If you like the Artifex Mundi style, then you'll probably like Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink. I have to admit, this developer has changed my opinion on hidden object games in general because their titles consistently manage to combine an engaging story with puzzles that are challenging but not taxing or tedious, quality artwork, and music and voice acting that suit the story well. Clockwork Tales delivers, and is probably one of my favorites in this genre.

I really like the Steampunk aesthetic, personally, so I thought it worked nicely into the format of a hidden object game. The bad guys here are militaristic fanatics with suspiciously German-sounding accents, so it's pretty obvious what imagery they were trying to evoke, but (pseudo-)Nazis blend well with the Steampunk style. I was amused by the effort to include a bit of a science/geology theme in some of the puzzles and in the story, and I also appreciated that (like several of the other AM games I have played) the protagonist of the story was female.

Clockwork Tales is not terribly difficult or long, and the game probably lacks much replay value, It's still pretty entertaining and I enjoyed the few hours I spent playing. The achievements can be won in just a few hours of casual gameplay, so if that's your thing, then this is your game. It's also a family-friendly game as most of the puzzles aren't too difficult and the theme isn't very scary.

I have to admit that Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink went and snatched the first place among my favorite Artifex Mundi games so far. I wonder why I haven't played this earlier. I knew I was getting myself a satisfactory HOG when I bought this, but I had no idea that I'll be having this grand a deal in HOG genre!

In a fictional steampunk version of 1700 Prussia, we take the role of Evangeline Glass; Dr. Ink's protégé and engineer extraordinaire. We hit the road to meet with the good doctor in Hochwald, part of Habsburg Monarchy at the time, on a letter that we receive from him earlier. Dr. Ink has been making a research on the alarmingly raising number of earthquakes that were dominating the area. He claims that he has proof that a corruption in local authority is responsible: General Engineer is abusing a dangerous machine to create these earthquakes and he should be stopped at once!

At this point, we all know what kind of game that we should be expecting from Artifex Mundi: beautiful artwork, genuine animations, charming setting, and a curious story. Above all our common expectations, Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink covers a narration and a period so dark, yet envelops it with fair music and an atmosphere straight out of fables. The marriage of Austrian culture with Enlightenment science gives birth to this amazing game. As a personal favorite, I couldn't avoid to mention the puzzle of Saints during the bonus chapter, which is a direct example of this marriage. Did I mention the artwork? I know I'm trying my chance, but even the achievements interface itself is an artwork, made of stain glass!

Gameplay is ordinary, yet the adventure elements of assembling machines are fairly imaginative. There aren't many HOG scenes, rather FROG - fragmented object game - scenes dominating this particular game. There is little to no backtracking, and a full functioning map. Puzzles are the kind that we are used to by now. As a change, in this particular adventure, we have the luxury of utilizing Matthew, a mechanical crow that we send out to gather items out of our reach, which spices the gameplay a bit up. We are also entitled to enjoy a bonus chapter at the end, to experience Dr. Ink's short adventure before Evangeline's arrival. The game is pretty short, being 5 hours or so with the bonus chapter.

Once I've completed the bonus chapter, I wholeheartedly wished there would be a series of Clockwork Tales games. I usually prefer downright fantasy or at least mythological elements in storylines, but Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink is an elegant exception that I'll let myself be enthusiastic about. As a side note, I'm in love with the steam machine crow named Matthew!

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Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink (IHOG)

Options include separate sliders for Music and Sound, Custom Cursor, Voiceovers and Full-screen/Windowed, plus your choice of Casual, Advanced and Expert play.

Hidden object scenes vary from Fragmented Objects to Silhouette to the usual finding items by list. The HOS are beautifully done, with nary a junkpile to be seen.

We have a mechanical helper that can fetch out-of-reach items for us.

POP CULTURE ALERT: Click on the little girl in the tavern (with a cat in her lap), and see what happens.

Insta-travel Map

BONUS CONTENT:

• 19 Achievements
  
• 30 Collectible "Steambugs", each with its own art and detailed description - find one on each scene!
  
• 12 Wallpapers ("Posters")
  
• 6 Replayable Mini-games
  
• 6 Replayable HOS
  
• 6 Music Tracks, can be saved to your computer
  
• 6 Concept Art
  
• Bonus Chapter (prequel to main story)

Although the story felt a bit ho-hum to me, the visuals are gorgeous, and the gameplay varied and fun. Recommended to IHOG-lovers!

