Howlville: The Dark Past

[h1]Short version: 52%[/h1] Howlville is an acceptably B-grade hidden object game that focuses mostly on item searches— including some aggravating pixel hunting—over its generic puzzles. [h1]Long version:[/h1] Howlville: The Dark Past is a typical low-grade hidden object game created with just enough enthusiasm and care to elevate it above of its mass-produced ilk. Probably the storyline is a great example: it starts in a clichéd abandoned town, where the protagonist is looking for her missing father, yet somehow we end up shooting a giant laser cannon at a Cthulhu wannabe. While this sounds awesome, sadly, there is precious little actual plot between these two cardinal events. At least progression is linear, so the lack of map is not a sore spot while we press forward. The majority of the content is hidden object scenes; they are so abundant that they banish over half of the traditional (and rather unimaginative) puzzles inside of them. They are also a bit too old-school, but their difficulty is nothing compared to the sheer amount of tedious pixel hunts on the story screen. Combined with the game’s limited hint system, they turn Howlville into a much less pleasant experience than it should have been.

[h1] Genre [/h1] Ein Hidden Object Adventure [h1] Story [/h1] Wir spielen eine junge Frau die aus einer Anstalt ausbricht um ihren verschollenen Vater zu retten [h1] Gameplay [/h1] Es ist an sich das Typische Hidden Object Adventure. Das besondere hier ist, das es in den Einzelnen Wimmelbildszenen meist immer noch ein Minispiel/Rätsel zu lösen gibt, das habe ich bisher auch noch nicht erlebt. Wimmelbilder gibt es hier sehr oft, für meinen Geschmack schon etwas zu oft und vor allem sind einige zu findende Gegenstände relativ klein. Die Rätsel haben einen steigernden Schwierigkeitsgrad und bei 2 musste ich eine Guide zu Hilfe nehmen was auch an sich recht untypisch ist, weil meist sind die Rätsel immer Leicht-Mittel, aber das ist ja nichts Negatives. Musik & Voice Acting sind wie im Genre üblich einfach nur OK [h1] Achievements [/h1] Es gibt insgesamt 21 Erfolge. Hierfür muss man einfach das Spiel durchspielen. Keines ist verpassbar [h1] Pro/Contra [/h1] + Story OK + Musik OK + Voice Acting OK + Es gibt Minirätsel in den einzelnen Wimmelbildszenen (das ist mir neu) + Achievements [h1] Fazit [/h1] Bei weitem nicht die Qualität von Artifex Mundi aber immerhin noch ein ganz solides Hidden Object Adventure. Mir hat es an sich gefallen, besonders das es Minirätsel in den Wimmelbildszenen gab, das war für mich eine positive Neuerung die ich so noch nie gesehen habe. Wer Fan des Genres ist, kann hier ruhig zugreifen 👑 Powered by HoI 4 Deu Curators group in German / English 👑⠀⠀⠀[list][*][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30388691/] Follow Main group [/url][*][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40282064/] Follow Second group [/url][/list]

Howlville: The Dark Past is a hidden object game that comes very close to being a recommendation, but I just can’t. In fact, it’s hard not to because there were some neat parts about it. The fact that you don’t have to play more than once to get all the achievements, the artwork and the music. There wasn’t much music, and it was obvious that it kept playing over and over, but what was there, was good. The artwork was excellent. The hidden object puzzles looked neat and were fun. My biggest problem was that the game bugged for me on the very last puzzle. As in I finished the puzzle, the game should go to a cutscene and finish. It never went to the cutscene. It just sat there. I ended up having to replay the entire game because saves are constantly overwritten. The second thing that bothered me immensely was that one puzzle at the end was infuriatingly difficult for me. True, that’s just me, and maybe I simply didn’t get the logic of it, but the rest of the game was fairly easy, so it seemed out of place. I ended up skipping the puzzle. (And still got the achievement, which was a weird, but good thing!). The last issue I had which was more of an annoyance than anything (but still annoying enough to mention) was the fact that the game is in 3:4 format. The game is from 2012, so I know that that isn’t new, but I also don’t think anyone was still using 4:3 screens back then. The last time I had one personally was ~2002. Now it’s fine to make a game that fits different aspect ratios – in fact most devs do that. Not this one! If you click “wide screen” it simply stretches the image so circles become ovals, doorways become wide and people become… Wider also. In short, the game was mostly fun with minor annoyances until it bugged at the end. That did it for me. Had the developers allowed you to save at different points, it would not have been a problem. While some of it is good, there’s just better ones out there. + Artwork + Achievements all work and only require one playthrough. + Music/Sound - Buggy - Does not properly support anything but 4:3 aspect ratio - Horrible animation – even for a HoG - Bad voice acting

Myślałam, że to będzie kiczowata i słaba produkcja, jednak gra pozytywnie mnie zaskoczyła. Fabuła skonstruowana dość zmyślnie, a sama rozgrywka nie powoduje znużenia (jak to czasami przy grach HOG i HOPA bywa). Mini gry logiczne są na sensownym poziomie (co dla mnie jest dużym plusem). Nie miałam też żadnych bugów ani problemów w czasie gry. Ogólnie jak dla mnie plasuje się w wyższych partiach średniaków. Do gier z najwyższej półki (tego gatunku) zaliczam: "Where Angels Cry", "Myths of Orion" , "The Lake House: Children of Silence" (prawdziwa perełka -obecnie do nabycia zdaje się tylko w bundlu "Hidden Object 6-in-1 bundle"). Howlville jest jednak nieco niżej, ale i tak ogólnie mogę polecić. Grałam również w inną grę tego wydawcy: "Crossroad Mysteries: The Broken Deal", która charakteryzuje się podobnymi cechami czyli: intrygująca fabuła i ciekawe zagadki logiczne, i którą również mogę polecić.

