Beta Thread

Silent Nights 2: Children’s Orchestra

Release Date:  2014
Developer: Dark Blue Games

Good Music Oriented Game****

BASED ON BETA

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Excellent intro with brilliant music I loved immediately. Not the children’s orchestra – the intro music. Great vid of the concert hall on fire, and the crowd panicking. Exceptional!

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
Graphics are fine. Nothing truly exciting, but nothing you could object to. The music is great, the voices good, and ambient noise is everywhere and again nicely atmospheric. In fact, though you couldn’t really call it a creepy game, it does have a touch of the D&E.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
You are an extremely gifted singer of the operatic kind, and you have two somewhat mysterious daughters, both of whom are, still school age, virtuosos in their instruments. You are watching them perform with the Children’s Orchestra when a fire breaks out. While you are trying to get to the stage through the fire, smoke and panicked people, a masked man leads your daughters away via a back exit.

When you finally get to where they exited, they are across an alley in another building. You go immediately into the Head mistress of the music school’s office, and find her comatose on the floor. Revived she assures you she’ll call the police, and shoos you off to find the children. But over the course of several meetings, you must conclude there is something off about her behaviour, but what?

Meantime, masked man has taken the girls to a mansion-like building, and is conducting some form of electro-chemical process on the kids. We know, from secret files we’ve decoded, that what he is doing is draining the children of all their musical talent, using it to create a massive healing power – to what end we don’t know. But you do know you will stop at nothing to get them outa there! And, just when you think it can’t get any worse, a familiar cloaked and hooded figure from the first Silent Nights game shows up!

GAMEPLAY
I like that this game uses slightly different objects to solve problems. It’s not new, but it is still not the norm. Like a coin as a screwdriver, and tuning forks for a wrench. I can’t say the puzzles impressed upon me much of any kind of reaction. I had to go back into the game and play awhile to remember them. They were all reasonably easy, but I had to skip a couple.

Nice variety on the HOPs. There are interactive word lists, progressive silhouettes with mini-puzzles inside as well, and misplaced items. Again, nothing too difficult. The adventure part of the game does have a way of sending you back and forth, and there are already quite a number of locations and things to be done. The interactive jump map gives you active objectives, you have a directional hint, and a task list. There is no journal.

There are a couple of innovative game play tools. We gain a music transcriber, with which we can write down the notes we hear in the environment. These notes will be needed to open various caches around the place. We need a new piece of blank music paper for each tune. As well, the masked man dropped a folio of files. These are encrypted, but can be decoded with special decryption figurines you find as you progress. These are 5 sets of different dragon figurines, with 3 or so in each set. Once a set is complete, you can open the file for useful backstory.

CE BLING!
Nothing except achievements (24), performance based, but with ones like “finish the villager puzzle in less than 3 minutes”. And the various decryption figures, that are part of the game proper.

COMBINED IMPACT
All up, a solid game, with just enough different about it to make it an excellent stand alone SE.

I recommend this game!

Try it here!

Great Review !!!!!  TY       I don't remember Silent Nights I.   I shall have to go back and see if I tried it or not.  As always, ty for your great reviews and the betas.   

Rites Of Passage 3: Hide & Seek
Collector’s Edition

Release Date:  2014
Developer: Mad Head Games

Another Top Ten Game!*****

BASED ON BETA

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The 2nd Rites Of Passage game, “Child of the Forest” is on my top 10 ever list, and this one will be joining it, if this trial is a good guide. Once again, the developers have astonished me with more imaginative variations on both HOPs and mini-games. Add breathtaking art and an instantly involving story, and wow!

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The intro scenes, both before and after the menu page, are excellently put together, and are immediately intriguing. The art is beautiful in every way, the acting is very good, the ambient sounds exceptional. The music is perfect, especially a delightfully delicate piano and wind instruments tune. In truth, it is difficult to describe how well these elements combine for such a charming atmosphere, not totally dark and scary, but foreboding and just a little eerie.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
Right from the beginning, there are unexpected twists in this story. Twenty years ago, playing hide and seek as a child, you were tricked into reading a curse and the entire group of children with you disappeared! Including your little brother. Your Dad was lost in the fog, presumed dead, trying to find him. You and your mother moved away and started a new life. Now, your mother has died, and you discover that your father is alive and still searching for your brother. Of course, you must go find him, even though it is clear, this whole fiction about him being dead is to keep you away from your old town.

