Cate West: The Velvet Keys
2.4
5
5
5
Fun and easy game
Based on complete game, relaxed mode.
Storyline: easy to follow, logical (so what if it can never happen?). Interaction with co-stars is somewhat corny. You earn points and the total determines the ending. Lose points for skipping puzzles, earn extra by finding several objects fast. Fairly lengthy (you have to identify quite a few people).
Puzzles and mini-games varied from find related objects to sliders to match the scene. The memories puzzles frequently had one or two riddles that required some thinking. HOS: Lots of them of various types - standard find list of objects, FROGs, find a number of the same items and place objects to duplicate the-scene. All the HOS seemed fair (well defined, no tiny objects), though a few were cluttered in spots. Hint system refills very fast.
If you only played the demo, got to the point that you identified someone and liked it, you will like the game as the process of identifying people is repeated for each person. I did not have any technical issues expressed by a few others and I've had the game for some time. Newbies might want to play to advance their game skills and that is the basis for giving it 3.6 stars, rounded up.
July 7, 2012
A great disappointment
I purchased this game on the basis of the story line, but....
There are posts about a technical issue that are almost a year old....perhaps older, I write my revue in March of 2012, and the technical issue posts are dated May and June though without a year.
This game still kills the system pointer and the only way to get it back is to bring up another screen or power off.
On top of that, though there are many variations on HOGs they are all of the scattered junk variety, hard to see even with a magnifying glass.
The story line looked interesting but going through the story scenes has been slow and little new is said in any of them.
There may be some that like this game, but if you are vision challenged you may want to skip this unless you use the hints, which seem to be generously offered.
I can't even recommend this game on the variety of the puzzles.
I bought this game as either a DD or a Treasure Chest deal......and wish I hadn't.
April 1, 2012
Just Not A Good Game
Game looked interesting. Played it but just could not like it. Storyline doesn't exist, puzzles aren't that interesting and the HOS just don't make any sense. Had a problem with the pointer that didn't help, either.
Bummer.
April 11, 2012
Poor gameplay, lackluster story.
The scenes and objects are composed of myriad junk that seems like it was just vomited onto the screen. It's a perfect example of a hidden object game in which no effort was made to integrate the objects with the scenery, and things are just hanging in the air in random places (like a wrench hidden in the fabric of a curtain, for example). The scenes and objects also get really repetitive, and the game repeatedly has you find the same objects in the same scenes. I wish I could say that the story made up for the poor gameplay, but it didn't. It struck me as somewhat nonsensical and needlessly drawn out. The game moves at a frustratingly glacial pace, and I found myself just wanting to have it over with. Obviously, games are meant to be fun, so wishing the game would just end is a pretty bad sign. It's not the worst game I've ever played, but it isn't worth buying.
December 23, 2011
very slow gameplay
This and the other Cate game are not games for me. Too slow and I did not find it fun. Maybe these are games that have been around along time! But for new gamers this would be a good starter game.
November 26, 2011