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Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector's Edition 
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$ 13.99 USD or 2 credits
Help Sam Wilde rescue his love Anna in Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome, an incredible Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game! Sam’s every move is being tracked so he has to be extra careful. Putting his journalistic talents to the test, Sam must find the maniac who has kidnapped Anna, and stop him before it’s too late. Explore gorgeous locations and solve tricky puzzles in Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome!
This is a special Collector's Edition release full of exclusive extras you won’t find in the standard version. As a bonus, Collector's Edition purchases count toward three stamps on your Monthly Game Club Punch Card!
The Collector’s Edition includes:
- Bonus gameplay
- Interview with the developers
- Concept art
Click images to enlarge
Game System Requirements:
- OS: Windows XP/Vista/Win7/8
- CPU: 1.4 GHz
- RAM: 512 MB
- DirectX: 9.0
- Hard Drive: 693 MB
Game Manager System Requirements:
- Browser: Internet Explorer 7 or later
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Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector's Edition
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Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector's Edition
190
190
AMAZING!
This game is fantastic! There are so many unique elements to this game, and I had so much fun playing it, this will be the first game EVER that I've even considered playing again. It's an extremely large file, so I would recommend downloading the demo first to make sure your computer can handle it. You are a journalist whose girlfriend has been kidnapped by a psychotic serial killer and you must go to the killer's estate and rescue her. There are 2 game modes to choose from, casual and expert. Casual mode offers highlighted areas of interest and hints refill quickly. Expert mode offers no highlights for areas of interest and hint refills more slowly. After playing the demo in casual, I decided that playing in expert mode would be the better choice for this game, for me anyway. The hint button is handy, but only in an area where there is still something to find or do, otherwise, it just tells you "there's nothing more to do here." There is also a map and journal. The journal has a "recorder" tab so that you can listen to what the killer says to you in the event you need to, or want to, hear it again. He taunts you over loudspeakers, which are located in every area/room of the estate and I really liked that I could go back and listen to everything he said anytime I needed, or wanted to. The beginning of the game does suggest that you keep the volume up to enjoy the full experience of the game and I couldn't agree more! I did, however, turn the music off. I would also recommend purchasing the CE! This game is incredibly long, which is a very good thing in my book, however I found myself referring to the strategy guide quite a bit, not to assist with the puzzles or HOS, but to assist with placing inventory items. Although the map does indicate the areas where there are puzzles, areas of interest, etc, I still needed the SG, because of the length of this game, the fact that there are at least 80 rooms/areas and it's very common in this game to find inventory items much later in the game that are needed for areas/rooms that you came through much earlier in the game. And even though I took notes from the start of the game, it would've taken me a month to finish this game! The SG prevented me from running around the estate trying to find that one door that needs the star key to open it. That's just an example, but I'm sure you understand what I mean. There's already a lot of backtracking in this game and I imagine that I would've given up if I didn't have the SG to assist me. The hidden object scenes are so much fun! They're interactive and some objects require 3 steps. There was no blurriness and the items weren't extremely difficult to locate! The puzzles range from easy to hard and there's a good mixture of both. There's also a good mixture of puzzles and HOS, so I didn't get bored with one or the other! The graphics are outstanding! A lot of thought was put into this game right down to the smallest of details! I found myself saying "WOW!" out loud several times! The voice overs are very well done also! The CE offers a bonus chapter, soundtrack, art, wallpaper & an interview with the developers. At the start of the game you can choose widescreen and there's also a film grain option, this game is the 1st time I've seen the film grain option. It was pretty cool! I will note that this game does involve a serial killer, so there are dead bodies scattered about the estate, so if things like this bother you, this game is not for you. Aside from the tremendous amount of backtracking, this game is EXCELLENT & quickly rose to one of my top 10 favorite games! I hope this review helps my fellow Big Fishers in deciding whether this game is for you or not! HAPPY GAMING!!
