Follow-up to my earlier feedback on Giveaway-day, every time I play the game, over a dozen times so far, the numbers and combinations change.

This is a major plus! Many games reuse the sane numbers, or switch between a few sets, but this one appears to generate them randomly or use a much larger collection.

Some of the mini games might get boring or tedious after repeated play, but the main game stays fresh by making you find the sequence clues every time. Excellent!!

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

Thank you for your feedback :)

This is a really good hidden object game, I agree, too much running around. Objects are hidden nicely. However, I did not care at all for the ending. Totally dumb. But that is my opinion. Since it is fee-standing; I will put it somewhere other than my hard drive then probably delete it only because again of the stupid ending.
Thanks for this giveaway. Enjoyed finding the objects and figuring out all the puzzles.

What a fabulous game. I love, love, love this game. It is so frustrating though because I can't find a lot of the things I need to advance but then that is part and parcel of these types of games. I would really love to see more games of this calibre. Brilliant fun, I get lost in this game and lose hours.

Hi, just completed this Game (Twisted Lands..), it's Wednesday, so I've been playing it since Sun. Why so long?:) - my eyes couldn't take more than an hour at the time (approx. twice a day) Hidden objects were least a 'problem' here. Longest and most annoying in this Game is waiting for the 'Q' mark to build up it;s power, but, boy, without - it would take a week to complete! There is no Map (like in Mystery of Mortlake Mansion for instance), so Question Mark is practically the only Guide (I'm not counting that Book with some hints on the left) where to go. These arrows are though too flashy and puffy and bright (no mercy on tired eyes!), and DEAD SLOW when just coming out from something else using this form of Help. Why Hints and 'Map' are thrown into one bag here, beats me!

Game itself is indeed packed with many, many Puzzles (I didn't cheat once!:), but without occasionally looking for clues in Book on the left, or reading 'cute' but annoying text above them (especially 'at least you tried'.., ha ha not!) - hard enough to figure out what's involved. Funny bits for me - definitely 'overpowering' the snake, still there on next visits:) Time consuming and fiddly - putting 'gangway' in it's place with the use of Crane, and wondering (arrows pointing to it, but not where to attache it, ggrrh) hose with oxygen.. The End probably as it started (didn't skip the Final scene wanting to see what happens in the Story) - quite primitive graphics and video itself. AND..the whole Game, for me at least, silly, but NOT scary, sorry Developer. I played too many Games with innocent but chilling graphics (never mind the element of Unexpected!:)), to be scared that easily, lol. I would give it modest 5-6. Shame, it could be much better, for efforts (puzzles) alone, probably 8-9 to be little bit more generous. Will I play it again, did I get hooked? Honest answer is no, too time consuming, too poorly 'put together', as amusing as it might be for others. It's only my humble opinion, I stress:)

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


Thank you for your well thought out feedback of this game Fran. 10 out of 10 for an excellent critique of this game; lets hope the developer reads and maybe eve makes some improvements to the game.

:D :lol:

Thank you for a chance to play Twisted Lands: Shadow Town. The game played well on a Win 8 64bit laptop with dual monitors. I can understand the comments on some of the hidden object, being hard to find on a smaller screen. I think we only needed to use a hint once, but we had a 24" monitor. The game does having you running back and forth through the same locations, but not enough to seriously detract.
Just clicking hint when you get tired of figuring out the way back to a location helps. The spooky aspect added to the game interest. Ending twist was a surprise.

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

Thanks for the feedback Bobby. :)

Worked great on my win 7
music- great
graphics - great
puzzles - great
story - great
Ending - bad
Really enjoyed the game till the ending.
Unless i missed something the dev team really needed to give us more.

What was the creature we saw in the port widow on the boat?
Why was the picture of the guy and his sister at the church?
Why could the creatures in the dungeon not find another way out? (they would have needed all those dragon keys if they went in the front door.)
So many questions.

HI,

Well I started playing after an easy download and played for
some time. It keeps going and like the other mysteries, will
give hints or let you skip if you don't get something.
All in all enjoyable, though I haven't found who and why yet, lol!
Thanks for another great game!!

