Spirit of Wandering is a really good game. I've enjoyed it so much that I've been playing it slowly over the past two weeks. I'm not usually a fan of hidden object games, but sometimes I find their artwork very appealing, and that is certainly the case with Spirit of Wandering. It succeeds admirably in creating a world of ghostly pirate ships, island villages, underwater scenes and golden treasure troves. (By the way, don't let yourself be put off by the cheesy opening screen, because the rest of the graphics are excellent.)

Many thanks to Playrix and GGOTD for this great giveaway, and of course to Stephen for his enjoyable introduction.


................................Moderator Comment...................................

Thank you for your feedback Julia. :)

I was pleasantly surprised with this game. It really keeps you going and it has something for all levels of gaming. I personally had no trouble with downloading and installing. It played well. Thank you and keep up the good work.


.............................Moderator Comment...................................

Thank you for your feedback Dane

Having now played this for a decent amount of time...

installed fine on win ultimate 7 64, played nicely in windowed version.

The outlines are sometimes 'questionable' as to what you're trying to find. Therefore needing to apply hints simply because you aren't 'sure' what you're looking for.

Having several items that look 'the same' as what you're trying to find leading to several 'mistaken clicks' brings annoyance to the game play. Hide and seeks are enjoyable, but when you are frustrated because you're not positive what you're looking for (I suggest if you hover over the area you're supposed to fill in you get an image of what it looks like.) That is not enjoyable. Or, when you have several objects that are precisely the same as what you are looking for (For instance. There was five or six double handled jugs/vases and you had to find that twice, of varied size. Or, a bottle and there was three other bottles (that may or may not be found later (I am not positive I haven't finished that level.)

The music was fine, the sounds were fine. The additional 'mystery' item is a nice addition, though a tad confusing initially. The scenes are nice, the colors decent. Things are hidden well, but not annoying to try and click.

All in all a fairly nice game, save for the frustrations listed. (Though I have not gotten incredibly far into the game. We'll see if I can continue without feeling overly annoyed at the similar item problem or the vague 'descriptive' shadow of what I'm finding.)



..........................Moderator Comment.............................

Thank you for your feedback. :)

I got this the last time it was offered and absolutely love it. I like the graphics and animated scenes, especially the underwater ones. The objects are clear, so I don't feel like I'm going blind trying to see everything. What is somewhat different from other HOGs is that the shapes that show what object to find can be revolved 3D from the way they're placed in the scene. I like that I can play to relax, without a timer annoying me.

I never follow storylines, so I'm glad I can click past those parts. The music isn't as annoying on this game as some others, but I still prefer none so I'm glad I can turn it off and lower the volume of the sound effects.

One thing I would like is the ability to play the game over again once it's finished. Instead, I'm required to create another player. I enjoy playing it to relax and don't care that I completed the story.

Thanks Playrix and GGOTD!


............................Moderator Comment.............................

Thank you for your feedback Terri :)

ESET informed me there was a virus in the software.


.......................Moderator Comment.........................

Hi Val. Its a false positive. Thousands of users download these games, but hardly any mentin of a virus. If there was a virus many would be complaining.

Wgat your sewcurity is picking up is the themida based security file (setup/gcd) which is included to stop users from ripping off the game.

I've had this game before - in fact this is now the third computer I've had it on! So, clearly, I must like it.

It's a very nicely designed game, with interesting places to search - I do like the fact that you search each place thoroughly, but you don't have to keep on going backwards and forwards between locations, which drives me crackers in other games.

There is a logic to the items you're searching for. They all make up a part of the story, there's none of that "find a green elephant eating a hamburger" nonsense. (I made that one up. At least I hope I did.) Each new find takes the heroine closer to her aim of finding her lost love, while developing the characters you meet along the way.

The music is good, the artwork is very good, it has a proper storyline and it's a game that even an old duffer like me can finish, and have the satisfaction of seeing the story through to the end. The only complaint I have with it is that it has always, for me, been a once-only game. Once I finish it, I'm not allowed to start all over again as other people have said you can do. When I go in again I'm taken to the Credits - I can't find an option to go further with another level of the game.

It's definitely worth the download time, though. Even if you do have to buy a new computer each time it's offered, to take advantage of the chance to start all over again.



....................Moderator Comment..............