Our home town, when we arrive, is in the grip of a strange dark fog, which torments the townspeople and leaves peculiar patches of ice where it’s been. We find our father after a bit of toing and froing, only to have him ripped from our grasp by a collapsing wall. I love that the ensuing combined HOP and mini-games so much resemble searching through rubble. Wonderful idea!

GAMEPLAY
Again, using new puzzles and processes, combining the known with the very original, these developers create a wholly different style of HOP. They involve, variously, interactive word lists, matching pairs, mini-puzzles, coin slots, inventory + items and much more. The mini-games are various, again, many originals, and most were not too difficult for me. They are nicely imbedded in the game. There is an interactive jump map, showing active areas, although you have to work out for yourself what the symbols are for.

You also have a choice of responses in some of the interactions with other characters, and your choices affect your “karma”, and therefore the results of certain actions and the conclusion of the game. You can check on your karmic health in the journal. It also contains the story, codes etc., achievements and a game timer. There is also a task list. Hint is directional. There are 3 difficulty levels, and a customization option.

There are some special skills you can use as you progress. There is a scar on your hand from childhood, and now it starts glowing. You soon come to realise that you can use it to melt the strange ice left by the fog. Later, you can also use it to translate clues in an ancient spirit language. I don’t know if there’ll be others. The back story is told in different ways, for instance with a picture story-like puzzle that has you correctly placing misplaced objects. We have, at least temporarily, a cute and very cuddly companion, who brings surprising skills to the investigation.

CE BLING!
Achievements for just about everything it seemed. I felt I got a lot of them, both story and performance. There are collectible hand prints, with an indicator in each location.

COMBINED IMPACT
I loved it! These developers remind me, every time I release a game, that not all my favourite developers have names starting with E. It’s an absolute must!

I recommend this game!

Try It Here!

Ominous Objects: Family Portrait
Collector’s Edition

Release Date: 2014
Developer: Daily Magic

Deadly Paintings****

BASED ON BETA

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
From the makers of Dark Dimensions comes a nicely dark magical painting game. Not to be confused with the other game I recently reviewed, Haunted Manor 3: Painted Beauty. It is another fine example of how a fertile imagination and artistic talent can create gems for our entertainment.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The excellent intro features clear and lifelike cut scenes with a narrative voiceover that sounds just perfect for the part, even if the intonation is a bit odd at times. I can forgive anything, though, in a character that uses irony! The locations are gorgeous, a huge castle filled with glorious colourful objects and lavish furnishings. The mix of light tinkling music and subtle ambient sound is so sweet, it lulls you. But don’t get too comfortable, there is evil afoot and as is so often the case, it’s noisy! No attempt has been made to lip synch, the characters remain still. The voiceover does some responses to certain actions.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
You arrive home after months abroad to find your family in direst emergency. Your wife explains that 3 of your 4 children have just suddenly disappeared, and your oldest girl has locked herself in her room and won’t come out. Suddenly, a ferocious Doberman, pictured in the painting nearby, materialises and threatens your wife. It will take a little deduction to find out how to deal with him, and with the other dangerous creatures that seem to spring out at every turn.

Eventually your daughter tells you what happened. They were in the library and the younger daughter wanted a new book to read. Reaching up for one activated a secret passage behind the bookcase. There they saw a portrait of a stern-faced man, and as they looked, he became dark scary smoke, that wrapped itself around the children and drew them into the portrait.

The ghostly presence must be that of the original owner, a skilful artist from centuries past, who when painting his family portrait lost his whole family into it. He was tried for their murders and burned at the stake! Is it he whose malevolent presence has taken off with our children, and is setting the paintings’ inhabitants upon us?

GAMEPLAY
Another excellent game of varied gameplay. The HOPs are mixed, a mini-puzzle in an interactive word list, where the final object must be pieced together from the fragments exposed when you take away the items on the list. Others include misplaced items and progressive silhouettes. One, at least, is visited twice.

Other puzzles are somewhat more familiar, but nicely done and well integrated. There is a variety of difficulty amongst them. The adventure side is even more than usually sensible, and there is not too much to and fro. Three levels of difficulty. A teleporting hint, and an interactive jump map. There is no journal, just a task list, and our achievements, and our pet’s playroom. Yes, there is a cute companion, a fluffy cat who is most helpful, and for whom we can purchase stuff.

CE BLING!
The cat has many items of furniture and entertainment that you can purchase with the coins you find as you play. I detected no other collectibles. The achievements cover both performance and story.

COMBINED IMPACT
Well, I love a good magic painting game, and this one is fine. Not a world-beater, but lovely graphics for spectacular locations, interesting HOPs, and an engaging story, and I’m a push over.


