Lost Lands 1: Dark Overlord (IHOG)

This is a gorgeous, high quality title that I mostly enjoyed.

Options include separate sliders for Music, Ambients and Sound Effects; Resolution; Full-screen/Windowed, Custom Cursor, and - if you're playing on Steam - Cloud Sync.

There are three difficulties to choose from. I chose to go with Hard, since there's an achievement for playing through on that mode... I thought that I'd only have to play through once to get all of the 'cheevo's that way, but I don't think it's possible to get them all in one play-through unless you use the Strategy Guide every step of the way :(

The aforementioned Strategy Guide is built-in, and gives you step-by-step instructions for everything - including placement of every object on your HOS! The only thing it doesn't show you is the location of all of the collectibles. There is one on every location in the main game (68 locaitions!), and there are multiple types to look for! ie. Skulls, pine cones, snails, etc. If you're having trouble spotting them - and they ARE hard to spot! - there's a great guide on Steam, which you will find HERE.

We have multiple types of hidden object scenes to complete: Lists, placing things back in the scene, and by silhouette. Really a nice variety to keep things interesting!

There is a jump-to map (interactive if you're not playing on Hard), but you can't use it over five times if you're going for all of the achievements :\ When you use a HINT, instead of giving your a directional arrow, it will pop your map open with the location you need to go to circled. A time-saver for sure, but it makes it difficult to limit usage to 5 times!

Let's address that which lessened my enjoyment of this game. In case you hadn't already guessed, it's the achievements.

There are 24 achievements to be earned, but I feel that some of them are unfair. Besides using the map only five times, there are mini-game achievements for finding x-items in less than 20 seconds or completing a mini on your first try... Seriously? It wasn't until I got into the bonus content that I found that I can re-play those minis to get the achievements, so I stressed every time one of them came up.

As a side note, the in-game achievements do NOT reset when you restart the game, so you don't have to worry about getting them all in one play-through.

The story seemed rather lackluster to me. I found that I really didn't care about little Jimmy or the evils of the land. For this title, the enjoyment came from the gameplay.

CE Content:

• 9 Wallpapers
  
• 9 Concept Art
  
• 16 Video Clips
  
• 6 Music Tracks, which you can save to your hard drive
  
• 27 Mini-games (replay here to get missed achievements!)
  
• 4 Puzzles (not part of main game, if I recall correctly)
  
• Bonus Chapter

There are 68 locations in the main game, and ten NEW locations in the bonus chapter. I am so happy that you get a REAL conclusion to the story in the main game, and that the bonus chapter is not just a tacked-on addition. It was just as high-quality as the rest of the game, and with some beautiful new locations.

This is a grade-A title - excellent in every way - whose enjoyment was lessened for me due to my achievement-hunting nature. It's gorgeous, the gameplay is interesting and varied, there is a ton of things to see and do... If you're an achievement-hunter like me, just try to let it go and enjoy the game. After all, it is a quality title to be enjoyed!

When your son is abducted by a shadow, you're thrown into a story of dwarves, dark lord and the renaissance of this evil entity. Will you manage to save the world and your son by preventing the Dark Lord to come back to life?

While the story is common in the HOG world, it's still a good one and a well-written, as you'll be helped by spirits, ghosts and a dwarf.

Anyway, the gameplay is the standard one: puzzles, hidden objects scenes, etc.. However, this game is quite interesting as the minigames are easy to solve and the hidden objects scenes are divided in three types: placing the object at the right place, finding the object corresponding at the silhouette and the traditionnal list of objects. However, each scene contains a close-up of a part of it - without forgetting the objects hidden in the scene that will require an action.

The graphics are correct, the backgrounds are also beautiful but after one moment, it was kinda long. Perhaps because I was in the mood of achievements hunting. Because the downside of the game are achievements. Some of them are quite hard to obtain despite the description - like the HO list without misclick. Given the nature of the list scenes, it's easier to unlock it in the bonus chapter, at the last HO because there was only one red item (hidden object). Also, I don't know why the painting games without misclick didn't unlock the first time as I never did a mistake.

Anyway, the bonus are also good: puzzles, minigames to replay (and unlock achievements you may miss although the paitings ones isn't working), concept arts, etc..

The bonus chapter is set after the main chapter, though there is a little problem: your character has now long hair.... but in the cutscenes, she has short hair again as part of recycling movies.

Anyway, the game is pretty good. It's a good and enjoyable one. I can recommend this one eyes closed.

