[b]Nightmare Adventures 1: The Witch's Prison[/b] (Adventure-lite)
[i]December, 2018 review update[/i]
TL; DR - Just skip to the final paragraph ;)
Options include Full-screen and Custom Cursor, plus separate sliders for Music, SFX and Brightness. One difficulty, and no achievements.
I first played this game in January of 2012, and absolutely adored it. There are elements of the game that did not hold up well - such as the graphics - but it's still a very good adventure-lite, so read on!
Cutscenes are short and to the point. To get the full story - including the prequel to the game's intro - you'll need read the blurbs in your journal ([b]PDA[/b]) often. There are no spoilers in there, and no hints for puzzles, so read with no worries! You will find journal entries periodically, which will also expand on the story.
There is a refillable [b]HINT[/b] button (does not discharge with directional hints), and puzzles can be [b]SKIPPED[/b]. There are no instructions for the puzzles, but using a hint will help... Just be careful with it, as sometimes it will give away part of the solution, ie. "I think the first line should read..." Whenever these came up, I wondered how our character could possibly know that info. *shrugs* I am not the most observant person in the world, so I may have just missed something.
Any time you come across something of interest (that will help you solve puzzles), you will automatically take a picture of it, and it will be stored in the [b]PHOTOS[/b]. When you solve the puzzle the the photo(s) are linked to, they'll magically disappear, leaving only helpful pictures behind.
Gameplay is point-and-click exploration, experimentation and puzzle-solving. The puzzles themselves range from not-so-bad to this-is-going-to-take-a-while!! If you'd like the game to be a bit (OK a LOT) more difficult, try taking notes and not using looking at your camera! Some of the puzzles are real doozies!
There is [b]NO MAP[/b], but you only have access to a small number of locations at a time, so there's [b]not a lot of backtracking[/b].
I REALLY appreciate that the devs took the time to explain [b]WHY[/b] things we try won't work. THANK YOU, Ghost Ship! I cannot tell you how irritating it is to be told that I can't do something when logically it should work just fine! "I can't quite get it with my fingernails," is enough of an explanation to keep me satisfied.
Something else that I appreciate is that almost every item you click on has more than one response, and the second click usually had me giggling... There's even a Monty Python reference in there! We have one hidden object scene in the game as a parody, too. Very cute. *snicker*
Perhaps the most impressive thing about this game is that it was made by a small studio, with [b]a two-person team[/b]. :o A quote by Tim of Ghost Ship Studios: "We are a tiny team, and not really fully grounded in the world of casual games as yet." A game of this length and quality from such a small team? AWESOME!
In closing, this is a high-quality game for its time, and although the graphics are dated, the gameplay, story and puzzles are very good, and still enjoyable today! Recommended both to the casual-gaming crowd and point-and-click lovers~!
