I saw a modern day movie adaptation of The Masque of the Red Death back in the early 90s, and this game is far better than that movie. When it comes to Poe’s stories, no one brings them to life like ERS Games. With every new story they take on, the graphics get more streamlined, and the gameplay gets better. Also, there is more focus on the hidden object part of the game than constantly looking for logic puzzles to unlock things.
We have a new mystery to solve, our dashing and brilliant companion, Inspector Dauphin, is with us again, and now we are hunting down a vigilante that is taking down corrupt government officials in 19th Century France. The whole of the game has a smoother feel, as the animations are more fluid, and the choppiness that was commonly seen in older ERS games is gone. We have don’t really know whom the true villain is in this case. Is it the cloaked figure in red masque, or the town politicians that are taxing their constituents dry? Murder is murder, but the slower blood-letting of financial drain can be just as macabre, as it brings on a suffering that cannot be taken out quickly, as one would to kill someone with a quick slash of a sword or piercing of a bullet. Read more...(261 words, 32 images, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)
While it was a great idea to come up with a hidden object game that is purely hidden objects, the execution of this game seemed lacking. The jazzy music seemed fine at the beginning, but soon grew repetitive and droning on, which made me sleepy and therefore I could not concentrate on the game itself. So, if you try this, make sure you go into the options menu and turn off the background music. Read more...(250 words, 31 images, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)
I’m not sure how they do it, but since ERS Studios took over the reigns on the Azada franchise from Big Fish, it just keeps getting better and better. The characters we started off with look a bit different now, and the game has gone from the library in Titus’s family estate into a alternate world where just about anything can happen. Azada: Elementa continues its magic, and this time we are after Titus’ uncle, Panoptes to stop him from using elemental magic in an evil plot. Just as everything else in Azada, even Panoptes is not what he seems.
We really don’t have many hidden object puzzles to get through, in fact they make a good diversion from the many locks and logic puzzles needed to open them or get the objects to get into places further down the line. Titus keeps us updated, and we also have a furry pet monkey cat thing, that we can name and even dress using bonus items, but I really did not get into playing with this animal much. I have enough pets in real life, and this thing reminded me too much of Merlin’s friend, Giggles, in the game Magic Match. Read more...(319 words, 31 images, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)
This game is the sequel to Maestro: Music of Death, and as it is ERS Game Studios, it lives up to par in being the among the group that creates the Cadillac of HOM games.
This is set not too long after the original, but this game has been far more polished, and the dubbing has gotten better. The out of game animations are smoother, too. ERS has really been stepping up their game when it comes to development. Read more...(271 words, 33 images, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)
Normally I like those hidden object games where we hunt for items to sell like Tales of Lagoona: Orphans of the Ocean and Gardenscapes: Mansion Makeover, but I was really not into this game. There were too many logic puzzles to unlock to find the secret rooms, and the auctions really distracted from the mystery itself. It was also difficult for me to keep up with the story of why oil tycoon Mr. Howard was trying to appease some evil spirits or whatever possessed him to keep building all these secret rooms in his estate. As a supposed expert in antiques, we are merely supposed to be looking for missing antiques to sell at an auction, but somehow become ghosthunters, or something similar. We do get to take breaks from the scariness to do our job, and that’s where that is where the bad graphics really come in. I had enough trouble just getting through the trial. Read more...(270 words, 31 images, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)
