Lost Lands: The Golden Curse Collector's Edition Reviews

I'm beginning to like these Lost Lands games more and more. A 75/100 effort. [b]The good[/b] Surprisingly long for a HOG - 7+ hours of gameplay Great production values Challenging puzzles and HO scenes Intriguing setting, one of the better ones out there Fast travel map Map tells you of morphing objects and collectables [b]The bad[/b] A few annoying contrivances with needed objects Minimal replay value The music is nothing special

Poorly executed puzzle game with cringe worthy voice acting. Susan sounds like a corporate (think bad video training modules), computer created voice with no rhyme or reason to how she talks. The Elder Druid guy is ok though. Also, "Leproch Conn"? Really? That just made me roll my eyes. The puzzles themselves make little to no sense, making you randomly ping pong back and forth between different maps, and the only way you know what map to go to is with the strategy guide. Gave it a couple hours as a try since it was on sale, but it's more a "follow uselessly meandering instructions" game, rather than a fun or relaxing puzzle game.

The game starts with an advertisement screen for the company's other games. Later, it pops up a nag screen to rate it. I paid for this game. It's not freeware. So, here's the rating it demands: Not Recommended. Fish poops. EDIT: After a total of 15.9 hours (9.8 hours to complete the base game on Hard without maps, 1.8 hours, similarly, for the Bonus Chapter, and 4.3 hours to get the remaining Achievements (on Easy with maps)), I've now finished the game. So, here's some information on the game, itself. It basically plays almost exactly like the previous game (Lost Lands: The Four Horsemen (TFH)): - A lot of good work went into the story, graphics, and puzzles. - The voice acting is fairly terrible (about par for the genre). - The puzzles aren't Hidden Object Games (HOGs), they're Chain of Object Games (COOGs). - The collectables (particularly the morphing objects and the statuettes) are so ridiculously camouflaged that they're essentially impossible to get. - The key/lock pairs are so far apart physically and temporally that it's impossible to remember what belongs to what (or even that it exists). This gets much better when playing with the map, since then you merely have to look at it, see what's active, jump there, and use any new objects. Also, getting left over mini-game Achievements is helped since we can do them in the Extras area once the game is done. But, HOGs and collectibles have to be done in game (which means starting over if we didn't get them the first time through). I'm not changing my rating from my initial Not Recommended, though. I rated TFH as a just barely borderline Recommended. But, the starting advertisement and the rating nag screen here just pushed the game over into Not Recommended territory. However, if you liked TFH and don't mind the ads/nags, feel free to give this a try. You might like it.

It's not the worst HOG but the story doesn't grab me and the game is unbalanced. Right now my character has 14 items in the inventory and there are roughly 25 places to try the items out spread across too many locations, to make matters worse many of the items could be used in theory at those 25 places but they aren't the specific item the games want you to cut or poke with.

