[b]Cursery: The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat[/b] (FROG)
Options include three separate sliders for Sounds, Full-screen, Widescreen, Custom Cursor and whether or not there are sparkles on puzzles/fragmented object scenes. Choice of Casual, Normal or Hard Mode.
[b]Story[/b]:
On a journey with your sister, she tells you of an urban legend in the area, about how girls around her age have been disappearing for over a hundred years, never to be seen again. In a flash her teasing becomes horror as your stagecoach is attacked, and a mysterious man steals her away.
We have no [b]Journal[/b], but there is only one puzzle hint that you'll need to write down (you'll know it when you see it!)
The story has great pacing, with intermittent snippets that we find which are quick and easy-to-read, but expand on the tale beautifully. There is more depth to the story than I expected, and a few twists that I didn't see coming at all.
[b]Gameplay[/b]:
For those not familiar with the term, [b]FROG's[/b] are FRagmented Object Games. Instead of your standard to-find lists or silhouettes, etc, you will find pieces of items, which will then become whole and be added to your inventory.
[url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1772732592]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1772732592[/url]
Despite the FROG designation, this is really more of a [b]Puzzle-Adventure[/b] than anything else. The FRO scenes repeat once, but they are so widely-spaced that I often forgot that they were in the game! The mini-games are very frequent, and there were several repeating themes. Luckily the minis are pretty interesting and fun to play. ;)
SKIPPING a puzzle will disable your hint button for a short period.
We have an interactive [b]MAP[/b] - a magical item that allows us to instantly transport to areas we've been to before. Beware, for the Crooked Man's influence can sometimes overpower the magic, making this power unavailable in some areas. (I absolutely LOVE how they worked the map into the story! Bravo, devs!)
[b]HINTS [/b]used during the adventure portion of the game will either pinpoint something in the area or give you a directional hint.
[b]Sights and Sounds[/b]:
The graphics work beautifully with the twisted nursery rhyme theme, immersing you in a world both lovely and dangerous.
[url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1772741119]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1772741119[/url]
The voice overs are about what you would expect from a casual game, although I'd say that the Crooked Man's acting was above average.
I was impressed by how well the music tied everything together, and I especially enjoyed the music box scene.
The main game took me about 3.5 hours, but would have taken me longer if I hadn't been too exhausted (from lack of sleep) to complete all of the puzzles in the latter half of the game. ;p
[b]CE Content[/b]:
[list]
[*]Integrated Strategy Guide
[*]Bonus Chapter
[*]20 Cursed (Morphing) Items
[*]25 In-game Achievements
[*]6 Wallpapers
[*]20 Concept Art
[*]17 Cutscenes
[*]5 Music Tracks (can be saved)
[*]Popup Notes Collections (every scrap of story that you discover, sorted by character)
[*]24 Items (gorgeous closeup views of items used in the game - love this!)
[/list]
[b]Bonus Chapter[/b]:
The Bonus Chapter takes place 10 years after the events of the main game (even though it says "Prologue"). It's titled Humpty Dumpty, but instead of being a twisted nursery rhyme, the story is more like something by the Brothers Grimm, dark and utterly disturbing. The gameplay itself is a bit more balanced between adventure, FRO's and puzzles.
[b]Verdict[/b]:
This is more of a Puzzle-adventure than a FRagmented Object Game, which is great for me since I'm not a big fan of FROG's in general.
The graphics and story coupled with environmental music make this title immersive and compelling. The frequent puzzles somehow didn't interrupt the flow of the storytelling, and I couldn't stop playing until I reached the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the main game, and definitely recommend it.
