If you don't mind Free-to-Play games, this is a good one.

It shows the aftermath of the Awakenings series. Your job is to rebuild the kingdom while the Queen is away taking care of some business. You play hidden object scenes to collect coins and building resources, as well as some other things.

There is an energy component, much like a Facebook game, so if you don't like that, then you won't like this game. I will say that I have not run out of energy so far while playing, because when you level up it fills your energy for free. It takes longer and longer to level up, though, the further you get in the game. You can either wait for your energy to refill or buy more with real money (I choose to wait), so this isn't a game you can sit down and play for hours.

The music is familiar from other Awakenings games. Graphics are pretty similar, too. There are also familiar characters from previous games as well.

You use resources you find in the game to improve the town and repair buildings. The Queen's castle is also available to rebuild and redecorate.

You can use gems (they cost real money, but you can get some for free by leveling up and completing certain achievements) to speed building up, or just wait.

All in all it's a nice game, especially for a free-to-play one, if you don't mind just being able to play in short spurts every now and then.

mellowtraumatic wrote:A lady on the game's facebook page was complaining about the lack of quests and xmas collectables and whatnot and this was the reply from Boomzap.

Thank you for playing. The new pet, pet items, town decorations and daily quests (a new quest each day) will be available during the Christmas event. The update is released a few days early for necessary preparations and to give all players enough time to download and not miss out on the holiday.

So maybe all the stuff is still coming.

This is what happened with the Thanksgiving quests, too. They released an update and Big Fish's page for the game listed all of this great new stuff, and then we had to wait for another update to actually get the stuff. I can't buy any of the Christmas decorations yet, I don't see the limited edition pet, none of the collectibles are dropping, etc.

Same here. It looks like they just put up another update for today (I've installed two in the past two days. I noticed because they changed the husband/guy in the main menu's face in the second update.). No Christmas stuff is available to me. It looks Christmas-y, but I have no quests, and no collectibles, etc.

mellowtraumatic wrote:Well, let me be the first to say... I hate the new husband.

I don't like him, either. The other one was much more cheerful looking. Why'd they change his face? It makes no sense.

Seriously?! They issued another update. I stupidly installed it thinking it would fix things, and now the game is even more broken!

1: Scenes won't finish. I finish finding all of the items and nothing happens! It just sits there.

2: Items I have to find don't replace at the bottom until I zoom into a different part of the screen. Why?

I have a problem after the last update. I played the Chicago Bar scene, and when I came toward the end, one of the items I was supposed to find popped up blank (playing picture mode). I had to use a hint to find it, and even then I couldn't click on the item to pick it up. No matter where I clicked, it wouldn't work.

If you want a big, more complex version of it, there's always Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. It's an older game, but still very fun. You can find it for pretty cheap, too. (Unfortunately not here, but it's available at lots of other places online.)

This game is basically like the first game, if you've played that. It also has the same problems as the first game.

Pros:
- Interesting way of serving. You basically put everything together yourself and hand it to the customer by clicking.
- The goals are a little different than most TM games sometimes, which is nice.

Cons:
- Music is annoying.
- Characters walk strangely and slowly, although it's not a big deal.
- WAY too much clicking involved. You click to see someone's order. Click again if you forget. Click to make each piece of their order. Click to add mocha, milk, etc., sometimes for multiple pieces of the order. Click to give them the order. Click to pick up the trash. It'd be easier if their orders just popped up when they came to the counter or sat down.
- You can't hold multiple orders at once. Once you start an order, it'll give the customer you click on the items you're holding. There's a table where you can set down extra items, though.
- The "leave trash" achievement just plain doesn't work right.

All in all, this game is too much like the first game and has the same issues.

RustyGig wrote:Does anyone else get tired of all the "assignments" that are dished out in these games. If I wanted to track down flour and eggs and bake, I'd do it on my own. The first game in this series was great, they are steadily getting worse. Sorry about my attitude!!!!

I thought that part could have been way more involved and fun. Instead, it was find two items for the dish and then do a hidden object scene. There could have been a more entertaining baking minigame or something there, at least.

The woman we're helping, who seems to be a baker, can't remember how to make egg tarts? Then when we find the recipe it's literally three ingredients! Maybe she's really new at the job or something? LoL I know it's just a game, but I found that part kind of weird.

