Recent reviews by Mandrag0ra

At least as of writing this I've only played one game in the 4 pack (and that's what I'm going to be reviewing here) which is the only game exclusive to this pack and is not found on steam, all the others you can purchase individually on steam except for "Stray Souls: Dollhouse Story" so it has an exclusive title. I think this is fine and a decent way to give the customer added value whilst also promoting your own games. It's a sound strategy as long as you're not out to squeeze every drop of currency you can out of a download for an old game. So kudos on them for that.

I rather enjoyed stray souls dollhouse and I was moved by the artwork. Even from just the title screen I was charmed by the scene with the wooden art models sawing chains on the door of a haunted house looking place. One thing that appeals to me with HOGs is their use of perspective. They manage to fit quite alot of detail and even quite alot of space into a very small area by playing with perspective and dimensions. So that's the main thing I look for that this game had some great examples of. Another thing is how it reaches the psyche or how we connect with the game personally and typically I'm looking at how I react to it on an unconscious emotional level and this game has that too.

In this case, it reminded me of my youth playing edgy flash games on newgrounds. It had that sort of art style and theme of things I used to be into back in the early 2000s. There was a trend in Gothic subculture that's all but vanished now but had its golden age where we used to see scenes of like hospitals mixed with childhood objects like stuffed animals and toys and a troubled youth struggling with mental health issues stemming from experienced trauma and the circus got involved somehow. I'm sure a lot of it just had to do with Harley Quin and the Joker but also probably a desire to run away and join the circus or carnival to escape their home life and feel like they, the strange child, the black sheep belonged somewhere and were useful. If that sounds like you, you are special, you are loved. <3

I knew a lot of people who were deeply entrenched in that sort of thematic aesthetic at the time this game came out which I believe was 2011, because it felt like it was expressing how they felt about their own lives and I'm not gonna lie I was into it too (anyone remember Alice is dead? It's getting a steam release if you didn't know!) and still appreciate it but It's also often associated with teenage angst, dwelling on negative thoughts and memories and an experience of self pity or depression. The game doesn't go into that in it's exposition but it's almost implied that it's there for you, if you want to relate to the game in that way, you're able to. Such things can and should aid in the processing of ones emotions but it has to lead to a positive outcome and sometimes people get stuck and don't get out so if you're one of those, just be aware that the imagery could be a trigger for that because the game has that same exact aesthetic.

As for the HOG itself, it's pretty standard. It's on the shorter end. I think it took me about 5 hours? They do a lot of the same stuff any HOG enthusiast would be familiar with except this HOG is VERY LIGHT on PUZZLES. I don't think there's even a single actual puzzle in the game actually. It's mainly just, "go find the puzzle pieces to unlock the things to get the keys to unlock the things to keep moving through the story." Which is still satisfying but it's mostly about the story which is fairly simple and uses some canned tropes but totally full of mystery; twists & turns that should keep you entertained throughout. It's actually pretty good if you can appreciate mystery drama and you'll like it even better if you can appreciate a break from difficult puzzles in your HOGs. This might be a good recommendation for a first HOG if you or someone you know is new to the genre.

I don't wanna spoil it for you but a wife is trying to find and rescue her husband and there's some psychic powers and wizards and a clown and some dolls involved and it's not half bad. I'm sure you can guess what the outcome will be of all that.

So that's what I think of Stray Souls: Dollhouse Story. I think it's worth the ticket price alone. I probably won't play the other games in the pack because I already have some of them and wanna clock those steam hours on those titles before I would clock in hours on the bundle that has them. Sometimes that happens, you end up with two copies of the same game and it's fine. Don't let that sway your decision if you were thinking about it. Adieu!

Classic Artifex Mundi HOG. This one is particularly magical based on Greek Mythology. it's got a Minotaur and Medusa but it's not overly Greek aesthetic-wise, I mean there's also a leprechaun and a steampunk owl in it.

Story-wise I had no clue what really was going on, it didn't make sense to me but I also don't play hogs for the stories personally so I didn't pay much attention to it during my playthrough. It can be really hit or miss with HOGs whether you're going to get an engaging story or not and it doesn't bother me personally but I know some people play these games for the stories too so if that's what you're looking for I'm not sure you're gonna get it with this one.

