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Casual Games Thread

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The ending of Italian Affair was satisfying inasmuch as all loose ends were tied up and you weren’t left hanging. However, like most casuals, SE or CE, the ending was somewhat abrupt. You’ve played the game for 5+ hours and then Bang! It ends in about 2.5 minutes.

     

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Thanks for the information. I know exactly what you mean in terms of the frequent occurrence of abrupt endings in these games. Maybe the developers run out of time and/or the budget gets tight at the end?

     
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I’m not sure what to say about Grim Tales - The Vengeance. It’s not so much that the game is strange. It’s that all the Grim Tales games are strange. Less than two years ago I played Grim Tales - The Bride. This was followed by Grim Tales - The Legacy which included the birth of your nephew James. This was followed three months later by Grim Tales - The Wishes, at which time James, now ten or so, must be rescued from a massive guilt trip. Then came Grim Tales - The Stone Queen. By now James had reached early adulthood, was in love with a misguided Stone Queen and needed to be rescued again. Out of the blue we got Grim Tales - Bloody Mary which allows us to rescue a niece we had never met before. And finally we come to Grim Tales - The Vengeance.

Your nephew, James has reached full adulthood, is accused of murdering his sister to gain the family inheritance, and once again calls on you to save him. You, Aunt Gray, apparently has not aged a bit during the past two (25?) years, but you have gained some new detective powers that allow you to go back in time simply by looking at a photograph or touching an object. (Anyone remember FACES? For those of you who remember Star Trek, you will recall the Prime Directive which essentially says “Don’t mess with history!” Well, Auntie Gray does a lot of that and then some.

Trying to make sense of individual games by looking for some game-to-game continuity is pretty much impossible. Add to that the absurdity of one character aging 25 years while you, the protagonist ages not a whit confuses things.

While the important stuff takes place in a courtroom, almost all of the investigation takes place at the family estate.

There are five characters in the story: You, the protagonist; James, your nephew who is on trial for murdering his sister, Elizabeth; Elizabeth; a distant relative Catherine and the ghost of Catherine’s grandfather, Edward. You really don’t have much interaction with any of them but Edward. And that interaction is for atmospheric purposes, and any dialog is one-sided with him threatening your investigation.

The hidden object scenes are fair, although several were a bit dark which made identifying objects hard at times. One nice touch is that each scene is only used once. The puzzles are primarily of the logic and “find the key” variety. They aren’t terribly difficult. There are quite a few that are tedious, in that the process of solving the puzzle takes a long time even though the actual solution is readily apparent. And there are also some that may have a logical solution, but I solved by brute force. (Some of the tedious-type puzzles were of a style I actually enjoy. So, even though the process took 15 minutes, I enjoyed taking the time to solve them. Others, not so much, and the ever-present Skip button was a constant temptation.)

Music was OK. Voice acting was better than average, although there wasn’t much of it. Effects were above average. However, as I’ve reported in other reviews, everything sound-oriented is way too loud. I turned everything down to between 35% and 40%. Graphics were very well done. I do have a complaint with one of the mechanics though. When you enter a scene you usually have to click on something which prompts the ghost of Edward to make his entrance. Only then can you do whatever needs to be done in the scene. Fortunately this extra, and un-needed step only takes place the first time you enter a scene.

The interactive map is functional, but a bit confusing. It shows you your current location as well as previously visited locations where there is an objective that needs to be accomplished. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have the resources to accomplish the objective. You can, for example, click on a map location, then click on the Hint button, and be shown a portal to an entirely different location. In the latter instance the portal you are shown is a location where you can actually do something.

A few years ago I thought Elephant Games was turning out some really good stuff. This game isn’t bad, but really doesn’t meet the standards of earlier games. I’m giving it a fairly generous 3/5 stars.

     

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I demoed Grim Tales: The Vengeance and I liked the courtroom middle-of-a-trial “frame” for the story—it was something just a bit different. Going back in time was also interesting. I was happy to see a journal available for the game story—that’s unusual for Elephant Games, and implies a greater emphasis on making sure the gamer can follow what’s going on.

However, the Hidden Objects and puzzles (at least, for as far as I played in the demo for Vengeance) were bog standard. I need something more intriguing in terms of HOs these days—lots of interactivity, or an alternative so you can skip the HOs altogether.

I wasn’t aware of the weird timeline you mention for the series because I haven’t played all the intervening games. I played The Legacy and then partway into The Wishes, which I was enjoying a lot. But The Stone Queen demo left me cold because the story seemed so disjointed. I want to finish The Wishes before I buy another in the series.

     
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I finished Cadenza - Music Betrayal and Death. I didn’t recommend the game, so I won’t write a review. I’ll leave the review to our poster. But I will offer some comments.

Music was great! I would probably buy the soundtrack. But it was not NOLA. NOLA is Dixieland. This was far more Duke Ellington and the big bands of his era.

Voice acting was horrible. I think the actors spoke in a way that they “thought” people from NOLA would speak, and they were totally off the mark. While being White-Anglo-Saxon myself, I found the black-creole dialect attempts offensive.

Puzzles and HO scenes were inventive. That, other than the music, was the high point of the game. I’ll leave it up to the original poster to grade the game.

Looking for one more game to get one free for the month.

 

     

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When I’ve becoming to think that Casual Games were all looking the same, with boring HOs and puzzles, then came “Nevertales: Shattered Image”. With its inovative puzzles and HOs, it brings hope for the future of Casual Games. 5/5 stars, to my taste. What do you think, rtrooney and Becky?

     
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Welcome to the Casual Games thread. Smile

I’ve not played Nevertales: Shattered Image, but I just downloaded the demo. I see that it’s new game from Mad Head Games. They seem to be cranking them out at a fair pace these days. I’m not sure who wrote the synopsis on BigFish Games’ site. Calling someone a Traveler is not an entirely positive thing in the US market as it is usually used to connote a band of travelling con artists.