I recommend this game!

Try it here!

Shadow Wolf Mysteries 4: Under The Crimson Moon
Collector’s Edition

Release Date:  2014
Developer: ERS Games

Good Solid Addition To A Solid Series****

BASED ON BETA

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Excellent start. The cut scene animations are great. The pace exciting, and the mood much darker than the previous Shadow Wolf games.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The early video clips are really something special, using both 2D and 3D art to create realistically savage wolves, who then bow down to an even more terrifying werewolf designed to give you nightmares. I’m impressed. The fire wolves are beautiful, but this is no sweet little ‘rabbit’ game. The music fits in well with the scenes, but I do hear a hint of the old ERS tunes sneaking back in. Don’t do it guys! The voices are well done and intonation is excellent. The screams and howls and other ambient sounds from dogs and cats and nasty old owls are all good too.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
A detective who by now must be the most experienced wolf investigator ever, you are called in on another case involving wolves and suspected werewolves. The issue doesn’t stay cloudy for long. On arrival, you are greeted by above mentioned savage wolves, who immediately cower and slink away when a huge werewolf appears on the roof. There are many threatening creatures around you, more dark than most ERS games, but I like that there are moments where the game simply laughs at its dire pretensions.

The story is a little confusing. At the moment, I seem to be suspecting everyone of being a werewolf, and all of them as victims. You are definitely going to need those detective skills of yours to solve this case. Luckily, you’ve brought the latest in cutting edge technology (1897-style) with you to field test it.

GAMEPLAY
What are you testing? An analyser that identifies unknown substances. When you receive some unknown ‘stuff’ into inventory, open the analyser and put the muck in it. Ask a few simple if stupid questions about the substance, and get your answer. You’ll then discover that is exactly what you needed most!

There is another new technique we use in this case. On greeting each new character, we keenly observe them using our magnifier, and find pieces of evidence – blood-stains on clothes, missing jewellery items, etc. While we are doing this, the character is held in stasis in sepia tones – I guess that symbolises time standing still.

The puzzle component seems to be more HOPs than others, and they are of several sorts. There are find multiple related items (such as metal), progressive silhouettes and replace items. You visit them twice each. As an alternative you can play a matching game which resembles mahjong but is actually a style of game I’ve never seen before. Personally, I found it a bit fiddly and preferred the HOP.

Adventure side is fairly straightforward, I had no real use for the directional hint, although I did use the interactive jump map a few times as a kick starter for my brain. You have a notebook that holds story notes and details of your investigation. There are 3 modes of difficulty. No black bar tips in the hardest. Some of the puzzles have a casual/harder toggle for them. I saw nothing outrageously different, but not boring either.

CE BLING!
The collectibles are simply pieces of evidence – a torn page, a posy of herbal flowers – that take up residence in a nicely displayed section. Each relates to werewolves folklore, and there is info given on it. The achievements are fun. They are the standard, but you have to crack open the rocking shield in front of those you’ve won, discover the figurine underneath, and then look up the creature in the bestiary (book with a paw print on it), where you get a description of its supposed character, strengths and weaknesses.

COMBINED IMPACT
I enjoyed it. Will certainly buy it. But I’m not over the moon (groan). And I find the way certan concepts seem to coalesce in the minds of a few developers at the same time weird. I’ve just finished a review of an ERS game, Dead Reckoning, which uses almost the same technique of collecting ‘evidence’ from the person under suspicion. How the heck does that happen?

I recommend this game!

Try it here!

7/5
Shiver 4 has changed its name. God, I wish they would stop doing that! How's a girl to keep track?!

Shiver 4: The Lily's Requiem BETA#2

Haunted Camp: Evil Games

Release Date:  2014
Developer: Top Evidence Studios

Couldn’t Get Into It***

BASED ON BETA

IN BRIEF
Very much an old-school interactive HOG, with the kind of gameplay that goes with it, and nothing exceptional about it. And although it is fairly gruesome and even scary, it never quite draws you into the story.

The cut scene graphics are only okay, but the locations and HOPs are delightfully detailed, and are probably the best thing about this game. I didn’t much like the music, but there was a piano track that I liked. There are good atmospheric screams etc., plenty of those!

The story is okay, but old. We drop our son off at camp and then ring a week later to get only a frightened child begging for help. When you get there, the ideal summer camp has somehow disintegrated into ramshackle derelict shambles, with tortured dolls everywhere. It is pretty creepy actually. Soon becomes clear that there are tormented child ghosts, and one extremely cruel and frighteningly powerful little boy ghost, who is behind all the spooky happenings. Finding your son will not be easy.

