Questerium: Sinister Trinity HD Collector's Edition

Its a fun seek in find game if your looking for one.

Minigames and Search Pictures. Together with filmed Actors. Rescue the children from an annoying antagonist.
Quite charming. Better example of a casual game title.

A pretty solid HOG. The story is pretty standard HOG stuff, good enough, and the graphics are lovely. The puzzles are usually pretty good, save for a slow and annoying Tower of Hanoi puzzle. This game stands out by combining live-action actors with the 2D graphics, which is not something I've seen in a game like this before, as well as through all its "secrets," where you can find money and plants throughout the game.

One thing I didn't like was the back button... instead of an invisible hotspot at the bottom of the screen like normal, it's an interface button that looks like it's part of the hint system or something, which is unintuitive and annoying. Overall, though, I'd say this game is pretty good for the genre.

The glass cutter in the hidden object game would not cut the glass on the box needed to get the object inside. I clicked the hint button and verified that it was indeed the glass cutter that needed to be used on the glass on the box. Game is glitched and cannot be completed. Rating: 0/10

I haven't played that many hidden object games in the past, so I'm not sure how they normally are quality wise. That said, I really liked this one.

Pictures are sharp, colorful and pretty well drawn. I liked that they also added several logic puzzles as well.

Played on hard for the achievements, so no use of hints or object highlighting. And that was quite a challenge. Puzzle elements were good. Nothing too obnoxious.

And then there is the in-game fmv's.. Snippets of live actor performance projected into the painted scenery.. and these were sooooo incredibly bad, they were good! I assume the studio did this on purpose. It was so over the top goofy and they had me laughing out loud multiple times.

Paid a few dollars for it. Totally worth it!

Fantastic Hidden Object Game with a decent difficultz for puzzles and a generous amount of actual hidden object mini-games!

Lots of locations with sadly a bit of backtracking but you can fast travel using a map.
The graphics are a combination of 2D scenery with 3D props and full-motion-video character acting. Pretty innovative -- I've only seen this concept in point-and-click FMV games, but not in hidden object games until now!

What I also liked was the amount of collectibles and secrets to find in the game. But my favorite aspect was by far the large amount of puzzles and the puzzle diversity. It's not just "find a key for this lock" or "find a code for this pad". It's a bunch of different kinds of challenges and objects to look for.

One of the better HOGs out there, without a doubt. Hard recommend!

Some will be put off by the cheesy acting and bland story, but the gameplay is generally quite good. Hidden object scenes are fun. There's fast travel on the map. There are secret money stashes and collectibles spread throughout the locations; you can use the money to decorate a garden.

The main negatives are that some of the puzzles are fiendishly hard (you can skip them but will miss an achievement) and the bonus chapter is very poorly constructed with a broken hints system. I didn't bother finishing the bonus chapter because I had to follow a walkthrough constantly.

Overall, it's hard to choose between recommending or not, but I did enjoy the gameplay in the main game.

Questerium is an interesting HOG in that it combines live action characters with your standard hand-drawn backgrounds and hidden object gameplay, but does so with a certain amount of camp and gusto that I found quite enjoyable. Live acting is not entirely unheard of when it comes to the genre, but it's rarely pulled of as well as it is here, usually because the games try to take themselves entirely too seriously. While the actors aren't the most "seasoned," you can tell they're having a lot of fun with it, and it's a bit nostalgic to watch, often reminding me of the older FMV PC games.

Something crazy is going on in Fortuneville; natural disasters, strange vegetation and a crazy scientist running to and fro with two young children caught in the middle. Finding out just what the heck is going on and rescuing the kids leads you through the game. It's a little random and weird, but a welcome change from your standard dark, supernatural fare that encompasses most of the genre. While I did not find the plot too intriguing myself, it's a good enough premise to get me to the meat of the game, which is the gameplay.

Hidden object games are pretty formula in how they play, and Questerium is no exception. However, the addition of 4 difficulty levels really helps stretch out the gameplay, especially if you're playing on Professional (no hints, sparkles, nothing) and looking for something that's a little more adventure-lite than casual HOG. While there are plenty of hidden objects scenes to work through (none of which I found unfairly difficult, thankfully), it's the puzzles that I enjoyed the most. A few of the concepts I haven't seen done before and the difficulty is about right; nothing extremely hard, but they take some thought to work through. Too often do I play a HOG and find the puzzles almost an insult considering how absurdly easy they are once you figure out the method. That's not the case here.