As I almost never play CE versions of games, and Nevertales: Shattered Imageis currently only available as a CE, It’s unlikely I will play beyond the demo until the SE comes out.

I hope the game is as good as you rate it. 5/5 stars sets a pretty high bar. I only gave Fiends and Fairies, which has my vote for game of the year so far, 4.5/5. And, while I didn’t rate it, another recent Mad Head game I commented on, Cadenza - Music Betrayal and Death would probably only get 2.5 stars. So we shall see. Please keep posting. The more opinions we have, the livelier the conversation.

     

For whom the games toll,
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Hi, rtrooney! I already had posted here a while ago. I like casual games and have had played almost 50 in the last 2 years. I like the Eipix Games and had played another from Mad Heads Games - Nevertales: The Beauty Within which I liked very much. But this new one really got me. The puzzles and HOs are very creative and innovative. And the extras from the CE worth the money. It is not only a bonus chapter. They have more chapters (short ones, of course) but it’s a plus. Give it a try!

     
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Thanks UruBoo, (fan of Uru myself); after Space Legends: At the End of the Universe I could use a good game and will check it out.

Well, surprisingly for Alawar games, this one was a stinker.  I got it from their site but it’s actually by Red Hedgehog, which I’ll avoid in the future.  I love games with other-worldly themes but this was a real disappointment.  Only the beginning segment could be called space-like, then you’re thrown into one with a fairytale atmosphere, and at the end it’s space again, more or less.  I got the feeling they were reusing screens from scrapped games.

Don’t get me started on the translation which was abominable and clued me off immediately I should only play in casual mode. The hogs were unattractive messes with misnamed items and some had extra bits that in a competent game would have been interesting but in this were aggravating.  Although I like hogs, at least there were few in this.

On the other hand, most puzzles which were in such rapid succession they made me go “aargh!” were ridiculously hard and sometimes unfair.  For instance, the bullseye type with segments that had to be matched to make a picture had only vague, blurry smears that took way too much time to figure out, and these are usually my favorite.  Again, were these from the bin labeled “rejects”?

It was my own fault for buying the game without playing the demo, but I thought being from Alawar would assure it’s quality.  Guess not.  If you’ve seen my other reviews I’m usually pretty lenient with games that have more good than bad and can even find charming an occasional misnamed object, but this one was really over the top for me.

2.5/5 mostly for some attractive background screens


Edit to add a game I really liked and feel more accurately reflects the quality I’ve experienced from Alawar:  Eternal Journey: New Atlantis Collector’s Edition.

Here is the short review I did on this site:

  “I’ve been playing Eternal Journey:  New Atlantis CE and wanted to post my recommendation. It takes place mostly on a space station/spaceship with a small episode underwater on earth at the beginning.  Very good gameplay on casual and I’d immagine even better on the harder setting.  Clever twists to some puzzles and object use and some double manipulation (or is it triple?) in the reasonable amount of HOGs.  A strong 4/5 for me.  In the extra episode you get to play as the male lead”.

     
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I mentioned earlier that I had played the Tales of Terror - House on the Hill and Haunted Hotel - Ancient Bane demos, and the quality ranged from bad to horrible. Much like the game you are talking about. I don’t remember the publishers, but recall that they were known entities.

My impression is that they accidentally released late beta versions of the games rather that the gold versions. Definitions were all wrong. Typos in the dialog captions. Hint systems that had serious problems. A total lack of quality control! Giving them 1.5/5 stars is a very generous score.

Occasionally you just run across some real clunkers! Embarassed

     

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UruBoo - 26 July 2014 01:45 PM

Hi, rtrooney! I already had posted here a while ago.

Sorry I didn’t recognize you. If I don’t see a name pop up within the last month or so my feeble brain loses the connection.

UruBoo - 26 July 2014 01:45 PM

I like the Eipix Games


You and me both! My current Game of the Year candidate, Myths of the World - Of Fiends and Fairies, is an Eipix product.

     

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Here we are on 7/26. We’re coming up on the 2nd anniversary of this thread. August 1 will be the date.

That does not include, of course, all the comments and reviews that are available in the archives that pre-date the start of this thread.

But WOW!

Not many threads have our type of longevity. Those that do are of a slightly different “ilk”. AGSOTD has been around longer. And I log in every day to see what Chrissie, (an occasional contributor here,) and Karlok will post.

Thank you to all who have participated. You’ve made this the go-to place to be for Casual Game enthusiasts on a venue that doesn’t like casual games all that much. We’ll have to do something special a week from Tuesday.

Suggestions are welcome.

Tim

     

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I’ve been playing Space Legends at the End of the Universe. Unlike Dara100, I’ve been enjoying this game. The translation is horrid, but I’m taking it instride along with the often non-sensical HOG connections. Instead of being frustrating for me, I find it adds a bit of a challenge. So, while I appreciate the flaws in this game, I’m still having fun with it.

     

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rtrooney - 26 July 2014 08:50 PM

Suggestions are welcome.

Rtrooney, my suggestion is that you can list at least 5 casual games (good ones, of course) that had nothing to do with fairytales, fantasy and detective scripts. I would like to know of games with sci-fi and space themes (others than Space Legends at the End of the Universe, that I played and can confirm that it sucks).

     

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While I agree with Dara100’s critical account of Space Legends: At the Edge of the Universe, I enjoyed it a great deal. It did have major flaws including a game-ending bug very late in the game but I enjoyed the atmosphere, the puzzles, and the somewhat nonsensical story. The credits rolled by very quickly but if I understood right, one of the lead designers died during the production so that might explain the sloppy aspects.

     

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