Runs quite smooth, but I did just hit a snag after playing for over an hour!

Oh, I just see that GOTD-Server time is not the same as comments time. I mean GOTD-Server time. Comments time is +3 hours, CEST is +9 hours.

Dear Stephen, dear GOTD-Team,

this giveaway is lost. This night i did sleeped too long. But 20 minutes before the end of this giveaway i have begun the download. Normally this is timely. At 08:59 CEST (23:59 at your time) the downloader said 251 MB're done. But the archive has only 187 MB and is defective. Repetition impossible because the file is missing on the server.
Until now you have it handled in manner so as, that at 00:00 clock only the link disappears. Then there is 1 hour of time to download the rest and to activate the program. This is a good scheme and has saved me many a giveaway.
But just on such a large program do you deviate from this regulation. Please repeat this giveaway.


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

Sorry you missed this giveaway Wurkupumpel, :shock: You can get the game free from one of the freegame sites 24/7. I've posted links in my review ( :arrow: see comment number 1).

I've played this game before, right through - probably from My Play City - but didn't totally figure out the story; so it's time to try it again. Thanks, Alawar and GGOTD.

Extracted just fine for me with WinRAR in Windows 7 32bit, and is playing OK. Graphics are crisp and bright - beautiful! But this game has a real sense of menace rather than just spookiness, so is probably not for kids.

Happy birthday to you next Saturday, Stephen, in case we don't get a game: I hope you've recovered from your birthday party by then ;-)

GOTD you rock. Thanks for everything.

I downloaded this game at 07:30am South African time(received the email at 11:32am Sunday)- 251MB.
When running setup, I was informed that the giveaway had expired??
What's up with that? Never happend to me before, and I LOVE MY HOGS.The first thing I do when I get to work on Monday morning, is check out the new surprise from GOTD.

That been said, keep up the good work.And Kudos to all the developers who provide us with software and games. Without you, my day (and night) would be dull and pointless.

Okay I installed the game on my Windows 7 system with no issues

I played the entire game through to the end today and have a few comments:

1: Making players run around a hundred different times became very .. very... very annoying and boring and frustrating.
Give us a side map to show where we are and not just the simple "oh here is a drawing"... a real time map of where we are located


2: You need to give some more instructions on how to operate the crane to set the bridge.... very annoying and I quit until I found an online walk through

3: You need to give a little help with the sub... look at this point in time we have been running all over the island and running back in forth and back and forth... yes we have become savvy but give us a break... you know the game we do not and a little hint would have made the ending more fun but instead I was simply frustrated to hell

4: You need to ad a touch of light to the HOG scenes... they are just to dark in places

5: Your hint meter takes way to long to load compared to the time it takes to play the game.

6: How did I feel about the game? Loved the searching and hunting with going back and revisiting a site that was already visited BUT a map for the lay out should have been in live action on a screen. Other games have does this and so should you.

Other than the minor complaints I loved the complexity of the game
It made you think and recall about what you had done, where you were, what happened BUT guys it is NOT scary.

A good HOG in general.

Pros:
This games allows a player to play again without having to create a new player.

Cons:
There are a lot of multiple click-throughs to get from one place to another, back and forth, between what you need and where you need it.

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

Thank you for your feedback

"I get a error saying The archive is either in unknown format or damaged."
The solution is to run the installer in win xp compatibility mode.

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

Thanks for the advice Josh, will remember that one for next time.

:)

Hi, Stephen --

We're doing the three smallish main rooms on the first floor. We'll have to rip out the old red fir flooring, which is pretty but too soft to maintain, and also damaged by disintegrated carpet pad (ick!), and put down oak. The suspense comes from not knowing what kind of shape the subfloor is in until we get there. It's a lovely little old house, but it's full of surprises. I'm trying to convince the spouse that we can pay somebody rather than do this bit ourselves. I've decided I'm too clumsy for tile floors -- I wouldn't have a dish or cup left in a month! We're looking at a new waterproof laminate for the kitchen, which is next year's project.

