dancemom1 wrote:Hi all! Well, we have #4 in this series. Naturally, I have the other 3 and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. As always, I review on the game play and leave the story line to others. I was at the end of my review when my computer decided to take a vacation and tossed me out. Hopefully, I remember everything I had written. That said, the graphics in this addition are very nice and very clear. Animation was very smooth and very well done. Colors are bright and true. Voices are well done and are age and character appropriate, except for Tristan. I thought his voice was about 15 years younger than he looked. Sound FX aren't many, which make the game a little too quiet. Music is soothing and unobtrusive, until something is happening or about to happen and then it picks up.

HOPs are a combination of interactive lists, silhouettes and highlighted word search. The scenes are fairly clear and items are not difficult to find. You are not overrun with HOPs, but have enough to break things up a bit. I found that some of the puzzles were challenging and I needed to use more brain power than usual. Nothing too difficult, but they did take some time to complete. Hint system is very helpful and it does transport to longer locations. You do a lot of back tracking, so this saves a lot of time. The game flows very well, so you don't really get tired of running back and forth. Because of this, I did not find the need to use the map.

Collectibles were not many, but nicely done. We need to find 28 morphing items. These morph quickly and are different shapes, so be on the lookout. I did not run across any that were too small to see. We also have 12 talismans of various shapes. These are not to small either, but can blend well into the background.

Normally, I only review on the game play, but I really liked this story line. Not so much because of the story, but the characters that are used. Something different for a change. However, the thought of statues coming to life does creep me out a bit. This game has a lot of good qualities, nice HOPs, challenging puzzles and interesting story. I think most all levels of players will find this one fun. Yes, I am adding this to my collection.

As always, try it for yourself and see what you think. We all have different tastes in games and you may not care for this one at all. Thanks for the review.