Here's a link to The Infinite Cat Project: The Infinite Cat Project
7.9 excellent
Thanksgiving is almost here. Imagine the worst Thanksgiving ever. My grandmother once told me that when my uncle was a little boy he sometimes used the vent in his second floor bedroom as a bathroom... any liquid entering said vent apparently ended up on the kitchen table. And thus one year Thanksgiving dinner was ruined. Yuck! I myself during a fateful Thanksgiving family get together watched a large dog named Hamburger happily lap up a bowl of bacon grease... it was all fun and games until several hours later when the very explosive, very messy results sent relatives scurrying from the house. Did you know that some dogs run in panic when they have diarrhea?
If you've experienced a death or family tragedy during Thanksgiving, I don't mean to belittle your misfortune. Susan, David, and their daughter Caitlyn experience a Thanksgiving catastrophe of their own in Escape the Museum 2 from Gogii Games. This hidden object adventure game is a direct sequel to Escape the Museum, in which Susan and Caitlyn were trapped in the museum during a 6.5 magnitude quake that temporarily shut down the mysteriously unnamed city in which they live. This sequel follows David's adventures during the same quake. He spends Thursday morning napping on the sofa only to wake and discover the aftermath of the quake. In his attempt to make it downtown to the museum he quickly realizes that he'll have to navigate dangerous streets, unstable buildings, aftershocks, well-meaning police officers, and a fractured drawbridge. What a Thanksgiving!
Each chapter of David's adventure throws a problem at him as, in one way or another, his route toward the museum is blocked. Sometimes it's an obvious obstacle such as a giant hole in the street. At other times David's humanitarian instincts won't let him ignore a bystander (or cuddly kitten cowering behind a pile of bricks) in need of rescuing.
Onscreen you'll see David's view of the current location. Mousing over the scene will reveal hotspots that can be clicked on. The mouse pointer will change into a magnifying glass if that part of the location bears closer examination, a set of gears if that area or object can be manipulated, or a pair of legs if David can exit the location. Sparkles often appear to call your attention to an area. After examining an obstacle David might get an idea for the solution, causing sparkles to swirl to where the materials needed to implement his plan may be found.
Most of the time, looking closely at part of the scene with the magnifying glass will reveal a hidden object game scene. David will be asked to find ten or more objects within the onscreen clutter. As in any hidden object game, click on objects to remove them from the scene and cross them off David's list. At least one (and probably more) will be added to David's inventory and later used to circumvent the obstacle at hand. At times it can be tricky to know where to click next, as the game expects you to do things in a certain order and some hotspots aren't activated until others are clicked on. Hint: when in doubt, move the mouse around the screen. You'll always know if you haven't completely finished a location because David won't put a star onto his streetmap until everything that can be done has been.
Using inventory items is as simple as dragging them from the bottom of the screen onto where you'd like to use them. In Escape the Museum 2 some puzzles are sillier than others. At one point David MacGyvers together a makeshift grappling hook when just moments before he could have picked up a real grappling hook inside one of the hidden object game sequences!
(By the way, don't confuse David's inventory of drawbridge parts for the onscreen inventory needed to solve location puzzles.)
I'm sad to report that random clicking is not allowed in the hidden object scenes. As you may or may not know, David has a very serious blood pressure problem and random clicking causes his heart to start pounding and his vision to blur. I was so scared that I stopped random clicking.
There is some good news, however. A good-humored homeless man has adopted David and decided to follow him on his adventure. This bearded weirdo is an expert at getting around the city and when David gets stuck he can point the nervous father in the right direction... for a price. That price is pausing to hunt for collections of random objects for the junk-happy old drifter. Ten seashells, for example. And the old fellow is invaluable during the hidden object scenes, for he carries around a garbage bag filled with empty beer bottles. Any time David is stuck looking for a trowel, battery, hula hoop, anchor, five ketchup packets, etc., one click on the hint button will send an empty bottle flying through the air to smash onto one of the missing items.
Hint: if you get stuck on the pulleys and fire escape puzzle, place the four pulleys in the locations you can see in the screenshot to the left, and then attach the wire to them. Also note that the little girl who is the owner of the kitten is inside the window just on the other side of the fire escape!
Simple side quests add to the action. At one point I was carrying around a lost puppy and kitten hoping to stumble upon their owners during the adventure.
Escape the Museum 2 has excellent graphics and though many of the puzzles are a bit farfetched, they make for an enjoyable game. The setting and drama are more or less realistic, which makes for an odd match considering the hidden object game scenes often use common tricks like making objects the wrong size or color or even fading them into their surroundings. My only other complaint is that I often had trouble knowing where to click next to complete a puzzle or obtain the next piece of one. Even when I knew what I wanted David to do, sometimes getting him to do it was a bit awkward.