Lost Lands: Dark Overlord

Lost Lands 1: Dark Overlord (IHOG) This is a gorgeous, high quality title that I mostly enjoyed. Options include separate sliders for Music, Ambients and Sound Effects; Resolution; Full-screen/Windowed, Custom Cursor, and - if you're playing on Steam - Cloud Sync. There are three difficulties to choose from. I chose to go with Hard, since there's an achievement for playing through on that mode... I thought that I'd only have to play through once to get all of the 'cheevo's that way, but I don't think it's possible to get them all in one play-through unless you use the Strategy Guide every step of the way :( The aforementioned Strategy Guide is built-in, and gives you step-by-step instructions for everything - including placement of every object on your HOS! The only thing it doesn't show you is the location of all of the collectibles. There is one on every location in the main game

When your son is abducted by a shadow, you're thrown into a story of dwarves, dark lord and the renaissance of this evil entity. Will you manage to save the world and your son by preventing the Dark Lord to come back to life? While the story is common in the HOG world, it's still a good one and a well-written, as you'll be helped by spirits, ghosts and a dwarf. Anyway, the gameplay is the standard one: puzzles, hidden objects scenes, etc.. However, this game is quite interesting as the minigames are easy to solve and the hidden objects scenes are divided in three types: placing the object at the right place, finding the object corresponding at the silhouette and the traditionnal list of objects. However, each scene contains a close-up of a part of it - without forgetting the objects hidden in the scene that will require an action. The graphics are correct, the backgrounds are also bea

In a nutshell: Play it. It's a good, solid HOPA with great visuals and a variety of HO style scenes to mix things up. After playing a rash of disappointing HOPAs, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The Good Stuff + Great art. The 3D cutscene animations are a bit stiff, but the scenes, backgrounds, objects, and even effects are stunning. + Variety of HO styles. There are 3 kinds of hidden object scenes: the usual text list form with some two-step items, the "find then use" silhouette mode, and a pair-matching mode where you're given a handful of items to place or use in the scene with objects they typically go with (put a weight on a scale, use a matchbox to light a candle, add a boot/sock/glove to make a pair, etc). It takes a bit getting used to, but it's nice to see more than just lists all the time. All the scenes are nicely rendered, and objects are logical and scaled wel

Nothing is more effective then a tenacious mother looking for her child. Storyline: Jimmy (3-5 years old) is lured away from his mother's side by a softly calling voice while she is speaking on the phone. (I would assume they are at home or she would have not taken the call I am sure.) Susan, his mother, realizing her son has wandered off into the woods, goes after him only to see him being pulled into a mysterious swirling, glowing vortex in a tree trunk. Before she can reach him he disappears in the tree trunk leaving only his teddy bear behind. What does a concerned and tenacious mother do, she goes after him, of course. Once she reaches the Lost Lands, as her new found dwarf friend explains, he also tells her an ancient evil has tainted the lands and in order to retrieve her son she must defeat this dark and evil presence. Sure, no problem. And with teddy bear in hand, she proceeds

Review originally written for WalaWala Games[walawalagames.com] This is a fairly typical hidden object styled game, and as such, both story and the general logic behind some of the puzzles and items to acquire follow a similar path (and thus, similar downfalls) to most other games of the genre: meaning it’s nothing original and logic flies out the window half the time. That said, Lost Lands: Dark Overlord is definitely a bit above the average HOG game, and definitely on a good path. Let’s start with the audiovisual. The background art is really nice; they pay plenty of attention to background details, and most of the areas are really beautiful. The models and characters are pretty decent, but them, as well as the voices given to them, suffer from lack of expression. The characters ‘smile’ by hardly moving their mouths in an upward fashion, the mother’s re-encounter with her son goes o

Short version: 85% Dark Overlord has wonderful puzzle design, great variety in hidden object mechanics, and beautiful graphics. It has only one significant flaw, the insane levels of backtracking. Long version: Building a good hidden object game, especially one that uses the most frequent setup in the genre (a mother’s son gets kidnapped by an unnamed dark entity, so she enters a magical forest and dark castle to save him) is a difficult task. Lost Lands: Dark Overlord managed to overcome this obstacle. Its greatest weapon to balance the fairly clichéd story was the graphics. They are not just eye candy (especially if we look at some of those impressive perspectives), but also a tool that helps the player to get immersed in this strange, yet somehow familiar fantasy world. Another strong point is the puzzle design, especially the hidden object scenes. The game features three types: con