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The Great Unknown: Houdini's Castle 
ExclusiveYour honeymoon is cut short when your plane crashes on an uncharted island in The Great Unknown: Houdini's Castle. You awake to discover a madman has kidnapped your husband. To get him back, you'll have to use all your wits to pass his sinister tests and solve the mysteries of Houdini's castle. Along the way, you'll uncover Houdini's secret past and learn about the brilliant apprentice who changed his life. Can you expose Houdini's greatest trick to save your husband and escape the island? Take the challenge in this thrilling Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game.
- Check out our Blog Walkthrough
- Get the Strategy Guide!
- For a more in depth experience, check out the Collector's Edition
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Game System Requirements:
- OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7/8
- CPU: 1.6 GHz
- RAM: 1024 MB
- DirectX: 9.0
- Hard Drive: 204 MB
Game Manager System Requirements:
- Browser: Internet Explorer 7 or later
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The Great Unknown: Houdini's Castle
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Customer Reviews
The Great Unknown: Houdini's Castle
22
22
NICE AVERAGE GAME
This is a nice average game. There are many things to do simultaneously and you carry inventory until it can be used. The contrast between found and unfound objects in the HOS list could have been sharper. The images in the HOS were frequently indistinct (and not always because they were in shadow). The ?association? mini-games in which you match objects to an associated object (ex: matching a banana with a monkey) make use of previously seen HO scenes. Although there was a lot of detail in the environments, they were a little crowded. Not too challenging - no frustration. Pleasant game to while away the time, but nothing exciting.
October 17, 2012
Wish it were better.
Images were fuzzy, sound was great, story line was good, but I thought it would be more of a challange. If so, I would have bought it. I have bought almost every game to support cancer. I love the fact that Big Fish donnats $1.oo. Thank you for that!!!!!
October 17, 2012
An Enjoyable HO Puzzle Game!
You have your choice between Casual and Expert Modes. In Casual Mode, the Hints recharge quickly and game sparkles guide you toward new HOS.This game took me 6-1/2 hours on the Casual setting; I am sure it would have taken me much longer to play if I had selected Expert Mode.
I had to resort to the Hint button occasionally, but only for the puzzles where you have to figure what what objects are related. Each time, once the Hint had shown me the answer, it seemed obvious, and these puzzles provided enough challenge to be interesting and yet not so much that it was frustrating.
Hidden objects were often related to the scene, with minimal unrelated "junk" and no tiny items. Most hidden objects were easy to find; a few challenging ones kept me interested (I prefer puzzles to hidden object scenes.) Unlike another reviewer, I didn't have trouble with the hidden object scenes being too dark to see. It could be the normal variation between different computer monitors. If you have trouble seeing items, I suggest changing the monitor angle so the objects are easier to see. There was a good mixture between hidden object scenes, puzzles, and exploration/adventure.
Puzzles were mostly of types frequently seen, but the art work related them well to the story, so I didn't mind. You have the option to Skip puzzles in the Casual Mode setting, but I didn't find this necessary. Directions are listed below each puzzle. I did not need any Hints for the puzzles, other than the puzzles that were related to hidden objects, as explained above.
I did a fair amount of running back and forth, but that was because I often overlooked something that would have enabled me to finish a section. This non-linear approach to the game design means you can still make progress in the game, even if you have overlooked something, but you will have to do more running around to the various scenes.
There were a lot of different scenes to explore, and the artwork was exceptionally good. The colors and tones added to the game's atmosphere, yet there were also beautiful outdoor scenes that contrasted wonderfully with the spooky atmosphere of the remaining scenes. Lots of skeletons, but minimal gore, which is the way I like it.
The music added to the spooky atmosphere, and most of the background sounds did also. The cut-scenes were intriguing and helped immerse me into the story and game play. I missed one of the film reels, and will most likely replay the game to see if I can find it =)
Fortunately, missing one film reel did not keep me from finishing the game! The ending is satisfying, you don't feel frustrated waiting for the next game to be released by this developer before you will know what happens.
Give this game a try, I am glad that I did!
October 17, 2012
Nothing New Here
Search around a dark, spooky place. Find HOS and mini-games. The hint button was one of those irritating sorts that only works in the room your available action is in, so I spent many minutes going from room to room trying to figure out what to do next.
The association mini-games were a bit of a stretch - a few I didn't understand the association even with a hint.
As other reviewers have noted, the HOS are fairly dark and muddled. By the time the trial had finished, I was ready to be done with this game.
October 17, 2012
A little boring, Not very challenging
This game is ok, but not great. Same music as the music in "Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale" HOS and puzzles easy to moderately challenging. Graphics mostly good, but fuzzy in HOS. No map that I saw, but there is a journal.
Storyline: original premise is good, but it's not played out well. For instance, she wakes up from a plane crash to find a news article that her plane disappeared a month ago, but a note from her companion makes it seem as if they just got there. Makes no sense, and there is no explanation as to why.
There are better games out there, but I'm recommending this game to those who like this sort of thing.
October 17, 2012
A very agreeable game
I had played other games by these dev's and liked them... so ti was with this one.
Liked the graphics and the sound... some reviewers say the graphics are fuzzy, but I don't agree. It's a different style of drawing, but certainly not less valuable than other tack sharp and neat styles. Sounds never bothered me throughout the game.
There's a lot of stuff to do and a lot of locations to explore. In this, the lack of an interactive map with teleportation possibility sometimes proves to be annoying. You certainly have to keep your head together and remember where everything goes or should go... sometimes you may find yourself wandering around and trying the hint button to see if something needs to be done in a certain location.
Your notebook is not much of an aid.
HOS are not difficult at all... but I rather fancied the association games which often proved to be much more of a challenge. The hint button doesn't charge quickly, so I avoided using it as much as possible.
The game itself is rather linear, especially towards the end. Storyline is OK. The length of the game is quite good. I cannot believe one of the reviewers who says that he finished the CE in four hours. Anyway, I played the SE and spent quite a good time with it.
Actually, I regretted the game coming to an end.
October 19, 2012
I really enjoyed this game!
The graphics are beautiful
When you think you've opened up all the available scenes, you find even more.... this game is full of adventure
It is not too easy and not too hard
It is longer than most
Some of the HO scenes are association matches - and it's the one drawback to the game -- many are quite a stretch, but it didn't ruin the game for me.
The mini puzzles are a tad easy but the game is so enjoyable, that it didn't bother me that much
I highly recommend this one.... Enjoy!
November 2, 2012
Still unknown
Its an ok game, but I like a game to be more than ok. So I will be waiting for something more than ok before spending.
October 17, 2012
Houdini's castle
Not well done. Very fuzzy and hard to find pics
October 17, 2012
Had so much fun!
My husband & I play these all the time & this one was really great! The puzzles were fun, not too challenging but a lot of fun to do. We are not ones for story lines, we usually just skip right through them, but we did like the movie reels in this one. We don't use the hints and/or tutorials so not sure how those are. But all in all the game was so much fun. Enjoy & have fun!
October 24, 2012
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