Tearstone - Not Your Typical Hidden Object Game
In Tearstone, you play a character that receives a letter from his good friend the professor about some fantastic discovery that is unbelievable.
You head out on your adventure to discover all is not what it seems and stumble on a strange world much like our, and then again not.
Tearstone is the creation of a new kid on the block, Dragoneye Studio and from the looks of it, they are going to do just fine.
They label this game as a Hidden Object, however, I believe that was merely to get their foot in the door for the "casual gaming" audience as this game plays more like a click adventure than a "seek & find" style that many of the Hidden Object games harbor.
The small intro movie was very nice and draws you in, coupled with some nice "haunting" and "mystical"music of XTRUIST (which would not be my first selection given their style of music) which set the mood perfect.
Thehand drawn graphics are extremely well done.
I always like hand drawn graphics for games, and more so with HOGs - Nick Chase series is a good example.
One reason is that unlike their "sur-real" counterpart, the objects that are "hidden" are more difficult to find since the blend in very well, unlike the "real" looking ones.
With those, an out of place item just sticks out like a sore thumb.
As mentioned before in other articles of mine, I am not a big fan of HOGs.
Mostly because of the hidden item nonsense.
There is no reason for looking for them.
Tearstone does not keep to that format.
for those of you who are from the old school of adventure games, will take to this one right away.
Every item you need to complete a section of the game, is hidden.
Yup.
There IS a reason for looking for them.
Just like the games of old, the only way to advance in the game is to find certain items to complete NPC quest, to combine them to make new items or to be used to interact with your surroundings to get at yet other items or places.
The plot is very well done.
While you have a main objective of the game, it does a very good job of getting you involved in smaller projects - each of these of course help progress to the main story.
And although the game is fairly linear, it doen't feel like it and I feel that is what make the game more engrossing.
In short, I suggest getting a hold of this game.
Very well put together, graphics and sound really set the stage of the game, and most important, the object required to play the game are not random items you need to find in order to get a "main" object, but they them selves are use as part of the game.
And I think that is how ALL HOGs should be designed.
You head out on your adventure to discover all is not what it seems and stumble on a strange world much like our, and then again not.
Tearstone is the creation of a new kid on the block, Dragoneye Studio and from the looks of it, they are going to do just fine.
They label this game as a Hidden Object, however, I believe that was merely to get their foot in the door for the "casual gaming" audience as this game plays more like a click adventure than a "seek & find" style that many of the Hidden Object games harbor.
The small intro movie was very nice and draws you in, coupled with some nice "haunting" and "mystical"music of XTRUIST (which would not be my first selection given their style of music) which set the mood perfect.
Thehand drawn graphics are extremely well done.
I always like hand drawn graphics for games, and more so with HOGs - Nick Chase series is a good example.
One reason is that unlike their "sur-real" counterpart, the objects that are "hidden" are more difficult to find since the blend in very well, unlike the "real" looking ones.
With those, an out of place item just sticks out like a sore thumb.
As mentioned before in other articles of mine, I am not a big fan of HOGs.
Mostly because of the hidden item nonsense.
There is no reason for looking for them.
Tearstone does not keep to that format.
for those of you who are from the old school of adventure games, will take to this one right away.
Every item you need to complete a section of the game, is hidden.
Yup.
There IS a reason for looking for them.
Just like the games of old, the only way to advance in the game is to find certain items to complete NPC quest, to combine them to make new items or to be used to interact with your surroundings to get at yet other items or places.
The plot is very well done.
While you have a main objective of the game, it does a very good job of getting you involved in smaller projects - each of these of course help progress to the main story.
And although the game is fairly linear, it doen't feel like it and I feel that is what make the game more engrossing.
In short, I suggest getting a hold of this game.
Very well put together, graphics and sound really set the stage of the game, and most important, the object required to play the game are not random items you need to find in order to get a "main" object, but they them selves are use as part of the game.
And I think that is how ALL HOGs should be designed.