In a nutshell: Play it. It's a good, solid HOPA with great visuals and a variety of HO style scenes to mix things up.

After playing a rash of disappointing HOPAs, I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

+ Great art.
The 3D cutscene animations are a bit stiff, but the scenes, backgrounds, objects, and even effects are stunning.
+ Variety of HO styles.
There are 3 kinds of hidden object scenes: the usual text list form with some two-step items, the "find then use" silhouette mode, and a pair-matching mode where you're given a handful of items to place or use in the scene with objects they typically go with (put a weight on a scale, use a matchbox to light a candle, add a boot/sock/glove to make a pair, etc). It takes a bit getting used to, but it's nice to see more than just lists all the time. All the scenes are nicely rendered, and objects are logical and scaled well for their surroundings.
+ Decent puzzle difficulty.
Not too easy, but not overly challenging. Difficulty falls into that comfortable middle ground that suits most casual players.
+ Good use of sound.
I never found myself wincing at SFX or music. They're fitting to the point of barely noticing how much they affect the ambiance. Some of the SFX for finishing puzzles or actions like "hooray, you placed that thing in the right spot!" were actually pretty satisfying.
+ Good voiceovers.
While nearly anything qualifies as a good voiceover after you've played Dreamatorium 2 (*twitch*), in this case the VOs are more fitting and impressive than I've seen in many other top-tier HOPAs. They aren't overused either, and no unnecessary audio commentary for every single thing you click on.
+ Likeable characters.
I found Uri and the lake/cave spirits to be quite charming. The way they were written, voiced, and animated gives them a particular kind of appeal.
+ Text is clear.
I only spotted one or two insignificant grammar errors, and a single instance of a mislabelled item ("needle" when it should say "tongs")
+ Multi-use tools.
One of the biggest frustrations of HOG players is the "one-use-crowbar", or blades that break after cutting a piece of yarn. But in this game the dagger and owl you find at the beginning stay with you and are usable throughout the entire game.
+ Precise map and hint system.
While you may want to avoid the map and hints if you're going for those achievements, they're a lot more useful than I've seen in other games. Unlike the typical HOPA hint that just points to the exit of the scene you're in, here it actually opens the map and circles where you're supposed to go. Fast travel is also lag-free, at least in my experience.
+ In-game strategy guide.
I normally keep a walkthrough on hand in case I get stuck (or impatient), so it was nice to have the official one available via the UI itself at any point in the game. It's especially useful for the various collectibles.
+ Excellent bonus chapter.
It's a common joke by now that Collector's Edition bonus chapters are the laziest and most unfinished part of HOPAs, riddled with errors, bug/glitches, and horrendous mistranslations. But Lost Lands is one of they VERY few I've seen with a bonus chapter just as good as the main game. It's like someone actually put thought into the whole package. Shocking, I know.
+ Easy achievements.
If you don't mind playing on Hard difficulty from the get-go, you can get 100% in one playthrough.

I honestly don't have anything bad to say about this game, but here are a few nitpicks that don't necessarily detract from gameplay (except the first one a tiny bit):
- Bonus Chapter bug (I think).
In the bonus chapter there's a point where you have to go to the "Old Forest Entrance", but there's no conceivable way to get there other than through the map/fast travel. You can move backward from that forest entrance and end up in the first underwater area, but unless I missed something obvious I couldn't find the reverse entry hotspot no matter what I tried. It's a good thing that bug isn't in the main chapter/game, because it would make the "use the map less than 5 times" achievement impossible.
- The Alchemist.
The animation for the alchemist is weirdly out of place. It's a completely different style of art, with none of the fluid movement of the other cutscenes. It looked like someone took their side project of a talking claymation sorcerer and just plopped it in as a supporting character. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen devs use existing assets from their minor projects to supplement a bigger game, but they could at least have made the art style fit a little better. Not really a "problem" obviously, but as an artist those things tend to pop out at me.
- No technical replay value.
I say "technical" because I can see myself replaying this at some point for the whole experience. But puzzle layouts/difficulties and hidden object lists don't change at all between Easy/Normal/Hard. Objects are not randomized and lists don't rotate, so every game will be exactly the same.

Overall though, I'd rank Lost Lands: Dark Overlord in the top third of my HOPA recommendation list, alongside titles like Dark Heritage: Guardians of Hope, Eventide: Slavic Fable, and Nearwood.

Just go ahead and play it already. :p

Nothing is more effective then a tenacious mother looking for her child.