Along with collectible plants that have their own journal enties detailing the species, some of which are pretty creative, you can find caches of money throughout the game that are used to purchase items for a garden in your Achievements Screen. Although it's nothing flashy, they're a nice addition for completionists who want a little something extra to go along with the gameplay.

All in all, I quite enjoyed Questerium and will certainly go back again to finish up the achievements and collectibles. The price is quite reasonable considering the value Steam Achievements and Trading Cards add to these games, and it's definitely worth a look for hidden object fans searching for something a little bit quirky and different.

Bottom Line: 7/10

Your typical and somewhat average HOG game, with oddly designed city, typical lack of any logic in the story and presence of common face-palm situations (like finding unblemished pistol bullet within burned-out ashes in a fireplace), and cutscenes with live actors whose performance is so bad that they’re downright hilarious. Nevertheless, the game has nice graphics, well-designed hidden object scenes and puzzles, obligatory secret hidden bonus items, and a minigame where you, as the detective, get to build your own garden from money that you scrub around. Gameplay is actually quite smooth and entertaining, so if you are an avid collector of HOG games, you can consider adding this one to your library.

The game is broken. The camera gets stucked all the time and it has some several graphic glitches. Do not buy it...

questerium: sinister trinity is one of the few hidden object games using fmv, which is the only reason I wanted to play it, as I'm not a fan of the genre otherwise. I'd be royally screwed if every hog used real 'actors', though I doubt many would be this much fun.

in this one an evil scientist does something evil that destroys a whole town and makes it look like audrey 2 took charge. you, a regular detective, are tasked with rescuing two kids, because apparently everything and everybody else is fine as it is. as soon as you find them right at the beginning, some random lightning guy appears and makes a rope made of blankets explode(!). that's when I knew I was in for an especially cheesy ride, which is my preference.

you carry a diary with a story recap, documents and such, and the eye icon shows exits from the current screen. if you can't leave where you entered, the arrow in the bottom right takes you back to the previous location, and clicking the compass brings up a map with some useful markings and fast travel to already visited areas, as not everything can be done in a place on your first visit. the inventory stores items to use wherever you go and in the usual variety of more or less annoying and skippable puzzles/mini-games (some are actually pretty good). there's a padlock that keeps the inventory open at all times, nice attention to detail.

and there are of course unskippable hidden object scenes with hints if you need them. surprisingly, they aren't too bad, some items have to be used on others to make whatever you're looking for complete, so it's not just frantic clicking (bad news for me). the 4 difficulty settings control skip and hint recharge rates and active zone highlights, and on the hardest you won't get 'thoughts' when examining objects either. difficulty can be changed anytime.

an optional tutorial is available, and since it's the collector's edition, as in the complete game, no content is missing, so we have wallpapers, concept art, you can replay individual puzzles, and more importantly, an 'extra' chapter after the main game is done, with the actual conclusion. sadly, it's very buggy, both the quest marker and the hint system get stuck on the first screen, making things a lot more frustrating.

besides the adventure, puzzle and hidden object aspects there are also plants and money to find to decorate your garden for some reason. it's accessible by clicking the purse while playing, or from the achievements section, which seems to be done nicely in all of these games (well, all 3 I've played in my life). the map marks locations with secrets (i.e.: money), but the secrets themselves aren't marked on-screen. money's often found in hidden object scenes that can't be repeated, so you might miss some there too.

saving is automatic and seems to be constant. separate volume settings, windowed mode (not resizable), custom cursor and a bunch of languages are available. I always find it annoying when subtitles don't match voiceovers, and it's a problem here as well, along with using tapping instead of clicking in the instructions. I could've also done without the condescending 'well done' after finding every single non-hidden object item. though to be fair, some took quite an effort.

I'm guessing if you enjoy one hidden object adventure, you'll dig all of them, provided the setting is to your liking and they're not completely broken, and I see no reason not to recommend this one either. it's some excellent cheesy fun done really well (except for the buggy finale), takes about 5 hours and can be had for peanuts during sales. I'm pretty sure it'll be in my top something even after playing more hog/fmv hybrids.

