Mystery Solitaire: Grimm's Tales

In Brief

A solitaire card game based on Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel fairly tale.

Installation:

Grimm’s Tales downloads to a 48.6 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a read me). To install Mystery Solitaire: Grimm's Tales click on the orange key file labelled set up and not the setup.gcd file. Those with multiple hard drives can save games on any drive they wish, just change the default installation path. The newly installed game is 53.1 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Mystery Solitaire - Grimm's Tales

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop, three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the ''additional tasks'' window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

Dive into the infamous, mystical and fairy tale world of Hansel and Gretel from the Brothers Grimm. Explore 20 locations from this magical world and earn tons of unique trophies. Levels of varying complexity provide several hours of exciting gameplay, and special Golden Cards add an extra layer of fun. Get rid of cards faster with jokers and increase the combo multiplier to earn more coins. Mystery Solitaire: Grimm’s Tales is an timeless solitaire classic that never loses its flavour.

Edited reference accessed HERE 29th Sept 2018

The Game:

This is the third in the Mystery Solitaire games we’ve received this year (Mystery Solitaire: Black Raven 13th Jan 18 & Mystery solitaire: Arkham Spirits 6th Jan 18 plus other solitaire games that look remarkably like the above, i.e. Solitaire Legend of the Pirates and Solitaire Victorian Picnic.

You can access different card styles and help via the options menu. There are two modes of play Newbie and Professional. The Professional mode is locked until you’ve played the first pack in Newbie mode. If you choose to play the Newbie mode all the way through, you can replay any level whereas you must restart the entire pack in Professional mode. The game is divided into 20 area’s each with names that reflect the Grimm Tales of Hansel & Gretel for example Unexpected Fork in the road, Forest Path, Gingerbread House and Witch’s Cauldron. Each area is divided up into 10 solitaire rounds. Once you’ve played the first area you unlock the professional mode. If you choose to move to the Pro mode once unlocked, all points already gained and any special cards such as Jokers and shuffles are also carried over to the pro mode.

Each level in a stage is worth 8 points, with a total of 80 possible points from each stage. To unlock each stage, you must score a certain amount of points before the next stage can be unlocked. For example, you require a total of 57 points to unlock the second stage. As with all solitaire games the game mechanic works on the principle of a chain. A card is taken from the pack and placed on the space next to the unexposed deck. Usually the first card is already turned over for you. You can choose either a value one higher or one lower than the exposed card. Any suit can be used. If you cannot continue the chain you have to turn over another card from the unexposed pack.

The more cards you have in a chain the greater the length of the multiplier bar. This does decrease with time, but so long as you continue a chain, the higher the amount of bonus coins you will be awarded at the end of the level. You also get more money for removing each card as the chain grows. The multiplier bar can be found in the upper righthand corner of the board. Some cards are gold coloured and are labelled special cards. If you remove one of these, you will receive additional points. If you remove all the gold cards from a level, the level ends, you score maximum points for that level i.e. 8 points and then you start the next level. If you fail to get the required amount of points by the end of level 10, if you are playing the newbie levels you can replay any of the previous levels to improve any of the levels that scored poorly. If you are playing the professional levels, you must restart the whole pack again.

The money you earn from playing the game can be spent in the game shop, where you can buy extra Mulligans (cost 2500 coins) which allow you to undo any last action including using your bonus’s, the Shuffle card (cost 8000 coins) which puts all the cards back in the deck and deals new cards or the Joker which can change any open card into a joker (cost 5000 coins). Jokers can be removed by any card. There are 21 trophies to earn and include such titles as Ancient Tome: pass all levels in Newbie mode, which also gives 10 000 coins, All-Seeing Eye: pass all levels in Pro mode which gives 20000 coins, Decrepit Scroll: Maximum points for 12 packs in Newbie mode earning 25000, ancient Rune: Using shuffle bonus 10 times earns you 5000 coins and Mysterious Mechanism: buying 10 Mulligans earns you 10000 coins. You can find descriptions of all the awards via the main menu. If you wish to end a level before you’ve finished, click on the pause button. That takes you to the pause menu where you can then access the main menu, replay the level, go to the levels map, the options or the main menu. Any progress made in a level if you leave it (unless you go back via the continue button) will be lost.

Whiterabbit-uk 29th Sept 2018.

Videos of Mystery Solitaire: Grimm's Tales:

You can see a couple of gameplay videos of Mystery Solitaire: Grimm's Tales HERE & HERE.

Conclusion:

If you enjoyed the previous Mystery Solitaire games, you’ll like this one as well. The game play is the same, with the same bonuses, awards (though with different names to reflect the story they are following), the same scoring system and the same shop items and special cards. Apart from the graphics and title, nothing’s changed in this game. Personally, I get a little bored with these games after a short while. I’m surprised I go through to almost the end of the second stage then did some pro levels before I decided to come back to the review. For those who really enjoy Solitaire games I’d score this a good 8.5, from my point of view, because there is nothing new I’d only give it a 5 out of 10.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it directly from Game Owl HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Mystery Solitaire: Grimm's Tales with the toolbars etc. removed and to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play Mystery Solitaire: Grimm's Tales please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback about the game; for example, what you liked or disliked, or how improvements could be made to make it more enjoyable and perhaps change your mind about this game? If you don't like Hidden Object games at all, please explain why? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience. These comments will always be accessible for as long as this site is open and provide a valuable resource for game developers, thank you. To access the comments once the giveaway is over, open the game giveaway to its home page then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open up the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly roundup of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

The rest of the information that used to be posted here can be found in the forums HERE. Also, check out Delenns thread over in the game discussion forums for details of other free games and offers HERE

Having problems installing today's game?

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Mystery Solitaire: Grimm's Tales to work please visit the problems section, which you can find in the FAQ's thread HERE. Also read through the community’s comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted. The main issue we have is with the giveaway wrapper, which uses a Themida based code to protect the games executable. Unfortunately, Themida is also used to hide malware; so, as a precaution, some security software may block the installation and sometimes even delete the executable file. Blocking or deletion is usually determined partly by the way your computer is set up. Usually you'll get a message saying ''the file is corrupted'', but, the files are okay. There are a couple of things you can do to overcome this issue. The first is to reboot in safe mode with networking, install the game then reboot, or secondly you can (at your own risk) temporarily turn off your security, install the game, then turn your security back on. A note of reassurance to those that choose the latter and quicker method. The game giveaway team have been giving away games for over a decade (Dec 2006 & prior to that, via the main site 2 or 3 times weekly from Oct 2006 to Dec 2006) and have 'NEVER' given away a game infected with malware; they always test every giveaway with several of the top anti-malware suites to ensure all games are free from malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, if you have a problem getting the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve or if you have a game to offer the community you can do so HERE

Review to follow