Awakening 1: The Dreamless Castle

Awakening: The Dreamless Castle
by Boomzap Entertainment - February, 2010

Series links: Awakening 1: The Dreamless Castle, Awakening 2: Moonfell Wood, Awakening 3: The Goblin Kingdom, Awakening 4: The Skyward Castle, Awakening 5: The Sunhook Spire, Awakening Kingdoms "Free-to-Play", Awakening 6: The Redleaf Forest, Awakening 7: The Golden Age

Available at:
Big Fish for PC and Mac
Steam



After Awakening in a mysterious castle it’s up to you to collect clues and valuable items needed to solve perplexing puzzles and escape! Listen to your fairy friend as she guides you towards the exit. Play fun minigames and solve clever locks to make it to the next room in the castle. Use your Hidden Object skills to search for the next hint and discover a young Princess’ destiny in Awakening: The Dreamless Castle.

• Gorgeous graphics
  
• Escape the castle!
  
• Blog Walkthrough
  
• Strategy Guide (Big Fish)
  

Delightful
    

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME
 
I am embarrassed to admit that all four times I’ve started this game I have had to resort to the walkthrough in the beginning. Later, the game seems to make more sense . After all, the story is simple enough, the problem is getting a handle on a different style of HOs.

There only a couple of HOs with lists, yet almost everything that needs doing means looking around in the location for the “10 map pieces” etc. And many of the items are quite difficult to find, and occasionally too small. There are by far many more puzzles, but without exception they are well within my amateur grasp.

The artwork is the real reason I like games in this series. The entire Awakening series are glorious visually. They’re just so darned pretty I could spend all day happily plodding along. Now I think about that’s pretty much what I’ve just done.J 

I recommend this game!

Awakening 1: The Dreamless Castle (IHOG)

Options include separate sliders for Music and Sound, Full-screen (black bars on the side) and Custom Cursor.

The first time I played this game was when it first came out, back in early 2010.  Although it feels a bit dated, it has not lost its charming quality.

Awakening: The Dreamless Castle's heroine wakes after a long slumber, with no memory of who she is or how she came to be alone in a beautiful castle.  It's not long before she is joined by a helpful fairy, and pieces of the story start to come together.

Gameplay is a delightful mixture of adventure, hidden object scenes, and "fragmented" objects.  As you click on things in the environment, you'll sometimes trigger these objects.  For instance, you might talk to someone, and when you finish, notice that there seem to be pieces of paper on the scene now.  Collect one, and it will tell you how many you need to find (ie. 1/10).  These aren't your typical fragmented objects because 1. They're not always fragmented, and 2. They happen during the adventure portion.

Your HINTS come from your fairy companion, and are refillable.  While she is very helpful during the HOS, during the adventure portion she will only show you an active area on the screen (no directional arrow.)

Puzzles are varied, but are often variations of the same theme, such as memory, pattern recognition, matching and "Goblinjong" (mahjong).  Puzzles can be SKIPPED once the meter fills, but I found them all to be very do-able, so didn't try skipping any.

The early part of the game is incredibly easy.  Puzzle solutions were nearby, and always noted in our journal.  Thankfully, things got more interesting as I progressed.

There is no map or fast-travel, but there was really no reason to add them, as you'll work in small areas of about 3 scenes before progressing to a new area, and only once will you need to really backtrack.

The story concludes in a comfortable place, nicely setting us up for the second game in the series.  Once you've finished the main storyline, you'll unlock the Goblinjong button on the main screen.  Here you will find 25 mahjong layouts, and each one you complete will give you snippets of the lore for this world where the game takes place.  I really enjoyed learning these little things about the inhabitants, and about our character, herself.

Awakening: The Dreamless Castle is a dated, but charming IHOG mixture, which takes about 2.5 hours to complete.  It's light and bright, and except for one sad, drunken goblin, a journey of discovery that the whole family could enjoy.  Recommended!