I've tried everything I can think of to get this game to work, but nothing has worked. I get the same issue that the community have posted i.e. it boots up to the main menu via an Alawar and developers splash screen then closes; so, looking at the comments so far, it seems there is a serious issue with this game. If anyone does get it to work, please post some details of what system you are running it on etc. :(

The 2D atmospheric action platformer Nubarron: The adventure of an unlucky gnome free until 6pm (UK time) 1pm( EST) today via Steam.

Vampire Saga – Pandora’s Box:

In Brief:
Explore eerie Victorian locations and discover the truth in Vampire Saga: Pandora`s Box! A Hidden Object Game previously given away April 12th 2015, where it received a positive 70% from 436 votes with 60 comments which you can see HERE

Introduction:
Tyler`s grandfather has called him with some shocking news! After confronting his grandfather, Tyler is sent back in time to experience the mysterious occurrences and moments leading up to this bizarre revelation. Scour gorgeous Hidden Object scenes and play fun minigames as you dive deep into a decades-old mystery.

Reference: accessed HERE 26th June 09 reposted April 27th 2021.

The Game:
In mythology, Pandora’s Box was a jar that unleashed numerous evils upon mankind. However, in Alawar Entertainment‘s latest hidden object adventure Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box, Pandora is actually a ship. Yet within the creaking wooden belly of this vessel, true to the name of Pandora, a dark secret and deadly danger lurks. You’ll join Matthew Ward in this haunting tale as he finds himself alone on Pandora, a grim cloud over the ship abandoned out at sea.

Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box actually begins in a rather peculiar manner, with the story being recalled as a fateful memory by a character named Tyler Ward in Boston in 1950. One night, Tyler’s grandfather proceeds to share with him a series of events that influence and lead up to that night. As a young man, Ty’s grandfather, known as Matthew Ward, found himself stranded at port during the Spanish-American war, having fled. Eager to get home and mysteriously drawn to a certain ship named Pandora, he sneaks aboard only to fall unconscious. When he awakes, he finds himself stranded out at sea, with no captain or crew left alive. With anchor stuck and no one else on the vessel, in addition to numerous violent hallucinations, Matthew desperately tries to find a way off the ship while learning Pandora’s dark secrets.

Pandora’s Box is the classic definition of a hidden object adventure, with a very nice balance introduced. Hidden object levels serve a specific purpose in this title: to allow you to earn key items you’ll need throughout your explorations. Exploration is very typical of a classic point-and-click adventure. Each hidden object area stands out with a bright and uniquely colorful dark fog. A highly interactive and very easy to grasp inventory system is also present in the game, allowing you to store items for later. When an item has lost all use, it conveniently disappears.

Pandora’s Box also introduces a friendly hint system. Without actually using hints, the game will often give a little shine or sparkle here or there, just to let you know where to go or what you should be doing next, without interfering or making it too easy. The actual hint system is comprised of simply pressing the hint button is usable from both inside and outside of hidden object gameplay. Best of all, if you use a hint in an area in which there’s nothing to do, the hint remains while letting you know there’s nothing to do in that area at that time.

Hints also charge fairly quickly, allowing a good amount of time for the player to keep searching but not so long they get impatient waiting. If a player clicks too much too fast, they will temporarily lose control of the mouse as it swirls around the screen.

But of course, Alawar’ s latest title wouldn’t be anything without good hidden object play, and Vampire Saga certainly delivers. Every level is very challenging, and hidden object game fans will certainly face a worthy challenge if they tried to get entirely through this game without using a single hint.

There are some quirks, though. Perhaps one of the most disappointing things for me was reading about the animated cutscenes featured in the game, and that’s exactly what I expected. However, playing the actual game, few things are actually animated. Instead of panning, zooming, and introducing fluid movement, most every cutscene consists of a very slight frame change every several seconds. Even the opening scene felt long and burdening, since the game apparently only supported fluid animation on one minor character.

Another unfortunate thing to point out is that some of the items in the game’s hidden object levels were poorly labelled, and sometimes outright wrong. Most embarrassing was one item, seemingly a comb, which showed up as "???" at the bottom of the screen. Good luck finding that without using a hint!

But despite the drawbacks, Pandora’s Box is a very neat hidden object adventure. Not only is the gameplay challenging, but the hidden object levels are among some of the more challenging I’ve played, despite the occasional repetitive objects. The story isn’t bad, either.

Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box is among the few games where you think you know what’s going to happen before the game pitches you a very sharp twist, and one of the few that pulls off an ending that really leaves you speechless and wondering what’s going to happen next. Combine that with unique environments and suspense, and you’ve got your money’s worth.


Reference accessed HERE Originally posted by Tawny Mueller on Sep 18, 2009 and reposted by Whiterabbit-uk April 12th 2015, and again reposted 27th April 2021

Walkthroughs, Videos and Images:

You can find a walkthrough for Vampire Saga: Pandora's Box HERE and see around 40 images as a slideshow HERE. Some of the images are spoilers. Plus there are several video of game play SPOILER ALERT HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. Warning, these videos do contain spoilers.

System Requirements:
Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
CPU: 600 MHz
System RAM: 128 MB
DirectX: 6.0
Hard Drive: 104 MB

Conclusion:
A relatively easy Hidden Object game, that gets straight into the action from the word go, no cut scenes and the story is woven into the various screens you have to search. You pick up the usual items that are used to solve puzzles, most of which are very easy to solve. This is an ideal family HOG.

Scoring:
Gameplay - 8
Graphics - 8
Music and sound effects - 7
Re-playability - 7
Originality - 6

total 36 out of 50 which is equivalent to 7.2 out of 10

Other Free Games
The latest game from Epic is now live and will be available until Thursday 13th May (4pm UK time), HERE . It's an open-world action adventure RPG set in a simulated world in which humans never reached the top of the food chain. Fight with or against a variety of species as you make your way to a new home for your human tribe. From the 13th it will be replaced with "The Lion’s Song" a narrative adventure game which you can find HERE.

There's also a Starter pack for World of Warships worth $25 being given away via Epic at the moment HERE and Nubarron: The adventure of an unlucky gnome is still totally free over on Steam until later today (6pm UK time).

Please see Delenns threads for Steam and Non Steam freebies HERE and HERE respectively. It’s worth adding these to your favorites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, it’s yours to keep.

You'll find hundreds of freeware games of all arcade and indie genres on Itch.io and Caimans Games as well as other sources. Please do check out the game discussion forums for older posts HERE (the sticky section is useful). Many of the earlier posts may be out of date with respect to the links I and others have provided to the free games; however, you only need to know the name of the game to find most of them via other sources. Many of those games from 2008 to around 2017 were posted as part of a project to supplement the lack of weekday games when the game giveaway went to weekend only games around Easter 2008 (mainly instigated due to the financial crisis of 2008) until November 2018 when Falcoware stepped into the weekday slot; however, from around 2015 onwards we did start to get the occasional Steam key for various games offered as limited giveaways, with a restriction on the number of keys available (anywhere from 25 to 2000+). These included over 60 decent AAA games and indie arcade games ; for example some of the better AAA games included , lucky Warhammer: Vermintide 1 & 2 plus DLC for version 2; Dreadlands, Mount & Blade: Warband, Immortal Unchained and Conan Exiles.

I've not posted details of any Indie Gala freebies since my older computer went on the Fritz back in October last year. Since then Indie Gala have added quite a few more free games, some of which are definitely worth downloading. You can find the latest freebies HERE and their showcase list, which includes all the freebies still current; (many of which have been included for a couple of years now) HERE.

It’s worth adding these links to your favorites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, they are yours to keep. :)