The magic of art! - a review of Drawn: The Painted Tower

Every so often, we get to play a one-of-a-kind casual game that raises the bar and leaves us wanting more. Big Fish Studios' Drawn: The Painted Tower is this kind of game. Interested? Read on!

What I liked Whimsical art style Adventure game mechanics Fitting music Good game length Built-in hint system Fun puzzles What I didn't like Technical issues Vagueness in the story

Quick Plot

Save a magical artistic girl from a looming threat!

Mechanics

Inventory: This is an inventory-based adventure game, like Monkey Island or Grim Fandango. You'll encounter puzzles along the way, and there's a story driving it all, but you spend most of your time traveling around the environment collecting inventory items and using them. Exploration: Some games, like the Nancy Drew series, are more heavily driven by conversations with characters, and often include lots of text to read. This isn't the case with Drawn - for which I was thankful. This game is more in the style of Myst, where you're wandering around trying to figure things out as you explore various areas. Hints: Unlike most adventure games, Drawn has a built-in hint system that slowly refills after each use. So, you don't have to leave the game and look up a walkthrough when you're stuck. Fortunately, the game wasn't difficult enough to require frequent use of these hints. But for those of you who like them, the hints are there. Similarly, after a certain amount of time on a puzzle, you are offered a "Skip Puzzle" option.

Highlights

Art-style: The development team for this game put in lots of work to create beautiful environments. The dreamy and cold look permeates everything. The style is whimsical, with odd curves and unbalanced lines throughout. Rarely will you play a casual game with this much beauty. A sense of direction: If you've played many adventure games, you know the sinking feeling that comes when you reach a point in the game where you have absolutely no idea what to do next. Drawn pleasantly avoids this flaw. Everything you need for a task is usually nearby, or somewhere else obvious. The times when I felt like I didn't know what to do next, it was because I hadn't tried something relatively simple in my current surroundings. You shouldn't ever be stumped for long in this game.

Music: The music in this game does what any good adventure game music does - it matches the theme of the game, and enhances the mood of each scene, making the experience engaging and memorable. This music team did well. Game length: Very often, I find games to be too short, and therefore a waste of money. I think you'll find that Drawn has a very reasonable length. You accomplish a good number of things before the final resolution of things arrives. Puzzles: I love puzzles. An adventure game without good puzzles is like a movie without any memorable scenes. Solving interesting puzzles is what makes adventure games so fun for me. This game has a good variety, requiring different types of mental processing and analysis. Sometimes, you simply need to use you mouse to trace lines or paint a picture. Sometimes, you need to make sense of a more complicated arrangement of things. I would compare the variety and difficulty level of these puzzles to the puzzles found in Nancy Drew adventure games.

Issues

Technical problems: The main problem I had with the game was surprisingly a technical one. Usually, the games I download from Big Fish play just fine, but this time I had a big problem where the game quit every time I reached a particular scene, and it happened for my wife too. We just couldn't advance. The good news is, once I contacted Big Fish's tech support, they were incredibly kind and helpful, and gave me troubleshooting steps to try. The steps worked and I was up and running soon after! If you ever have trouble with a Big Fish game, contact customer support right away. Theirs some of the best I've seen, right up there with Dell computers. Still, I don't understand why the game seems to require so many system resources. There are more intense mainstream games that have quicker load times than this game. Wait, what's going on?: It might just be me, but I wasn't ever entirely sure I understood the story in the game. With my wife's explanations, I was finally able to better understand what was going on. Personally, I dislike vague storytelling, or unexplained elements in tales. I want everything clearly communicated and every detail explained. Drawn doesn't do this. I was left with some questions about How, Why, Who, and such. Most people, I think, are fine with this kind of story, so don't take my word for it. I'm just picky.

Suitable for the family?

The kids seemed to like this one. While I can see the general lack of light in the scenery as being potentially spooky to little ones, it didn't seem to bother my kids too much. I asked my kids what they liked about the game. Kid1: The animals. Kid 2: The little girl. Kid 3: (Too young to have much of an opinion.) My wife also liked the game. She and I both wish more casual games were being produced with the strengths and features of Drawn.

The family man's final ruling

This is one of the best casual games I've played. It did almost everything right. And I was so glad they kept hidden objects scenes out of this game. These days, the industry seems to be trying to drown us with HOGs. But I say, bring on more adventure games!

You'll like the game if... You like adventure games, especially inventory-based ones You like nicely painted environments You won't like the game if... You don't like exploration and puzzles You prefer fast-paced repetitive type games

My rating:

Merry Christmas!

