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Fanatical (formerly BundleStars) – Part Sixty: Cryptic Bundle 5
Millionaire Manor - Grandpa has been captured by an evil game-show host (ghost?) who forces you to play his games to free the contestants! The games are standard HO puzzles, with a bunch of variations (list, silhouette, find 10, spot differences, etc.) that unlock as you complete bonus rounds. Not much plot beyond that; it’s an excuse for lots of HO puzzles in a row. Also, the fact that the scenes and games are randomized is less fun for me, despite being able to put the “skip token” on Focus because it’s the most annoying variant.
Witch's Pranks: Frog's Fortune Collector's Edition - A fantasy adventure in which you must rescue two different princes who have been turned into frogs by an evil witch, by solving puzzles and reuniting them with their respective cursed princesses. This isn’t high art, but it’s serviceable. There’s relatively little hidden object finding; many of the actual puzzles are bit on the tricky side.
Dark Lore Mysteries: The Hunt For Truth - Is Vlad the evil vampire back from the dead? Or is a serial killer trying to make it look that way? This is a relatively short but perfectly respectable example of the genre, heavily into the HO puzzles but at least making an effort to have a coherent plot. Fun but forgettable.
Princess Isabella - Return of the Curse - A bit cartoony with a little bit of a “baby’s first HO game” feel. I appreciate that rooms get marked with “everything is done here” messages once you’ve found everything in them. I got irritated by the number of things you arbitrarily couldn’t solve yet because your fairy companion had decided to wander off for a while.
Fall of the New Age Premium Edition - A female cutpurse must rescue her kidnapped brother from a cult in a medieval anachronism stew. More adventure game mechanics, fewer hidden object puzzles, very chapter-based (there are a bunch of areas you leave and never return to as the plot progresses), and noteworthy for a “disguise” dress-up minigame and a slingshot you use to solve a few puzzles. I found it a bit obtuse and the puzzles were often badly-designed.
Voodoo Whisperer Curse of a Legend - A curse has struck New Orleans, and you’re the random unaffected white lady who needs to save everyone using voodoo magic! I appreciate the “area complete” messages, but the puzzles are unnecessarily railroaded—certain things only arbitrarily become interactive once you’ve done other things first. Also, the hidden object sets are irritatingly monochromatic.
Namariel Legends: Iron Lord Premium Edition - “Then everything changed when the robot nation attacked.” This is a magitech fantasy adventure starring a lost princess whose kingdom was conquered by the Iron Lord and his robots. There are no hidden object puzzles at all; it’s all point-and-click adventure. The brainteasers are decent; and the game is fairly easy as long as you remember that your robot buddy is an additional tool at your disposal. I was irked that the villains were actually defeated in the climax by the male supporting cast members, despite you doing all the work.
Theatre Of The Absurd ended up being a good choice to end on, as it’s a well-designed and balanced mix of HO puzzles, point-and-click, and brainteasers. Of course, they also clearly named it after one segment of the game and built the greater plot around that afterwards, because you’re trying to rescue a child accidentally possessed by a demon by gathering parts of a magical bell, and one of the places you navigate through to do so is a haunted theater. (And that plot is decidedly nonsensical, as apparently you’ve secretly been the child’s mother and also dead or something the whole time. But, whatever!)
I couldn’t get Mirror Mysteries to actually run, and I decided that the Hidden Object 6-in-1 bundle was just too focused for my taste.
Overall: Nothing in here particularly stuck out as great, and a few of them were kinda lousy. I think I may have overdosed on Cryptic Bundles because the entire genre is starting to feel repetitive.
Witch's Pranks: Frog's Fortune Collector's Edition - A fantasy adventure in which you must rescue two different princes who have been turned into frogs by an evil witch, by solving puzzles and reuniting them with their respective cursed princesses. This isn’t high art, but it’s serviceable. There’s relatively little hidden object finding; many of the actual puzzles are bit on the tricky side.
Dark Lore Mysteries: The Hunt For Truth - Is Vlad the evil vampire back from the dead? Or is a serial killer trying to make it look that way? This is a relatively short but perfectly respectable example of the genre, heavily into the HO puzzles but at least making an effort to have a coherent plot. Fun but forgettable.
Princess Isabella - Return of the Curse - A bit cartoony with a little bit of a “baby’s first HO game” feel. I appreciate that rooms get marked with “everything is done here” messages once you’ve found everything in them. I got irritated by the number of things you arbitrarily couldn’t solve yet because your fairy companion had decided to wander off for a while.
Fall of the New Age Premium Edition - A female cutpurse must rescue her kidnapped brother from a cult in a medieval anachronism stew. More adventure game mechanics, fewer hidden object puzzles, very chapter-based (there are a bunch of areas you leave and never return to as the plot progresses), and noteworthy for a “disguise” dress-up minigame and a slingshot you use to solve a few puzzles. I found it a bit obtuse and the puzzles were often badly-designed.
Voodoo Whisperer Curse of a Legend - A curse has struck New Orleans, and you’re the random unaffected white lady who needs to save everyone using voodoo magic! I appreciate the “area complete” messages, but the puzzles are unnecessarily railroaded—certain things only arbitrarily become interactive once you’ve done other things first. Also, the hidden object sets are irritatingly monochromatic.
Namariel Legends: Iron Lord Premium Edition - “Then everything changed when the robot nation attacked.” This is a magitech fantasy adventure starring a lost princess whose kingdom was conquered by the Iron Lord and his robots. There are no hidden object puzzles at all; it’s all point-and-click adventure. The brainteasers are decent; and the game is fairly easy as long as you remember that your robot buddy is an additional tool at your disposal. I was irked that the villains were actually defeated in the climax by the male supporting cast members, despite you doing all the work.
Theatre Of The Absurd ended up being a good choice to end on, as it’s a well-designed and balanced mix of HO puzzles, point-and-click, and brainteasers. Of course, they also clearly named it after one segment of the game and built the greater plot around that afterwards, because you’re trying to rescue a child accidentally possessed by a demon by gathering parts of a magical bell, and one of the places you navigate through to do so is a haunted theater. (And that plot is decidedly nonsensical, as apparently you’ve secretly been the child’s mother and also dead or something the whole time. But, whatever!)
I couldn’t get Mirror Mysteries to actually run, and I decided that the Hidden Object 6-in-1 bundle was just too focused for my taste.
Overall: Nothing in here particularly stuck out as great, and a few of them were kinda lousy. I think I may have overdosed on Cryptic Bundles because the entire genre is starting to feel repetitive.