Chronicle Keepers: The Dreaming Garden

Chronicle Keepers: The Dreaming Garden
by Play Way Games - July, 2014

Available at:
Alawar
Big Fish
GameHouse
iWin



You’ve spent your whole life searching for information about your past. Who was your mother and what is behind the mysterious medallion she left to you? You can’t shake the strange dreams you’ve been having lately, and the confusing, distant, memories gnaw away at you. A chance encounter at a local bookstore stops you in your tracks- an old, dusty book has symbols on it that match your medallion! What will you find in the ancient tome? Could it be true that it holds a secret passage to a distant land in another time and place? This surely can’t be a coincidence!

• Captivating second-sight mechanic lets you see a different world
  
• Beautiful scene art spanning multiple worlds
  
• Challenging minigames and unique hidden object scenes
  

Click images to enlarge
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Outstanding SE****

BASED ON DEMO

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I played the beta for this game, and I was less than happy with the graphics. But clearly, feedback on this one had an impact and the graphics are much improved. Maybe not CE standard, but the characters and the close ups and HOP scenes are very nicely done. Particularly the leprechaun. I love the sounds in this game, from the voiceovers, which are clear and appropriate, if not perfect, to the music, to the atmospherics. And the surprising use of carefully placed voices.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
Your magic medallion, left to you by your mysteriously disappeared mother (yeah, yeah, I know, grammar, but it says what I want to convey) suddenly starts glowing and pointing out otherwise invisible things, like the crest on a book in a store window. Clearly you must have it. Maybe it is related to the disappearance of your mother. Opening the book, you are captured by it and drawn into its world, somewhere totally alien and mysterious. With lots of scary stuff, and loads of magic. LOVE some of the scaries.

GAMEPLAY
HOPs are a little different. As well as the standard word list, with its items that are hidden highlighted in yellow, there are also objects that are only visible with the help of your medallion. Your medallion makes many other important things visible in locations as well. There are runic symbols and pieces of pictures to collect to find out the story. And sometimes items needed for puzzles etc will also be hidden magically. Also, magical creatures that give you coins. The medallion doesn’t glow when you need it, so keep it close.

Other notes: there is a directional hint , a journal, a map, 3 difficulty levels. The words in the HOP lists change from white to grey when found. This is not invisible enough and very annoying. Interesting trick with a cut scene within a close up window, while outside location waited it to finish before changing. It worked well. I don’t know if that would be cheaper or less arduous to do, but it seems like a good way to handle low definition graphics, avoiding those awful cut scenes we all grind our teeth over.

All up, not many puzzles or HOPs. All of them doable. The adventure is a little quirky, and I used the hint a little to get around. Even in the easiest level, I found the hint slow to refill.

COMBINED IMPACT
I liked this game. In the survey I said, based on the beta it would never be very high on my wish list. But the medallion is a fun inclusion, and with substantially improved graphics, I now think it will DEFINITELY be on my wish list, high enough to grab it with a punch card credit today. It is an outstanding Stand Alone SE.

I recommend this game!