Update - Royal Envoy strategy guide - level 59!

I've added level 59 to my Royal Envoy strategy guide!

More to come...

Review - Drawn: Dark Flight!

After playing Drawn: The Painted Tower at the end of last year, I was very impressed (Read my review!). The unfinished story left me wanting more - more of the same immersive gameplay and the same magical world. Finally, Drawn: Dark Flight was released later in 2010. But did it live up to the greatness of the first game? That's what I'll tell you in today's review!

What I liked Same whimsical setting Fitting music Engaging puzzles Smooth gameplay Fascinating atmosphere What I didn't like I can't think of anything

Quick Plot

Picking up where the first game left off, you need to use art, magic, and puzzle-solving skills to help Iris overcome the dark evil that holds power over the city!

Mechanics

Adventure: This game falls solidly into the adventure category. You are traveling around, solving puzzles and picking up inventory items.

What pleased me so much is the fact that the game doesn't leave you clueless or floundering at any point, which is a guarantee in most standard adventure games. In this game, you typically have a pretty good idea about what to do, even if you get hung up for a short time.

Non-HOG: I highlight this because I was so glad this game wasn't a HOG. Most games on the casual scene these days are HOG-Adventures. In Drawn: Dark Flight, you're free from cluttered rooms and item lists. Ahhhhh.

Highlights

Puzzles: This game contained some of the most enjoyable puzzles I've ever encountered in an adventure game - and I've encountered a lot in my years as a gamer. Several puzzles are original in concept, which is exceedingly rare these days. So, puzzle fans, get ready for some fun.

Graphics/Atmosphere: The graphics and mood are the same as they were in the first Drawn game. The fanciful locations will take you to another time and place, where magic is real and anything is possible. The hand-painted art style is masterfully crafted, and the cold, sad atmosphere is easily felt.

Music: As in the first game, the swelling, dreamy music does it's job to accompany you on your mysterious journey. The themes and instrumentation adequately convey the mood and emotion of the game and it's various scenes.

Issues

Puzzle bug: The only issue I ran into was a little bug. During a puzzle in which you have to shift and align a number of rotating pieces, some of the pieces became strangely oriented (perhaps between exiting the game and starting it again?), and I could never find a way to reorient them. I don't know what caused this, but solving the puzzle became impossible, forcing me to skip the puzzle.

When my wife played this puzzle on her game, the pieces all stayed oriented just as they should, and she was able to solve the puzzle. I just happened to get a glitched save game, I guess.

Suitable for the family?

The game had great draw for both my wife and me.

The kids were a little nervous about one or two characters and scenes - it's a pretty solemn and shadowy game, after all. Still, they enjoyed watching, and appreciated various elements of the story and scenery.

The fantastical elements will be attractive to children: things like gnomes, woodland creatures, and flying books.

The family man's final ruling

Excellent. Big Fish Studios has put excellent work into one more brilliant game. I was thrilled to be free from hidden object scenes in what turned out to be a pure adventure game - following clues, using inventory, and solving puzzles while experiencing an interesting story.

The graphics are finely painted. The lighting, music, and ambience manage to pull you into Iris' magical world. Certain scenes made me pause and say, "Whoa." I also like the way that they worked music into the game as a story theme.

Perhaps best of all were the puzzles. The puzzles were original, engaging, and very fun to solve. Ever since the golden age of adventure games (with titles like 7th Guest, Obsidian, Black Dahlia, and Tex Murphy), great puzzles have been hard to come by. Most puzzles now are repeats of the same thing you've done in all of the other games. But in this Drawn sequel, you'll experience fresh, challenging new puzzles that will have your mental gears turning happily.

I liked this game even more than the first Drawn game. It was that good.

Here you have one of the best games of 2010, if not THE best. Get it, and prepare to be immersed in an artistic world of good and evil.

You'll like the game if... You liked Drawn: The Painted Tower You like adventure games You're tired of HOGs You like solving good puzzles You like magical stories You like a dark, somber atmosphere You won't like the game if... You don't like adventure games

My rating:

Update - Royal Envoy strategy guide - level 60!

Level 60 has been added to my Royal Envoy strategy guide! Enjoy!

Update - Royal Envoy strategy guide - level 61!

I've added level 61 to my Royal Envoy strategy guide!

It was a real challenge finding a solid, surefire method of achieving the gold seal on this one, but I finally came up with a solution for finishing the level with a bit of juice left in the timer. Enjoy!

Update - Royal Envoy strategy guide - level 62!

Level 62 has been added to my Royal Envoy strategy guide!

Updated my Royal Envoy strategy guide!