One thing that bothered me a little which is probably my own idiosyncrasy is that they didn't really justify the minotaur character nor were they really consistent with using the minotaurs mythological tropes. You look at the figure of the minotaur in mythology and such and it can have an allegorical meaning i.e. ancient greek mystery cults, it has analogs in the constellations like taurus and aquarius, the minotaur can be a useful character to tell a good story or share a moral lesson or something (you know, like a fable) but you don't see any reference to that stuff here.

I don't know why they chose a minotaur for this game, seemed a bit arbitrary, might as well have been a shadowy robed figure. It's kind of all over the place and didn't really seem consistent or coherent to me. It's more like they just chose random characters and wrote a virtually non existent story and the only value the game has is if you already enjoy playing hidden object games and looking at the artwork which is probably the main reason why most people play these games to be honest.

"Endless Fables: The Minotaur's Curse" is just 1 in a million other HOGs you could play. I don't see any particular reason to pick this one other than if you like the artwork (which is very nice btw) and maybe want or have the other games in the "endless fables" series.

I mainly got this because I wanted the exclusive "Fortune's Foundation" which is a cool solitaire game using tarot cards. It has a nice aesthetic and is a cool idea. It's very difficult to win though in my experience. I haven't been initiated into its secret technique yet unfortunately. The other solitaire games are cool too. I actually enjoyed every single game in this collection as a casual occasional solitaire player. You don't really need any other solitaire game than this one although I also like "radical solitaire" which is a free game here on steam, the Zachtronics Collection is totally worth it though, in my opinion,. Even better if you can catch it on sale, right? which is what I ended up doing to get it and I don't regret it one bit. It's the only solitaire program I ever play anymore when I get that solitaire itch.

I don't have it in me to leave a negative review for this game. I wouldn't recommend seeking this game out in particular nor do I think people will play it very long once they have. If you put this game in its proper context I think it's fine.

What is that context?

It's part of the CosmOS 9 Bundle which is this really cool idea for a 90s style... scifi... fictional games console for funky space aliens. In reality it's a bundle of short indie dev puzzle games with that overarching alien theme. This game is consistent with that theme so I think it succeeded in what it sought out to do. It might not be an exceptional game on its own but I don't know that it has to be. I think it's fine being a CosmOS 9 game and I enjoyed it for being that.

I never finished the game and I may never finish it, I don't know we'll see. I thought it was a little lackluster overall because it's really just a simple puzzle game there isn't a whole lot of depth to it but the puzzles were entertaining while I was playing it. It reminds me of a puzzle game you would find on DOS back in the day and I can almost guarantee if we were still in the DOS days this would probably have a fan base because it's not a terrible game and back then if the game wasn't "terrible" it was "sorta good/decent". As for modern standards, it's a little too short and simple to be appreciated by a majority of gamers who want more substance in their games.

That is all.

The only thing I didn't like about it was the song.

It's a decent HOG but I can't exactly recommend it because of what I perceived to be moon logic and bad game design. Moon logic if you're unfamiliar is when it seems basically illogical for that to be the solution.. There were several instances in this game where I didn't see any remote connection to why that would work and I literally just tried every item i had on it until it worked and I was like "WHAT?! That couldn't, wouldn't and shouldn't even work but OK, game, moving on..."

Another issue I had with the game is things in the environment you would think would be it, weren't it UNTIL an event was triggered. Like my brain was like "ok this must be the place.. oh.. I can't interact with it.." then you do some other stuff and get stuck... turns out I was right the first time but it was locked behind some event trigger or something.. and I can't say it was a glitch because it happened several times throughout the game. I know some older HOGs used to do that but I don't like it personally because in my head im telling myself "don't bother clicking on that house because you already tried it and it didn't work" .. oh but NOW it works because the storyline wants you there or something.. just gives us the option to go there even though it's locked right now, we'll know we have to come back later, HOGs do this all the time.

Those are my main complaints about it. I liked it generally speaking but those issues could be deal breakers and I couldn't recommend it in good conscience knowing that someone might get frustrated with it.

