LATEST NEWS

We are glad to announce the release of Surface: Mystery of Another World! This is a totally new game which will hopefully be a good start for a series. The title is different from all other recent Elephant's games as it can be called a sci-fi, and this might sound as a welcome change to you.

You are on a journey with your son Bobby. The trip is promising to be extraordinary but you don't know yet to what extent. It all starts when a young woman with her child enters your compartment. There's something strange about her, but it is even harder to take away your eyes from her son. He looks exactly like your own son! In spite of all the oddity of the situation, you close your eyes, seemingly for a second, but the moment you wake up the world you know is turned upside down, and your son, Bobby, is missing!

The synopsis from BigFish reveals some more information:
After your son, Bobby, mysteriously disappears, it’s up to you to find him in Surface: The Mystery of Another World! A peaceful train ride to the coast goes way off course and now strange occurrences are happening all around you! It seems that there is another world just past your reflection. Use your Hidden Object talents to explore the mysterious area and save Bobby before it’s too late in Surface: the Mystery of Another World!

Surface: Mystery of Another World is available in the Collector's Edition which contains a plenty of extra stuff. As wallpapers, a screensaver, sound tracks are quite usual and additional gameplay is something we can't imagine Collector's Edition without, there are also achievements, bonus mini-games and some video you might want to watch for fun.

You can download the trial version or buy the game here.

Happy gaming to all and welcome to the forum page for any comments you'd like us to hear!

For those who liked Grim Tales: The Bride and for those who are getting to know Elephant games we are glad to present the new installment of the Grim Tales series which is called Grim Tales: The Legacy. The title was out on January 5th on Big Fish, and we hope it will become a nice New Year present for all the players!

The game keeps on with the story about Luisa and all the mysteries that won’t let her live in peace. That is Grim Tales: The Legacy preserves the style and the atmosphere of its predecessor. You can read more about the first installment on the game page of Grim Tales: The Bride

Meanwhile, here is the synopsis from the site where it is released: “After being invited to the Christening of your sister’s son, you arrive to find a deserted estate in Grim Tales: The Legacy! After getting married to the love of her life, it seems like a happy ending is right around the corner for your sister. However, all is not well. The sounds of ravenous beasts echo through the halls of the once great estate and your sister is missing! Use your Hidden Object talents to track down her family and save them in Grim Tales: The Legacy!”

We won’t get further into the story not to spoil the fun, and we genuinely hope that you will enjoy the graphics, the plot and the gameplay of this new project. We will be glad to see your comments about the game in the forum page.

Happy gaming!

First of all, we'd like to wish Merry Christmas to our players! May this Christmas be bright, cheerful, and may us spent it with the people we love and care about! Thank you for staying with us!

Secondly, we are glad to announce the release of Hallowed Legends: Templar on Mac. Since December 12th, the Collector's Edition of the second installment of the series is available for vaster range of players, and this seems to be as great news as any! The PC version preserved its place in Top-10 list of games on the website of Big Fish and reached the first step which makes us twice as proud!:)

Thirdly, one more Elephant game is now available on iPad. The PC version of this game was released in 2009. That year it was awarded as the 1st runner-up for Best Story in Big Fish Games’ Customer Favorites Awards 2009! Please welcome Lost in the City and try to survive in the abandoned city on iPad now!

And finally, the last but not the least. Mystery Trackers: Raincliff was named the Most Exciting game of the year in Big Fish Games’ Customer Favorites Awards 2011 for both PC and Mac users! Congratulations to the team working on this one and wishes for more successful games in future!

With the warmest Christmas wishes,
Elephant Games.

Some updated information on Big Fish Games’ Customer Favorites Awards 2011 Thanks to Teetat for providing it:) Grim Tales: The Bride also got the fourth place in Best HOG, Hallowed Legends: Samhain got the third place in Best Puzzle and Hallowed Legends: Templar got the second place in Best Sequel. Wow! We are so ever happy and we thank you, our players, for playing our games and giving us credit for them!!!

We have been long waiting for the new game from Elephant Games to come out and here it is - Hallowed Legends: Templar! We are glad to welcome you to the new adventure. All-new beautiful scenery, unusual characters and a ruthless villain you have never seen!

The second installment of Hallowed Legends series is out today, on November, 10th. The game is presented with the following synopsis:

"Strange figures have taken over a small town in Hallowed Legends: Templar! Stop the Knights of the Templar in this exciting Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game! Travel to your brother and his wife’s hometown and take on an incredible mystery. Scour gorgeous scenes and search for important clues as you track down the terrifying evildoer and save the entire town in Hallowed Legends: The Templar!"

The game is out as Collector's Edition. It means you will have more events to explore, wallpapers to decorate your desktop and concept art to see how it all started!

You can get some more information about the game and see a few pictures on our website here. And you are welcome to discuss the game on the forum

Have a good time and happy gaming!

