Congrat's to all winners; this is a nice 3D platformer that should keep you occupied for a while. Noticed you won a key Delenn. :) (both Delenns)

Please excuse the very late review. I had major computer woes that required a new drive. I lost all the work I'd already completed on the game but had to redo it from scratch. Only got my computer fixed yesterday late afternoon and had too many other duties to catch up on so the review had to wait until late afternoon today. Still not even looked at the other giveaway today. Anyway, better late than never. Regards W.R.

Hamilton's Great Adventure:

In Brief:
A beautifully crafted and illustrated 3D Puzzle Platformer, which I highly recommend; especially if you like challenging games. You can see a few videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. You can also see a couple of full reviews of the game HERE and HERE.

Introduction:
Hamilton's Great Adventure puts your problem solving skills and reflexes to the test. Outsmart the enemies, rush through the levels and collect all the bling to ensure your place on the leader boards.

In single player, switch between Hamilton and Sasha the bird to get through more than 60 challenging levels, or play the game in offline co-op mode and control one character each! The game supports both keyboard/mouse and game pads.

The increasing difficulty will keep even the most seasoned gamers on their toes and only the most skilled players will make it to the end.

Will you be one of the select few in the world to complete the infamous Toader level 100%?

Key Features:
Highly addictive puzzle adventure!
Compare scores with your friends using in-game leader boards!
Embark on a fantastic journey & unravel an ancient mystery!
Puzzle solo or take a friend along on the adventure with simultaneous local coop!

Reference accessed HERE 4th June 2021

The Game:

Game Mechanics and Useful Information:
When you first start up Hamilton's Great Adventure you'll see the main menu that gives you several options, the usual start a new game or continue a game, Help and Options, Journal and unlock extra content. The journal is worth exploring before you start the game.

The Journal:
1) ... It is divided into several sections that includes an information tab where you'll find out about various machines such as the Fluxatron and Transmorphanizer. There are 14 different machines to discover in Hamilton's Great adventure, 12 of which are locked at the start of the game.

2) ... The second tab id an information and how to play section that details movement controls, the different HUD's for the different characters that you will find in game as well as camera controls (R = zoom in, F = zoom out, Q = rotate camera left and E = rotate camera right) and Game objectives. There are 12 pages within this tab that also include details of treasures marker symbols, taunts, Mystic dust and gadgets, enemies as well as miscellaneous controls. The main characters will have their own personal HUD, for example Hamilton's HUD includes 6 buttons that indicate the character image, buttons 2 to 4 show equipped gadgets number 5 is for gadget activation and six for open door and Sasha's includes five buttons the first is Sasha's image, 2 = flight objective, 3 = taunt, 4 = level and 5 = teleport

The main controls you will need to know include the following:

WASD = Character Movement
1 = Spyglass
2 = Boost
3 = Mask
Shift = Activate Gadget
Space = Open Door

3) ... The third tab is a story board with 9 different pages; All but the first are locked when you first start the game. The first page details the story as follows:

Amy has geared up for a story night with her grandfather, Ernest Hamilton. Many years ago, when Hamilton was a young man, he embarked on what came to be a grand epic adventure. Together with his bird companion Sasha, he set out to locate and retrieve an important object that was stolen from him and his best friend and mentor, the venerable professor Philemon Van Winkle.

Hamilton and the professor had spent many years assembling an incredible device called the transmorphanizer. They found the schematics for the device while investigating the legends of a lost continent and have spent many years assembling the device. Just when the transmorphanizer was about to be completed, someone burglarized the professor's lab and stole the unique component known as the Fluxatron an incredibly advanced piece of wonder tech that is used to power the transmorphanizer. There is only one known example of the Fluxatron in existence. It's an incredibly complex device that is impossible to recreate with our current level of technology. They are still uncertain as to what the transmorphanizer does, but they believe it to be something spectacular.

4) ... The fourth tab details the various characters you will come across in Hamilton's Great Adventure. Initially only the first five characters that include Amy, The Professor, Ernest Hamilton, Sasha and Cecil are unlocked. As you progress through the adventure you will unlock new characters that will then appear in this section of the journal.

5) ... The fifth tab lists all the different types of tiles you will encounter in this 3D platforming adventure. Ones unlocked at the beginning of the game include the following:

Starting Tile - Every level starts with one of these
Exit Tile - To access the exit tile you will require a golden key which can be found somewhere on the level you are trying to exit.
Standard Tile - These are the most common type of tile where you can rest easy (and even catch your breath while planning your next move.
Collapsing Tile 1 - This tile collapses as soon as you have move across it, so becomes unusable once stepped on once.
Triggered Door - These can only be opened by triggering the corresponding switch or level that will be located somewhere near the door.. Marker symbols will be used to identify the correct switch or lever to open the door.
Switch - These are activated by being stepped on by something heavy. They always include a marker symbol to identify them
Levers - These activate several types of tiles and traps and can only be activated by Sasha.

6) ... The final tab (in the form of an exclamation point has six pages all of which are locked at the beginning of the game and I haven't unlocked anything yet after completing six levels. If I do unlock any before this limited giveaway ends I'll update this section.

