Alice in Wonderland
2.7
5
23
23
Such a pity
So, there's two good things about this game - the art is really rather pretty. And there's some good humor in the conversations with the characters.
Unfortunately, the bad things really mount up in comparison. For a start, the makers seem to have known that their art was going to be their selling point because they have stuck in several almost completely superfluous 'scenes'. Maybe they also felt that they didn't have an awful lot of scenes, too, as there is a shortage, but the extra just make knowing where to go harder.
Gameplay-wise - the mouse movement is very sluggish. Add to this the fact that on many occasions you must find something, that you're not even really aware you're looking for #or what it looks like sometimes# but there's no cursor change for active objects, and this leads to some very frustrating and slow random-clicking of scenes. I did a lot of this to being with before I realised that my normal new-scene-search-for-useful-objects process was unnecessary - objects only become clickable when you've been told to search for them, and you need shockingly few objects to process through the game. Not at all like a traditional HOG, which the game certainly isn't - the search scenes are more like the find-a-picture handouts I remember from primary school, and there aren't a lot of them. Mostly you are required to find as few as one, as many as five objects in each scene you visit. There are also a handful of spot-the-differences and release-the-key puzzles, and a number of make-all-the-gears-rotate puzzles. There are a few simply awful #I found# jigsaws, not so because they were hard but rather because the pieces moved and re-arranged themselves without my having clicked them. Most irksome.
There are no difficulty levels, only the base game. This means no option to turn on the non-existant sparklies. Thankfully the hint timer recharges at an 'easy' level, because I needed it an awful low more than I would have liked. It becomes de-charged even when you use it to find out that you need to leave the room - though you may need to continue travelling after you do so, with no more idea where to. As to the travel areas themselves - sometimes these places you click to change scenes are inescapable and get clicked unintentionally. On other occasions, they are tiny - at one point I used a hint just to find it. Another issue witht the hints - sometimes when I get down to two objects that I've had trouble finding, I will search down one and simply use a hint for the other. Occasionally, the hint would direct me back to the one I just found.
It is entirely necessary to read all the text - despite the fact there is a skip option. Only once did I accidentally click past a quote, and thereafter I was paranoid not to, because info, such as the room you need to go to, is containted therein and then does not appear anywhere else afterwards.
Something I find important - story. Sadly, I have to ask - what story? This was unrelated to Alice in Wonderland besides using the characters' appearances. That is they looked, but did not act like the characters. Then there is the actual game story. Apart from the main arc - find some missing girls - we are given nothing. No idea who our character is, no back story, no twists or any real plot at all. Add in [SPOILER] there are ten girls missing. You free two individually, another two who are together, and then the other six are merely released incidentally as you continue. There's a feeling that the writers simply ran out of steam and closed the game up very, very early. In this sole case, I can't complain #having read the other ratings, I bought the game on sale for three dollars#, and being short frankly puts the game out of its misery, but the whole thing took me less than an hour. Not because of ease - it's certainly not a kids' game with some of the objects truly hard to find, and some challenging puzzles - but because it was so incredibly short. There was no sense of 'getting into' or 'getting used to' the game at all.
As to the music - there was maybe a one-minute long loop that played constantly.
To sum - a short, brutal, unimaginatively created game that, while quite pretty to look at, does nothing for the gamer besides irritate and annoy. I was glad to get to the appalling early ending. I do however hope that the creators learn from this and move on, because the artwork really was stunning, and the idea behind the game was novel and interesting, just not terribly well executed.
December 3, 2011
A Darker Take
This is definitely a darker take on the classic Alice in Wonderland story (which can be a bit dark as is). I thought the characters and story were interesting enough, but I didn't absolutely love playing through it. Some of the puzzles were... annoying at best, impossible at worst. There didn't seem to be enough in-game help. Many of the puzzles took a lot of thought in order to solve. Which I admit isn't always a bad thing.
Overall not a horrible game... just not the best. Definitely not worth a second play through; at least not by me.
March 20, 2012
Poor-why did I buy this?
I was intrigued with the graphics and seemed to be doing okay so I bought it. Bad move. 20 minutes and I'm in a place with no way out of it. No additional hints; no sparkles; no nothing. Dead/stopped/over. Why?
December 9, 2011
so boooring
this game is sooooo boooring, the only thing good abou t it is the graphics. other than that this game is just plain boring.
November 15, 2011
Loved it!!
The graphics are great, the HOG scenes are medium to hard, hard enough sometimes to have to use a hint, which I try not to do. The storyline is captivating and the characters really draw you in.
November 28, 2011
A Pity
Found the game really difficult to play. Though the graphics were rather good, there's no indication (no stars or anything lighting up) when the mouse pointer is hovering over an active area, so it's really difficult to determine what the next step is. I gave up after 20minutes of the trial. Sound stopped by itself 5 minutes into the game. A real pity cos with just a little more clues for the player, the game can potentially be fun.
November 27, 2011
alice in wonderland
this was one of the worst games ive ever played,i was going to stop playing after the first 10mins but thought i would persevere and still it didnt get any better,poor hidden objects
total waste of time and money.
March 10, 2012
Graphics were superb but that's about it
Unfortunately, I would agree w/other reviewers. This was difficult to follow and know which direction to go next. I gave up about 10 minutes into it. Am so glad for these trials.
January 13, 2012
Not So Much
It was too ambiguous to be much fun. And finding the hidden objects wasn't altogether difficult since they weren't in among a bunch of other things like in most of the hidden object search games I've played.
November 29, 2011
not so good
maybe good for children but boring for adults
December 8, 2011