*****Some gamers may consider this next bit of information a spoiler. I DO NOT consider it a spoiler, but some gamers might!***** That being said ....
I mentioned earlier in my review that there are dead bodies scattered about the estate, but I also felt that I should note that there is a point in the game that you actually hear a group of people being murdered. I wanted to note this as well, because there are some gamers that may find this disturbing.
December 27, 2011
What a CE should be!
This game was excellent IMO! It is a psychological thriller. However there is no blood or gore. The story line is captivating and keeps you playing to find out what happens next. I am not a novice at these kind of games but this game took me a total of 6- 7 hours. Not so much because it was difficult but because I wanted to experience every part of the game. The puzzles were not frustrating and the HO's were not overwhelming. This game provided a good blend of story, adventure,puzzles and HO. I really couldnt ask for more. The collectors edition is well worth the money.
December 28, 2011
Amazing game, an absolute winner!
I just finished Brink of Consciousness: The Dorian Gray Syndrome and it is a absolute winner! To me this is the best game of 2011, too bad it can't compete for that title, because of its release date
The game bears no resemblance to the novel by Oscar Wilde other then the reference of the villains name and the name of the reporter. The game is about a psychiatric syndrome (although not recognized as a DSM diagnostic criteria) called the Dorian Gray Syndrome. The syndrome always involves a person with strong narcissistic traits who wants to preserve beauty and stop aging. The person suffering from this syndrome will go extremely far to accomplish this.
Sam Wilde is a reporter who wrote a newspaper article about a serial killer. This article caught the attention of our villain and serial killer Oscar who kidnaps Sam's girlfriend and uses this to entrap Sam in a huge mansion. Sam is there to free his girlfriend and thus gets entrapped in a dark psychological cat and mouse play with our villain.
The game, at start, suggests to play with sound for the best experience. Whenever something scary happens we hear it in Sam's breathing and heartbeat, which adds to the suspense. Sam's constant coughing was a little too much for me, as if a little bit of rain will do that. :suspicious: There are large spoken sections over the intercom as our villain comments on the progress Sam makes in the mansion. This might be rather lengthy and tedious for some, but I loved the spoken comments which attributed to the psychological game ambiance and experience.
There is a lot of exploring to do in this game and a lot of back tracking. Fortunately there is a map, although it is not interactive (you can't jump to another location) to keep track of interesting places.
The game has a lot of interesting puzzles, some harder than others but all manageable. There is a skip button for the puzzles. I personally love puzzles and since this game really has a lot of them this was one more reason to love the game.
H0 scenes are decent and most objects can be found without too much trouble. I used the hint button several times on the H0 scenes, but that's just because I am not a H0 lover. All H0 scenes have interactive parts in it, which makes it more interesting.
A lot of items you need in the game have to be picked up, so you really have to pay close attention to the surroundings. If you miss an item you either have to do a lot of backtracking or use the SG, cause for me at one point I got totally stuck because of missing one item.
The hint button charges rather fast but is not always very useful, it sometimes just point to something you know is there but you know you still need some item you don?t have at that point to use there.
The SE ending is satisfying enough for those who are on a budget or don?t want to cough up the extra cash for the CE. Bonus material and bonus chapter however are very well worth the CE price.
I would highly recommend this game and I would rate it with 5 stars on all aspects: game play, atmosphere and ambiance, storyline, graphics and whatever else there is to rate: This game is an absolute winner!
December 31, 2011
The Perfect Game
This game was so enjoyable and lasted about 5 hours in length. The bonus chapter was as fun too. This is the perfect game to play on a cold, rainy day of relaxing. One of the better hidden adventure games recently released. Graphics were nice, sound was awesome and just creepy enough to enjoy. You will not be disappointed in this game.
December 25, 2011
Intriguing game!
I'm completely fascinated with this game..the developers have obviously put a lot of effort into creating it..
Everything is polished..from the graphics to the sound effects..