Such a fun game.
I played it years ago and enjoyed it this time every bit as much.
More of a light adventure than a hog(I think there were only about 6 hog scenes in the entire game and they were interactive so did not bog one down.) LOVE the FMV sequences(yes they are a bit cheesy but hey, it's a game and added to the entertainment)

the game requires you to get a button out of the toolbox in the garage but wont let you even after you get everything else. cant go any farther in the game.

This game just annoyed me to a point where I don't even want to bother with the bonus content. It certainly is not the worst game, but it does lack logic.

Meh, I play a lot of HOGs and I am usually pretty forgiving of them, but I found Questerium more irritating than fun.

This is one of those games where nothing makes any sense and you have to spam the hint button every two minutes to find out what you are supposed to do next. For example, you find a lever -- and you have to throw it at a bird to scare it away? Or a pair of scissors which is used -- to pick a lock? What about the string you found a few screens back that needed to be cut? Nope, you are supposed to use a piece of broken glass for that. The game is full of nonsense like that.

The puzzles are unusually difficult for this type of game, and poorly explained. The story is cheesy, and the FMV is weird and badly acted. There is a bonus chapter at the end of the game but I did not bother to play it. There are so many HOGs out there, and most of them are better than this one.

This game is surprisingly good, it does have a few flaws but this doesn't make it a bad game. The story about three men who used to be childhood friends, the grew up and each one practiced a different profession. A banker, professor, and a mayor. One day a meteor falls not too far from the city, and this sparked Professor Gustav interest as he learns that the meteorite is emanating some sort of unknown energy. He started his experiments without the mayor’s permission but he was supported by his friend, the banker. Because of his experiments, the city's plants and animals were mutated and the citizens were forced to evacuate the city, except for two kids you were assigned to rescue.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1545283241

The story is mediocre but the puzzles and artwork made this game fun to play. I can't prise the artwork enough, everything was well drawn and the details are so beautiful especially the hidden objects scenes, the good thing that you only visit each scene once, there are no recycled hidden objects scenes. The journal and map are as beautiful as the rest. I think the artwork is the strongest point of this game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1545340660

Puzzles vary between easy and complex, I couldn't solve one of the puzzles without an aid from a guide. There is an achievement for not skipping and using a hint on any puzzle or hidden object scenes, so skipping a puzzle was not an option for me. The soundtracks of the game were good and fitting, none of them was looping or annoying. However, what I disliked were the cutscenes as the characters were real people. The acting wasn't the best, in my opinion, would have preferred it if it was an animated cutscene instead.

There are multiple collectibles in the game.

• Money (To purchase garden upgrades)
  
• Flowers (A collection of 15 types)
  
[*]Masks (Three in total)

Each collectible has its own achievement upon completing it. I liked the garden upgrade and the achievements room which you can slowly see how it grows with your collection.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1545341050

Pros:
+Beautiful artwork.
+Good soundtracks.
+Beautiful and useful journal keeps track of the story.
+Fast traveling map.
+Good voice overs.
+Variety of puzzles.
+Collectibles (Three types).
+Well made and drawn hidden objects scenes.
+Steam achievements.

Cons:
-Bad characters choice and cutscenes.
-Mediocre story.

If you enjoy hidden objects games you'll definitely enjoy this one. It took around four hours for me to beat the game without closing it. I recommend it to people who enjoy HOGs and puzzles.

[quote]𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒[/quote]

The game's full title is Questerium: Sinister Trinity HD Collector's Edition but let's refer to it as Questerium for short. Questerium is a Hidden Objects Game (HOG) combined with Full Motion Video (FMV). It's not the best HOG I have played but it is worth playing. The puzzles are fun and even though (or maybe: because?) the acting is cheesy, the FMV really adds something special to this game.

Story

A meteor has struck near a town. It's emanating an unearthly energy and the resident scientist, Dr. Gustav, starts experimenting with it. Something must have gone wrong, as the meteor's energy has suddenly manifested itself as a huge but inert whirlwind just outside of the town, causing the townsfolk to flee in chaos. Two children are unaccounted for. You play an investigator who's asked to go look for the children in the abandoned town.

