Gamer Chick and Mom. Games are My Passion, and Here You'll Find Gaming Reviews & Info, plus Talk about Books, Movies, Music and More!


+13
Esme
pippi
sunshinej
tesamoine
jessmom01
Cuddlefish
luvtoread
Frodo
genkicoll
RenaissanceMom
djrum
volnole68
JustTheFacts
17 posters

    Beta Thread

    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:59 pm

    Here are 3 F2P Betas if anyone is interested. I don't have the patience for them, so I won't be reviewing them myself.


    Super City

    Governor Of Poker: Texas Tycoon

    Archie: Riverdale Rescue


    Have fun!
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Fri Feb 07, 2014 2:01 pm

    And 2 new additions to the 'front page' beta list

    07/02

    Mad Head Games

    Cadenza: Death by Jazz BETA
    www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26063/cadenza-death-by-jazz-survey/index.html

    Boomzap

    Awakening: The Redleaf Forest BETA
    www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26064/awakening-redleaf-forest-survey/index.html
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Sat Feb 08, 2014 12:21 pm

    Royal [2](Detective): Queen Of Shadows

    Release Date: 2014
    Developer: Elephant Games

    Become The New Lord Of Statues!*****

    BASED ON BETA


    FIRST IMPRESSIONS
    It’s a good opening. Young girl running through the dark woods. Stops, stares, ”Mother!”, reaches for the woman she has been searching for for 5 years... and she is snatched away. This sequel to the fabulous Lord Of Statues promises to be as least as good.

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    I have run out of words to describe the awe-inspiring artwork we are seeing these days, especially from this developer. So I won’t try to say more than it is truly magnificent, as you’d expect, and there is no down side. The music is also breathtakingly lovely. In particular, one particular track with a piano lead that sounds like a love song waiting for lyrics. The background sounds are wonderful too. Voiceovers, superb.

    WHAT’S HAPPENING?
    You don’t have to have played the first game of the Royal Detective series, Lord Of Statues, but the game assumes you have. You have received a cry for help from Princess, who you last saw in that game, then aged maybe 7 or 8 years old. It is 5 years later, and the teenager has finally found her mother, who has now been kidnapped. You meet her at a strange and magical city, and are greeted by a skull. He is the spirit of the city’s keeper, and your new hint.

    Princess herself has a good grasp of magic these days, and a fair idea where her mother might have been taken, so you follow her lead. Then some.. thing... attacks her in the forest. This is shaping up to be a dangerous case. It is also a much darker story, where skeletons and war and evil magic abound.

    Back story is delivered in mini-game format. The first requires you to paint (by code) an image. The second is a panorama-style game where you must get your hero from home to the castle past many obstacles. The third has you playing a series of align the parts of the image game – usually used to define star constellations. Each time you progress, another piece of the story is revealed.

    GAMEPLAY
    The gameplay is the familiar:  HOPs searched by interactive list, and an array of puzzles both known and unknown, varying degrees of difficulty. There is no journal but there is an interactive jump map that gives you active tasks, and a hint system that tells you your next move and takes you there.

    There are also some differences. For example, we get a fire dagger early on, which so far we’ve been able to keep. Likewise, we receive a magic book, and a magic gauntlet, both of which will be used many times during the game. (I believe, based on the evidence). We receive magic items that can gather hidden objects within the locations that have been previously indicated (I feel a ghostly presence here), but invisible. These mini-collections are small, 5-7 objects, and the vessel disappears once it’s been used. There is a significant amount of this sort of activity.

    There are also 25 collectible “little dragons”. Other CE BLING! is not available in this version.

    COMBINED IMPACT
    Wonderful! Magical! Loved it! A worthy successor to Lord Of Statues.

    I recommend this game!