I've played a handful of Artifex Mundi's hidden object games, and I think this may be my favorite one yet. Based on a popular series of Polish children's books, Clockwork Tales is an imaginative, fun, curious and enjoyable title who's emphasis is more on casual adventure than hidden objects. Set in a steampunk version of the 1700's, you play Evangeline Glass, an intelligent young protégé to the brilliant Dr. Ink. With the help of Ink's clockwork companion, Matthew the bird, you must save Hochwald and the doctor from the machinations of the evil Grand Engineer Barber.

One of the things I enjoy most about hidden object games is the beautiful and imaginative artwork many have, and this game is no exception. Everything, including the characters, have a hand-painted look which gives it a storybook-like quality. Even the characters share the art style, which looks so much better than the oddly rendered/animated 3D models in other games.

The game play is your standard IHOG/HOPA, adventure game lite with hidden object scenes mixed in. I always play on Expert to give me a bit of challenge and lengthen my game play, but I found Clockwork Tales to be quite easy, even more so than most games in the genre. This isn't a horrible thing, but considering how much I enjoyed the world that was created, I wanted to spend a lot more time there than a mere 3 hours on the hardest difficulty. Even so, the adventure aspect was very fun with nothing jumping out as being crazy illogical, and the many puzzles were moderately challenging despite most being reused from previous games. One nice touch was being able to utilize Matthew to collect out of reach items and perform certain tasks. Most of these aren't too hard to figure out, but it's a nice bit of flavor added to a genre that is very "cut and paste" in most gameplay aspects.

The hidden object scenes are very well done, nicely drawn items without too much clutter, and have a nice range of difficulty, but none of the items were what I would consider unfairly hidden. Mixed in amongst your standard HOS's are a few FROGs (fragmented object scenes), adding a bit of variety to the gameplay. I noticed, however, that the regular HOS's tend to get more plentiful the further you progress through the game. This wasn't an issue for me as I really like them, but not everyone shares that sentiment. For those who do not, the number of these scenes are quite low overall compared to other games.

While the setting is one of the best parts of the game, the story in the beginning feels a little rushed and can be a bit confusing. But once things get going and you move out of the village into the castle, the storytelling smooths out quite a bit. There are no dark, disturbing themes here (unlike so many others in the genre), and the story isn't deep by any means, but that doesn't detract from it's enjoyability. This is a game that can be enjoyed by anyone but makes a particularly good family game, especially for parents who are looking for less macabre fair to share with their kids.

One of my biggest issues in previous games from this developer has been the voice acting, but Clockwork Tales is a vast improvement overall, especially with the main characters. Now I'm not saying these are award winning performances, but they're not jarring nor do they sound out of place given the material, and they don't pull me out of the experience as they would in other games. Funny enough, the one game in which I find the voice work to be pleasant enough is the one in which we get a toggle for the voiceovers. The option is still appreciated and I hope we continue seeing it in the future.

This is the Collector's Edition of the game and comes with the bonus chapter (a short prequel to the main story), replayable puzzles and hidden object scenes, wallpapers, soundtrack and collectible "steambugs" that are sprinkled throughout the game. I'm usually not big on having to find additional hidden items in these types of games, but the steambugs were a treat. Aside from their imaginative and adorable designs, they're generally not too hard to spot, although it may take you a couple of play throughs to find a few you missed.

All in all, I enjoyed Clockwork Tales immensely and am only disappointed in it's short length. But the little time that I spent in the game world was time I completely enjoyed. I will definitely come back to this one again and again.

Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink is a steampunk style HOG along with some puzzles that is a nice uncomplicated diversion. The puzzles in the game are mostly easy to medium even with the difficulty set to hard. Two of the puzzles I would consider to be hard. I enjoyed the story and the characters, they both kept me involved in the game.

The graphics of the game really set the stage for the steampunk style. They are well done and were one of the main reasons I actually bought the game. The voice-overs and cutscenes are also very good. I found no problems at all with the interface.

Getting all the achievements are fairly easy to do. And if you are good at these types of games I would estimate 8 hours or less to complete the game. If you are really organized 5 hours might do the job.

Overall I give the game a 7 as it is a decent representation of a HOG with very nice graphics and story.

- Excellent art work.
- Great story line.
- Clever, unique puzzles.
- Very helpful walkthrough.
- Fast click through dialogue.
- 3 modes.
- Collectables.

I recommend this game!

Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink is a point and click adventure game where you play as Evangeline Glass, a women who is sent to the far off village of Hochwald on a mission to rescue your mentor, Dr. Ink, and solve the mystery of what is causing so many earthquakes to rattle the foundation of the mountain village.

