Adventure Gamers - Forums

rtrooney - 23 October 2016 08:38 PM

I’m not even sure what my point is. Other than to say that “game” threads about adventure games, of all genres, seem to be more popular than discussion threads about games.

I think you should be comparing the number of characters in the posts rather than just the post count. Threads like this will have a lot of lengthy posts, where the “game”-threads usually are only a bunch of one-liners (if even that)...
And that also makes people more inclined to join in, because they can do so a lot faster, with far less effort, hence the higher post count…

I finished Maze - The Broken Tower CE. I thought it was good. Hard to say if I think it’s better than Maze - 360. The bonus game was probably not worth the effort, although the CE was only $7.99 US, so I’m not going to quibble. However, it was fairly short, and really didn’t offer any additional information. (other than to inform us that the son, Daniel, was a nutcase long before we meet him in the main game.) It might be a good community playthrough candidate, but because it really isn’t segmented into chapters, I think you have to approach it differently. E.g., How far can you get on one hour’s worth of gameplay? And that’s the endpoint for that session.

I have played the first two Lost Lands games. I fact, Four Horsemen was a Casual Games Community Playthrough a while back. I didn’t think Golden Curse was quite as good. But it certainly wasn’t a bad game. I just downloaded the third game, and will report back with my thoughts. I bought the CE version of the first game. And while I thought the bonus material was interesting, I don’t think it was worth the extra money or credits. I watched the YouTube video of the second game’s bonus material, and was glad I didn’t buy the CE.

Becky - 28 October 2016 11:44 AM

cluelass - 23 October 2016 05:14 PM

Strange how often I wind up playing two new games that have a lot of similarities. Nevertales: Hidden Doorway and Sable Maze: Sinister Knowledge both have literary storylines that require traveling through multiple genres to save the world.
—snip—
Both of these are excellent games, 4 stars out of 5. Either one could make a very good playthrough — with each chapter in a different genre, everybody gets something they like.

I agree - it’s strange how similar themes pop up from time to time in games released so close together that you know the different development teams came up with the themes independently. This is a very interesting contrast between the two games. It might even be fun to play them together for a playthrough to compare the similarities and differences. Just curious—how important is the bonus chapter in each?

That’s an intriguing idea. They have different strengths and weaknesses, and I’d enjoy hearing other players’ comments. Both games provide a satisfying, well-paced wrap-up in the SE game, while the CE adds 20% more playing time and all the shiny objects.

Lots of great casual games on the Halloween sale at Steam through November 1st. Aside from this collection, all for just $8.99!!: Sinister Stories Bundle which includes these games: Alex Hunter - Lord of the Mind Platinum Edition, Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector’s Edition, Castle: Never Judge a Book by its Cover, House of 1,000 Doors: Family Secrets Collector’s Edition, House of 1000 Doors: The Palm of Zoroaster Collector’s Edition, Nearwood - Collector’s Edition, Shadows: Price For Our Sins Bonus Edition, Small Town Terrors Pilgrim’s Hook Collector’s Edition, there are 13 other pages of HOPAs on special. To make it easier to find them, go to Steam—Browsing Casual, then on the right side, expand the “Narrow by related tags” and check the “Hidden Object” box, then click on the “Specials” tab over the list of games. I would have linked to this page for y’all, but the URL wouldn’t cooperate.

I could have linked these in “The adventure game discount thread”, but I figured they would reach a more targeted audience here. Timo (or any other mod), please feel free to move this reply to that thread if you think that’s where it should be.

I think this is probably the right place. When BFG has a REALLY good sale, I post it here as well. I’m not a big fan of Steam, but that’s a personal preference.

Mike the Wino - 29 October 2016 01:07 PM

I could have linked these in “The adventure game discount thread”, but I figured they would reach a more targeted audience here. Timo (or any other mod), please feel free to move this reply to that thread if you think that’s where it should be.

Personally, I’d even opt for a double-post. It definitely belongs in this thread, but it ALSO belongs in the discount thread. Aim for the widest audience.

I finished Lost Lands - Dark Overlord, and thought it was quite good. At least on a par with Golden Curse. I thought the ending was a little anti-climactic, but I have been spoiled by the way the Enigmatis games keep you on your toes right through to the end.

It was a fairly long game. And definitely one that kept you moving throughout the various worlds. The HO scenes were fair and quite varied. I only had difficulty with one or two puzzles, but there were several of the type I call “tedious.” I.e., solving them, or knowing how to solve them is not the problem. The problem is the length of time it takes to do all the things the solution requires. Some of the puzzles I enjoyed. The Dragon/Tile puzzle was one of those, and I enjoyed finishing it. Others…the SKIP button was just too tempting.

The puzzle problem has two, or more sources. One, the same design group tends to use the puzzle designs in many of their games. They are just dressed up in different clothing. Two, even different design groups may design puzzles that are similar to those designed by other groups. So even if they are not exactly the same, we can often say, “I know how this works.”

You usually only have to see the “slip a piece of paper under the door and poke the key with a pencil-like object, and retrieve the key which has fallen on the paper” puzzle once. (My first time was in Phantasmagoria 1.) When I next saw it in Post Mortem, the only real puzzle was finding a piece of paper and the thin object.

Anyway, for those of you who liked the first Lost Lands CCPT, either this game or Golden Curse would be good candidates for a follow-up. That said, I think we have some really good options for the next playthrough. I’ll be starting that thread in the next day or three.

I’ve been unimpressed with demos of new entries in some of my favorite series lately. Dark Realm: Lord of the Winds seemed very slow and same old, same old. (Becky, let us know if it plays out well.) And in Lost Lands: The Wanderer I got fed up with jumping in and out of Susan’s POV — every five minutes they broke away for a little cut scene of her doing something, which was unnecessary and made it hard for me to feel like I was really her. However, I enjoyed the new Dead Reckoning game, Between the Lines (review to come).

One favorite series has recovered after a downturn. A couple of weeks ago I played Dead Reckoning: Death Between the Lines,. You play as the author of the Dead Reckoning series of novels, and a Howard Hughes-ish geezer wants to audition you to be the ghost writer on his memoirs. (Yes, another “literary” storyline.)

So you go out to his huge 1960s-modern house, in a storm, of course. The architecture and décor are perfect for the period. (Ack, my childhood is now a historical era!) There you meet four other authors who are competing for the same assignment: the writers of the Hidden Expedition (adventure), Danse Macabre (romance), Off the Record (mystery), and Phantasmat (horror) series. Cute idea, pretending the games are books. Also cute: each author’s bedroom is decorated with items from their series, as seen in earlier Eipix games.

The gameplay is straightforward contemporary mystery genre. They have a new method of interviewing suspects and then observing them to decide if they are telling the truth. I liked it better than “choosing” a question out of a list when you know you are going to go through all the questions anyway. We finally get an iPad instead of a paper journal, and it doubles as an all-purpose scanner — who needs a CSI lab?

Plenty of value for money, as this is a good long game with lots of puzzles and HOPs. The CE bonus chapter was well done, and related to the main storyline, but not essential.