Our intrepid Susan is back. Twenty years have passed in the Lost Lands since the Dark Horsemen roamed the Lands causing strife and destruction, this time she has been brought to help lift a petrifying curse that reaches into her own world. Third in Lost Lands Hidden Object series (The free to play games do not count) and by far the most complex. Storyline: Before Maaron was born, the Druids in order to end Gorasar Conn's, the conqueror dwarf's reign agreed to pay a tribute to him and his four generals; a golden tribute, gold the Druids cursed to petrify him and his generals. The dwarf conqueror and his generals, a harpy, a fiery golem, a minotaur and a snake woman, indeed became petrified. The chest of cursed Druid gold was taken by Lephron Conn (leprechaun pun- lol) last of the Dwarf Priests after the defeat of the conqueror dwarf, Gorasar Conn, his brother, and he hide it where no one in the Lost Lands could find it (in the human realm). For centuries the dwarf conqueror and his generals remained petrified until an archeologist in the human realm stumbled across the crypt of Lephron Conn and the cursed gold. Curious, the archealogist removed a golden key and became petrified releasing the petrification spell on one of the generals, the Harpy. Susan is brought back to the Lost Lands to undo the curse that has now affected her world and to defeat the four generals once again. Gameplay: Hidden Object interactive silhouette picture scenes, a massive find and use inventory, point and click, a huge variety of puzzles and mini-games, and the absolutely necessary fast travel map. (Fast travel in this game is definitely encouraged and the player can "bounce" through all five mapped areas doing things to accomplish a single task.) Five-BN went to back to the roots of gaming by creating a huge open world minus the bottlenecks, making game progression based solely on tasks performed. The order of the tasks is actually quite logical and linear in their progression and would be how someone confronted with the same events most likely would prioritize the tasks needed to be done. Here is where the player is either going to hate this game or love it. As I mentioned before, this is a huge open world, and yes the player can easily collect inventory items in the first several scenes of the game that have no use until several chapters later or even the end of the game. Now add to this the ability to know where things are but not necessarily interact with them until also late in the game. For example, finding a box in the hollow of a tree early in the game but not being able to open it until the end of the game. Or having a mechanical eyeball in your inventory found almost at the start and not needing it until the end of the game. Or even seeing that item out on the lava bed but not being able to reach it until much later (when snowshoes are found). Play on casual mode (for active locations), or use the strategy guide on hard mode, because unless one take notes or has a superb memory the player will most likely forget where something is. There simply is that much. Then, of course, we have the fast travel map which can quite helpfully send the player "bouncing" through all 5 map areas and any location within that area to complete a task. For example: Discovering rose petals are needed when standing in the Castle of Madness, Minotaur's lair. Now where to get rose petals? Oh yes, I planted a rose bush earlier in the game. Where is that rosh bush again? Hmmm..., oh yes the Cemetary, located on the Dark Lands map. Go there get them, come back, all very simple with fast travel assuming the player remembers where the rose petals are in the first place. This is quite common throughout the game. Love it or hate it the whole game plays like that. Puzzles: Highlights of the game - a "chutes and ladder" board game played with dice, and an actual dot-to-dot puzzle. Such fun and quite the novelty for anyone who remembers either or both. For music "lovers": the music puzzles actual give the player the order of the notes BEFORE solving. (Yeah!!) The trick is finding the solution in the first place. There are rotating sliders which seem twitchy but are not. The rings lock in place when they are in the correct place with a little musical twinkle. Even with that they are still a challenge to do since they rotate backwards, as well. Mazes, matching, logic, tangram, among other types of puzzles. Huge variety. Hidden finds: Morphing objects, collectibles, manuscript papers and the contents of Susan's purse which can not be missed since the player finds and uses them as inventory items. If the player manages to find all the collectibles this unlocks the Bonus Game which unlocks after the bonus chapter is completed. All Extras become are available after the bonus chapter is completed. Extras include the Bonus Game which is "Flow Free" since I do not know what else to call it. (The game where the player connects all the different colored dots without overlapping.) There is a 20 question trivia quiz which restarts if you answer incorrectly, plus picture puzzles. All the mini-games can also be replayed in this section. If the player missed the achievement during gameplay the achievement can be earned in the Extra section. (Love this feature.) Extras also include wallpapers, concept art, music, and cutscene videos. All achievements can be earned during a single playthrough. There is one achievement that can only be earned during the bonus chapter. Unfortunately, there are no trading cards which is a shame since the artwork and graphics are so detailed, colorful and beautiful. Highly recommend this game, the whole series in fact.

Just not a fun game. The story is all over and doesn't make logical sense. The map is made to have you backtrack every location at least 5 times. This is not your normal hidden object where things have a purpose. This one is just dumb. The further I progress the more I don't want to play anymore.

[h1]Short version: 76%[/h1] Lost Lands 3 offers a great story and incredible amount of game time for a casual adventure game with mild hidden object mechanics, but at the price of almost unbearable amounts of backtracking. [h1]Long version:[/h1] The Lost Lands are in trouble again, so our haphazard heroine returns to this magical place to save it from the titular Golden Curse. Said curse shows alarming similarity to the previous predicament with four magical beasts rampaging through the lands, but thankfully most anything else diverges a bit more from the beaten path. The new locations are more interesting and less abandoned, and the story progresses in a smoother fashion, creating a constant sense of adventure. Gameplay is what we can expect from FIVE-BN games, meaning the hidden object scenes are single-screen point ‘n’ click sequences that accompany a plethora of interesting conventional puzzles. Although we get 35 screens with many interactive spots on each, progression is smooth and fast, so the game relies on an indescribable amount of backtracking (even with a quick-travel map!) to control its pace and add some length. One can argue that it does its job, but maybe too well—especially in the almost bland bonus chapter.

Great program & fun to play. However I would perfer alternate markings on the "color" puzzles to accomodate those who are color challeged

While I'm playing, the game keeps asking me to rate it. I paid money for this and it acts like a free mobile game. So fine, here's your rating.

I was 'kindly' asked to rate the game, so... If you shove a huge 'buy our other games' screen at the start of the game and a 'rate this game now' screen after every chapter, I feel like I can wholeheartedly not recommend this game. The game itself is quite complicated to play as you hardly ever know where to use which item and backtracking to the start of the game happens all the time. The presentation is fine, but the puzzles and mini games are all rather bland. Please remove this advertisment nonsense from your game. Thank you.