Love Alchemy: A Heart In Winter

In Brief

Love Alchemy: A Heart In Winter was previously given away two years ago where it received a positive 91% thumbs up out of 45 votes with 29 comments which you can see HERE; (thanks for reminding me Jerry, appreciated). I've re-posted (with a little editing) my original comment and conclusion about the game below in the game section.

Love Alchemy is a hidden object puzzle adventure.

Introduction:

When a new romance blossoms, the door to mystery opens in Love Alchemy: A Heart in Winter. Follow a young woman as she's drawn helplessly to a man she barely knows, and is then caught in the tightening web of intrigue surrounding her charming but mysterious lover.

As she explores his fairy tale castle, she marvels at his seemingly kind and romantic nature. But the more corners she turns, the more unsettled she becomes. Soon, she begins seeing ghosts, and noticing the eerie paintings of beautiful woman that adorn the walls. Then she's pulled into one of the canvases and transported to another place, where a terrifying snake has coiled its body around a helpless victim...

You must solve the mystery of the paintings and learn the truth about the woman's enigmatic lover. To do so, you'll have to search for hidden objects, solve puzzles, and win mini-games, even as the game romances you with its astonishing beauty. From opulent castle halls, to creepy dungeons, to exotic faraway lands, you'll want to stop and soak in the visual splendor. But you won't because each discovery will lure closer to an ending you won't expect.

Reference accessed HERE. 2nd November 2019

The Game:

As mentioned previously, I'm not going to review games that I no longer enjoy playing anymore as I don't think I can give a fair assessment of the game; also, I'm now spending an inordinate amount of valuable time reviewing the weekday games that we have been getting since November 2018. I do all of this voluntarily, and its been impacting on my life significantly since the increase in game giveaways, so I made the decision a few months ago to only post full reviews if I actually enjoy playing the game that#s being given away. HOG's, TM games and match three game shave been a feature of many giveaways over the years and I have purchased and been given hundreds of each genre and have not found anything original for quite some time now; basically I'm burnt out on those genres and find it difficult to enjoy them at all. I do hope you understand. I will however still post links to other peoples reviews, as well as introductions, videos and screen captures of the current giveaway. The initial screen capture are always my own as I do check out each game even if I'm not really interested. That said, as this was previously given away a few years ago, I'll post what I'd said about it below: i.e.

There are two modes available Casual and Expert. Casual mode gives you fast recharging of the hint buttons and hidden object scenes include highlights, whereas the expert mode hints and the skip buttons recharge much slower and you get no highlighted hints. As with most modern hidden object games when your cursor changes to a hand it indicates some sort of interaction, for example you can interact in some way, or pick an object up to add to the inventory for later use. The cursor also changes to a magnifying glass when the zoom function is activated. Clicking on an object when the magnifying glass appears means you can zoom in by clicking the object or scene. The cursor also changes to an eye when an object in your inventory is useful and finally a door icon indicates that you can move to a different area of the game.

I found the hint button a little ineffective at times, having to use it a few times before I found what was being indicated. If you get stuck on a particular hidden object scene, you can leave it and continue later by clicking on the arrow that appears when you hover along the bottom of the scene, you can also skip puzzles, which will solve automatically for you (was annoying as I'd liked to have returned later to try and solve the puzzle). Hovering your mouse along the lower part of the game board also opens up your inventory. I concluded that the game was a typical middle of the road adventure HOG with decent graphics, pleasant background music and some reasonable puzzles, though most I found too easy to solve. There was nothing original about the game, so it was eventually consigned to the recycle bin. (however that's from someone who no longer finds HOG's entertaining)

There are several short community reviews of Love Alchemy HERE and HERE as well as a full review via Casual Games HERE. If you have any issues with the game, there are several threads over in the Big Fish Games forums HERE that may help you to solve the issue. You can find a written walk through of Love Alchemy HERE. You'll also find several video walkthroughs of the game HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Love Alchemy: A Heart In Winter doesn't appeal there's lots to check out either for free or for a minimal cost to you. For example a minor AAA game called Generation Zero an open world Single player, Cooperative, and Multiplayer post apocalyptic FPS game, featuring Mechs and based in the 1980's is free to play this weekend until 8pm Sunday (UK time) (almost 38GB download). also the latest Epic Games up for grabs this week are Costume Quest a turn based strategy adventure game based around Halloween and SOMA a sci-fi horror game about identity, consciousness, and what it means to be human. Next Thursday 7th November these change over to Nuclear Throne a post-apocalyptic rogue-like top-down shooter and Ruiner a brutal action shooter set in the year 2091 in the cyber metropolis Rengkok. A wired psychopath lashes out against a corrupt system to uncover the truth and retrieve his kidnapped brother under the guidance of a secretive hacker friend. Also available are more freebies from the Indie Gala developers showcase. These are updated weekly so its worth checking to see what has been added as some are removed each week as well. Once you've added them to your Indie Gala account you can access downloads anytime (at least for most). You'll find download links on each games home page on Indie Gala.

Land it Rocket a moon lander style game set in a colourful but dangerous world, Survivor Squad a strategy action game, Packed Train a casual puzzle game, Introvert Quest a comedy based JRPG set in a fictional, modern setting, Nuclear Contingency a stealth game inspired by the old school top down spy titles (such as the Metal Gear series), Space Beret a top down sci-fi shooter set in a "Starship Troopers" and "Crimsonland" inspired setting, 1914: Prelude to Chaos An RPGMaker game where you take on the role of Finley Thompson, British adventurer and archaeologist searching for the mythical artifact from the First Crusade on the territory of Kingdom of Serbia, The sun Never Sets an RPGMaker game where you are tasked to find the treasure of the legendary Pirate, Tomb Joe a side scrolling platformer, plus lads more.

Finally check out the $12 Humble monthly deal. This month you will get at least approaching $200 or more worth of games (that's 94% off the usual price) that at the moment include, Yakuza Kiwami, Soulcalibur VI, My Time Portia that are worth $109.97 plus by the beginning of December when the deal ends you'll get several other games as well. Last months (I resubscribed after almost 2 years absence) you got $229 worth of games for $12 that included Call of duty: WWII + 2 dlc's, Crash Bandicoot: N'Sane Trilogy, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Shenmue I % II, II-II Memories Retold, Syntherik, Evergarden and Operator. Each month includes at least two recent AAA titles. Most titles are given as Steam keys, but occasionally we get free standing games such as last months Operator. (I'd been after buying Call of Duty: WWII since its release, but refused to pay the full price. Even when on sale via Steam you never see such a game as cheap as $12, but to get several other decent games as well, was for me a fantastic bargain. I recommend you check out the monthly bundles regularly. Part of the proceeds go to charity, so not only are you saving upwards of 94% off decent games, you're also contributing to some worthwhile charity. :)

I noticed that if I refer a person to the Humble monthly and they subscribe I get a £6 reward for each person I refer. If anyone is interested in letting me refer them, I'll split the reward 50:50, which would reduce the $12 initial fee to less than $9, and would enable me to buy more games. :) If you are interested please check out the forum thread I've posted HERE,; there's no obligation, just a mutually gainful deal among like minded gamers.