Gameplay is mostly older styled HOPs, with interactive word lists, very little animation and some small objects. The puzzles are not new or particularly difficult and not many of them. The adventure, as I said, didn’t flow for me, so I ended up travelling by the directional hint. There is a jump map, but it does not show you active tasks. No gadgets. Notebook has story but not really anything useful.

Maybe it’s just that we don’t do the summer camp thing in Australia, and therefore I’ve nothing to relate it to – but even as I’m typing it, I know it’s not that. This game just doesn’t have anything to get excited about.

I probably would buy it as a Daily Deal. Probably.

I don’t really recommend this game!

PS. It's a bit glitchy.

Try It Here!

Forgotten Kingdoms: Dream Of Ruin
Collector’s Edition

Release Date:  2014
Developer: Vast

Honestly New Story! ****

BASED ON BETA

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
There are a couple of technical issues with this beta version, so you will (I think) not be able to finish it completely, but it is very close to the end when the glitch occurs. Why bother then? Well, there’s dragons! And their cute little hatchlings! And flying tigers!

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
Nicely done graphics, not brilliant, but of sufficient quality. The artwork is nice, very colourful. Didn’t notice music or ambient sounds. Voices are good.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
New and different story! The prince of one kingdom wants to marry his beloved, the princess of the neighbouring kingdom. She wants to marry him as well, but she is frightened that her nightmares, in which she marries him and the kingdoms are destroyed and her mother killed, might be prophetic. So, tearfully, she tears up the scroll you, as Ambassador, have brought.

The minute she does, a magical set of evil looking chains envelop her and she falls to the ground. The healer says the chains are sucking the life out of her and she has only a couple of days to live. The queen, heartbroken and enraged, blames you and casts a spell binding your life to hers. You now have the most urgent of motivations to find a cure. So off you go on the royal flying tiger, to the realm of the dragons, to consult them about a cure.

GAMEPLAY
There is only a couple of interactive list HOPs in the beta, and a few light puzzles. The puzzles are not too easy, and do require the use of some brain cells (so I skipped them    ). At least one is a layered puzzle, where one simple puzzle opens up to a different sort of puzzle and again another after that.

3 levels of difficulty. Directional hint. Journal has objectives and clues. Map is interactive jump map. But different from the norm. Each location has a few subordinate locations within it, and you can jump freely between them. If you wish to return to the palace, for example, you must fly your tiger there. I love the tiger.

There is a special gauntlet you pick up about 30 mins into the game. It gives you 4 magic skills, based on the elements. The first and only one in the beta is fire. And we find all sorts of strange uses for it.

CE BLING!
There is a lot of achievements of all sort, accessible in the options menu. There are 25 (5x5) collectible character cards. These are displayed in the “Great Hall” in the main menu. The hall consists of stained glass windows with portraits of each of the 5 main characters. There is also information on them in a book. The character cards are needed to complete both.

COMBINED IMPACT
When finished, I think this will be a nice game. Problem is, even I am over cute fantasy games now and wish for something a little more centred on reality. And it’s a shame that is so, because this game deserves better than my jaded response. A new story of any sort is so rare, the developers should get an award!

I recommend this game! (When it's finished)

Try It Here!

Today's new betas:

Witches Legacy 4: The Ties that Bind

Two more are expected to be available in the next couple of days:

Weird Park 3: The Final Show

Dreamscapes 2: Nightmare's Heir

Ooooh !!!!!  All 3 of these sound good.  Thank you.  I will have to try them out.  Odd, but I haven't played any of the Weird Tales.      I just realized this.  Hope everyone is having a great day/night

Finished beta for Forgotten Kingdom, and LOVED it!  Especially the dragons!!!    

Loved all the water flowing in the kingdom.  And that throne!  I wouldn't mind a throne like that!    

I wasn't able to open the chest in the Healer's room though.  It had ice on top, and I couldn't get through the ice.  Is that the technical issue you were meaning, Justie?   

No, frodo, the technical prob I had was getting the last piece of the dragon grating over the portal to leave the dragon world and go to the temple... I couldn't click on the only spot it could be (according to hint). Where the mirror flower was.

I don't think I got to unfreeze the iced up chest in the beta...

Glad you loved it! I hope by the time they release it I'll be back in a fantasy state of mind lol

Oh, I didn't have a problem with opening the portal, and going to the temple.    

