Game Reviews

Game of Dragons

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iOS
| Game of Dragons
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Game of Dragons
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iOS
| Game of Dragons

G5 Entertainment publishes casual titles aimed at an older generation of gamers (called Enid probably), and this is a good thing.

Casual games are big business because they offer the complete opposite of what stereotypical hardcore gamers are after.

Lead characters tend to be female, there's rarely any violence, they feature gentle difficulty curves within slow-paced genres, and helpful hints are never far away.

If what you're after has exploding barrels and / or dubstep, you should go read something else on Pocket Gamer, because Game of Dragons isn't it.

That's what it isn't

What it is is a well-made hidden object game from Tiki's Lab, with elements of first person adventure games (like Myst) mixed in there for a bit of variety.

And it makes for a thoroughly pleasant experience.

You need to navigate static rooms to find useful items, or uncover hidden object sections where you have to find a whole list of doodads amongst a big clutter of junk. There are also simple environmental puzzles to solve.

There's never any rush to do anything, so you can take the game at whatever speed you like.

I never truly felt helplessly stuck at any point, and while there were a couple of conundrums that definitely taxed me, I could always use a hint if I needed a nudge in the right direction.

It'll take a couple of hours to get through on the easy difficulty setting, and because of that it never outstays its welcome.

If you want to see the game in motion, you can see my preview here, and as you'll see it's a nicely presented fantasy world.

It's not stuffed-to-the-rafters with fancy effects (or even much in the way of object or character animations), but it does the job nicely. I wish there was a bit of voice acting, but the soothing soundtrack almost makes up for it.

Cutscenes break up each act of the game and reveal more of the story. The narrative is fine, but lacking character depth.

You're a lady, with little in the way of personality, looking to figure out why dragons are such a key theme in her family.

What it is, continued

If there's a slight issue here it's with translation. For the most part the dialogue and descriptive text is fine, but occasionally a turn of phrase is used that won't ring true with a native English-speaking audience.

You'll also need a broad vocabulary to know what to look for in the hidden object sequences too, as Game of Dragons throws around "fleur-de-lys" and "spikelet" around with gay abandon.

So I liked Game of Dragons. It's the antithesis, the perfect casual antidote to endless hardcore zombie shooters.

It's a dependable hidden object adventure from the undisputed kings and queens of the dependable hidden object adventure.

Game of Dragons

Game of Dragons is a solid hidden object adventure that fans of the genre will adore
Score
Peter Willington
Peter Willington
Die hard Suda 51 fan and professed Cherry Coke addict, freelancer Peter Willington was initially set for a career in showbiz, training for half a decade to walk the boards. Realising that there's no money in acting, he decided instead to make his fortune in writing about video games. Peter never learns from his mistakes.