BTW, today's game runs nicely on 64-bit Win7 which is sometimes a problem; some of the Playrix games don't, which seems to baffle their tech support.

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

The redwood sounds really nice, but fir is a softwood, so I can imagine the damage. We are very pleased with our oak flooring. we purchased honey oak with 6 inch width planks. We were going to go for 9 inch planks, but decided they would make the rooms look smaller. The largest room isn't that big (approx 23 feet by 20 feet) but is L shaped because a cloakroom has been built into the room (10 feet by 5 feet) from the main hall. We wanted wood floors in our old house, but the kids were toddlers at the time and we were concerned that they would hurt themselves if they fell, so carpeted everywhere apart from the bathrooms and kitchen. We much prefer tiled rooms for the dining room. (partly because the kids are messy eaters) :)?

It appears to be a bad file. Windows wouldn't extract it, and 7-Zip reports "CRC failed in 'Setup.gcd'. File is broken". Tried another download with the same results. I'm downloading it now to another computer that has RAR installed, but I don't expect RAR to suddenly work when the others failed to unzip this.

The game looked good too.

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

Hi Jim, There has been around 9 thousand downloads, with only two community members reporting this problem (usually when there is a problem we would get a lot more members reporting the problem). I'm sure it's not the source that's the problem. Maybe there's an issue with the link to you provider? A friend of mine used to have a bad telephone line and was always getting corrupted downloads.

Unfortunately I can't explain why this happens to only a few community members. Maybe its a conflict, or the way you have your computer set up? Try deleting the cookies related to the giveaway site then re-download the game, failing that, try rebooting your modem/router, and configure your security to allow the game. I hope at least one of these suggestions works a si hate to see community members miss out on a game.

If you have a VM installed, you could try downloading one of the versions from either Jenkat or MyPlayCity (I'm presuming you don't like the potential rubbish that could be installed with the games from these sites? Using a VM may show you that games from these sites are quite safe so long as you make sure you un-check and check boxes so as not to have toolbars and home page changes etc occur)

..............................UPDATE.............................

Check Josh's reply below. He says:

'run the installer in win xp compatibility mode'.

It downloaded and instlled fine on my computer and ran Ok with no problems with Windows XP home version.

Thank you game.giveawayoftheday.com! The game is working fine so far on Win 7 x64. The wife loves these games, I always play a while to make sure everything is working after installation, and this game is pretty interesting.

I did have to make my own shortcut for some reason, no problem but some people don't know how to do that.

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

Hi Jack, most game giveaways don't install a shortcut; no one has ever asked how to create one out of the hundreds of thousands of games that have been downloaded from this site. I used to post how to create a short cut when I first started to post reviews, but over time it sort of disappeared from my template.

I get a error saying The archive is either in unknown format or damaged.
I see some others having same error. I am not downloading a different unpacker it has its own built in after you unzip it. I have never had trouble installing a game until this place.

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

Hi Jim, I've had the same problem in the past, and couldn't figure out what it was. I'd purchased a game from the now defunct Direct to Drive and couldn't unpack the game. it kept throwing up the message 'The archive is either in unknown format or damaged'. I contacted support and they said they had retested the download and had no trouble unpacking or installing the game. I re-downloaded the file and tried again, but got the same message. It was just by chance that the following day I tried a different file archiver (called Stuffit) that I'd purchased a few weeks earlier, but hadn't used yet and it worked. Just to check I tried to unpack the zip file using the archiver I'd used previously (winzip) and it came up with the same error message.

Maybe try the free version form Jenkat or MyPlayCity?

Ah! Thank you for your reply Whiterabbit! I'll bet that's exactly what I did...inadvertently clicked on the install instead of CLOSE. I wondered why the install took so long! ><
I think I need new glasses, or more sleep, cuz that is really hard to miss!
Thanks again! :)

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

As I said earlier, it's easy enough to remove.

