Final Cut: Encore Collector's Edition Reviews

Enjoyable game, played in easiest mode.

[h1]Short version: 68%[/h1] Final Cut 2 is stylish, it has great-looking cut-scenes and enjoyable hidden object elements. However, the story feels incohesive and can easily lose the player. [h1]Long version:[/h1] I doubt anyone expects award-winning stories from a hidden object game. Still, some consistency would be nice, especially from a series that places itself in a realistic-looking world. Thing is, the plot of Final Cut 2: Encore feels anything but consistent… or sane, for that matter. We have movie cameras that can warp reality. A rogue general who plans to take over the world using film reels. A returning antagonist with a contrived redemption character arc. I often felt that Encore uses its story pieces as an excuse for the next pretty scenery or cut-scene, and nothing more. If you played HOGs made by Eipix, you know what to expect here. Quite some backtracking but a handy map to help. A variety of puzzles with just enough challenge to make them enjoyable. Finally and most importantly, balanced and fun hidden object scenes. If the game world wouldn't feel so empty due to the lack of people, this could be a great HOG, despite the haphazard writing.

Great game! Epic really hit it out of the park - thanks guys for a very enjoyable game!

I liked the puzzles and hidden object games. It is one of the few games where you are actually looking for the object they are asking you to find. I've found in other games that some objects aren't what you are expecting the object to be that they want you to find. I think in those cases that it's a matter of English not being their first language. Some things get lost in translation I think. But this game is fun and full of puzzles and hidden object games.

As with the first one, a great look and style to it. With better cinematics, story and gameplay

This second game in the Final Cut series improves upon the first. They added a separate button for the map so you don't have to click into the Journal and then find the map. Also, the acting is slightly better this time around. However, the story doesn't make sense (once again). In the first game, our hero was outraged and shocked that her father had worked with the military. In this game, the main villain is a general that we call "Uncle Lee" that was like a "surrogate father" to us. Huh? Where the hell is this coming from? You just said in the first game that you had no idea your father had any connection to the military. Now you suddenly have a close family friend and surrogate father that's a general? Convoluted and forced to make this second game story work. Which it barely does. As for the games, my biggest complaint was the same as in the first game. Once again the directions for the minigames are convoluted, confusing, and way too detailed. They are inexplicably written in the first person as though the character is talking to herself about what she is supposed to do. However, nobody talks to themselves in that way so it comes off ridiculous and forced. I found myself translating it into declarative sentences so I could figure out what I was supposed to do. But even that was difficult because the directions were over-detailed. Instead of saying, "slide each crystal to its corresponding color," we get instead, "I see that I can use the buttons to slide the crystals along the interlocking hexagons." Why are you over-explaining things as though to a five year old? Actually, no that's not it either. Not even a five year old would understand this! Interlocking hexagons?! We don't need you to specify the type of shape and how its related to the other shape. There is only one image on the screen! Dumb it down next time Big Fish! Please! We aren't here for a geometry or science lesson. We are here to play a casual game that doesn't require much thinking.