Do I recommend The Emerald Maiden?
Yes (barely) if you're a casual player who likes to breeze through generic HOG scenes and doesn't care about the wrappings.
No if you're a HOG 'connoisseur' of any kind, or looking for something that represents Artifex Mundi and Gogii Games at their best. This isn't it.

In a nutshell: This is one of the weakest Artifex/Gogii games I've ever played. It's decent enough as a run-of-the-mill HOG, so if you'd like another one under your belt to pass the time, go ahead - just don't expect anything resembling the all-around superior quality of titles like the Grim Legends or Enigmatis series.

The long version:
I'm a huge Artifex fan. I've played nearly every one of their games currently on the market, so I've seen their best and their worst (usually when they team up with lesser-known developers). The Emerald Maiden is definitely toward the bottom of that list, and honestly for a more recent title I expected far better than this delivered.

Everyone knows by now that an Artifex or Gogii backed game means great artwork, and while The Emerald Maiden is no exception, it does seem to sag in terms of quality and assets. The scenes themselves (both regular play and HOGs) are quite nice overall, but inevitably boring. Not a single background catches the eye as a memorable work of art, and I had no urge to spam my screenshot key as I have in other games. Much of it also feels recycled, very closely resembling certain aspects of Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden (and other Artifex titles for the scenes on land), with a definite Bioshock aesthetic thrown in for accents like the Dream Corp logo or certain undersea rooms.

The HOGs in particular are pretty bad for a game like this. They're somewhat solid as far as the background art, but there's absolutely no sense of scale or logic to the choice of items scattered around. Items themselves are also reused many times in other scenes or gameplay settings. Even worse, a couple of HOG scenes have clearly unfinished parts or mismatched edges, which looks incredibly unprofessional, like nobody bothered checking their Photoshop work before exporting the files. (Seriously, one HOG in particular has a gaping 'hole' at the edge where the rest of a desk should be.)

Character art and animations are bland and uninspired. Not much else to say about that.

The voice-overs are decent and in-character, but a couple literally made me cringe, like the "gnarly" 420% stereotyped hippie guy on the beach in the bonus chapter.
The music is minimal, repetitive, and forgettable. Certain tracks or sections felt like they were once again recycled from games like Abyss.
Sound effects are alright. A few felt "off", but they were mostly on point.

Abysmal. It doesn't even manage to match Time Mysteries in terms of a story arc. At least in Time Mysteries (even the first one) there was a marginally cohesive and clear plot, however derpy it was at points. Emerald Maiden jumps around with the only storytelling done via 'flashback' movie reels you find, which still paint an unsatisfying, incomplete picture. Something something jungle, something dream artifact, something tech, something Russians, something something family, something evil mind control. Basically the player has to go through the motions because reasons. I know we don't play these games for their narrative genius, but there should at least be something the player wants to work toward as far as goals or a clear ending. Here you're just dumped into this underwater (why? reasons.) place as a stranger and everyone (more like ~5 people and a hologram) seems to either already know you and what you're doing, or asks you for help for the STUPIDEST things, like retrieving a grade school science fair trophy from a dream (seriously?), or the tribesman who can't cross a bridge until you fix it with a rope that was in a HOG scene right behind him. I mean, come on. There's characters needing help, and then there's railroaded pathetic helplessness that totally ruins any semblance of immersion. I can wave that aside for games with more inexperienced writers, but from an Artifex or Gogii game? Sorry guys, but you set the bar for yourselves with your other games, and this one reeks of laziness (or outsourcing, or whatever). The 'plot' is weak and rushed, the characters are either one-dimensional stereotypes or pointless/boring/forgettable, and whoever wrote the dialogue for some of the scenes really needs to find a new calling in life. There's no true closure to the story either, which leads me to believe there's a sequel in the works, or at least intended when this one was in development.

Then there are the spelling and grammar errors. I can forgive a fair amount of those even in a top tier game, especially if the developers' original language is not English. But when I'm faced with flavor text like, "I need a heavy object to smach this display case it.", I really wonder if these guys even have an editor on staff. Or own a basic word processor with spellcheck. Or a dictionary. Or access to an English-speaking child who could proofread that for a friggin bar of chocolate.

