Detective Quest: The Crystal Slipper

Elephant, 2012

You play as a French detective, I'm guessing patterned on Eugene Francois Vidocq, whose renown has reached the ears of a prince in a fairy tale kingdom. From there, the story is a take on Cinderella.

The artwork is good and reminds me of Nutcracker, particularly in the royal kennel; that is a big positive in terms of overall quality. The puzzles are far easier than in Nutcracker although there is a simple slider with over 20 tiles at the end of the bonus. I promise it is doable because I managed it without taking so much time that I forgot what the rest of the story was. I tend not to finish bonus games; I completed this one. In terms of adventuring, Detective Quest: The Crystal Slipper is, for me, a bit trickier than Nutcracker.

The game universe isn't huge but is plenty large enough and locations must be revisited, which I like. I often think less of a game's design and narrative structure if the pattern is three or four screens, then a wall slams down and I am forced forward with previous locations blocked because unnecessary.

You get a transport map. I rarely used it because the screens are inviting so I didn't mind revisiting them and figured backtracking would help me remember what was where, which it did with varying degrees of success all three times I've played. If you've turned the music way down or off, you might want to turn it back on at the frozen steps guarded by two creatures, possibly yetis.

To enjoy this game, I had to get over riding the expletive-deleted unicorn; I was relieved when my transportation mode switched to a griffin. I have a soft spot for griffins and even for regular medievally caparisoned chargers. A game has to have a full panoply of redeeming qualities to cancel out my feeling like an idiot on a unicorn, and Detective Quest: The Crystal Slipper more than compensates.

The latest installment in the Lost Lands series, Mistakes of the Past, holds up the franchise well. It is a large game with a lot to do (and to Collect, if you're into that) over multiple scene changes and times in the story world's history. You may already be familiar with the characters if you played the previous games in this series: You'll play as your intrepid contemporary gal and meet up again with the main magician from the past, Maaron. You will find yourselves working at cross purposes.

There are lots of things to be fixed and gotten running again, plenty of reasons to flee pursuit, potions to collect ingredients for and prepare, and puzzles up the whazzoo. In short, my kind of game! Some of the puzzles are real stinkers, but that will depend on how Easy or Difficult you choose to play the game (I played will all hints and aids turned off). There are a couple of puzzles whose “Directions” made little sense at all, and figuring out what to do was part of the puzzle. I solved one without ever figuring out what the directions were trying to say. (I still didn't understand, even after solving it.) The CE gives you a Bonus Game that is well worth it, as it continues the story meaningfully, and brings the entire episode to a close.

You'll play blacksmith, doctor, mechanical engineer, chemist and astronomer. You'll get arrested and escape, be pursued and saved by rebels, and be faced with a giant Arachnoid bent on using you in ways you would not prefer. All in good time. The play involves going back and forth in time, encompassing five major sub-worlds/times, and half a dozen locations within each. You'll want to take some notes.

Graphics were excellent without being overdone or relying on super-saturated color and flashing nonsense. Voices were effective and not histrionic. Music was incidental to the play, and not annoying. By and large, people did not do really stupid things in order to advance the plot, meaning you could identify as the main character and not cringe at what she did.

This series has set a level for originality and an immersive, cinematic feeling that few HO series have attained. I was looking forward to it and I was NOT disappointed.

A Gypsy's Tale: The Tower of Secrets

Released in 2011. From the creator of the Aveyond RPG series, but this game is a HOPA.

Beautifully drawn and with a good storyline, this game does not have hidden object junk piles to sift through; rather, the hidden object scenes have items that are hidden within the scenery itself. It's of the type where you have circles showing what items you need to find and put into the circles in order to get an object. If you haven't played that kind of HOG before, it's because it was popular back when this game was released but appears to have been dropped for the most part now as a game mechanic. There is a nice assortment of puzzles within the game as well. There are many, many things to accomplish in this game and it definitely requires some thought on the part of the player. At some points I found it reminiscent of an old Sierra King's Quest game and for me this was a positive rather than a negative; I would be surprised if the designer did not mention that series as one of her influences.

I was not initially that impressed with the game and the first few screens took some getting used to. I stayed with it, though, and discovered a fun and rewarding game that is not all that easy. One drawback I should mention is that it is not a good game for people with poor eyesight, as some of the items are quite small. A good game for an observant and patient gamer.

