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Casual Friday

Nightmares from the Deep - The Cursed Heart is the first of three games in a series from Artifex Mundi. The above scene from the game is one of the most spectacular pieces of graphic artistry I’ve seen in a casual game.

You, the protagonist, are the Director of the Caribbean Naval Museum. You are getting ready to stage an exhibit featuring the recently recovered, mummified body of Captain Henry Remington, one of the most notorious pirates every to roam the Caribbean Sea.
In mounting the exhibit you unfortunately adorn Remington’s body with three artifacts: his sword, his pistol and a pendant he wears around his neck. The effect of this is that the corpse comes to life. His ship and crew arrive. They kidnap your daughter and set sail for thier home base, Skull Island. The reason it’s called that is obvious in the above screenshot.

Fortunately you are able to board the ship and, as a stowaway, set out to save your daughter.

While aboard the ship you start to learn of Remington’s backstory. Part of which is the fact that he kidnapped a young countess. But rather than holding her for ransom, which was his original intent, he falls in love with her, and she for him. The courtship and planned wedding do not go well. During the wedding Skull Island is invaded by a small armada led by the countess’ father. All are killed except the countess who is forced to marry the man who killed her husband to-be.

Thus the revenge motives are set in place. The countess seeks vengence agaist those that killed her true love. The pirate community who feels it was lured into a murderous trap. And, of course, Remington who seeks vengence against those that deprived him both of his life and the happiness he was about to experience after spending years in a rather dreadful life.

While I was unable to find any evidence that a Captain Henry Remington actually existed, there is just enough plausibility to add interest to the story. The graphics are excellent. The music is appropriate. The voice acting is quite good, albeit a little over the top on occasion.

If there is once complaint, it is one that I make too frequently. That is the use of totally inappropriate objects in the hidden object screens. The hold of a 18th century galleon would not contain a walkie-talkie and scuba gear. The only excuse for this is that Artifex Mundi was developing the Spark Casual Engine at the time. That is the engine that is used to create hidden object screens both for them and a great many other casual game design firms. I can only guess that the technology development crossed paths with the game development. And that resulted in some seriously wrong, non-period, object placement. Even though it is bad enough to warrant a comment, it isn’t bad enough to keep you from playing and enjoying the game.

I think the original is the best, but the sequels are both very good. The museum manager and her daughter are the only characters in common for all three games.

I have actually played both of the sequels (a bundle once again), and I quite liked them, at least when it came to puzzles, voice acting and graphics. The story was a bit too .. hmm, how should I put it .. a bit too girlie for my taste.

I didn’t remember any “girlishness” in either of the sequels, but reloaded/played the first sequel, Siren’s Call, just to check it out. Major differences are that the daughter’s role of damsel in distress is replaced by the siren, Calliope, and you have a co-protagonist, although he far from helpful for most of the game.

There was a bit of a “tear-jerker” ending, which I suppose caters more to a female audience. But, other than that, I didn’t find the game catering to either sex. I don’t remember much about the third game.

I not taking about them being filled with mermaids, unicorns and talking teddy bears, it is nothing as bad or extreme as that.

It is more a questing of, having to reunite two lovers, or the villain only being bad because his hearth was broken as a young man, and now you have to remind him of that, instead of just ramming a stake through his hearth.
Nothing too bad separately, but when you add it all together, then it just gets a bit too sugar sweet .. or .. a bit too “girlie” for my taste.

NB I can only remember relative little of the actual story, but I do remember how I felt about the story.