The Secret Order 3: Ancient Times

[h1]Важно не то, куда ты попадешь в конце, но какие приключения встретят тебя на этом пути.[/h1] Знакомьтесь, перед нами Сара Пеннингтон, дочь главы тайного ордена Грифона, путешественница во времени и спасительница мира. Собранные Сарой в прошлой части артефакты решили устроить БАБАХ, разрушив часть крепости ордена и начав разрушать целостность всей вселенной. Саре надо срочно отправиться в далёкое прошлое, в волшебное королевство Айронхарт, где были созданы опасные реликвии. Ей надо узнать у тамошнего короля, как навсегда уничтожить эти предметы. По пути она встретит добрых людей, которые ей помогут, а также подружится с грифоном, который сможет отвезти её в самые отдалённые уголки королевства. Нас встретят хорошо узнаваемые черты игры «поиск предметов». Те же решения задачек, обычный поиск предметов по списку, стандартное применение вещей, чтобы продвинуться дальше. Задачки попадаются заковыристые, но все проходимые, поиски проблем тоже не представляют. Бытовая логика периодически хромает, но тут у нас волшебное королевство, так что терпимо. По игре разбросаны коллекционные фигурки, которые достаточно легко найти. Это хорошо, ведь индикатора коллекционок здесь нет. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3048657819 Картинка в игре детальная и аккуратная. Попадаются очень красивые виды, мы побываем в разных биомах, так что есть здесь и разнообразие. Анимационные вставки на крепком среднем уровне. Все персонажи озвучены, на фоне играет атмосферная музыка. Хорошая игра из хорошей серии, могу порекомендовать попробовать.