    Try It Here!
    Frodo
    Frodo


    Posts : 1428
    Join date : 2013-08-12
    Age : 51
    Location : Scotland, UK

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by Frodo Sat Feb 08, 2014 1:19 pm

    Excited about this one.   Big smile   Loved the first Lord Of Statues, and was looking forward to a sequel, to find out what happens next to little Princess.   Smile 

    And the collectable dragons just adds so much more appeal!  (for me, anyway, cos I like dragons   Laugh )

    Thanks for review, JustTheFacts.  I'm downloading the beta now.   Okay
    RenaissanceMom
    RenaissanceMom


    Posts : 785
    Join date : 2013-01-05
    Age : 62
    Location : NYC

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by RenaissanceMom Sat Feb 08, 2014 3:14 pm

    Thanks for all these links!!! Often I prefer betas to whole games anyway (especially if they're full of HOs) and I will definitely try some of them.  Happy bounce


    Last edited by RenaissanceMom on Sat Feb 08, 2014 6:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Sat Feb 08, 2014 4:27 pm

    Great!! I think betas are the best fun! I can play them as if I own them, because, hey, I do. You get a game that's just so so, you can play an hour or so (no time limits!) without buying whole game. And sometimes I'm like you RMom, I just don't feel like playing more than an hour of anything Big smile 
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Sun Feb 09, 2014 9:40 am

    Man! I have just played the beta for Spirit Seasons 2 (you remember the first one? It was kinda whacky), this one is awesomely insane! Or insanely awesome! Also fairly gross lol. barf 

    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Mon Feb 10, 2014 2:15 pm

    Spirit Seasons [2]: (The) Tower****

    Release Date: 2014?
    Developer: Tiki’s Lab

    Grotesque – I Like It!

    BASED ON BETA


    FIRST IMPRESSIONS
    This game starts out confusing by using several different graphic styles, even within the intro. Do you remember the original Spirit Seasons? It’s been years since it was released, but this is a genuine sequel to it, dealing with another little girl ghost with an attitude problem. So far, there has been a fair amount of gross stuff, from catching spiders with a frog, to disembodied hands conducting surgery on various non-human (thank goodness) body parts.

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    The graphics are beautiful, clear, bold, detailed and cleverly drawn, even in the gross bits. Mostly. The intro consists of an opening scene in this style, squeezed between story sequences told in graphic novel style, then something I can only describe as a (poorly done) mimic of Eipix’s special style of cut scene. Then we return to graphic novel, and some wonderfully dynamic locations. This is the way it is for the whole demo. Just all over the place.

    The sounds are good. The voiceovers are exceptional. But again, sometimes we have voiceovers and sometimes not, all in a single scene or dialogue. The music is upbeat and a bit more lively than for most HOPA games.

    WHAT’S HAPPENING?
    After our first investigation into the realm of ghosts, we receive many requests to look into the ghostly experiences of people who have obviously never met a real one. Then, a letter comes from a young girl in a hospital, which seems legit, so you go off to meet her. Only to find out that she has been in a coma for 30 years, but kept the body of a child!

    Her ghost says she is in deep trouble, that “the tower” is going to ruin everything, and that you must destroy it. She cannot stay long, but she will leave us an assistant. This turns out to be Boris, a sassy blue cat oozing arrogance. He is your hint button, if you choose to accept him. Either way, he’s going to pop up uninvited with sometimes helpful, sometimes just smart aleck advice. NO, he’s not cute, but you can buy him accessories. And he is funny.

    GAMEPLAY
    There are a lot of HOPs in this game, visited twice. They are interactive lists, with more items on the list requiring action than not. You can mouse over the item names and get a silhouette of the item. Also there is some variation. In one you have ghosts popping up in the scene, demanding specific items. That was fun. The puzzles are not hard, although there was a reversi game, and I am absolutely appalling at that sort of thing, and after many attempts had to skip. The frog game required a little dexterity and good timing. So, a bit of everything.

    There are two levels of difficulty, a hint (Boris) who is likely to scoff at you as be helpful, but will do so eventually *grin*. The map is rudimentary to say the least, it consists of a sketch in the journal showing which floor you are on.