The story is rather thin. Dialogue is scarce. You do learn some background stories about the main characters by reading journals, newspaper articles and other texts you find while exploring the town. All in all, the narrative is enough to keep a HOG going but not much else. This is one of the many HOG that relies on a lot of puzzling and just a basic story to keep the player interested.

Gameplay

At the start of the game, you select a difficulty to determine the challenge Questerium will offer. You can adjust the difficulty at any time while playing.

At the easiest difficulty, you occasionally see a small sparkle on all the objects you can interact with. The hardest difficulty mode is meant for people who want to click on everything to check if it does anything, and who don't mind resorting to some pixel hunting. The difficulty modes in between don't have the sparkles but you can use a hint button to lead you to the next object to interact with, if you're stuck.

The hidden object puzzles in Questerium are what I'd like to call 'the advanced type', meaning you don't just need to look for items hidden in a scene and click on them, but you also need to combine items and use some items on other items to find hidden objects. It's a small step up from the basic hidden object puzzles seen in some other HOG, but a step up nonetheless, making the hidden object puzzles a bit more challenging and interesting.

The other puzzles are varied enough. There are some classic puzzles and there are some original ones. The difficulty of the puzzles is never too high to be frustrating, but overall they are challenging and most importantly, they're fun to tackle.

Optionally, there's some collecting to do while playing the game. In Questerium, you can collect money and plants. The plants are easy to spot but the money is hidden very well. Spots where there is nothing but hidden money don't even 'sparkle' on the easiest difficulty mode, so you either need to click around a lot or keep one eye on a guide.

At any time, you can click a button to travel to your own personal place in the world of Questerium. There you can use the money you've gathered to buy fountains and trees to make your garden look more impressive. The small building leading to your garden contains a book that keeps track of the plants you've collected. The rest of the room automatically gets filled up with all sorts of decorations while you complete achievements in Questerium. All this is completely optional and not relevant to the game at all, but it's there for people who like trophy rooms like that, and it's a fun addition to check out once in a while if you're an achievement hunter.

Graphics, FMV and sound

The graphics are as good as you'd expect from a decent HOG. In the case of Questerium, of course, it's the FMV that makes the game look special and different from other HOG. Graphically, the FMV looks great. The FMV is used only for the four characters you meet in the game, though, so it's only a small part of the whole game.

The acting is very cheesy. This is a word us FMV afficionados use to avoid calling the acting terrible. But we use the word affectionately. The quality of FMV acting has known extreme highs and lows over the last 25 years, but the appeal of FMV is that when the acting is ok, the FMV is called great, and when the acting is bad, it's called typical charming FMV. Or indeed, called 'cheesy'. The fact is, the FMV in Questerium adds a lot of atmosphere. And after playing Questerium I have to say it baffles me that this is the first HOG with FMV I've ever seen, because FMV goes really, really well with the HOG genre. I hope to see more of that combination, although preferably with a slightly higher standard of acting, if at all possible.

The music and sound effects of Questerium are fitting, atmospheric and clearly of high quality.

On Steam's extra features

Questerium has 5 Steam Trading Cards. You'll get 3 while running the game.

The 23 Steam Achievements, which are also tracked ingame, consist of story-related achievements, puzzle-related achievements (for solving them without skipping or using hints) and collection-related achievements (for collecting all the plants, finding all the money and buying decorations for your garden).

The terrible FMV just adds to this cheesy game. Occasionally it fails to register a click or has an inconveniently small hotspot, but that aside, it seems to be bug free for me. Puzzles are quite original and the HOG scenes are well themed, with fewer random junk heaps than most games. The story makes very little sense, so a typical HOG in that respect. Anyhoo, I had 6.8 hours of fun and consider this thing a bargain.

I've settled on yes for recommending, because I did enjoy the game, despite a few major cons.

Pros:
- Some nice background art
- The flower collectibles are pretty cool, and the secrets mechanic was a fun challenge
- Decent story. I like the way it just throws you in as the detective without explaining too much like some othre games do.
- Good HO scenes that weren't too easy
- Unlike a lot of the other reviewers, I didn't experience any bugs (although I haven't played the bonus chapter yet). Ran pretty smoothly.

