Archive for the ‘Hidden Object/I Spy’ Category

Find Your Own Way Home Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle, Seek and Find | Posted by Zeke
Aug 30 2010

Find Your Own Way Home 9
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Christmas is a magical time of the year and many musical artists create their own holiday albums for this festive period. However, do you remember any except maybe Bing Crosby’s White Christmas? According to the Wall Street Journal REO Speedwagon put out Not So Silent Find Your Way Home 2Night Christmas album this 2009 season, and they are featured in the new Mac hidden object game Find Your Own Way Home. Will this be the big comeback of a 1971 rock band? Apparently not with 13 top 40 single hits over the years the group has not stopped working. REO Speedwagon has been around performing since the beginning. That’s a long time to be in a rock band.

The Mac hidden object game Find Your Own Way Home, title from one of their hits, is an extensive story about a reporter, Ruby Easton, working for Entertainment Now when a band member goes missing. Your job is to track down clues and information through the hidden objects and puzzles before everything goes haywire for this band’s grand performance.

In the game there is the information panel at the bottom of the screen giving you data and tools. The timer keeps track of your remaining Find Your Own Way Home 7time to complete the level. You must find specific powers to make hints available for you to use, and the smart phone is there to change game settings. In addition to the hidden object/seek and find games, there are mini plays to master. One is the find the differences in 2 identical Find Your Own Way Home 5pictures, find the many Biffs spewed around the music site, and find things that make noise such as musical instruments, notes, records and cds.

Personally, I’ve never heard of REO Speedwagon, but I’m sure many of you have and others are fans with their albums because why else would they be around so long? The music is nice but not very edgy for a rock band. The play is okay, but I thought the storyline is Find Your Own Way Home 10dragged out too long at the beginning with Ruby and her apartment. It picks up a little when you get to the music studio. So rock out with Find Your Own Way Home Mac hidden object game and have a merry holiday season.

Features of Find Your Own Way Home:
-REO Speedwagon Band
-Many Hidden Object Modes
-Find the Missing Band Member

Rating: ★★★☆☆

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Mary Kay Andrew’s The Fixer Upper Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Aug 22 2010


Based on a bestseller by Mary Kay Andrew this Mac hidden object game follows the remarkable life of Dempsey Killebrew. What would make a up and coming lawyer give everything up and return to her family home? Is it possible for Dempsey to have a happy life there?

Dempsey Killebrew is fired from her job with a renown public relations firm in Washington, D.C. She arranged accommodations for a high profile senator that turned into a hiatus for him and a prostitute. Even though it is not her fault, she is blamed for everything. Life is not fair. In order to put this part of her career behind her, Dempsey accepts her father’s offer of fixing the old family mansion that he had recently inherited. Little did Dempsey realize that the old place is falling apart with an ornery old lady and her dog residing at the home. She must not only fix up the place but also throw the residents out.

You play the usual hidden object games going from Dempsey’s apartment, rooms in the mansion and various locations in the small town of Guthrie, Georgia. In each scene you have a list of objects to search. There are 5 hints to use if you need them and if you find the small house in each scene, you will get another hint. After completing a HOG, you get a mini puzzle to complete. One such puzzle is to remove the lint from Dempsey’s jacket. You take the cursor and move it back and forth to remove the lint. Many of the side games are similar to this one from washing the car to painting the mansion. You can skip these games if you wish. I found it to be too much after awhile so I did skip them.

You can play the HOGs in timed or normal mode. I suggest you try the timed since finding the objects is fairly easy to do. You do go back to many of the same scenes to do other duties like find all the spots that need repair and wash the car. The play is a bit repetitive but still a pleasant game.

Mary Kay Andrew’s The Fixer Upper is similar to Yard Sale – Hidden Treasures in play but the stories are different. Yard Sale is funny and The Fixer Upper plays more like her novels. This is pure speculation since I have never read any of her novels but I’m assuming, especially when she goes to town and speaks to the people. The play I thought had way too much dialog and reading to do. I understand it is necessary to advance the story, but it got to be too much after awhile clicking back and forth from one person to another. If you are a fan of Mary Kay Andrew’s or an avid HOG player, try this game.