Recommended by me as an original and entertaining game from yesteryear. It came out as a standard game at the time; there was no Collector's Edition version. There are no collectibles. It's all game and nothing superfluous.

Hello all,

Thank you Marian for that reminder (Gypsies Tale). I distinctly remember going blind looking for all those incredibly tiny objects. Annoying as they were did not in any way deflect from the overall enjoyment of discovering the twists and turns of the story line. Story telling being one of the great strengths of Amaranth and much loved and admired by her many RPG fans.

However, though I enjoyed struggling through a Gypsy's Tale, I truly loved her second game, Curse at Twilight: Thief of Souls Collector's Edition. This too is a HOPA with a wealth of cunningly hidden coins which become jumping map pieces for many of the beautiful scenes. There are a lot of conventional hidden object scenes with listed items to either find or match up, many fractured hidden objects of critical items and some very original puzzle layers. A few of them made me lay my head down in defeat while I reached for the skip or hint button. This is a lengthy, robust and somewhat thought provoking game in the line of just how does a fishing rod fit together correctly?

This game may not appeal to everyone but thank goodness you can try before you buy.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2

Goblinz, 2018

True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2 (TFFS2), a sequel to the casual stand-out True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 1, is the brainchild of Dimmie Azu and Goblinz Studios; Dimmie Azu and Boris Zhevlakov both directed. Maria Verson also co-designed, was a team director, and along with Azu localized. Svetlana Mironets was a lead artist and her work is brilliant as is that of Vladimir Kukhar and Vera Melnik. Mironets was also lead artist in TFFS1. Her skill is unsurpassed. For example, in TFFS1, take a careful look at The music, done by Lyell Evans Roeder, Artem Putilov, and Eric Los, is several cuts above that in most games of any genre. The voice acting is flawless.

Without qualification, I recommend playing both Part 1 with the bonus game and Part 2 now, instantly.

As of 11/15/18, TFFS2 is available on Steam but not yet BFG and does not have a bonus adventure. Not to worry. The game has cleverly hidden figurines with text fleshing out characters. Even without a bonus episode TFFS2 took longer for me than most games with one. Not counting starting over after deciding the story was worth savoring in close detail, I estimate the game lasted around 12 to 14 hours for me. I used hints numerous times. If you are a racehorse, the length might be around nine assuming you are not playing on casual and skipping. Also as of 11/15 the bugs, like the shattered mirror puzzle that more or less fixed itself, are ironed out.

Part way through before beginning with a new profile, I checked out IMDB. Dimmie Azu has a "special thanks" credit in Phenomenon: City of Cyan, a game I liked although it in no way approaches this one or the first TFFS in quality. Further investigation of credits yielded Pavel Vesnin, a 3d artist, who did screens for Mountain Crime: Requital and Twisted Lands: Origin, two others I liked.

TFFS2's graphics surpass those in the first game by several powers, and the adventuring is more complex. The set-up is reminiscent of an MCF whose opening I particularly enjoyed where a television paranormal investigator preceded the protagonist's arrival. In TFFS2, forgive the all too familiar automobile accident. The sequence provides back story from Part One and reintroduces our heroine, Holly Stonehouse, one of triplets, who is continuing to plumb the secrets surrounding one of her sister's existence, the other's death, and their mother's life. The setting is an ostensibly long abandoned Art Deco asylum. Medical grunge did not slow me down. That is saying something; in general I favor beauty over poking through detritus in and around a derelict institution, never mind that architecturally the buildings have good bones. Plenty of real bones here, heh, heh, heh.

Most of the time, I played on advanced, not expert. I did have expert set for part of the game. My judgement is that it's safe to play on expert if you don't mind some minor click and drag and don't want either map hints or the ability to skip. My only quarrels with the puzzles are not enough that are logic based and too many jigsaws. The star levers are a delight. The visually lovely compass puzzle isn't a puzzle at all but that's okay. I may be wrong about that because in the middle of the game for half an hour or so by mistake I had a casual difficulty setting toggled. That reminds me, you can set adventure difficulty and puzzle difficulty separately but pay attention if you take a sliding button off expert or advanced. I hope any Part 3 compass challenge incorporates a more complicated version of the moderately intricate logic problem format in Part 1.*

While the journal is a marvel of organization and depth, I still took notes which is rare for me.

