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There’s another series, Mystery Trackers, that got off to a slow start. Then it picked up speed. But the last game I played wasn’t nearly as good as those that preceded it.

     

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I have some of that series:
Mystery Trackers: The Void
Mystery Trackers: Raincliff
Mystery Trackers: Four Aces
Mystery Trackers: Silent Hollow

I remember thinking Raincliff was good at the time I played it (which would have been in 2011) but I don’t remember much about it other than that.

There are several I don’t have
Mystery Trackers: Blackrow’s Secret
Mystery Trackers: Black Isle
Mystery Trackers: Nightsville Horror
Mystery Trackers: Raincliff’s Phantoms

Are any of that 2nd group of four worth looking at next time Big Fish has a sale?

     
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crabapple - 28 March 2015 05:17 PM

I have some of that series:
Mystery Trackers: The Void
Mystery Trackers: Raincliff
Mystery Trackers: Four Aces
Mystery Trackers: Silent Hollow

I remember thinking Raincliff was good at the time I played it (which would have been in 2011) but I don’t remember much about it other than that.

There are several I don’t have
Mystery Trackers: Blackrow’s Secret
Mystery Trackers: Black Isle
Mystery Trackers: Nightsville Horror
Mystery Trackers: Raincliff’s Phantoms

Are any of that 2nd group of four worth looking at next time Big Fish has a sale?

I’ve played the first four on your list. The Void, I believe, was the first game in the series. I think Four Aces and the original Raincliff were the best of that group.

Of the latter four Black Isle is the only one I’ve played. It was OK. It wasn’t as good as the first four, but I didn’t regret buying it. My wife is playing Raincliff’s Phantoms right now, and seems to be enjoying it. I’ll have to try the demos of the other two.

     

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rtrooney - 28 March 2015 06:49 PM

I’ve played the first four on your list. The Void, I believe, was the first game in the series.

I believe you’re correct. I listed them in order of my purchase, so that’s probably the order they were released. These were my purchase dates.
Mystery Trackers: The Void—October 2010
Mystery Trackers: Raincliff—May 2011
Mystery Trackers: Four Aces—November 2012
Mystery Trackers: Silent Hollow—July 2013

They must have stepped up production between 2013 and 2015 because there have been four games released since 2013.

I think Four Aces and the original Raincliff were the best of that group.

Of the latter four Black Isle is the only one I’ve played. It was OK. It wasn’t as good as the first four, but I didn’t regret buying it. My wife is playing Raincliff’s Phantoms right now, and seems to be enjoying it. I’ll have to try the demos of the other two.

User reviews at Big Fish give similar overall scores to the two Raincliff games and to Black Isle, though who knows what that means. I think I may want to replay at least part of Raincliff and Four Aces before trying the demos of the newer games in the series.

============================

I started Emberwing last night. Apparently I started it before but never finished—and now I’m remembering why. Some of the hotspots are very fussy, which is something that drives me up the wall. Several times I’ve used the Hint only to find the solution was something I’d already tried, but the hotspot didn’t register. When you’re using an inventory object on another object, how are you to know what part of the object is the active part? Is it what appears to be the business end of the object you’re holding? or is it the part directly under the cursor? The answer is neither one.

Occasionally the Hint only produces a useless “nothing to do here” message. It’s particularly bad when combined with the hotspot problem, where I want to use the Hint to check if something I’ve tried simply didn’t register. At one point I apparently had to catch a cat—simply because it was there—even though I had no obvious use for a cat at the time. The Hint wasn’t pointing me at any clue that I might need a cat—just giving me the “nothing to do here” message. I wouldn’t mind the Hint problem so much if the hotspots weren’t so finicky, but the two combined put me off of the game.

Edit—Finished Emberwing. The problem with hotspots continued throughout the game. Some of the user reviews at Big Fish mention the problem, for example with the harp you have to keep clicking the scissors on the string until you hit the right pixel by accident. The ending sequence was a “blink-and-you-miss-it” type. My overall impression of the ending was a combination of “That’s it??” and “Well, that was stupid.” I don’t know if the ending of the CE was any better. This may be a case of chopping off the ending of the CE to make the SE, but I don’t know for sure.

     
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I own three of the Mystery Trackers series:

The Void
Raincliff
Black Isle

I enjoyed The Void very much, actually. It had too many Hidden Object scenes (more than 30, as I recall), but the graphics were lovely and the story intrigued me. It also had one of the best game journals I’ve ever seen.

So I was eager to play Raincliff when it released. I was having a rollicking good time right up until the end of the SE portion, when the “twist” came from out of nowhere. The family had a genetic tendency to….WHAT??? Was I supposed to see that coming? (Or was not seeing it part of the point?) If true, shouldn’t there have been a lot more complications and implications? Then I played the bonus section and was even more confused.