    CE BLING!
    Just a taste for us in the beta. There are collectible cat’s paws, which can be found in both the locations and the HOP scenes, or anywhere else. The beta had only 17 of them, but there will be plenty more I’m sure. They can be used to accessorise the cat. It might be worth doing, just to see his reaction. There are also achievements, both story and performance ones.

    COMBINED IMPACT
    I can’t say I’d be willing to buy it as a CE unless they fixed up the graphics and stuck to one thing – preferably the to the beautiful standards of the location graphics. I am, though, looking forward to more dealings with Boris, and seeing what the other floors of the tower have to offer.

    I recommend this game!

    Try It Here!
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Tue Feb 11, 2014 5:34 am

    (Beyond The Unknown: The) Golden Sarcophagus
    Collector’s Edition


    Release Date: 2014
    Developer: ERS Games

    Ancient Curses & Time Travel!****

    BASED ON BETA


    FIRST IMPRESSIONS
    This is a much darker and more dramatic game than expected, and far from being buried in sand and pyramids, as you might expect from the name, we experience two shipwrecks in the first minute. The intro and interface are quite a departure for this developer, having sleek and modern lines. But the game itself is pure ERS.

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    The graphics, particularly those opening cut scenes, are extraordinary. Clear, imaginative, very fluid with lots of animation and movement. The characteristic hand painted scenes. This is another game that manages to make a beautiful warm sunshiny day scary. There are these shadows, and “evil mists”, and ghosts... Crazy men predicting the final days...Visions in greyscale, burning...

    The music is astounding. Great crashing waves of sound, sudden crescendos, eerie silence. Again, very melodramatic. The voiceovers are wonderful, with the player character speaking out loud her thoughts, and the others doing a pretty good job at lip sync. This game is made something awesome by its soundtrack.

    WHAT’S HAPPENING?
    An archaeologist finds the legendary Golden Sarcophagus, made of pure gold, on a small island, and attempts to bring it back to the mainland. Despite the rumoured curse on those who try to take it off the island. The sarcophagus, his ghost (?vision?) tells us, belonged to the infamous Time Lord (no, not Dr Who!). This is our awakening moment after our own ship wreck, which takes place 10 years after the archaeologist was on the island..

    The boat carrying the sarcophagus sank before it could leave island waters, but in the process, the 4 golden eagles on its face were lost. The archaeologist begs you to find them and return them to the sarcophagus, which he has reset in its original place.

    This is not an uninhabited island, and we soon meet some oddball characters, who of course need our help. What we (and our not overly cute but helpful dog) are doing there in the first place has not been disclosed.

    GAMEPLAY
    You are immediately caught up in doing stuff. There is quite a bit of adventure play, more so than puzzles and HOPs, although you do get to them eventually of course. The HOPs are interactive lists visited twice, nothing exciting about them, but they are beautiful to look at and clear as a bell. Alternatively, there is a simple Match-3 game you can play, but simple is not easy, and it gets more difficult in each new scene you play.

    The puzzles are nothing too difficult yet, but you have the choice to play the easy or the hard version of some. You also have a choice of 3 difficulty levels, and a very thorough range of options with which to customise your gameplay. Enough I think to satisfy the toughest die-hard.

    There is an interactive map that you acquire once you’ve got your GPS up and running, and you also keep your notes, task list, replayable videos and photos on your phone. The photos are part of the gameplay. Take 5 photos of areas relevant to the character, and you receive a high definition image of him, plus more of his story. That might be a CE exclusive I guess, but...


    CE BLING!
    There are achievements, and collectible “mysterious clocks”, which are wonderfully intricate clocks of all sorts. Together they open the time portal, which I assume is a good thing. In this beta edition, no other CE extras are noted, although I think it’s safe to say there will be all those pix we took of locations available as wallpaper.

