Neue Rezensionen von guybahir

This is the Zenest game ever. Seriously, never mind the puzzle element, it's just gorgeous to click on stuff and make the scenery change in various delightful ways (and since the puzzle is about creating specific variations on the scenery, that'll happen naturally too).
I can't recommend this enough. I want more!

These are good games for a good price. You should know that the games are actually bundled, as in, your 6 games don't appear separately, but as choices under a single menu, and that's how Steam reads them, in case this is important to you. To be fair, they did create achievements+cards for the bundle as a whole, so that's something at least.

That out of the way, this bundle has two different franchise sets in it, with the first three games of each, the first franchise being Snark Busters, the second House of 1000 Doors, and they're very different in both style and gameplay, though I personally enjoy both.
Snark is a lighthearted steampunk world in which there's, supposedly, a creature called a Snark that some people try to hunt, though it doesn't actually appear in the games and is mostly besides the point. The Snark world has an in-built bizarro world that you access via mirrors, and some actions taken on one side of the mirror affect things on the other side. I, personally, really enjoyed this aspect, though I can imagine it might get a bit confusing.
To cut down on the confusion, the items you need to use a room are only available there, and their fragments are found there, which brings me to the basics of Snark games, which is that it's overwhelmingly a fragmented object game, or, more accurately, lots of them, with a few easy puzzles/minigames thrown in. And when I say fragmented, I mean FRAGMENTED. As in, it's like all the items you need have exploded and scattered throughout each room/scene. It takes a minute to get used to it, but it's a lot of mindless, lighthearted fun, if you're into that sort of thing. The third game is the exception, in that each object or machine you need to fix has a wheel of items that are required to achieve that goal, and you click and drag them into that wheel, which conveniently pops up once you click on an item you've found (as well as showing you a gray image of the items you still need). The third game it also different in that it has more of a narrative to it with an actual overall goal. It's a significant improvement over the first two in terms of UI (the second game, for instance, stretches out if you want to play full screen, as if wide screen computers are a new invention or something, so that was annoying, and fixed in game 3), but I found the less farcical atmosphere, without the silly music, to be slightly less fun, but that's a personal thing.

House of 1000 Doors is entirely different, in terms of atmosphere, gameplay, and overall style. It's basically a mainstream hidden object/adventure game, with everything one comes to expect of the genre. The basic premise is there's a house that appears out of nowhere, and it has doors in it that are portals to different times and places, where you go around and try to fix what's bothering a restless ghost, which in turn affects the house and its residents.
There are several of those tasks in each game, each including A LOT of standard hidden object scenes (as in, there's a list, you need to find items on it) as well as the standard variety of min-games/puzzles, and you do also have to collect items all over the place, which makes the interactive map very useful, especially later in the game when you've got a half dozen locks/puzzles/mini-games with parts missing and can't possibly remember which screw/bolt/figurine/fragment goes where).
The doors to any particular time/place close once you've finished fixing what needed fixing, which cuts down on backtracking a little bit, though, since the games have collectible items, it means you can't go back if you missed one.
The art is fine, the cut-scenes are mostly good, and the voice acting ranges from good to hilariously bad, but you can always skip if it bothers you. I've had no bugs.

Overall, it's very good value for money, if you like casual adventure HOG/FROG, and don't mind having your games bundled.

This is a thoroughly mediocre game, with no particularly clever features or bonuses to recommend it, very little variety in the game play, way too many cut scenes, bad animation, terrible voice acting, a story that would insult the intelligence of a 5 year old (let alone a detective, and don't get me started on the depictions of mental illness), forcing you to respond in a TSTL manner, and so overall it's a let down, especially from this publisher.
The hidden object games are plentiful but very basic, and you can switch to mahjong if you want. The puzzles are fine.
For me, that's just not enough to recommend the game.

Like so many reviews have already said, this game is both unique and charming.
The story is straightforward, which works with it being told only in images, but it manages to tug at the heartstrings anyway.
The art is whimsical and clever, as are the puzzles.

The downside, and in my opinion it's a big one, is that the minimalism that works in terms of storytelling does not translate well when it comes to the game as a whole. There's zero support in-game, no hints, no explanation for the puzzles, if you don't find the single page diagram that comes with each puzzle to be sufficient to explain what you're supposed to do, you're stuck. Sure, some puzzles are self-explanatory, and you can always use a walkthrough, but I find it annoying when the problem isn't that I can't solve something but that I have no idea what it is I'm expected to solve.
I also found it slightly depressing nearer the end when I was expected to go around fantastical environments that I would normally really enjoy exploring, while having a very sad and miserable cartoon character standing there waiting for me. Kinda took the fun out of it for me.

It's a good game, the art is fantastic, it's well crafted and that's reflected in the price, but I think it wouldn't have detracted from the atmosphere or the concept if you could exit to the menu and see something a bit more standard in terms of making the game play smoother (like more detailed instructions), and I would've appreciated getting something extra like some concept art.
I'd recommend getting it on sale.

This is a solid HOG.
The story is serviceable and sets up the premise and atmosphere without being either too stupid or too pretentious, but the ending, though not a cliff-hanger, is more of a set-up for a sequel than an ultimate wrap-up (which doesn't bother me, personally).
There's a reasonable variety of puzzles that don't stray too far from what's expected in this type of game.
There's a handy interactive map, which is useful, you can choose the level of difficulty you play at, you get some achievements rather easily, and there's a bonus chapter when you're done with the main game.
My one complaint is that there are too many cut scenes which interfere with the flow while serving no purpose (you go into a room, a person you've already met asks you how your mission is going or offers to help, your character says it's fine and don't need any help, rinse & repeat).
It cost next to nothing on sale, so overall I'm very happy with it.