Grim Tales: The Stone Queen Collector's Edition Reviews

Fine, but aspect ratio is borked

Very frustrating going back and forth with no map

Simply loved everything about this game...even the "bonus" game.

The game is well-crafted and well-thought-out. It has nice graphics and good gameplay. But the pacing of the story dragged. There are moments when it's just a little bit, and others when it's a lot more.

It sounded like an interesting concept, but I suppose the fact that it started out with a cliche (the main character runs out of gas right as someone from town runs from the gates and gets petrified) should have been a warning about what the rest of the game was going to be like. There's some intriguing story moments, but overall, the whole thing is really weak. There's no real depth to the story. It's glossed over. The main character isn't really a character at all. Even after you get gas in your tank, you feel compelled to stick around and solve the mystery that's going on in town - why not give the player an option to just get out of dodge and have a non standard game over? And well, spoilers, but - The crux of the plot is that the stone queen is pissed about what happened to the guy she loved, so she turns the entire town to stone. And it's because of one guy. So. This led to me having some questions. Like... Why not just petrify the guy that did it? Why petrify everyone? And I'm supposed to eventually help this character? The kind of character that, on a whim, when things don't go her way, will turn an entire community to stone, with seemingly no intention of ever undoing it? Sounds like the bad guy to me, not someone that we should be helping. This is further compounded by the fact that several people in town were apparently already trying to help her beloved out - so....again....why direct her wrath upon the entire town? Beyond that, the puzzles don't make much sense and are clearly just included to pad the game's length. There's repeated puzzles where you have to find a bunch of random objects, only to end up with another random object - why give us a giant list of stuff to find if it's just gonna be pointless? The thing about point and click games and finding things is that you're supposed to use all the things you find and try to figure out when and where to use them.

Not bad for an older game (although almost none of these Hidden Object games are worth what you have to pay for them here on Steam).

[h1]Grim Tales 4: The Stone Queen[/h1] ☆ヾ(*´・∀・)ﾉRecommend buying during salesヾ(・∀・`*)ﾉ☆ BEWARE ヽ(´Д｀ヽミノ´Д｀)ノThis game is not for all!ヽ(´Д｀ヽミノ´Д｀)ノ [b][u]Graphic[/u][/b] I find the art have improved a lot in this game. (￣▽￣)ノThere were more fantasy beings showcased in this game compared the other game. The character all looks fine and have a consistent appearanceヾ(☆▽☆) compared to the past games. I probably like the art here more because it has a brighter color theme than the first three game in this series which is somewhat on the dark side but here it is has more autumn theme colors. [b][u]Gameplay[/u][/b] There is an interactive map and a useful hint and have sentence hints that is understandable. ＼（＾∀＾）人（＾∀＾）ノHas some challenging mini games. ヽ(＾▽＾)人(＾▽＾)人(＾▽＾)ﾉI like how the map interface have improved. There's a lot of going back and forth so having a map sure is helpful. (￣ ￣|||) Still there is no journal that could add more depth to the story. [b][u]Story[/u][/b] MAIN STORY The player, Anna, was on her way home when she ran out of gas and have to stopped by at Stoneville. Upon arriving she met a woman that was running away and was turned to stone by the stone queen. When Anna entered the town she found a bag lying on the street that belong to her nephew, Brandon. When she arrived at the hospital she met a wounded Brandon with his uncle looking for him. [My RANT about the story: Brandon Gray is Anna's nephew and Oliver Gray is Brandon's uncle which makes them a family. But the interaction between Anna and Brandon and his uncle Oliver is kind of flat. Anna wasn't even that worried about his nephew being shot ∑(ΦдΦlll Why she never introduced herself as Brandon's aunt and somewhat offer to help instead of just butting into the town's people' problem (!! ´◯`)∑ I am more irked that after saving Brandon he wasn't surprised about his aunt being there nor do the dialogue seems like they know or close to each other when the player who have played the WISHES know that Brandon was fond of his aunt. Their whole interaction got me surprised. Main story plot holes: The reason why the stone queen turned the people to stone is not consistent to the town problem (￢_￢;) Because she turned everyone into stone after her lover was shot by Dennis Sheldon, the villain. (︶︹︺)She never really cared about Sheldon and felt like the he was having a one man show. Why the player need to save Sheldon when he didn't offer any advice or help was just stupid to me and it didn't make any sense┐(︶▽︶)┌ when all the people and even Oliver have told Anna on how much of a bad person he is. It was like Anna needed to undo his curse just to be a villain. BONUS CHAPTER The bonus chapter started right after the main story ended (quite literally). The stone queen's brother got freed from his imprisonment and kidnapped his own sister. Bonus content plot holes that was never explained. ╮(﹀_﹀”)╭Why the stone queen's brother kidnap and imprison her was NEVER explained. What happened to the previous Stone King? Never showed up nor mentioned. Most importantly, (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ What happened to Brandon right after following the Stone Queen? He never showed up again after the first scene. It was like he was forgotten. Is he dead we have no idea. il||li(つд-｡)il||li The ending after destroying the black stone where someone was hugging the prince was disturbing. I can't imagine the woman being the stone queen so it could only be their dead mother that somehow gained a physical body?(;¬_¬) Still I do enjoy the graphic not the plot and interaction that is why I am recommending it. I just hope that the plot making and dialogue interaction between characters will improve because it is unnatural and disturbing.

I couldn't play it in full screen and in some hidden object scenes / puzzles the controls didn't work well

You are travelling along the highway when your car suddenly alerts you to running out of gas. Seeing a sign for a fuel station, you turn down that road… and suddenly see a woman run out into the road and get turned to stone. Well, you still need to get gas for your car, so if you need to solve this issue first, so be it. Oh, and you quickly discover that your nephew Brandon, now an adult, has also come to this town… So, yeah, your family can’t stay out of this trouble… HO scenes are decent, plot is interesting, and the minigames challenging. Suggest getting the bundle for the whole tale.

I enjoyed this game. It took appox. 8 hours including the bonus game. I had an issue playing it with MacAfee virus scanner. I had to turn off my virus scanner to start the game. I had no problem installing and no issues while playing this game.