I especially love the voice-overs...they sound very professional and very fitting with the genre. The baddie has a very creepy voice in particular which goes exceptionally well with the storyline..
The storyline itself is based on some beloved characters and is pretty true to them..even down to the coughing of the main character...
The only beef I have is the amount of running around you have to do..there is a map, but if the map were clickable, allowing the players to travel straight to the location, I think I would've found this game perfect..
I haven't finished yet..but I bought the game before finishing the demo if that gives any indication of the quality.
December 26, 2011
A 5-star game in all ways...
A 5-star game in all aspects: excellent graphics (though improperly lit in some scenes sadly), ambient sound, voice, music, cutscenes, puzzles & storyline. And a HUGE game environment--so many places to go. Definitely lots of running around but good maps provided.
Intriguing storyline with some philosophical depth: questioning limits of artistic genius vs madness, what love is worth & so on. Game atmosphere & pacing are well done, never boring. I despised Oscar & his taunts yet many of his comments have merit & sometimes I almost pitied him. So glad there are no ghosts, nothing supernatural, just old-fashioned wickedness born of an almost logical kind of mental illness/insanity.
The marvelous puzzles are many & varied; HOS are few & all interactive. Puzzle presentation is fantastic too--colourful & contextual. Some puzzles are unique or twists on classics, most medium difficulty, a few (e.g. train puzzle & finale puzzle) hellish hard IMO. Skip & hint buttons work well. No sparkles on Expert mode.
Since game world is so big, Strategy Guide is useful. Game ending is great! CE bonus chapter (@ 1 hour) adds to story & sets up for sequel (though it's complete). A fun, long game (took me > 6 hours 1st time with skipping 3 puzzles); excellent production values; hardly any reading thanks to the audio messages; & a creepy story that makes you think a bit too... definitely worth every penny as a CE IMO.
December 27, 2011
Fascinating Game
PLUS SIDE = This is one of the longest Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure games that I have recently played, took me over 4 hours for the main game and that included skipping some of the puzzles and looking at the Strategy Guide twice when I was really stuck. You play as a journalist covering a story about missing young people. You are summoned to a well-maintained, spacious mansion to rescue your kidnapped girlfriend. As the story unfolds you realize that the kidnapper is a seriously deranged serial murderer. You will search over 30 locales in the house and surrounding area, aided by a helpful map and journal. The graphics are visually pleasing (although disturbing) and the voiceover for the villain is extremely well done (you can go back and listen to recordings of his speeches). The cat-and-mouse game that the killer has set up is eerie and creepy, and the killer's mind is frighteningly bizarre. However, I really enjoyed the beauty of the setting because it was not dark, dirty and ugly. The game is not linear, meaning that needed items for a scene are not immediately available. There is a good ratio of Hidden Object scenes to mini-games/puzzles. The bonus game is well done, and took me over an hour to complete. Extra content for the CE includes an interesting taped video interview with members of the game development team.
MINUS SIDE = The game theme might be too disturbing for children. The game is not based on a supernatural theme. Although it is based on the concept of love and love lost, this is not a typical romance story.
December 28, 2011
Well worth your time!
Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector's Edition is my first game from this developer, but it won't be the last.
This is an above average Hidden Object/Puzzle Adventure that holds your attention from start to finish, with overall well drawn art and good voice acting - the majority of the voice acting is the antagonist, which was quite well done in my opinion - he sounded vaguely like Vincent Price, which I thought was an excellent choice for this type of game.
The location art is wonderfully rendered; the static scenes where the Hidden Object Scenes are contained are unfortunately often dark/grey scaled with a few quite hard to find objects; this would probably be my largest complaint, as I'm middle aged with some vision issues. There were no brightness or color controls to make this easier for those of us who might have needed it, unfortunately.
The puzzles were mostly intuitive and either easy or moderate in difficulty. I did skip a few towards the end, more in the name of completing the game before I had to return to work, than as a function of difficulty! A few seemed to be unique to this game, or at least I've not run across them before - I found that refreshing.
