Fabled Legends: The Dark Piper
4.2
5
70
70
Tedious!
I like Blue Tea games and got the SE version for half price. After initially liking the graphics and story, it soon became very tedious. A lot of back and forth from scene to scene and a feeling of not knowing what to do. The map does help a little but doesn't always show you where you need to go. It also doesn't match the up and down, left and right directions of your screen. (I hate this.) I found myself just going to every scene and using the hint button until I found something to do or an HOS. The game is long so this just makes the tediousness worse. I really wish that game designers would make games more linear with more problem solving rather than memory tests. This game has a lot of scenes so it became laborious more than fun and challenging. If you like all of the back and forth action then this game is for you.
December 16, 2012
A STEP DOWN FOR BLUE TEA GAMES
This developer generally impresses me with the quality of their games, but they have missed the mark with this one. I hate to give a bad review, but in this case it is warranted. The visual quality of this game is very good, but that is where the excellence stops. The story seemed to almost be an afterthought and was not compelling at all. There were many HOS, which I usually like, but these were just way to easy. Without the challenge it just takes away the fun for me. The puzzles, like the HOS, were way to easy as well. I play many of these games, but in this case I am either a genius at puzzles or they were to easy, I think it is the latter.
As is usual with this developer the art work is great There were times that I just allowed myself to look at the game rather than play as the graphics were just wonderful. With a bit more effort I think this could have been a much better game.
While playing I even considered not playing the bonus game as I was just plain bored, but I went ahead and played it. The bonus game was actually worse than the main game and was sort of pointless. It was just perhaps 3 locations with with a lot of HOS. It felt more like they knew they needed a bonus game to qualify as a CE so just threw something together. I feel there should be an achievement award for being persistent and finishing this game.
Give the trial a go and see for yourself as it seems that my take on the game is in the minority, but it just didn't give me very much enjoyment.
Perhaps next time Blue Tea!
June 22, 2012
Oh how I love morphing objects!
I am probably in the minority here but I bought this game so I could find the morphing objects (and dang it I found all but two in this one). So I was pleasently surprised at how much I enjoyed the story. I really love Blue Tea games. The graphics are so crisp and the locations are so gorgeously detailed. The story was quite interesting, there was plenty to do and there were some neat twists along the way. You definitely get your money's worth out of this SE!
June 21, 2012
Love the change up!
I had felt for awhile that blue tea games fragmented object scenes were getting old. There are only so many things you can piece together before it all runs together especially when it looks like you are collecting exactly the same thing every time so I did enjoy the fact they changed it up and put in actual hidden objects. Those scenes were interactive and beautifully done however there were too many for my taste. I prefer more adventure to hidden object scenes but thats just me. IF the developers decide to keep actual objects in the next game and choose to have that many, it would be better in my opinion if they had some fragments and then some regular because it keeps the game fun. I also enjoyed the change up in mini games. They weren't too hard but it wasn't putting animals in the correct order either like some of their other games.
The actual game was splendid. The atmosphere was wonderful, graphics beautiful, voice overs well done to blue tea games standards. I feel like they really stepped up their game with this offering because the last one about the snow queen although beautiful was downright boring in my opinion and this one kept my attention the whole time. I also liked the twists in the story and I thought it was over a couple times but it kept going and I love that especially when its a great game.
Also, I love how you can change difficulties in the options menu during the game without having to start your whole game over. I always play hard but sometimes there is just one scene that does your head in and its nice to know skipping it is possible :)
I had a fun time playing this game and it took me about 4 hours give or take to play it. Kudos!
June 18, 2012
OKAY GAME
Good graphics & pretty coherent story line.
I found the Hint button not very helpful for where to go next. The "Map" was totally undecipherable and not helpful.
The puzzles were easy. There were lots more HOS than puzzles.
June 18, 2012
Could have been better
I would have rated this five stars except for some annoying aspects showing a lack of attention to detail by the developers. The map is kind of hit and miss regarding showing where there is action required - sometimes it shows correctly and other times it just shows the same old info regardless of where you are in the game. It's basically useless. The HOS are OK except for the interactive objects which are not all that obvious, and sometimes the cursor shows a hand indicating an interactive object when it is just a normal object.
The puzzles were good and not too difficult like some. I thought the story was good and interesting. The music was average. The artwork was very good with good VO.
June 15, 2012
Took some time to get into it - but loved it
Truthfully, this is not a fast starter. For the first 30 mins or so it seemed very "rote" - find this, put it there, do that, rats rats rats.
However, once the Duke gets involved it turned not just into a story but a twisty "oh I can believe that happened" story. Suddenly I would get an object be on the way to use it in the right place and BAM - road block, new plan. Things happened I didn't expect and the game took on a whole new fun turn.
Graphics are fantastic, HOS screens are clear and objects easy to define. Puzzles are easy to easy-medium. Didn't need to skip any. Music adds and the voice-overs are great.
A solid game all the way around.
June 13, 2012
Good game not as challenging as I would like it to be.
No doubt in my mind that graphics in games just getting better as game developers find brilliant ways to develop the technology for that. The graphics in this game are impressive and I must add, the way all games of this type should be, images clear, objects are well defined, cutscenes are well made. I however was less impressed with the no challenge at HO scenes. There are not to many objects so it is very easy to find the objects in the list. it's not hidden objects but more like "yep, we're here, just click on us already!" puzzles didn't do it for me, and programming glitches were noticeable,,,image name? no proof reading before in a hurry to get the game out?
Storyline is OK, makes me wonder if all ideas are taken, no original ones anymore? but I reckon it's easy to use one that worked before, not complaining, this story is good enough to hold this game.
The music was not taking over or to noisy at the same time not all that well composed, at least in my opinion.
I played the demo and will buy the full game eventually but only when in deal.
June 8, 2012
Not as good as the previous blue tea games
Downloaded the trial as I was previously enjoying all the other games done by Blue Tea, but I got fed up of it before the end of the trial. Frustrated by a useless hint system as it doesn't even give you a hint of where to go if you get stuck, just a 'nothing to do here' and not a clear map.
June 11, 2012
Great Game
Fun game. We played the demo of the single edition even tho we had already purchased the Collector edition.
There are game play choices of casual, normal & hard.
We played the normal version and found the games to be not too difficult and the sparkles just right.
There are some hidden object scenes that are interactive, although it was a bit annoying to have the hand icon appear and could pick up an item that was not to be used in that particular scene.
Mini games were not too difficult and were fun to play.
There is a map that shows where you are and where there is an objective. The objective book jumps out at you when you have a new one to achieve. Makes one jump when it happens. Never did really get used to it happening.
The graphics are excellent, as are the voice overs and music.
This is a very entertaining game.
June 10, 2012