..................................Moderator comment.....................................

Steam is giving away the WWII Real Time Strategy game 'Company of Heroes 2' to celebrate its fifth anniversary. This includes the single player campaign and the Soviet and German multiplayer armies. The offer ends on Monday 10th December late afternoon (UK time). You'll find the offer HERE. Please see the end of this review for further details.

Solitaire Mystery: Four Seasons

In Brief

An interesting take on solitaire, with mini games and HOG scenes.

Installation:

Solitaire Mystery: Four Seasons downloads to a 90.8 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives can save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 120 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\Solitaire Mystery - Four Seasons

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:

Save the City of Magic Cards and remove the curse in the game Solitaire Mystery - Four Seasons! Travel through the different worlds and across the different seasons playing solitaire and finding hidden objects. With lots of different types of solitaire to play, tons of unique puzzles, and a variety of tricky mini-games, you are sure to have a load of fun every step of the way! The city and its people need your help, as you alone can save the day! Fix the magic clock and restore the land in the game Solitaire Mystery - Four Seasons. The story will draw you in, and the amazing game play will have you hooked without fail! Play solitaire to unlock doors and find clues to solve the mystery in Solitaire Mystery - Four Seasons! The time for action is now!

Edited reference accessed HERE. 7th December 2018

The Game:

Solitaire Mystery: Four Seasons is a gorgeous looking solitaire game with HOG scenes and sliding puzzle mini games. The options menu enables wide screen support, plus you can toggle custom cursors , enhanced effects and the tutorial.

There are over 100 different layouts, with two solitaire modes; free-play (infinite game mode) and Fortune Telling Room. The latter is locked until you've played the game for a minimum of 1 hour and the infinite mode (where you can play solitaire to your hearts content) is also locked until you've completed the main story The game also includes hidden object scenes, the association game, where you have to match an object with one from the scene for example along the bottom you'll see a heart, in the scene you'll need to find something associated with the heart, in this case an electrocardiogram trace. The association game can be quite hard. There is a hint button that takes about a minute to refresh after each use. There's also loads of mini games and brain teasers. With respect to the Fortune Telling Room mode, each card in the 52 card deck (there are no jokers included) has an associated meaning, which is used to tell fortunes, for example the three of spades indicates there will be trouble, the king of clubs predicts the appearance of a respectable gentleman the queen of hearts protects all brides and the eight of diamonds symbolizes loyalty and sincerity.

As you progress through the solitaire game you unlock various objects which are used to complete some of the mini games. Personally I prefer straight solitaire games, straight HOG games etc, but this does have a certain charm about it. I found it both entertaining and challenging at times, especially the association game. The solitaire games have twists from the standard solitaire game with an undo button and a timed hint button, which as with the HOG and association hints takes about a minute to recharge. The twists from the standard game included locked areas, for example on one level you need to uncover a key to be able to remove certain cards, or like the solitaire mahjong game you have to select pairs of the same value cards (they can be different suites) and you may get a combination of those with locked cards; or you may get a whole section blocked off. This 'twist is actually really difficult to beat. I was on my seventh turn at trying to get past the first mahjong inspired card game level when I finally gave up due to time limitations; (basically it was bed time). To unblock the locked area's you have to remove all the highlighted cards which are initially surrounded by a yellowish border until you start the level, then the ones you need to remove are slightly darker than the rest of the cards. The blocked cards have no exposed cards on top. When you complete a solitaire level you get part of an object such as part of the winter key, which will be required later in the game. If you fail to complete a level, the deck is reshuffled and you start that level again. To unlock some solitaire levels you have to complete a mini game.

I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys casual card games, HOG's and general mini games that are not too challenging. Definitely worth an 8 out of 10 for game play and original ideas. :)

Whiterabbit-uk 7th December 2018

Other Reviews, Help and Videos of Solitaire Mystery: Four Seasons:

You can see other comments of Solitaire Mystery: Four Seasons HERE, HERE and HERE

You can see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (português), HERE & HERE. You can also see a slideshow of all the images presented here in higher resolution HERE. This has limited bandwidth w.r.t. public showing, so, if the slideshow doesn't work, it means the community have exhausted my daily allowance of bandwidth.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways 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 the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

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 HERE via the Microsoft store for Android ($0.99) or via Steam HERE for £4.99 (only released on the 5th Dec 2018 on Steam).

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Solitaire Mystery: Four Seasons to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try white listing the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

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

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Solitaire Mystery: Four Seasons 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 Solitaire Mystery: Four Seasons 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 not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums).

With respect to the Company of Heroes 2 offer, I paid over £30 for the base game when it was released 5 years ago. None of the DLC is included in the offer, but they are definitely work buying while they are on sale. All of the original DLC (over 100 packs) have either been combined into larger DLC packs, or placed on separate Steam pages, because they are free standing, i.e not requiring the base game, to play; for example the British Army, Ardennes Assault, and The Western Front Armies: Oberkommando West. Most of the packs are on sale at the moment. You can get the Company of Heroes 2 Master Collection DLC bundle that includes virtually all the DLC's available for 91% off the usual price (apart from two charity packs) for only £5.40 HERE. That would effectively give you what I paid over £120 for five years ago (i.e. all the DLC plus the game). You don't need the DLC; however, some do add new campaigns such as Southern Fronts Missions and Victory at Stalingrad. The skin packs for tanks, environments and uniforms are not necessary but do add different perspectives to the game play.

If you like strategy games, Company of Heroes 2 is well worth having, especially while it's free this weekend. I was involved in the Beta and found it a big improvement on the original, both graphically and improved game play.