the game genre.) Interestingly, in addition to including hints and skips for puzzles, the walkthrough/FAQ for the game is built into it. I think I needed to access it exactly once (there’s a code that I couldn’t find); as the puzzles are just hard enough to be fun, but not to frustrate.
Space Legends: At the Edge of the Universe - It's a standard point-and-click adventure game with moderately pretty graphics. The translation has issues (clues are often useless and the names of objects in the hidden object puzzles are often obtuse), and the puzzles are unnecessarily obtuse (I actually skipped a bunch of them, which I try to never do in these kinds of games). This clearly hasn't been updated in a while, as there are no Steam achievements, and it needs to be set to Windows XP compatibility mode in order to run. After a first sequence on a space station, you're put into a standard pseudo-medieval setting, which irritates me greatly--if you're going to have a sci-fi game, and it's only a few hours long regardless, you can stay in a full sci-fi setting the whole time. Heck, the plot feels like three different games hacked together--there are three major areas with unrelated main quests, the danger in the last area comes out of nowhere, and your main character spontaneously changes outfits with no explanation. Also, Steve (your fellow space station worker) is totally useless to the point where Jethrien started calling him Moon Moon. Dammit, Moon Steve! I can't really recommend this, as there are far better games in the genre.
Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector's Edition - A reporter investigating a mysterious killer comes to a spooky mansion to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend, where he's led through a string of puzzles by the mysterious masked "Oscar", who announces over a loudspeaker and disappears behind trapped doors. I give them credit in that this is the point-and-click adventure game with the best explanation for the puzzles that I've seen so far: You're being lead around by a maniac serial killer who set them all up! While this has no achievements and a couple of the connections are a bit obtuse, it does have a decent hint system and a built-in guide. It also has a bonus chapter that DOESN'T reuse the game's main setting, which I found impressive.
House of 1,000 Doors: Family Secrets Collector's Edition - Kate is a burned-out writer who is invited to a séance and has a vision of her grandmother, telling her to go to the mysterious extra-dimensional House of 1,000 Doors. It feels more open than some of the other games in that you can access a lot of puzzles early, but it’s just an illusion of openness: Each area has a sequence, where you can find one thing and it’ll lead you through a daisy-chain of solving everything nearby. There are several objects that you get very early on that you don't use until very late in the game, and there are several puzzles in the first couple of rooms you visit that are among the last you solve. But even better: You keep a knife and lighter for most of the game, using them repeatedly in a bunch of sensible situations! (Which almost lets me forgive them for needing to retrieve a pot of hot water and a bucket of water from two completely different places, when the pot should be able to be filled twice.) The plot is not really coherent, as you're really being tested and then invited to join the occupants of the house in setting ghosts to rest...but this will somehow redeem your family legacy? Hunh? Whatever. It's standard point-and-clink adventure game; the puzzles are fine and the game flow is decent. It's got a built-in strategy guide and a bonus chapter. Could use a map, but that's about all it’s missing.
Brink of Consciousness: The Lonely Hearts Murders - Your daughter has been kidnapped by the Lonely Hearts Killer! You have 30 days to track her down, not that the time limit actually matters. Now granted, the locations of clues and items in point-and-click adventure games is usually weird, but this is particularly nonsensical: You find the keys to a policeman's safe in your cupboard and a broken steam line--but that's fine, as the policeman has a brass cuckoo from your clock in his other secret wall safe. You find a raw fish wrapped up in a mailbox. You find pieces of your personal picture frame scattered around town. Forget the Lonely Hearts Killer, who the hell is the local ultra-prolific kleptomaniac who keeps rearranging all this stuff? I think part of the problem is that the locations aren't "contained" like in many other games--we're wandering a town, not a single mansion, ship or amusement park. The other part of the problem is that a fair percentage of the clue objects are either unique missing pieces of mechanisms/art, or keys. There are relatively few tools that you're using to solve problems, and just a lot of key objects that need to get plugged into holes. The story is impressively overacted, but that doesn't save it from the fact that it's kind of stupid and most of the salient details come out in an infodump while your viewpoint character fades in and out of consciousness. It's a shame that the brainteaser puzzles were generally decent, because it's not worth the rest of the game to get to them. (Oh, and one hidden-object puzzle has you looking for a “trumpet,” but the actual object is a tuba. Insult to injury.) I didn't bother playing the bonus chapter.
Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island - This is a classic-style adventure game that's clearly trying to be in the style of the Monkey Island series. It doesn't managed to be quite as silly or as charming, but the puzzles are certainly obtuse enough. I wasn't interested enough in the story to fight my way through the puzzles.
Mystery Masters: Psycho Train Deluxe Edition - A specter called The Trainman crashes the train you’re riding and kidnaps your daughter. Trapped in the trainman's world of ghosts and puzzles, you must defeat him and save her. I'm much more willing to accept the bizarre distribution of objects and puzzles when you're traveling through a haunted dream-world. This has no voice-acting and very little animation (but that's okay, really), and moves through fairly self-contained areas that feel a bit like chapters. The interaction with NPCs is also very low compared to most other games in the bundle.
This bundle also contained another House of 1,000 Doors game called The Palm of Zoroaster Collector's Edition. I'll play that eventually, but I'm not expecting any huge surprises.
Overall: This was even more of a mixed bag than the Artifex Mundi bundle, likely because these didn’t all share a publisher and therefore varied more in quality. Nearwood and Dorian Gray Syndrome were probably the two strongest, but you have to like the genre—neither will convince you of the wonders of point-and-click adventure games if you’re skeptical.
