HOPAs (Hidden Object Puzzle Adventures)

[Gingergal]

Tips and reviews

[Gingergal]

Lost Lands: Stories of the First Brotherhood

FIVE-BN GAMES

It's a prequel with a very early Maaron with fallon (spelled it wrongly but it's the dwarf) and older Susan isn't in it apart from reading this adventure to a group of kids .
Story was OK, and a standalone if you haven't played any of this series before.

The bonus is like the last game, it's put in the middle of the gameplay - 3 chapters and the 2nd is the bonus chapter. As most but not all of this series, it's not needed to complete the story but does give fuller/more story and the length is good.

The settings some we've seen before and the rest is meh. Gameplay is good enough but the best thing as usual is the puzzles. The HOS isn't much, about 3 silhouette, couple of list and the usual integrated puzzles but as usual well done.

PUZZLES
The usual timing/reaction puzzle although it was a bit different controlling a mining cart and figuring out the right path as well as clicking on the arrows at the right time.

100%
They have removed two of their standard achievements - no need to play on expert anymore, you can play custom/easy. And there is no speed ach for doing a HOS (yeah).

Still have to do the rest of the usual - don't use skip in either minigames or cutscenes or use hint. Also play the usual swap tiles and do the 20 extra puzzles (they call them bonus puzzles) in the extra area.

Also there is the usual do a puzzle in under 'x' moves and under a certain time - there are two of each and one of those is sort of a spot the difference. While I got lucky (I think) early on I could imagine that could be a frustrating one and hard to get.

Remember you can get puzzle achs in the extras, and all the collectables you can get after the game if you've missed any in the extras. There is also a guide which does give a guide to the bonus 20 puzzles as well as all collectables and everything else if needed.

OVERVIEW
While the price has gone up with the last couple of games, it's still great value full price compared to other HOPAs and maybe the only game I pay full price for with all the extras on top of the game. It's probably among the weakest if not the weakest in the series but I did feel quite a few puzzles felt fresh amongst the rest of the 'same old' rest of gameplay.

It's also one of the few developers that does achs in a HOPA so will gladly support and do my bit for them long to continue hopefully!