Point-and-Click – Page 2 – Chickpea Chronicles

Poisonous Promises | Review

Poisonous Promises is part of the Family Mysteries series, developed by Brave Giant and published by Artifax Mundi. It’s a hidden objects game that centers on Emma– a detective who tries to unravel the mystery behind several incidents where survivors show up with traces of poison on them. And much like many of the Family Mysteries series, the incidents involve several people/suspects and their connections to each other.

Steam did a fantastic job in writing up the game description. Sadly I didn’t really find enough “oozing coolness” to keep me entertained. It’s a straight forward hidden object game with a few mini games on the side. The graphics are nice. They also focused a lot on technology, which I suppose is a cool feature. You can use your mobile phone as a flash light (which never occurs to other games), collect data and inspect evidence.

The game is very short but once you’re done they give you a bonus chapter, which I thought was great– only it didn’t really add much to the original story.

Not worth the full price for a PC/Mac unless you’re getting it cheaper on the iOS.

My final score is 2/5 ★★

2/5 for gameplay
3/5 for design
3/5 for Puzzles
1/5 for plot
Game Platform (played on): Mac (Apple App Store).

Red Crow Mysteries: Legion

Red Crow Mysteries: Legion is a mystery hidden-object game by Cateia Games. I finished the game today and frankly I still don’t know what the game is about. I do expect some of these hidden-object/mystery games not to take their plots seriously but this one is on a completely different league of its own. The narrative is so rushed, you forget what’s going on. It tries to deliver a serious tone and then it turns slang.

Its navigation system is probably the worst of its kind. Instead of simply giving you an arrow to indicate backtracking, it shows you weird symbol of footprints that has to be triggered clicking on a specific angle on the screen otherwise it won’t work. It’s also hard figuring out what’s clickable and what isn’t. Usually that’s intended to make a game difficult, but in this one it’s beyond workable. I had to switch to Easy mode to see hint sparks on my screen to figure out what I need to click. There are also several glitches in the game that made solving some of the puzzles a total nuisance. Also did I mention how much I really hate games with inventories that hide their inventories?

Putting aside all of the bad, the thing I DID like about this game is the difficulty of the puzzles. The hidden objects are kept to a minimum and more than half the puzzles in the game actually demand thinking. That came as a surprise. Although a couple were repetitive, I didn’t mind that. I think the puzzles alone were what kept me motivated to play.

As for the ending, it’s safe to say it’s laughable and there’s going to be a sequel.

Would I recommend the game? Probably not. There are plenty of games out there far better. I’m giving it 3 stars though because I actually stuck with it and it kept me company when I’m not feeling well.

My final score is 3/5 ★★★

2/5 for gameplay
1/5 for plot
3/5 for puzzles & exploration
2/5 for overall experience

Game Platform (played on): Mac.

Game link

Game trailer

True Fear: Forsaken Souls II

Just completed Forsaken Souls II; a sequel of True Fear Forsaken Souls I, which I reviewed last week. The game is a huge improvement from its prequel! I didn’t expect to like it this much but I was really blown away.

The story took its steady time to unfold and so much has happened since FSI. New characters, new events, and new leads. I love how things are not rushed and the main character lets the player know what she thinks about everything. For once there’s actually a good use for the diary in these games.

It’s very refreshing not to hinge the entire game on hidden objects. And I have to say the mini games in this installment were absolutely WONDERFUL! Some are straight forward mini-games and some others are very inventive like the use of night vision goggles in various places, swapping items through a time machine, and using a library cart to retrieve books with an RFID-like mechanism. You’re never bored!

I also absolutely love how items picked up at the beginning of the game stay with you for a very long time, which is unusual with this genre of games. Your inventory grow, which lets you think about how to use the items at your disposal. Some of them can be reused many times before disposing them.

The graphics are superb. The music and sound effects are also top notch. Some find the sequel to be less spooky than the prequel. I personally found this one scarier (that basement part!).

The game is surprisingly massive and there’s a lot to uncover. Using the map to fast travel is definitely a good option.

Overall I’m super hyped about this installment and I really can’t wait for the third part to come out. I really hope it won’t be too long. Based on the rumors I’ve read online it’s not promising but definitely worth the wait.