I'm glad there's a sale on because, sadly, I would not spend $13.99 on the CE version of this game.

Most of the achievements are (minor spoiler alert) things like "finish Chapter 1 in 30 minutes" or "finish the game in under 3 hours." Three hours?! That's it? I did finish Chapter 1 in under 30 minutes because I got the achievement. If that's how the whole game is, it's going to be terribly short for me.

I am enjoying the story. I agree with shorenuf that the "hardcore" difficulty is not hard at all. I haven't played any particularly difficult puzzles, and I'm already in Chapter 2. The blackbar tips pretty much tell you exactly what to do, so I'm trying to ignore them.

I really enjoyed the previous Haunted Halls games, so I at least tried this one. I haven't been a big fan of ERS lately, but I thought this game had potential.

This series used to be somewhat spooky, and now it's not at all. There are adorable animals at every turn. In the first five minutes of the game there are at least five different animals. They're cute, but they don't fit in with the theme of the series at all.

-The game's graphics are nicer and less watercolor looking to me than previous ERS games, which I like.
-Sounds are the same reused sounds.
-Puzzles aren't terribly hard. The secret goggles minigame is very easy, and I imagine you'll have to play it very frequently.
-I do appreciate that they have a custom mode you can choose to play in.
-Achievements are too easy. They're mostly of just doing things you have to do to progress in the game anyway and also for collecting stuff along the way. Little boxes pop up every time you find a collectible or get an achievement. Hopefully they won't pop up as much later in the game.
- The CE does have loads of extras, but none of them really appeal to me other than the bonus game items. The extras are just sort of... there. There's not much you can do with them. Perhaps I've been spoiled by other games who had bonus games within bonus games and very interesting (and hard to get) achievements.

All in all, this is not a game for me. Perhaps I'd get the SE, but I'll pass on the CE.

justmebd wrote:You'd think there would be SOMETHING posted by now if they're going with a Nov. 26 release date.

They've posted it on the Mystery Case Files Facebook page. They don't even bother posting stuff in these forums anymore about new releases, really. They'll probably post it on Big Fish's main Facebook page before it's out. All of their game announcements are there now. It's not terribly convenient for people who don't use Facebook, though.

mammamia21099 wrote:I reinstalled and now have version 1.204. I still don't have any new Thanksgiving quests, my auctions are still not paying, and under Holiday Decor, it is still blank. Why do some of us have new quests and others don't if we all have the new update. This makes no sense to me!

Same here. Big Fish is advertising all of this Thanksgiving content on their main page, but I don't have any of it in my game after the update.

PTBT wrote:

mguthrie wrote:I uninstalled and reinstalled the game twice this afternoon, but still do not have the new content with the Thanksgiving quests and collectibles.

Same issue. The grounds have the fall foliage, but there are no quests, Seasonal Decors screens are blank, and there is no countdown to Thanksgiving being displayed.

Have uninstalled and reinstalled. Don't think I will do that yet again, until or unless this issue gets corrected.

Same here. I have the foliage and rake, but it does nothing. Thanksgiving items don't drop while I'm playing. I haven't had any Thanksgiving quests, either. Nothing.

Edit: Reinstalled again and the Thanksgiving stuff showed up.

Thanks for the information, everyone! Glad to know it'll be coming soon, at least.

mcfsuperfan wrote:Usually you can find little hints and screenshots on the MCF Home site but it still only shows Shadow Lake - any chance this is going to be a delayed release, say in December/January?

They've said through clues that it'll be out November 26 for Game Club members.

You're probably right. I still haven't seen a Thanksgiving item drop, so maybe they put them in there as a preview of what's to come.

Has anyone received any of the special Thanksgiving collectibles yet? I see there's an area for them, but I haven't had any drop yet while playing.

Thanks!

Since this game has been out for ten days and no one "in charge" has told us what's going on (even a "we're working on the problem" notice would be nice), I got customer service to refund the game. I'll buy it again if there's an update to the game, but at this point it's unplayable for me.

Sometimes they'll release several beta versions, but individual people will only get one version. So one will come out months before the game is supposed to be released, and that one checks for bugs/glitches and to see if people like the game enough for them to make it a collector's edition. The ones that come out right before the game is actually released I assume check for last minute bugs (and are pushed back if there's a big one), but I'm not sure what else it's for.