Twisted Lands: Insomniac Collector’s Edition Review
Lobotomy! Did that quack/monster doctor say lobotomy? Hey, what the heck!?! He strapped leather restraints around your ankles. No time to dillydally, you have to get out of that insane asylum before it’s too late in Mac point and click adventure sequel Twisted Lands: Insomniac Collector’s Edition.
Choose from Regular or Expert mode: Regular mode has sparkles for zooming in on a hidden object games and areas of interest with faster hint and skip buttons. However, I found the skip button took a lot longer than most other games. I’d hate to find out how long the Expert mode takes. The mirror to the bottom right is the hint button if you need it to find hidden objects. The HOGs are clear and items are fairly easy to spot. The many puzzles throughout the game are from fair to easy but you can skip them if you wish. The games are balanced with the story progressing with animations to keep your interest high. This is similar to their first game Shadow Town.
The tale continues from when Mark and Angel on a treasure hunting expedition get their small vessel overturned and both end up in the water. Shadow Town takes Mark’s point of view and after being washed up onto a small deserted island, he goes looking for both treasure and Angel. In the sequel Insomniac you are Angel trying to escape an asylum and some quack doctor wanting to perform surgery on your groggy brain because you are a danger to society. Huh? What happened?
You figure out how to get out of your straps and manage to explore your area and hightail it out through the vents, but only to be caught by Dr. Torpse who injects you with some meds. Even though you are medicated you go from being in the hospital to a deserted town filled with debris and many, many locked areas. It’s difficult to decipher which world is the hallucination and which one is real. You drift between the 2 playing and solving puzzles to further your quest for survival and escape.
Along the way you find newspaper clippings explaining some unusual circumstances. There are a variety of puzzles, hidden object games that you will visit 2 times (this helps expand the game), point and click adventure and animation to tell the story and increase the spooky factor. It’s not real scary but it has an eerie feel to the game. The music also helps the creepy component. I think this sequel is a bit better than the first game. Although some of the puzzles are similar, the creepy factor is much better in this second game. You also sympathize with Angel and not so much
with Mark. The idea of using the point of view of Angel is good, going back and forth from one world to the next a little confusing but it works, looking for photos to fill an album to explain the mystery of the island is a little farfetched, a little short on gameplay but all in all this is an engrossing tale about survival. Help Angel keep her brain intact and get off that crazy island full of monsters!
Features of Twisted Lands: Insomniac Collector’s Edition:
-Continuing Engaging Tale of Mark and Angel
-Point and Click Adventure, Hidden Object and Mini Games
-Good Artwork and Great Music/Sound Effects
-Collector’s Edition: Bonus Chapter (another hour of play), Concept Art, In-Game Strategy Guide
Rating: 
Twisted Lands: Shadow Town Collector’s Edition Review
Mark and Angel are on a treasure hunting expedition on their own even though they know it is illegal. Suddenly, Mark, and possibly Angel, end up in the water, and Mark finds himself washed up on a deserted island. Mark’s main goal is to find Angel. He’s certain she also came ashore. Even though he is concerned about her, he also sees many items on the island that may be valuable enough to collect a pretty penny when he gets back home. He is always the hustler when it comes to making money.
The play will take you from the boat to the island and its various buildings and sites, no matter how fogged in it may appear. A lot of sparkles will lead you to hidden object games where from the list at the bottom may have some important artifacts or items for you to use. 
You must find 15 snakes to place on a door hidden away in a cave. There will also be some sparkles when there are items to interact with.
What I like about this HOG is that you are not inundated with mini puzzle after mini puzzle. There’s just enough to keep your focus on the story and the main plays. The hints are very helpful when you are in the game and don’t know where to go next. It will point the way for you. 2 things I think could have been better are the reading of different people’s journal and computer writings. Yes, it gives you different view points from different types of people but the same information is given many times in long narrations. The other point of contention is the traveling back and forth and back and forth sometimes across the island for an item you need.
Other than the 2 things, the play is good, the artwork nice, and the music appropriate for a good time. It’s not all that scary even though ghosts appear everywhere. Some things may need to be cleaned up but overall the game is good. The Collector’s Edition has a built in 
walkthrough and a bonus chapter, Twisted Lands: Insomnia. You are on the same island. Could this be the first chapter to a sequel?