Gameplay:
You will travel around the world to various locations. Each location comprises, of a certain number of levels that become increasingly more complex and difficult to complete, especially in Gold times.

The main objective of Hamilton's Great Adventure is to complete each platform level by collecting the golden key and hidden treasures then moving to the exit; activating any special tiles to unblock your way via switches that you step on, or via levers that you get your companion Sasha to activate and also to avoid any traps that may be lurking.

To complete each level you have to use both characters Hamilton and Sasha. Hamilton collects all the coins located on the platforms as well as activates switches by standing on them. These open doors and remove obstacles that may be blocking his path, plus he has to collect the golden key to be able to exit the level. He must also avoid any traps such as falling boulders. Whereas Sasha activates any levers and collects magic dust.

Each level is timed and depending on how fast you complete the level you will be awarded gold silver or bronze awards. The game lends itself a local coop by allowing one person to control Sasha (via the mouse button for movement and the other Hamilton. You can complete levels quicker this way. Playing solo requires you to swap between the two characters which will add some time to your completion times. As you progress treasures become more difficult to find, but it's not necessary to find all of them on your first try and you can re enter any level that you have unlocked to try and complete your treasure list and make a better time. Everything you find is recorded in the journal that I've described above.

As you progress the levels become more maze like and difficult to complete or get gold awards. You will need to plan your moves much more carefully later in the game otherwise you may find it impossible to complete the level due to some tiles having collapsed after you've stepped on them and therefore blocking your exit from the level. Thankfully pressing Esc will take you to the main menu where you can restart the level. Later levels become almost impossible to complete simply because of the more complex maze like levels as well s the gorgeous and rich graphic that can be quite distracting as well as the introduction of new characters such as mountain goats (that impede your progress by jumping up and down as well as others that attack you. You'll need a quick finger and reactions to avoid some of these characters. You'll also encounter abominable snowmen, and Sasha can be attacked by puffer fish. This is a beautiful 3D platformer, with some very challenging levels.

Review created by Whiterabbit-uk with some informational material taken from the in game journal. Posted 4th June 2021

Other Free Games:
The latest game from Epic Games is now live and is called Frostpunk a is a society survival game where heat means life and every decision comes at a price. In an entirely frozen world, people develop steam-powered technology to oppose the overwhelming cold. You face the task of building the last city on Earth and securing the means necessary for your community to survive, which you'll find HERE. It ends tomorrow Thursday 10th June at at 4pm (UK time/11am EST), where it will be replaced by a mystery game. If you play online with friends there's a decent PvE/PvP free FPS game called Scavengers and you can still get the clicker RPG Idle Champions as well as other multiplayer games. I've been posting redeemable codes (time limited for 5 to 7 days from the day of posting) for free chests over in the forums HERE. They contain various items that boost your heroes abilities and health as well as affect your group of heroes in game, for example potions that boost health or DPS, contracts that can improve armour or weapons already used by the heroes or other contracts that add specific amounts of gold to your bank as well as items of jewellery, armour or weapons that buff your characters stats. I don't usually play clicker type games, but this one is well supported by the developer and has a massive following. I'll be posting codes for as long as I continue to play the game. I've posted some help sheets and links to a game wiki via the above link as well

Please see Delenns threads for Steam and Non Steam freebies HERE and HERE respectively. It’s worth adding these to your favorites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, it’s yours to keep. Delenn has recently posted details of more Steam games that are temporarily free. One may be until it leaves early access??? - i.e. Tower Ball - Incremental Tower Defense plus a reflex game called Keyboard Killers are still free. Delenn posted details of a free origin came called Battlefield 4 which is available for free if you have an Amazon Prime account (If you like FPS games, it's a brilliant game to own.

You'll find hundreds of freeware games of all arcade and indie genres on Itch.io and Caimans Games as well as other sources. Please do check out the game discussion forums for older posts HERE (the sticky section is useful). Many of the earlier posts may be out of date with respect to the links I and others have provided to the free games; however, you only need to know the name of the game to find most of them via other sources. Many of those games from 2008 to around 2017 were posted as part of a project to supplement the lack of weekday games when the game giveaway went to weekend only games around Easter 2008 (mainly instigated due to the financial crisis of 2008) until November 2018 when Falcoware stepped into the weekday slot; however, from around 2015 onwards we did start to get the occasional Steam key for various games offered as limited giveaways, with a restriction on the number of keys available (anywhere from 25 to 2000+). These included over 60 decent AAA games and indie arcade games ; for example some of the better AAA games included , lucky Warhammer: Vermintide 1 & 2 plus DLC for version 2; Dreadlands, Mount & Blade: Warband, Immortal Unchained and Conan Exiles.

I've not posted details of any Indie Gala freebies since my older computer went on the Fritz back in October last year. Since then Indie Gala have added quite a few more free games, some of which are definitely worth downloading. You can find the latest freebies HERE and their showcase list, which includes all the freebies still current; (many of which have been included for a couple of years now) HERE.

It’s worth adding these links to your favorites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, they are yours to keep. :)