Cons:
- The acting. Oh, man. Now I'm a big fan of the HO genre, and am used to mediocre acting, but this was a whole new level of bad. Someone decided that this game needed live action characters, but then apparently didn't know where to find people who know how to act, or people who know how to animate the live action bits into the scenes. It would have been so much better with more standard characters. The voice acting wasn't bad, but the movement... seriously. If this were a comedy game, maybe I'd think they're trying to be ironic, but it's too serious for acting this bad.
- Some of the puzzles are not well explained. I had to skip a couple of them because I couldn't figure out what to do and the instructions were useless.
- A few very slow and frustrating animations. For example, there's a pyramid minigame, which is simple and shouldn't take a long time to solve, but the animation for moving the blocks... it makes you click on the one you want to move, the arm moves over, picks it up, and you nca't click destination until that's done. It gets frustrating really fast.
- Unlike every other collector's edition game I've played, this one doesn't have a strategy guide.

But, despite the painfulness of sitting through the cutscenes, I did have fun playing it. So, get it on sale, it's a decent way to spend a few hours.

Edit:
I've played the bonus chapter. The map and hint are broken, in that they always point to the very first task, but it's still playable, you just won't have the help of hint and map.

In a nutshell: For every one thing this game does right, it messes up in another area. Recommended for the more challenging HOGs, difficult puzzles, unique collectibles, and goofy FMV acting if you like that kind of thing. Not recommended for the blah story, slow-as-hell pacing, far too much backtracking, and the many bugs that require fussing around and even deleting files just to get past unresponsive puzzles or locations.

If you're the impatient type or don't like overly brain-taxing games, this may not be the best HOPA choice for you.

*pulls hair and screams silently* Alright then, here we go.

Story + FMV + VOs

I found the story in Questerium unimpressive and boring. A meteor falls near a city, and when they start researching it they discover it has some kind of superpowers. Some people start a project to harness that power, but something goes wrong and the city has to be evacuated. You're sent in to look for two kids that didn't get out when everyone else did. The first antagonist is some weird guy with powers who keeps yanking the kids away and throwing obstacles in your path. The main antagonist is the scientist behind the project, and you have to jump though some very ridiculous hoops to stop him from...actually I'm not exactly sure what he was trying to do at the end, tbh. The bonus chapter sort of explains why he was acting weird, but not what he was doing.

The narrative is heavily supplemented by video clips of live actors instead of drawn characters. The gimmick both helps and hinders the story and gameplay. It helps because the silly and overdone acting adds an amusement factor and a reason to actually watch the cutscenes for more than just plot exposition. For example, the actor who plays the scientist hams up the role so damn much it's almost like watching a live-action cartoon. His facial expressions alone are ridiculous. That's not everyone's kind of amusement however, so I'm sure many people will be turned off by what would otherwise be considered terrible acting. (And yes, it's terrible, but so is the acting in cult hits like Sharknado.)

Unfortunately the pacing of the FMVs interferes with the flow of the game. The actors take sooo long to do anything that it doesn't feel organic anymore. I guess the scientist is supposed to be a hobbling older guy, but the way the actor walks just looks really weird. The timing between anyone's actions (crouching, jumping, starting to walk, etc) is a beat too long to look natural.

The voiceovers also don't match the characters. If you can read lips, there's a big gap between the VO recording and 1) what they look like they're saying, and 2) what the subtitles are. It's a minor complaint in perspective, but it does get annoying after a while.

And maybe it's just me, but the mayor's comments over the loudspeakers in the city seemed like an attempt to (badly) emulate the cliche dystopian rambling made famous by Bioshock and Portal 2.

Gameplay

Some of the point & click solutions are bizarre. Like at the beginning, you find a clothing iron for some reason, and then realize its only use is to smash a glass case to get a fire extinguisher. Why did it have to be an iron, exactly? Nobody I know would look at an iron and think "hey, that would make a great projectile!" You find a katana, but it's just used to slice through a single metal chain. Why? You have more logical tools in your inventory at that point that would achieve the same result. If the devs were aiming for some kind of humor with the weirder object-usage choices, they didn't do a very good job.

