Going into Thomas Was Alone, I thought I had it all figured out. "Interesting, a puzzle-platformer featuring a cast of different-shaped cubes," I said to myself. And, to an extent, I was correct. At face value, that is exactly what this game is. But I didn't anticipate how much I would care for those little cubes, or how excitedly I'd cheer them on in their quest for answers. I wanted nothing but the best for them.
Reviewing games can be hard, especially when they're free or cost less than a Big Mac. Sometimes a game will jump out to you and scream, "I'm awesome!" That makes it easy. Likewise, a game can scream, "I'm terrible!" When games do neither though, evaluating them can get a little muddy. It's hard to judge too harshly a game that costs less than bus fare. It just feels wrong. But at the same time, if I don't have much fun playing a game, that should be a major part of my evaluation. This is how I feel about Darkside. Dilemma might be a slightly dramatic word for my current situation, but I'm going to use it anyway.
Elephant Games stampeded onto the hidden object scene a few years ago and since then, its games have been lauded by both critics and gamers alike. So far, 2012's seen the release of three more stellar games from three separate franchises. This month, the company continues its charge toward genre domination with yet another excellent hidden object adventure—the third in the Grim Tales series—called Grim Tales: The Wishes.
Severe Incident: Cargo Flight 821 deserves credit for trying something new. In this sci-fi hidden object adventure, you'll play as the pilot of a cargo spaceship, which crashes during cryosleep on a lush jungle planet. Accompanied by only your talking robot, you'll need to investigate a slew of environments while trying to find a way off of the planet. Unfortunately, this is one title that suffers from poor design choices from beginning to end.
Question: What's more stressful than a wedding? Answer: a borderline evil mother-in-law who looms over said wedding. And what's worse than that mother-in-law? Answer: a wedding mixed with an overbearing mother-in-law, and then topped with Irish superstition. Emily's Wonder Wedding tells a drama-filled story about a young Irish-American girl whose upcoming wedding is seemingly doomed by pushy relatives, bad luck, a conflicted groom, and the shadow of an ex-girlfriend. Oh, yeah, and there's a time management game in there somewhere, too.
Someone took this game out of the oven before it was done, which is a shame because it had potential. Hoodwink is a point and click adventure that tells the story of a professional thief -- or, as he calls himself, an acquisitions expert -- who steals a diamond ring in order to propose to his bride to be. Later in the game he also calls himself an unlicensed maniac, which is probably a more apt description.
On first glance, Howlville: The Dark Secret is perfectly packaged to imitate its long line of Collector's Edition ancestors who've thrilled audiences with their haunted houses, car crashes, and mysterious towns—or at least bombarded them into a numb acceptance of commercial standards. But from the title screen forward, Howlville distinguishes itself from the gloomy flock with a unique twist on the tried-and-true gameplay of hidden-object games. Instead of puzzles and hidden objects existing as separate entities; they've nested puzzles and tons of interaction into each hidden-object scenes, creating a very different pace and strategy for familiar mechanics.
Arguably the most overdone plotline within the hidden object genre is that of murder and mystery, as we all-too-often take on the role of a detective, psychic or even concerned family member, out to find the truth before each game's few survivors can be picked off one by one. Such is the case with Grim Façade: Sinister Obsession, as we'll once again become a detective, charged with discovering evidence surrounding a series of murders. But here, the gameplay has enough unique twists and originality that you won't even mind the lackluster, clichéd storyline.