At first glance [i]The Secret Order 3: Ancient Times[/i] seems to be a perfect sequel to [url=steamcommunity.com/id/atisz2/recommended/399890/]The Secret Order 2: Masked Intent[/url]: after all a little more of everything that was good in the previous part is the common formula for a successful sequel. But can it maintain the eventfulness, the suspense and the overall level of the previous installment? Since the standards were set so high, the answer is sadly no: the suspense is almost entirely gone, while there are new functions, some don't truly work as they did before and the perfect selection of locations (and times) are switched to an almost entirely fairytale fantasy world - which wouldn't be a bad thing, but since it's so common in other hidden object games, the uniqueness of [i]The Secret Order 2: Masked Intent[/i] is gone. Taking place a few weeks after the events of our previous adventure, Sarah Pennington - our heroine - now a fully fledged member of the Order of the Griffin receives a phone call from her father (never a good sign): the 2 artifacts - the mask and the scepter started glowing and began emitting what appear to be seismic waves, threatening to destroy everything. Once again, we have to find a time stone and travel back in time using the Royal Griffin to prevent the catastrophe. This time, our destination is 1896, London, where we have to find a scroll displaying the location of Aeronheart (the mystic kingdom from the previous part) seeking help from the creator of the artifacts on how to destroy them... Minigames and classic point-and-click adventure elements dominate over hidden object scenes - which is of course (at least for me) isn't a bad thing, on the contrary. As symbols both in graphics and minigames the game prefers to use griffins and dragons representing the conflict between the Order of the Griffin and the Order of the Dragon. The variety of minigames is rather wide: jigsaw, pipe puzzle, colour-matching and an interactive chronicle minigame even. Instead of hidden object scenes we can choose to play mahjong once again and this time we can safely do so: they don't break any achievement progress. When using items, there's attention to small details - if we try something that is not completely inadequate, instead of the usual error message, we get an explanation why we can't use that particular item there. What I didn't like, was the insane amounts of similar looking items of which we have to collect all pieces in order to actually be able to use them. The previous part also had this, but they were either somewhat different or served a purpose... here they mostly just fill our inventory with identical items displayed such as 1/5-4/5 until all of them are found. At times this formula is so overused that we end up having 5 of these at the same time, which means we have to be on the lookout for up to ~25 of these small components. It's a minor annoyance, but it feels like a lazy solution to prolong gametime. Some item uses also seemed rather illogical, like the one where a leaf had to be used to unearth a stone symbol from the sand... I mean it was already sticking out, why couldn't we just pull it with out bare hands? Not going to lie, I was stuck there for a while :D There are 3 types of collectibles in the shape of dragons, griffins and unicorns. Quite unusally some of them can be found in subscenes and the game is nice enough not to close these after we finished our task there, so we can grab the collectible even after that. However this usually causes the given subscene staying there after performing everything, that might lead us to think we still have something else to do there... While probably a minor, one could say purely aesthetic problem, it should be noted that according to a document we find, we must travel back to 3157 BC - which matches the mentioning of "ancient times" from the 2nd part - to King Amadon's court. The age our ship takes us instead is a picture perfect portrayal of a classic fantasy kingdom... not only that, but King Amadon's evil siblings return as well and look somewhat different than they did before. There are so many reused assets nowadays, why couldn't the old models be used - in a case where it would have been justified? With the surprise and the feel of the 'journey to the unknown' from the prequel gone, the game throws in some additional features: while escaping at the start we manage to acquire a griffin hatchling - located in the lower right corner of the screen - that can help us getting items that are out of our reach and later on we can also find an upgradeable golem heart with which we can animate lifeless statues (usually just to move them away and grant us access to inaccessible locations). There's a point in the game from where we can visit 3 remote locations: the realm of the Stone Guardian, Dune and Ice. This is the part which involves a lot of backtracking and while the maptravel feature helps, the uneventfulness we wish it was over already... The fact that new diary entries get less and less frequent as we are nearing the end, doesn't help either. There's also a nearly hour-long needless bonus chapter further emphasizing its engagement to the fantasy setting, where we have to protect a giant tree from an evil mage (the game mentions a wyrm, but it's a wizard) with the united help of elves, dwarves and fairies [spoiler]instead of trying to find a way back to present day, since our ship has been destroyed[/spoiler]. The bonus chapter also involves some story-related achievements. Graphics are on par with the prequel with 3D facial animations not looking as awkward as before and to be fair, the bonus chapter looks great as well (they usually tune down quality in these). Again the sound effects are great, like the wind howling and torches crackling in a cave... talking about crackling: speakers give out crackling noises (again) during some low-quality soundtracks - just like in the previous part. I don't understand why would someone be frugal and not use higher quality samples when it comes to sound. The soundtracks themselves weren't as diverse and great as before either. So while the gameplay itself is somewhat improved (not that it needed improvement, the prequel was very enjoyable), after the interesting first third (after the London scene), the game sinks into the 'usual' fantasy kingdom world and loses momentum, almost reaching complete boredom in the last third. Overall it's still a high quality HOG and way better than many specimens the genre has to offer, but in terms of plot and locations [i]The Secret Order 3: Ancient Times[/i] is a letdown after the great 2nd part. PROS + lots of minigames, new gameplay elements + good-looking, colourful locations (even if the fantasy kingdom setting feels awkward) + great sound effects + exciting beginning... CONS - ...after which the game becomes largely uneventful - lots of items with multiple pieces - the occasional sound crackling still persists RATING 6.5/10

Should I start by pointing out that this game literally undid the events from the Second game? Oops......? Two important things....... ONE: THE BABY GRIFFIN is the best thing ever!!! It looks like a plush toy came to life AND it has the cutest animations! Especially when wiggling its little feetsies or stomping the tree. I could pass the game just for her. ^^ TWO: The Royal Griffin......... Did you seriously do THAT to it... Do I need to remind you that by playing the SECOND game... You learn that the Royal Griffin has several powers and one of them is magical restoration! What in the hell?! As for the rest... Game not hard. Has Collectables and you NEED to play the Bonus Game for all the Achievements. Can all be done in one playthrough... Unless you miss a Collectable. That's it. You are dismissed. Thanks you!!! :) :> VIVA LA BABY GRYFFIN!