    COMBINED IMPACT
    This is a fun game so far (about 20% of the game according to the game recorder), and has some attractive qualities, such as the sound. It is nevertheless a fairly standard HOPA, and nothing to get hysterical about. No doubt, though, I will enjoy the full game immensely.

    I recommend this game!

    Try It Here!
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:28 am

    New beta is:

    Shadow Wolf Mysteries 4: Crimson Moon
    http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26083/shadow-wolf-mysteries-crimson-moon-survey/index.html

    It's weird, I was just browsing my collection and thought to myself "been a long time since a Shadow Wolf, that must be the last of the series" - I'm psychic!  Snicker 
    tesamoine
    tesamoine


    Posts : 105
    Join date : 2014-02-10
    Age : 35
    Location : New Jersey USA

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by tesamoine Tue Feb 11, 2014 6:06 pm

    Tried the Beta for Bad Omen.  Excellent !!!!!!!!!  I certainly hope this is released and soon.  Creepy to the max !!!!!  EEK!   Thank you JTF for posting that  Two thumbs up
    genkicoll
    genkicoll


    Posts : 8426
    Join date : 2011-12-28
    Age : 50
    Location : Pacific Northwest

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by genkicoll Tue Feb 11, 2014 7:24 pm

    tesamoine wrote:Tried the Beta for Bad Omen.  Excellent !!!!!!!!!  I certainly hope this is released and soon.  Creepy to the max !!!!!  EEK!   Thank you JTF for posting that  Two thumbs up

    It's supposed to be out THIS month! Yahoo!  Looking forward to it!
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Wed Feb 12, 2014 12:12 am

    You're welcome tesamoine - making genki (and the rest of you) do the little dances Yahoo! Happy bounce  is what I call fun! Big smile  
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Wed Feb 12, 2014 12:36 am

    Today's Update on betas

    12/2

    Nightwalkers: Drawn to the Woods BETA
    www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26098/nightwalkers-drawn-to-the-woods-survey/index.html

    Dreampath: The Two Kingdoms BETA
    www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26107/dreampath-the-two-kingdoms-survey/index.html

    I already have 2 previous beta links for Nightwalkers, both of which, from a quick glance could have used some work. So I guess this is the revamped version.
    sunshinej
    sunshinej


    Posts : 48
    Join date : 2014-02-07

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by sunshinej Thu Feb 13, 2014 4:34 am

    I d/l the F2P beta Archie: Riverdale Rescue and It must not be available to play yet, because
    when I tried it just said Sorry, this is just a place holder.

    Excited to see a beta to Bad Omen and even more excited to see it is coming out this month.  I saw the preview of it and it definitely caught my attention.
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Thu Feb 13, 2014 4:58 am

    Yes, Bad Omen has got everyone talking!! And holding their breath!

    The forum I get this from mentioned that those links seemed to work for some but not for others. So, I guess you're one of the 'others'. I'm sorry, I didn't see any solution to the problem, but I'll go check it out.

    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:09 am

    Sorry, they don't seem to have anything on that. And I tried another one that's just come out, and I couldn't even get a page of any description. Rolling Eyes 
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Limits Of Sanity: Paradise Island

    Post by JustTheFacts Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:12 am

    Limits Of Sanity (: Paradise Island)
    Collector’s Edition


    Release Date: 2014
    Developer: Blam!
    Interesting & Original Story****

    BASED ON BETA

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS
    Well, we don’t get too many stories where the asylum/hospital we are trying to escape is still functional, and everyone is still alive. So already my interest is piqued.. The opening is not especially dramatic but it looks and sounds good, so we are off to a good start.

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    The graphics are very good hand painted style, colourful, sun washed and clear. The cut scenes are handled very well, and the acting is very good. HOPs lean slightly more to the realism style, and that is also good.