For those that have played other Artifex Mundi games, or any hidden object games in general, Clockwork Tales follows the typical game progressions; you’ll have to solve an array of puzzles ranging from painfully easy to somewhat challenging in difficulty. The puzzles probably were the strongest section of the game, combining different elements to create some genuinely interesting puzzles to overcome. However, the story, or lack thereof, and general progression of the game felt hurried and jumbled together like so many disconnected puzzle pieces; it left me wondering when the characters were going to be fleshed out and dissected or when the plot would even be marginally explained. Once the credits rolled, only then did I realize how much this title left out. Let’s review…

As Evangeline Glass, you arrive in Hochwald, a small mountainous village to meet with Dr. Ink. Shortly after your arrival, Dr. Ink is kidnapped by a giant robot oddly reminiscent of “The Iron Giant”, and whisked away to a fortified castle own by Engineer Barber and his mechanized cronies. Here’s where I had a real issue with the game; the story consists of a thinly veiled plot that tells the reader everything, leaving nothing to be discovered. Let me explain…

The earthquakes are abnormally frequent because they tell you so, the guards are corrupt because they tell you so, this town isn’t what it used to be because the citizens tell you that’s the case. The player doesn’t really figure out any of this for themselves; it’s all stated as fact. The worst trope that the game follows is that the soldiers are the “bad guys” so the game clads them in black, gives them a German accent and slaps on a mustache on them. Combine that all together and you've got the recipe for a generic criminal enterprise to topple.

It might sound a bit harsh, but when you factor in that the paramount points behind these types of games are the puzzles and the story, it makes a bit more sense. One without the other causes the player to lose sight of what they’re doing either due to a lack of interest of a lack of understanding. As mentioned above, the puzzles are the game’s strong suit, while the plot is the weakest portion of the game and ultimately why I cannot recommend it.

For those not interested in plot spoilers or have already played the game, when Dr. Ink is inconspicuously kidnapped by Engineer Barber's 50ft robot in the middle of town and nobody seems to notice but you, you’re tasked with saving him. You dawn a soldier’s Wolfenstein-styled uniform, barter for a helmet, board a zeppelin, repair a mechanical glider out of a box of scrap, infiltrate the castle, defeat a few robots to save Dr. Ink and disable Engineer Barber’s machine with some blueprints, a piece of chalk and a hexagon, thus ending the game.

The only parcel of information that is revealed at the end of the game is that the machine Engineer Barber controls was created by his father, who constructed it to prevent earthquakes from occurring. However, it has been reverse engineered to produce them instead; the reason for this never being explained. Then again, the backstory in its entirety is never explained. We’re not told who Dr. Ink is, how he discovered this place, why he cares, who Engineer Barber’s father is or why this contraption exists in the first place. At the end of the game, you simply disable, not destroy, the earthquake machine and leave Engineer Barber alone to simply rebuild and continue his work. There’s seemingly nothing stopping him from fixing the damage, firing some security personnel and investing in a gun to put you down the next time you crash land in his courtyard. The plot is just an intangible mess from beginning to end.

• Some of the puzzles are actually quite tricky.
  
• The artwork, layout and general theme of the game is well done.
  
• No bugs, glitches or progression issues were experienced during gameplay.

• The story is short and much of it is left unexplained.
  
• The voice acting is dreadful. I clicked on the old lady constantly in the tavern just to laugh and annoy my husband.
  
• The characters are very two-dimensional [personality].

Overall, Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink is just one of many hidden object games on Steam. There are better ones out there, several from the same developer and I’d suggest taking the time to look into those instead. With forgettable characters, atrocious voice acting and a subpar plot. If you enjoy hidden object games, I’d suggest looking elsewhere.

This was a very enjoyable Hidden-Object adventure game. However I do have to emphasize that this was mostly an adventure game, of the sort where you need to find a key to open a door or find scissors for a rope, and that sort of thing. I am quite happy to report that no Bat-Logic was involved-- that is, you don't have to be MacGyver to figure out that a bottle of aspirin and an airplane somehow become a key; everything made sense if you buy into the Steam-punk setting.

Besides the adventure-game part of Clockwork Tales, there were some Hidden Object Scenes and there were many puzzles. None were challenging to the point of being tedious and none required skipping, though several took a few tries until I worked out the solution. No walk-through is needed; I managed to complete all puzzles, but if there's one that you can't, then there's a skip button.

Additionally, there is an achievement to find mechanical beetles that are in each scene. There's one per scene, and they are usually animated, so there's really no way to miss any of them.

