Sea of Lies 2: Nemesis

Sea of Lies: Nemesis
by Eipix Entertainment - June, 2014

Series links:  Sea of Lies 1: Mutiny of the Heart, Sea of Lies 2: Nemesis, Sea of Lies 3: Burning Coast, Sea of Lies 4: Tide of Treachery

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



Another intriguing whodunit brought to you by Eipix, the makers of Hidden Expedition: Smithsonian® Hope Diamond, and the successful Final Cut series...

Authorities are baffled by the death of a prominent citizen, and the Governor himself has asked you to investigate. Can you find out how these men died, how they’re all connected, and most importantly, who killed them? This murderer’s calling card is your nemesis in this exciting continuation of the Sea of Lies series.

In this exciting Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game, you’ll use a forensics kit to examine murder scenes and look for clues.

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Play the bonus game to uncover more secrets
  
• Earn pirate-y Achievements
  
• Search for “buried treasure” in every scene
  
• Get soundtracks, wallpapers, screensavers, and concept art
  
• Try the available Strategy Guide
  

For the Standard Edition

• Strategy Guide
  
• Blog Walkthrough (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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Glorious Variety****

BASED ON DEMO

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Great interface! That was my first thought. Graphics are below par throughout the game, but particularly rough in the intro, which detracts from an otherwise sound beginning. Not too flashy, but interesting and involving, particularly if you played the first “Sea Of Lies” game. Although it is not necessary to this story, it is nice to see the return of a friend.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
By below par, I am referring to Eipix games specifically, it is only in comparison to them that this game falls short. So by most standards, the graphics are good. The artwork is nicely done. The sound is excellent. Voiceovers wonderful. Just the right degree of accented speech. Lip synched in the speaker’s cameo, still in the main scene. The music includes the Eipix signature tune, but also a good variety of other music in several moods.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
As Senorita Addams, famous lady detective, you are called upon by the Governor himself to investigate a suspicious death. The victim had received a figurine of the goddess of revenge, Nemesis, leading the Governor to believe that perhaps Ramirez’ recent paranoia was, after all, justified. He cannot be seen to be involved with this investigation, but he leaves you Sergio to assist you.

GAMEPLAY
Adventure (easy), with a bunch of various styles of HOP and a few puzzles. What the game really consists of is what I am, for the sake of brevity, going to call micro-puzzles. The miniature games are usually no more than a dozen steps in content, and they occur WITHIN some other action. For example, some of the inventory items have micro-puzzles that must be completed for the item to reach its final useful form.

And the HOP scenes in this game all represent a collection of micro-puzzles, nested within a single HOP hot spot. They could be any mix of interactive lists, silhouettes, multiples or fragments. So, no one form of HOP dominates. You will find several within a scene, in close up windows. Some are obvious, a few are not, but no micro-puzzle is seriously hard – because there is no skip for them. The HOPs also include the pan technique, where you move through 3 or 4 segments of a HOP scene, completing a shorter list at each before moving on.

Or you can skip all that glorious variety and play a Match 3 game. As well as the usual tools (journal, objective list, interactive jump map and teleporting hint system), you have a forensic kit for taking finger prints where indicated. I think this gadget could be better. The rest is as you’d expect. Lockable inventory. 3 levels of difficulty plus a custom level.

CE BLING!
Achievements are performance based only and have 3 levels to each. They do not include an award for getting all the collectibles, as far as I could tell. Which are 40 treasure chests. Quite large and easy to see, but not always in the open. Some you have to move other stuff to find it. There is also gold to be found and used to buy items in the chest room. These are largely of a decorative nature.

A Chest Hunt game, and the Souvenir Room game, are again included. I love these. The Chest Hunt allows you to revisit the locations where you missed the Chests. The Souvenir Room involves going to each location and finding a further item. There are 30 puzzles and 11 HOPs to replay, as well as the Match 3 game.

And there is the gallery. Wallpapers x6, Concept Art x6, photos of the team at the photo shoots, movies and music. There is also a “Making Of” game/movie, which in other games has been far more than just pix of the team at work.

COMBINED IMPACT
Despite its strong nautical theme (a favourite with me, and appropriate to the series), this story doesn’t appeal to me as much as most Eipix games do. I do, however, revel in the gameplay with all its glorious variety.

I recommend this game!