Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind

In Brief

A Hidden Object game - Track down a missing scientist as you explore the place where reality meets illusion.

Installation:

Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind downloads to a 594 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a read me). To install Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind click on the orange key file labelled set up and not the setup.gcd file. Those with multiple hard drives can save games on any drive they wish, just change the default installation path. The newly installed game is 650 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Alex Hunter - Lord of the Mind

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop, three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the ''additional tasks'' window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

Alex Hunter thought the case of the missing professor would be an easy paycheck. But his investigation has proven to be anything but simple. With hours of captivating game time, a richly detailed world, and a storyline inspired by classic detective novels, Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind will thrill casual game fans looking for their next great adventure!

Over many years, Private investigator Alex Hunter had worked on dozens of cases involving murder, theft, bribery and fraud; and nothing fazed him. Until, a young lady came to his house asking him to help find her father, the renowned scientist, Professor Patterson. The professor had vanished from his house, without a trace, over a month ago. The police were called in but they were unable to find any clues. Coincidentally, neighbors reported having bizarre visions and suddenly finding themselves in strange places. Hunter took the case, thinking it would be a piece of cake.

Edited reference's accessed HERE and HERE 23rd Sept 2018

The Game:

In Lord of the Mind, you play as Alex Hunter, a famous detective which takes on the case of a missing professor. The story is not specially exciting or captivating but it sets a nice base for what to follow. There are no cute animals, fantasy creatures, fairies or magic spells – Alex Hunter is one mature game with dark and gloomy environment which should be appreciated by fans of this genre.

The game is visually impressive, although we think that the graphics are a little too muddy. The scenes are highly detailed with stunning shades and effects. The voice overs are nice as well as the music. We love the 3D elements Alex Hunter has from 3D characters and dimensional environment.

There is nothing special about the gameplay of Alex Hunter, it plays like other HOPAs but being done in a good way. It is not really a straightforward game, which makes it fairly challenging to play. Puzzles are fun and tricky while Hidden Object scenes are few and far between, they are standard and well-cluttered.

Being only a Standard Edition game, it is quite a surprise to see Collectibles and Strategy Guide included in the game – anyways, that is surely a big plus. Furthermore, it also has a long playtime which means that your 7 bucks spent on this game would not be wasted.

Reference accessed HERE original review by All About Casual Game on December 25, 2013; Edited and reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 23rd Sept Sept 2018.

Review 2:

Set in Europe at the turn of the 19th century, Lord of the Mind follows Alex Hunter's quest to locate a missing scientist and uncover the terrible secret behind his dangerous research. The search carries the player through a series of interesting locations during one of the longest nights on record.

For a casual game about clicking on barbells, records, and other random items, a surprising amount of thought has gone into worldbuilding and keeping it internally consistent. While more of a simple search and rescue story than a legitimate mystery, there's more than enough plot to keeps players hooked through what has to be one of the most fast-paced HOGs I've encountered.

Alex Hunter's HOG screens are lushly produced, full of animated backdrops and small interactive areas that serve no purpose but to delight the player. The developers have gone a long way to explain the cluttered masses that must be sifted through—by using a variety of derelict settings (sewers, old asylums, a ransacked laboratory) the amount of random objects strewn about is largely justified. Some items are more random than others, however, and they're often tucked away in absurdly awkward locations, which shifts the balance a little further from fair than it should be.

The searches are of the 'find the clue/key and fifteen other items' variety standard in the HOG genre. There's an extremely large number of item manipulation puzzles in the game, so there's always a good reason to go looking for a length of rope or toy soldier, but the HOG searches are definitely padded by their insistence on loading a dozen random items onto the list.

The story follows a fairly logical investigation by HOG standards. With relatively inept police sidelined at the beginning of the game, it makes perfect sense that a private detective would have to break into sinister complexes and search for clues in order to track down the missing doctor. The puzzles, while fairly ornate and complex, do a good job of fitting in with the game's setting, never feeling out of place in any of the locations.

It isn't until the very end that the game goes completely off the rails—for the first four hours, the story follows a completely coherent path, as the player learns more about the 'Lord of the Mind' technology and the threat it poses to the world. Then, just as things seem to be reaching a climax, the titular machine is turned on, and everything the player has been led to believe is tossed aside and they're transported with almost no explanation to an entirely new location, and handed a bizarre set of random tasks to complete. It's an incredibly jarring interlude that feels like it belongs in an entirely different game. It breaks the flow of the story, and makes the plot's resolution feel oddly underwhelming.

Up until that last hour of gameplay, Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind is a stellar example of the genre. The graphics are beautifully drawn, the puzzles are fair and fun, and a quick-travel map makes the expansive world easy to navigate. If it weren't for the story going completely mad in what seems like a desperate attempt to tack on a little more gameplay, this would have been a glowing review. As it is, Lord of the Mind is a great HOG for most of its running time, but the jarringly disappointing finale keeps it IMO from being one of the classics. Rating: 8 out of 10

Info for parents: The game was not reviewed by the ESRB, but it contains violence. You'll see some corpses, there's a little shooting, and the implication that horrible experiments have been done on captive mental patients. Beyond that, though, it's a pretty safe game.

Reference accessed HERE original review by Daniel Weissenberger on November 26, 2014; Edited and reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 23rd Sept 2018.

Other Reviews and Videos of Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind:

You can see community reviews of Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind HERE, plus forum comments from the Steam community (127 comments mostly positive HERE. There are several videos of game play, some from the Collectors Edition {……..SPOILER ALERT……} HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

Conclusion:

I've not played the game long enough to give a fair opinion of the game.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it directly from Big Fish Games HERE or the Platinum Edition via Steam HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind with the toolbars etc. removed and to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback about the game; for example, what you liked or disliked, or how improvements could be made to make it more enjoyable and perhaps change your mind about this game? If you don't like Hidden Object games at all, please explain why? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience. These comments will always be accessible for as long as this site is open and provide a valuable resource for game developers, thank you. To access the comments once the giveaway is over, open the game giveaway to its home page then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open up the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly roundup of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

The rest of the information that used to be posted here can be found in the forums HERE. Also, check out Delenns thread over in the game discussion forums for details of other free games and offers HERE

Having problems installing today's game?

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind to work please visit the problems section, which you can find in the FAQ's thread HERE. Also read through the community’s comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted. The main issue we have is with the giveaway wrapper, which uses a Themida based code to protect the games executable. Unfortunately, Themida is also used to hide malware; so, as a precaution, some security software may block the installation and sometimes even delete the executable file. Blocking or deletion is usually determined partly by the way your computer is set up. Usually you'll get a message saying ''the file is corrupted'', but, the files are okay. There are a couple of things you can do to overcome this issue. The first is to reboot in safe mode with networking, install the game then reboot, or secondly you can (at your own risk) temporarily turn off your security, install the game, then turn your security back on. A note of reassurance to those that choose the latter and quicker method. The game giveaway team have been giving away games for over a decade (Dec 2006 & prior to that, via the main site 2 or 3 times weekly from Oct 2006 to Dec 2006) and have 'NEVER' given away a game infected with malware; they always test every giveaway with several of the top anti-malware suites to ensure all games are free from malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, if you have a problem getting the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve or if you have a game to offer the community you can do so HERE