Happy Birthday to you both! Hope you had a nice party.

As usual I am in for a HOG - download was less then 10 minutes with playing evil Farmville while doing so ;-)

Installed without a problem on my Win7 and I started playing the first few scenes. I think I already played this game once but will go through it nonethless - it works fine and looks beautiful.

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

Thanks! .

Thanks, GG, Alawar, and of course to Whiterabbit for keeping us awesomely well-informed. I've had my eye on this game for my android tablet -- now I can try it out on the laptop, Yay! There are a couple more games in this series on android. I do like the Alawar games, although I agree none have been as good as Snark Busters, not even the sequel.

Hope things are going well for you, Stephen. I thought of you, because we're getting ready to Do The Floors in our hundred+ yr-old house; the pain! the dust! But it'll all be worth it. Probably.

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

Thanks! Good luck with the floors. What are you going to do, restore wooden floors, lay new wood or tiles? (We did oak flooring in the main living room, a smaller sitting room and large entrance hall. The kitchen, study and dining rooms are all marble tiles as will the bathrooms and balcony be, once we've sorted the issues with the builders. The rest of the house - bedrooms and a second family room have been carpeted).

@24 Mr. Dave

I was nursing a migraine at the time, so the mistaken install only occurred to me after I'd posted the comment. Same migraine knocked me for a few hours too.

Thanks for clarifying that. :)

I always installed these on an external hard drive, but the last folder name for the install directory: TwistedLandsShadowTown_game is indeed correct.

Cheers.

Thanks GOTD, nice giveaway with good graphics. I'm not too wild about HOG games but I do play them. I have many Alawar games and I do enjoy their games.
Again thanks!

NICE GAME! Well up to the usual Alawar standard, Angel looks VERY cute LOL!

Have only played the tutorial so far but I know thi one will be a keeper.

Thanks to Alawar and GGOTD for this!

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

:)

Happy birthday(s)! Enjoy them before you accumulate so many they are no longer special.

This game runs fine in Vista 32. A couple of times, usually when first accessing a new area, the game would just sit there with the hourglass on the screen; clicking anywhere on the screen made it continue.

For Mr nofun - such caustic comments are no fun. I'm sure none of us like every game offered here, but we can be appreciative that developers are willing to provide free copies.

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

Thank you for your comments jgf, (and well said).

No other Vista users have commented yet. The game works fine on my system: Vista Home Premium 32-bit, Nvidia graphics, 2 GB RAM. I worked my way through several scenes. Graphics are good, I turned the music down but not off. My only wish so far is that the dialog scenes would only move forward with a mouse click or space-bar tap, makes it hard to read them to others before they change. Thanks Alawar and GAOTD for another good one!

Also, to Dana (#21), it looks like you installed this to the same folder as a previous giveaway. When I installed it gave me the option to pick a folder (I changed it to I:\Hidden), then it made a sub-folder for the game inside that folder. The TMI game is in a separate folder inside of I:\Hidden along with all my other Hidden Object games, where I installed it last weekend.

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

Thank you for your feedback Mr Dave

Error Below
Installation:

Alice’s Magical Mahjong downloads to a 251 MB zip file

Alice should read Twisted Lands: Shadow Town
quite understandable since you had a big day.
Happy Birthday to you and your wife Mr. Bunny.

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

Was tired and distracted, so missed some area's that needed editing. I use a template to save some time. Now sorted.

:)

seems like a good game, but the programmers seem to be confused on what objects are. open the laptop backing in the ship and there is a desktop motherboard inside with desktop memory that would never ever ever fit in a laptop...tin snips (for cutting sheet metal) are hedge clippers....things like that..

This game was around 251MB and downloaded pretty quickly on DSL line. I'm running Windows 7 32-bit and had no issues.

The Setup file installed 2 games into a folder named "ToMI Gates of Fate". One is the game featured here which I started to play: Twisted Lands: ShadowTown; the other is "The Treasures of Mystery Island: Gates of Fates", which features a different lead character. In the latter game, the man wakes in a sort of cave complaining of having been in a helicopter crash and not remembering much else.

