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Left in the Dark: No One on Board HD
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Graphics & Sound:
Left in the Dark: No One on Board HD casts you in the role of Madam Detective, called upon to investigate a mysterious ship that left Port Providence, but was found drifting weeks later, devoid of its crew and cargo. You'll work your way around the docks of Port Providence, talking to those who are involved in the investigation of the ship, as well as board the ship to see what you can discover there. Finally, you'll make your way to Devil Island in the hopes of solving the mystery.
The docks, the ship, and the island and its structures all have a really eerie feeling to them, complete with a fog that blankets a lot of the area and lightning that strikes in the distance. The ship itself feels very much abandoned and is covered with moldy wood and water damage, along with its share of death, destruction and mystery. Even the dock is not a safe place as there are unpleasant people and even animals to deal with on your journey. Once you make your way to Devil Island, things don't get much better. You are, after all, out to solve a new mystery, but one that keeps plaguing the area every 10 years. Could it be a curse or something else altogether?
The voicework was a bit overdone and exaggerated, but it certainly wasn't to the point that it needed to be muted or the conversations skipped. It just seemed a bit much at times and your character, especially, seemed to draw out the words she said a bit more than necessary. The ambient sounds were creepy and worked well for the game, although some seemed a bit out of place. I heard some odd animal sounds while on the island and never saw what was making them, although I was probably glad to not run into that creature. The constant rain and thunder added a bit of mystery and the mysterious and sometimes dramatic background music worked well for the game.
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Gameplay:
Left in the Dark: No One on Board HD is a Hidden Object Adventure in that you will be playing Hidden Object scenes, but also solving puzzles and playing mini-games to progress. You'll also need to pick up items from the environment to progress in the game as you will often come upon areas that are blocked until you find the right item to allow you to pass. For instance, you might have some debris blocking your path or an animal in the way. You could have a door which requires a key or a special item to be placed into it and often, that item will be in several pieces you will need to locate.
The Hidden Object scenes all contained items that were the appropriate size and were simply hidden within the scene, not with any form of trickery such as disguised as a cloud or anything like that. They were just basic Hidden Object scenes, although some contained items that were either covered up, hidden in a drawer or perhaps separated into two pieces. These items were indicated in blue, whereas the others were listed in yellow.
Puzzles included putting pictures back together, routing pipes to create unobstructed lines, reconstructing a picture by rotating pieces within the puzzle and several math-based puzzles where you were presented a grid and you had to make sure each row added up to a certain number.
You'll also be talking to different people in and around the ship to gather information, the most important of which is the ghost of a young girl named Isabella, whose family was burned alive on their property many years ago. She warns you to stay away for your own safety, but when you seem determined to pursue the mystery, she ends up being your best ally.
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Difficulty:
Left in the Dark: No One on Board HD has three levels of difficulty to choose from when you begin the game: Casual, Advanced and Expert. In Casual Mode, the Hint and Skip buttons will recharge very quickly and any Active Zones, such as Hidden Object scenes or places where you need to do an action, will light up with sparkles or glimmers to catch your eye. You won't get penalized for making a mis-tap while in Hidden Object scenes and any location that requires an action will be marked with an exclamation point on your map.
In Advanced Mode, the Hint and Skip buttons recharge at a slower pace and your Active Zones don't glimmer as frequently, but your Hidden Object scenes still have sparkles to indicate them. You will get a mild mis-tap penalty during Hidden Object scenes, but your active locations will still be marked on your map.
While playing in Expert Mode, your Hint and Skip buttons recharge very slowly and your Active Zones and Hidden Object scenes aren't indicated at all. You will get penalized for mis-taps during Hidden Object scenes and your active locations aren't marked on your map. This difficulty level is for serious players only.
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Game Mechanics:
Left in the Dark: No One on Board HD uses the basic gestures of tapping for everything in the game, but I did enjoy two new types of puzzles that I haven't seen before. In addition to the standard fare of putting pictures back together and completing loops and such, you had one puzzle where you had to follow a treasure map to get to a certain location. Since you were following a colored marking on a may, once you hit the high seas, you had to then follow the rocks that corresponded to the map. Sure, it's a bit silly to think there would be green and red rocks jutting out of the water, but it was different and I liked it because of that. Also, once you get onto Devil Island, you have to follow a compass to get to a certain location. If you select the wrong way, you merely end up back where you started, but the compass will move as you approach new areas and you need to follow it North. Again, I thought this was a cool and different mechanic to throw into the game and I liked it.
Your map, your journal and the Hint button will be your best friends in Left in the Dark: No One on Board HD. Your journal contains all of the knowledge you gather as you conduct your investigation, along with your list of current objectives. Your map locations will fill in as you visit them and will contain markings to help you in your quest, such as red exclamation points in areas where you have something you can do, and red X's in the areas that are unavailable to you at the moment. A green thumbtack indicates where you are currently, and to visit a previous location, you simply tap it to return to it immediately, rather than backtracking, which is wonderful. If you find yourself stuck, you can tap the Hint button, which appears as a lantern, to get an arrow directing you where to go. If you get hung up on a puzzle, after a time, you can select the Skip button and bypass it. You will lose out on Achievements, but can still progress in the game.
Overall, Left in the Dark: No One on Board HD is a pretty good game and you can beat it relatively quickly if you stick with it. Of course, you could always replay it on a more challenging difficulty. Although you will revisit some Hidden Object scenes more than once, thank God you will be looking for new items each time, so they definitely don't rehash the objects. Overall, Left in the Dark: No One on Board HD is a fun Hidden Object adventure with an interesting mystery that once solved, leaves the door open for future adventure with Madam Detective!
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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