Thank you for your feedback Basilica

I almost lost my patience on the first level with the magic orb. I could not figure out what I was supposed to do with it >>. I looked at some gameplay of the game to figure out how to use that tool.

Some shadows are totally off, many objects look the same, therefore it's mostly a guess game rather than finding what it's looking for, in some cases.

Other than that it's pretty fun. I don't really have the patience to read all of the story, but I'm enjoying it... ( now that I figured out how to use that damn orb ).

....................Moderator Comment..............

Thank you for your feedback Marius.

16 and 18: if you don't like a game being offered here for FREE, just don't download it. No need to knock a genre just because it doesn't meet your personal preferences. We are all different and all like different things. Would be a dull world if everyone was the same.

Played this before and is a decent game. No problems with dl or play on Win XP home. Thank you.

I've had this game since it was offered a few years back and it's one of my favorite hidden objects games. Now I can put it on my laptop. Thanks so much!

Ok Win 8 x64 Pro. Full screen, sliders. Interesting coin/time use of hints. Some items easy enough, couple get tricky like turn on side or find by shape in dif form like the jacket lying flat vs as a uniform open. Story line adds to it. Not sure if I'll stick past part w/ 4 treasure ships to search if run out of gold. Thanks for a cold weather play time. brrr.


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

Thank you for the feedback Beergas.

I LOVE Playrix games. Their FISHDOM is the BEST game EVER made! However, I HATE hidden object games. They are the WORST genre of games ever created by a software company in the entire history of videodom. I outgrew "Where's Waldo?" when I was in third grade.

Plus, who wants a game with all that romance crap anyway?

So, I LOVE Playrix but HATE the game.




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

Ha ha; I used to think that way as well, but I now think some of the newer HOG's are quite entertaining, with clever storylines, interdispersed throughout with well thought out hidden object screens and some excellent mixed genre games.

I'm still not an overt fan of HOG's but do own around 30 + HOG's either purchased over the past several years or earned through beta testing.

This is a truly great game. Many thanks to GAOTD and Playrix for the many generous offerings. I always check here first everyday. You folks make it worth the effort.

Another stupid hidden object game? Aren't there any REAL games out there? This is the only type you ever give away, and a 12 yr old may like em, no, I don't think they would either.

I downloaded this game the first time out. I enjoyed it and replayed it a few times. This is well worth grabbing today for those who have not downloaded it before. Thank you again Playrix!

Downloaded fine on Windows7 Home Premium 64-bit. Opened with full screen (I have a 23"). Changed to windowed mode, but wasn't happy with it's smallness so I ticked to change back to full screen, which won't work. Keeps reverting back to windowed mode and will only let me play in windowed mode.
Started game, pretty straight forward, but kind of frustrating. One picture was rectangular, not giving much of a hint of what it was. Figured it out relatively quickly, by clicking, but still frustrated as to not having a clue as to what they wanted me to find. Don't know if it's a keeper or not. When I get aggravated just after finishing the first level, there's not much hope...



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

Thank you for the feedback Tracey, sorry your not happy :(

I liked this game when you gave it away the last time. I really enjoy HOG's. This one has a good story line, decent graphics, good sound, and a mystery. Worth the time you spend to download it. Thank you so much GameGiveAway.

Well I love hidden object games. And I personally love the cheesy couple on the front. Just played it for a bit and yes I will finish it. Thanks GAOTD & Playrix

Thanks once again for another wonderful Playrix game. Our whole family enjoys playing them! Thanks Playrix and GGOTD!

I played it the last time and loved it very much - totally recommendable.

Thanks for your good work!

well, i should have waited......it installed after a while. it runs fine and so far no problems. the game isn't a run-of-the-mill HO game. it is kind of hard so will take time to finish.
again thanks GGOD!!!!


...................Moderator Comment...................

Ahhh! good, I should have done a quick read first. would have saved some time replying to your first post, lol ;-)

it doesn't seem to like win 8. it won't download at all. oh well. thanks anyway for all the games you do give us to try!!!!


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

Other games download via Win 8 so if you can't download at all sounds like another problem not an actual conflict between Win 8 and the giveaway site. Check that your security isn't blocking the download. Do you get any messages? If not, check your event logs tgo see if there's a given reason. also check the FAQ's over in the sticky section of the Game discussion forums. you may find a fix there (e.g. if you are running firefox you satill need I.E. to be set to online (open up I.E. and click on file, look to the bottom of the drop down menu and you should see 'Work Offline' if that has a check mark (tick) next to it uncheck it.

