Hidden Expedition 7: The Crown of Solomon

Hidden Expedition 7: The Crown of Solomon
by Eipix Entertainment - July, 2014

Series links: Hidden Expedition 1: Titanic, Hidden Expedition 2: Everest, Hidden Expedition 3: Amazon, Hidden Expedition 4: Devil's Triangle, Hidden Expedition 5: The Uncharted Islands, Hidden Expedition 6: Smithsonian Hope Diamond, Hidden Expedition 7: The Crown of Solomon, Hidden Expedition 8: Smithsonian Castle

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



The expedition continues... Track down the fragments of King Solomon's crown and foil a madman's plot in this exciting follow-up to the bestselling series!

You've stopped the Robideaux family from stealing the Hope Diamond and using its shards for their own twisted ends. But before Robideaux's cargo can make it safely back to the museum where it belongs, a criminal has stolen a valuable artifact. It's a piece of King Solomon's crown, long broken apart, its fragments scattered across the globe. Can you pick up the pieces in time?

The Collector's Edition includes:

• Track down H.E.L.P.'s history in the bonus game
  
• Collect nearly 50 crowns throughout the game
  
• Find morphing objects and earn special achievements
  
• 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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IN BRIEF*****

BASED ON DEMO

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Wonderful new intro to the main page. Great main page. Beautifully different introduction/tutorial has us finding yet another totally new way of arriving at our destination.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The cut scenes are excellent, a vast improvement on the beta, the graphics are a delight, close up and location. The sounds include the signature number for Hidden Expeditions 6. A little too much of it. The atmospherics and special effects are great. The voiceovers, too, are very well done.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
Having successfully completed our first mission for H.E.L.P. (no, it isn’t necessary to have played the previous game, but I seriously recommend it), we are flying home with the treasures when we discover a traitor on board. Eventually, we end up in Istanbul, in pursuit of smugglers, and the evidence points to parts in the far north. It seems we are off on a new mission in the heart of the Arctic Circle, recovering the pieces of the powerful artifact, Solomon’s Crown.

GAMEPLAY
All the gameplay is easy, at least on the easiest of 3 levels + custom, but I loved it. The mini-games are amusing not challenging. The HOP scenes are beautiful and imaginative with 3 different search types in one HOP. The map is a teleport, the hint is directional. The H.E.L.P. box (gizmo) that acts as journal includes Fact Cards, and Achievements, as well as replayable messages from the main office.

CE BLING!
There are 44 Crowns to collect, and an unknown number of morphing objects found only in the HOPs. I love that! The achievements include Mystery Achievements, along with performance and story ones.

The gallery items; pix, music, movies, replayable puzzles and HOPs are all accessed via a simple little mini-game each. Love that too! There is also a Souvenir Room, which is basically another intricate HOP. And a Making Of which are always fun when Eipix produce them.

COMBINED IMPACT
I couldn’t dream of living without it lol.

I've never played a Hidden Expedition game.  I may succumb to the bundle deal.  Which ones should I get?!  Justie, HELP!   

::dashes off to find your reviews::

DEVIL'S TRIANGLE, UNCHARTED ISLANDS, done by different developers, but good in their own right

HOPE DIAMOND - supreme but easy (on easiest level) game. Outstanding. ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE!   Can you tell I liked it?   

Hidden Expedition 4: Devil's Triangle was the first IHOG of the series, and while it wasn't everyone's cup of    , I really enjoyed it, so I'd recommend starting there.  BUT, you're going to have a ton of coupons for SE's, so why spend the extra $2.99 for each with the bundle sale, when you could just get them with coupons?

That's what I'd worked out the one time I could actually qualify for the bundle deal, by not having actually bought the previous games lol   

Always carrying on about not qualifying and then realising paying full price for a CE and $3 for SE or two wasn't actually a deal for me anyway lol   

Speaking of whining. All those people who are frustrated by their inability to use all those PCC's that are running out of time. I have an idea Big Fish have in fact reacted to that with changes.

First, there were the new limitations on how they related to bonus punchcards, with the overall effect of reducing the number of pcc's a person is likely to accumulate.

And second, correct me if you think I'm wrong, but I think there are more stand alone SEs that are quite high quality turning up this year.

Works for me   , although I'll miss all those pccs...

I also liked Devil's Triangle, Unchartered Islands (which is a continuation of DT),
Smithsonian Hope Diamond is very good (I have the CE) and this
latest one is a definite buy.

luvtoread wrote:I also liked Devil's Triangle,  Unchartered Islands  (which is a continuation of DT),
Smithsonian Hope Diamond is very good  (I have the CE)  and this
latest one is a definite buy.

Aw, shucks.  I just posted over in Games Games Games that I was NOT going to get started on yet another game series.  And then I read this - and all my gaming friends say this is a "Must Buy" and I think ... oh go ahead you know you wanna ...

BUT I already am hooked on
Mystery Case Files
Mystery Trackers
Haunted Legends (Vox is redeeming the series from that ghastly Undertaker game)
Dark Parables (like Esme, I adore these games - they're some of the only ones I replay)

and I think I'll be hooked on the Other Side games (I liked the first one; getting ready to do BFs beta of Tower of Souls) ... I'll probably give Shiver a chance to redeem itself from the hugely tear-inducing Moonlight Grove game ...

EGADS - when will I have time to play all my Big Deal Time Suck RPGs?!   

                            

 

Well, you could do what I do...

BUY all those great RPGs at ridiculously low prices and then accumulate them as a brilliant "as new" collection lol  

JustTheFacts wrote:Well, you could do what I do...

BUY all those great RPGs at ridiculously low prices and then accumulate them as a brilliant "as new" collection lol  

But Justie, that's what I'm already doing with the series I like!