There are no annoying banners or, for that matter, HOs. For the BFG release, I hope banners are not included but gather that HOs will be. There are appropriate places to insert them. I didn't miss them. One of the unique elements of Part 1 was the use of a grainy screen to indicate simultaneously an HO screen and "Time present and time past/ Are both perhaps present in time future./ And time future contained in time past."** In TFFS2, the same grayish areas indicate the cleverest mechanism rationalizing within the four corners of plot embedding objects and journal pages in caches for an entire game that I have come across. In other games, I suppose some of that HOPA convention could be attributed within the game's world to credulity stretching absent mindedness. For the most part, until quotidian object caching, HOs, and even morphing objects (the last mercifully absent here although many players feel an expensive edition is incomplete without them) reach wearying absurdity I accept them much as I do metered forms in poetry, and I would never want to eliminate engaging and incrementally filled in journals complete with notes from third parties for the sake of realism.

If you haven't played Part 1, you are in for a scary treat, and you need to play it before Part 2. Part 1 stands on its own as a complete game with a Twilight Zone type twist ending regardless of the "to be continued" inter-title message at the conclusion. Buy the Collector's Edition so that you can play the bonus game as prequel to or interlude before Part 2. The bonus doesn't fit seamlessly into Part 2 but is integrated well enough and is worth the extra cost in terms of length and play.

In Part 1, for some breaking the fourth wall humor be sure to examine the titles of Grandpa David's DIY books on the mantle in the dining room, and if you can read the title that starts with "Life of," I am curious about what the rest of it says. On the exposed side of the cover is a snapshot--that looks to me as if pasted on--of a woman with short black hair; on the spine, a portrait that reminds me of Modigliani. In the extra episode of Part 1 behind a desk is an Art Deco poster thematically identical to a mural in Part 2; on the poster something hard to read is printed, I think in English, that I can't be sure I have deciphered along the bottom in a similar font to the book's spine. It's probably not significant but is intriguing because

In addition to suspense, Part 1 has a sense of poignancy. For example, I thought the return of Cheshire, the aptly named cat, might have been the work of a lonely girl or some portion of her psyche who missed her kitty. Also the estrangement of Holly's grandparents highlights both the central mystery and, oversimplifying here, missed opportunities caused by time. ETA: Part 2 has a bit of that with

TFFS is planned as a trilogy so don't expect the ending of Part 2 to wrap things up in a tidy package. From a lengthy discussion elsewhere, I discovered that what is going on could be Those conjectures in no way exhaust the possibilities. My personal theory, may yet have a role. It's possible although, sadly for me, unlikely.

The third episode will be the hardest to make to the same high standards. Part 3 will have to address what Stephen King in Danse Macabre calls opening the door: "Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door. The audience holds its breath along with the protagonist as she/he (more often she) approaches that door. The protagonist throws it open, and there is a ten-foot-tall bug. The audience screams, but this particular scream has an oddly relieved sound to it. 'A bug ten feet tall is pretty horrible', the audience thinks, 'but I can deal with a ten-foot-tall bug. I was afraid it might be a hundred feet tall'....You can scare people with the unknown for a long, long time but sooner or later, as in poker, you have to turn your cards up. You have to open the door and show the audience what's behind it."

Azu has mitigated this issue by the use of actual doors, partial revelation techniques, and for a game an unusually large number of characters mostly introduced through flashback and epistolary means. However, whatever is behind the door still looms in the darkness, so don't wait for Part 3 to play. You don't need to know a definitive ending exists beforehand. In fact, it's a good bet you'll interfere with immersion in Part 3 by waiting because absorbing the size of the story in all three games for the first time in one fell swoop may overwhelm some of the fun.

If players have forgotten details of the first two games by the time third is released, a vague sense of familiarity or deja vu will heighten the overall impact, of that much I am positive.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2 is the best casual adventure in several years, maybe ever. TFFS2 alone and TFFS1 & 2 taken as a unit are the top of my top five and likely to remain there in spite of my not having the least certainty about the intended basis of the plot.


*I am basing the potential for increased compass complexity on


**T. S. Eliot quote from "Burnt Norton". Eliot concludes "If all time is eternally present,/ All time is unredeemable" thus

Vermillion Watch: London Howling
Raves: This is the fourth game in this series that I have played and loved. All of them are on my Replay list. It is a LONG game and engaging all the way. The mini-game that comes with the CE version is a bit short, but still well done and presents additional plot. There is an interesting function to the game in which, at several points, you choose one of the "team" members to help you with a specific quest. This diversion felt realistic. I think this is one game where the CE is worth the extra because you won't want it to end.

