Viking Brothers 3 is set up like most road-clearing time management games out there. You’ve got a handful of resources to pay attention to, everything from stones to wood, food to gold. By sending out workers you can pick up free piles of these resources, or spend them clearing obstacles out of the path. Just about everything you do costs resources, though, so you have to plan which roads you travel and which ones you leave be.

Upgrades and power-ups are a big part of the Viking Brothers 3 experience. You have buildings corresponding to each resource (sawmills for wood, quarries for stone), and if you manage things right you can upgrade them to be even more productive. The bottom of the screen holds a small bar that fills over time. When it reaches an icon, you’ve got a power-up you can use. These vary from level to level but often give you things like a temporary extra worker or speed boosts for all of your clan.

Each stage has a set number of goals to complete that often require opening up the entirety of the map. A lot of these involve mundane things like chatting with other vikings, but occasionally you’ll get to fight ogres, take on wolves, smash pillars, or have a real conversation with a goddess. It’s not a staggering amount of variety, but it’s enough to keep you guessing.

The Viking Brothers 3 quest takes place over a few dozen levels scattered across seven realms. Each of these introduces new obstacles to contend with, but the core gameplay never deviates from the basics. It’s a game about managing resources. Sometimes things will be tight, sometimes they won’t, but as long as you keep an eye on the count and push your workers to the limit, you’ll do just fine.

Viking Brothers 3 sticks with the basics but presents them in a fun, lighthearted way. The story leaves a little to be desired, but the character dialogue delivers some funny moments that makes it a great ride.

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It’s pretty easy to get the basics down in Legendary Slide 2. You’re in a temple filled with stone tiles, you see, and you really want to make them disappear. To do that you’ll slide movable pieces by clicking and dragging down the path. When two identical tiles touch side to side, they vanish. Repeat until the entire screen is clear, then move on to a more difficult puzzle!

The slide-and-match concept seems pretty simple, and in practice, it really is. What Legendary Slide 2 does with it makes the game all the more incredible. We’ll start with one of the core aspects of the stages: height. Different layers of temple brick means you won’t always have an easy time sliding tiles next to their matches. Bridge building is key, but you have to be careful which blocks you drop down pits, as there usually isn’t a way to climb back up. Think before you click and plan your slides accordingly, otherwise you’ll have to start the puzzle over again.

Outside of the physical stage design, Legendary Slide 2 also packs in things like immovable blocks, directional arrows, freeze spaces, jump portals, and a lot more, each one causing you to stop and consider your movements before bumping tiles around. In case you do make a mistake, a quick undo button lets you back up as far as you like, even to the beginning of the stage. To get the full three stars for each level you’ll have to be precise with your movements without going over the movement counter, so make heavy use of that undo button!

On the “optional but awesome” list of features, Legendary Slide 2 gives you full control over the look and feel of the game. The temple setting is nice, but what if you’re more of a farm person? Use the skinning icon to switch backgrounds, tile decorations, music, and layer highlighting, all of which can make things easier to use or just more attractive.

Like its predecessor, Legendary Slide 2 is a sit back and think sort of game, not a fast-sliding crash ‘n bash tile flinger. The design is so simple and so perfect you’ll never get frustrated, however. Legendary Slide 2 knows exactly what to do with its core elements to keep things interesting. It looks great, it plays like a dream, and the included 80 puzzles will keep you scratching your head for hours. A great release for puzzle fans of all kinds, not just mahjong lovers.

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As Lost Lands progresses you can’t help getting pulled into the plot. It unfolds effortlessly and with no shortage of drama, especially when you start uncovering bits and pieces of the backstory. Once you’re hooked you’ll be pleased to see the game doesn’t skimp on the puzzles, either. You’ll find plenty of items to stuff into your inventory, including interactive ones that need a little manipulation before they’re useful. Obstacles that block your path can usually be removed with something nearby, so you don’t have to worry about backtracking to find that long-lost item you didn’t pick up half a game ago. Even if you do, the fast travel map makes it easy to explore.

Mini-games are a strong part of the Ice Spell experience. They come at a rapid pace, challenging you to solve short puzzles or pass quick-click tests that take all of five seconds to complete. The first few minutes of the game have you shoveling snow and sneaking past ice wolves, for example. Later on these games branch out into new types of challenges, but they never lose their spirit of simple fun.

Hidden object scenes are another big part of Lost Lands. You won’t find anything groundbreaking, unfortunately, just lists or silhouettes with items that need to be picked out of the crowd. Ice Spell doesn’t rely on cheap scaling or camouflage tactics to stash its objects. Instead, be smart, interact with and investigate the scenery, and see how fast you can click. It’s more about solving seek and find puzzles instead of raw item hunting, which is actually a lot of fun.

