Uncharted Tides: Port Royal
I played Uncharted Tides: Port Royal on Windows. An enjoyable game with differing types of HOP’s and a reasonable storyline. The minigames were good at a decent difficulty level. I have played many many HOPA’s and though this isn’t up with Lost Lands, (understandably as that is a huge tale over many episodes,) it’s good in its own right. On first playthrough I missed one Achievement, Sea Shanty, (which i’m still at a loss as to how I missed it),
I didn’t use a walkthrough though there are ones available,
! https://www.bigfishgames.com/content/bf-blog/en/walkthroughs/uncharted-tides-port-royal.html#5 or video walkthroughs such as
! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcGn0er7GDM .
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Atmospheric Games.
I got this game as part of a bundle. Decent hidden object puzzles. Most of the puzzles were intuitive and whenever it is not you can use hints which are infinite (casual difficulty).
The hints recharge fairly quickly and I never felt completely stuck with the puzzles.
Talking about the story, I found it to be… okayy. I didn’t like the game’s music in most places. It could have been a more piratey theme.
Characters don’t have any depth. For example, Jane’s father / Ben and all other characters are completely useless because they don’t help us in anyway. They merely command us to do something because they are unable to do it. But at the end Ben gets thanked which was odd.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony
Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony is an adventure game that is merging the traditional storytelling with modern-day pixel art graphics.
CHASING A MYSTERY THAT IS UNEXPLAINED FOR 150 YEARS
A group of people who set out to establish the first settled colony in America in 1587, mysteriously disappears a short time after arriving. They leave only an island name carved on a tree: “Crowalt”.
Now, the year is 1737.
A young and ambitious adventurer Hugh Radcliff pursues the Lost Colony to make his first great discovery. Now, different people live in Crowalt, where he came to solve this mystery. He will hover around the island and definitely will get in a series of troubles to find what happened to the Lost Colony.
CLASSIC POINT AND CLICK MECHANICS
Collect, combine, and use items to solve puzzles.
PIRATES ARE HERE TOO!
Try to deal with routine pirate visitors of Crowalt and of course, enjoy funny dialogues.
FOLLOW YOUR JOURNAL
Hugh draws important things and takes notes regarding them in his journal. It will be updated after important events and findings during the game.
MAKE CHOICES
Lie or speak only the truth.
COLLECT ARTIFACTS
There are lots of historical items around the island, collecting them will take you to another level of… achievements!
EARN THE TRUST OF NATIVES
Natives are discreet residents of the island. Taking information from them will require earning their trust.
Read More: Best Mystery Side Scroller Games.
Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony - Prologue
Beautiful, creative game. I had fun playing, I’ve been following the team for a while, I’m sure the game will improve.
Sounds are really professional, I would even buy some of them to listen all day long.
In my hands our main character would definitely get pneumonia.
Also we won’t get along with the eagle in the main menu of the game, when I try to pet his head, he is turning his head :( … maybe he is trying to tell me something… maybe we will see that in the next episode… I’m very excited.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Singleplayer Games.
Interesting enough, it has the potential to be a solid point-and-click adventure game if the story’s done proper. There are a few issues though, mainly the grammar. There are a good number of grammatical errors. Misspellings, (not mentioning the pirates), odd spacing between letters, even a line of dialogue where an S is on the wrong word where it was meant to be at the end of the previous word.
I’m not trying to sound like a grammar freak, it’s just since text is the main way the game communicates with the player, it’s gotta be solid for it to stick. It honestly feels like they ran the text through Google Translate, or maybe a less experienced translator working on the English text?
