Seven Chambers: Zodiac Adventure

Despite the strong resemblance to a HOG in both visuals and gameplay and being tagged as such on the Steam store page, [i]The Seven Chambers[/i] is only a puzzle adventure, completely devoid of hidden object scenes. It plays exactly like a HOG in the sense that it’s first person, and your character goes from one location to another, gathers various items in the inventory that are used later in order to unlock puzzles and mini-games. Based on the exquisite presentation, at first sight [i]The Seven Chambers[/i] seems to be a high budget game. The visuals are impressive and I could easily call it “the most beautiful HOG I’ve ever played” (except it’s not a HOG, but you get the idea...) and in terms of cutscenes and character design, it surpassed all my expectations. Each location is more wonderful than the previous one, and all the characters are nicely drawn, especially the eye-candy Hamish, ([spoiler]your lover from a previous life[/spoiler]) who looks like he just stepped out of a fashion catalogue. Your adventure will lead you through a forest glade beside a lake, a fiery underground realm, a magical grove, a castle with gardens full of roses, an Egyptian-themed room and many others - each of them displayed in HD; this game breathes beauty through every pixel. But sadly that’s how far their budget went, since the other aspects of the game remained undeveloped and somewhat unfinished. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1993070813 First of all, the story is a bit of a train wreck; it doesn’t naturally flow, it feels extremely fragmented. You play as Elasaid, a girl who fell into a coma and needs to traverse her sub-conscious, relive her past life as a Highland Warrior and follow an esoteric path to reach the “Seventh Chamber” which will somehow make her wake up from her coma. The historical setting of the 18th century makes it a game heavily influenced by astronomy and alchemy and while normally I greatly enjoy these topics, I disliked how they were used in the game. A plethora of concepts related to these themes are included in the story as object names, places, characters etc. but there is nothing to bind them together. What you get as a result is a mix of concepts: alchemical and astrological symbolism, constellations, planets, sacred artefacts or historical items blended with Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology. It feels that the game tries to accomplish something but it can’t decide what. Maybe my opinion is also biased by the fact that the diary (that usually describes in a few words the story up to that point and your objectives) has been completely abolished and replaced with a lore book (beautifully drawn if I must say) containing a brief explanation of some of the symbols, but nothing much to help you solve the puzzles whatsoever. Symbolism aside, the game also doesn’t manage to develop the characters well enough and their side stories are almost non-existent or left unsolved, unexplored. What’s the point of having such beautifully crafted characters if you’re not given a way to connect with them or get to know their background stories? Ultimately, at the end of the game, they feel like precious dolls in a shop’s showcase, untouchable. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1993070649 In terms of difficulty, there are a few puzzles that offer some challenge but most of them have an average difficulty and are often encountered in HOGs. The real difficulty comes from the fact that you don’t have a map (not even on “Novice”), no way to fast travel and no indications on the available actions, which will make you run back and forth through all the locations in order to find out what you have to do next. Things are made even worse by the fact that locations aren’t split into separate groups (per chapter for example, with items acquired and used only among those 4-5 locations) and you can end up having to go back from the end towards the beginning of the game. If that wasn’t enough of an annoyance, you get to hoard a huge lot of items in your inventory (2-3 pages is quite common for this game), which means that you will have a lot of unsolved puzzles that you have to keep track of in your mind. “Ok, I got this round object; for which of the 5 puzzles that require a round object is this one and where were they again?” is something you might end up saying quite often… Without using a hint / guide, the gameplay becomes extremely frustrating especially if you can’t play [i]The Seven Chambers[/i] in one sitting (I had to take a 20h break and when I came back to the game I had already forgotten where I had to use any of my 16+ items that I had collected by then. Achievement hunters will be disappointed to find out that despite in-game achievements existing, the Steam ones haven’t been implemented so far. A [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/984170/discussions/0/1741101364302758397/#c2944710017721197398]reply about this topic[/url] has been promised for months, but never came, and I think we can safely assume that these will never happen. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1991911923 Bugs? I encountered twice the same issue: most of the interface froze after finishing a puzzle; once I was lucky that the menu button still worked, but the second time the game didn’t respond at all, not even to an Alt-F4. Puzzles well explained? In general yes, but not all. Even if you’re a veteran HOG player, you will still find 2-3 puzzles that have unclear indications. Price? A bit better compared to the the exorbitant way of Artifex Mundi pricing their latest games, but still quite high for the 3h of gameplay that you get from it. On the other hand, the art and the delightful soundtrack could be well worth spending a bit more money than what you would otherwise spend on an average HOG. [quote]More reviews on the [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/11354094]Lilly's Corner Curator page[/url][/quote]

Puzzle game, graphic adventure, exploratory, 2D PLOT 1976 King George, a powerful ruler of an empire, sends an army to Culloden to repel the Highlanders and take possession of an ancient book of power: "THE Magnus Opus" 2018 Elasaid is a normal girl, like many people she also doesn't believe in astrology. One day during a riot in London due to an explosion he finds himself in a hospital bed in a coma. Elasaid does not know that in a past life during the reign of King George he was a Scottish Highlander. Trapped in the subconscious of the coma she must return to that past life and find the book of power because its magic will open a portal to the seven Chambers. But it won't be easy because decayed Angels, lost Souls, jealous Planets, and the King's Astrologer will try to stop her and divert her path. The Alchemists will be there to help him rewrite the stars and change his destiny. Will Elasaid be able to wake up from a coma? The only way is to overcome the various rooms and reach the seventh in time for the resurrection of the phoenix. But in the end he will have to make a choice: what will he give precedence to, his love for the lost soul or his desire for freedom? PLAYABILITY It's not an object search, but an adventure with minigames. There is a diary to consult to understand what to do and to find out the plot. It is possible to consult the Map where some actions to carry out and to move quickly are marked. If you get stuck, click on the horse and it will highlight where you can move, and there is also a button with hints. The music suits the game and the plot. The puzzles are not difficult, with a little effort they can be overcome. The graphics are well done and pleasant. I recommend it, it's a good pastime, there's the plot, the minigames, and many characters that we'll get to know in the story. [quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote]

tl;dr: Graphics (for this kind of game): 9/10 Fun had during playthrough: 2/10 A Hidden Object Game (gameplay and graphics wise) without actual Hidden Object scenes. So it's basically a low tier point & click adventure with - compared to other HOGs - nicely animated cutscenes. Took me about 3.5 hours to finish on the hardest difficulty. Even after finishing the game I have no idea what the story is really about (except trying to wake up from a coma), who the characters are and why I should like or care about any of them. A decent amount of puzzles made no sense to me and some are plain illogical. Some minigames are way too long and repetetive up to the point where they are just annoying. Overall a rather frustrating experience. Game softlockes/crashed twice after solving a minigame and I had to restart and solve the puzzles again. Overall a solid: stay away from this. There is plenty of better games in this genre you can get for the same amount of money or even less.

I wouldn't recommend this game (not even if it was on sale). The game is poorly optimized (and have no graphics settings), only got 55-70 FPS with a RTX 2070. It is short, took me less then 3 hours to beat the game. Some of the puzzles makes no sence at all, and the hints are sometimes useless.

The game was one of the nicest HOPAs I played the last year. The graphics are extraordinary and very beautiful and the mini games are unique and sometimes really hard to solve. The story is very esoteric (what I like ... it is a matter of taste though) and join young "Elasaid", which in the real world is lying in coma, to travel back in time with her astral body and master the seven chambers to gain the power to overcome coma and return to normal life again. The game has about 3-4 hours of game play - but that´s Ok because it isn't a "Collector's Edition" and standard time for a HOPA. I don't know why after half of the game there is a "loading..." screen between every scene - but I guess the HD graphics need a bit longer - which I didn't really notice because my PC had a good speed ... but I guess player with a very old PC this could be a bit annoying. I would rate the game with 4 out of 5 stars and think for hidden object fans it really is a game you shouldn' t miss!

[quote][i]Find the pieces of a past life, overcome the planets and learn alchemists' secrets in an intriguing story fully voiced and with beautiful cinematics.[/i][/quote] This quote sums up why this game is a straight no. First of all, this isn't an HOG game as there are no Hidden Object scene, it's mostly puzzles and pain. When you read this quote, it sounds like a mysterious story about your past, something something, planets, something something, alchemist. What I can say is : The cinematics aren't beautiful, it's fully voiced by people who have been paid 3 cents and a copy of the game, especially that dark angel dude whom spit in the mic, you feel his rage to have been tricked to voice over that game. What I CANNOT say is that I know what the story is about. I don't. I played the game twice thinking that maybe on the second try everything would make sense ? No. It doesn't make any sense. Why the hell would you need to return back to the 17th century to get out of your coma, go through seven rooms, which aren't even seven by the way and play match 3 with the death. I don't know. I don't understand the story at all. There are plots devices appearing like your lover from your past life, apparently he follows you, I say that because you throw him away at the first occasion. Why are there some egyptian s*** in the middle of that story which is supposed to happen in the ireland ? Why is Venus such a c*** ? Why does the Minotaur helps you while you clearly don't trust him ? Why playing with 3 weights slows down time ? Why does this non HOG game tries to have a story and makes some of the mini games so long that even me want to skip ? All that will remain a mystery as I'm sure no dev will ever answer to my questions.

1. Constantly freezes 2. Doesnt save progress, making you do the same puzzle over and over 3. slow paced puzzle games that is a chore to do

I'm a big fan of hidden object adventures, but this one in particular just didn't do it for me. I understand a lot of it was based on Roman mythology, but the plot was confusing other than the first 15 minutes of it, and it felt like a "just keep clicking on stuff until something happens" kind of thing because some of the items made no sense as to where they needed to go. If not for the map showing me areas that needed something done, I probably would never have finished this game. Also, there are no actual hidden object puzzles to do.

Ich finde das Spiel okay. Manchmal etwas unlogisch, aber das kann auch an mir liegen. Die Rätsel sind teilweise einfach, teilweise etwas anspruchsvoller. Nervig war allerdings das Harfenspiel. Wer kann sich sowas merken? Ich musste es mir jedenfalls aufschreiben, irgendwann hat das Hirn abgeschaltet und gestreikt. Das Puzzle davor (?), das, wo man die geometrischen Figuren (Dreieck, Viereck) zu einer größeren Form zusammen bauen muss, wäre fast ein eigenes Spiel wert. Suchbilder gab es gar nicht, oder habe ich die verdrängt? Kann mich nicht daran erinnern, ein einziges gespielt zu haben.

No, just no. It's the most confusing HO-style game I've ever played. HOGs are usually very simple in terms of the story but I've played this one twice and I still have no idea what it was about. There's no flow to the story nor your actions, everything feels completely random. If this was a newer title I'd seriously consider this chaotic mess an AI creation.