If you came across a glitch in yesterdays game, that froze the game permanently, check the comments from yesterday HERE JB has posted a fix that he posted last time the game was given away.

Please note that this is another 1GB download so downloading my take some time. I started another download (now cancelled) just to see how fast it was once the game went live several minutes ago and it was downloading extremely slowly. My usual download speed is over 350mbs, but this was downloading at between 275 to 450kbs (speed kept changing), the approximate download time looks like almost an hour to download. This is right at the start of the game going live, so download speeds may become even slower, the more community members download at the same time.

Mexicana: Deadly Holiday

In Brief

Mexicana: Deadly Holiday is a Hidden Object Game. It was originally given away HERE on the 3rd September 2017 where it received a 83% thumbs up out of 36 votes. The review was based on a hour long demo of the game.

Introduction:

Dia de Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, provides a stunning backdrop for a thrilling supernatural adventure in Mexicana: Deadly Holiday! Guide a young woman as she sets off on a desperate search for her fiance amidst the annual celebration in Mexico. Moments after a spectral figure kidnaps her beloved during a card reading, she begins her journey to the after-world, where demons will plot her demise and ancients gods will lend her a helping hand. As you travel through a stunning fiery wasteland on your way to a realm of peace and tranquility, you'll search for cleverly hidden objects, solve skillfully designed puzzles, and crack dozens of devious mini-games. Along the way, you'll slowly unfold the astonishing truth of who the young woman really is. Set in a captivating world, and featuring visuals and music inspired by the Land of Enchantment, Mexicana: Deadly Holidays is packed with thrills unlike any you have experienced!

Reference accessed HERE. 20th October 2019

The Game:

Story: Dia de Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, provides a stunning backdrop for a thrilling supernatural adventure in Mexicana: Deadly Holiday! Guide a young woman as she sets off on a desperate search for her fiance amidst the annual celebration in Mexico. Moments after a spectral figure kidnaps her beloved during a card reading, she begins her journey to the after world, where demons will plot her demise and ancients gods will lend her a helping hand. As you travel through a stunning fiery wasteland on your way to a realm of peace and tranquility, you’ll search for cleverly hidden objects, solve skillfully designed puzzles, and crack dozens of devious mini-games. Along the way, you’ll slowly unfold the astonishing truth of who the young woman really is. Set in a captivating world, and featuring visuals and music inspired by the Land of Enchantment, Mexicana: Deadly Holidays is packed with thrills unlike any you have experienced! (Big Fish Sales Blurb)

Desktop - Good, easy to use Options; Main Menu is simple and colourful; Auto-Tutorial for the opening section of the game, plus for the Scroll for the After-World. There’s a Notebook for info; a Hints that helps generally as well as in HOGs; an Inventory Bar; and the aforementioned Scroll Side-Bar with Map Buttons.

Play Modes - Casual; Expert.

Music - Mexican, varied, but a little irritating at times – I turned the speaker down a little.

HOG’s - Interactive Lists; Interactive Shapes where you find some then place them, then find some more then place them; and Lists with 2 Items at a time that you click to activate their combination, then find and activate the next pair, and so on till you acquire the desired item – rather unusual

Puzzles - These are okay, but beware clicking on the Blue Arrow – it doesn’t Start the Puzzle, it Skips the puzzle. Of course some need to be Skipped.

Collections - Only the scattered pages of the Scroll so far.

Graphics - These are strongly colourful, exotic Mexican settings in the ‘Real World’, but macabre as you would expect in the After World. They are delineated, visual-novel style, which I do like, though some of the Items are a little small. They are fun to explore, almost too much but not quite.

Map - None for the Real World – this causes a lot of Back & Forth clicking; a Map accessed beside the Scroll for the After-World, wit Sub-Maps for the different locations within the After-World. They give you info on ‘Active Sites, but won’t allow you to jump from site to site – or so it seems.

Game-play - This varies from straightforward to rather complex. You need to gather Items and make a potion, bread, and paint- all preparations for the cross into the After-World. Some of the actions require multiple layers of actions to achieve the desired result. The After-World looks as though it will follow the same pattern, though the Scroll requires some exploration. Clicking an Item to use on another, either generally or in a HOG, this Item goes into a circle which will then work on the next correct Item clicked. There is no hand to pick things up with – the Cursor remains as an arrow, so there is no indication that you are hovering over the right Item. This causes a lot of Point & Click which is tiresome.

Player Participation - Because of the way things are combined for you there is less PP for the player. But you settle into the Game-play style fairly quickly.

Satisfaction Factor - I thought this game was quite promising, rather intriguing, slowly becoming more macabre as you progressed. However, due to its rather odd Game-play, and slow to react Puzzles, I didn’t get as far as I usually do for the hour trial.

Frustration Factors - Mainly the fact that some Puzzles didn’t respond upon completion, though I could have made a small error somewhere that I couldn’t detect. Also the lack of Interactive Map for the Real World, and lack of Interactivity in the Map/s for the After-World.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Jud House on 19th April 2014. Edited and re-posted by Whiterabbit-uk 2nd September 2017 and .

Other Reviews and Videos of Mexicana: Deadly Holiday:

You can see Big Fish community reviews of Mexicana: Deadly Holiday HERE (bottom of the page) and more info in the forums HERE. If you want to see some game play, check out the following videos HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (German) HERE, HERE (German), and HERE (final scene). Plus a slide show of over 70 images HERE. If you get stuck, you’ll find walk-throughs HERE and HERE

Conclusion:

A well balanced HOG though nothing new will be found, basically a standard Hidden Object adventure. I liked the colourful scenes and the music gave ambiance to the story. 7 out of 10 from me.

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