Hamlet

In Brief

Hamlet is a creative little point-and-click adventure. Short, but Sweet. I'd score it an 8 out of 10 for good game play, decent puzzles and the excellent art work, that should appeal to most of the family.

Hamlet was originally given away Aug 6th 2017 HERE, where it received a positive 94% from 34 votes with 22 comments.

Introduction:

Hamlet or the Last Game without MMORPG Features, Shaders and Product Placement is the original point-and-click adventure game based on twisted William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Solve logic puzzles and fight with monsters to uncover secrets, punish all the villains and rescue the princess.

Somewhere in the future… No, let's try once again… Somewhere in the past - there is a man from the future. He looks strange and no one knows what he is doing here. In fact he's helping the characters of a famous story find the way out of the difficult situation. The stranger from the future is sent to help Hamlet save Ophelia, his beloved girl, and accomplish all the tasks ahead. There are castles, labyrinths and tunnels, weird objects and creatures on the way. But this tiny man from the other epoch knows secrets and learns easily. He is the one really able to solve the riddles of this hideous kidnapping. The player must help the man to solve a heap of logical puzzles, find the clues and finish soon to save the lady. First you find a hint and do what is necessary to go through the walls of a castle, go along all the halls and… remember, you are not afraid.

There you will see lots of objects - some are crucial for further moves, don't miss a chance to use a hint. It is always interesting to see what puzzle is ahead. Each of them involves much thinking and is never easy to pass. Hamlet is an ideal pastime if you like searching for clues and practice to become a real intellectual detective. Hamlet is full of riddles you may have dreamt of and liked so much in your childhood. This is quite a traditional game with evil monsters and brave heroes! Never boring and always exciting, an excellent game is for a thoughtful and focused gamer. Feel free to experience a lot of challenges and save the Lady from cruelty and un-shared love.

Reference accessed HERE and HERE 6th Aug 2017

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Hamlet to work please visit the problems section, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

The Game:

Review 1:

Hamlet is certainly a game that marches to the beat of its own drum, and as a result you’ll be chuckling at its humor and creativity one minute and cursing some its more inscrutable puzzles the next. Regardless, this off-kilter ode to one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays is nothing if not creative and fresh.

The plot of Hamlet the game is more streamlined than that of the play – in fact it’s basically all laid out in the first story panel. The evil king Claudius, with the help of his assistant Polonius, has killed the king and queen, seized the crown, and forced Hamlet’s girlfriend, Ophelia, to marry him.

Hamlet is preparing to seek his revenge and rescue his girl when a time-traveler’s ship – piloted by you – accidentally crashes down from space right on top of him. With Hamlet down (but not out), you’ll step in as the time-traveling Hero to put a stop to Claudius and rescue Ophelia.

The game is divided into five Acts of puzzle-driven adventure game play where the goal is often to simply find a way to move from one side of a room to the other and exit by figuring out which objects you need to interact with to solve the puzzles that are in your way. Of course, things are never straightforward.

Alawar (Hamlet‘s publisher) has compared the game to Amanita Design’s brilliant Machinarium. While the art style of Hamlet is much different – colorful and whimsical in contrast to Machinarium‘s darker industrial tone – the game play is similar in that your character is simply plunked down into a scene with little obvious indication of what to do next, requiring players to pour over the environment itself for clues about which objects can be interacted with.

The puzzles in Hamlet are true brain-teasers, and very creative: there are no lazy Hanoi puzzles, memory match games or jigsaw puzzles here. Instead, you’ll find yourself solving a combination lock by deciphering the sun’s facial expressions, or connecting pieces of a road map to form an escape route – while an old man keeps stealing pieces of the map and putting them back in a different order!

The solutions to some of these puzzles border on the ridiculous at times, and they can’t be truly skipped (although there are hints). While this might cause frustration, there’s a real sense of accomplishment when the solution finally “clicks” and you’re able to move on.

Something else that might frustrate players, however, is the fact that certain puzzles rely a little too much on reflexes. This is especially true of the “boss battles” that cap off each Act and often require players to click on things in rapid succession with very little time to react. (Note: an updated version of the game has since been released that makes these challenges a little less frantic.) There are a few small technical niggles as well, such as the absence of a Windowed mode and the fact that you can’t click on thought bubbles to automatically advance speech.

