I already demo'd this game elsewhere. It's rather easy, but interesting for some reason. So far with the demo, it's a basic HOG with some easy mini games. There are some very easy tasks to do in each scene. Great game for beginners and kids. They should put some kind of loop on the music though. Graphics are good. I got to the begining part of Chapter 4 (out of 10) in 1 hour. I was taking my time and not breezing through tho.

Unless BF fixed it, if you are asked to find an oar in one of the police station scenes... forget it. It's not there and you will have to start all over under a new name and hope the game doesn't ask for the oar again.

Flyingsquirrely:
What I posted in the other thread.............

The game stays true to the names of the real people that lived there and the scenes are exactly the same as in the real town. Evelyn's grave stone is exact!

Do a google search for Bodie + Evelyn.

Little Evelyn is but one example. The story goes that Evelyn, a child of four, started following a kind hearted miner to work. Every morning the little girl waited outside her small home till she heard the miner's cheerful whistle. Then off she'd go, tagging along behind him. Sometimes Evelyn would stop and watch the man go about his chores, before heading back home.

One morning, the winds began fiercely whipping down the mountains. The darkened gray sky was heavy with the threat of an impending snowstorm. Undaunted, Evelyn followed closely on the miner's heels. Realizing snow was on its way, the miner stopped and told her to go back home. Smiling to himself, he watched as she turned and ran toward town.

But Evelyn was a headstrong child. She waited till he was occupied with his task, than sneaked back to where he worked. Silently, she crept closer to the man. Unaware of her, he swung his heavy pickaxe back. At that moment the pickaxe smashed into the little girl's head, killing her instantly.

The miner and the townspeople were so heartbroken at the unfortunate child's death that they erected a guardian angel tombstone for her. Evelyn must have appreciated their kindness because she has never really left Bodie. Her smiling little ghost has been seen in the cemetery where she is buried many times over the years.

The game stays true to the names of the real people that lived there and the scenes are exactly the same as in the real town. Evelyn's grave stone is exact!

Do a google search for Bodie + Evelyn.

Little Evelyn is but one example. The story goes that Evelyn, a child of four, started following a kind hearted miner to work. Every morning the little girl waited outside her small home till she heard the miner's cheerful whistle. Then off she'd go, tagging along behind him. Sometimes Evelyn would stop and watch the man go about his chores, before heading back home.

One morning, the winds began fiercely whipping down the mountains. The darkened gray sky was heavy with the threat of an impending snowstorm. Undaunted, Evelyn followed closely on the miner's heels. Realizing snow was on its way, the miner stopped and told her to go back home. Smiling to himself, he watched as she turned and ran toward town.

But Evelyn was a headstrong child. She waited till he was occupied with his task, than sneaked back to where he worked. Silently, she crept closer to the man. Unaware of her, he swung his heavy pickaxe back. At that moment the pickaxe smashed into the little girl's head, killing her instantly.

The miner and the townspeople were so heartbroken at the unfortunate child's death that they erected a guardian angel tombstone for her. Evelyn must have appreciated their kindness because she has never really left Bodie. Her smiling little ghost has been seen in the cemetery where she is buried many times over the years.

I bought this game elsewhere and I'm right in the middle of playing it.

My overall is 3.5 stars. Very spooky atmosphere and story which I loved.

Trying to figure out an old murder(s) is cool. The scenes are interesting, but the graphics were a tad blurry on my big high resolution monitor in full screen mode. The sound effects were great! Hidden Object items can be pretty darn hard to find. After each level is a puzzle piece game to play which is fairly easy. I came across two Spot The Differences games so far which were hard and I'm good at those.

The hint system was a creepy spider finding the object for you. You only get two hints per level. If you use them up, you have to wait up to six minutes for another one. Not so good. When you start a new level, you can find three flies which equals one hint, but you still get a max of two hints per level. If the graphics were sharper it wouldn't be so bad, but I feel more then two hints are needed.

There is no skip button that I could find for any of the puzzles, STD's or finding the little carvings on Tombstones.

The low amount of hints and the blurry graphics are my main complaints. I would say this is about a 4 hour long game - average.

Well, it's 5 months late, but it's finally here. I just played the demo. I didn't skip anything or use any hints. My cursor acted a tad weird at first. In one scene I was done with something and the cursor would not change from a hand to an arrow. I had to leave the scene and return to get my arrow back. Is there supposed to be voice acting? The woman said a couple words, but that's about it in my 1 hour.

I would need to play more, but so far I like Amazon the best of all the HE games. I can't seem to get interested enough with this story as I did Amazon. So far, the puzzles/mini games have been more mechanical work and not "gameish" (is that a word?). I can't figure out how to explain it right now... too tired. Graphics were Ok, but they are sometimes better in the bought game then the demo. It doesn't look like it's going to be as long a game as Amazon either.

I'm sure I will buy it, but I'm not in a hurry right now.

I noticed there will be another CROWBAR involved.

I just need to vent here.

I want to kill this game. Kill it dead, bring it back to life and kill it again.

I HATE.... repeat, I HATE Simon Says games which this game is loaded with. I also HATE mazes. This game seems more like busy work then fun exploration. I lost count of the number of times I have been to the walkthrough for help. This makes it so not fun.

Bah............

I had to quit the demo after 40 minutes. I'm surprised I lasted that long. Every scene has a junk pile of "stuff" which you have to search through to find the items on the list. The Hidden Objects tend to repeat themselves over and over. You also can repeat scenes and nothing has changed. Even the 3 cats in each scene used for hints are in the same place. No puzzles or mini games. It took me two tries to figure out the hint system. Click on Grandma's locket and move your cursor around until it turns green and old Grandma starts shaking. No real music and very strange sound affects. The sounds cross the line between spooky and annoying. Ok graphics.