Storyline: Jimmy (3-5 years old) is lured away from his mother's side by a softly calling voice while she is speaking on the phone. (I would assume they are at home or she would have not taken the call I am sure.) Susan, his mother, realizing her son has wandered off into the woods, goes after him only to see him being pulled into a mysterious swirling, glowing vortex in a tree trunk. Before she can reach him he disappears in the tree trunk leaving only his teddy bear behind. What does a concerned and tenacious mother do, she goes after him, of course. Once she reaches the Lost Lands, as her new found dwarf friend explains, he also tells her an ancient evil has tainted the lands and in order to retrieve her son she must defeat this dark and evil presence. Sure, no problem. And with teddy bear in hand, she proceeds to do just that.

Gameplay: Mostly a point and click game but with enough hidden object scenes to keep it a hidden object game and plenty of puzzles. Nothing too hard and the puzzles relatively easy. (Matching, sliders, circles, logic, color, recipe) The game moves along in a relatively open world yet extremely linear fashion. How can it be both, one may ask? The linear movement of the story line moves along quite rapidly, however, the open world part comes into play because there are bottlenecks. To get past each bottleneck the gamer must complete all the tasks needed to get past the bottleneck, which can be done in any order the gamer choses though limited to found inventory items. Actually all the bottlenecks can be opened even before all tasks needed to complete the game are accomplished. For an experienced HO gamer this should send up a little red flag that says 'backtracking', which there is a lot of if one missed something or the item in question can not be gotten yet.

On the subject of back tracking, there is a fast travel map. But wait my friends, especially my achievement hunting friends, there are penalties, lots of them. There are penalties for map use (and by default fast travel), for misclicks, for hints, for everything really, so pay attention to what one does or one will be playing the game more then once. Ah yes, you read that correctly. This game can be totally completed and ALL ACHIEVEMENTS EARNED in a SINGLE playthrough. No forced second playthrough here, especially since there is a built in strategy guide in case one gets stuck. So go ahead and play on the hard level the first time through. There are even ACHIEVEMENTS IN the BONUS CHAPTER and some missed achievements can even be earned in the bonus chapter. (Now that is a first for me, who has played HO games for 10+ years and owns well over a hundred HO games.) Kudos to the developers, I really like that feature.

A warning and caution for my achievement hunting friends, I suggest you actually read the achievements before playing because there are achievements 1) that are missable, 2) if over zealous and one only partially completes the puzzle (usually to get the stuff out of inventory) then leaves the puzzle the achievement is lost (finding the shells immediately comes to mind ~ bonus chapter ~ ALL NINE shells need to placed on the 1st TRY and without any misclicks), 3) misclicks (One can lose several achievements over this. The fore mentioned one being one of them.) and 4) map use ~ limit 5 uses. Advise: DO NOT USE THE MAP or one will be playing the game again.

There are extra hidden objects (with attached achievements, of course), four sets: snails, pine cones, skulls, and snakes. These extra objects change as one progresses through the game (and the change can be used as an area marker) and overlap between area sections. (There are basically 4 areas: town, mine, castle, wizard's tower.) These objects are easy to see and easy to find. But they are also easy to miss if one forgets or in a transistion zone. Fortunately there is a "tracking" button one can click on to see how many are needed or left to be found in the "area".

Easy and challenging at the same time. Fun, despite the backtracking. Comes with built in strategy guide, has extras like wallpapers, concept art, music, plus 4 picture puzzles to do. Well worth the price, plus it has a sequel game (Lost Lands: The Four Horsemen). One last thing, I like the fact Susan wears glasses. An unusual detail that stands out to me as both a cost to the developers and as a personal trait for the character.

Review originally written for WalaWala Games[walawalagames.com]

This is a fairly typical hidden object styled game, and as such, both story and the general logic behind some of the puzzles and items to acquire follow a similar path (and thus, similar downfalls) to most other games of the genre: meaning it’s nothing original and logic flies out the window half the time.
That said, Lost Lands: Dark Overlord is definitely a bit above the average HOG game, and definitely on a good path.

Let’s start with the audiovisual. The background art is really nice; they pay plenty of attention to background details, and most of the areas are really beautiful. The models and characters are pretty decent, but them, as well as the voices given to them, suffer from lack of expression. The characters ‘smile’ by hardly moving their mouths in an upward fashion, the mother’s re-encounter with her son goes only as far as a half heartfelt “Oh, jimmy.” and overall it’s just not the best. However, it’s also not the worst I’ve encountered, and you can kind of tell there was an attempt at giving some sort of emotional intonation to the text.
The cutscenes were alright too, though there were a couple ‘transitional’ ones that I’m not sure were really needed. The music was nice, soft enough that I was not bothered by it, and seemed to fit the setting.