Features of Mary Kay Andrew’s – The Fixer Upper:
-Many Locations with Lots of Hidden Objects
-Story of Dempsey Killebrew
-Many Mini Games

Rating: ★★★☆☆

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Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The Fifth Sun of Nostradamus Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle, Seek and Find | Posted by Meg
Aug 16 2010


Cassandra, a psychic, is brought together by fate with Violet who returned her mystical ring. Not only did Violet become a close friend when she found out Cassandra does mystic readings, she asked her to find her missing brother, Michael, for her in Mac hidden object game Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The fifth Son of Nostradamus. Is the title long enough?

The play is to find objects in the scene listed along the bottom of the screen. The blue words require the use of inventory items to complete the task. The objects are easily found in each scene pertaining to the story, but if you need hints, there are plenty to choose from. Each hint will cost you a percentage of the blue liquid in the flask to the right of the screen. Each hint must be unlocked before you can use them, but are very powerful when you have the opportunity to access them. The first and most powerful hint will cost you 90% of the liquid, but will pinpoint the object. The Area Spell will only take 50% and will outline the general area of your object. The Magic Wand uses 80% and will turn the crystal ball into a compass when your cursor is close to the object, the sphere will get brighter. The fourth spell is Photo. It will use 70% and will show you the shape of the object as it is in the scene. Slide Show spell will show you the outline of the object. The crystal ball will also show you the number of tasks completed and the number of task still needed. A word of warning: the hint flask will drain if you click on too many false items.

The HOG is packaged nice and orderly in files. There are tabs with items (shows the objects you need to find), inventory (items found and can be used for tasks) and objectives (goals). The journal at the lower right side will outline Cassandra’s journey in this search.

The varied HOGs are the usual search for many items in a scene. Also incorporated in the same picture will be finding a number of the same items or performing many tasks like cooking soup, making pizza and salad. Another scene is to find pairs of like, but not exactly identical, pieces. You may need to find 2 artworks or cooking instruments. There’s also finding outline objects.

In addition to the well done scenes, there are a lot of mini games and puzzles to do. Upon meeting Nostradamus, he performs a magic act for you. There are solitaire games to reveal magic numbers. The numbers will lead you to different places to search for more objects and clues. In a street scene you click on the transportation and that will take you to a mini puzzle like Traffic Jam to clear cars out of the way so the bright colored car can drive through the mess. In addition there are jigsaw and logic puzzles to do.

Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The Fifth Sun of Nostradamus, like the title, has a lot going for it. There are many levels with interesting scenes with many objects to search for, and it is full of tasks and puzzles. It is put together in somewhat of an orderly fashion and with a mystery to solve. The artwork is beautifully crafted. I don’t remember the music, but it must have been good since it did not deter you from the game. It has everything you would want a HOG to have and more. Try it out for a good, solid HOG.

Features of Cassandr’s Journey 2 – The fifth Sun of Nostradamus:
-Interesting Story Line
-Many Mini Puzzles
-Hours of Play

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Agatha Christie: Peril at End House Review

Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Aug 14 2010

agatha-christie

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Agatha Christie, murder mystery novel and movie fans will enjoy this clever hidden object Mac game. This game will get you involved in the detective work by rewarding you with clues when the different levels are solved. There are more puzzles within this hidden object game to help break up the searching for clues/objects.

It is set in St Loo a small village on the coast of Cornwall, England in 1927. Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective, is called to End House to investigate murder attempts on Miss Nick Buckly the owner of the estate. It is your job to find the culprit by finding items on the grounds and in the house in order to stop any deadly deeds.

From the map of the estate of End House showing the landscape and various rooms in the house, you are to go from room to room and areas outside to uncover any and all clues of solving this mystery. Click on the gold colored section to begin your investigation, and it will reveal an area full of objects and clues to find. Poirot will give you a list of items, and you have 25 minutes and only 5 hints to go over the room and discover the objects. Some of the things are not relevant to the crime, but others could be useful for solving the mystery. In this hidden objects game you not only find the item, but sometimes you must move the object around the game board.