There are 7 chapters, plus a bonus chapter for the CE - it took me about 6-8 hours to complete them all, playing casually with some interruptions; I'd consider myself at least an intermediate player of this genre, if not better.
The music and sound effects were very well done; I occasionally found them intrusive, but you are handily able to adjust these from the menu options, so that shouldn't stop anyone from playing the game.
For those that are concerned about these things, there were no magical or mystical overtones, but (as you would expect) there were macabre and possibly to some, disturbing images and themes.
Was this worth the extra money for a Collector's Edition? Normally, I'd say no, but the bonus chapter was well done, if a tad shorter than the regular chapters. I enjoyed it, and found that while it's certainly possible to play the SE and feel satisfied, I liked the extra twist that the bonus chapter gave at the very end. The bonus chapter didn't feel hastily thrown together, but well thought out and executed.
There were also the standard wallpapers, music and concept art, as well as a few humorous art pieces as well. I'd recommend not only this game, but the CE version of it as well.
December 27, 2011
A fairly interesting Track and Rescue mission.
If you've read BFG's presentation summary you have probably already added 2 and 2 together and have surmised the kidnapper was suffering from a mental disorder called DSG. He perpetrated this vile act in an attempt to retain or regain his youth, obsessed as he is by his own appearence. Hence the title of the game.
No ghosts, no skeleton, no grave, nothing paranormal, but expect nevertheless a few corpses here and there.
Sam's investigation starts with a very good intro movie backed up by a solid soundtrack. Later, the in-game music is discreet except when used to enhance a specific event. The cutscenes are of the same quality.
The voice-overs are perfect, very professional, highly natural, and a pleasure to listen to.
The graphics and scenery are quite good, a wee bit blurry, thus befitting the mildly spooky atmosphere succesfully.
Not at all overloaded with HOScenes, the game gives priority to the adventure side. Tasks are multiple and easy to accomplish with useful items also easy to get.
HOs are not difficult to find either as the scenes they're in do not look like awful junkpiles.
Assistance is provided efficiently by the unlimited hints that recharge fast, the clues on screen, the audio, and in the journal, together with a map showing your current location, the areas to explore and were the puzzles are.
Puzzlewise [and minigames] the developers did a good job; all those I played in the demo were fairly tricky, challenging and fairly uncommon. Some are randomized, I am not sure they all reset as I saw a Reset Button in only one, but you can skip them. Click on the Question Mark to get the instructions.
Unfortunately for puzzle lovers like me, the game is not packed with them, but there is enough of them to keep you busy and make you think.
Let's add to that 2 Modes of difficulty, a wide monitor option, and the possibility to replay the kidnapper's verbal comments via the journal.
The demo takes you to the beginning of Chapter 3 only, so it's difficult to estimate the gamelength, assess how well the storyline unfolds, and how interesting the CE's extras can be.
Considering that I got to the end of Chapter 2 in just over 56 mns after visiting 9 locales, it is possible the game may be shorter than expected.
Note: DSG: Dorian Gray Syndrome, named after Oscar Wilde's famous novel: The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
December 25, 2011
Wow! Another Great Game!
BFG has released another great game on the heels of House of 1000 Rooms!
The graphics are really good, crisp and sharp, though I didn?t like the way Sam?s (the protagonist) face looked. He had a strange appearance. The game also has a moody atmosphere that is appropriate to the disturbing plot. Though there are a lot of dead bodies, there?s no blood or goriness, which I much appreciate. The mini-games are really challenging, but luckily the skip button fills pretty fast in the casual mode. And the game does have two modes, casual and advanced; always a plus. This game also has some of the best voice acting in any game that I can remember playing. The villain has a smooth, cultured voice that still sounds creepy, and Anne sounds scared without overacting.
I deducted a little because there?s a lot of back and forth, but my final score is 4.5. This is a really good game, and I don?t think that you would be disappointed.
December 28, 2011
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