The amount of backtracking you have to do is infuriating. If you're not using the map, be prepared for a lot of confusion. I stopped caring at some point and just opened the map after every action to see where the next "!" location was (which doesn't work in the bonus chapter). It's very clear that the backtracking is meant as a way to artificially pad the game length, since most items are one-use-only and you have to bend over backwards to open safes and whatnot that only yield absurdly common objects (which also have only one use). Last I checked, pocket knives and hairpin lockpicks don't need 24/7 security.

HOGs + Puzzles + Secrets

HO scenes are well-constructed and more difficult than average, but there's nothing otherwise noteworthy about them. You can't skip them either.

Puzzles are nicely varied, but way more difficult than average. I like challenging puzzles and tough twists on old favorites, but a few left me stuck gritting my teeth for 20-30 minutes at a time, and I had to look up parts of their solutions out of frustration. Two or three also had really unclear instructions, and I had to watch a video just to find out how I was supposed to start solving them.

The puzzles are by far the biggest problem in the game, primarily because of bugs that completely halt progress. Like if you start a puzzle and leave it before finishing for whatever reason (including a game crash), when you come back it may not register when you input the correct solution. In my case, sometimes spamming the reset button helped, other times I had to dig around and delete some Loc.xml files in order to reset that particular scene (there's a how-to floating around in the discussions). The problem is that once a location is reset, you need to redo all your actions, and if thoey require an item from another location that you already used, you can't get it again unless you reset that location. Then that may lock you out of more places that need other items, and so on. So while it's a potentially useful workaround, it only works for scenes that don't require single-use items. In all other cases you either gotta spam reset and pray, ruin your no-puzzle-skip streak, or start a whole new profile.

"Secrets" are in the form of hidden caches of money or mutated flowers you can find in some locations. The cursor doesn't change when you mouse over the money caches, so you'll either need to use a guide or spend time clicking everywhere. A few of them are in HOGs too, so they're missable, which right away screws up that achievement if you're not careful. In contrast, the flowers are easy, but one of them is missable near the end because there's no gameplay reason to revisit that location.

Extras

The bonus chapter is a headache in the making. There's a really annoying bug where neither the map nor the objectives update after you leave the jail, so the only thing the hints and map suggests is finding the door to exit the jail in the first place. I tried everything, from verifying cache to all kinds of file tweaks, but no change. The same thing happened on a new profile.

As for the bonus chapter content, it's really not worth the time. There are no achieves to work toward, and only 4-5 new locations. Most of it revisits places from the main game. So not only is backtracking even more tiresome, but with the map and hint system so screwed up, you have to wander around twice as much to play the "lets see if this weird combo works" game everywhere.

Conclusion

I really wish I could fully recommend this game. Honestly. It has some nice elements and scenes, but the story and puzzle/action logic are sub-par, and there are so many damn gameplay hangups that it stopped being fun for me. Instead it became a chore, and a hunt to find fixes so I wouldn't have to start all over from the beginning.

Don't get me wrong - I can see the appeal and why some people give it good ratings. But I suppose that only really applies if you're lucky enough to have a bug-free playthrough. That said, based on my own experience I have to give his a thumbs down. A 100% successful game doesn't end with the player cursing at it and actively dreading a whole replay to the end just to get achievements they were screwed out of by bugs the first time around.

Game Information

"Questerium: Sinister Trinity" Collector's Edition is a Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game. The game was developed by URSE Games and published by Buka Entertainment.

Since this is a collector's edition game, it comes with extra features that are not available in its counterpart; the standard edition.

The Game Review

Game Visuals

I want to mention that the visuals in the game are well done. The visuals can be adjusted in the game's option menu.

Game Audio

I want to mention that audio for the game is well done. Even though the audio is somewhat simplistic and repetitive. The audio can be adjusted in the game's option menu as well.

Gameplay

There are four different difficulty game modes to choose from: Casual; Normal; Hard and Professional.

The notebook keeps track of progression in the game. Such as story events and clues.

There is an interactive map in the game. It allows the player to fast travel between each location quickly without having the need to constantly backtrack. It also indicates that there are a variety of tasks that can be completed at various locations within the game. The interactive map is automatically given at the start of the game.

There is a padlock feature that is available to lock the inventory panel in place to make it stationary.

There are some interactive items in the game. Some of the interactive items may require extra components before they can be interacted with. All interactive items are marked with a symbol in one of the corners.