Story continue from Secret Order 2 so it is better if play that first. I think story is ok but it is still hard follow sometimes. Puzzles is not hard but you need do same ones many times. It is not problem if you like this style of puzzle but I wish there is more different types. Art is beatiful and there is many cool locations. Music and sound is ok.

[h1] Вполне приятная часть Тайного ордена с очень хорошими трёхмерными вставками [/h1] Да, игра визуально одна из самых красивых с различными ландшафтами - тут и пустыня, и леса, и ледяные крепости. Особенно понравилось, когда нужно было взаимодействовать с планетарной моделью. Так что здесь художники хорошо постарались. С задачками особых затупов не было. Нужно лишь для всех достижений искать по уровням различные скрытые детальки. Всё остальное выполняется по ходу развития сюжета. Также нужно пройти ещё и дополнительную главу. Так что очередная идеальная игра на вечер уже по традиции от Артифекс. Хоть в их серии и встречались довольно муторные истории с заумными головоломками. Из магазинных плюшек тоже полный набор. Особенно хорошо игра выглядит на линукс платформе - всё очень плавно и красиво. Именно там игра и проходилась. Но на том дистрибутиве пока что сложности с переключением раскладки и из-за этого не удалось грамотно оформить отзыв.

A really nice Artifex Mundi hidden object game.

Thing you should know about me. If I'm skipping every other puzzle in the game it doesn't mean the puzzles are hard. It means they are poorly designed and confusing. And also I hate the game and I want it to be over. The first game had great puzzles, they were challenging, but were fair and made sense. But this game has the most randomly designed puzzles that directions make no sense. Like for instance you are suppose to turn pipe keys in a certain way in one puzzle, but here's the thing...the game provides no clue on which way they are suppose to be turned. Making the puzzle impossible for me to solve. Another puzzle, says it has a pattern provided, but there is no pattern and absolutely no way to solve it because there is just no solid directions in the puzzle. There are other examples, but those stick out. I can't get over how lazy the designers had to be in these puzzles. Also, between the ones that make no sense are laughably easy puzzles. I am a puzzle girl. I love a game with good puzzles, and I judge a game highly by it's puzzle design. So, I was very disappointed in this sequel. Yeah, I know a lot of people love this game, but I have no clue why.

