When will it be announced?

good game

Steam never seems to accept my information for some reason. I downloaded a trial version of the game from Big Fish, and it seem's like a winner: great story and magnificent graphics . However, the game costs over twenty dollars here to get the full version. They often give out half price games around the weekend, although still more than the Steam price. Things seem to work effortlessly with Big Fish, though.

Is there any other way to log in besides facebook? I don't use it.

Darkarta – A Broken Heart's Quest Collector's Edition

In Brief

Darkarta – A Broken Heart's Quest Collector's Edition is a 2D point-and-click, hidden object adventure

Introduction:

Haunted by strange curses from her orphanage days, Mary never knew the story of her dark past until the day she received that strange, mysterious letter. Never in her wildest dreams did she fear that fate would wipe away the peaceful serenity of her life. 3700 years have gone by, but even time can never heal it. Enter the enchanted 'Netherworld' where your destiny was written in blood and which whispers of true love.

Reference accessed HERE 2nd July 2017.

Installation:

Assuming you receive a Steam key for Darkarta – A Broken Heart's Quest Collector's Edition, once you've found it (should be sent to the email you used to enter the giveaway - it must be the email you first used to sign into the game giveaway site. If you’ve used a throwaway email there may be problems getting a key, because the key may be sent to that email. If you have any problems use the contact form. You must activate the game via your Steam client. Once activated it will be permanently tied to your Steam profile and you'll be able to install the game at anytime, anywhere on any computer, so long as you can validate who you are (usually via emails etc.). If you don't have a Steam account you will first have to download and install the Steam client HERE

Then create a Steam profile/account. Once that has been completed you can input the Steam code that you've received (after completing the form filling) via the game button along the top of the Steam client, (located between friends and Help). From the drop-down menu select 'Activate a product on Steam'. This opens a product activation window. Just follow the prompts to complete activation. Once the Steam code has been accepted, the game will be permanently associated with your Steam account and can be installed any time you wish.

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Darkarta – A Broken Heart's Quest Collector's Edition to work, please visit the problems section over in the Game Discussion forums, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

Features:

• A mother's epic frantic quest for her daughter, to the lost civilization of the Indus Valley - An untold saga of true love.
• Explore ‘unforeseen’ environs and original puzzles. Over 5 hr CE game play
• Bonus Chapter “Rising of the Phoenix”– Play in 'god' mode.
• Prequel Comic Book, Mom's diary pages
• 30 Nostalgic memory collectibles
• 36 Hall of Fame Medals
• 28 Morphing Objects
• Concepts, Wallpapers and Sound tracks

The Game:

Review 1:

The game was developed by TuttiFrutti interactive and is their first title on Steam. The player assumes the role of Mary, a wife and mother of one. During a family trip to meet Mary’s long-lost grandfather, and only remaining family member, Mary’s daughter; Sophie was abducted by a mythical immortal man. As Mary and her husband wash up on the shore of their destination, Mary’s husband is in need of medical attention, leaving Mary to scour the land, looking for her missing daughter while solving puzzles and learning more about this strange situation along the way.

The graphic assets of hidden object games are quite important. Striking a balance between having a presentable scene, with interact-able objects, and having the scene not seem so cluttered, is key. Fortunately, the game does a good job of striking this balance. The object fields are very pleasing to the eyes and have a good amount of detail. The game’s scene’s don’t feel too cluttered, yet can still provide a challenge in locating hidden objects.

In terms of the actual visuals, the objects and scenery within the game are quite high quality. The character design is also quite decent though some of the character’s interactions/animations, such as talking, are quite strange looking, and the game may have been better without these small animations. The game runs perfectly fine on any CPU and GPU as it is not a very demanding title.

The sound assets are well done. The music within the game changes depending on the situation, and where the player is. The soundtrack is good and combined with the environmental noises of the game, add to the atmospheric experience. The voice acting in the game is also well done. The voice actor’s bring a good sense of emotion to their roles and actually enhance the game’s experience.

The mechanics of a hidden objects game are very simple; the player must find certain objects within a scene to progress. This title does this and does it well, though in addition to this, it also has a good number of enjoyable puzzles, object-matching, and sequencing challenges. It stands out a bit above other hidden object titles and although many of the puzzles aren’t that difficult, they are enjoyable and satisfying.

Many of the puzzles will have the player clicking, moving, sliding, and pushing around objects in certain orders. Though depending on the difficulty level of the game, the player can utilize hints or even skip puzzles altogether. This allows players of all different skill types to participate in these puzzles (or not).

This is a very different hidden object game from what I’ve experienced in the past. I don’t usually play that many of them, I think of titles in this genre as games like; “I Spy”, or “Where’s Waldo?”, with nothing more than finding the hidden object. This title goes a little above and beyond, and in addition to locating objects, you also get puzzles and other nice little mini games thrown in. As someone who isn’t very good at puzzles, and kind of dislikes them, I enjoyed these and had a good time with them, despite spamming the “hint” button and even skipping a few of them. Though the freedom to do those things is really nice.

My only real complaint with the game is that the opening scene with the little girl crying, and all of the mouths moving, looked really strange to me, and made me feel uncomfortable. It’s a very minor gripe and doesn’t hamper the game-play in any way, but it’s still stuck out as something very strange to me, though this also many have been intentional.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Roger. Edited by Whiterabbit-uk 2nd July 2018.

Review 2:

We went into Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest with moderate expectations. While Darkarta does not have a great track record to back up like most releases from major HOPA developers, it is not every day that we see such a high-profile HOPA release from a brand-new developer. Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest starts off like a typical HOPA game; another evil God who rises from the dead, another kidnapped child, another dark fantasy world. To our pleasant surprises, the game picks up its pace and gets more interesting with just a few minutes in. The backstory is rich with fascinating details and the characters all have very distinct personality, which are just enough for us to look pass the slightly awkward and sometimes weirdly abrupt dialogues.

Unlike most cookie-cutter HOPAs nowadays, Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest is a breath of fresh air on multiple levels. First, the gameplay takes twists and turns in ways that you would not expect, making it more challenging that we had anticipated. The hidden object scenes are few and far between, but each of them is extremely well-crafted with some clever interactions and the option to switch to the Match-3 mode. As for the puzzles, they are plenty and ranged from easy to difficult, all of which are reasonably creative and superbly entertaining.

I found the production to be the most surprising aspect of Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest. To put it simply, the visuals are out-of-this-world. The quality of the graphics is through the roof, the special effects are impressive, and the contrast between gloomy and fluorescent colors are perfect for a moody fantasy game like this. Not only that, but the soundtracks are also nothing short of breathtaking. Darkarta effectively uses the soundtracks to build up and maintain suspense throughout the game.

Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest has a standard length of just a little over four hours, and the bonus chapter adds another hour of quality entertainment. The bonus section of the Collector’s Edition features a strategy guide, wallpapers, concept art, cutscenes, soundtracks, re-playable hidden object scenes, re-playable mini-games, achievements, collectibles, morphing objects, cursed memories, and a comic book.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by All About Games June 7th, 2018. Reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 2nd July 2018.

Other Reviews and Videos of Darkarta – A Broken Heart's Quest:

You can see Steam community reviews of HERE, and if you want to see some game-play you can see some videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

If you miss the offer, you can get the game 24/7 via Steam HERE. It usually costs 4.79, but is on sale at the moment with 75% off i.e. £1.19.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the developer Tuttifrutti Interactive for giving away 5 Steam keys for this excellent HOG and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case a Steam key.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If todays' game doesn't grab you, but you still hanker for a new game, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free in the 'Weekly roundup of game deals', HERE (I've not updated in in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

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