By the way, for those curious, Mr. Ink and Ms. Glass are the protagonists. You play as Ms. Glass, though Professor Ink helps you in the beginning and end chapters.

For achievement hunters: the game seems easy enough to get 100%. I played it once on normal to make sure I had a handle on the puzzles and adventure-game objects, but there's one last achievement for playing the game once on hard. So there's replay-ability. There's also a bonus prequel chapter I haven't done yet but I'll get to that this weekend.

All in all, this is a very fun game. There were no glitches or bugs, the art is fine (no pixel-hunting was required except in the hidden-object scenes in which by definition that is what you're doing) and the voice-acting was passable. My one regret is that I didn't get any backstory, but perhaps that is what the prequel is for.

Two thumbs up!

...is a hidden object puzzle game. Evangeline Glass sets out for the town of Hochwald to find her surrogate father, Dr. Ink, who has been investigating tremors happening across steampunk Gottland.

You begin your adventure in the town section, eventually moving to the castle section, and finally the volcano section. Within each section, you can (and are often required to) backtrack to find inventory items. A fourth section, under the guise of a prequel, is available once the main game is completed.

Puzzles are varied, such as moving panels, rotating gears, table labyrinths, maths, and, of course, the staple Hidden Object puzzle where you have a fixed scene filled with trinkets in which you must correctly identify some from a list at the bottom of the screen.

Hidden object puzzles have additional variety to them. Sure, you have the usual list of items to find, but others will focus on finding pieces and parts in order to build bigger parts, or a series of interacting objects until you are left with the item you need. All of these result in inventory items you use elsewhere or with other object in traditional point & click style.

Animations, while simple, respect the gorgeous hand-drawn aesthetics of the game. Hidden object scenes are also well drawn, with little-to-no distinction between removable object and the background panel. If a scene is used twice, objects removed the first time won't magically reappear on the second use.

The background music adds to the atmosphere or mystery, helping you feel you're in a foreign region or time, and the voice acting of main characters is sufficient to avoid breaking the immersion (with some notable exception, such as Mr. Rotten Apple).

It's too short, shorter than other games of the genre. My 5 hours of play include me being away from my computer for a while, as well as being stuck on two of the more difficult puzzles. The quantity of scenes isn't the problem, but you barely spend any time in many of them. The story is short as well, the speampunk setting isn't exploited enough.

With the exception of a few puzzles, most of the game is extremely easy. There's not as much clutter as you'd normally expect from the hidden object puzzles, most of which you'll need to do twice (with even less clutter the second time). The hidden steambugs are very hard to miss. Most inventory-based items are used immediately after finding, in many cases the game prevents you from picking them up until you actually need them.


It's nice to play another Artifex Mundi game after a few disappointing hidden object games. However, it is not the best game in their collection. This is why I'll only recommend Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink to real fans of the genre, keeping in mind there are some better ones out there.

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This was just my opinion.

If you found this review helpful, please consider giving it a thumbs up, and feel free to check out more of my (purely opinionated) reviews.

You defeat an evil German steampunk engineer in this casual hand-drawn hidden-object adventure lasting approximately 4 hours, with the "collector's edition" bonus chapter adding another hour.

The writing and voice-acting is competent if not exciting, the gameplay is linear to the point of having items in the scene disabled whose time has not yet come, there's an extensive help system: on easy, the map is marked where you need to be to progress in the story, and n the scenes there are golden sparkles on the puzzle you need to solve next. There are a few manipulation puzzles and some hidden object puzzles, and they're all fairly small and well integrated into the storyline: for example, with the hidden objects, you are always looking for something (or parts to something) that you'll need to progress in the storyline. I especially liked the dollhouse puzzle: 4 puppets in a dollhouse are looking for pairs of objects, and once you find the objects, you see a small animation where the dolls actually use them - very satisfying.

The storyline has voiceovers, the hints do not: I'd recommend the game for anyone age 6 and up if they can read or have someone who can help them if they get stuck (but with the hint system, that should hardly happen). Also, if you ever wanted your very own steambug collection or find the recipe for the Steam Horse drink ("I'd give up my helmet for a Steam Horse!"), this game might be for you.

The included bonus prequel is about an hour, with the professor in the village using the bits that you could look at, but not use, in the main game.

Some small gripes like light beams colliding instead of passing through each other or minor inaccuracies in the "evil German" grammar (the German subtitles are very well written!) do not detract from an overall experience that is well crafted, even if it doesn't reach the scope or the immersiveness of a "big" adventure like Machinarium.