Kate Arrow: Deserted Wood

Kate Arrow: Deserted Wood
by: Mariaglorum

Available at:
Big Fish for PC and Mac
Iwin




Return a valuable idol to a tribe in Kate Arrow Deserted Wood!
Help Kate travel deep into the jungle and find her grandfather in this
fun Hidden Object game. Pack your bags and use your wits to avoid
dangerous situations, and make it through a plane crash! Track down your
grandfather and deliver the powerful idol that he has promised to the
tribe that saved his life many years ago. Set off on adventure in Kate
Arrow Deserted Wood!

• Gorgeous graphics
  
• Wonderful gameplay
  
• Return the idol!
  

Click images to enlarge

Kate Arrow: Deserted Wood

This is an odd game. I had high hopes when it started out. Very little story, followed by adventure-esque tasks out somewhere in the wilderness. It actually reminds me a bit of Green Moon at the beginning. Once you finish the task, you do a flashback and are in the city doing semi-mundane tasks like you might see in any game. We went from adventure with nice graphics to messy HOG (though not junkpile - the hidden object scenes look like parts of a messy house), back to adventure, and back to HOG. Very interesting, I'm 15 minutes in and I'm not sure what's going on There's a lot of the adventure "what am I supposed to be doing" wandering around, which I actually like, as you still have an easy-to-find hidden list to tell you what you're supposed to be doing.

*Playing some more...*

And back~

The hints don't refill quickly, but they're not terribly slow, either. The nice thing is that if you're stuck and your hint meter isn't full yet, you can wander around and do other things until it fills back up.

There is no random-click penalty. Music is repetitive, but not annoying. Finding hidden objects is challenging without being frustrating.

This game is more adventure than HOG, so expect some frustrating moments whilst you try to figure out what to do

It took me 40 minutes to get to chapter two, and I might have finished half of ch.2 during my remaining demo time.

The choice of starting you out in the wilderness was brilliant. I wouldn't have given the game more than a few minutes' worth of my time if it had just started out in the woman's house, but as it is, I want to see what happens next. That tantalizing glimpse of what's to come is enough to make me want to keep playing. :thumb:

Nice Middle Of The Road HOG
  

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

When you take into account the year this was released (2010), this game is quite extraordinary, but by today’s standards, it is merely middle of the road. The photorealistic graphics are well done, music and sound are both nice, but there are no voiceovers. There is however a couple of excellent and exciting cut scenes.

The many HO scenes are static, no animation. The objects are clear and identifiable, but sometimes small, and also often almost hidden completely by other objects. There is no interactivity. The HOPs are simple lists, visited 3 times spread out over the game, and some “multiples of” type.

The gameplay also includes some puzzles/mini games, some of which were delightfully original. There is a goals list, which pops up annoyingly when achieve a goal or add a new one. Finding out what needs doing and doing it are generally not too difficult. The hint is only useful in HOs, since it will only tell you if there are no tasks to perform in that location, but there were only a couple of times I would have liked a better hint, and at no time did I get tempted to look up the walkthrough. There is no need for a map – the game is broken into 5 chapters, each with a few locations, and they are closed off from other chapters.

The story is okay. Kate’s grandpa needs help getting a tribal idol to its rightful possessors and you head off to help. The usual accidents and obstacles ensue. The game starts off a bit slowly and uneventful, while Kate prepares to leave for the journey, but once she reaches the jungle, the adventure really starts.

Today, all this is old hat – a dated gameplay with unfashionable graphics and limited excitement. But it is a nice game. As a Daily Deal, I was quite happy.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS
The only thing I really object to in this game is the title – there is not a blooming wood, deserted or otherwise, in it. Kate does all her investigating in a lightly populated jungle!

I recommend this game!