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Sarah Maribu and the lost world Review

This one was a gem. The graphics were excellent. Some nice 3d mix with 2d animations. Beautiful tropical illustrations. The music was also top notch. Not annoying in any way with nice atmosphere sounds. No voice overs. The story is fantasy and miss maybe some narrative, but enjoyable. The game consist in picture's HOG with some puzzles. The puzzles are well done. Overall, the game was extremely potent in content and execution. It last around 3 hours and is for the family. Recommended. This game is with Bigfishgames.

(9.5/10)

Lost Secrets: Ancient Mysteries Review (unfinished)

This game wasn't very attractive. The graphics was low resolution. Some of the levels were too full of objects and made a bad paste visually. The sounds was ok, once you disable the background. One of the most annoying background music I have heard. Fast pace and very intrusive. The gameplay was very repetitive. You get 3 HOGs that gets you 3 objects, that might or might not help solve the last level. Redo it. The story is cliché. It could have been presented in a better way. The characters are static with some text in bubbles, click next. No signs of emotions with generic dialogues. Overall just a very average HOG game that had no sparks. Try before you buy.

(5.5/10)

The Clumsy 2: Butterfly effect review

This game was fun. The graphics were more then decent. Acceptable resolution and some nice story presentation. Good and easy interface. The music was great. Voice overs are present, but the one of the German professor is annoying or bad…maybe too childish.  The story is amusing and for the family. The gameplay is a mix of HOG and 2-3 mini games. It gets repetitive since it's always the same cycle. On the side you have to assemble some gadgets, but only one of them was useful at one place. So, not sure why it was there…Overall, the game last 2-3 hours and was very fun to play, although repetitive. I like the humour in the game and it is well realized.

(8/10)

Nick Chase and the Deadly Diamond

Unable to review

This game had a very bad low resolution of 800×600, but I think it was lower…very ugly result on LCD. I could have played it in a small window, but it's too small. Try it on your PC before buying.

The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes 2 Review (unfinished)

I found this game to be a little too dull. The graphics are fine but lack a good finish and colours. The story is illustrated in manner that feel rough and somewhat drab in presentation. The sounds are passable. A lot of voice over, but the one of Watson is bad and Sherlock Holmes borderline. The music is good. The gameplay is HOG, puzzle and memory games. A couple were too complex, other too easy. The stories are too fast and leaves a lot of pieces behind. I am a fan of SH and I know those stories by heart, and they were over simplified in order to put more stories in the same game. So you feel like you miss a big piece somewhere, but in reality they skipped to the end of it. Overall I had certain expectations for this game, and I would have prefer they told one or two stories but done it in a more polished way. You might want to try this one first before buying.

(6.5/10)

1001 Nights: The Adventures of Sindbad review

1001 nights was a pleasant surprise. The graphics are quite nice for such a small size game. The story is told via comic strips. The illustration is average and not in tone with the rest of the game, but that's ok. The music is really good, no voice overs. The story and the game is filled with imagination and variety of imagery. The game consist in identification, HOG and puzzle. The only default is that there is a couple of small objects and the hint refill is quite slow. Last 2-3 hours. There is 1-2 puzzles that are a bit long. Finding insects is quite enjoyable. Overall this game was a fun game for all the family. There is a surprising amount of quality of gameplay and a good story. . Recommended. This game is at Bigfish.

(8.5/10)

Drakensang Review (90% complete)

Drakensang is a fun RPG with some problems here and there. The graphics at high settings are quite good, especially for the characters. There is a nice range of vegetations. Some textures applied on the grounds and walls are a mix bag of good and ugly. There is no weather effect in DK (No rain, snow, etc…), and you will also miss the limited lighting. But overall the game is pretty decent visually.

The sounds are average. The music has to be turn off. You barely ear your peoples running. And the sounds given to the levels fall short of feeling you involve. The enemies voices are ok, exception of the Grolms. Other voice overs are fine. The dialogues are often in text with the first phrase done in voice over.

The story is interesting and rich. I really like how it deploys itself around this world, and how much you want to go forward to see it conclude. You certainly do care about your party and their peoples.

The gameplay is somewhat good. This game plays by the rules of DD. So, combats often feels aleatory because you miss as much as you hit, even at high levels. Getting better stats doesn't change this problem that much. In your party Magicians don't spell magic, all the others don't uses their items or their special abilities…you constantly have to do it manually by pausing. Which is rather frustrating especially regarding magic. What is the point of getting a magician if he doesn't fight properly ? There is a big hole in terms of AI for your party, and in the long run, it doesn't help. Still the fighting is ok, but when you get at the last 2 levels the enemies are far superior than you. Again, another game that suffer from AI balance. Interacting with NPC is correct but is mainly for side quest, which is fine by me. You have a lot of loot and stuff to create potions,weapons and more…There is a lot of character settings to change, maybe too much. You constantly ask yourself: what stats is better ? And after 90% of the game done, I am not sure which one was the best. And that's not good…Exploration is a blast, even tho you  have to do a lot of backtracking. A means to travel faster would have been a great addition to the game. The map system is quite helpful and most quest and subquest are well marked.

Overall, Drakensang feels like a good game but play like an average one. Some elements are well done and others seems unfinished or unpolished. Still it's a good RPG that will give you a lot of hours to play, but don't count on a perfect game.

(7.5/10)

The Sultan’s Labyrinth: A Royal Sacrifice review (Unfinished)

The Sultan is an easy game at heart. The graphics are low resolution, and I got a problem at startup where the screen didn't align in my lcd monitor (With Win7). Starting it up again resolved the problem. Otherwise the graphics are passable. The sounds are nicely done. The music is appropriate and not annoying. The story is correct but is aimed for every ages. The gameplay is very easy and there is something like 75+ puzzles. They consist in a variety of 4-5 differents types of HOG and puzzles, repeated over and over again. Which after 25 levels become very tedious…Overall this is an average game aimed for kids, who become tedious very fast. The amount of puzzle is huge, but because it's repetitive, you might not want to play 2-3 hours of it. Still if you are in need for a long game…

(6/10)

Rasputin’s Curse review

The graphics were pretty decent for high resolution. The text font in the cut scenes was not very readable. The sounds were ok, but it did lack atmosphere sounds. No voice overs. The music is a mix bag between excellent and some annoying tracks. The story was interesting but the game was short (2 hours). The end was abrupt and sequel ready. The game consist in reconstitutions and HOG. However the HOG relied too much on very small objects and made the clicking touchy and unresponsive. Overall a nice game with a good story, that would have benefit on fixing some gameplay issues.

(7/10)

Green Moon Review (unfinished)

This game was really counter intuitive. The graphics were very low on resolution. The sounds seemed ok. The game is a puzzle game, not really a HOG. The problem is that you have a ton of objects to interact and very little idea what to do with them. There are notes lying all around but only the authors of the game must understood them. They are generic at best…The only story I saw was very slim in nature. Overall I wasn't entice to continue further and to scratch my head over generic notes, and vague puzzles.

(5/10)