Also, I really missed having a journal in Raincliff. I think I would have been able to follow the story a lot better with a journal, and the surprise might not have been so “out there” as a result. When you’re terrific at making game journals (as shown by the journal in The Void), why stop including them in the games?

I didn’t get very far into Black Isle. Going up against robed do-badders who can appear and disappear anywhere they want at will, while throwing things like trucks at me, didn’t strike me as making a whole lot of sense. Wouldn’t most detectives have gone for help against this level of force? There was more that didn’t make sense. I couldn’t open a purse because the buckle was a bit rusty. But I could bring a giant welding machine in a wheelbarrow out a window and down a rickety ladder.

I could foresee much, much suspension of disbelief in my future on Black Isle.

Did I give up too soon? Should I give it another try?


++++++++++++++++++

Crabapple—I wrote a quick review of Emberwing a few months ago where I mentioned the problem you encountered.

Unfortunately, certain hotspots in this game are extremely tiny, which sometimes leads to frustration. After being stuck for a while, I would resort to the strategy guide, only to find that an attempted action that had generated a “that didn’t work” message was actually the correct action. In these instances, I would go back and click several times with the item all around the hotspot area before generating the desired result.

I put up with the problem because I was so happy with the Tolkienesque gameworld. The CE did not add that much to the story, so the quick ending of the SE portion wasn’t abridged to add to the CE. I agree that it was too abrupt. The puzzle difficulty ramped up noticeably in the CE—I recommended the CE only to those who enjoy tough puzzles.

     
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You have to suspend belief, or rather accept a belief in telekinesis in order to enjoy Black Isle. I thought it was OK but not great. I will grant you that the puzzles, while often good, are merely space-savers and contribute nothing to the game.

I’m not sure, but I think The Void might have been Elephant Games first pass on a casual. As such, I forgive them for the glut of HO scenes. Although that was not atypical for early casuals. I liked Raincliff. I can’t believe you thought genetic invisibility was odd. Happens in the best of families. Or so I’ve been told.

     

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Gasp I clearly haven’t been keeping up with the latest in genetic traits.

Should I disclose here that my family has a genetic predisposition to levitation? We have to wear heavy shoes so as not to find ourselves floating up among the trees.

Just one of those little quirks! No one has even seemed to notice. I have very incurious neighbors. As does everyone else in the family.

     
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Gravity runs in my family.

I just checked and found that I have played all 7 of the previous Mystery Trackers games, so I’m currently downloading the newest one.  Although the use of helpful critters has been overdone, I still like cute little Elf.  In fact, I think he was my first companion of that type.

I’m also going to try out the new Fear for Sale game.

Edit:
Well, Elephant just lost a customer.  The game is only compatible with Mac 10.8 and higher.  I’m still running 10.6.  At least Fear for Sale hasn’t excluded me.

     

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Sorry to hear that, Lady K.  Meh

I’m continuing on into the Black Isle and have encountered a levitating can of red paint. I’m convinced this is one of my relatives in disguise. I’ve also seen the wonderful science experiment video, where a superhuman—who can freeze things, electrify things, lift things using telekinesis and teleport himself via thin air—is put through his paces and then told to go back to his ward. I’m surprised he didn’t tell the scientists exactly what he thinks of their attitude, and then teleport outside and freeze the whole place. Or maybe electrocute the whole place. Or shift it to the bottom of the ocean. On the other hand, maybe by now he has already done the equivalent, and is running around in a purple robe and carnival mask.

I’ve decided that Black Isle is in an alternate dimension, where the regular rules don’t apply. I’m going to just sit back, play along and not ask too many questions. I won’t ask for help from my compatriots when the best they can send is a Sherlock Holmes teddy bear. And is my masked boss any better than the masked villain? I’m better off doing everything myself.

I like using inventory items in the HO scenes, and the puzzles are entertaining. The puppets were particularly enjoyable. The weird, campy atmosphere is starting to draw me in.

     
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I haven’t played this in some time, so I’m giving it a replay. I now recall one of the reasons why I gave this an OK, but not great, rating. The game isn’t linear. You can do things out of normal sequence, which can cause trouble. Example: There is an inventory/list puzzle in the grotto that requires you to take a starfish from inventory. Well that’s well and good assuming you actually have that item in inventory. Which I didn’t, thus necessitating a whole bundle of backtracking.

