Every so often a game comes along that is hard for us to put into a category, and Elementary, My Dear Majesty! by Dream Dale and Alawar Entertainment is one is those titles. It combines hidden object, adventure, and physics-based puzzle gameplay in unique and colorful 3D settings. Read on for our hands-on first impressions.
Every so often a game comes along that is hard for us to put into a category, and Elementary, My Dear Majesty! by Dream Dale and Alawar Entertainment is one is those titles. It combines hidden object, adventure, and physics-based puzzle gameplay in unique and colorful 3D settings. Read on for our hands-on first impressions.
Mary, the Princess of Sky World, unexpectedly turns into a monster one evening during the palace tea party. With the royal doctors unable to remove the curse, King Ludwig hires the best private detective in the kingdom to help track down a suspect or a clue about what happened. Enter the game’s hero, Felix. Although, he’s not a typical chivalrous knight in shining armor. His response to the king’s summons: “I don’t understand why King Ludwig is surprised. His daughter has always been a monster!” Nevertheless, Felix is in danger of losing his head if he doesn’t obey, and so the adventure begins.
The game spans 14 locations with more than 100 puzzles. As you can see from the screenshots, each location is a 3D landscape that sort of resembles a pop-up book. You can even zoom in on the scenery and rotate it using the mouse to get a better look.
The puzzles are bizarrely creative to the point of absurdity – not that this is a bad thing. In the first five minutes of the demo along, I found myself gathering watermelons to make watermelon juice to fuel a spaceship, fling sheep by adjusting the controls of a giant catapult, and collecting gears using a giant magnet on a crane.
The game offers two modes: Casual and Expert. Casual mode offers a fast-recharging hint button, the ability to skip puzzles, and fewer hidden objects to find, while Expert mode ramps up the difficulty with more objects, slower hints, and no skipping.
Elementary, My Dear Majesty! is launching on Monday, Nov. 28 on Alawar Games.
