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    Cursery: The Crooked Man & the Crooked Cat

    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


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    Post by JustTheFacts Sat Nov 09, 2013 4:40 am

    Cursery: The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat
    by Blue Tea Games - November, 2013

    Available at:
    Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
    Steam as Collector's Edition

    Cursery: The Crooked Man & the Crooked Cat Cursery-the-crooked-man-and-crooked-cat-ce_feature

    For more than a century, girls of a certain age have been mysteriously vanishing, never to be seen again. Some say they were taken by the Crooked Man, who always travels with a strange little black cat at his side. Now he’s kidnapped your very own sister! You’ve got to unravel the riddles in the Cursery and find out who’s the mastermind behind this whole evil plot. Save your sister, as well as his other kidnap victims… Defeat the Crooked Man and his servant… Uncover the story behind the Crooked Man’s actions… Reveal the mystery of the cured nursery rhymes, the Cursery…

    The Collector’s Edition includes:

    • Play the bonus game – Humpty Dumpty is cursed!
    • Download soundtracks, wallpapers, screensavers, and concept art
    • Use the integrated Strategy Guide
    • Play bonus puzzles!

    For the Standard Edition

    Cursery: The Crooked Man & the Crooked Cat Screen1
    Cursery: The Crooked Man & the Crooked Cat Screen2
    Cursery: The Crooked Man & the Crooked Cat Screen3
    JustTheFacts
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    Post by JustTheFacts Sat Nov 09, 2013 4:44 am

    Crazy Cats & Crooked Fairy Tales

    Sunny Sunny Sunny

    BASED ON DEMO

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS
    The developers of this game made a name for themselves  in making FROGs (where we put FRAGMENTED OBJECTS together to make the most gorgeous artifacts you could ever hope to see) based on twisted fairy tales. Their distinctive series, “Dark Parables”, is just about the epitome of “absolutely beautiful”. So, can they pull it off again, with another, somewhat differently designed, fairy tale FROG?

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    Well, the game is certainly beautiful, imaginative and colourful, but I felt the graphics were a bit rough around the edges and at times too dark. I was put off immediately by the fact that the game’s visuals were not designed for widescreen/aspect correction. A game that relies so heavily on graphical splendour should really do better than this. So, I think, perhaps there is something more to this game?

    Well, the music is certainly sensational. I absolutely love it. It is fairy tale light, with a jaunty air at times and a sombre timber at others, and the ambient sound is good . The voiceovers are nicely done, if a bit too high pitched for my liking.

    WHAT’S HAPPENING
    Yes, well, that’s definitely confusing at this point. There is a old folk legend about this forest, our sister says, about a crooked man and young girls who disappear never to be seen again. Then of course, she is whisked off by a crooked man and his equally crooked cat. Now, I know we’re all out of cuteness, so let me reassure you, this is NOT a cute companion. In fact, he’s downright dangerous – and his cousin is even worse! I literally jumped and moved away from the monitor, on reflex.  Nup, definitely not cute.

    MAKING PROGRESS
    This game is another FROG, but the FROG scenes are few and far between. Instead we are constantly meeting new puzzles at every turn. These are excellent and inventive puzzles, including wonderful puzzle boards, and even this early in the game, one was too hard for me. Their integration into the gameplay is fairly arbitrary though. The quests are limited and not always intuitive. I found myself relying on hint to get me around.

    There is a directional hint, and (a first from these developers) an interactive jump map (with really cool pop up locations). It tells you where there is an active area of interest. The problem was, whenever I used it, it said there were no active etc.’s, so it was of little help.

    BLING!
    Well, there’s some nice goodies here. There are 20 cursed (morphing) objects to collect, plus some things listed simply as ‘items’. There are pop-up notes (7), and 25 achievements. These are given once for each puzzle completed – so, 25 puzzles. There are 6 chapters, plus the bonus chapter. The demo covers the first 2. There are also the usual gallery items and replayable puzzles. SG was helpful.

    FAMOUS LAST WORDS
    I like it, and I loved having a cat as the enemy, but not so much that I’ll rush out immediately and buy the CE. Cool collectibles aside, I did find the graphics a bit disappointing, and the gameplay a bit off. Still, there’ll be 1000s who’ll love this game. For them,...

    I Recommend This Game!
    luvtoread
    luvtoread


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    Post by luvtoread Sat Nov 09, 2013 5:09 am

    you can get this on sale  $9.99  CLASSIFIED
    JustTheFacts
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    Post by JustTheFacts Sat Nov 09, 2013 5:16 am

    I am so stingy! I only buy 1/10 of my games as CE and only if I get it at half price! Shock 
    luvtoread
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    Post by luvtoread Sat Nov 09, 2013 5:48 am

    That is not stingy......that is being a smart shopper Two thumbs up 
    RenaissanceMom
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    Post by RenaissanceMom Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:49 am

    So far it's not getting lots of rave reviews at BF. (Not that that's the be-all end-all, of course...)