Twisted Lands is really the usual horror which the main actor going: "Did I just see that?" and generally making light of the clear signs of something being terribly odd about his environment. The only thing driving him right now is his need to find good things to sell and find his partner Angel. Brave man.

First mini-game I came upon I had to skip because of the way I see colour, I could hardly tell the difference between the green and blue buttons you had shift into their correct places.

One thing I do like about the game is the ability to move items around looking behind and underneath them. Also, I actually did move to memorise a combination for a lock, but found it pictured conveniently in the journal. I do tend to think to note things down though, since playing a bit of Myst and especially Ghost in the Sheet, which is principally an adventure game.

I still quite like HOGs since they are story-driven and unfold in interesting ways - like reading a good mystery novel. However, these days it is rare to find HOGs with unique gameplay experiences. Pity it seems this story is not that good from the review given here and elsewhere, but I'll give a go later and see how it fares for myself.

Happy Birthday in advance Mr. Whiterabbit and thanks for posting the review. :)

PS: "Alice’s Magical Mahjong downloads to a 251 MB zip file", looks to be some kind of typo. Cheers.

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

Thanks for your feedback Dana, very much appreciated. Yeah, forgot to change the name of the game; I was dog tired this morning due to not going to bed the previous night then going to bed around 4am this morning, (sleeping at the computer, with a keyboard imprint on my forehead and numb arms). Mistake sorted now

:)

...and your wife a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! (Mine is June 9th.) On my birthday, I will be an "official" senior = 65! Just got out of the hospital for total knee replacement, so I missed a couple of the games. Can't sit very long to play the games, yet, but hopefully soon.

Thank you for all the time and work you put into the GGTD.

Have a GRAND day!

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

Thank you for your kind words. I Hope you make a quick recovery from your surgery. you could always download the missed games from MyPlayCity or Jenkat Games.

Hi, WR! Today you "woke up just before the game went live, with a virtually unfinished review", leading to it starting with "Alice’s Magical Mahjong downloads to a 251 MB zip file" (easily corrected)... No need to publish this, BTW -- And thanks for your friendly and committed efforts, they're always appreciated.

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

I was so tired I'd not proof read the review. I use a basic template, so tend to copy the previous weeks review and cut out the parts that need changing. Had missed the above. :) If you'd read further you'd have also found links to MyPlayCity and Jenkat Games for Alice’s Magical Mahjong as well. all has been sorted now

:)

I've developed a real liking for hidden object games. Most of them include an interesting story and can be beaten in 2-3 hours. They're almost like watching a movie in that respect. Thanks for this one, it's one I hadn't played yet!

Hi, thanks for giving this Game away, thanks Alawar. For me it was no brainer to download, as I like this type of Games, and I didn't come across this particular one before. Went on their page, and just in case marked the link to 'Blog Walkthrough!', you never know:)

Started playing, all looks familiar and yet slightly different to usual Alawar Games, might be graphics I'm not massively happy with, as they seem to be little bit 'primitive' (especially human Characters), but I'm sure I can ignore them and carry on with tasks. All in all - as 'crude' as it is for my liking - I'm grateful it's given away today and truly look forward to discover it for myself. Will I get hooked? Too early to say, hope so!:)

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

Thanks for your feedback Fran

I love HOGS! Thank you! As of my posting this, there are only 3 posts I can see, so I may be repeating what someone else has said, but it hasn't been moderated yet.

However, for the first time EVER while installing this game, I got a pop up window called "Software Informer". Did it come wrapped in this install, or did this install "wake it up"? I am usually proficient in not selecting extra software to install that is "offered" with other packages.The only extra things I saw were to make GOTD a part of my bookmarks in select browser favorites. Nothing about Software Informer.

I also noticed that this giveaway comes from Bigfish games (who is notorious for these kinds of addons)

So, can someone tell me if I got this through this GGOTD giveaway,(This Software Informer does have a GOTD tab) or maybe somewhere else? I also went to Revo Uninstaller, which is a great program, and for some reason, Software Informer does not show up on the list, which to me is peculiar. (I will try to remove it in other ways.)