Hamlet is quite a short game, too. In fact it seems to rely on the difficulty of its puzzles – and the assumption that you’ll get stumped for lengthy periods of time – to add to the game’s play time. If you manage to overcome the puzzles and boss battles fairly quickly (or if you cheat and use a walk through), don’t expect more than an evening’s entertainment from the first play-through.

Sure, Hamlet isn’t without its flaws and quirks, but it has its share of enjoyable, unexpected moments too. Anyone who isn’t afraid to dive into something a little different – and who is patient and curious enough to put up with getting stuck along the way – should at the very least download the demo to see what Hamlet is all about.

Reference accessed HERE originally posted by Erin Bell on Apr 13, 2010. Originally edited and reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 6th Aug 2017

Review 2:

Hamlet opens with graphic novel style panels introducing the story. By panel number three, however, there has been a change from the traditional Shakespearean story of betrayal and perfidy -- Hamlet is squashed by a space ship. The space ship contains a character from the future, robed in purple with a light bulb on his head. Since Hamlet is now lying there, unconscious, it's up to the humble "new Hero" to take over, wreak vengeance on the villains and rescue Ophelia from her watery plight. If our Hero fails, the consequences for history will be dire.

The graphics are cartoon style and quaint, with an unusual color palette. Structures sprout from the landscape at odd, impossible angles. Architectural details have unexpected textures and shapes, and sometimes seem stuck on randomly. The game has a quirky ambiance and tons of charm. Each level consists of only one screen, and each features animations and ambient sound. Sometimes jazzy music plays in the background. A few of the levels are in silhouette style, with black foregrounds and the characters in black, and these provide equally pleasant viewing.

Straddling the fence between adventure and casual adventure, Hamlet's story is (very loosely) based on Shakespeare's play. The game is puzzle-driven and told in five acts. It has no large environments to explore; the gamer's focus will be almost entirely on the puzzle presented in each level. Exploring each screen visually is important, however, in order to look for clues and to watch for slight changes in the animations. Hamlet contains a brief tutorial, an autos ave function, and a hint system. The interface is point-and-click. If you leave a level before finishing, you will start at the beginning of that level when returning.

The game employs a third person perspective, as you see the Hero as he moves around the screen. However, you don't limit yourself to actions that the Hero could likely perform, and you (usually) don't control him. Instead, you are an omniscient being, observing what's occurring on screen, and trying to change the environment to help the Hero progress. The game does not have a "smart" cursor, so you'll do a lot of clicking to see what parts are interactive.

I found this game delightful until I encountered the more difficult puzzles. Hamlet discards many adventure game conventions, and I failed miserably while trying to solve the more unconventional levels. Confession: when it comes to puzzles like those in Hamlet, I am the weak fruit.

Items don't always give consistent responses -- a few have to be clicked on repeatedly. In the hardest non-timed puzzle, a marker doesn't mark what it stops on, it marks something else in the sequence. At unexpected times, dialog becomes more than just dialog and text becomes more than just text.

Hamlet's hint system (to which I resorted scandalously often) is on a timer -- you can't access it until several minutes have elapsed. It provides visual clues only, one hint per level. This undoubtedly cut down on the need for translation into various languages, but the result is that sometimes deciphering the hint is its own challenge. A couple of the hints actually increased the difficulty factor. After solving these levels, I could not determine how the corresponding hint was designed to help.

Many of the puzzles in Hamlet involve clicking in a sequence. The most difficult sequences are timed and require precise, rapid mousing. Some of the environments contain red herrings, adding further to the difficulty. By mid-game, I found that the levels contained quite a bit of puzzle variety, and some were fairly easy. But others were so frustrating that I would quit immediately after solving them and pace around the room to calm down.

I played the game twice. I got through the playing cards challenge the first time using a theory that did not work at all the second time. I got through the second time using a theory that was completely at odds with my first theory. (To be honest: the second time through, I chose what seemed to be the least likely solution each time.) After checking a walk through, I now realize that I had no idea at all how the system was supposed to work. Persistence and dumb luck pay dividends. More good fortune!

