Watch Over Christmas

[h1] Mission: Weihnachtsmann retten [/h1] Du suchst noch ein passendes Point & Click Adventure für die jetzige Advents- und Weihnachtszeit bzw. Du möchtest noch in Weihnachtsstimmung kommen? Dann kann ich Dir dieses familienfreundliche Adventure “Watch Over Christmas” wärmstens ans Herz legen. [b] Geschichte: [/b] Wir lenken die Geschicke des Jungen Cisco. Kurz vorm Fest offenbart sich Cisco der Geist der Weihnacht, welcher seinen Teddybären beseelt. Von diesem erfährt er, dass der Weihnachtsmann gekidnappt wurde. Nun liegt es an uns den Weihnachtsmann und Weihnachten selbst zu retten. Cisco begibt sich mit seinem Sidekick dem fliegenden Teddybären auf die Mission “Weihnachtsmann retten”. [b] Grafik und Ton: [/b] Eine schöne Comic-Grafik nimmt uns mit in das Zuhause von Cisco und in eine Parallelwelt, welche die Heimat des Weihnachtsmannes ist. Schöne farbenfrohe Bilder bringen einen in Weihnachtsstimmung. Die englische Sprachausgabe ist gut und es gibt deutsche Untertitel. Eine deutsche Sprachausgabe wäre natürlich wünschenswert und würde das Spiel noch weiter aufwerten. Musik und Sound sind passend zum Spiel und fallen nicht negativ auf. [b] Rätsel, Familientauglichkeit und Preis-Leistung: [/b] Das Rätseldesigne ist durchaus gelungen. Den Schwierigkeitsgrad würde ich als “mittel” bezeichnen, wobei das immer sehr subjektiv ist, was bei Rätseln als leicht oder schwer wahrgenommen wird. Zumindest sind die Rätsel nicht unfair gestaltet. Ich habe mich mit dem “Rauchzeichen-Rätsel” etwas schwergetan. Einen Blick in eine Komplettlösung zu werfen ist bei dem Spiel wohl keine Schande. Die Bedienung erfolgt genretypisch mit der Maus. Manuelle Speichermöglichkeiten gibt es ebenso wie eine Hotspot-Anzeige. Ich habe keine Komfortfunktionen vermisst. Ich habe das Spiel in der letzten Weihnachts-Saison mit meinem - zu dieser Zeit noch 4-jährigen - Sohn gespielt, der viel Freude daran hatte Cisco zu steuern und den Weihnachtsmann zu retten. Das konnte ich gut verantworten, obwohl die Alterskennzeichnung bei 6 Jahren liegt. Ich habe das Spiel mit meinem Sohn zweimal durchgespielt, was uns auf eine Spielzeit von 28,7 Stunden brachte. Daher ist der reguläre Preis in Höhe von 16,99 € vollkommen angemessen. Im Sale kann man auf jeden Fall zuschlagen. [b] Fazit: [/b] Ein weihnachtliches Vergnügen für Groß und Klein. [b] Bewertung: [/b] 81 % 👑 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] [*] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44688798/] Follow Third group [/url] [/list] and discover more reviews from me.

It has a particularly strong and extremely rich middle section (in the elf villages) where it literally feels and plays like a classic old school adventure (open world feeling, multi-layered interconnected puzzles that come together satisfyingly at the end, funny dead ends and revealing half-solutions gently nudging you in the right direction and making you slowly become aware of “the whole design”), but even in its weaker parts lies a very friendly and highly enjoyable adventure. Sure, it has that extra dose of Christmas sweetness which I suppose kept some of the hard-core point and clickers at a safe distance – 20 reviews since last Christmas seem surprisingly few, even if all of them are unreservedly positive; it didn’t even register as a perfect game on my profile :( – but the puzzle design is in the right place. Especially that feeling of all the puzzles being part of an organic whole, as opposed to a series of self-contained challenges, is particularly hard to attain in an adventure game, but for this one it seems it comes easily when it properly applies to it.

