Four years have passed since Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver marooned the mutinous crew on a island. Since then they have parted ways and lost contact. The crew have escaped the island and are on a quest for revenge against Jim and Long John. The game starts with them attacking Jim’s ship. As Jim is escaping he encounters Captain Flint, Long John’s parrot; Who brings a message from his master. The message says that Long John has died and left his substantial fortune to Jim, and contains directions to Emerald Island and a series of riddles he must solve if he wants to obtain this treasure.
The gameplay is very entertaining and varied. Their are inventory puzzles, logic puzzles, riddles, and even a knot tying mini-game. Additionally the game is moderately non linear and even allows the completion of some puzzles in multiple ways. The logic puzzles are pretty standard fare, and in general are tied in with the riddles. The knot mini-game happens whenever the player uses a rope in a way that would need him to tie it to something; It is not really interesting, but I like how they tried to add some additional pirate elements to the game. The inventory puzzles are a staple of the developer and as always are very enjoyable and complex. The use of objects are always logical and often require the user to combine or dissemble objects. But the riddles are what really make this game stand out. From they very beginning you are given a series of riddles, called enigmas, that will guide you on your adventure and give you the needed hints to allow you to attempt to solve the puzzles in the game and reach the treasure at the end. No longer are you blindly solving puzzles and picking up objects simply because they are there and you can; With the enigmas you now have a guiding goal in mind to validate your actions.
Positives:
The enigma was very well done and added uniqueness to the game.
Negatives:
The feather puzzle required a strict order of feathers, even though all information points to a order not being required.
Summery:
A solid polished adventure game.
Looks very nice!
ReplyDeleteAny idea how it compares to Return to Mysterious Island? The style seems a little similar.
I would say other then the local, jungle island, and that they were both made by Kheops Studio they are not particularly similar.
ReplyDeleteVery different story, very different feel to the location, very different puzzles.
It is quite a good game, but not as good as RtMI (in my opinion at least, but this is coming from a huge fan of RtMI).
reminds me of the mist series with the graphics
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