This game is part of a trilogy and they’re closely tied. Playing the first part is a must. If you can tolerate the clunkiness of the prequel then you’re in for a treat for the sequel. I bet the third will even be better!

My final score is 4.5/5 ★★★

3/5 for gameplay
4/5 for plot
4/5 for puzzles & exploration
4/5 for overall experience

Game Platform (played on): PC, Steam

Game link

Game trailer

True Fear: Forsaken Souls I

This game is part one of a trilogy, two of which are released and the third still in development.

The game begins with the lead character Holly receiving a letter from her sister, whom she hasn’t seen in ten years. The letter informs Holly to visit a house in order to unravel the truth about their family. Shocked and elated at the same time, Holly makes her way immediately to the given location and begins following the leads.

The game is described as a hidden-object with mini games. The puzzles are not traditional hidden-object and the game tries hard to be inventive but perhaps a little too innovative, at least to my taste. I didn’t find a logical pattern to the hidden objects and overall they felt flat to me. Thankfully, the developers opted out of hidden objects all together in the second part of the trilogy.

I think what stood out the most to me was the story itself. Often a garden-variety of these games lack depth and the plots feel rushed. In fact, many people I know just skip through the scene sequences to get to the puzzles. In this game; however, the story is engaging. Without saying too much, there are many aspects of the game’s playability that make the narration of the story interesting.

The atmosphere of the game is spooky with a few jump scares here and there but not more than that. The music, by far, is what keeps you on your toes. And it just happens to be that this game is one of the first games I got to play testing my new gaming surround system. Let’s just say I kept my volume at the lowest at all times!

Overall the game is decent and memorable. I heard the sequel is good so looking forward to playing that next. One thing that I absolutely hated, though, was the navigational system. Clicking to maneuver out of places can easily unlock your inventory display by mistake, which happened A LOT. It made moving around a total nuisance to be honest. I’m one of those people that prefer keeping my inventory opened at all times so having it unlock every couple of minutes was seriously annoying. Hopefully they got that sorted out in the sequel.

My final score is 3/5 ★★★

1/5 for gameplay
3/5 for plot
2.5/5 for puzzles & exploration
3/5 for overall experience

Game Platform (played on): PC, Steam

Game link

Game trailer

MSW II: Return to Cabot’s Cove

Murder She Wrote II: Return to Cabot’s Cove is a mystery point-and-click game that follows the mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. It is based on a classic TV show of the same name from back in the 80’s. Jessica Fletcher and her adventures were a childhood favorite of mine so I was excited try this out.

The game includes 3 episodes/cases in the form of books set in the town of Cabot Cove, Maine. Many of the characters you meet are in fact characters from the actual show. The music, graphics and voice acting are very nostalgic to someone that have watched the show. I thought that aspect of the game was well done. In fact I couldn’t help myself as soon as the memorable intro music played I had to make a little happy dance.

Another nice feature is that despite all three cases set on the same map, new locations are unlocked upon starting a new case except for the final case which is set on a completely new location.

There’s plenty of interactions between characters; however, you’re not given the chance to choose your own conversations. Instead, they unfold to keep the story going.

Much like a standard adventure puzzle game there’s an inventory with minimum item exploitation; a hint system and a journal. The puzzles are considered fairly easy. I thought the mini-games variety was decent but I was a little disappointed that they made you go back to the same puzzles which made it a little boring and repetitive.

I can see that there are plenty of features that can make the MSW game series unique. Sadly, there aren’t many of them out there. I think there are only 2 games for the computer and a few others in different formats. It’s a shame because the TV show has enough content to turn these games into a hit. It just needs someone to develop these games to make them better and create a culture behind them which would be really nice- kind of like what Herinteractive is doing with Nancy Drew.

Overall the game is average if not a little too easy, but for any Jessica Fletcher fan, this comes as a heartwarming treat!

My final score is 3.5/5 ★★★

3/5 for gameplay
2/5 for plot
3/5 for puzzles & exploration
3/5 for overall experience

Game Platform (played on): MAC, Big Fish Games.

Game link

Game trailer