Does 3 Cards to Midnight play the adventure card, the casual card, or a little of both? Flotsam investigates this gripping, controversial mystery game.

3 Cards to Midnight

I noticed that this game is being or has been discussed at length on both the Adventure Games Forum and the Casual Games forum, and I wondered the same thing.

I don't care for adventure games so I generally try to stay pretty far away from them, but I understand that there are some casual games that are starting to incorporate some adventure game techniques in them and vice versa. In fact, I recall reading an interview on Gamezebo with the team that worked on Return to Ravenhearst where they openly said they were more inclined to make an adventure game as opposed to an HOG, and I think they did do that.

I note that the review says, "If you like a well told story, and if you are a fan of casual games, you will probably rate 3 Cards to Midnight more highly than I did. I want far more from my game play than this offered, although not much more from a story perspective. So a very mixed blessing indeed."

I think that's a very interesting point since, as a casual game player, I would want far less in terms of adventure game technique.

Is it possible that, in trying to please everybody one is actually pleasing nobody?

I'd be interested to know how you all would characterize 3 Cards to Midnight, which I understand is a "psychological thriller" as one might also characterize Return to Ravenhearst?

GPM

I have only played the 30 minute demo. I am also a casual player who also likes Nancy Drew games. This game in my opinion is nothing like Return to Ravenhearst. Basically you get three words and have to find objects with one of those words in the object. Example, the word is note you might be looking for a notebook. Also it has mini games. It wasn't a bad game at all for the 30 minute demo; just don't expect anything like Return to Ravenhearst. My opinion.

Joani

You stirred my curiosity here, GPM, since I still try to build some kind of functional definition of causal games in my mind. Could you tell me which are the elements of 3CM that you consider adventure game techniques? I'm especially curious about those that don't appeal to you personally.

I found this game to be quite confusing. The graphics are nice but besides the alternate word associations the story moves very slowly.

I doubt I will purchase.

I love IHOGs myself, so something like Return to Ravenhearst would definitely be at the top of my list. Straight HOGs now tend to bore me, and I play them piecemeal in short stretches.

Yard Sale is downloading now, but 3 Cards is next in my queue,and I'll try it out first and come back and tell you which one it is, and why, at least in my opinion.

Okay, in my opinion, this is a "twisty" IHOG with elements of an Adventure Lite, but it's not a true adventure to me. Virtually all of your success in the game is based upon being able to find the objects that relate to the key words.

It's a difficult game, even on Normal mode, and I think it would be hard indeed for anyone who isn't well versed in English, so, it might be a bit more fun on "Easy" for the truly casual gamer. These are just my thoughts, of course, and others may feel differently.

It is a moody piece, and even the character art is a bit on the gritty/grotesque side to keep that brooding mood. I really liked it for that, so it was worth a credit to me.

I am a big aaron connors & chris jones fan & I loved playing this game. You have to change the screen resoultion to 1024x768 for the best vision.
The game was designed as a casual game with adventure game story. It wasn't designed to be a full hog adventure game. It was designed this way as the selling market is currently casual games. This way they hoped that the casual gamers will follow them back to their future adventure games.
You have to play through the whole game not just a demo. The demo will only give an hour & more than likely the first hour will only give the first couple of rooms. It's the story that get's you in. If I played the demo like some people have I possibly would not have gone any further. Please do not judge this game from the first hour as you don't even get much of the story until after the first chapter. Just remember it's the sales of this first game that may give us back tex murphy.
They are looking at putting out a cd version with three cards to midnight & three cards to dead time , also depending on the sales.

Are these the same guys that did Tex Murphy? Wow, thanks for the info! I was a devoted Murphy fan.

3 cards to Dead Time? Hmmmm--did I miss this?

Yes, Cynder, they are the same guys. 3 Cards to Dead time is the next game. It's not released yet.

Ana

Super, Ana. I finished this one, and I do see that it would naturally have a sequel. I have vivid memories of the whole Tex Murphy series, so I'm not surprised.

I'm playing this and am nearly at the end. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. The word association boggled my mind at times (thanks for the hints). I found the graphics, background sound and music, as well as the voices, excellently done. More like a good adventure game. Gets an A+ from me. Teddo