Features of: Twisted Lands: Shadow Town Collector’s Edition:
- Engaging Story
- Hidden Objects and Mini Puzzles
- Detailed Graphics
Rating: 
Paranormal Crime Investigations: Brotherhood of the Crescent Snake Collector’s Edition Review
A string of murders in the French Quarters in New Orleans, Louisiana does not sound very original since it’s been done before and it’s a mysterious place with many unusual stories, but throw in the death of the son of the palm reader who believes there’s more to it than what meets the eye, sightings of the paranormal kind and a weird cult trying to revive the Crescent Snake and you have a set up for an exciting Mac Hidden Object Adventure game.
Calvin Laveaux, student at Steinbeck University, is one of the many victims of a mysterious murder. He has a strange, glowing tattoo that may lead to some answers and possibly the killer or killers. His mother is convinced, and for good reason, there is dark magic behind his demise and she wants you to help investigate this case. You play as a Paranormal Crime Investigator brought in by the New Orleans police to help solve the case.
You search the streets of this famous town and when your cursor changes to a hand, you can interact with the object. If something glows or has a question mark on it, you can place it in the PCI, a case at the lower right of the screen, to analyze the item. Doing so you’ll come across a puzzle or mini game to solve like clicking on the correct color atom to fill vials to your left or match 2 identical objects. This case will also have information for you. The mini games are familiar and not difficult to complete, however, the hidden object games will take time to figure out where some of the items are placed due to size or partial hidden parts. The hint button is very useful in this game and it does recharge quickly. The items you need to find are listed at the bottom of the screen and the objects written in green will need some interaction before you can click on it. With the Collector’s Edition there is an in-game strategy guide to help you if you need it.
Your search will be hampered by a ghost-like figure that will place obstacles in your path and threaten you. Luckily, this will involve a puzzle to solve. You can
skip the mini game if you choose after waiting only a short time, but I suggest you try them because most are easily solvable. Unfortunately this game is fairly short even with the bonus chapter. Depending on your expertise you can finish this game in a matter of hours with another hour for the extra bonus.
This is the first game that I’ve come across that asks you to keep the sound on during the game. There is no voice acting but the music is good. The artwork is fantastic with the wraithlike characters, voodoo items and quirky characters. There’s a lot of HOGs for fans of that type of play. I liked Paranormal Crime Investigations: Brotherhood of the Crescent Snake Collector’s Edition and gave it a 3.5 out of 5. However, can someone tell developers to shorten their titles?
Features of Paranormal Crime Investigations: Brotherhood of the Crescent Snake Collector’s Edition:
-Eerie Tale of the Supernatural
-Hidden Object and Mini Games
-Good Artwork and Music
-Collector’s Edition: Wallpaper, Sound Track, Bonus Chapter, Strategy Guide
Rating:
Travels with Gulliver Review
Reading the famous novel by Jonathan Swift, traveling the world in a yacht with your literary friends and seeing the sights of other nations are only a few of the aspects of Mac match game Travels with Gulliver. There’s romance and mystery in addition to all that and to top it off the match 3 games, jigsaw puzzles and wallpaper.
Even with all those things going on at once, the game is relaxing and interesting. The main play is the match 3 of the same item in groups or chains to destroy the blue tile. This part of the game is not challenging but fun to do. The usual power ups and blocks are present in 
this game. The hammer will destroy one token, the torch will take out tokens of the same kind, the bomb will blow up a group of items and the scepter will turn all of the same kind of tokens to wild. There’s also a shuffle button when charged will redo the board. The blocks are the gates, ropes, the chained gates (you need to make double matches to clear) and the double ropes.
In between each match level you will get a couple of pages of the novel or the main character’s (Sedona) journal. The journal will reveal the interactions of the yacht’s literary group, and when personal items go missing, a mystery ensues. If those things are not enough, each port 
stop will reveal interesting data about the city with a jigsaw puzzle at each country. It’s also fun to see the passport book get travel stamps from their destination ports. The main page will have the journal, novel, postcards and passport to view when you need. The artwork will produce many wallpapers for your computer.
Travels with Gulliver is a creative Mac game, utilizing the novel to combine the present day adventures of a group of friends traveling the 
route of Gulliver. I found the mini jigsaw puzzles, repetitive and could use other mini plays to breakup the match games. A deficient part of the game, unfortunately, is the match 3 play. It really didn’t have a connection to either story except it is nautical. If the developers could work on that and make it a little more challenging and include a swap match, I think it will improve the game. I give it a 3 out of 5.
Features of Travels with Gullivers:
-80 Levels
-Story of Gulliver
-Mystery and Romance
-Wallpaper
-Jigsaw Puzzles
Rating:
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