So last night was a tough night for us… my daughter refused to go to sleep and was fussy all throughout the night. With a brain that feels more like Jell-O than anything capable of proper thought, I wasn’t sure that even the most exciting game was going to keep my attention.
Thankfully, I was wrong… Hallowed Legends: Ship of Bones caught me in its icy grip from the very beginning and refused to let me go as I was drawn deeper and deeper into this chilling story.
The opening cut scenes features live actors introducing the storyline and ends with a plane crash that quite literally drops you into the action. Hamlet, a spectacle-wearing raven and keeper of the city’s history, swoops in to warn you of the danger that lays beyond the city gates.
Erlenbourg has fallen under an ancient curse and the woman in white is stealing souls with her eerie, ice-cold stare. Now it’s up to you to venture into the tormented village to search for the key to an ancient evil secret and save your friend’s soul.
The superior graphics and incorporation of live actors creates an amazingly life-like atmosphere. This third installment in the Hallowed Legends delivers breath-taking scenery and immerses you in the unnatural world of the woman in white. The storyline is intriguing, if not entirely unique, and well put together. Soon after the crash, you find your pilot, and good friend, Harry, and just as you are tasked to help him with his injury the evil ice queen sucks out his soul with her blank stare.
Left with nothing but Harry’s pile of bones (and his clothes – apparently the souls don’t take clothing with them), you begin your adventure to uncover the clue behind the ancient curse and hopefully free the souls being held captive by this evil creature.
The soundtrack and ambient noises, combined with the voiceovers, create just the right spooky atmosphere to put you in the mood to hunt down some soul-eating zombies. As you explore the village, a map will help you identify areas left to explore and a strategy guide provides further assistance if you get stuck. There is a lot of back and forth as you uncover objects that will help you complete a task in another scene so the map really helps save time.
The hint button is readily available in casual mode and refreshes quickly to help you find objects or determine your next steps. For those with more experience or who are looking for more of a challenge, there are two advanced modes to add degrees of difficulty. Also, be on the lookout for hidden goblins throughout the game, there are 22 to collect!
Hallowed Legends: Ship of Bones incorporates Hidden Object scenes that are realistic and well done – not just a dark pile of junk to pick through and find useless pieces. Each scene requires some interaction to uncover or assemble a few of the pieces, but they are not maddeningly difficult. The hint button will guide you if necessary, but I actually enjoyed completing the tasks on my own, so I could feel like I earned any achievements that I was awarded. Hey, it’s the little wins in life…
Achievements are also earned while completing the mini games. They are not overly complicated and it’s fairly simple to complete them without using the skip button. The first is assembling a picture from torn scraps, which reveal a photo of Harry and his daughter.
The message scrawled on the snapshot encourages Harry to hurry home to his little girl who loves him very much – it really gave me an emotional pause, which I wasn’t expecting from this type of game! The mixture of animation and live action is amazing, if a little creepy at times, but truly pulls you deeper and deeper into the game.
See, don’t you want to help him? Look how real he looks! He’s not just some weird animated man! It worked on me, anyway…
Overall, I really enjoyed Hallowed Legends: Ship of Bones and it left me wanting more. I’m pretty new to hidden object games; having a new baby left me with little me-time, but now that my daughter’s one (where did the time go?!), I have a little more time for myself these days to sneak in some playtime… when she actually goes to sleep when she’s supposed to…
Hallowed Legends: Ship of Bones truly blew me away with its impressive graphics and gripping story, and it’s certainly made me a true fan of the developers, Elephant Games.
So watch out for that lady in white and good luck breaking the ancient curse!!