Sorry, but no. Long-winded and cumbersome - just ended up feeling simultaneously frustrated, impatient and bored. The background artwork is nice. But the animations are very very simple, just looking flat and clunky. To give an air of 'animated' many scenes have NPCs or background elements just repeating some simple movement in a loop, so most NPCs look jerky and rather silly. And some scenes with very annoying flickering - like the candles in Jack Frost's house. The story is - ehmm...well-intentioned. But - from an adult point of view - an odd mishmash of various turn-of-the-year myths taken out of context and jumbled together into a total mess. And also - even from a child's point of view - a story that argues that Christmas is [i][u]only[/u][/i] Santa Claus magic and gifts is an...odd choice. Feels stupidly shallow and Disneyesque. Sure, Christmas celebration in most countries is a mix of various Christian and pre-christian traditions, and the religious aspect may have a larger or smaller emphasis in various cultures, countries and families. But still - this felt really shallow. Also the game is [u][i]very[/i] [/u]wordy, with many and looong and slow dialogues, mostly quite boring, time-fillers or weirdly 'philosophical'. I usually really like thoughtful and un-rushed games, but this tried my patience badly. Voicework: the narrator was pleasant, but 12-year old Cisco felt unconvincing and annoying. After a half-hour of suffering through all his 'Oh boy's and tiresome overenthusiasm, I turned the sound off for the rest of the game. Most reviewers praise the 'old-style' PnC puzzling. I'm too much of a newbie to know how good an 'old-style' this is. But from a here-and-now point of view, I found the puzzling often needlessly convoluted with a lot of the puzzles requiring a [u][i]lot[/i][/u] of steps, repetition, clicking through same dialogues for the nth time, cumbersome collecting of odd items used in very unrealistic ways, etc. And a lot of it felt like time-fillers to stretch the playing time for the game. Some of the puzzles have to be approached in a very specific order, or else things that are supposed to work, won't. (Like the Maze Plane in the Unicorn quests in Jack Frost chapter). And the final 'game' after actually trapping Krampus - a sort of paper, stone, scissors type game - is long, luck-based and random and can be extremely timeconsuming and frustrating to finally get through. As well as having to click through the same lengthy dialogue again and again and again and... I almost gave up the game at that point. Also due to the game soft-locking into an endless loop in the game (without allowing Cisco to choose anything and just rolling into repeat after repeat). The autosave-file saved this soft-lock, so I had to restart the game from an earlier manual save instead. Very annoying!! And a very strange choice to put in such a looong 'random puzzle' like this right at the end of the game. Autosave worked fine otherwise. And there is also manual save with multiple save slots, which worked fine (thankfully). Worked fairly smooth on my basic gear and mouse, some lag at cutscenes but no biggie. I see that most reviews are positive and praise this as family-friendly and Christmassy and kind and a fun old-style puzzler. So I feel a little bit bad to leave a negative review. But I got it based on being just that - a kind, warm-hearted Christmas-themed puzzle adventure. And I didn't enjoy it AT ALL. So felt that a dissenting voice, and laying out [u][i]why[/i][/u] I didn't enjoy it - may perhaps be useful for potential new players. YMMV.

This is a lovely and sweet Christmas point and click adventure game! Perfect for the holidays or any time you are in need of a little holiday spirit. The artwork and voice acting were very well done. The story was funny and heart warming without being too much. The puzzles were nice. The inventory and ‘what to do to move on’ type were logical and made sense but some times could be challenging. The actual puzzles ranged from easy to medium challenge for me, which is nice for a holiday type adventure. There is an autosave, but saving manually is the way to go to keep your progress. Plenty of save slots. I didn’t have any technical issues, the game ran perfectly throughout. My play time was 14 hours. This game is well worth the price for game quality and length. I heartily recommend this game to point and click adventure fans. It was a pleasure to play.