This is the first hidden object game I've decided not to finish. It's just not fun. It's a pretty serious pixel hunt to find the random things lying about on the ground that you need to pick up. Translations are awful. Hovering over a tire gave me the clue "The inflated tire." Obviously I needed to find an awl and puncture the tired so that it was no longer inflated. The hidden object scenes are similarly messed up. In one scene, the clue was "candle" and the object was a pyramid. I guess it was a pyramidal candle? The clickable areas in the HOGs are ridiculously small. One object I clicked half a dozen times at various times before finally hitting on the one small area that was "live". And the interactive parts of the HOGs are often inexplicable--and sometimes the interactivity is not even indicated. Since you have to find light bulbs in each scene in order to gain hints, you waste a lot of hints on these sorts of issues. It should be said this studio's other (later) games are rather better, though none of them is what I would call top of the line. I do also appreciate their support of Linux. It works flawlessly under Linux Mint, at least to the point where I've decided to stop.

Хорошая игра, интересные загадки, лаконичный сюжет, в цвелом проходится легко.

Je suis embêté au moment d'évaluer Howlville: the dark past parce que j'ai vraiment apprécié le temps passé dessus mais ce jeu est tellement techniquement daté et imparfait qu'il m'est impossible de le recommander. Déjà, il n'y a pas de scénario : papa a mystérieusement disparu dans un labo et on y va. That's all folks ! Même si j'ai beaucoup aimé la cohérence visuelle, avec des scènes et des objets qui vont bien ensemble, il faut reconnaître que niveau textures, éclairages, animations, effets c'est plus proche de la BD des années 60-70 (non, pas Napoléon III quand même, celles du siècle dernier) que de ce qu'on peut attendre d'un moteur graphique de jeu vidéo actuel. J'ai bien aimé que les mini-jeux et scènes d'objets cachés offrent un peu plus de résistance que la tendance actuelle. Les mini-jeux ne sont pas hors norme mais là où le dernier Artifex Mundi va nous demander de rejouer une séquence de 4 ou 5 touches sur un clavier, Howlville va nous en demander 7 ou 8. Les scènes d'objets cachés sont denses sans pour autant être rendues artificiellement difficiles par des objets trop bien planqués. Elles offrent beaucoup de manipulations à faire et ne se contentent pas de simples associations ou déplacements, à l'intérieur de certaines on tombe sur de véritables mini-jeux. Ca m'a bien plus d'être en permanence en train de jongler entre point&click, mini-jeux et objets cachés avec des frontières assez poreuses entre ces domaines. A côté de ça, beaucoup d'irritation sur des imprécisions techniques : certains objets ne déclenchant pas le curseur, un gel heureusement sans conséquence la sauvegarde étant saine, quelques associations totalement improbables que l'on finit par élimination, un guidage déficient qui m'a amené dans des pièces où il n'y avait plus rien à faire et ne m'a laissé d'autre choix que de recourir à un guide quand j'étais à court d'idée... Bref un jeu qui vous sera insupportable si vous n'êtes pas du genre à faire abstraction du différentiel technologique et de l'imprécision technique. J'ai aimé, je mets une éval négative... à vous de juger ;) A noter une excellente VF pour les SOC, à part une clé anglaise qui pour moi est une clé plate, je n'ai rencontré aucun objet mal nommé.

Langweilig! ein WBS an dem nächsten, kaum Story, unlogisch, man findet weiterführende Teile nicht, macht echt keinen Spass, das Spiel. Das ist so ein Spiel, wo du denkst: "boahh, hoffentlich ist es bald vorbei"

This is a marginal thumbs up. What this game lacks in story, it makes up for in hidden object puzzles, of which there are many. They run from medium to hard difficulty. Pretty much every HOP had at least one item that took me a while to find. There are also a variety of other types of puzzles which run from easy to really irritating. I dislike musical follow the sequence puzzles, so I skipped that one. I found the "shoot the ship" puzzle to be irritating and it felt really out of place among the other types of puzzles. A few complaints: * The game is not consistent about representing areas that you can interact with. There are several places where there should have been a hand icon to indicate an interaction. Because it was missing, I ended up having to randomly click around until I found the unmarked hot spot or used a hint. * Areas that have been completed continue to sparkle, which can make it confusing about whether there's anything left to do in a scene. Also, in the church, after completing one action the rotating gears still continued to appear when hovering over that area. * In a scene with a car, the popup text said something about a missing handle when what it meant was missing spark plugs. * In one HOP, a required eyeball is hidden behind a welding mask. You can't see the eyeball, and the hot spot is tiny. * If you skip a puzzle, you will still get the achievement. None of these problems prevented me from finishing the game. They just added some frustration. If you really enjoy hidden object puzzles, you'll probably enjoy them in this game. Buy it on sale.

nice game