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Flynn and Freckles
| Byte-sized review | A platform adventure best left marooned on a deep sea ocean island |
| Review | I adore 2D/3D colourful platformers (next to RPG’s it’s my second favorite genre). In fact some of my favorite gaming memories consist of myself huddling around the NES, SEGA Mega Drive, Playstation 1 and 2 playing through each systems latest colourful platformer, often staying up into the wee hours of the morning getting lost in each ones world. While the genre has fallen out of favor somewhat unfortunately with the big publishers thankfully we have indie game studios trying to rekindle the flame and through that we have seen a popular resurgence with 2D 8/16 bit adventures such as Shovel Knight and The Messenger and in the 3D realm with the brilliant A Hat in Time to the mediocre and somewhat disappointing Yooka-Laylee (disappointing considering the talent behind this one) to even Crash Bandicoot making an appearance on modern systems with the well received Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy. The moment I saw Flynn and Freckles pop up on the Steam store I knew I immediately had to give it a try. Sadly, and really it pains me to do this because I can see the developers clearly have the same love for the genre as I do even citing Spyro, Guybrush and Crash in the credits as inspiration for the game, I just can’t recommend this game. While the PS2 aesthetics didn’t bother me in the slightest (I found the graphics quite charming in a simple way) what is unfortunate is how bland and unremarkable the adventure is. Had this released in the early noughties it would probably have gone completely unnoticed as well and while it tries to pay homage to the era it does nothing to make it stand out. Coupled with terrible animations (Flynn walks like he has a carrot stuck up his backside) and a dull-as-dishwater plot (young pirate searches for the treasure of one fabled pirate), I could have probably gotten over those issues and simply given the game a “meh” rating if it were not for the one mechanic that simply ruins it all, a mechanic you need to absolutely nail in a platform adventure, you know - the jumping bits. Jumping bits that require precision but that are totally broken. I spend more time dying and getting frustrated with the jumping, especially since the game is quite puzzle heavy (nothing taxing), but often requires that the jumping mechanic actually works, which it doesn’t. Lots of trial and error ensured much to my chagrin. The second major issue I have with this game is that it only saves periodically but not enough (mostly only when you enter a new area) and should you die (and you will thanks to the broken jumping mechanic) you are often forced to replay through large sections, having to resolve puzzles you just solved (and often struggled to solve because of the jumping mechanic working against you). This ultimately ends up sinking this adventure. |
– Real player with 9.4 hrs in game
TL;DR - it’s busted on a fundamental level. Due to serious collision detection problems, your character freezes on landing from a jump, or falls through the platform, or fails to jump. The level design does not account for this. I did not finish the game because my save file has permanently preserved or not preserved the state of various level elements in such a way that it can’t be completed anymore, with no option to restart the level. Do not buy this game.
The game has crippling problems with collision detection, even with recognizing whether you have landed from a jump, and so you can receive fall damage from a relatively small fall. The collision detection problems also make your character come to a dead stop for like a fifth of a second on landing, and make you simply slide off some platforms without jumping, or fall through solid platforms when falling fast enough.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones
The final chapter of the Nightmares from the Deep trilogy.
Game: Museum Director Sarah Black and her daughter Cory are kidnapped by the infamous Davy Jones during a public and seeming well attended museum presentation about Davy Jones (compiled from all the information Sarah had gathered during her first two adventures). (All I can say about that is getting donations and funding for the museum repairs and more exhibits should be easy after such a supernatural, flashy, and public kidnapping.) I digress. The ever resourceful mother-daughter team manage to break out of their jail cell and attempt to leave Davy Jones ship but are recaptured. Davy Jones is going to kill Sarah but Cory makes a contract with Davy Jones to save her mother’s life. Davy Jones instead of outright killing Sarah forces her to walk the plank. (Typical pirate) The adventure begins here. Find Cory and break her contract (and every other contract Davy Jones has ever made along the way, including Davy Jones' own contract.) Sub-storyline: Find out even more about Davy Jones and just how he became the infamous “devil” of the sea, and why. And who that mysterious girl ghost is and her relationship with Davy Jones.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones is the final chapter in the Nightmares from the Deep series, with this third game completing the story of Sarah Black, and her endeavour to stop the endless curses by Davy Jones, the infamous sea devil.
After the troublesome events of Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren’s Call, one would expect Sarah to rest upon her journey, but no, she went deeper and kept her museum with one goal in her mind; The search for the truth, the true identity of Davy Jones, and the pirates that once spread havoc over the seas. This is exactly what fires up our new journey, as Sarah, with the help from her daughter Cory, do a presentation of Davy Jones, to a live audience at the museum. According to new information acquired by Sarah, the sea devil, it’s not just a legend, he was real, a flesh and bone person, giving a whole new perspective of the story behind the most dangerous pirate who ever sailed the seas.
– Real player with 9.1 hrs in game
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
¸.•*¨).•´¸.•*¨) Nightmares From The Deep ¸.•*¨).•´¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.*´ ¸.•´(¸.•´ The Cursed Heart ¸.•´ (¸.*´ ¸.•´ (¸.*´
~Overview~
STORY: 3/5
DIFFICULTY: 1/5
GAMEPLAY: 3/5
GRAPHIC: 2/5
REPLAYABILITY: 2/5
~My Personal Progress~
Story: 300% [beat the game three times, in regular and expert mode]
Time played: 10h05m total [3h55m 1st run (regular) + 3h15m 2nd run (expert, mahjong achievement) + 2h55m 3rd run (expert, hidden object achievement)]
Achievements: 100% [15/15 ACMs]
~Review~
“Nightmares From The Deep: The Cursed Heart” is a simple hidden-object-/puzzle-game set in a mystic “cursed Pirate”-Adventure.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart is one of the very first games developed and published by one of the top names in Hidden Object games; Artifex Mundi. Released in 2012, this deep adventure was released 2 years later on steam, and gained immediate attention.
