Ominous Tales: The Forsaken Isle Reviews

Completed in 2.2 hours. Good Graphics, Story, Gameplay And Puzzles.

Very short game and on many occasions, you need to be pixel perfect or a click will not register

Story/Plot: Ominous Tales: The Forsaken Isle is a hidden object game that has you traveling to the titular Forsaken Isle, a place said to be inhabited by the undead and other dark forces. Upon arrival, you find yourself trapped, and being threatened by wolves, only to have a ghost appear and save you. As you can guess, to free her and the other trapped souls, you must confront the evil and defeat it. As stories go, it works but it certainly isn't memorable. The start really doesn't give a good reason why you should go to the island, while the characters felt rather thin. Visuals: One thing this game has going for it is gorgeous art. Additionally, I'm really glad that the human characters didn't fall into the whole uncanny valley effect that many HoGs suffer by trying to go for realistic people. Gameplay: As a hidden object game, gameplay consists of three elements: hidden object screens, point and click elements, and logic puzzles. The hidden object screens were rather small in number, and pretty easy to finish. There is a small variation in the puzzles such as showing an outline of the object, or moving something to another thing on screen to reveal it. The point and click elements were serviceable for the game. I would actually rate this on the higher side, especially when I look at previous HoG's I played. In those, you might have to find 5+ cutting objects (as an example), but this game didn't go that route. Additionally, the interactions were sensible overall, so it kept the moon logic to a minimum. Padding out the rest of the gameplay is the logic puzzles. Most of these puzzles tended to be of the 'rearrange' variety like moving weights, or picture parts. A couple do border on the difficult but one can also skip these once enough time passes. Sound/Music: This game is serviceable in the sound department. While there is background music, I honestly didn't notice it at all. This isn't to bad, especially if you are listening to something else, but doesn't add to the game's atmosphere. The game does have voice acting, and I would say this is a bit better than the music. As a short game, though, this doesn't give the voice actors any chance to show their range or lack thereof. Difficulty: I would say this game was a bit on the easy side, especially if you are a veteran of hidden object games. That said, you can easily change how hard the game is as well, including shortening/lengthening the recharge time, skip puzzle time, etc. Extras/Achievements: For those who care, this game has no achievements of any sort. However, it does have an extras menu where you can listen to the soundtrack, get wallpapers, see concept art, as well as other goodies if you find all the diary pages, claw marks, or ghosts. Recommendation: So would I recommend this game? I give a hesitant yes, but with some caveats. For one thing, the game is on the short side; I took only about 2 hours to beat the game, and I can't see it taking over 3. Additionally, if you do get the game I would recommend waiting for it to be on sale. If you are going to spend $10+ (full price), there are some really good Big Fish Games or Artifex Mundi games out there. However, if you are just looking to spend an hour or two on a game, this isn't bad. That said, I've also played some really bad games, whic this isn't, so my tolerance threshold might be higher than other people.

It's okay, good voice acting and pictures and puzzles but it is very very short, I have played others that were longer and had more twists and turns in it then this one, this one was pretty straight forward.

This game is just not notable in any way among the field of HOGs and I would not recommend seeking it out. There's nothing that I can single out as particularly good in it, but nor is anything particularly bad. It's just supremely average and shorter than most.

Game has its low points; selecting items in a point click area has been difficult due to poor lighting and no magnification. Some items are so minute that it is hard to see it, even on a blown up screen. The part which annoys me the most is the "SKIP" button is located at the top of the screen. I tried to avoid it but accidentally hit it once while navigating [very annoying!]. Good story but the clues are not always easily achieved. This story took my attention fully! If I play it again I'll try to remember to take screen shots.

[b][u]Game Information[/u][/b] "Ominous Tales: The Forsaken Isle" is a Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game. The game was developed by Urchin Games and published by Impossible Mystery Games. Even though this game is not a collector's edition. It does have some extra features. [b][u]The Game Review[/u][/b] Game Visuals I want to mention that the visuals in the game are nicely 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; Advanced; Expert and Custom. 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. It also indicates that there are tasks that can be completed at certain locations within the game. The interactive map is not 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 interactive items in the game. Some of these 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: Shadow items;Traditional word list and Find 'x' amount items. Some of these hidden object scenes may require little or no interactions. The puzzles are fairly easy to solve without having the need to skip any of them. There are three sets of collectibles in the game: Tormented Souls; Annabel's Diary Pages and Claw Marks. They are scattered throughout the game for the player to find. Miscellaneous There are extra features in the game: Soundtracks; Concept Art; Wallpapers. Most of these extra features can be accessed only after the entire game is completed. 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.

The pros: - stunning art - atmosphere done Just Right - riddles are on the more difficult side of challenging, but not impossible. Nice! - lots of well-hidden extra collectibles in the scenes that both add challenges and fit in and add to the story rather than making you find random goblets or butterflies - the female ghosts has such a deep voice that she sounds like the was voiced by a guy. It's hilarious! The cons: - each time the hint button is used the game crashes for me - same happens when I leave the game to do something else on my computer - game crashes If the game wouldn't have the bug that keeps making it crash it'd be easily one of my favorite HOGs but as things are I can only recommend it for people who don't mind playing it with very little breaks and who like the extra challenge of playing with as little hints as possible.

TL;DR: Too short, don't buy I have played literally hundreds of Hidden Object Games. Most of them are cheesy, and so is this one, but that alone doesn't justify a thumbs down. It's part of the job description. Hidden Object Games usually make no sense, and their plots don't qualify them for a Hugo Award. But this one doesn't even try. Don't you love hidden object scenes where you have to find a dozen items, just to be awarded with one that was never in the scene to begin with? And don't you love spending almost ten euros for a game that has a total of thirteen scenes to offer? I'm not talking hidden object scenes (there's maybe half a dozen of them), but the point-and-click scenes that make up the whole game. Thirteen of them, and it's over. After spending a total of three scenes just getting of a bloody ship, when the second-but-last scene had me in front of the villain's mansion door I though I was getting a second act inside the mansion. But no. Get inside, there's one last scene (called "The Lair"), and you're done. You'll have to solve two more puzzles with Mr. Villain Guy ("Vincent") hovering in midair without doing anything to stop you, then put an end to him, and that's it. Game over. Steam says still it took me almost two hours to finish this game, but Steam also counts the time I spent trying to start the game with the game just vanishing after playing the intro. It's clunky as hell, the cursor is the most unprecise in any game I've played lately, some hidden objects require clicking five or more times to finally vanish, and the game also overrides your mouse settings - so with my lefthanded mouse, I had to use the middle finger to click, and it felt like the game was giving me the middle finger in return. Oh, and did I mention the game forgetting the difficulty settings after restarting? Resets you to "easy" every time you quit (or the game crashes). True, the graphics are nice. But most HOPAs have nice graphics nowadays, we're not in 2007 any more. Voice acting is horrible. The extras a three pieces of soundtrack and a couple of background images - no bonus game play to make up for the short main game. This game is unacceptable short and completely overpriced. I got it at about 80% off in the summer sale and still feel I got ripped off. There are some very good HOPAs out there. Go play one of them. Don't waste your money on this one.

This is a short, enjoyable hidden object/ puzzle game. However, the asking price is ridiculous because it takes only a couple of hours to reach the end. And there's no bonus chapter. So ONLY get this if it has an exceptionally good sale and you don't mind playing a bite-sized game. Beautiful graphics and voice acting (some good, some cheesy) make the quality of Ominous Tales better than quite a few HOs out there. It's a shame it's not longer.