    The narrator’s voice and the music both are strongly evocative of the 40s (and big bands), an era favoured by the ‘gumshoe’ private detective. The voiceovers are excellently acted, but there is no attempt at lip sync. There are some pleasant tropical island background sounds as well.

    WHAT’S HAPPENING?
    The game certainly feels like a whodunit. Your father returns from a ‘rest cure’, only to keel over into an irreversible coma after signing away all his assets to the health spa where he’d been staying. Something... shady is going on! And now you find out your sister has gone to the island herself to find out the truth. Time to put on our super brother cape and go to the rescue.

    Everything on the island that is the hospital’s grounds seems normal enough on the surface, until you spot your sister trying to escape, and the consequent shut-down of the entire island. Why was she running away, and why were they trying to force her to stay? Well, we’ll find out part of the answer the hard way, when we get inside the doctor’s office!

    GAMEPLAY
    The gameplay is fairly traditional. We have HOPs of the interactive list variety, but less of them than there are puzzles. And the puzzles are mixed. Some are simple enough, others are fiendishly interpreted versions of familiar puzzles, and one was truly evil. This last I suspect will be the signature puzzle of the game and turn up again. So it may be important to see if you can solve it, or are prepared to skip! There are achievements which you will be unable to get if you do.

    We carry with us an interesting assortment of junk, of the I-don’t-know-what-it’s-called era, where very old-fashioned technology is used. Superseded sci-fi, perhaps? Anyway, you know what I mean. We have a cassette tape player and later a video player that looks like an antique, ditto the handheld mobile-like gadget that we can read our notes on, and a radar map. All today’s technology as I imagine it would look like if it had been invented 50 – 60 years ago.

    The map flags places where you have something you can do, but you can toggle that off from the options menu. And you have 3 levels of difficulty. The hint is directional, and along with your gadgets, you also have a task list. You also get casual assistance from the only trustworthy creatures on the island – a lemur and a parrot. But they aren’t necessarily there for the duration.

    CE BLING!
    Beta edition, so little information here. Achievements, placed on a tropical beach and including both performance and story achievements. Collectible ‘island currency’ (35 x  paper money), don’t know if there will be somewhere to spend them, certainly not at the moment.

    COMBINED IMPACT
    I like this game. It is refreshingly bright and cheerful despite the subject matter, it has a general feeling of ‘newness’ to it. The gameplay is nothing we haven’t seen (except some of those nasty puzzles), but it is nevertheless different. I wouldn’t say it is going to win any awards, but we will gain RE-wards, by playing it.

    I recommend this game!

    Try It Here!
    sunshinej
    sunshinej


    Posts : 48
    Join date : 2014-02-07

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by sunshinej Thu Feb 13, 2014 12:08 pm

    JustTheFacts wrote:Yes, Bad Omen has got everyone talking!! And holding their breath!

    The forum I get this from mentioned that those links seemed to work for some but not for others. So, I guess you're one of the 'others'. I'm sorry, I didn't see any solution to the problem, but I'll go check it out.


    Thanks for doing the checking JustTheFacts.   Appreciated it. 
    Oh well, they're other betas out there to check out.  I see Shadow Wolf 4 has a beta.        Happy bounce
    tesamoine
    tesamoine


    Posts : 105
    Join date : 2014-02-10
    Age : 35
    Location : New Jersey USA

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by tesamoine Fri Feb 14, 2014 4:39 pm

    JustTheFacts wrote:Limits Of Sanity (: Paradise Island)
    Collector’s Edition


    Release Date: 2014
    Developer: Blam!
    Interesting & Original Story****

    BASED ON BETA

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS
    Well, we don’t get too many stories where the asylum/hospital we are trying to escape is still functional, and everyone is still alive. So already my interest is piqued.. The opening is not especially dramatic but it looks and sounds good, so we are off to a good start.

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    The graphics are very good hand painted style, colourful, sun washed and clear. The cut scenes are handled very well, and the acting is very good. HOPs lean slightly more to the realism style, and that is also good.

