The Stroke of Midnight

The Stroke of Midnight
by Nikitova Games/Namco - January, 2011

Available at:  
Big Fish for PC and Mac
iWin as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
Gamehouse



With her deadline looming, a romance  author escapes to Eastern Europe with the hope that a trip to  Transylvania can provide the inspiration she needs to rewrite her latest  book. But soon her discovery of a Victorian-era love triangle provides  much more than a new storyline: it provides an entire novel’s worth!  Reunite the long lost lovers in the afterlife in The Stroke of Midnight, a fun Hidden Object game.

• Incredible gameplay
  
• Exciting storyline
  
• Reunite haunted lovers!
  
• Walkthrough
  
• Strategy Guide (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
   

The Stroke of Midnight (IHOG)

Options include separate sliders for SFX/Voice, Environment, and Music, plus an option for high quality FX.  Windowed mode isn't available with my desktop resolution

Based on friends' recommendations, I bought this game right after it came out... and just now have gotten around to playing it   Considering that the game is from January, 2011, I wasn't expecting much graphics-wise.  You can imagine my shock when I entered the game and saw how gorgeous they are!  If you place your cursor around the edges of the scene during the adventure portion, it will pan to the sides and up and down a bit.

Hidden object scenes are indicated by very light sparkles -- they look more like gently sparkling glitter.  There is no visible HINT button, but if you click on an item name on your list, light sparkles will appear around the item in the scene.  You can do this as often as you want, with no waiting.There is a rapid misclick penalty.  The last item you collect is the one that will end up in your inventory...

But wait!  There IS no inventory!  Every item that you pick up will be used immediately, and sparkles are incessant.  They're not huge, but the game reallllly wants you to notice them   On the plus side, once you "acknowledge" the area by clicking on it, it stops sparkling, and you just need to remember that you can do something there.

Oh, but no sparkles on items that need to be found during the adventure portion.  Did I not mention that, yet?   There are times when we have to search our surroundings for items, which we then use immediately.  No hint button during this part, but your cursor will turn into a hand when you mouse-over what you need to find.

There is a journal, and it "travels" with us.  We will first find it on the bedside table, then when we change rooms, it will be on another table.  Mirrors will give us instructions, and if we zoom in on the mirror and click on the writing, we get additional instructions.

Mini-games are skippable.  Watch for a candle to appear towards the bottom right side of the puzzle/game.

For me, the game is really all about immersing yourself in the interesting, beautiful graphics.  The pace is very slow, and while I enjoyed the time spent playing it, I can't seem to make myself go back in and finish it right now.

Worth checking out!

I remember doing the beta for this game and really disliking it. It SWOOSHED into and out of scenes with dizzying speed, and there was a puzzle that was (in the beta anyway) impossible to complete but there was no "skip" and no way to back out of it. So I had to end the beta right there.

I would hope that these issues got corrected or improved by the time the game was released but by then I had no interested in demo'ing it to find out.

I played this one back in 2011 shortly after it was released. I thought it astonishingly new and innovative with its camera-angle, move when I move, graphics. But it gave me a headache!  

So when I switched computers, I didn't bring it with me.