After finding all the pieces on the list this investigation is over, and you will be rewarded a clue card. This is a statement from a suspect or colleague who may or may not help you. These cards are stored in the clue room to be read without a time limit later in the game.

Bonus rounds between levels will offer more clues to your investigation. For example, after finding scraps of newspaper in the garden, you must put the torn pieces like a jigsaw puzzle back together so you can read the pertinent article in print in order to receive another clue.

After playing through 13 investigations and uncovering clues, you will come to the end of the game and will review all the clues and testimonies and hopefully be able to reveal “whodunit”.

The hidden object part of the game is relatively easy at first but gets more difficult further into the game. The hints are helpful, but there are only 5 of them per investigation so you have to use them carefully. I wasted 2 hints looking for an item that was off the page and not visible or reachable. I had to shrink the screen in order to see the location of the object. Another thing to watch is clicking on everything to find a hard to see item, because you will be penalized 30 seconds off your time. However, the 25 minute time limit is more than enough to search for most of the things on the list.

I don’t usually play hidden object/I spy games unless there’s another draw attached to it, and this one had the right one for me, Agatha Christie. Anyone who has read her novels or who likes I spy puzzles will really enjoy spending some time working and solving the Peril at End House. Also the music is very good and appropriate to the time period.  So get to detecting and catch the criminal while having fun at the same time.

Features of Agatha Christie: Peril at End House:
-Objects to discover
-Puzzles
-13 Characters
-25 Different Rooms
-Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Novel
Rating: ★★★½☆

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Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Seek and Find, Sim | Posted by Meg
Aug 13 2010


Pearls are a central theme in both Mac match 3 games Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Fate and Journey, and that’s a good thing in my book. I cannot have enough pearls in my jewelry box. In the sequel Ariadne is saved and reunited with Theseus, but alas, life is not so easy for these two lovers of ancient Greek mythology.

Theseus is sent to ward off the Amazon invasion, but gets captured instead. Now Adriadne must venture out and save Theseus. She implores the gods to help her on her journey, and Aphrodite offers to assist her in return for gifts to repair her tattered temple.

In order to get Aphrodite gifts you play a match 3 or more similar objects game. You begin by matching tiles with pearls to release them, and as you travel along the path to get closer to Theseus, you get different types of match plays to earn. At the market place you match purses of gems to be first in line for the goods. The purses do not swap so you have to figure out how to get other items lined up to make the match.

There are many power-ups you get for making combos. The emerald will destroy tiles horizontally and the topaz will do the same diagonally. The onyx will eliminate tiles horizontally and vertically, the quartz will make the same type of item of one kind disappear, the celestial sphere will destroy tiles around the selected tile and the caduceus’ staff will shuffle tiles surrounding a tile. You either make matches or bring items down to the bottom of the screen to collect them. When Ariadne needs to have her fortune read, you must bring down cards. If you see coins appear on the board, you must click on them quickly to collect them. They only appear for a short time. If you see tiles with 2 items, you can match this tile with either of the items.

Aphrodite will also grant Ariadne gifts like the porter who will escort her through shortcuts on her journey for awhile. Along the journey, you will play hidden object games to collect more items. These HOGs are quite simple, but they do break up the match plays. After earning gifts for Aphrodite, you will play a sim type of game by placing these gifts in appropriate locations in and around the temple. Move the piece around the board until you see the outline of it appear and place it at that location.

The main plays are the match 3 games. You can either play the Adventure and follow the story of Ariadne or play Ariadne’s Loom where you bring the ball of yarn down the board to complete the needlepoint picture on the left. The play is similar to the Adventure except you do not follow the story or play the mini games.

Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey is very similar to the first game, but with added games like the HOGs and the sim games. Both of these games are simple and not much of a challenge so if you are looking for a difficult game, this is not the one. However, you can play it timed in order to up the ante a little, but if you want a easy, relaxing fun day, try playing this colorful match game with added side games.

Features of Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey:
-2 Modes to Play
-Hidden Objects
-Restore Aphrodite’s Temple

Rating: ★★★½☆

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