The hidden object scenes consist of the following: Traditional word lists. Some of these hidden object scenes may require little or no interaction.

The puzzles are fairly easy to solve without having the need to skip any of them.

There is a collectible in the game: Supernatural Flowers. They are scattered throughout the game for the player to find.

The garden is located under the game's extra content section. It can be upgraded with the use of coins that are found throughout the game.

There are twenty-three different achievements that can be unlocked from playing the game. Each of these achievements does come with some requirements that need to be completed before they can be unlocked.

Since this is collector's edition, there is a bonus chapter, but it can be accessed only after the main story is completed.

Miscellaneous

There are extra features in the game: Bonus Chapter; Bonus Puzzles; Wallpaper; Concept Art and Soundtrack. Most of these extra features can be accessed only after the entire game is completed.

There are five different trading cards to collect. Only three of those trading cards are given out by the game. There are several ways to get the rest of the trading card: Purchased from Steam's Community Market; Trade with friends; Booster Packs and its' Booster Pack Creator.

Final thoughts: I have found the game enjoyable to a certain extent. The replay value for the game is low. I would recommend this game, but not at the game's full price value.

Two children need your help to escape a town invaded by strange plants. However, a man manipulating electricity kidnapped them. And besides, there is a crazy doctor trying to stop you. So, what is really happening?

The story could be resumed by a scientist being affected by a meteor and having used his own assistant as test subject and needed to be stopped before it's too late. However, the evil isn't always what may be at first sight. While the twist is welcomed, I suspected it when I got some items.

The gameplay is quite common: find items to unlock hidden objects scenes or puzzles. But you have also a nice quest to find plants, hidden money and masks. The money will be used to buy ornaments for your garden. Also, the puzzles, while being well-balanced, aren't always the common ones. Some of them are however very hard and while searching a walkthrough for them (I must say that for one at least I was close to the solution), I realised that many of those recording a video one skipped them.

The best thing is also the fact that the characters are real actors. In other words, you have them in video into drawed backgrounds. I don't know if the man manipulating electricity is the same as the sailor in Mystery Expedition: Prisonners of Ice but he was quite similar physically. The rest is also well done, though I would have preferred more darkness at least.

Some bonus are also offered as it's a Collector's Edition: puzzles you can replay, wallpapers, etc..

This game is a nice game, with a perfect execution from the actors, with good puzzles and with nice features. It's a good bargain, so, don't hesitate!

Painfully average game with some major flaws.
The adventuring consists of searching for missing objects or tools. Exactly one specific item can be used in every situation; you can't break a chain using an axe you already have, you have to find a katana. You can't break glass using a pickaxe, you have to get a stone. Why? Item locations are completely random. Often you have to solve a complex puzzle and get a key to open a safe just to find a simple knife inside (or something like that).
The game contains an insane amount of backtracking. You are constantly running back and forth around the map; a convenient map helps a lot here. However, the map hints and the whole hint system didn't work during the bonus chapter and then the backtracking got really painful.

There are some live-action cutscenes that reminded me of the "interactive movie" era of the 90's, however the actors are so incredibly bad that every cutscene feels like a parody of itself. Also, the story is so simple and stupid it's not even worth following, there was absolutely no effort put into it.

Overall, it's not a bad game but it's not a good game either. There are so many better games in this genre it's impossible to recommend such mediocrity. Dear developers, next time please think about the game a bit. It IS possible to make the items work in a logical and interesting way. It IS possible to tell an interesting story.

7/10

genre: casual point and click/HO adventure game

+ the presentation is nice, with good implementation of live actors as the main characters
+ story is quite interesting in the sci-fi/mystery genre - you are afrer a mad scientist who's trying to use some king of energy for bad cause
+ casual adventure game, with inventory based puzzles, some mini-games/puzzles and hidden objects scenes - not much pixel hunting , scenes are clear and beautiful - secret places to discover where you collect money which then you use to decorate your garden (!) - achievements also present
+ detailed diary and map

- acting is terrible, so is voice acting
- puzzles are generally very easy (casual game though)

in general, nice casual game, almost in the artifex mundi games quality level that we all know and like, not quite there though but it is a good choice for fans of the genre