October 2011

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!

Imagine such a picture. It's dark. You are standing in a dark unknown place. A huge building of stone is hovering over you. It's cloudy and some big nasty storm is about to start. But it doesn't bother you. Nothing actually matters because you are on a mission. A new mission from the Mystery Trackers order. You are on the Black Isle.

I think you have guessed that this is all about the third installment of the series Mystery Trackers: Black Isle. Just to make it a little bit more intriguing here is a short preview for this upcoming game from Elephant Games.

Young journalist Sarah Steplton disappeared along with her cameraman right during the broadcast from the mysterious Black Isle. Mystery Trackers order is entrusted to carry out this urgent search operation. What power challenges your detective skill? Use your Hidden Object talents to carefully dissect scenes and piece together perplexing puzzles, investigate the Black Isle and unravel all its secrets!

There's not much information yet but you can already see some screenshots on the page of this game or discuss it and other projects on our forums.

P.S. The first two installments are called Mystery Trackers: the Void and Mystery Trackers: Raincliff. They are already available for PC, Mac and iPad (the Void) in various languages. Just check the pages of these games to see the synopsis, screenshots and information on trying and buying the games.