The game has various difficulties: Easy/normal/hard plus a slightly custom one as you can select how fast or slow hints take to recharge and what you want ‘help’ with or not, which was a really nice addition.

Once in, you’ll find it also has many collectables to find throughout the areas in the main story, all of which were quite easy to spot - I’d think this lowers the replayability quite a bit, as completionists will surely not miss them on the first play through and thus would have no reason to go back and replay it.

There are several things I really enjoyed about it:

+ It has a decent map system with fast travel - clicking on a map location takes you straight to it. The map also has the typical hints of where something needs doing and where you are, as well as an added hint of where you haven’t found a collectable yet (but only if you play it on easy, normal, or custom with those selected).

+ There was a little ‘pet’ you find that helps you with getting certain items. I always enjoy when they add little companions because it somehow makes you not feel so ‘alone’.

+ The customization choices for the difficulty (which I took full advantage of).

+ The great variety of puzzles.

Though most of the puzzles were a little too easy, I did enjoy playing through most of them. Lost Lands: Dark Overlord has a great variety, having only a few hidden object scenes (a couple by list, a couple by shape), some ‘logical pair’ scenes (flower with vase, etc), and puzzles ranging from slider to swapping to connecting and rearranging, to repair and/or reassemble the machine and a few recipe-based “make this item”, which I really like… It kept the game fresh not to have too many repeats.

Another interesting feature was that, in some of the puzzles where you first needed to find everal of an item, you would usually find most of those together in one single location. Some you still had to find separately, of course, but not having to find every single glass shard of a stained window, for instance, was actually quite nice.

Something I would have liked to have was for more of the ‘press things in a specific order’ puzzles to have the ability to put the little piece of paper with the order nearby to see it as you could in some of the rearranging puzzles. It got a bit tiresome having to open the book every time if you couldn’t recall the order.

The hidden object scenes were also rather easy, as some of the items stood out a bit too much (I seriously ended up getting at least half of them without even reading the list first).

There were no outstanding bugs through my gameplay, though my game did crash once (when I tried to switch from full screen to window in the middle of the game) and froze another time (for no reason whatsoever). Fortunately, it seems to have a pretty sturdy auto-saving system for I went back both times exactly to where I had left off and I was able to play on without major issues.

There was one thing that was a bit bothersome though, and that is: when you start the bonus chapter, on the initial sequence when she dreams about being needed, her hair is longer than on the main story; yet when she’s going through the portal and afterwards her hair is shorter again (and she’s wearing other clothes, too) as the cutscene was clearly reused from the main storyline. While I can see why the scene was reused, it was a bit of a sloppy thing that removed consistency in the storyline.
I’m also confused as to why the initial dream sequence seems like it’s setting up the bonus as a horror story when it’s not, haha. Maybe that last was just me reading too much into it, though.

I was lucky to get the Collector’s Edition to review. As usual, these come with a bunch of unlockable extras (wallpapers, concept art, etc), the choice to replay puzzles 8without having to replay the entire game), as well as the main story + bonus story (in which you go back to help some underwater beings from being extinct). The main story is fairly short, and the bonus is even shorter. With just around 3 hours of gameplay between both, Lost Lands: Dark Overlord might not be challenging or overly original, but it’s still fun to play.

I’ll be looking forward to see how they improve on future releases!

Dark Overlord is a solid hidden object game.

With 3 difficulty levels, it can be quite casual, but on hard and not using the map to see places that have actions (achievement!), it becomes an exercise in hunting: you need to find the leaf which hides that object that is missing for you to proceed. If you play more casually, there are sparkles and hints to help you with that.

The graphics are music are beautiful, the puzzles are decent for the genre (that is, they're casual), and the story is mostly nonexistent and wouldn't take more than a page if written down. That is why I wouldn't call this a point&click adventure - the focus is definitely on the puzzles and not on the narrative. On the upside, that's also why the game has replay value: you're unlikely to have found everything on your first go (although it is possible), so to get those 100% achievements, you need to replay it and do everything (and correctly) this time, without help.

Recommended if you like hidden object games.

This game runs fine on my old Windows XP computer.

Dark Overlord has wonderful puzzle design, great variety in hidden object mechanics, and beautiful graphics. It has only one significant flaw, the insane levels of backtracking.