[u]Recommendation[/u]: Another HUGE hidden-object game involving the Order of the Griffon and an apparently-random collection of different mythologies and faerie tales. [u]Critique[/u]: I played this a month ago, and I've already lost any sense of the plot of this game. It's wonderful that the first line of the game trailer is "It doesn't make sense!" [i]because it really doesn't[/i]. But nobody really plays these games for [i]plot[/i], do they? The plot is just a loose framework for connecting a bunch of puzzles and hidden object screens...but here it is a [i]very loose[/i] framework. It's like a hyper-exaggerated version of any other Artifex Mundi game: bigger, wackier, just MORE of every aspect. You've got sequences in Victorian England at Christmastime (terrible, [i]terrible[/i] voice acting), a whole bunch of sequences involving the Atlantis-like "Aeronheart," and a bunch of stuff involving runes named after Norse gods, for some reason. Then there's faerieland in the bonus chapter! Not content to be a member of the Order of the Griffon, you actually ride a griffon! Not only that, but you get a super-deformed griffon chub (everyone knows that a baby griffon is both a chick and a cub, so they're called "chubs") as your in-game buddy who gets/interacts with stuff that you can't reach. There's a bunch of adventure game-style nonsense where you have to complete entirely arbitrary tasks for NPCs in order to continue, then those NPCs never play any role in the story from then on. I'm very grateful that this game does not have any alternative game modes (like dominoes or Taipei), because it also means that you don't have to play the game more than once to get all the achievements. This game does have set collection goals, however: there are THREE sets of objects that are randomly scattered throughout the game: griffons (repeatedly and consistently spelled "griffins"), dragons, and unicorns. So if you're a completionist and you're not diligent in checking every screen, you might end up wanting to replay the game in order to get the achievements. The game is tremendously long; you get a lot of game for your money here. Shame it's so nonsensical. The bonus chapter - which is a bunch of nonsense that doesn't relate to anything else in the game - is pretty extensive (not that that's saying much, with such a long, LONG game), but it's frustrating that it has nothing to do with the rest of the game. At all! [u]Review[/u]: [spoiler]Sometime after the end of [u]The Secret Order 2[/u], the enemy society, the Order of the Dragon, attacks your Order's headquarters, which begins to "awaken" the evil artifacts that your Order of the Griffon are keeping contained. So you go on an adventure to help destroy those artifacts before they can end the world. You start in a museum that the Order has maintained, which you have to use to repair the equipment that allows you to escape in time before the museum is completely burned to the ground by the attack. In finding the Time Stone to escape, you also hatch a mysterious egg...which produces a griffon chub that imprints onto you. Escaping, the two of you find yourselves in England at Christmastime. Is it the 19th or the 20th century? You're not sure. From there, you find your way to the gates of the ancient mystical city of Aeronheart (which is basically a version of Atlantis). Here you have to complete more arbitrary tasks for NPCs so that you can enter the city. Inside the city, you have to restore an old horse statue for the general, so that he will permit you to see the King. From there, you are given directions to a magical forest. Having navigated the magical forest (and completed tasks for the residents like rebuilding their tree house), you both arrive back in Aeronheart and are given access to a library. In the library, you explore the rivalry between the King's two other siblings, Zerina and Cyrus. Both of them are puissant wizards; one is of fire, and the other is of ice. But their realms are blocked by magic from the other sibling: a wall of ice blocks access to Zerina's realm, and a wall of fire blocks access to Cyrus' realm. Following a bunch of VERY RANDOM clues in the library enables to you to destroy the walls. Venturing into the two realms, you eventually find a fire dagger and an ice dagger, which you use to destroy an evil crystal. This breaks the spell on the two siblings, and they cease attacking Aeronheart! You fly to another island, which is a grassy land with a river and a mysterious deer ("I'd better leave the deer alone") to get the final rune that you need to activate a golem. The golem then destroys the evil mask and the staff (the dangerous artifacts from the beginning - you remember those, right? Right??), which gets your dad and the creepy guy in the wheelchair out of danger but it does nothing for you. You end the game stuck in the past. Then, if you wish, you can play the bonus chapter, in which you go into a faerie tale land where you have to settle a dispute between faeries, dwarves, and elves.[/spoiler]

Kolejny HOG od Artifexu (a przynajmniej przez niego wydany) - to dalej "to samo". Jak podobały się poprzednie gry, to ta też podejdzie. Coraz trudniej się coś tu pisze, bo te gry to jest serio prawie to samo, na jedno kopyto. Jedna taka co jakiś czas nie nudzi, tym bardziej że są krótkie. Nadal jest różnie z zagadkami - jedne się przechodzą ot tak, tym bardziej jak się zna inne takie gry, bo się powtarzają, a na innych da radę utknąć, bo nie do końca wiadomo, co zrobić. Nadal twarze i mimika straszą po nocach. Nadal ekrany z ukrytymi przedmiotami są za to ładne. No i w tej części nie miałem problemów związanych z tłumaczeniem, więc plus. Tylko fabuła raczej do zapomnienia - taka, żeby było niby po co grać, ale nie żeby o niej gadać. Mimo że to cała długa seria. Mało wnosi do całości. Dalej też po cichu polecam jedynkę, której na Steamie nie ma, a jest najlepszym HOGiem, jakiego pamiętam.

Le jeu est intéressant avec toujours de beaux graphismes les jeux de logique sont à la portée de tous