A Christmas-themed point-n-click is a rare beast in these lands, so “Watch Over Christmas” already scores a few points by hitting a niche for winter holidays’ fans, but it also delivers quite a delightful experience overall, flawed and maybe a bit too easy at times but full of cheer and “Tis’ the season” spirit. I played as a precocious 12-year-old Cisco (who sometimes speaks like he’s 90) – a NASA enthusiast and a big believer in all things Christmas on a mission to save Santa, and in turn – the biggest holiday of the year. Everything started in medias res, as Cisco was going to bed on Xmas eve, excited for the presents and… got contacted through the radio by some mysterious voice that said he is the last hope to save the bearded guy with a big sack (of gifts). It would sound terribly dramatic if not for the radio static, but I still felt THE PRESSURE. I could have done with a bit more build-up here (or a lot more), but oh well, it’s a Christmas story where you can explain away just about anything with a word “magic”, so I just rolled with it. And it was an uneven but fun slide down the chimney. The narration here is a solid, middle-of-the road kinda thing . Nothing incredibly deep, but a few mandatory bits of wisdom are present and hit the spot. A lot of things are, indeed, being explained by magic, and the dialogue in general flows well but with quite a few moments when one can clearly see an adult behind the words and thoughts of Cisco, as with many writers who create child characters and then end up giving them a voice showing what they think a kid talks like but never quite managing to capture it. Also, for some reason Cisco repeats the phrase “Oh, boy!” tenths if not a hundred times, and I would say even though it sounds old-school cool, about a quarter of this amount would have sufficed. Promise. Another thing worth mentioning here – a whole family is present at the beginning of the game (and some in the end), and I got to talk to all of them. This might sound like a strange thing to note but I can hardly remember a game where your entire family is home (mom, dad, and sister), doing well and is available for conversations – what an odd situation in adventure gaming. The fact that first reaction of Cisco was to go to his parents and tell them the truth, no matter how crazy it sounded, was even more endearing. (With that being said, the amount of things Cisco has done with cheery tone and the words “Sorry! It’s for a good cause!” made me think of a serial killer with good intentions – “Sorry rich family of 6! I must murder you to take all your money and give it to 100 orphans! It’s for a good cause!”). But overall, it’s your classic Christmas story where everything is extra cozy, extra heart-warming and extra “Christmassy”. Some things defy logic (or even plot) entirely – but OBVIOUSLY it’s because “magic”, so it works just fine. Onto puzzles. This is your general fare of classic puzzles you’ve seen plenty of before – some logic puzzles, some famous mini-games, some dialogue-based ones, plenty of fetch quests and lots of backtracking ( with no double-click for instant travel. Why is this still a thing is beyond me). Most of them are quite easy, a few interpretational ones can be head-scratching (sometimes it’s hard to say what a particular symbol meant for a developer), and a few interesting ones, like the one with rotating rooms towards the end, but in general – this game veers on the simple side and loves its back-and-forth action. All of that, however, didn’t really feel like a burden or a chore but more like an awfully familiar place where you know the moves and simply going through the motions, not in an annoying way but in more of a comforting one. Maybe because everything is wrapped in a Christmas-style wrapper, so it feels recognizable but with a merry twist. Speaking of the wrapper. The visuals are an interesting combination of every screen being chock-full of objects, items, and Christmas decor, while said objects themselves lack details and are drawn in a deceptively simplistic style. There’s plenty of color and lighting going on, but not much shading – an interesting choice that I found pleasant to look at, maybe except for the beginning of Chapter 3 where I got thrown into a wintery landscape that is so blindingly white, that along with lack of shading and detailing, it proved to be quite a jarring visual. I got to visit other snow-covered lands later in the game, and that was a much more pleasant experience. The animations here are simple but infused with just the right dose of cuteness that blend in well with the overall impression of a colorful cartoon. Music is on par with everything else – fitting, but not something you’ll never forget about, not that it tries to be that unforgettable. Jaunty X-massy tunes turn villain-esque or merry depending on the location or situation, but never lose that holiday flair. Soundtrack here is a pleasant companion. So is voice-over which, for the most part, is very well done considering it’s an indie adventure, and voice work is a pricey endeavor. Surprisingly, it’s the voice of Cisco that I never came to embrace as he sounds like he’s in the middle of the spelling bee contest with an audience watching, even when he says something routine. Every sentence (and every other word) ends in some sort of exclamation and that got tired fast. I also thought that the voice itself wasn’t quite fitting to a 12-year-old boy and saw that he was voiced by a woman in the end credits. Not that she didn’t do a great job, she did, but that feeling that voice doesn’t match the character never really left me. The rest of the cast, however, did a fantastic job in adding depth to the game. To wrap it up – I rather enjoyed “Watch Over Christmas” as something that delivers a solid, familiar entertainment. Nothing here is ground-breaking or memorable enough to make this game an absolute classic, but it is also done in a matter where everything you expect from point’n’click will pretty much be here, done well enough to satisfy base expectations and maybe give a few “aww, Christmas” moments and smiles along the way. Recommended for holiday season fans, those looking for games to play with kids, and folks in search of a textbook point’n’click with light, uplifting tone. I liked my time with this one, although I find another Dionous Games title – “Not Another Weekend” – much more my jam (one of the best ones I played in 2021), so if you like what you see here, but all this Christmas cheer isn’t for you – you’ve got options. That aside, enjoy the warm fuzzies.

4.5/10 its ok puzzles are easy, clicking on everything until you can now talk to your dad who didn't have a prompt before that lets do the one thing you needed to do and go grab the key when you have been trying to do it for ages. clicked on every single thing in every room at least twice before talking to my dad agian....... - animation of things and background dont really match up + disc world book hogfather can be found in game

Good adventure game, but on the easier side. I only had to look up how to open Santa's safe in chapter 3. The game has an in-game hint system by talking to your companion toy bear, but I haven't used it so don't know how helpful it actually is. The game has full voice acting, but the main character's voice is on the grating side of thing and can annoy after a while. Other characters are a lot better voiced.

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This is one of the cutest point-and-click games, not just for the holidays, but overall. It follows somewhat of a classic point-and-click style from the art to travel and inventory combination mechanics and commentary. I'm so glad that I found this gem to play to help get in the Christmas spirit. It's quite a lengthy game split into 6 chapters that are fully voiced. Cisco with the help of his trusty teddy bear, Kosmos just might be capable of saving Santa and Christmas from Krampus. The perfect cozy game to play with some hot chocolate and sugar cookies. 7/10

Great point and click I am enjoying it