I found the hints were a bit deceptive though.  They sometimes indicated a task to be done on a screen, even when you COULDN'T complete that task yet - you had to go away to other screens, and finish things there, then come back and try again.    


Hope you enjoy it, when it's finally released.  Thanks for the heads-up about it.    


BTW, those baby dragons were so CUTE!   

I loved them too! They're not all good and gooey like my little pinky, but that's their charm. They are mini-fierce-&-scary dragons, but helpless and, I hope, harmless.

15/5
Big Fish is following a new procedure with their betas from now on, it seems. We will get the link to the beta survey before it is ready to go out, and will get only a "placeholder" message until it is ready. Don't ask me why?!  Maybe just to annoy me?  What? NO, of course I don't take things personally.     

And one of these is a doozy! We'll all be holding our breath! New marketing strategy?


Weird Park 3: The Final Show
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26847/weird-park-the-final-show-survey/index.html

Dreamscapes 2: Nightmare's Heir
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26848/dreamscapes-nightmares-heir-survey/index.html

Mystery Trackers 7: Blackrow's Secret
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26851/mystery-trackers-blackrows-secret-survey/index.html

Maestro 4: Dark Talent [/url]
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26860/maestro-dark-talent-survey/index.html

19/5
More placeholders

Maestro 4: Dark Talent
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26860/maestro-dark-talent-survey/index.html

And can you believe this! I am so over the PuppetShow series! Always thought their first and the last were the best anyway!

Puppet Show 6: Steam Heart
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26865/puppetshow-steam-heart-survey/index.html

And some now available.

15/5
Big Fish is following a new procedure with their betas from now on, it seems. We will get the link to the beta survey before it is ready to go out, and will get only a "placeholder" message until it is ready. Don't ask me why?!  Maybe just to annoy me?  What? NO, of course I don't take things personally.     

And one of these is a doozy! We'll all be holding our breath! New marketing strategy?

Weird Park 3: The Final Show Now Available
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26847/weird-park-the-final-show-survey/index.html

Dreamscapes 2: Nightmare's Heir
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26848/dreamscapes-nightmares-heir-survey/index.html

Mystery Trackers 7: Blackrow's Secret  Now Available
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26851/mystery-trackers-blackrows-secret-survey/index.html

Maestro 4: Dark Talent
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26860/maestro-dark-talent-survey/index.html

A new Puppetshow game?
 
YES!  YES!!  YES!!!            
 
 
LOVE the Puppetshow games!   




Oooohhh, they should hurry up and put the download link   

Got an invite for the new Mystery Trackers today. Still haven't played the witch one yet. I swear it's feast or famine with these things!!!

A Weird Park 3? Yipee!!!  I am a sucker for the Weird Park games, love 'em!  

Thought this might interest you in particular Kate:


Beta for Fishdom Depths of Time

All you need to do to beta test Fishdom: Depths of Time is to:
Download the game from:
http://files.playrix.com/games/beta/fishdom-depths-of-time.exe
Install it on your PC

Play the game (and have tons of fun!)

Once the play time is over, fill out the feedback form and forward the game log file located at "My Documents > Playrix Entertainment > Fishdom Depths of Time > log.zip" to us.

The data included in this file is strictly related to the game and does not contain any confidential or proprietary information.

10 survey responses considered most useful get free game upon release.

Newest links:

Queens Quest: Tower of Darkness
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26881/queens-quest-tower-of-darkness-survey/index.html

Fierce Tales 3: Feline Sight
www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26884/fierce-tales-feline-sight-survey/index.html

Hmmm! A cat game! Cool!

All placeholders should be accessible now!

Happy testing!

Sounds promising D&E Fans!

Taken Souls: Blood Ritual (Beta Placeholder)

www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/26920/taken-souls-blood-ritual-survey/index.html

What is a Placeholder?

silly new concept.

Now they allocate the webpage for the beta before they are actually ready to put it up. I guess it's administratively efficient, would save confusion with delays etc.

But why they should release the info I don't know - unless of course they don't. And there's some sad individual out there who goes through each numbered page and records what's going to be on it.

Actually, maybe there is. Sheeeesh! Now THAT'S geeky! lmho    

Question if anyone knows    Back on page 5 of the betas there's a game called Curse of Port Bridge.  I Win released it under some totally different name not too long ago and I have looked and looked and can't find it.  I went through their site, and the games, games, games forum here.  I believe it was released as a "premium edition"   Does anyone know the name of it?   It's the one where the girl comes home to stop the evil of everyone being turned to stone (or concrete, or some such thing).   Thanks thanks thanks.