..................................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.

Voyage to Fantasy: Part 1

In Brief

A Hidden Object fantasy game thats ideal for the whole family.

Introduction:

Join the famous League of Voyagers to release trapped stories and legends from Black Holes! In this Steampunk hidden object adventure, Voyage to Fantasy: Part 1, you'll search out lots of hidden objects, most of which are easy to spot. To boost your game score, (this game seems to focus on scoring as many points as possible), you can win more points through creating combos and collecting emeralds. Also, use your boosters to unlock other challenging levels. This is a fast paced and relatively easy HOG adventure, which is ideal for the whole family and great when the weather stops you from doing more interesting things outside.

Whiterabbit-uk 9th December 2018

Installation:

Voyage to Fantasy: Part 1 downloads to a 131 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a read me). If you have multiple hard drives you can save games on any drive you wish by replacing the C drive letter in the path with whatever drive letter you wish the game to be installed to. The newly installed game is 156 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Voyage to Fantasy - Part 1

However, if you prefer a different path for installation for example I use G:\Games\name of game instead of 'C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity\name of game'. You can edit the default path when the Setup - Voyage to Fantasy - Part 1 - Select Destination Location window appears.

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop, three of which can be safely deleted (i.e. Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game; the name of which may vary each week). If you don't want to install the games shortcut to the desktop during installation, just make sure the install desktop shortcut is unchecked when the 'additional task's window appears; you will still get two of the other MyPlayCity shortcuts installed i.e. the Play Online Games and MyPlayCity Games shortcuts. Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you also uncheck the appropriate checkbox when the 'additional task's window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window).

The Game:

Voyage to Fantasy - Part 1 is a straightforward hidden object game (HOG) that IMO would be an ideal introduction to the genre for those not as familiar with HOG's. With loads of boosters to unlock, the main emphasis on this game appears to be attaining high scores. Each level has a high score table to beat. You'll find it relatively easy to get on the top spot. You can create multiple profiles, making this an ideal family game. There are three language options to choose from, i.e. Française, English and Deutsche, though, from the images i've used from image sharing sites, there also appears to be a Polish language option, but its not found in the folder (resource/master/locale) where the other three language options can be found. I've checked other versions of this game from i Win and Wild Tangent Games and they don't include Polish. I presume the Polish version is only available via Polish outlets?

The easiest way to achieve higher scores is to find the hidden objects listed as fast as possible; the speedier you find them the higher your score. To help in your quest to complete a level with as high a score as possible you are awarded boosters, the first of which is the magnifying glass which is unlocked near the start of the game. When this booster is used it highlights at least one object from the list you need to find. You may get more than one booster on some levels, which will allow you to uncover as many objects as the number of boosters you are awarded. There are four different booster types that are unlocked as you progress through the 130 + levels. These can be carried forward from level to level if not used initially.

Voyage to Fantasy - Part 1 is a very easy hidden object game (at least to those who play them regularly) that should appeal to families with young family members, or to those who are relatively new to the hidden object genre. Please check out the video links I've provided below in the next paragraph to see Voyage to Fantasy game play in action. There's no long lists of objects to find, most levels appear to have only a limited number of objects to find, which makes for a quick game.

Whiterabbit-uk 9th Dec 2018

Conclusion:

I don't particularly enjoy playing hidden object games, partly due to my poor eye sight, old reading spectacles designed for reading a book from about 12 inches away but not for looking at a monitor at least 2 feet away. Also, I usually find them quite tedious after playing countless versions over the last 20 years or so since I purchased my first digital copy of an 'I Spy' game about 20 years ago. That said, I found the fast pace of this game quite endearing and actually enjoyed playing the game; with the aim of scoring high on each levels high score table. Yes, it was pretty easy to do, but I still enjoyed it despite there being little challenge. The graphics are excellent, the game play okay. Unfortunately there isn't much replayability beyond trying to improve your high scores, which gets easier the more you play each level because the hidden objects are always in the same place. This game would have scored much higher and have greater replayability if the objects had been placed randomly on each play through, or if different objects were available to select on each replay. Sadly that isn't the case with this game; so, despite eking out some enjoyment playing this game, I can only award Voyages of Fantasy an average 6 out of 10 and that's being generous.

Game-play Videos of Voyage to Fantasy: Part 1:

You can see several game-play videos of Voyage to Fantasy {.........SPOILER ALERT.........} HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

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 Wild Tangent Games (not sure if you require a game client with Wild Tangent Games).

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Voyage to Fantasy: Part 1 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

Thank you to MyPlayCity for giving away Voyage to Fantasy: Part 1 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 Voyage to Fantasy: Part 1 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.