I hope the above helps. :)

This is not agood "Giveaway". Why? This game is everytime downloadable for FREE at the homepage game top com. It´s a pity... :-(((


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

Basically games from places like Gametop, MyPlaycity, FreeGamePick, Jenkat games and others are not true freebies. They are given away under licence. The developer gets paid by these sites for allowing them to give the games away. in exchange the websites earn money through monetization and other advertising methods.

All games given away via these sites open up your browser to the sites home page when you close the games down (I know there are ways to avoid this, but basically you are breaking a contract by 'hacking' the game). Also you stand the risk of having your home page changed and your browser provider changed as well as getting unwanted toolbars and other unwanted items, all of which can be sorted (or avoided usually by unchecking checkboxes,) but are all still annoyances.

At least with giveaway games there's no changes made to your computer and when you close the game dowm, your browser isn't opened to the giveaway site. :)

Just posting a general thank you to both GOTD and Playrix for offering this game. Unfortunately I am not downloading as I have received it before. Just wanted to add that when this game came out it was a leader of the pack with good graphics, integral story etc.

If you enjoy hidden object games or a mysterious story, you should take advantage of this offer and enjoy a good few hours of play for free.

I remember this game from the last time it was given away. I'd seen it at the free sites before that, and never bothered to check it out because of that cheesy romance-cover image of the lovers, which has now been partially covered by a game logo. (Yeah, yeah, I know, Valentine's Day is coming, so shoot me: I'm not much of a romantic!) But then I read Rabbit's review, installed it and played it through, and found it to be a decent-enough HOG. Decent enough to play once, but not to keep, as HOGs aren't my favorite genre.


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

Thanks for the feedback Delilah (you sound like spouse, lol)

Hello all

thanks for this good games

but what the differences between the last version in game.giveawayoftheday.com/spirit-of-wandering-the-legend-2/ ?

any differences in game, thats sure, but why the last version work correctly in my pc and the new version are work slowly (same reaction with IObit\Game Booster 3) ?
i dont know.

now i vote -1 (i have voted +1 for the last version)

see you soon

Sacha


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

Hello Sacha, I think this is the same version, which would imply that something has changed on your computer? Check task manager and see if there is anything running that's taking up an excessive amount of RAM. Secondly check to see if a background program is conflicting with the game. (You'll have to do that by turning off programs one at a time then checking the game. :) That said, if you still have the previous version installed it shouldn't be a problem. Maybe check the conmtents of each folder to see if there's any additional files? (shouldn't be if they are the same versions)

good game and easier for foreign speakers like myself! thanks.

Downloaded easily enough but the game crashes as soon as I try activating the orb.


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


Try going into compatibility mode for XP and change some of the other attributes such as disabling display scalaling or visual themes. Also check the FAQ's over in the game discussion forumns (you'll find it in the sticky section - I've linked to it in my review under problems)

Today’s review is just a repeat of the last time this game was give away apart from the images have been updated.

If you miss today's game giveaway it's available 24/7 from both MyPlayCity and Gametop (though from Gametop it's got a slightly different name). You can download it via HERE via Gametop or from MyPlayCity HERE

Main Menu

Story

Spirit of Wandering



Installation

The downloaded file is approximately 82.5 Mb in size and unpacks to a wrapped dual activation and set up module a setup.gcd file (security plus the actual executable) and a read me document that tells you how to install the game and gives you the terms and conditions. By default the game is installed to:

C:\Program Files\Playrix Entertainment\Spirit Of Wandering

But you can change the installation path during the install wizard. A shortcut is installed to both the desktop and start menu programs list. There's also a shortcut link to Playrix's web site, and you can uninstall the game via the start menu programs lists shortcut if you wish.

The game plays fine on XP Pro 32 bit with Service pack 3, Vista 64 bit Home Premium with Service pack 1 and Win 7 Ultimate and Pro 64 bit versions (I don’t have a home copy). Not had time to test it on Vista yet. and I haven't installed my copy of win 8 yet.