The end of October is a wonderful time! Bright leaves falling from the trees and mighty Halloween is on the threshold. It always seemed to me that fall and winter are the best seasons for playing games (it is never out though). That is I decided to stop by to let you know about the recent news, updates and whatever else we have in Elephant's games.

First of all, to Mystery Trackers: the Black Isle and Hallowed Legends: Templar. You can watch a magnificent trailer for the first one! Have a peek at what is going to happen in the new installment we are all waiting to come out. You can also see a few screenshots for both the games and read the synopsis. All this is available at the Games page.

By the way, sorry for the confusion caused by HLT being removed from the “Coming soon” section. It is coming and is not released yet. That is just due to MTBI moving it a bit.

Secondly, moving from the future plans to the latest game released - Urban Legends: the Maze. It got some positive feedback from the players for its unique plot and dark and eerie atmosphere. (Feeling like a child patted on a head for good work actually:)) Not to sound proofless here is an extensive reviews from the site which never lets us down with its unbiased opinion.

“A popular reality show gets interrupted mid-broadcast and its contestants mysteriously disappear.

Pros: Unique story idea, solid construction, 30% longer than most non-Collector's Editions

Cons: Puzzles are on the whole too familiar and puzzle difficulty swings wildly from too easy to too difficult

These days reality shows pervade our lives so perhaps it was inevitable a video game would be made about them. Elephant Games' new hidden object adventure Urban Legends: The Maze takes us behind the scenes of a hit reality show after it's abruptly cut off and its contestants inexplicably vanish. It's a unique concept for an H.O.G. that fortunately for us, is far more entertaining than most reality shows ever are.

As mentioned, the game starts when broadcast of the popular game show, “The Maze” is cut off during its final round and all of the finalists go missing. Though publicly, studio officials claim “technical difficulties”, they quietly hire a detective (you) to look into the disappearances and you start by investigating the set. Minutes after your arrival, you're accosted by a man in a grotesque mask who reappears throughout the game to taunt you and set deadly traps. Obviously, he's the sinister figure behind the show's disturbing events and it's up to you not only to stop him, but to unmask him.

From the outset, Elephant Games earns itself a gold star for originality, at least as far as the game's intro and concept go. No haunted houses, historical villages or creepy asylums here—nothing's more unsupernatural or contemporary than a modern day television studio. The setting provides a range of opportunities for unusual and oftentimes, surreal hidden object scenes and situational puzzles (how often do you run across an angry cheetah hanging out in the ladies' room?). The game's flow is good too, alternating expertly among investigation, item-hunting and puzzle-solving. There are many different locations to explore and Urban Legends: The Maze eliminates the potential frustration of revisiting them in two smart ways: by removing an area's interactivity once you're done with it and by allowing you to teleport among locations.

The latter is done via the journal map which further assists you not only by letting you know exactly where you are, but by coloring areas green wherein you can actively do something. Even better, you can jump among locations by clicking on corresponding areas of the map, thus saving yourself a lot of clicking (and a lot of confusion if your sense of direction isn't the best). Although the game's core concept and gameplay construction are strong, there are some areas of it that could use some improvement. In general, the graphics are well done, although the frequent fully-animated cutscenes are fairly grainy and expose some awkwardness in the character animation. The sound unfortunately, is even less agreeable. There's no voice acting in the game, which for my money is always a negative, and the music is forgettable.

The game's worst pitfall however, is its dependence on overly familiar puzzles. 80% of most hidden object games' puzzles ask you to open doors or unlock boxes but the best of them find interesting and creative ways to do it. Too often, Urban Legends: The Maze asks you to revisit the same kinds of puzzles you've solved tens (for some of us, hundreds) of times before. Move tiles around to reassemble an image? Yup. Line gears up so all of them turn? Check. Rotate pipes/wires so power/liquid can move from point A to point B? Yessiree. We've seen them all before and The Maze not only repeats things seen umpteen times in other hidden object games—it even repeats the same puzzle types within itself. In addition to presenting too much puzzle-sameness, it also presents us with puzzle difficulties that swing wildly from the too easy, “three clicks and you're done” type to the “what in tarnation am I supposed to do here?” variety. Most annoyingly, the latter kind often come with directions so convoluted, they confuse the issue rather than clarifying it.

Despite this inconsistency and puzzle creativity deficit, Urban Legend: The Maze is still a highly entertaining game. Its fresh concept provides hidden object fans with a much-needed change of setting and pace and its thoughtful overall design was made with players' needs firmly in mind. With strong story-telling and intricate construction, not to mention a 4-5 hour play time, it's an interactive reality show that's well worth tuning into.”

The last news for today is about international versions of the games.

Mystery Trackers: Raincliff has been recently released in Spanish, Danish and Japanese.

Grim Tales: the Bride and Hallowed Legends: Samhain have been released for Portuguese-speaking players and now occupy the two first lines of the corresponding rating on the website where they were published.

Hopefully, everyone will find a game to their liking and don't forget about our forums where you can freely share your opinion!

¡Happy gaming!