     

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I am almost done Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold. I have the iPad version, there was too much lag on the PC edition. It is without a doubt one of the hardest games I ever played, not because of the puzzles, but the dynamics of the game. Maybe it is because of the smaller tablet screen, but the items to find are tiny. Some screens move sideways for extra stuff and it is not always obvious that there is an extension. You acquire tools to help you find things, such as a salamander to crawl into holes and a flashlight to illuminate dark corners. You need to remember to use these tools, or you won’t find what you need to progress. On the iPad, you can magnify the scene, and I would recommend doing this as much as possible. Most of the times when I needed to use a hint, it was because I forgot to look closely and/or use my tools.I do think the game is fair, but perhaps the bigger screen would be better.

     

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I finished Nevertales: Shattered Image CE.
In the main game you play as Belle, a woman who belongs to a family of what the game calls “Travelers.” They can transport themselves into books, similar to way people use linking books in the Myst games. They also have magical items laying around the house. Your daughter Alice has the power to “link” directly to worlds by using mirrors rather than being limited to linking using the appropriate book.

The story involves finding out why your daughter was kidnapped and rescuing her. I feel like the story could have been told better but the graphics were nice.

This seems to be the 2nd game in the Nevertales series, Nevertales: The Beauty Within coming first and Nevertales: Smoke and Mirrors coming later. I may have played The Beauty Within at some point, but I don’t remember it.

Most of the puzzles were pretty easy, but there was one puzzle that was practically impossible to solve unless you started it out in the right way. It’s better to experiment with the controls to see how they work, then use the reset button and start over rather than trying to solve the mess it can get into. After over an hour of attempting to solve the puzzle, I hit the “Reset” button and solved it seconds later. I’m unsure whether it got itself into an unsolvable configuration somewhere while I was fiddling with it.

The bonus game has nothing to do with the main story. Instead it’s about how the husband in the family met and rescued the woman you play as in the main game.

I agree with Tim’s evaluation of 4/5.
http://www.adventuregamers.com/forums/showthread.phpt=28418This/viewthread/641/P870/#66814
I think it “could” have been a 5/5 but missed the mark.

Next time Big Fish has a sale I’ll try to remember to take a look at the “Fright” game Tim also mentioned in that post.

colpet - 06 April 2015 11:15 AM

I am almost done Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold. I have the iPad version, there was too much lag on the PC edition.

I’ve tried a few hidden object games on the iPad, but for the most part they’ve been disappointing. I have enough trouble seeing hidden objects on a monitor-size screen, let alone on an iPad screen. And I don’t like having to move a “magnifier” around the screen to make items large enough to see (and I often still can’t see them, even with the magnifier). Other types of puzzles may work well on iPad, but I don’t like hidden objects on them at all.

     
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Just started playing the demo of House of 1000 Doors - Evil Inside Collectors Edition. It’s the fourth game in the series. The demo is 90 minutes. I’ve only played 15 of those minutes, so it’s too early to make a comment other than it looks to be as good as the games that preceded it.

It’s not available as an SE yet. I bought the CE version of the last game, Serpent Flame. It was worth the extra $$, but not as a provider of additional story. It was really a game unto itself, which I found enjoyable, if not a bit strange. I think I described it as a replay of the main game with graphics supplied by Salvador Dali.

I’ll let you know what I think when I’ve played a bit more of it.

     

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I finished the demo. First note: while Alawar is the lead developer listed on the intro credits, there is a second company that takes a second credit.

That’s significant because the graphics and game “style” are different than those found in the previous games. That doesn’t mean they are bad, just different.

If I were a betting man, I would bet that Alawar wanted to continue the franchise, but was unable to do so for whatever reason. So, they wrote a design document and turned that over to someone else to complete. If you play the demo, I think you will notice the differences immediately.

It will be a buy for me, but only when the SE is available.

     

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Some final comments on Mystery Trackers: Black Isle (the SE portion). Although there’s a mystery in the background, the game is clearly aimed at gamers who want to focus on Hidden Object scenes and puzzles—and some of the puzzles were quite tasty.

The game contained a technique that I’ve seen many times before in HO games—you see a character (probably the one you’re searching for) and just as you seem to be reaching them, the villain pops up and sweeps them away. Again and again. Or just as you reach a character you want to interrogate, the villain pops up and renders them unconscious (in this case, freezing one of them into solid ice).

There seems to be an attempt to create a sense of urgency in casual games. Another way to create urgency is for the characters to leave notes that tell you to keep hurrying (we saw that in the Drawn playthrough).

My least favorite way that games do this is to have a fire start, and then the fire burns happily away without advancing at all or burning down the whole town while you wander all around the gameworld solving puzzles and doing HO scenes until you finally find a bucket of water or a fire extinguisher.

Why the need to create a general feeling of urgency? I don’t encounter it in adventure games nearly to the extent I see it in casual games. And is there a more effective way to create it than the techniques I’ve just described?

     

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