Introduction

Join an adventurous captain's search for her lost love in this romantic hidden object challenge featuring tropical locations, cursed sailors and the power of true love. Sail the seas with the captain of the Spirit of Wandering to a variety of locations and search for hidden items that will free her cursed crew and point the way to her missing love. Decipher brain-bending riddles and use magical tools to discover precious items drifting between this world and the next. Featuring gorgeous scenes, an original story and hours of hidden object fun, Spirit of Wandering - The Legend seeks to answer the question: Can true love really conquer all? Even death?

Reference accessed
HERE 9th April 2011

Level Map

Despite this game being available for free 24/7 from the likes of Gametop, MyPlayCity and other free sites the advantage of downloading today’s game from the game giveaway project is that your browser won’t be opened every time you turn the game off; whereas the free games site's versions do open your browser.



The Game:


The following is a large part of a review posted over at Gamezebo. I left it too late to write much of my own thoughts on the game other than to say it’s a hidden object game.

Hidden object fans will swoon over the romantic hidden object adventure Spirit of Wandering: The Legend. It's the tale of a female pirate captain who loses her crew - including her lover, Jack - during an attack by the infamous ghost ship the Flying Dutchman. The crew aren't dead, but merely imprisoned in the spirit world, which means the captain must use her compass and Jack's magic orb to get them back.

Since spirits have a tendency to return to familiar places, the captain travels to locations that were important to her six crew members in an effort to pull them back into the world of the living. In order to do this, she must recover a series of items, including special "cherished" items that were especially important to each crew member.

Each location is split into several sub-scenes that contain a blend of normal and cherished items to find. Cherished items are unique in that they phase in and out of the real world, and can only be seen by holding the magic orb in front of them. To active the orb, you'll first have to find a short list of normal items and click on them with the mouse to cross them off a list. Once the orb is activated, it acts like a homing beacon. By listening to verbal cues and watching as the flames of the orb burn brighter, you can pinpoint the local of the cherished item and get it to show up.



When the cherished item is found, a new set of normal items appears, and the cycle continues until all cherished items are found in a given scene. The system works very well. Cherished items are identified by picture, while normal items are identified by a textual description which adds variety to the searching.

Item descriptions are more imaginative than the usual fare - expect to search for "Grecian pitcher of brass," "the curved blade of a soldier," "a pirate's hand pistol," and "the bust of a nobleman." Some descriptions border on riddles: "The home of golden bugs," for example, refers to a green shield adorned with gold scorpions, while "a container for timely sand," refers to an hourglass.

Finding Cherished Items

Using the Magic Orb

The lists of items are logical in the context of the game, and all adhere to an old-fashioned sea-faring pirate culture - for example, there are no CDs, computer, cars or telephones to find here. Rather, you'll be searching for things like quill pens, compasses, candlesticks, coral and wooden clocks.

When a crewmember is found they will reveal the location of a treasure trove. Treasure troves are fun mini-games where you're presented with a screen full of gold pieces and treasure, and have to try to click on as much of it as possible in 60 seconds. Replenishing your gold allows you to use your compass to give you hints if you get stuck finding a normal item. As you move the compass around the screen, the needle will rotate to point in the direction of an item.

Spirit of Wandering is bolstered by gorgeous graphics and suitably stirring music that uniquely complements each level. The game offers eighteen scenes set across six locations that include a pirate port, a primitive island village, an underwater grotto and the decks of the Flying Dutchman itself, as well as six treasure troves. This is a respectable number of levels considering that, unlike other hidden object games, you never re-visit the same scene twice.

What's more, the story is well-crafted and engaging. You'll get to know the six crew members you're looking for quite well by the end of the game thanks to colorful descriptions written in a diary-style book, and cherished items that are matched to each crew member's personality. Khikaru, for example, is the ship's look-out so it makes perfect sense that his cherished items are a spy-glass and a sexton for navigating.

Magic Orb Indicator

Cherished Items Phase In and Out

Moving On

While I would whole-heartedly recommend Spirit of Wandering: The Legend, there are a few issues worth noting. The first is that the riddle-like item descriptions, while clever, can often refer to more than one of the items on-screen. Finding which of the ten pots that the clue "a clay pot with a handle" actually refers to is a matter of trial-and-error that requires a bit of patience. Other times it's a simple case of two or more identical items - like barrels and beaded necklaces - appearing in different locations.

