I’m enjoying this game a lot more as I progress through it. That’s partly due to the gorgeous graphics and the way the story line reels you in. I look for games where i can play strong, intrepid, fearless female lead characters, and this is definitely one such game! I would however have liked more opportunities (side missions perhaps?) to explore the mansion, its contents and its grounds to learn more about its occupants and their connection with my character. In my view, taking the time or option to embark on such mini adventures also serve to reinforce the importance of the protagonist’s role in the story and the gamer’s investment in her story, and for me, the more human the characters seem, the more pleasurable the play. By the time I reached page 15 of my character’s journal, I’d completely forgotten my name and how I came to have this connection with the person I’m apparently searching for! I hope I find out more about the characters I’ve encountered briefly at the start before the end of the game. I like the range of collectibles being smaller sets, something that I’ve not seen in many HOP games, and I like this a lot as a device! It keeps me guessing. I find play becomes boring and predictable if I know I’m going to have to search each screen throughout the game for a chalice/corgi/skull etc). The hidden and morphing objects are just challenging enough to be entertaining rather than frustrating. The piano soundtrack doesn’t intrude and I seemed to detect subtle adjustments to the tempo/pace of the music to suit certain sequences and settings. The only issues I have had with the game overall is (1) a glitch in audio when characters have speaking “parts”: the screen freezes after a few seconds but the voiceover carries on. Once the audio has run its course, the video kicks in again (like silent film!). And (2) in one screen involving a cage and a trident, I couldn’t activate the arrow to leave the scene and had to click on the map to get out of that screen. So far, none of this has hampered my gameplay so in that sense it’s just irritating. Hopefully there won’t be any others. I would certainly love to play a sequel to this game if there was one, or other games like this in a series.
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