If you play for graphics, you'll love the scenery and multitude of environments. If you play for good music and sound effects that feel tailored to the game and not tacked on to fill the silence, you'll enjoy this game. If you play for puzzles and mini-games, this is your game; there are lots of puzzles, and they vary from childishly easy to some that are real head-scratchers. There are no music puzzles, no horrible sliders and nothing that requires advanced math. There are a couple of puzzles that require to you to use some timing, but they are quite simple and aren't at all arduous. As for the "plot," it is the usual evil character wreaking havok and it is up to you to save the world, but there are very few casual games that don't employ that trope. It still carries you forward.

The game gradually ramps up from an odd disturbance in town to a grand quest for the reason behind the werewolf's presence. Locations enhance this, varying from a cozy pet shop to a subterranean secret base. There are no desperate, timed moments and no real fighting. My character never died, nor was he seriously threatened.

Peeves: I played the CE version, so it came with a Game Manual. It was a good thing. There were a couple of mini-games that, even though you solved them, the puzzle did not end nor reward you. Being puzzled by what seemed like the correct solution not working, I looked up the Game Manual. Sure enough, I had it right; it just didn't "finish." I even tried replaying the puzzle, to see if it would turn out differently. No dice. Still no "finish." So I ended up having to Skip those puzzles to move forward in the game. Seems there is little excuse for this.

Unveiling of the evil character behind all the ruckus occurs very near the end of the game and is less than satisfying because it brings nothing at all that is new to the genre. Just the usual greed and the clichéd villain's sneering laugh at the moment of triumph (just before you easily finish off said villain). I'd like to see a game develop some other motivation once in a while.


Extras: There are Collectibles, Morphing Objects and the like as is usual with the CE version. They are not intrusive and I don't remember any game-breaking Pop-Ups. You can skip them, anyway, and I mostly did. I did not see the usual Reward for finding them at the end of the game, in any case. (Sometimes, you get an extra puzzle or other such item. Not this time.)

I didn't realize TFFS had a part 2 till I read your recommendation. What an excellent game. I had been long wanting a continuation of this story and came to believe it was never going to happen. The story is very gripping and very confusing, in that I'm never certain what's really going on. - Just wanted to mention that I saw parts 1 and 2 on GOG.

My recommendation at this time would be the Fear for Sale series. I had forgotten how good it was and I started a new playthru of the entire series. Almost finished the bonus chapter of Nightmare Cinema. I can't describe why I like it so much, but it keeps me going. Also doing a playthru of the MCF series. Still working on the first
Ravenhearst game.

Mystery Case Files: Escape From Ravenhearst SE & CE

Amongst my favorite's these two I would highly recommend.

I absolutely loved the storyline along with the Graphic's, Morphing, Puzzles and Soundtrack.

But at the end Now that I loved the most when they showed the actor's having fun whilst filming..Fantastic!


I wish they remake the original Ravenhearst uhm just a though.


Enjoy Boomers who wish to Replay or Play for the first time.

The Emptiness ...was spooky Great for me I liked it ...

DANSE MACABRE: OMINOUS OBSESSION
Just finished playing the CE version of this game and liked it enough to recommend it. It is a recent game, so you have all the up-to-date choices for customization. You can turn off Pop-ups, adjust difficulty, tweak the sounds and penalties, etc. You can enable Hints and ask for help whenever you need it. Pretty much make the game what you want it to be, then enjoy.

The story line is typical. A kidnapping starts things off. By the middle of the game, you pretty much have forgotten who it is you are after, though. It is all about the game play and not much about the story. The thinnest of "plots" eventually is explained, and poorly at that.

All found Inventory items have to be "fixed" or made complete before you can use them, of course. If you find an axe, the handle will be missing, etc. Same old same old. What I liked about this game was that you didn't find everything you needed in the same scene. So you needed to keep notes concerning where something needed to be done and with what, and often come back hours (and half a dozen succeeding scenes) later with what you needed to complete that task. Also, many Inventory items were used in unique ways and that makes you think outside the box.

Navigation is easy; the Map lets you skip from one locale to the next. Voice acting is decent although there is not a lot of it. I have no sense of the contribution made by the music sound track; it wasn't a big thing for me. As for your character, you are on your own 95% of the time.