Nearwood - Collector's Edition - A bit more in the adventure/puzzle item combination genre than the Artifex Mundi games and with better production values (it's very pretty); but it still has plenty of brainteasers and hidden object puzzles. The story of Jane searching a mystical otherworldly realm for her parents and saving the inhabitants is totally trite, but that's not what you're playing for. (Though credit to them that “otherworldly fantasy” isn’t otherwise well-represented by the game genre.) Interestingly, in addition to including hints and skips for puzzles, the walkthrough/FAQ for the game is built into it. I think I needed to access it exactly once (there’s a code that I couldn’t find); as the puzzles are just hard enough to be fun, but not to frustrate.
Space Legends: At the Edge of the Universe - It's a standard point-and-click adventure game with moderately pretty graphics. The translation has issues (clues are often useless and the names of objects in the hidden object puzzles are often obtuse), and the puzzles are unnecessarily obtuse (I actually skipped a bunch of them, which I try to never do in these kinds of games). This clearly hasn't been updated in a while, as there are no Steam achievements, and it needs to be set to Windows XP compatibility mode in order to run. After a first sequence on a space station, you're put into a standard pseudo-medieval setting, which irritates me greatly--if you're going to have a sci-fi game, and it's only a few hours long regardless, you can stay in a full sci-fi setting the whole time. Heck, the plot feels like three different games hacked together--there are three major areas with unrelated main quests, the danger in the last area comes out of nowhere, and your main character spontaneously changes outfits with no explanation. Also, Steve (your fellow space station worker) is totally useless to the point where Jethrien started calling him Moon Moon. Dammit, Moon Steve! I can't really recommend this, as there are far better games in the genre.
Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector's Edition - A reporter investigating a mysterious killer comes to a spooky mansion to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend, where he's led through a string of puzzles by the mysterious masked "Oscar", who announces over a loudspeaker and disappears behind trapped doors. I give them credit in that this is the point-and-click adventure game with the best explanation for the puzzles that I've seen so far: You're being lead around by a maniac serial killer who set them all up! While this has no achievements and a couple of the connections are a bit obtuse, it does have a decent hint system and a built-in guide. It also has a bonus chapter that DOESN'T reuse the game's main setting, which I found impressive.
House of 1,000 Doors: Family Secrets Collector's Edition - Kate is a burned-out writer who is invited to a séance and has a vision of her grandmother, telling her to go to the mysterious extra-dimensional House of 1,000 Doors. It feels more open than some of the other games in that you can access a lot of puzzles early, but it’s just an illusion of openness: Each area has a sequence, where you can find one thing and it’ll lead you through a daisy-chain of solving everything nearby. There are several objects that you get very early on that you don't use until very late in the game, and there are several puzzles in the first couple of rooms you visit that are among the last you solve. But even better: You keep a knife and lighter for most of the game, using them repeatedly in a bunch of sensible situations! (Which almost lets me forgive them for needing to retrieve a pot of hot water and a bucket of water from two completely different places, when the pot should be able to be filled twice.) The plot is not really coherent, as you're really being tested and then invited to join the occupants of the house in setting ghosts to rest...but this will somehow redeem your family legacy? Hunh? Whatever. It's standard point-and-clink adventure game; the puzzles are fine and the game flow is decent. It's got a built-in strategy guide and a bonus chapter. Could use a map, but that's about all it’s missing.
Brink of Consciousness: The Lonely Hearts Murders - Your daughter has been kidnapped by the Lonely Hearts Killer! You have 30 days to track her down, not that the time limit actually matters. Now granted, the locations of clues and items in point-and-click adventure games is usually weird, but this is particularly nonsensical: You find the keys to a policeman's safe in your cupboard and a broken steam line--but that's fine, as the policeman has a brass cuckoo from your clock in his other secret wall safe. You find a raw fish wrapped up in a mailbox. You find pieces of your personal picture frame scattered around town. Forget the Lonely Hearts Killer, who the hell is the local ultra-prolific kleptomaniac who keeps rearranging all this stuff? I think part of the problem is that the locations aren't "contained" like in many other games--we're wandering a town, not a single mansion, ship or amusement park. The other part of the problem is that a fair percentage of the clue objects are either unique missing pieces of mechanisms/art, or keys. There are relatively few tools that you're using to solve problems, and just a lot of key objects that need to get plugged into holes. The story is impressively overacted, but that doesn't save it from the fact that it's kind of stupid and most of the salient details come out in an infodump while your viewpoint character fades in and out of consciousness. It's a shame that the brainteaser puzzles were generally decent, because it's not worth the rest of the game to get to them. (Oh, and one hidden-object puzzle has you looking for a “trumpet,” but the actual object is a tuba. Insult to injury.) I didn't bother playing the bonus chapter.
Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island - This is a classic-style adventure game that's clearly trying to be in the style of the Monkey Island series. It doesn't managed to be quite as silly or as charming, but the puzzles are certainly obtuse enough. I wasn't interested enough in the story to fight my way through the puzzles.
Mystery Masters: Psycho Train Deluxe Edition - A specter called The Trainman crashes the train you’re riding and kidnaps your daughter. Trapped in the trainman's world of ghosts and puzzles, you must defeat him and save her. I'm much more willing to accept the bizarre distribution of objects and puzzles when you're traveling through a haunted dream-world. This has no voice-acting and very little animation (but that's okay, really), and moves through fairly self-contained areas that feel a bit like chapters. The interaction with NPCs is also very low compared to most other games in the bundle.
This bundle also contained another House of 1,000 Doors game called The Palm of Zoroaster Collector's Edition. I'll play that eventually, but I'm not expecting any huge surprises.
Overall: This was even more of a mixed bag than the Artifex Mundi bundle, likely because these didn’t all share a publisher and therefore varied more in quality. Nearwood and Dorian Gray Syndrome were probably the two strongest, but you have to like the genre—neither will convince you of the wonders of point-and-click adventure games if you’re skeptical.
