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.

It was originally given away on the 6 th August 2017 where it received a positive 94% from 34 votes with 21 comments which you can see HERE. It was also given away on the 8th February 2020 where it received a positive 88% from 24 votes with 5 comments which you can see HERE

Other Reviews, Videos & Walk through's of Hamlet:
You can see a mixed bag of almost 300 Steam community reviews of Hamlet HERE and a few videos of game play HERE, HERE and HERE and a couple of walkthroughs HERE (Gamezebo) & HERE (Big Fish).

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 humour 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-traveller'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 – colourful 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, reposted 8th February 2020 and again on the 29th July 2022 (with some minor edits).

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 colour 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 auto save 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 mouse actions. 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 then reposted on the 8th February 2020 and again on the 29th July 2022.

Conclusion:
Hamlet is quite challenging with an interesting art style, creative puzzles and quirky humour. 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.