My Royal Envoy strategy guide seems to be helping people, so I've decided to add more levels to it as I have the opportunity. Today, I added level 63, the last level of the game. I'll probably continue working my way backward from there. "What is this...Royal Envoy?" you may ask. Read my review to find out!

How minor flaws can ruin a casual game.

I have tested scads of casual games. New games are released every single day, and yet I buy very few of them. I have identified a category of game that I call "Great game, if it didn't have this minor flaw." Many are the times when I was close to purchasing a game, but decided against it on account of a minor flaw. Minor flaws have amazing power. They can make or break the purchase, and can often be the difference between satisfaction and agony. What do I mean when I say, "minor flaw"? I mean, some feature that is small in scope or principle. This is contrasted with big flaws, such as "way too short" or "terrible artwork." Let me give you some examples that I thought of this morning. I'll begin with the king of all tragic minor flaws.

My Kingdom for the Princess 1 and 2

Here was a game with interesting mechanics and nice graphics, with some strategy and time management. But it wasn't long before I cringed at the realization that you can't chain your actions. Many time management games build in a chaining feature, so that you can plan ahead while your character is carrying out her actions. But this game, which so obviously needs chaining, lacks this feature. A few levels without this feature had me bailing and uninstalling what was otherwise a pretty cool game. Then, they released a sequel. "Maybe they heard the complaints from the community and allowed chained actions this time!" we all thought. But it was not to be. Again, they denied us the sweet freedom of chained actions. How could they make this blunder twice in a row? Was the feature that hard to build in? For this reason, I bailed on both games.

Robin's Quest: A Legend Born

There are many games that fall into this category, but Robin's Quest is the first game that came to mind. The flaw: The game is too easy. The game was beautiful, with nice music, a clean interface, and a variety of tasks to accomplish. But there was very little challenge. If I'm going to spend money on a game such as this, I want it to make my mind work. Breezing through a game doesn't offer the kind of mental challenge that I'm looking for. The puzzles should have been more plentiful and more difficult. With a bit more difficulty, this game could have been really cool.

A second little quibble: It certainly didn't help that Robin was a woman either. I'm not against female characters - I've played dozens of games in the female protagonist role, which is fine with me. But this is a Robin Hood story, so it should be about a man. But this developer wanted to conform to the feminist culture in which we live, casting Robin's husband as a helpless whelp trapped in prison, while his heroic wife escapes from prison and works to save him. In a culture that feminizes and degrades men enough as it is, this game certainly doesn't help matters.

Enlightenus II: The Timeless Tower

I liked the first Enlightenus game (read my review), but was disappointed when I played the sequel. The flaw: The game was too much like the first game. I was hoping for some changes and twists to make the sequel fresh. But the developer didn't deliver. Sure, there were some tiny differences, but the game was mostly just an extension to the first game. The mechanics felt just the same, and even the music was recycled. I didn't feel like continuing with more of the same old stuff, so I abandoned this game.

There are cases where doing the same thing over again works out wonderfully, as long as appropriate changes are made. For example, Luxor 3 was an awesome marble popper. Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife was mechanically very similar, keeping every good element from Luxor 3. But they changed things like story, how the marketplace looked, and how you traveled around the map. They even added a battle mode. This is how sequels should work. The Drawn series also did this very well.

Farm Frenzy 3 Series

I loved Farm Frenzy and Farm Frenzy 2. Those games did everything right. Even Farm Frenzy Pizza Party was fun, if you didn't mind a rehash of FF2. Then, Farm Frenzy 3 was released. They had updated the graphics and interface with some new polish, and would eventually start moving into more unique and varied settings. The game also introduced a new female protagonist who would remain the focus of a storyline, which had never been a part of previous FF games. (Need I explain why the developer would introduce this new character? Or why the character was young, blonde, and female? Sex sells, folks. Even on the farm, apparently. *sigh*) This new Farm Frenzy game engine spawned numerous FF3-based sequels, including:

• Farm Frenzy 3: American Pie
• Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age
• Farm Frenzy 3: Madagascar
• Farm Frenzy 3: Russian Roulette, and
• Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing.

But there was one minor flaw: incredibly long load times. As much as I've wanted to enjoy these new FF games, the load times are longer than they need to be. When you're testing a demo and counting the minutes, you can't sit there waiting...waiting...waiting... I also noticed that the game will sometimes hang for just a split second when a bear is about to fall into the scene. Little glitches like that, and the introduction of the nubile female character (read: cheap marketing strategy), have kept me from investing in these games. So, what about you? Have you ever run into ruinous little flaws in games that would otherwise be good games?