    I'm not as madly in love with these devs as some of you are Wink  but I really enjoyed their first bunch of games (and it's no secret I often prefer FROGs to HOGs). The Red Riding Hood Sisters was okayish but The Final Cinderella didn't wow me and I wasn't going near Enchantia - isn't that the one with the cruel genocidal 'choice'?

    Some reviewers have described Crooked Man/Cat as busy, cluttered with too much going on, which was my opinion of Final Cinderella so I'm in no particular hurry to demo it.
    luvtoread
    luvtoread


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    Post by luvtoread Sat Nov 09, 2013 8:34 am

    Some reviewers have described Crooked Man/Cat as busy, cluttered with too much going on,


    I'll be honest---I don't get why this is bad? I mean, I like being busy in a game. Drives
    me nuts when I get stuck and am walking around with nothing to do.

    JustTheFacts
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    Post by JustTheFacts Sat Nov 09, 2013 9:08 am

    I don't get it either luvtoread. I love lots to do too.

    You won't get too much of that in this game Rmom - except in the beginning, where you find all these things you need but don't yet have.

    There are never very many items in your inventory, and you use them pretty much as you use them. Admittedly, if you're not into them, collectibles may just get in the way. It's not like red riding hood sisters, though, which was very complex and intricate, and which I never got all of any collectibles.

    Is it all those fairy tale things and special outfits in final Cinderella that bugged you?
    RenaissanceMom
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    Post by RenaissanceMom Sat Nov 09, 2013 10:37 am

    Re: Final Cinderella, it's been a while but what I remembered not liking was (for me) the story being all over the place, with, IIRC, Cinderella and a giant something - robot I think? - and Pinocchio, etc. That's what I meant by too much stuff happening with some new villain or whatever in every scene, like the story was muddled, and didn't know where it wanted to go. And this was just part of the demo. Not saying that others experienced it in this way, but I'm not one for multitasking in real life either, lol. FWIW I didn't experience this with Briar Rose, The Frog Prince or even those sexy little Riding Hood Sisters.

    Right now I'm playing Tales Of Monkey Island with DH. This game is in 5 installments and is happily taking us weeks to play and, yes, there's a LOT of getting stuck while we have to figure out what we have to do. But the story is linear and the puzzles all logical - well, sort of, lol. It also helps that the game is very zany and a lot of fun to play. Big smile

    ETA - In all fairness I shall really have to demo Cursery to see what it's like for myself. I may just love it!
    JustTheFacts
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    Post by JustTheFacts Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:21 am

    Updated Review Based On Completed Game

    Plus: Forgot to mention there are puzzle boards and I couldn't get more than one mouse home on any of them!

    Game Of Extremes
    Sunny Sunny Sunny

    BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS
    Well, I had my reservations about this game when I wrote my review for the CE, and I am sad to say that they were justified. This is not a top quality game, despite some absolutely marvellous parts.

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    The biggest sin, of course, is to take some of the most beautiful artwork you’ll ever see and produce it on such a low definition that it looks like something made 5 years ago (at least). The graphics are blurry all the time, and grainy some of it, and all around not pleasant to look at and difficult to focus on. The HOP scenes are generally a little clearer, but that is not justification for the poor quality through the rest of the game. Of course, if you are playing on a laptop, you probably won’t even be able to see what I’m talking about.

    The music is on a par with the visual art. Brilliant. In keeping with the dark fairy tale theme, but light enough not to bring you down. And had the unusual effect of feeling that it was almost familiar – a kind of musical déjà vu. Yet I’m quite sure it’s original. In any case, it begged for folk tale lyrics.

    WHAT’S HAPPENING
    The crooked man and his crooked cat steal young women who foolishly venture into their woods. They should know better – these two have been at it for years and everyone knows the legend. Still, you and your sister blithely enter the danger zone and Sister gets herself kidnapped. It is quite a complex story, based on a nursery rhyme, and actually quite compelling. I kept on with bated breath wanting to know how all this came to be and how it would all end. (Unexpectedly, is the answer to the 2nd question). There are some excellent twists and surprises along the way.

    Which I would have enjoyed much more if I could have kept track of what was going on. With no diary, it was difficult to keep the various story elements clearly in mind, and I was unhappily confused about a lot of the back story and who did what to whom. I really missed the sort of story and character cards this developer has used so successfully in the Dark Parable series.