Only

Since I haven't even played most of the games from the last promo, the last thing I need is another game. I think I will continue to let my game credits pile up until a promo comes along that I like. I like to collect a series of things..... like the key chains.

Great promo for most people, just not for me.

The whole forum needs a major make over. It's a chaotic mess as it stands right now.

puzzledone wrote:I agree 100% with LizzieK's pet peeve. After reading these comments I won't even demo this game, nor any that an innocent challenge or risk feels punitive. With a small 15in screen or a laptop tiny objects are out of bounds for me too. Even "beautiful graphics" is not enough to sway me when I just want some relaxing fun, "play" in the true sense of the word like one can do with SteveSheriff2.

Picture taking is fun for awhile, but as an avid Paradise Quest fan too (the best M3 game EVER IMO) after so many levels I skip that feature to just get on with the game, felt intrusive to the flow. I waited months for BF to get PQ and desparate, bought it elsewhere. Great game I recommend for nature lovers too so I pass on this Lost CityZ regardless of storyline which I usually skip too.

I didn't give up tho on Sleepy Hollow which I'm almost finished, some very small or unrecognizable objects being antiques, but easy hints feature, and altho red screen for too many random clicks, it is quickly forgiving, player friendly. I can appreciate objects being of the era, charming, even if hard to find. i.e.no cell phones or CDs, you learn new things like what a necktie looked like in 1700s for the price of a pumpkin hint.

No demo even needed for a big here.

How can you give a big negative review (or any review) for a game you didn't even demo? Just saying.......

Uhmm, are we all playing the same game here? I just played the demo (over at another game site I am a member of) and I went into the demo with very low expectations. Usually, the National Geographics games are amaturish and very boring, so that alone made me think.... meh. Then I came here to read all the reviews which were about 80% , so now it was really looking bad. I demo'ed the game for myself (hey, I get opals to use when playing the demos if nothing else). Well, my goodness, was I surprised!

Lovely clear graphics with some beautiful scenes.
Soothing music.
The hidden object hunt was just right. Not super easy, not too hard.
The picture taking of one animal in each scene was a nice touch.
Hint system was good. The gauge filled fairly fast and I did not mind the large radar circle at all. It is called a "hint" after all and not a "here, let me get it for you so you don't have any challenge at all" system.
I made it to the begining of Level 10 in an hour. There are 43 levels, so that's around 4+ hours of game play for me & I'm not a newbie for sure. I actually hate long games (never did finish Cate West or Amazing Adventures because they became too redundent & boring).

The people that know me know that I am not found of games for kids or games that are too easy. I found this game very pleasant and relaxing. Sure, the 2-3 mini games I came across were easy, but fun never the less. I don't do "quickies" when playing a game, but rather sit back and take my time to enjoy it. I don't devour every hidden object game that comes along as soon as it's released either (I haven't finished the demo to Drawn yet). So I may have a fresher view of a new game when I get around to playing it.

I found NO glitches, problems or hot spots in my demo game play. I did get a sign once about too many clicks, but that was because I was having a "Duh" moment. It was no big deal.

Pretty good job National Geographics! I liked this game enough to buy it and feel it's well worth $7.00.

Don't hold your breath. It seems other game sites are willing to charge their club members more money for the good games, which means BF won't be getting it soon. It now seems that a lot of developers don't want to sell their games to everyone for $6.99.

8 weeks.... no keychain. Have I been punked? And yes, I read Picman's post. They must be engraving people's names on these things to take so long.

I already demo'd it elsewhere. A huge from me.

Straight up HOG with some scenes that are find 5, spot the differences & a VERY simple puzzle piece.
Way too easy and very boring. Plus you get a lecture every scene. I'm all for saving the rainforest, but not this way.

The assumption is that if you used up every second of the free demo, you are more likely to want to purchase the game.

Ya know what they say about the word assume. In my case, that assumption is wrong. I can play a full demo and not buy the game until I am ready to play it (IF I want to buy it). For me, this left a bad taste in my mouth about the game. Sorry. Just ask my hubby..... no one tells me what I should do. LOL When they do, I sometimes do the opposite.

Btw... I only played about 15 minutes of the demo and got sent to the BF site. I was like.... excuse me?

I ended up with 193. I believe there are 10 in each scene and 17 in the Jewelry Shop (as stated). I had 4 rooms where I only found 9 each. I was getting tired and missed some.

Good game btw Lizzie, so no need to pay for it.

What the heck is this? I don't have the patience for this right now..... maybe latter. I hit "menu" to leave and had to watch a self indulgent video first, then poof, I am sent back to BF games. I had to click on stuff several times for anything to work.

What ever happened to the next HE game?

I just played 30 minutes of the demo and quit because I was bored to death. Too easy and I feel like I am just going through the motions. The icon/graveyard/open door puzzle was pretty lame. The best thing I found so far was the cat showing up when you do a lot of random clicking. I was clicking away just to see the cat.

My guess is the reason BF hasn't offered this game yet is because all the other game sites are selling it for $9.99, $14.99 & $19.99. Since BF now sells all their games for $6.99 to everyone, I think you will have to wait until the other sites drop their price as Ok'd by the developer.

I beta tested Dream Day and found it just Ok. I got kinda bored after about an hour (or less).
I bought Paradise Quest from the developer long ago for $9.99. I think I have played it through 3 times now.

Thanks for your "to the point" review covegril & lineck. I pretty much felt the same way. I only played about 30 minutes of the demo and left out of bordom. I did not come across any mini games or puzzles yet.

Meh....