Merry CHRIST-mass to all of you, from the family man! Have a blessed day, and thanks for keeping up with A Game For Everyone!

Bring in the ostrich! - A review of Farm Frenzy 2!

You might remember my review of Farm Frenzy. Today, I will share my thoughts on the second game in the series: Farm Frenzy 2!

What I liked The same excellent gameplay from Farm Frenzy Improved 3D-looking graphics Lots of levels More upgrades than the first game Unlimited mode What I didn't like I still wished there were even more upgrades Still no ending to speak of

Quick Plot

Once again, manage the chaos of feeding animals, producing goods, and making money, with the additional task of sending an airplane into town to purchase necessary ingredients!

Features

• 6 types of animals to buy (chickens, pigs, cows, ostriches, dogs, cats)
• 4 types of goods to develop (eggs, pork, milk, feathers)
• 19 items to build and/or upgrade in the shop
• 19 awards to earn
• 90 levels
• Unlockable "Unlimited" mode
• You control everything from a first-person perspective, rather than controlling one character from a third-person perspective (as is common in many time management games)

The map. The dots are levels.

Highlights

Like the first Farm Frenzy, this is an economic time management game. Gameplay The gameplay is just like the first Farm Frenzy game, with one new addition. This time, in addition to your truck, you also have an airplane that flies into town. Some of the items you make require additional ingredients which can only be shipped in from town. This is what the plane is for. Like everything else, the plane can be upgraded in the shop to go faster and carry more cargo. You might think this will add more headache to the game. I thought it would. But, like everything else, you get used to it, and you learn to incorporate it into your farming routine. Music This time, some of the music has a plucky bluegrass style. The level music was repetitive, happy music, as in the first game, but with a new melody and country style. Graphics This time around, the graphics are improved. They have more shading and such, giving it a more 3D look. I don't mind this new look at all. It's quite nice. Moar stawf! I was pleased to discover that this sequel gives us more stuff to do. There are more

• levels
• upgrades, and
• animals.

The game has almost doubled the number of levels. And since the developers included one extra animal (the $70,000 ostrich), there are more buildings to purchase and upgrade. The ostrich is extremely expensive compared to every other animal (Not surprising really - have you ever seen the price on ostrich eggs? It's ludicrous.), but it also drops feathers that yield huge profit as you process them in your plants to make fans, hats, and dresses.

The hat-making factory.

Nevertheless, the one area where they didn't give us more is in the number of times you can upgrade each item in the shop. Being somewhat obsessive, I insist on getting Gold ranking on each level before moving onto the next. This leaves me with a constant supply of big money. As in the first Farm Frenzy game, you get to a point when you've purchased every upgrade in the shop and your wealth no longer does you any good. This is why I think they should have super pro upgrades for people who save up the huge wad of cash. It's just a letdown to have no reward for nailing the Gold reward on every level. One other little feature they added to this game is some little bonuses. These show up in the form of animals who pop into the scene for a brief moment, and then leave. You want to click on these animals before they disappear. Clicking on all of these animals that appear in the game should earn you an award in the awards room. Don't worry if you miss one. They show up multiple times. And finally, this game offers an Unlimited Mode. After you complete almost all of the levels in the game, you unlock a second mode of gameplay which, as the name would indicate, has no clear end goal. You jump in with nothing. Then, as you send bears into town and start buying chickens, you have a list of goals in the bottom corner. As you complete these goals, you earn stars. You use stars to make upgrades available. Then, with money, you purchase the upgrades. This goes on and on, with new goals appearing every time you complete another one. This mode is clearly for the enthusiasts who like the gameplay enough to put their skills to the test in such a manner. That includes me.

A level in progress.

Suitable for the family?

The kids, of course, had a great time watching this game, as with the first game in the series. There are cute animals romping all over the screen constantly. Dogs bark at bears, bears trash your work, and cats pick up all of your goods. There is nothing disturbing or weird in this game. It's just cute and colorful.

The family man's final ruling

I liked this game just as much as the first game in the series. The graphics are improved, and there's even more to track and accomplish. This is a great time management game for those who like producing, buying, and selling goods. Everything about the game is polished. Let me warn you though, if you're going for the Gold ranking on every level, like I did, you're bound to run into some stumpers. I played some levels over and over without discovering a possible method of achieving Gold. I had to look up answers online for two levels, I think.

You'll like the game if... You liked the first Farm Frenzy You like strategic time management games You like cute games You like farm-themed games You like economic games You won't like the game if... You prefer less strategy in your time management games You prefer to control a character who runs around serving food You don't want to track a whole lot of simultaneous activity

My rating: