The Agency of Anomalies: The Last Performance Collector's Edition

[h1]Short version: 68%[/h1] The Last Performance is almost a great hidden object game—thanks to its solid puzzle and hidden object scene design, plus the acceptable story—except for the painful inconvenience of completely lacking any sort of map system. [h1]Long version:[/h1] For some players, a good map and quest indicator can make or break a hidden object puzzle adventure. I have to admit, in the case of The Agency of Anomalies 3: The Last Performance, I felt a kinship with these players, because the absence of the map has no tangible purpose beyond wasting time. The sad part is that everything could make up a good HOG. The hidden object scenes are a joy to play, despite favouring silhouettes over lists. A few puzzles may drag on too long, but some of their design is pure genius. Even the story is enjoyable. We ditch the semi-realistic approach and save a circus troupe from a supernatural curse, but it works as much as any HOG plot, even if we can identify the real villain in a nanosecond. Well, okay, the quest indicator is only one of the big gripes. The other is the bonus chapter; it is a lazy, repetitive chore where we run among four almost-identical puzzles. Just skip it.

This generally good series of casual point-and-click adventures lost its way with this entry. In many ways it's similar to the first two entries, but the story is thin to the point of being incomprehensible. The difficulty balance is also way off: there are way too many puzzle mini-games, and some of them are extremely difficult. It feels more like a puzzle game than a hidden-object game. While still overall an OK game, I'm giving this game a thumbs down due to the inclusion of frustrating “seltzer water” puzzles. These depend on minute mouse movements that are impossible to complete reliably. Such “action” puzzles feel out of place in this genre, but more importantly these specific sequences are essentially broken, and can be completed only by repetitive tries. It was poor judgment and bad quality assurance to include them. And there are a lot of them. This game is the third in a series of four games: [I]Mystic Hospital[/I], [I]Cinderstone Orphenage[/I], [I]The Last Performance[/I], and [I]Mind Invasion[/I]. The fourth game is not currently on Steam.

They really should have named this one "The Agency of Anomalies: Backtracker's Paradise". There were countless times I had to backtrack 8-10 screens, then go forward 8-10 screens to get an object, then go back 8-10 screen to use that object, then go forward 8-10 screens again. It's as if they knew the game wouldn't be long enough under normal circumstances, so they added endless backtracking to pad the length. Overall, the main game was enjoyable enough, though the story didn't make sense and contradicted itself at times. It had a mix of find-by-name, find-by-silhouette, and put-item-where-it-belongs hidden object scenes, and they were enjoyable. The mini-games in the main game were fun except for the ones to activate the special powers. A few of those mini-games had you moving the mouse around to try to rotate a bunch of lines to form a picture without telling you what the picture is, so you just keep moving the mouse endlessly until it says you did it. Another few of those were mini-games in which you had to fill a winding snake-like path with bubbles of seltzer water from a bottle by pressing or holding the mouse button to "spray" the water; this type of game was very frustrating, and I'm still not sure why some attempts worked but most didn't. And then begins the "bonus" game. First of all, let's be honest, it's not a bonus game. You pay extra for the "Collector's Edition" over the standard edition of a game (even if the standard edition is not available on Steam). When you pay for something, it's not a bonus. The bonus game was completely frustrating without a single minute of enjoyment. If the main game were called "Backtracker's Paradise", the bonus game would be called "Backtracker's Nirvana". Additinally, there were three mini-games in which each one was split into three sections. You have to play the first section, get an object from it, go do something with that object, come back and play the second section, get an object, do something with that object, and then come back and play the third section. These games were extremely tedious and difficult, with no enjoyment. For these puzzles, I ended up using the in-game strategy guide where I could, and then skipped the last game (because the strategy guide didn't bother including the solution). The bonus game was so bad with no fun whatsoever, I didn't feel bad about cheating and skipping. I just wanted it to be over. I like hidden object games, and I've heard good things about the ones published by Big Fish, but this one just isn't worth your time or money.

Good game! Longer than many of the newer HOGs. Fun mini-puzzles that weren't just the same ones you always see. I don't care that much about storyline in a HOG, but story seemed good to me. Note that it's an older game, so set your resolution to 1024x768. It does have hints, but I don't think it had a map. There is quote a lot of going back and forth between scenes. I don't mind that, but some people seem to. Also note that there is a bonus level. It doesn't prompt you to play it. After main game is done, click Extras, then Play. The bonus level was as fun as the main game, imo.

Pretty average hidden object game with a lot of random backtracking. Playing without hints is very difficult (you need to repeatedly re-check all locations in the game for new actions) and the hint system barely works.

Very good puzzles

The Agency of Anomalies series are quite old now but I think they have stood the test of time and Last Performance is probably the best....it took a while for it to grow on me but when it did I loved it. The backstory is original, the tasks and object collecting is good though not hugely different from other HOGs ad the mini-puzzles are generally excellent and just that bit harder than other HOG games....for those who complain that there is no map I would say that this adds to the challenge and really, there aren't THAT many locations to remember! This game is really quite long and as such is good value for money...the bonus game is also good but some of the mini puzzles there are a bit repetitive, but that's my only criticism

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Den dritten Teil der Agency of Anomalies-Reihe würde ich am liebsten irgendwo zwischen Ja und Nein setzen. Grafisch, akustisch und storytechnisch ist es absolut empfehlenswert und interessant. Aber das große Manko ist, dass es eine Menge Backtracking aufweist, was an manchen Stellen sehr nervig war und dazu führte, dass ich manchmal nicht wusste, wo es überhaupt weitergeht. Wenn man´s on sale bekommt, sollte man als HOG-Fan auf jeden Fall zugreifen, da es tatsächlich ein Schmaus für die Augen ist. Aber für den vollen Preis wär es mir doch zu viel Backtracking.

There is a good part of The Agency of Anomalies, I especially love the side garden scene with autumn painted, before I was child I was eager to put that scene into my wallpaper, but in pity I have lost first-seen obsession in recent review. I'm surprised that is a great improvement from previous series, there is set a difficulty for our casual player, easy mode is not wrong clicking punishment, faster puzzle skip recharging, and so on absorbed from the new trend of Hidden Object Adventure in that era. but in opponent, some inadequate details exist blatantly. First of all, this game not update adaptive version for above 60Hz monitor refreshing rate, so that is no impossible to complete the "seltzer water" quest because it sprays out normally when monitor is in 60Hz. when Mind Invasion had released in steam in later 2018, and there is no any patched today. Further more, the game sets needed object too far from the target puzzle, so that you needs to go back and go forward frequently, and if u try to play it without hint, you may be a professor for Hidden Object Adventure Game, this game is difficult for playing, some puzzles are manifestly hard. In a occasion, you needs to try to frequently click in one scene for what omitted. I really enjoy this series, but the game goes out of "casual category", it harder than before two parts of series, some bugs remain, but I suggest to play it.