Building a good hidden object game, especially one that uses the most frequent setup in the genre (a mother’s son gets kidnapped by an unnamed dark entity, so she enters a magical forest and dark castle to save him) is a difficult task. Lost Lands: Dark Overlord managed to overcome this obstacle.
Its greatest weapon to balance the fairly clichéd story was the graphics. They are not just eye candy (especially if we look at some of those impressive perspectives), but also a tool that helps the player to get immersed in this strange, yet somehow familiar fantasy world.

Another strong point is the puzzle design, especially the hidden object scenes. The game features three types: conventional list-based, item matching, and sequential (find objects to uncover more objects). Their variety alone is enough to excuse the somewhat ridiculous amounts and lengths of backtracking needed, even if said backtracking can really grind the player’s nerves towards the last stages.

One of the best HOPA games I've ever played. Interesting, lots to do, plenty of HO scenes and puzzles, lovely art, nicely designed game world. The fantasy setting is fairly standard, but everything hangs together. As a major bonus: you get to use one of your earliest tools throughout most of the game!

Pros:
- nice art, music, setting
- choice of difficulty levels
- fully interactive map
- extended bonus chapter
- first of a series that (mostly) keeps up the standard of the first game
- HO scenes and puzzles/mini-games vary in type and challenge
- nice collectibles

Cons:
- if you are an achievement hunter, this game will make you really work for your achievements

Overall: Get this game. If you're a casual player, play on casual or normal, and use hints or skips if you're really stuck. There's lots to do and plenty of straightforward HOPA features. If you like some challenge, you're in for a treat. 10/10

Game Information

"Lost Lands: Dark Overlord" Collector's Edition is a Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game. The game was developed and published by Alawar Five-BN.

"Dark Overlord" is the first episode of "Lost Lands."

Since this is a collector's edition game, it comes with extra features that are not available in its counterpart; the standard edition.

The Game Review

Game Visuals

I want to mention that the visuals in the game are well done. The visuals can be adjusted in the game's option menu.

Game Audio

I want to mention that audio for the game is well done. Even though the audio is somewhat simplistic and repetitive. The audio can be adjusted in the game's option menu as well.

Gameplay

There are three different difficulty game modes to choose from: Easy; Normal and Hard.

The notebook keeps track of progression in the game. Such as story events and clues.

There is an interactive map in the game. It allows the player to fast travel between each location quickly without having the need to constantly backtrack. It also indicates that there are a variety of tasks that can be completed at various locations within the game. The interactive map is automatically given at the start of the game.

There is no padlock feature that is available to lock the inventory panel in place. The inventory panel is stationary.

There are some interactive items in the game. Some of these interactive items may require extra components before they can be interacted with. All interactive items are marked with a symbol in one of the corners.

The hidden object scenes consist of the following: Placing items back and Shadow items. Some of these hidden object scenes may require little or no interaction. Most of the hidden object scenes can be replayed in the game's extra feature section.

The puzzles are fairly easy to solve without having the need to skip any of them. Most of these puzzles can be replayed in the game's extra feature section as well.

There are four sets of collectibles in the game: Snails; Snake; Pine Cones and Skulls. They are scattered throughout the game for the player to find.

There are twenty-four different achievements that can be unlocked from playing the game. Each of these achievements does come with some requirements that need to be completed before they can be unlocked.

Since this is a collector's edition game, there is a bonus chapter, but it can be accessed only after the main game is completed.

Miscellaneous

There are extra features in the game: Bonus Chapter; Bonus Hidden Object Scenes; Bonus Puzzles; Wallpapers; Soundtrack; Concept Art and Game's Strategy Guide. Most of these extra features can be accessed only after the entire game is completed.

Final thoughts: I have found the game developer's method of advertising their other games is unappealing. Their advertisement pops up in the beginning before the actual game loads. They have already advertised their other games under the 'More Games' section on the main menu.

Other than that I have found the game enjoyable to a certain extent. The replay value for the game is low. I would recommend this game, but not at the game's full price value.

Find the Object, Hidden Object and Puzzle solvings.

Average difficulty.
Lookout for one collectible each zone.
Found it hard to complete 100% achievements in one playthrough,
leaving Impetuous( complete within 3 hrs ) for the 2nd quick run.

Had mistakenly started ' The Four Horsemen ' first due to the bundle list order,
after noticing the quote about the airship,
only to realize ' Dark Overlord ' was Part I.


Decent Experience.