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8.9 ultra recommended
Halloween is fast approaching and you're probably picking out your costume and deciding which horror movie to watch on Halloween night. (May I recommend The Changeling with George C. Scott, or The Haunting with Russ Tamblyn?) Well, put your plans on hold for about six hours because Gamehouse has just released an excellent new hidden object adventure game.
Campfire Legends: The Hookman is a take on everyone's favorite "man with a hook for a hand" urban legend. You know, the one about the girl driving her car... and the hook was still attached to the door handle when she arrived at the police station? Or was it the one with the boyfriend hanging from the tree? Or the dog licking the girls hand and there's a message written on the ceiling above her bed? Maybe he was coming back to get his golden leg? Actually I forget the specifics. It was one of those stories.
I do know that when I was in high school there was this grave of a former student way out in the woods and sometimes us kids would get brave enough to drive around the back roads and try to find it. One time we pulled up at the old stone church, which was one of the stops on the way to the grave. Two or three hardy souls (the ones with flashlights) decided to make their way inside the abandoned building... but a few feet into the brush a deer suddenly jumped out and bounded across the clearing. I had the delight of watching a huge football player shriek like a little girl, "a ghost!" and rush back to his car, whimpering.
In The Hookman, you play Christine Lewis, a plucky 50's college coed who has just arrived at her parents' cabin in the woods for a romantic weekend with her boyfriend. However, Patrick is late, the cabin has been ransacked, and as she tries to make sense of what happened a shadowy figure seems to be watching her... perhaps the radio bulletin about a killer escaping from the local insane asylum offers some portent. Get ready to be creeped out, and watch out for cats that jump out at you for no reason, because hidden object games just got a lot scarier!
Like many recent hidden object adventure games, you move from location to location with the mouse. When your mouse pointer hovers over a doorway, for example, an arrow appears onscreen indicating that you can move to another area. Sometimes arrows appear at the edge of the screen, marking the continuation of a room offscreen. When the mouse pointer becomes a magnifying glass, you're able to examine that object or corner of the room in closer detail. For example, to read a note written on a message board or look inside a desk drawer.
Christine's thoughts appear onscreen, and help draw you into the story. I must say, she's braver than I am! The first time I saw a dark shadow walk by I'd be running down the road in full-on panic mode.
The objects you're asked to find are all completely logical and subordinate to the story. They're not limited to one screen - an object in your list could be in any location. I particularly like how this system is implemented. For example, early in the game you'll notice that the fuse box in the cabin basement is missing fuses. As soon as Christine realizes this, a number of fuses will fly into the list of hidden objects she's asked to find. If she finds an unlit candlestick, matches will fly into her list of hidden objects. And so on. It's all very natural and believable. The hidden object list itself, at the bottom of the screen, is made up of images. Hovering over an image with the mouse will pop up a tooltip telling you what the object is.
(There is some silliness. When hunting for rocks to throw at a bobcat, the game demands that you pick three specific rocks. You're not allowed to go down to the lake shore where there are a bazillion rocks and pick up those.)
Hints are available in the form of fireflies. These little bugs can be anywhere, so keep an eye out for them. (They look like acorns.) Clicking on one of your captured fireflies will reveal the location of a hidden object in the current scene. If you're not in the right area to find what you need, you'll get a tip about where you should be looking. Fireflies can also help you solve any of the game's many puzzles. They give hints about how to complete a puzzle, and you can even skip puzzles if you want to burn through many fireflies.
The Hookman makes frequent use of partially animated cutscenes. The artwork is at times breathtaking! Some screens are better than others, but there is a lot to like here! In fact, if you have a slow PC your system might be a bit taxed by some of the nifty effects. Fans of horror films, urban legends, or anyone wanting to see another example of a hidden object adventure game done right, grab a copy of this game. Kudos to Gamehouse! Except for a few tedious puzzles and a little bit of corniness, this is an excellent, atmospheric game.
Some hints: To open the boathouse door, first determine the order of the digits by sliding around any numbers facing rightside up and noting when they're in the correct slot. Then focus on getting the two outside numbers in place. Once you have them, you can cycle the two inner numbers in the squence around and around until they're both rightside up and where they should be.
Look at the map above the punch card machine for the light pattern you need to input. Start by matching one column or row at a time.
The second rotating disc puzzle, in the crypt, is different from the first one in the boathouse. Look at the edges...
When you need more fireflies (especially when puzzling through the puzzle locks on the boxes in the crypt) revisit areas and look carefully. (Don't forget about the inside of Patrick's car!) Each time you find a firefly, a new one is randomly generated in another location - you just have to find it.
Download Campfire Legends: The Hookman
Thanks for the review! It’s great to see someone taking a game on its own terms. I’ll probably go pick this up sometime soon.