Exploring the scenery and story surrounding the Lost Lands is nothing short of epic. Once of the pitfalls a lot of casual adventure games fall into is keeping a narrow focus on a few elements of drama, things like secret societies or warring wizards. Ice Spell does that to an extent, but it doesn’t neglect its world building in the process. You feel like you’ve been turned loose into an entire world, one that’s intent on keeping certain things hidden from you as you solve its various puzzles.

With a great story, solid mini-games, and tons of extra collectibles to hunt down, Lost Lands: Ice Spell weighs in as a heavily entertaining hidden object game. Show up for the clever story, stay for wealth of puzzles!

The post Lost Lands: Ice Spell Review – Fantasy in the Snow appeared first on Gamezebo.

Dark Parables: Queen of Sands is a casual adventure game that’s heavy on action, interaction, and mini-game elements. You’ll piece together the mystery behind the roaming beasts one clue at a time, slowly revealing a history of strife and suffering. While you’re doing this you’ll bump into plenty of puzzles and even more collectible items, many of which need a little tinkering before they can sit in your inventory. Queen of Sands introduces you to the basics in the first few minutes of gameplay, but it’s not until a chapter or two later that everything starts to gel. When it does, you’ll be glad you stuck around.

Dark Parables sprinkles a good variety of hidden object scenes across its eight main chapters. Text lists and shadow silhouettes are common, as are fragmented hidden object scenes. All are decorated with lavish illustrations that are at once colorful and realistic. It’s a ton of fun to actually pick out the items you need to solve each scene, as it’s more than just shape recognition. You have to look, study, and sometimes uncover before you can click. Not a lot of interaction is involved, but you’ll still find yourself engrossed each time a new scene arrives.

Mini-games are another highlight of the Queen of Sands experience. As is usual for the Dark Parables series, you’ll stumble across everything from quick and familiar to detailed and unique mini-games. Most will take just a few seconds to decipher and maybe a minute or two to solve. They usually present you with some fun illustrations or clever clicking mechanics (or both in the case of the puppet show!), which is a great way to enliven the atmosphere from the usual cursor motions.

What Dark Parables: Queen of Sands lacks in originality it more than makes up for in design. The game is incredibly well-built, walking a fine line between giving you freedom to explore and keeping you on the right path. You’ll never get lost or stuck in this game, but that doesn’t mean it won’t challenge you with its sometimes odd puzzle solutions. The story sticks to the basics, but it’s told with such fantastic animations that you really don’t mind. Presentation means a lot in a hidden object game, and Queen of Sands uses it to deliver an incredible experience.

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The storyline in Queen’s Quest 2 unfolds at a gradual pace, skipping the usual glut of cutscenes in favor of gameplay driven narration. Things start off with a simple investigation. Someone killed the king’s guard (who happened to be a wolf at the time). He needs to know who did it, and you’re the best fit for the job. As soon as your quest begins you start tripping over strange event after strange event. Before long you find yourself entangled in a web of underground criminals, which is probably the last thing you thought would happen today.

Most of Stories of Forgotten Past revolves around exploring the kingdom and filling your inventory with tons of useful items. A lot of what you pick up will be interactive, even just minimally so. Grab an envelope and pull it apart, find a box and reach through the lid. Queen’s Quest 2 rarely lets you get away with quick-click collections, which makes the world feel a lot more interactive. When combined with smart item distribution, you’ll enjoy minimal backtracking and maximum entertainment.

There are a few different styles of hidden object scenes in Queen’s Quest 2, most of which follow a basic format of text list plus cluttered screen above. The formula gets switched up on occasion by providing heavily interactive items displayed with unique color codes, forcing you to think instead of just look and click. If hidden object hunts aren’t your thing you can always switch over to a puzzle alternative where you uncover and pick out concept-matching tiles (squirrel plus acorn, for example) to complete the section.

Outside of the main elements, Stories of Forgotten Past dives into the unusual with a potion mixing kit. By picking up ingredients and processing them in a special mini-game you can transform yourself and the world around you. Need to fly? There’s a potion for that. Gotta shrink down for a sec? Drink up! Alchemy often kicks off a short mini-game, such as the simple but fun click events you’ll complete when flying to the castle.

You can sit and nitpick a few minor details in the Queen’s Quest 2: Stories of Forgotten Past, but when it comes down to it this is an incredible game. The story progression is clever and imaginative, the puzzles keep you guessing, the alchemy sections are wildly entertaining, and the hidden object scenes are always fresh. There’s enough dynamism here to keep even jaded casual adventure fans begging for more.

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The Secret Order: Beyond Time is best described as a dense game. Each scene is packed with stuff to examine, everything from zoomable areas to items you can pick through and collect. Moving things around often reveals even more spots you can check out, making locations feel like a living representation of the game’s world. This density lends itself well to a full inventory bar and rewards curious clickers. It also gives you a moment to appreciate the intricate artwork spread throughout this time-bending adventure.