And let me just rant about the total lack of logical thinking (and unanswered questions) here for a second. How dumb does one have to be to believe it's a good plan to shoot a F**KING CANNON at an antique shop window just to steal a bloody teacup? Why are my 'rewards' for helping people such mundane things like radio knobs and bananas, which I could just as easily have found, oh, anywhere? Why is that guy half lobster? Why were the sharks so angry? And who the hell locks kittens inside a robot vending machine or newspaper kiosk?

Again, a disappointment. The 'difficulty' is deceptive - a few puzzles seem complex at first glance, but are easily solved in 3-4 moves, or even completely by accident. I thought "Wait..that was it?" quite a few times. The HOGs (about a third of which are the "fragmented object" type) are often too easy because the nonsensical scale or placement of items/junk makes some items stick out like a sore thumb. A few of them are only 'hard' because the very last object is either mis-worded (a caterpillar is not a centipede) or so well-blended into the rest of the scene that it requires blind clicking. There's also no benefit or challenge to playing on the harder difficulties, because all achievements unlock on Casual in a single playthrough.

If you're looking for a quality, polished HOG with clever puzzles, you will be disappointed.
If you prefer hidden object scenes with properly-scaled objects that make sense and fit the setting, you will be disappointed.
If you like decent story arcs and characters in these types of games, you will be disappointed.
If you want to feel like you've accomplished something (plot closure at the very least) when you finish a game, you will be disappointed.
If you play this anyway while knowing it's one of the weakest Artifex/Gogii games out there, at least it will meet your expectations.

If you're looking for a HOG with a really good collection of "thinking puzzles", try Contract With The Devil or Dracula: Love Kills. Contract's game rating at the time of this writing is misleading because it has so few reviews, but trust me, despite a couple of flaws it's worth a look. (I also wrote the guide for it.)
If you want a really long game with an in-depth story and characters, try Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold. It can be silly at times, but it's one of the most complex HOGs I've ever played (I wrote the guide for that too).
For Artifex at their best (or very near it), check out Abyss, Dark Arcana, Clockwork Tales, Nightmares From The Deep, Enigmatis, or Grim Legends.