IF this software informer is part of this GGOTD package, It's kind of redundant to offer it since none of the stuff GOTD or GGOTD gives away cannot be updated! AND, it should say so somewhere, with the option to select it or not. I do not appreciate sneaky addons.

If it did NOT come wrapped with any GOTD, or GGOTD download, maybe someone can enlighten me to where I may have gotten it, since it does have a GOTD tab on it.

Thanks for the assistance! :)

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

Hi Mary, Software Informer is an opt in package that the giveaway team include with all giveaways, both on the game and application side. It's been included in the installer package for at least 4 or 5 years. Once the game has been installed and activated, a window appears which enables you to close the installer down. On this window there is also a button that enables you to install Software Informer. It's a program that keeps you updated with respect to program versions. Basically it will inform you of newer versions of programs you have installed on your computer; quite a useful tool if you like to keep your computer programs up to date. It's similar to those programs that inform you of new drivers. The only way it could have been installed is if you clicked on that button accidentally when closing the installer down (see image below with red arrow pointing to the button)

You should be able to uninstall software informer quite easily.

I like HOGs. Some don't have the reflexes anymore to play some of the arcade style games.

This looks like an older game. The big trend now for HOGs is Collector's Editions which have extra game play and collectables.

There doesn't seem to be any way to lock the inventory bar into place as is common in many HOG games. It's easier to see your inventory when you run into something so you know you'r options.

I'm tired of word lists in HO scenes. I prefer the ones where you're finding parts of an item, but even that is starting to get old.

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

There is a collectors version of this game

Another hidden object game! I love them! I would devote more hard drive space to fit these. They make a great family activity. We have fun as a group finding the objects and solving the puzzles.

I've already played this game on android. Nice giveaway today!

Why only hidden object games??

It is not only children who play games - and I don't mean we want ADULT!!! games. Just an interesting action - role play or adventure game. Please give us something else.

Thanks!

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

The giveaway team rely on the generosity of developers for the games we get here. HOG's Match Threes and Time Management games were all extremely popular over the last several years; consequently there are a plethora of these types of games compared to other types, which is why we see so many here.

Well nofun, I hate match-3s and adore HOGs: so I'll be giving this a spin soon!

Would be a dull world if we all liked the same type of games, right?

Great, thanks GGotD I love hidden object games!

Game will not install for me and I get this error:


The archive is either in unknown format or damaged

I have tried everything

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

Have you checked the FAQ's section in the game discussion forums? Try using a different archiver such as 7 Zip or J zip to unpack the game.

Thanks for another Hidden Object game. I just love them, it's all I play.

Another hidden object game, I love them, Thanks Tons!

Thanks GAOD and Alawar. I enjoy HOG quite a bit. Always looking for another interesting HOG.

my husband loves these types of games. he'll be happy when he sees it.

Hey nofun,you could also have saved yourself 1 minute 15 seconds,by NOT typing your comment....LOST FOREVER

Game installed and runs fine on my 11 yr old computer with Win-XP. Love this game and this type of game. A little spooky makes it a good game for late at night.

Once more a hidden object game - I hate them! 251 MB DL saved...

Sorry this has taken so long to post. We had an early birthday party late this morning (mine and my wife's birthdays; 30th May my wife and me 7th June). I've had family around, so wasn't able to finish the review. actually fell asleep at the computer while writing it up early this morning and woke up just before the game went live, with a virtually unfinished review.

Twisted Lands: Shadow Town:

In Brief:

Creepy Hidden Object game with puzzle solving


Installation:


Twisted Lands: Shadow Town downloads to a 251 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup activation file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there's a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that's protected from being hacked. This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive.

The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006. The installed game is 257 MB in size, and installs to:

C:\Games\TwistedLandsShadowTown_game (can someone confirm this, thanks)

by default but can be changed to suit whatever your wishes are. There is no uninstaller, but this game is free standing so to delete just remove the installed folder from your hard drive.