    MAKING PROGRESS
    This game is a little hard to classify. Most of the game play is puzzles. Far more general puzzles and mini-games than FROGs (fragmented hidden object games). And, like the FROGs, many are repeated. The puzzles range from very easy to very hard (by my standards), but they are all doable I think. They are beautiful, but not really integrated into the game and for a while, the game seems to consist of nothing but moving from puzzle to puzzle.

    At other parts of the game, the adventure side seems dominant. This is not overly difficult, but the interactive jump map telling you where the next step should be is very helpful. Hint is okay too, it is directional, but the map is easier to use. The map is really a wonder. A pop-up with little figures that move around when you open it. I like it a lot.

    COMBINED IMPACT
    Overall, I am disappointed in this game. With better graphics and a better structured story, it could have been brilliant. I also wish there had been a diary. Still, it is a mile ahead of many other games and many will like it without even noticing the poor quality graphics.

    I Recommend This Game!
    genkicoll
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    Post by genkicoll Mon Jun 17, 2019 8:34 am

    Cursery: The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat (FROG)

    Options include three separate sliders for Sounds, Full-screen, Widescreen, Custom Cursor and whether or not there are sparkles on puzzles/fragmented object scenes.  Choice of Casual, Normal or Hard Mode.

    Story:

    On a journey with your sister, she tells you of an urban legend in the area, about how girls around her age have been disappearing for over a hundred years, never to be seen again.  In a flash her teasing becomes horror as your stagecoach is attacked, and a mysterious man steals her away.

    We have no Journal, but there is only one puzzle hint that you'll need to write down (you'll know it when you see it!)

    The story has great pacing, with intermittent snippets that we find which are quick and easy-to-read, but expand on the tale beautifully.  There is more depth to the story than I expected, and a few twists that I didn't see coming at all.

    Gameplay:

    For those not familiar with the term, FROG's are FRagmented Object Games.  Instead of your standard to-find lists or silhouettes, etc, you will find pieces of items, which will then become whole and be added to your inventory.
    Cursery: The Crooked Man & the Crooked Cat 885BF6CB5DDD96E1F90541262A00E32E9147D528

    Despite the FROG designation, this is really more of a Puzzle-Adventure than anything else. The FRO scenes repeat once, but they are so widely-spaced that I often forgot that they were in the game!  The mini-games are very frequent, and there were several repeating themes.  Luckily the minis are pretty interesting and fun to play. ;)

    SKIPPING a puzzle will disable your hint button for a short period.

    We have an interactive MAP - a magical item that allows us to instantly transport to areas we've been to before.  Beware, for the Crooked Man's influence can sometimes overpower the magic, making this power unavailable in some areas. (I absolutely LOVE how they worked the map into the story!  Bravo, devs!)

    HINTS used during the adventure portion of the game will either pinpoint something in the area or give you a directional hint.

    Sights and Sounds:

    The graphics work beautifully with the twisted nursery rhyme theme, immersing you in a world both lovely and dangerous.
    Cursery: The Crooked Man & the Crooked Cat CDDAC73D6FBA51DF2DFF18E882605EDF2BD346A5

    The voice overs are about what you would expect from a casual game, although I'd say that the Crooked Man's acting was above average.

    I was impressed by how well the music tied everything together, and I especially enjoyed the music box scene.

    The main game took me about 3.5 hours, but would have taken me longer if I hadn't been too exhausted (from lack of sleep) to complete all of the puzzles in the latter half of the game.  ;p

    CE Content:

    • Integrated Strategy Guide
    • Bonus Chapter
    • 20 Cursed (Morphing) Items
    • 25 In-game Achievements
    • 6 Wallpapers
    • 20 Concept Art
    • 17 Cutscenes
    • 5 Music Tracks (can be saved)
    • Popup Notes Collections (every scrap of story that you discover, sorted by character)
    • 24 Items (gorgeous closeup views of items used in the game - love this!)

    Bonus Chapter:

    The Bonus Chapter takes place 10 years after the events of the main game (even though it says "Prologue").  It's titled Humpty Dumpty, but instead of being a twisted nursery rhyme, the story is more like something by the Brothers Grimm, dark and utterly disturbing.  The gameplay itself is a bit more balanced between adventure, FRO's and puzzles.

    Verdict:

    This is more of a Puzzle-adventure than a FRagmented Object Game, which is great for me since I'm not a big fan of FROG's in general.

    The graphics and story, coupled with environmental music, make this title immersive and compelling.  The frequent puzzles somehow didn't interrupt the flow of the storytelling, and I couldn't stop playing until I reached the end.  I thoroughly enjoyed the main game, and definitely recommend it. Okay

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