Amulet of Dreams

Good HOGs. Story is fairly good. The language is a bit off sometimes, and the map indicates areas where you need to take action at some time during the remainder of the game, not currently. There is no customizable difficulty.

Visually pleasant, but poor voice acting, shallow story, and illogical item usage weigh down the experience. Most hidden object/puzzle games have an internal logic on why certain items are used for certain tasks and not others, but when I found myself holding two swords and a dagger which can only be used once each in very specific ways I was beyond disappointed. Instead of providing 300 different items to figure out their specific use, why not use the dagger charging mechanic to imbue it with different uses per new area instead? (More of a commentary on all games of the like) Why are all items one use only? Rope or matches may be used up, a medallion may need to stay in place, but who finds tools like pliers or a knife and decides to leave them behind? What makes one of the two swords better for branch cutting than egg cracking? Why do I need to wait to find rope to tie something when I already have fishing line? If you want to enforce a specific use, plan the finds so that I either have to use the rope before I can even get the fishing line, or simply don't require so many similar items, be more creative in how my character would solve the problem. Quality of use over quantity of items. The voice acting is simply very, very bad. Perhaps it wasn't professionally done and was just recorded by the developers or the actors struggled with finding the right emotions for the weird plot. (which seems to be a common problem with these types of games) Either way, I skipped most cut-scenes by the end. The only positive was the art which was pleasant and varied, keeping the scenes interesting in a way the plot couldn't manage on it's own.

Game breaking bug in chapter 6, read the comments in the discussions more info.

Storywise the game is fine, yet the execution is simply bad First of all there's a game breaking bug which can completely block progression. As the game autosaves to a single slot, the only way to proceed if you get locked out is to replay everything from the start Aside from this the mechanics also don't work properly. 1. Locations are highlighted as long as there are more actions to take in them, regardless whether they are available now or will be available later 2. From time to time you have to randomly check all marked locations as some interactions may unlock a new HOG scene in an already visited place. Nothing in the story points to such place and due to issue number 1 the game itself doesn't properly hint it either 3. On multiple occasions you collect few items with the same function and have to use a specific one in each place. For example at some point I had 3 swords and only for one of them there was a logical requirement to use that specific one in a puzzle. On other occasions to for example cut something you don't need any blade, you need a specific one. This makes it impossible to logically connect some objects with proper puzzles and leads to trial and error approach Overall the game isn't really that bad, but you can easily find a more enjoyable title.

The story is a bit meh, but the beautiful graphics and well-designed challenges were enough to keep me hooked until the end. Cons: even though the map marks areas with pending actions, be careful — it shows them in general, not necessarily for your current stage of progress. You might end up running back and forth to places where you can’t actually do anything with the items you have at that moment. A solid 6/10 in the genre.

This game sends you all over the place and you have a lot of guessing and missing. Right out weird use of items wich, many things make no sense at all. Without the hint system unplayable. Even the hint system sends you to places where it's hit or miss strategy.