Hidden object scenes come along at regular intervals in Beyond Time. Most of them are standard fare with a list of items to find and a crowded scene looming just above. Others take inspiration from adventure-style puzzles and challenge you to piece together objects or solve short riddles before you can collect an item on the list. For example, a snake might pop out of a basket, blocking you from an object you need. By assembling a flute from various scattered pieces, you can charm the little bugger and complete the puzzle without getting bitten. Hooray!

Apart from the usual array of puzzles and hidden object scenes, The Secret Order also gives you a fun little companion to help you when you’re in a bind. Nubi is ever at the ready, perched beside your inventory with several neat skills he can unleash with a quick click. See an item you can’t quite reach? Send Nubi to crawl into tight spaces, that’s what he’s made for! You’ll also bump into the occasional mini-game, but to be perfectly honest, most of them aren’t all that intricate or unique.

The Secret Order: Beyond Time doesn’t do anything overtly different from other games in the hidden object genre. It sets itself apart by employing more subtle design choices, however. The focus on dense scenes is a quiet but incredibly effective change of pace, forcing you to slow down and focus on your environment instead of dashing through with rapid fire mouse clicking. You’ll also need to examine your inventory more closely to solve the puzzles, as some are a little more involved than you might expect. Beyond Time isn’t the kind of game to shout its high points from the rooftop, but once you dig into this time traveling casual adventure, you won’t be able to stop until you reach the end.

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Sins of the Past follows a basic casual adventure game setup that utilizes a lot of back and forth exploration and item manipulation. Stick your cursor into every nook and cranny to find new sections to investigate, then take those items and put them to use in a series of magic-inspired puzzles. The nature of the Queen’s Tales world means you rarely get ordinary objects with ordinary uses. Even a simple hammer is a two-part item that looks like human fists bound at the wrist. Creepy.

The story intrigue begins right away in Sins of the Past, but it takes the game’s puzzles a chapter or so to really warm up. Most of the early mini-games are well-illustrated but not all that unique. The first one, for example, has you finishing a piece of embroidery by clicking on tiny little squares one at a time. Later on these diversions do get better, but it’s tough struggling through the first few.

Hidden object scenes keep it simple with a list of items at the bottom and a crowded room of random stuff up top. Sins of the Past uses an old school style of HOG design where screens are absolutely packed with distractions, everything from scaled-up objects to tiny, nearly camouflaged ones. The difficulty doesn’t really throw you for a loop, so if you’re prepared for a few interactive items and don’t mind the occasional pixel hunt, you’re good to go.

A high point of the Queen’s Tales experience is definitely the art and the world design. A tremendous amount of creativity went into illustrating this game. You can feel it in the gentle shading of the static backgrounds as well as the dramatic flair thrown into some of the animations. This gives the game an amazing epic fantasy feel, the kind where you wouldn’t be too surprised if a dragon swooped down and ate the top of the castle in a single bite.

For the most part Queen’s Tales: Sins of the Past plays things safe. The puzzles and mini-games don’t take any changes, the hidden object scenes are on the average side of ordinary, and the story progression is largely predictable. There are a few fun extras that keep you entertained along the way, including hidden chess pieces and other stashed secrets. Overall it’s an enjoyable game that will leave you with a satisfied smile on your face.

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Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Mystery of Marie Roget is a casual hidden object game that ups the creepy factor by a considerable amount. The story takes place in and around Marie’s home, though everything has this air of mystery and suspense about it, even the less haunted areas. Your investigation will let you dig through both Marie and her husband’s past, uncovering sinister secrets that might help you solve the murder that recently took place. Calling this a “chilling” adventure is a bit of an understatement.

Most of your time in The Mystery of Marie Roget will be spent gathering a ton of items and carrying them from screen to screen as you try to figure out the solution to the next obstacle. Puzzles are evenly divided between the hyper logical (key goes into lock) and the hyper odd (crazy arrow medallion goes where now?). Nothing too difficult, mind you, it’s just a good idea to think outside of the box and try unusual solutions as often as you can.

Hidden object scenes stick to the basics and present a list of items at the bottom with a cluttered screen at the top. Several items will be highlighted as interactive, and this is where the fun begins. Instead of simply putting two pieces together and collecting the object, Dark Tales makes you search through the environment, moving things out of the way and often engaging in three or four step puzzles before you can tick the item off your list. This puzzle oriented HOG design is challenging and a lot of fun, though don’t expect every scene to go all-out on the originality scale.

Outside of its quirky storyline and off-base puzzles, The Mystery of Marie Roget pretty much keeps things middle of the road. Many of the mini-games are super fast and easy to solve, barely even qualifying as “mini” by some standards. You do have some fun diversions to keep you entertained, however, such as the mirror that provides clues and the morphing item collection screen that takes the form of an aquarium. If you don’t mind a little rough voice acting and the occasional frustrating puzzle solution, Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Mystery of Marie Roget will give you a fantastic ride from beginning to end.

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