My life's been a bit hectic lately (conventions and things!) so I haven't really had much of a chance to do any gaming. However, I've now played through Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze, so it's time for an update! :)
Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze was published in 2008 and is the sequel to its 2007 predecessor, Dream Chronicles (see my previous entry for my review of that game). Like the first game in the series, The Eternal Maze also won awards - "Top Adventure Game of 2008" and "Best World Design" in the first annual RealArcade Great Games Awards held in mid-2009.
The Eternal Maze continues the story directly from where the first game left off. At the end of the previous game, Faye (the player's character) finally found her husband Fidget, who had been kidnapped by the Fairy Queen of Dreams, Lilith, but they were once again separated when Lilith cast a sleep spell on Faye. The Eternal Maze begins with Faye waking up in a chamber, which she must escape from and once again journey to find and rescue Fidget. On her way she discovers that Lilith has now also kidnapped her daughter, Lyra.
The gameplay in The Eternal Maze, while similar to the first game, is more complex. Instead of moving from scene to scene in a linear fashion, Faye can go back and forth between areas, to collect objects to help solve the puzzles she encounters. The collection of "Dream Pieces" continues in this game, but in my opinion is handled in a far better fashion - instead of the game pausing to give you a tedious description with each new piece you discover, you can collect pieces quickly in succession, and description only pops up when you find a Dream Jewel - a container for the pieces. In the first game, the Dream Jewels/Dream Pieces did not serve a purpose other than to add to your final score, however in The Eternal Maze they are useful - fill a Dream Jewel with Pieces and you will be given a word scramble to unravel, which when solved rewards you with a clue to help you in the game. These can be clues to help you immediately or later in the game. I liked how the first clue I received was not useful until right at the end of the game, but it was slightly annoying to keep having to find the page in my journal to refer to the clue while I was solving the puzzle.
The puzzles in The Eternal Maze are definitely harder than the first game, but this is mostly due to the fact that the hidden objects needed to solve the puzzles are really difficult to spot. I often found myself just waiting for a telltale sparkle to appear in order to find a hidden object - sometimes I had no idea how it would even be possible to spot an object without a sparkle or mousing over it, and on one occasion I had to put my game on full screen just to spot a couple of particularly annoying missing objects. The Dream Pieces are also a lot harder to spot - unlike the first game, they aren't coloured, just tiny white spots. The fact that the Dream Pieces are harder to find (rather than ridiculously easy, as in the first game) does make getting a good final score a bit more of a fun challenge, but because the Pieces are useful for getting clues now it's also a little frustrating. The Dream Jewels are also pretty hard to spot - I managed to miss an early one entirely, so missed out on a clue and a little storyline, which was annoying. Despite the annoyances with finding hidden objects however, I really enjoyed these puzzles a lot more than the puzzles in the first game (which really offered no challenge at all). These puzzles were fun, involved and original - some were quite similar to the first game, but redone in a more challenging way. I especially enjoyed the maze puzzles... though they weren't particularly eternal. :P
As in the first game, the graphics in The Eternal Maze are beautiful, peaceful, and quite stunning for their era. I think one of the most appealing things about this game series is the overall mood of it. It's a very peaceful, visually rich game with relaxing music and an engaging fantasy storyline. The Eternal Maze continues with this mood, with art and animation improved quite a bit from the first game. It's still a game I prefer to play in windowed mode, as full screen tends to make the game a little blurry and less visually appealing for me.
If you enjoyed the first game in the Dream Chronicles series, I highly recommend The Eternal Maze. I'm very much looking forward to playing the final game in the Dream Chronicles trilogy, The Chosen Child. More pretty art and the final chapter of the story! ^_^ If you'd like to try The Eternal Maze for yourself, click the image below. :)
The gameplay in The Eternal Maze, while similar to the first game, is more complex. Instead of moving from scene to scene in a linear fashion, Faye can go back and forth between areas, to collect objects to help solve the puzzles she encounters. The collection of "Dream Pieces" continues in this game, but in my opinion is handled in a far better fashion - instead of the game pausing to give you a tedious description with each new piece you discover, you can collect pieces quickly in succession, and description only pops up when you find a Dream Jewel - a container for the pieces. In the first game, the Dream Jewels/Dream Pieces did not serve a purpose other than to add to your final score, however in The Eternal Maze they are useful - fill a Dream Jewel with Pieces and you will be given a word scramble to unravel, which when solved rewards you with a clue to help you in the game. These can be clues to help you immediately or later in the game. I liked how the first clue I received was not useful until right at the end of the game, but it was slightly annoying to keep having to find the page in my journal to refer to the clue while I was solving the puzzle.
The puzzles in The Eternal Maze are definitely harder than the first game, but this is mostly due to the fact that the hidden objects needed to solve the puzzles are really difficult to spot. I often found myself just waiting for a telltale sparkle to appear in order to find a hidden object - sometimes I had no idea how it would even be possible to spot an object without a sparkle or mousing over it, and on one occasion I had to put my game on full screen just to spot a couple of particularly annoying missing objects. The Dream Pieces are also a lot harder to spot - unlike the first game, they aren't coloured, just tiny white spots. The fact that the Dream Pieces are harder to find (rather than ridiculously easy, as in the first game) does make getting a good final score a bit more of a fun challenge, but because the Pieces are useful for getting clues now it's also a little frustrating. The Dream Jewels are also pretty hard to spot - I managed to miss an early one entirely, so missed out on a clue and a little storyline, which was annoying. Despite the annoyances with finding hidden objects however, I really enjoyed these puzzles a lot more than the puzzles in the first game (which really offered no challenge at all). These puzzles were fun, involved and original - some were quite similar to the first game, but redone in a more challenging way. I especially enjoyed the maze puzzles... though they weren't particularly eternal. :P
As in the first game, the graphics in The Eternal Maze are beautiful, peaceful, and quite stunning for their era. I think one of the most appealing things about this game series is the overall mood of it. It's a very peaceful, visually rich game with relaxing music and an engaging fantasy storyline. The Eternal Maze continues with this mood, with art and animation improved quite a bit from the first game. It's still a game I prefer to play in windowed mode, as full screen tends to make the game a little blurry and less visually appealing for me.
If you enjoyed the first game in the Dream Chronicles series, I highly recommend The Eternal Maze. I'm very much looking forward to playing the final game in the Dream Chronicles trilogy, The Chosen Child. More pretty art and the final chapter of the story! ^_^ If you'd like to try The Eternal Maze for yourself, click the image below. :)
Cool graphic :O
ReplyDeleteHeh, if it doesn't have cool graphics, it doesn't make it onto this blog xD
ReplyDelete