If you like to collect things as you go along, there are Morphing Objects, Souvenirs and Collectible items in every scene. You can ignore them completely and it makes no difference to the story. (BTW, once you finish the game, you can go back and look for all the Collectibles and Souvenirs, if you so desire.)

I play these games for the puzzles and mini-games, and the quality of the puzzles in this game made it fun. It has the usual HO scenes, but it plays with the genre in novel ways. I had to scratch my head a couple of times, trying to figure out how to play each one. So the HO scenes almost felt like mini-games at times. The mini-games and puzzles, themselves, were darned good. Part of the time, you have to figure out what you are supposed to be doing before you can begin to solve a puzzle. There are inventory-based puzzles, mosaic style ones, Rube Goldberg contraptions, a couple of (easy) sliders, and some puzzles of a type new to this game genre and hard for me to explain. There is one math-based puzzle but it was dead easy. There is only one music puzzle and you don't need to read music. No combat or timed stuff.

Game play lasted a long time ~ which is great if you like a game, and I enjoyed this one. I felt like I got my money's worth! I'm playing the Bonus Game now, which feels tacked on but still is engaging. I have no hesitation in recommending this game, and I'm glad I tried it after playing Danse Macabre: Florentine Elegy and rating it only "so-so, and with poorly constructed puzzles." I will definitely replay this one in a year or so.

Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart Collector's Edition

Released in 2012

Developer: Artifex Mundi

I am replaying this game right now after having played it once in 2012, and it more than holds its own after seven years. The visuals are wonderful, the music is very appropriate to the theme (pirates in the Caribbean in the 1700s), and the gameplay is solid. There are more HOP scenes in this game than we are accustomed to seeing now in HOPAs, but the HOP scenes show great attention to care and to detail and are largely period appropriate. There is also a really nice journal with notes and objectives. It all comes together to make a very compelling experience and also a lengthy one.

This game was really ahead of its time and is still very much worth playing. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't already. It is also the first part of a trilogy, the second and third games being Nightmares from the Deep: The Siren's Call and Nightmares from the Deep: Davy Jones.

I just finished playing Nevertales: The Abomination, the seventh in eight episodes that I know of to date. This is a series that is a bit uneven. Some are pretty good but the puzzles are too easy or the ideas too cliché-ridden (I bailed on the Demo for Nevertales: Smoke and Mirrors). Abomination is darned good, right up there with Beauty Within.

The game is about a writer who has created fantasy worlds that have become "real" in another dimension. Now, that alternate reality is going out of whack, and you have to help save it from annihilation. Not terribly original, but at least there are no kidnappings of family members to spur you on quest.

The game is seriously long and even the Bonus game (CE version, for me) was better than average. There are multiple "worlds" to explore, each with its own culture or environment. There are some innovative puzzles and character interactions (the talking, disembodied heads that helped my character at one point are an instance of the latter).

Pros: The voice acting is far above normal for these games. It has fine and detailed art work that is colorful without being cartoonish, complex, and it all contributes to the mood. Puzzles are challenging most of the time. Oh, there are a couple of mini-games that were sheer agony. I'm not a big fan of the flashing lights whose order you have to memorize and duplicate (the old "Simon" game from the 70's).

Cons: Huge pop-ups. Some aggravating and repetitious puzzles. VERY difficult to find Morphing Objects. And if you like to find CO and MO objects, you'd better find them all before you leave a scene because you can't always go back. At the end of the game, you have no option to go back and find any you missed.

As with all these games, I wish the bad guys were given a more complex motivation and personality. Over and over again, it all comes down to wanting to rule the world, have all the power, etc. Cue the Simon Legree sneery laugh. It gets tiresome.

Still, I loved this game and marked it for Replay.

ECHOES OF THE PAST: THE CITADELS OF TIME

I just finished playing the CE version of this game and LOVED it. It is long, complex, there is a TON of stuff to do and a large world in which to do it. It is more like a traditional Adventure game than like many of today's dumbed-down HOAs, although there are HO scenes throughout. Sometimes, I play these "Casual" games and think of them as child's play, but I would recommend this game for adults. It requires concentration, note-taking and logical skills. It took me almost a week to play the CE through, a couple of hours each day. I already feel like I got my money's worth, and I still have the Bonus Game to play. I definitely will be replaying this game!