[b][u]Do I recommend The Emerald Maiden?[/u][/b] [b]Yes[/b] (barely) if you're a casual player who likes to breeze through generic HOG scenes and doesn't care about the wrappings. [b]No[/b] if you're a HOG 'connoisseur' of any kind, or looking for something that represents Artifex Mundi and Gogii Games at their best. This isn't it. [b][u]In a nutshell:[/u][/b] This is one of the weakest Artifex/Gogii games I've ever played. It's decent enough as a run-of-the-mill HOG, so if you'd like another one under your belt to pass the time, go ahead - just don't expect anything resembling the all-around superior quality of titles like the Grim Legends or Enigmatis series. [b][u]The long version:[/u][/b] I'm a huge Artifex fan. I've played nearly every one of their games currently on the market, so I've seen their best and their worst (usually when they team up with lesser-known developers). The Emerald Maiden is definitely toward the bottom of that list, and honestly for a more recent title I expected far better than this delivered. [h1]Graphics[/h1] Everyone knows by now that an Artifex or Gogii backed game means great artwork, and while The Emerald Maiden is no exception, it does seem to sag in terms of quality and assets. The scenes themselves (both regular play and HOGs) are quite nice overall, but inevitably boring. Not a single background catches the eye as a memorable work of art, and I had no urge to spam my screenshot key as I have in other games. Much of it also feels recycled, very closely resembling certain aspects of Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden (and other Artifex titles for the scenes on land), with a definite Bioshock aesthetic thrown in for accents like the Dream Corp logo or certain undersea rooms. The HOGs in particular are pretty bad for a game like this. They're somewhat solid as far as the background art, but there's absolutely no sense of scale or logic to the choice of items scattered around. Items themselves are also reused many times in other scenes or gameplay settings. Even worse, a couple of HOG scenes have clearly unfinished parts or mismatched edges, which looks incredibly unprofessional, like nobody bothered checking their Photoshop work before exporting the files. (Seriously, one HOG in particular has a gaping 'hole' at the edge where the rest of a desk should be.) Character art and animations are bland and uninspired. Not much else to say about that. [h1]Sound[/h1] The voice-overs are decent and in-character, but a couple literally made me cringe, like the "gnarly" 420% stereotyped hippie guy on the beach in the bonus chapter. The music is minimal, repetitive, and forgettable. Certain tracks or sections felt like they were once again recycled from games like Abyss. Sound effects are alright. A few felt "off", but they were mostly on point. [h1]Story/Writing[/h1] Abysmal. It doesn't even manage to match Time Mysteries in terms of a story arc. At least in Time Mysteries (even the first one) there was a marginally cohesive and clear plot, however derpy it was at points. Emerald Maiden jumps around with the only storytelling done via 'flashback' movie reels you find, which still paint an unsatisfying, incomplete picture. Something something jungle, something dream artifact, something tech, something Russians, something something family, something evil mind control. Basically the player has to go through the motions because reasons. I know we don't play these games for their narrative genius, but there should at least be something the player wants to work toward as far as goals or a clear ending. Here you're just dumped into this underwater (why? reasons.) place as a stranger and everyone (more like ~5 people and a hologram) seems to either already know you and what you're doing, or asks you for help for the STUPIDEST things, like retrieving a grade school science fair trophy from a dream (seriously?), or the tribesman who can't cross a bridge until [i]you[/i] fix it with a rope that was in a HOG scene [i]right behind him[/i]. I mean, come on. There's characters needing help, and then there's railroaded pathetic helplessness that totally ruins any semblance of immersion. I can wave that aside for games with more inexperienced writers, but from an Artifex or Gogii game? Sorry guys, but you set the bar for yourselves with your other games, and this one reeks of laziness (or outsourcing, or whatever). The 'plot' is weak and rushed, the characters are either one-dimensional stereotypes or pointless/boring/forgettable, and whoever wrote the dialogue for some of the scenes really needs to find a new calling in life. There's no true closure to the story either, which leads me to believe there's a sequel in the works, or at least intended when this one was in development. Then there are the spelling and grammar errors. I can forgive a fair amount of those even in a top tier game, especially if the developers' original language is not English. But when I'm faced with flavor text like, "[i]I need a heavy object to smach this display case it.[/i]", I really wonder if these guys even have an editor on staff. Or own a basic word processor with spellcheck. Or a dictionary. Or access to an English-speaking child who could proofread that for a friggin bar of chocolate. And let me just rant about the total lack of logical thinking (and unanswered questions) here for a second. How dumb does one have to be to believe it's a good plan to shoot a F**KING CANNON at an [i]antique shop window[/i] just to steal a bloody teacup? Why are my 'rewards' for helping people such mundane things like radio knobs and bananas, which I could just as easily have found, oh, anywhere? Why is that guy half lobster? Why were the sharks so angry? And who the hell locks kittens inside a robot vending machine or newspaper kiosk? [h1]Puzzles and HOGs[/h1] Again, a disappointment. The 'difficulty' is deceptive - a few puzzles seem complex at first glance, but are easily solved in 3-4 moves, or even completely by accident. I thought "Wait..that was it?" quite a few times. The HOGs (about a third of which are the "fragmented object" type) are often too easy because the nonsensical scale or placement of items/junk makes some items stick out like a sore thumb. A few of them are only 'hard' because the very last object is either mis-worded (a caterpillar is not a centipede) or so well-blended into the rest of the scene that it requires blind clicking. There's also no benefit or challenge to playing on the harder difficulties, because all achievements unlock on Casual in a single playthrough. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] If you're looking for a quality, polished HOG with clever puzzles, you will be disappointed. If you prefer hidden object scenes with properly-scaled objects that make sense and fit the setting, you will be disappointed. If you like decent story arcs and characters in these types of games, you will be disappointed. If you want to feel like you've accomplished something (plot closure at the very least) when you finish a game, you will be disappointed. If you play this anyway while knowing it's one of the weakest Artifex/Gogii games out there, at least it will meet your expectations. [h1]Recommended Alternatives[/h1] If you're looking for a HOG with a really good collection of "thinking puzzles", try Contract With The Devil or Dracula: Love Kills. Contract's game rating at the time of this writing is misleading because it has so few reviews, but trust me, despite a couple of flaws it's worth a look. (I also wrote the guide for it.) If you want a really long game with an in-depth story and characters, try Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold. It can be silly at times, but it's one of the most complex HOGs I've ever played (I wrote the guide for that too). For Artifex at their best (or very near it), check out Abyss, Dark Arcana, Clockwork Tales, Nightmares From The Deep, Enigmatis, or Grim Legends.