You play as Sarah Black, a museum owner whom just like in any other night before a big event, is incredibly busy with paperwork and artifacts. But tonight is different, it’s a special show, a night dedicated to Captain Remington, one of the most infamous pirates in the Caribbean.
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
Treasure of Barracuda
It’s short, and it’s free. It’s basically a demo for a real-life object. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of tactile feedback that you would normally use to help solve something like this that there’s no way to include. You might need a walkthrough even on easy, you’re probably going to need one on medium. Still, it’s free, so it’s worth a shot.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
A very relaxing and challenging puzzle game.
If you like The Room games, puzzles and Lego you’ll love this!
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Captain Firebeard and the Bay of Crows
This pirate game (long title, can’t be bothered to write it all down) is a charming kinetic novel with a pac-man style minigame. They really should have just written that on the blurb instead but I understand that such a concise description isn’t great for marketing so you’ll have to get your gospel truths from me!
In my usual style I will rattle through my categories:
Story, Writing & Characters
The plot is interesting and has a splash of real history, which I like a lot. Too many times have I seen things set in the Golden Age of Piracy where certain elements are taken from completely different centuries and then smashed together into one, ignoring historical accuracy. I can tell that everything here is really well researched and correct. The writing was sharp, witty and period accurate. The characters feel realistic and consistent and you do feel that you are on an exciting adventure, which is essential in a pirate tale. I liked the jokes a lot, especially those surrounding the hapless captain and his unlucky crew. My favorite character was probably Lady Wendy; something about powerful, calculating women just does it for me… mmmm Teresa May…. I also enjoyed that a fellow Frenchman was shown as being a bad-ass pirate hunter! That was maybe the best bit for me! Vive La France!
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
Captain Firebeard And The Bay Of Crows is an adventure visual novel both developed and published by Sapphire Dragon Productions. This title follows the adventures of the swashbuckling Captain Firebeard and his band of pirates as they attempt to pull off one of the biggest heists in all of history. Prepare to set sails for a thrilling escapade ripe with dangerous combat, dubious encounters and bountiful riches to be accquired as you attempt to make Captain Firebeard the king of all pirates…Blackbeard be darned!!!
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Pirates: Mystery of Skeleton Island
Go on an epic adventure on the Skeleton island! You have to sail on boats, of course drink rum and fight with cursed skeletons. You have to choose a pirate to go through the adventure with the captain. Be brave, mate! Voyage to the Skeleton island where’s not anybody stayed alive. Search treasures while discovering islands, and spend them improving abilities and buying your own pet! Discover atmospheric islands’s flora and fauna, architecture and its history, passing through the storm. Swim under water and search chests full of gold through corals. And reveal the damned island’s secret!
-
Choose your own pet
-
Swim under the water
-
Go through sands, rain and thunderstorm
Return of the Obra Dinn
In “Return of the Obra Dinn” you’re an insurance investigator who is tasked with determining the fates of all 60 crewmembers aboard the Obra Dinn, a merchant ship that went missing in the early 19th century. Among your possessions is a pocketwatch that, when opened while standing nearby (the remains of) a corpse, shows you a glimpse of the deceased’s surroundings – and what they heard – at the moment of their death.
Furthermore, you have a book in which you keep a record of every crewmate’s death and disappearance. It also contains an artist’s rendition of the face of every crewmember and a list of the crewmember’s names, their occupation and their nationality. Your task is to assign a fate to everyone aboard the ship by using the 3D stills the pocketwatch provides you with. Some people’s fates are easier to determine than others, and the game will rely heavily on your deductive reasoning skills, since you’ll have to draw conclusions by narrowing down possibilities. Although sometimes conclusions based on guesswork and incomplete information were required too.
– Real player with 15.7 hrs in game
TL;DR
People declaring Obra Dinn a prime example of games-as-art and a shining pinnacle of what games in general should strive to be, probably have little to no understanding of how games actually work and wouldn’t recognize a good game if it hit them in the forehead. The core puzzle is good, tho.
Longer version
It’s better to know one important thing before even considering buying The Return of Obra Dinn. This can make or break your experience with it.
The whole affair boils down to solving one big constraint satisfaction problem (think the famous Zebra, or Einstein’s, puzzle) uniquely presented as a series of “memories” (still 3d dioramas) accompanied by an interactive notebook instead of a usual cell table. There is nothing else to it, period.
– Real player with 15.6 hrs in game