Phenomenon 2: Meteorite

Phenomenon: Meteorite
by Puzzle Labs - March, 2013

Series links: Phenomenon 1: City of Cyan, Phenomenon 2: Meteorite, Phenomenon 3: Outcome


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




Discover the extraordinary truth about your family’s past in Phenomenon: Meteorite! Twenty years ago, your parents left you on the doorstep of a kind family and fled for their lives into the pouring rain. Now you’ve been given a clue to their whereabouts – an uncharted island, where a strange meteorite landed centuries ago. What secrets does the island hold about you and your family? Find out in this stunning Hidden Object Adventure game!

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Bonus adventure on gorgeous Meteorite Island!
  
• Beautiful wallpapers and concept art
  
• Replayable word-association mini-game
  
• Integrated Strategy Guide
  

For the Standard Edition:

• Walkthrough
  
• Strategy Guide (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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Great Game, Greater Disappointment ****

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

Having recently rediscovered the first Phenomenon, City Of Cyan, I was totally hyped about this one. And the demo gave me cause to feel totally confident that I’d love it.

There is the expected beautiful graphics, fine music, and quality production values. Did you see those amazing eyes?

There are HOs with time travel portals that take you to the same scenes, but in a different time, with a new set of items. (This was cool when these ‘time spots’ triggered memories relevant to the story. Here, they are apropos of nothing.)

You also have  an alternative to HOs that is new and most welcome. A cross between word association and scrabble, this game makes that last stubborn item all the more fun to find. What other puzzles there are, are fresh and easy. An overall adventure emphasis makes it what I like to call an inventory oriented game. Your time is spent finding, earning and using inventory items.

But the most exciting thing of all for me was a truly interesting story. Not the find-my-parents part that never got past the first few minutes, but the story as Gloria (another lovable reason to like this game) tells it. Four feuding religious orders founded at the time of a meteorite strike are all out to get you, the offspring of a ‘mixed marriage’.  Here’s a little socio-political stuff to run with, I thought.

But that’s IT!! Nothing, nothing, the WHOLE game , not a single action that has anything to do with this story. What we do instead is collect gems for our amulet which allegedly means we have increasing power over the elements, although there was no sign that we did. We certainly never used such power.  It broke my heart . Insult to injury – the ending was totally unconvincing and irrelevant even to this sorry tale. And very abrupt.

It’s still an excellent game in terms of artwork and gameplay, so I must recommend it, but I’ll never be able to love it myself.

Bonus Content Review****

BONUS GAME 1
The extension of the main game is equally as confused in terms of plot. At first we seem to be back to searching for our parents, but within minutes we are back to simply pressing forward, no particular goal in sight. The bonus time was reasonable, and the gameplay was on a par with the rest, that is, good but directionless. The story was clarified just enough to keep you guessing about a sequel.

BONUS GAME 2
The second bonus game is 8 sets of paired HOs from  the main game, which you play just as you did in there, but with 3 collectibles (meteorite artifacts) in each pair. The artifacts are basically sculptures or figures relating to the story. I’ve not tried it myself, but I suspect you could identify a few of these on the pages of the island history in the journal, which shows the island’s “art”.

BONUS GAME 3
The third bonus is the word association game. You have a choice of 50 games of one word each. There is a sketch, and a group of letters, and it is up to you to create the correct word.

STRATEGY GUIDE is available both from the main menu and within the game. There is also CONCEPT ART, WALLPAPERS, and MUSIC.

I think all the bonuses are pretty good, but I also think you could enjoy the SE version just as much. My only hesitation there is that tiny bit of a clue about the story that is only available in the bonus game. But I’m in it mostly for the story, and this item may not be so important as to warrant the CE price.

Nevertheless, despite my criticisms ...

I recommend this game!