I'm in love! No, not with a man, a game! I just played the demo of Fantastic Creations: House of Brass and fell in love! This game is fantastic! Pun intended.
Fantastic Creations: House of Brass is a superbly well thought out game. It has a little bit for everyone, hidden object scenes, puzzles, adventure, a good guy, a bad guy, well girl, actually robot, but more on that later.
The game starts out with your character reciting a tall tale your mother told you at bedtime about an old Victorian mansion and an immortal inventor. It couldn't be true could it? Your mother passes away and leaves you a clue, a robotic firefly who takes you directly to the Victorian mansion! Soon you are trapped inside and need to find an escape. Inside you find all kinds of machines and a robot who is out of control.
The graphics are beautiful, perhaps not on par with Mystery Case Files or some of my other favorite games, but topnotch just the same. The puzzles I encountered during the demo were not that hard, but then again, I am an expert. I can see where they might be difficult for some. Okay, I did encounter one that I just couldn't solve, and yes, I skipped it to save time.
Also, the hidden object scenes are not your "regular" find-an-item-on-the-list kind. You are told to find things such as all the silvery items or all the items that can turn or spin. Now, you'd think that would be fairly easy, but it's really not. It took me a minute to realize a key turns and spins!
The ambiance is good, the music not too annoying - although I would probably turn it off after a while. The voices were well done, but your "helper" got a little annoying after a little bit. I wanted to turn him off!
The game is very logical in terms of where to go next and what to do, and it even has a little cheat sheet that tells you what you need to do next. I'm not sure if this is included in all versions or not. All I know is that I love logical games! No scratching your head here!
I'm not sure how long the game is. I played the demo completely through in about 40 minutes — give or take. That usually is a sign that the game isn't too significantly hard, but it might get harder. Either way, the storyline had me hooked, and I really want to finish this game!