Fairly early in the game I encountered the Claudius guitar level. This is a timed sequence that I found impossible to complete. Two others in my family (one an action gamer) attempted it and failed. Soon after, a version of the game was released that slows down the sequence -- otherwise I would never have made it through the game.

Two of the levels pit the Hero against a giant octopus. The first time through, I manhandled the octopus with aplomb (rapid random clicking), though I had no idea how I'd managed it. I decided that the octopus was cute, in addition to being pleasantly purple/pink.

The second time through the game I could not disable the octopus. When I finally checked back into the game, enlightened by knowledge from a walk through, I still couldn't beat him. Prolonged, rapid clicking on the poor creature, while muttering certain words under my breath, finally ended the level. I concluded that the octopus was a demon in disguise and regretted leaving him with arms intact.

This is a game for gamers who have a zeal for difficult puzzles, who want to think (way) outside of the box, and who have quick reflexes. Like Gobliiins 4, I imagine that Hamlet is more enjoyable if played with a partner who can help the gamer see things differently and think about patterns and animations creatively. A shoulder to cry on is also comforting.

Reference accessed HERE original review by Becky, August, 2010. Edited by Whiterabbit-uk 6th Aug 2017

Other Reviews, Videos a Slideshow and Walk through's of Hamlet:

You can see community reviews of Hamlet (a mixed bag of around 250) over on Steam HERE.

You can also see videos of game play, (spoiler alert), HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE; plus a slideshow of over 50 images, (spoiler alert), HERE and just in case you do get stuck, even with the help button (or if you can't wait for the help button to recharge), you can access a couple of walk through's HERE (Gamezebo) and HERE (Big Fish).

Conclusion:

Hamlet is quite challenging with an interesting art style, creative puzzles and quirky humor. If you get stuck on a puzzle, the help button can be of use, but it is locked for at least 5 minutes, to allow you to try the puzzle before you get any advice. Usually once given, the puzzles become very easy to solve.

There are some balance issues with reflex-based puzzles and the game is relatively short (unless you get stuck along the way and refuse to use the help button). Some puzzles seem a little too inscrutable and unfortunately there's no windowed mode. Still, this is a worthwhile point and click game highly recommended for most family members. 8 out of 10 from me.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Hamlet and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Hamlet doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've recently updated the thread though 'some' of the links to older bundles are no longer active; however, most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

From now until Half-Life : Alyx is released sometime in March, every Half-life game is free to play on Steam HERE. They include, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift and Team Fortress Classic

Indie Gala has some new games added to their free section; these include Wastewalkers - a post apocalyptic top down open world adventure. Deep Space Anomaly - an intensive, fascinating and mad game which is sweeping away all borders where the main objective - to kill enemies and to have fun! Also, Affliction - which is set in the fictional Eastern European country of Ghulovka, amidst a terrible civil war, Affliction allows players to take on the role of Vasya, a patient plagued by nightmares and fractured memories, who awakes inside of a cell in a bizarre research facility where grim human experiments are taking place; and Super Panda Adventures - a side scrolling platformer; you play as the brave panda-knight Fu, who is about to finish his training to become the new guardian of the Princess. At the same day of the big celebration party, some uninvited Robots show up to conquer the planet and take the Princess away in their Space Ships!.

Don't forget to check out the Epic game store for the latest freebie on offer HERE. The latest games are, an official adaptation of the board game Corcassonne and Ticket to Ride another official board game adaptation of Days of Wonder's best-selling train board game. From the 13th February next week the following two games will be given away for free: Kingdom Come: Deliverance a first person story-driven open-world RPG that immerses you in an epic adventure in the Holy Roman Empire. (not suitable for children) and Aztec a unique hybrid of beat 'em up and turn-based strategy, set in the world of the Aztec Empire.

The Eden Rising base game is also free on Steam. It's an open world, SP/Coop/MP Sci Fi tower defense third person RPG with crafting and survival elements. Finally, check out Delenns thread over in the Game Discussion forums for details of other free games and offers HERE.