The game doesn't throw monsters at you (although there are some creatures to outsmart, it isn't done by fighting), many of the puzzles are original (!) and some are pretty pesky The tasks you have to complete are unique in some cases. There are only a couple of timed sequences in the game and they aren't arduous. The villain stays out of your face most of the time.

A heads up: There is no Map included in the game, so be sure you have some blank paper ready so you can draw your own map as you go along. You'll want to note where you found a task to complete and what is missing to complete it. You'll need to backtrack frequently, sometimes quite a ways back, indeed.

My only quibble with this game is that it is very picky as far as mouse usage. In HO scenes, you have to click dead on the right spot to get your desired object (and sometimes, the objects don't look like what they are). In some of the "scenes" within the game, you might not realize there is something that you need to take because you clicked just off the "sweet spot" and didn't get a hit from it.

Mystery Case Files "The 13th Skull" is very good. The characters are really good and funny. Cooter and Charlotte! I need not say more!


Of course as many of you know I love the "Big City Adventure " series.

Hi Everyone

There's one collection that I must admit was quite very good - The Final Cut series absolutely loved it - good work done on that one:)
Final Cut: Death on the Silver Screen CE
Final Cut: Encore Standard
Final Cut: Homage Standard
Final Cut: The True Escapade Standard
Final Cut: Fame Fatale standard
Final Cut: Fade to Black Standard

Another great series:
Maze: Subject 360 CE
Maze: The Broken Tower Standard
Maze: Nightmare Realm Standard
Maze: Stolen Minds Standard

Also Love the Drawn games - It's good to play something different than the usual HOG - Loved these
Drawn: Trail of Shadows Standard
Drawn: Dark Flight Ce
Drawn: The Painted Tower Standard

These are my favourite of the Mystery Case Files series:
Mystery Case Files: Escape from Ravenhearst Standard & CE
Mystery Case Files: Shadow Lake Standar
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove CE

Lake House: Children of Silence Standard - Very Good & Heart touching!

All these I highly recommended

Not sure whether this counts as a casual game, but I am currently very much enjoying My Brother Rabbit, a sort of extended hidden object game with fairly mild puzzles, quite a cute story line and beautiful illustrations, plus a soothing soundtrack - worth a look (from Artifex Mundi).

Prior to that it was the rather more manic but addictive Bridge Constructor Portal, although the actual gameplay does not require quick reflexes.

Also had some fun with Bring You Home and Old Man's Journey, and of course all the Amanita Design games.

On a rather different tack, Bad North for some pesky viking warfare.

All on iMac, but no doubt also available on other platforms.

Hope you're all staying safe and well!

Baba Is You is a hugely addictive and amusing little brain-teaser of a game which now has me hooked more solidly than anything else for a long time: it starts easily enough but gets much tougher!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Is_You

Is anyone else playing it yet?

(also having some fun with not so casual Kerbal Space Program to be found currently 83% off at macgamesstore.com)

I just finished Sacra Terra: Kiss of Death Collector's Edition and I feel that it definitely deserves a spot here in the Recommendations thread.

I found the game to be very enjoyable. If you play these games strictly for the puzzles then you might be a trifle disappointed. While there are puzzles, most of them are quite easy. This is about the only potential negative that I can see so I thought I should mention that, although it certainly did not bother me. I like easy puzzles.

Otherwise, the environments are varied, the hidden object scenes are reasonable (nothing too minuscule or impossibly difficult to find), and plenty of inventory items involved in figuring out what to do next. The overall game has a nicely polished feel to it. It was released in 2013.

The developer is Five BN. Like many other players, I always enjoy their games and this older HOPA was no exception. I think a lot of people who like Five BN games would enjoy this one too.

If you don't get the Collector's Edition, you will be missing out on a sizable chunk of gameplay as the bonus game is a very good length.

I will also put this game on my replay list.

I just finished the "main" game of Legendary Tales: Stolen Life, and enjoyed it immensely. It is one of those "big" games, like the Lost Lands and Secrets of the Dark series, games that pull you in for a long ride of several days' exploration, Inventory collection, side quests and brain teasers. Right up front, I'll say it may not appeal to people who like their puzzles dead easy (although there might be an Options tweak for easier ones, I don't know).

There are many tasty challenges, creative Inventory use and novel puzzle ideas scattered throughout. There are endless "pages" of locations (Good map), lots of running around, meeting people, solving side quests. Very much like a full Adventure game. Of course, there are HO scenes, and sometimes even they are puzzles. All in all, a terrific game that I know I will be antsy to replay.