Players also can't expect to rely too much on hints, because it costs the hefty sum of 60 gold coins every time you use one. If you get stuck, you can exit to the map and try another location, or just wait it out - if you wait long enough, the game throws you a bone by briefly highlighting a hidden item. There are no time limits in Spirits of Wandering, so you can take as long as you like, however, if you randomly click on the wrong things too many times in rapid succession, you'll lose some of your precious gold.





Once story mode is completed, players can go back and play scenes individually in Advanced mode.

Reference accessed HERE Sept 18th 2010

Cherished Items Phase In & Out of Reality

Features:

• 6 Gorgeous settings
• 24 Challenging locations
• Over 450 hidden objects
• 90 cherished items to discover


You can check other people’s views on this game HERE


Music:

If you don't like the music you can change it for something that you prefer, but first you must convert the music to the ogg format then re-name each piece to one of the following: 0.ogg, 1.ogg, 2.ogg, 3.ogg, 4.ogg, 5.ogg, gold.ogg and menu.ogg. You can find the music folder via the path:

C:\Program Files\Playrix Entertainment\Spirit Of Wandering\music

As a precaution I'd back up the original music, but if you do forget, you can get the original files by downloading the version from Gametop or MyPlayCity and using the files from that version. If you don't have a audio converter, you'll find freeware versions such as Audacity HERE or others via Google.





Images:

You can see almost 50 images as a slideshow HERE


Video:

You can see video of Spirit of Wandering’s game play HERE and HERE

Using the Compass to find hints

System Requirements:



* Windows XP/Vista (and it also works in Win 7)

* 600MHz or faster Processor

* 128MB RAM

* DirectX-certified Sound Card

* 32MB Video Card with 16-bit Color and 3D acceleration

* DirectX 7.0 or better



Conclusion:

This is a reasonable Hidden Object Game (H.O.G.), though there's nothing remarkable about it. There has been a plethora of HOG's released over the last few years, many of which are much better than this one (IMO); that said if you like the genre then you'll find this is a decent game. I got bored pretty quickly with the game, but then I had reason to be because I've played too many of the games over the last few years and was also very keen to return to some of my more recently purchased games such as Crysis 2, Need for Speed: Shift 2, Shogun 2: Total War and Dragonage 2, consequently I was impatient to finish the editing of this review. Unless you absolutely hate HOG's I recommend you download this free game. :lol:

The quality of presentation and the overall game play deserves at least 7 out of 10 as does the music. As mentioned above, this game is now available from sites like Gametop 24/7, so if you miss today’s giveaway, or lose it to a format you can still get a copy from that free game download site :)





Scoring

Gameplay – 8
Graphics – 7
Audio – 6
Re-playability – 7
Originality – 7

Total = 7.0








Problems:

If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game discussion section. If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed. It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them.

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Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problemsl>:



If you have any problems installing or getting to work today's game please go HERE for help.


If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals.

There are loads of deals available from Steam for example there's a free weekend for Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and it's 50% off for the game if you decide to purchase. There's also 50% off Hotline Miami and between 50% to 75% off all Square Enix's games. Each day till monday there will be a special that has a better percentage off. Todays special is the Deus Ex franchise, which changes over to another set of games later today. The 24 hr deal is I am Alive with 66% off where you are cast as a lone survivor in a believable, dark and insecure post-apocalyptic world. You'll also find many more from Gamersgate, Gamestop, Greenman Gaming and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above (apart from Greenman gaming.


The usual monthly free game from Alawars game box is now Sprill. It's supposed to change every month, but some community members are seeing the same game for months on end. Dido suggested that you reinstall gamebox to fix the problem. Reinstalling gamebox shouldn't affect any previous freebies. :). (You need to install the free Gamebox from Alawar to access the free games, which for newcomers change approximately every month).

If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles or the four day sales at IndieGameStand. The latest IndieGameStand game is Leave Home an abstract Shmup. The average price to qualify for bonus content is $1.45, but you can get the game for $1 if you wish.


You'll find more free Hidden Object games over at MyPlayCity (over 140 of them), Gametop and FreeGamePick but please be aware that these sites may add toolbars and home page hijacks to your web browser, but these can be avoided by un-checking the appropriate boxes during installation. Also when you close any of their games down, your browser is opened and directed to the sites home page. This is innocuous so don’t worry. Closing the page ends any connection and nothing is downloaded.

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A Request for helpl>:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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