    The narrator’s voice and the music both are strongly evocative of the 40s (and big bands), an era favoured by the ‘gumshoe’ private detective. The voiceovers are excellently acted, but there is no attempt at lip sync. There are some pleasant tropical island background sounds as well.

    WHAT’S HAPPENING?
    The game certainly feels like a whodunit. Your father returns from a ‘rest cure’, only to keel over into an irreversible coma after signing away all his assets to the health spa where he’d been staying. Something... shady is going on! And now you find out your sister has gone to the island herself to find out the truth. Time to put on our super brother cape and go to the rescue.

    Everything on the island that is the hospital’s grounds seems normal enough on the surface, until you spot your sister trying to escape, and the consequent shut-down of the entire island. Why was she running away, and why were they trying to force her to stay? Well, we’ll find out part of the answer the hard way, when we get inside the doctor’s office!

    GAMEPLAY
    The gameplay is fairly traditional. We have HOPs of the interactive list variety, but less of them than there are puzzles. And the puzzles are mixed. Some are simple enough, others are fiendishly interpreted versions of familiar puzzles, and one was truly evil. This last I suspect will be the signature puzzle of the game and turn up again. So it may be important to see if you can solve it, or are prepared to skip! There are achievements which you will be unable to get if you do.

    We carry with us an interesting assortment of junk, of the I-don’t-know-what-it’s-called era, where very old-fashioned technology is used. Superseded sci-fi, perhaps? Anyway, you know what I mean. We have a cassette tape player and later a video player that looks like an antique, ditto the handheld mobile-like gadget that we can read our notes on, and a radar map. All today’s technology as I imagine it would look like if it had been invented 50 – 60 years ago.

    The map flags places where you have something you can do, but you can toggle that off from the options menu. And you have 3 levels of difficulty. The hint is directional, and along with your gadgets, you also have a task list. You also get casual assistance from the only trustworthy creatures on the island – a lemur and a parrot. But they aren’t necessarily there for the duration.

    CE BLING!
    Beta edition, so little information here. Achievements, placed on a tropical beach and including both performance and story achievements. Collectible ‘island currency’ (35 x  paper money), don’t know if there will be somewhere to spend them, certainly not at the moment.

    COMBINED IMPACT
    I like this game. It is refreshingly bright and cheerful despite the subject matter, it has a general feeling of ‘newness’ to it. The gameplay is nothing we haven’t seen (except some of those nasty puzzles), but it is nevertheless different. I wouldn’t say it is going to win any awards, but we will gain RE-wards, by playing it.

    I recommend this game!

    Try It Here!


    Tried this one, Loved it !!!!!   7 days to find sister, get rid of crazy doctor, get off the island.  Can't wait for it. 
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Sun Feb 16, 2014 1:00 am

    The latest Beta:

    14/2 Didn't even have to snitch this one! Came directly to me!  Smile 

    Dark Strokes: The Legend Of The Snow Kingdom Beta
    http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26094/dark-strokes-legend-snow-kingdom-survey/index.html
    djrum
    djrum


    Posts : 1073
    Join date : 2013-08-12
    Location : Ohio

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by djrum Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:32 am

    Another Dark Strokes?? Yay, can't wait!!
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Mon Feb 17, 2014 12:34 am

    I played it, will review it soon. Not feeling in the mood for reviews right now. It's a nice game, at least as good as the other one, but it is more a fantasy styled one. And bloody snowy again! I'm over snowy games, and I haven't even seen a single snowflake in my life, let alone gone through all the nasty winter stuff those in the northern hemisphere have!
    JustTheFacts
    JustTheFacts


    Posts : 5142
    Join date : 2013-09-01
    Age : 61
    Location : Western Australia

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by JustTheFacts Mon Feb 17, 2014 7:51 am

    Dark Strokes [2](:The Legend Of The Snow Kingdom)
    Collector’s Edition


    Release Date:  2014
    Developer: Alawar - Friday’s Games

    Not Like The Last Dark Strokes****

    BASED ON BETA


    FIRST IMPRESSIONS
    This game is not even remotely like the first Dark Strokes game. I am having a hard time imagining any excuse for releasing it under this series title. It is nevertheless a well-made and enjoyable game, which at least is that much it has in common with the first game. The opening is excellent; exciting, intriguing, and the graphics are fantastic. This is a somewhat dark fantasy, with enough of the unusual about it to make it stand out among lesser games.