Shortcuts are installed to both the Desktop and Start Menu /Programs folder under Playrix Entertainment, (not sure where in Win 8) and you'll also find an uninstaller in the programs folder as well as a link to Playrix Once the game is installed you can delete the giveaway setup files.

I've only tested the game on Win 7 and Win 8 and it works fine. Anyone running Vista or XP, please confirm whether this game works Thanks.



If you miss the giveaway or have problems installing the game is available 24/7 from MyPlayCity and Jenkat Games. Do remember to un-check any tick boxes, otherwise you may find your home page changed, a new browser installed or tool bars installed.




Introduction:

Gather items, solve puzzles and make spine-chilling discoveries as you explore a deserted island in Twisted Lands: Shadow Town! Why does your heart beat faster when you peer into a dark room? What makes the hair on your neck bristle when something invisible whispers in your ear? Dive into the emotion of fear, and find out, in this spooky Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game!

Reference accessed HERE March 2013

The Game:



Zombies, snakes and murder, oh my! All of this and more awaits in Twisted Lands: Shadow Town, a new hidden object thriller in which the name of the game isn't to solve the mystery and save the world, but just to find your woman and get the heck out of Dodge. A strong start had my hopes high but in the end, a few too many missteps keep this adventure from being a truly memorable experience.


The last game to come from Alawar Stargaze, Snark Busters: Welcome to the Club, absolutely rocked my socks off, so I was eagerly looking forward to the studio's next effort. Twisted Lands: Shadow Town certainly hits most of the right notes. It's easy on the eyes, with sharp, well-defined graphics and a good variety of scenes that range from a cruise ship run aground to a spooky mansion and a mysteriously abandoned town. The hidden object searches are reasonably challenging without being obnoxiously difficult, as are the puzzle segments, although one or two can be a bit tricky unless you have the foresight to do some old-fashioned note-taking - which, for the record, is an idea I'm quite fond of. The story steps awkwardly at times but serves up a sufficiently creepy mystery that follows the descent of an entire island into a spiral of madness and murder that ultimately traps all who wander near.

It sounds like a sure-fire formula for a gripping hidden object game. So what went wrong?
The biggest problem with Shadow Town is that it's a two-hour game in a three-hour package. Way too much time is spent moving back and forth between locations for trivial purposes. And it's not just a matter of running between adjacent rooms to collect a pile of items or wrap up a two-part puzzle; you'll quite literally be making repeated trips across almost the entire map to retrieve individual objects needed to move the game forward. It may sound like nit-picking but it becomes excessive to the point of frustration, because it's obvious the developer is just trying to pad out the play time by making you run around in circles.


Heightening that annoyance is the presence of two maze sections, one of which separates two of the game's primary areas. These "fog-enshrouded paths" are small and fairly simple to navigate, especially with the aid of the hand-drawn maps left lying on the ground at the start of each, but they simply should not be there. Mazes do not contribute to the quality of a game, only to its length; this is highlighted by the fact that these sections can be easily traversed even by the most directionally-challenged players with the use of the hint function, which will keep you pointed in the right direction and lead you through step-by-step. Why even bother with a maze if the string that guides you through has already been laid?

The story has a few gaping holes but still manages to tie everything together nicely with a satisfying twist to wrap things up. The "hero" begins the game as a rather distasteful character, a deep-sea treasure hunter who clearly has no qualms about the legality or morality of his trade as long as he can make a buck from it. But his determination to save his beloved Angel from harm, no matter what the risk to himself, is admirable, revealing him to be more Han Solo than Jabba the Hutt. At the same time, peering too closely at the details is bound to result in a few tricky questions, particularly with regards to the way everything in the game apparently happened in either the early or late 20th century. Unless I missed some devious plot device that explains this apparent time-warp (and that's entirely possible), the best way to approach the Shadow Town tale is with a quick, light touch.