This morning, I started the Bonus Game (I always buy the CE version), and it is just as detailed, pesky and long as the main game. I probably have another hour to go to finish it. I have become a huge fan of 5-BN games, and I will be looking for more games from that developer, for sure!

I just finished Cursery: The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat, the CE Version. It is by the same team that does the Dark Parables games, and the various HO scenes are just like they are in the Parables games. I've played more than a dozen games in the Parables series, so I bought this game without trying the Demo.

The story is nothing new: Unrequited love turns the man into an insane, murdering fiend preying on young women as he looks for his Lost Love, and somewhere along the way, he has acquired magic powers that you have to beat. <sigh>

The game is challenging. You CAN select an "Easy" version but not with the subtlety of choices you may have become accustomed to twiddling. It just dials down the difficulty of the Mini-games. I like a challenge, so I went with the more difficult and it was great fun and not that challenging except for one rotation puzzle. (Oh, and this game features a lot of rotation puzzles, just so you know.) You can Skip any puzzle without a penalty other than it adds time to the length of time you spent playing the game itself, like your play time is a "Score" of it own. Why anyone would care about how long it took to play a game is a mystery to me. (I always felt that if it took me a good while to work my way through a game, it was a better game.) The HO scenes are reminiscent of the style in the Dark Parables stories, meaning that a few objects often are quite hard to find in almost every scene.

There are no surprises with movement, Map use, Collectibles. There aren't any head-scratching moments with the Inventory. Everything is as you would expect. There are some items of inventory that aren't entirely comprehensible when you first pick them up because they need to be combined with others to be of use. There is a LOT of running back and forth (when you finally find that Inventory item that you needed six scenes back . . . ). You WILL need to take copious notes on 1) everywhere you found a task and 2) what Inventory you need in order to deal with it, so you can go back there later with the right tool. Almost at the end of the game, I found an item that I needed in the second or third location in the game!

You can set a few things to make the game easier (turn on/off this or that, you know the drill). I like to strip the game bare, so it is like playing an old Adventure Game without any idea what happens next. The Bonus Game was worth it, in that it continued the story via a secondary narrative. So I loved this game, even though it was pretty pesky in spots. I've marked it for Replay.

I'm currently playing "Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promises CE". The developer is Brave Giant. And this game has it all as far as being what I'd rate excellent. The story and graphics are contemporary. HOS are unique, with some having morphing objects, and many being interactive. Mini games are also unique - some are challenging and some are pretty doable. For those who are interested, there are collectibles including morphing objects. This is basically a detective sort of story. You use a cell phone to photograph and collect evidence. All in all this game is very well done and a nice change from the usual fantasy type stories and environments. Highly recommend.

Just saw this so I will tell you what Im playing ... Im Playing , "I Know a Tale" Excellent game its a game made with human interaction .... love it Just "Really" getting hooked on it If You have a couple of days hours etc to play dont let this gem go bye bye its an oldie from Big Fish but I love it Take care gotta go and save a kid in my patrol carl thats hanging off a cliff lololol

Lately I have been playing sudoku with one of those very simplistic apps on the phone, I recommend it.
There is also "wood sudoku" if that makes sense,,,, I would say it's more like old time tetris with a board like in sudoku.

Besides that, I usually just play UNO with my siblings online (since we all live in different cities)

I've been replaying HOPA games like crazy the past two years (I don't even want to know how much money I've spent at Big Fish since the early '20s! But it's come in handy lately ) The series I'm replaying right now is Echoes of the Past, and I'm really enjoying it--the puzzles are good and the story is, I mean, it's not Shakespeare, but it's interesting. The first in the series wouldn't install, but the rest are playing fine.

And (pet peeve of mine) the items in the HO scenes are mostly to scale, and the inventory items are all to scale. Drives me crazy when I pick up something that's a couple inches in one room and put it in a two-foot wide space in another!

Thanks for everyone's list, it's helping me find new ones to look for/or replay!

Hi Everyone
Recently had another Booster Vaccine Shot & I haven't been feeling the best (Sore Arm & Head) - despite this i've been playing the Amaranth Voyage: Legacy of the Guardians CE on & off and compared to the SE this one has way more in it and much longer still playing it...Loving it

This is one of my favorite series...happy gaming all