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    The graphics are great. Clear and detailed, with strong colours and excellent artwork. It is fairly dark for much of the demo, perhaps a little too much so for some. The animated cut-scenes are a delight, and the little touches are fun. Clicking around at anything interesting provided me with lots of gratuitous fun, as owls turned their heads, butterflies flew away, and rabbits escaped down their holes. The story is told in many ways – shadow plays, scrolls, and mini-games, all of which adds variety to the visual experience.

    The sounds are turned up way too loud at first, and I felt assaulted by it before I could get to the options to turn it down. Even then, it is necessary to turn both the music and the effects tracks right down almost to mute to get it quiet enough to be comfortable. This a flaw I sincerely hope NOT to see in the final game when it is released. The voiceovers vary. The narrator’s voice is wonderful. I am of two minds about the heavy Southern US (?) accent of one of the other characters.

    WHAT’S HAPPENING?
    You are a forester who rescues a beautiful young maiden from a seriously scary attacker with unknown intent, but black magic at his finger tips. She stays with you, brightening your life, until a hot air balloon drops a gift on the porch. Upon opening, the package freezes absolutely everything in your cabin, and assaults your girl – I’ll leave you to find out the results of that. In any case, it is clear you must follow the balloon to the city to find out how to undo what has been done, and to discover the mystery of the young girl’s past.

    GAMEPLAY
    The gameplay is a little different than your standard HOPA. Although it is primarily puzzles and HOPs, both of them are unusual in style. The 3 HOPs in the demo are an interactive search for pieces of an item you must assemble, a multiples of (musical instruments), again interactive, and a more traditional interactive word list. The mini-games/puzzles are unusual too. They include more than one panorama-style game, each of a different nature, a game in which you must choose the right path, on the go, to avoid obstacles. Another is one where you choose the way, hoping to avoid unseen obstacles. Many involve small amounts of easy assembly or construction work. As well, items in inventory can be combined, or changed by extra clicks. Sometimes they have other items inside them.

    The hint is directional. The interactive jump map indications where actions are available, and you can choose from 3 difficulty levels. There is a shadow box that stays above hint and gives back story when the slides for it are found. And there are potions that stay with us and grant special powers.

    There is a helper, and it is cute, also very useful. As well, there is a fair amount of interaction with other animals along the way. I really had a hard time with the other 'help' we got from the girl we saved - her inane assistance was driving me batty! It all fits into this story, but seems strange to have so much cute in a Dark Strokes game. Many who enjoyed the first game will probably be very disappointed with this one.

    CE BLING!
    Achievements and collectibles – 12 scrolls, 35 dreadfully easy to see snowflakes, and 10 ‘magic’ (morphing) items found in the HOPs. The rest, not given in the beta.

    COMBINED IMPACT
    This is a fine game, and I really enjoyed playing it – for what it is. Which is a darkish fantasy game with some unusual touches. Linking it with the first Dark Strokes, though, seems almost like false advertising.

    I recommend this game!
    Frodo
    Frodo


    Posts : 1428
    Join date : 2013-08-12
    Age : 51
    Location : Scotland, UK

    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by Frodo Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:55 pm

    Brilliant review, JustTheFacts.  Thanks for taking the time to write it.   Smile

    Sponsored content


    Beta Thread - Page 3 Empty Re: Beta Thread

    Post by Sponsored content


      Current date/time is Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:48 pm