The story is also quite simple. It is most vivid in several games with bigger stakes - to save the world. Usually, as detectives or someone involved we investigate one person or event or place, but here things are bigger. In the first part we meet Susan whose kid was abducted into the fantasy realm to become a vessel for soon-to-be born dark overlord, so we chase to that realm to save our kid. We should praise brave moms tbh, usually in HOG we always play as a "detective"~. Susan becomes a well-deserved main character and savior of Lost Lands, many times. LL even have legends about her, so it's kinda cool. The 7 games actually felt great and I think that the 7th game was a nice closure to the story and the series in general, after all it's the first time her son gets involved and realizes what his mother did all this time. I find that the 8th game was more like trying to drag someone from their retirement to get the chance and re-launch the game.
The fantasy realm is quite small, yet not completely small, each game shows different parts of it, but several locations keep appearing, like Maaron's (mage) house or the Magic Academy or dwarf mountains etc. The first game of course doesn't have it all, it's just a starting point, more like a pilot game with starting point in the forest, then dwarf mountains and ending with the castle in the sky. Gives you the feel of adventure. But honestly I really love fantasy and I feel like it's been a while since I played something where there was a fantasy world. The design of those places is really nice. The forest has a swamp and a spirit (really not mad at 3D figures, sometimes it makes me want to learn as well). Next are dwarf mountains and the mountain spirit and a lot of intricate paths within the mountain and then is the castle outside, one standing at the edge of the cliff and another is hovering in the sky, so we have a feeling of going and up-up-up.
Oh yeah, the puzzles! Since lately I've been playing mostly games from Elephant games I kind of forgot the fun of puzzles, since they use mostly the same limited types over and over. Although here there are similar types here and there, but I think there's a huge variety of puzzles to solve and good thing they are not complicated, so the progress doesn't get stuck, but hidden object scenes aactually are not present after the first part. This made me amazed, because he mechanics were changed to shadow silhouettes, so you have to explore a scene instead of finding objects from a list. With the help of the map (which for my memory full of holes is ideal) I actually didn't need a walkthrough guide, which is saying a lot.
And it's been a long time since I've played the bonus chapter, usually I skip those, since they don't bring anything new (mostly use the universe of the world to add something). LL use approach when showing a story in the bonus chapter from a different character's pov, taking any period of the original storyline.
So starting from the first part Lost Lands: Dark Overlord, I basically played all consequent part. In the second part 'Four Horsemen' the game mechanics change a bit and they stay the same till the 7th installment. What I liked the most is that hidden object scenes were changed to shadow ones where you explore the scene, find the object that represend that shadow outline and use it on another object in the scene before you solve it, it feels more logical in general, after all it's as if you try to use all the objects near you to help yourself. Another mechanic that I liked is that when the object from inventory is the right one to use it is indicated by a small gear, so you definitely know that what you do is right. Also the inventory, I really appreciated that some items could serve for almost entire game, stuff like a knife and matches, after all in many games it seems devoid of logic to have a sharp knife but still find another item just to open smth when you could have easily cut through. So I really appreciated that items in this game were just right and were not devoid of logic of where to get them. Like for example in games that go through times, one moment you find item, especially if it's something specific like an emblem in one time, but use it in another, feels weird. Or when you use an item but don't use it in the other scene, although it feels useful. Unfortunately, the 8th game 'Sand captivity' partially got rid off the small gear indicator, it's very weird how some scenes use it and others don't, so it got messy. And tbh the 'Sand captivity' lost the lustre of previous games to me. It was longer, but it was kinda boring, the process seemed to feel like I spent more time on it. Also because Susan in this game is already a grandma, she again needs to save her son who touched an artifact, her granddaughter was also brought into LL, it felt like they might want to get a new main character, but Susan was the savior of LL and the Earth unknown to others all this time. But when you drag her when she's older, it feels like author who tries to drag their most known character back into business, while they just want to spend their retirement growing flowers and fishing. Leave Susan alone. Reminded me of Boris Akunin, I truly love his series about investigator Fandorin, but the series covers almost an entire lifespan, from when he was younger to when he was in his 50s. Some even pointed out that he acts too much like an action hero, but I must say.. have you seen some grandpas that work out? Those videos where someone with a cane walks to a bar and then almost does flips easily. So I'm not that against it. But it still always feels like the authors drags someone out just because they're most popular.
The short overview of the entire series:
Dark Overlord: Susan visit Lost Lands for the first time, she must save her son from becoming a vessel for soon-to-be-awakened Dark Overlord. (****)
The Four Horsemen: Susan has to help defeating Four Horsemen of apocalypse who are after a magic compass. (*****)
The Golden curse: Susan once again travels to Lost Lands to solve the Golden Curse and help Lost Lands to get rid off the awakened monsters. (*****)
The Wanderer: The pirate ship from LL appears on Earth and this connection might break the boundry and destroy both worlds. Susan must find the way to save the ship's captain. (****)
The Ice Spell: In the middle of the summer the LL were enveloped in freezing winter when the spirit of Icy mountains came. We're saving LL from eternal winter. (****)
Mistakes of the Past: Suddenly LL fell into chaos because of an evil witch Cassandra. This was a mistake that Maaron was responsible for and now he tries to solve it, letting Susan travel to the past. Cassandra must not live. But in the past Susan was caught in the act by Maaron, which changed his character and going back to the future things changed once again. Susan must fix everything. (*****)
Redemption: LL are in danger. On Earth the buried heart of a great evil that was sealed for years was discovered and the heart must never find its' owner. Susan must find a way to help, but she is confronted with her son's accusation that she is missing for months from home. Susan happens to take her son to LL where he finally finds out that what his mother did was much bigger from what he imagined. (*****)
Sand Captivity: Susan's son, Jim, touched an artifact from LL and became a sand sculpture, Susan who is now a grandmother has to go back to LL to find how to lift the curse. (***)
Must say that my favorite one was probably the 3rd game, the Golden Curse. I think it felt quite epic and different. The next one should be the 6th game, Mistakes of the past, since it has time travels back and forth, pretty epic.
I enjoyed it, immensely.
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