My favorite part is at the end when you go to Alfheim, if you will. I wish there was a whole series of games set in an Elven kingdom like that, it was gorgeous and magical and stimulated my imagination in wonderful ways and I loved it. That is all.

I want to recommend this game but after playing it a few sessions I can't really continue playing it. It has a lot of the standard HOG tropes, including the art style, the puzzles, the sequencing of events and the themes. Where it differs is namely the free-to-play model. I don't mind purchasing a HOG that is a few hours long that was a nice experience. I'm fine with it ending and moving on with my life.

This game seems more like a HOG that is trying to be an MMORPG or something. The game uses quests where your task is to obtain a series of quest items which you gain by grinding and farming hidden object screens mainly which require energy to attempt and are fast paced (you can go slow but you won't get the benefit of the combo which is timed) which I find to go against HOG game design and will actually condition you to be WORSE at traditional or standard HOGs. After a while you just know all the items and your task is to find them as quick as possible so you can grind the map again (which just seems like lazy game design to me, like you're milking the same maps over and over and the customer only gets a few of them at a time until they level up and get a new one like oliver twist, "please sir can I have some more?") and maintain your combo as much as you can which honestly feels like someone is pressuring me to go faster go faster otherwise you will be punished because after a few seconds it changes the combo reward which switches between you getting experience points, getting gold currency or getting energy to repeat the process again and usually it seems to start on experience points which is the best reward and will drop to energy which is the worst reward imo.. It gets really old really fast in my experience and is not really promoting relaxation and intellectual stimulation of solving the puzzles which are the main things I personally enjoy about HOGs and get out of HOGs. It just feels predatory to me..

I felt like I was working for free, slaving away at this game, not really progressing and the game was trying to get me to pay real money to progress faster in the game, it incentivises you to login everyday to keep you playing their game.. and I just wasn't really interested in any aspect of the game at that point and it kind of started to sour very quickly so I decided to stop playing and I don't think I can really recommend it to someone else, sorry. This is my honest impression after playing it on 3 separate occasions (because you can only play as long as you have energy which depletes very rapidly if you're good at HOGs and you have to spend your other resources on food to continue which costs gems which is the main real world trading currency that you would have to buy with real money to get more of as it is only rewarded when you level up I think). I would rather pay a couple bucks for a finished game experience and call it a day. I'm not a fan of this free-to-play hidden object game model and now that I've played one, I kind of feel bad for mobile gamers who mainly just have these games to play.

It's basically "weird picross" and I love it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. You do have to get used to the controls. I would recommend using a gamepad and not using the PC controls tbh. The main attraction here is of course taking a journey through wonderland. It's not a shot for shot of the movie, it has its own story that generally follows the plot of the movie but you are definitely playing a video game here, NOT watching a cgi movie or anything.

The graphics are honestly gorgeous and there were some very memorable moments like when you first get to wonderland or when you are stuck on the ceiling until you can grab a piece of cake or of course when you are running around the red queens palace.

It has a unique gimmick of having you collect chess pieces throughout the game some of which involve solving puzzles to reveal the location of the piece. It was nice to just be exploring and find a chess piece that lets you upgrade one of the characters, of which you get to play several (white rabbit, dormouse, march hare, mad hatter, cheshire cat). It does have you backtrack to levels to further unlock secrets like the chessmen. For instance, once you unlock the cheshire cat you can reveal invisible doors that lead to secret areas.

I think its a solid game honestly. The only thing I have to say negatively about it is that collecting the currency becomes menial after a while and really is just for high score. Most of the chests give only these points as well so after a while I lost interest in finding and opening chests. If anything it would only be to 100% the game to get the special 100% ending screen after the credits. So if that's not your jam, then don't go overboard trying to get more points, just focus on the story and maybe the achievements if you want to see the unlockable artwork (which is actually pretty good tbh).

That being said, I think it was a wonderful experience, it wasn't a AAA cinematic title as most movie tie-in video games aren't but the art was certainly above average and the environmental storytelling more in-depth than compared to similar titles.

...it's actually pretty good. I would try it if I were you. <.<