Dangerous Games 1: Prisoners of Destiny

Dangerous Games: Prisoners of Destiny
by Blam! Games - January, 2014

Series links:  Dangerous Games 1: Prisoners of Destiny, Dangerous Games 2: Illusionist

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition



Escape from a beautiful and deadly world in Dangerous Games: Prisoners of Destiny! You left the big city to start a new life in Brownville, Louisiana, where your friends Ben and Louise have lined up a job for you. Your new boss, Simon, seems like a friendly enough guy –he even suggests the four of you play a nice game of cards when you arrive. But it turns out that this is no ordinary game… The second you set a card down on the table, you find yourself in a strange world. As you explore your surroundings, it starts to sink in – you and your friends have become living pieces in someone's deadly game. Can you survive to the end? Find out in this gorgeous Hidden Object Adventure game!

The Collector's Edition includes:

• A bonus adventure that reveals the true nature of the game!
  
• Replayable mini-games and a bonus puzzle game
  
• Gorgeous wallpapers and concept art
  
• An available Strategy Guide
  

For the Standard Edition

• Strategy Guide
  
• Walkthrough (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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Developer:  Blam!

Entirely New Story!
 
   

BASED ON DEMO

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
This one gets 5 stars just for the story, because it is something completely new and different, and reflects a truly active imagination. But full marks are justified for other reasons as well.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The graphics are high class, fantasy-styled, a little cartoonish, and perhaps a little too water-colour for me, but definitely beautiful and easy on the eye. The cut scenes are marvellous, especially once you are into the game proper. The voiceovers are good, spoiled a bit by an attempt at lip synch that doesn’t come off. I still think it’s better not to try unless you can do it right. The music is excellent, pleasant with a sometimes Aztec sound to it. The game also has Aztec imagery throughout, but the interface leans towards dreamcatchers.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
Your friend invites you to join him and his wife in the town they have settled in, where there is plenty of work and opportunities for a young man like yourself. Turns out he is not doing you a favour, but I am not sure he knew that when he sent the invite. Simon, the new ‘big man around town’ who is offering these opportunities asks you to play a game of cards with him before you’ve even washed the dust off the road down your throat.

That is where the story really begins. You find yourself trapped in a magical world of the cards, and the only way to escape is to survive the game. But Simon has been ‘turned’ by the game, and he no longer plays fair. It is almost impossible to hope to survive. Every object in the game can and usually is turned against you. Still, if you ‘play your (magical) cards right)’ *groan*, you might make it.

GAMEPLAY
Whilst you will find HOPs and other puzzles and mini-games which are fairly standard, there are different types of gameplay to match the different story. You acquire magic cards that can perform certain spells, such as an ice card. To move up levels in the game, you must also find teleportation cards. All cards must be activated by a particular process.

For the rest, the HOPs have the usual number of interactive items to be found, but some of the interactions are much more involved. The puzzles and games are not overly difficult, and other game mechanics are the expected. You have a journal, an interactive map that jumps (within that world), and a helper. Yes, I’m sorry, the magical animal is indeed cute, in a wonky sort of way, and climbs and digs. It redeems itself, however, by also being very funny. I love the video where it slides down the waterslide, and tumbles down to where you are waiting.

CE BLING!
There are collectibles. There are 30 plain looking jigsaw puzzle pieces and seem to relate to the “secret game”  in the extra content. There are also achievements, displayed in a casino-style environment. The SG is well written. There are replayable mini-games, the Secret Game (which looks like a jigsaw), and the usual gallery items. 9 wallpapers, 14 concept art drawings and sketches (very good in their own right), 7 music tracks, videos. And of course the bonus chapter.

VERDICT
An excellent game, in  which I am very happy to see a totally new story for the first time in... well, forever!

I Recommend This Game!

Hmm, sounds interesting...kind of reminiscent of Jumanji (remember that film?). I'll demo it this weekend; thanks JTF.

I've demo'd Dangerous Games (partly) and I'm usually a huge fan of Blam! Games. This one just didn't Wow me.
Maybe I wasn't in the right mood. I still have some demo time left, I'll try again.

dj--Once again we are of one mind.   I thought it was because I had just finished playing
Dracula:  The Blood Legend and just could not go back to IHOP,   but this did nothing
for me.    Whereas Alex the Mind Hunter is keeping my interest.

Like you,  maybe later.

Still enjoy reading your reviews,   JTF

Deleted

Just a small hint re. the game's name (also for Dev.list): It's "Dangerous Games: Prisoners of Destiny" (not Fate).

Ooooops! That was my fault!! Will fix it now!

Thanks, DD   I really need to pay more attention!

Welcome.   

I agree with JTF's positive impression, btw. I just finished the game and it kept being interesting. I played on easy, as usual, and loved the custom option for that. I also like colo(u)rs and more puzzles than HOS.
I'm not a fan of cute helpers, but this one was bearable IMO, esp. as it stays in my INV and is not the hint (which is also a good one, showing overlooked items and directions, not telling me to use items I haven't even seen yet). 
I can't/don't compare to other games (of this Dev), cos I always forget who made what.   

The main game has a proper ending. The bonus chapter took me about 1 and a half hour; it adds new locations and even has one HOS with a new zoom-in scene. Also, it didn't have more HOS than the main game suddenly.

The secret puzzle in Extras is indeed a jigsaw and can be built during the game already by the puzzle pieces we find. I missed one at the beginning, sigh, and couldn't go back when I noticed it (when I started to check the SG-chapter, that is <g> ). Not the end of the world, as it is really just that: one jigsaw puzzle picture.
I also didn't get all achievements, but that wasn't due to this only, as one of them was "no skipped puzzle", lol, no way (tower of Hanoi in a rather cumbersome manner, for example). 

All in all, not a WOW-game, but a good one.