Adventure Gamers - Forums

Casual Friday

I was planning to keep this scene for later. Actually I was planning on posting it on 4 August, 2017. Close enough to the day the Casual Games thread first appeared in its current form on 1 August, 2012. And one day after the first review appeared on 3 August, 2012. Of course casual games were reviewed prior to that. But when AG stopped reviewing games that had HO scenes, a few of us kept the reviewing concept intact by reviewing games on a monthly basis. (All are in the AG archives somewhere.) And then there was a forum software change. So we went to a continuous thread format, which is where we are today.

This is that review and the screenshot is from Natural Threat: Ominous Shores. So why post this now? Well, I don’t expect to be doing this after 30 June. So this was as good a time as any to celebrate casual games.

I played the game to get the screenshot, and will post how my thoughts have changed about the game at the end of the original review.

Natural Threat: Ominous Shores is, in my opinion a tremendous casual game.

Its developer, ALAWAR Games, has a bundle of street cred. Their last game, Sacre Terra, had rave reviews, and I think this one is better.

I’m going to go straight to the ending first. There was a comment in the July thread about endings. If you are looking for a satisfying ending, you won’t find it here. But, if you are looking for a good story, I recommend the game. Let’s start with the basics. There is a very good prologue that sets the scene. A demented scientist on a deserted island is attempting to clone human dna and plant dna. Something goes horribly wrong. Cut to the chase where a group of people get shipwrecked on the very same island. One survives to try and save the rest.

So far, that’s pretty typical, but this is better.

I didn’t time myself, but I am guessing that total gameplay lasted over six hours.

There weren’t that many HOG scenes. Those that you found were fair. Nothing really obscure. And the puzzles weren’t that hard. But more than a few were tedious. That is, you could solve them but the Skip option was a temptation.

I thought most of the puzzles and even the HOG scenes worked well with the theme of the game.

They whole thing worked well. It was hard for me to shut down the game. I REALLY wanted to do one more thing before I closed down for the night. I was that addictive.

Another player commented of the graphic quality. It may be my monitor, but I noticed no problems. If you have a credit to spare, I would use it on this game. If you don’t, I would put this on your “to buy” list whenever you get around to it.

Notes: I did love this game when I first reviewed it, but only “really like it” now. The story concept was good, but the lack of interaction with other characters now makes me think something was lacking. (You did interact with the scientist at the beginning of the game, with his daughet at the end of the game and a shipmate somewhere in the middle, but that was it.)

If ever there was a game that needed an interactive map, this is it. Having been spoiled by other games, the lack of this feature was a big turn-off during the latest playthrough. Music is horribly repetitive, which is something I didn’t notice when I first played the game. I still think It a game worths playing, if only to experience how much fun a less-than-perfect game can be.

chrissie - 27 February 2017 03:27 PM

Well, I downloaded the demo to find that I already had a profile name & the game continued from the end of the demo! It was obviously a game that I bought, forgot about & uninstalled oblivious to the fact I hadn’t played the rest of it!

It’s embarrassing when that happens. I have done that on more occasions than can be counted on the fingers of one hand. You are not alone.