Reference accessed HERE June 1st 2014

System Requirements:


OS: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
CPU: 1.0 GHz
System RAM: 512 MB
DirectX: 9.0 or higher
Hard Drive: 269 MB




Video:

There’s several videos (parts 1 to 7 of walkthrough videos by 123Pazu•
HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE



Music:

You can’t change the in game music, but you can turn it off or reduce the volume via the options panel.

Conclusion:

I’m not into HOG’s after burning out on them a few years ago. Probably got around a hundred of the thins (though Big Fish Games has well over a thousand HOG’s on their books), I left BFG because nearly every new game was a HOG a few years ago. That said, I enjoyed the short time I played this game and would recommend it to anyone looking top kill a few hours.


There's no question that Twisted Lands: Shadow Town brings a lot of goodness to the table. It looks great and it mixes in a decent number of animated cut scenes that bring the story to life. The hidden object searches are conventional but attractive and entertaining. The Collector's Edition of the game (which we don't get today) includes a built-in walkthrough and a bonus chapter set on the same desolate island that also reveals something called Twisted Lands: Insomnia - a glimpse into the future, perhaps? Most hidden object fans will probably find something here to like.

There are rough spots; for example the soundtrack has a tendency to become overbearing at times and also has an unfortunate habit of starting and stopping haphazardly, leaving pauses of a minute or more between tracks. Ultimately, effective horror is all about pacing and that's where this game really stumbles. The individual components are all quite solid and the big finish, when it finally arrives, is good fun and worth waiting for. But it's all spread too thin, with way too much time-wasting filler. Twisted Lands: Shadow Town is a good game, but not great.


You can read what others have said about the game HERE



Pros:

• Solid graphics. Engaging story.


Cons:

• Poor pacing - far too much running around for no good reason.

Scoring

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

Total = 7.2






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). Today’s game is available free 24/7 from MyPlayCity and Jenkat Games. Do remember to uncheck any tick boxes, otherwise you may find your home page changed, a new browser installed or tool bars installed.

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

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




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


There are several other deals available from Steam as well as many more from Gamersgate, Gamestop, Desura, Greenman Gaming and GOG.

This weekends Steam deals include a free weekend play of the excellent PayDay 2, there’s also 67% off if you decide to purchase, you can also check out RPG Maker for free and if you decide you like it you can buy it and all dlc for 75% off. (Humble Bundle has a special on where you can purchase RPG Maker and some dlc for only $6), there’s 75% off Europa Universalis and selected dlc, 50% off State of Decay, 75% off Super Street fighter IV Arcade edition, 75% off Football Manager 2014, 75% off Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure, 75% off Dead space Pack, 50% off Euro Truck simulator 2 Collectors Bundle, 60% off Brothers – A Tale of Two Brothers, 75% off Two worlds II, 75% off Primal Carnage, 75% off Titan Quest gold, 66% off Star Trek, 66% off Victoria II, 75% off Iron Front Digital war Edition, 54% off Cloudbuilt, 75% off Guncraft, 50% off Last Dream, 90% off Action Indie Pack (Larva Mortalis, Penguins arena, RIP Trilogy, Space Trader: Merchant Marine and Tank Universal – 7 game sin all for only $1.49/£1.09) 80% off Thunder Wolves. There’s over 100 game son sale a the moment. Yesterdays 48 hour deal was Metro Last Light an excellent post apocalyptic FPS game and today's is Luftrausers an interesting arcade shooter

You'll find details of all live game bundles over in the Game discussion forums HERE
Also don't forget to check out IndieGameStands 96 hour deal. The present game is
Siege of Turtle Enclave a turn based strategy war game with real time battles, it's set in a vibrant and inviting fantasy world where the last remnant of a nation of turtles valiantly makes a stand against the ravaging hordes of corrupt owls which have wrested away most of the turtle's homeland. You’ll also find the daily indie game Koya Rift a procedurally generated planet colonization game HERE . You can get both games for $1 each. If you pay more than the average for Koya Rift, which stands at $1.03 at the moment, you’ll get two keys, one to give to a friend.

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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