Here's a link to The Infinite Cat Project: The Infinite Cat Project
5.3 mid-normal
Take a minute to think of all the people who have disappeared in your life. Where do they go? What are they up to? I knew this guy at university named Dan C-----. We had many classes together and ate at a campus Chinese place every day for lunch. He'd work on his rap songs and I'd work on my techno songs. Now he's vanished. I last saw him in Shinjuku in 2001, maybe 2002. I don't know where he is now, but several years ago I heard he was in Chicago. However every time I go to Chicago to search for him I hit nothing but dead ends. Is he dead, or in jail? Doesn't he want to be found? What's going on in his life? What stories could he tell?
Vogat Interactive's new hidden object adventure game, The Otherside: Realm of Eons, is another missing person tale. In fact, the story features two missing persons - a brother who wants to hide from the world, and his kidnapped sister who desperately wants to find her way home. You play as Miranda W------, a failed novelist whose depression (and unnatural proficiency with tools) makes her a perfect ally for the good forces of the Otherside, a mirror-image world of magic. Miranda's adventure starts when she finds a strange tome about origami at her doorstep. Following one of the patterns in the book, Miranda creates a parrot-crane which comes to life and flies into her bedroom mirror, opening a portal between our world and the Otherside. Soon she's on a quest to reunite a brother and sister torn apart by evil forces, and no mechanical problem can stand in her way!
With the help of a very twisted little teddy bear named Jovie, Miranda searches through cluttered hidden object rooms for clues that will help her bring Louise and Michael back together again. At the bottom of the screen you're given a list of objects - usually in picture form as opposed to text - and asked to find them somewhere in the current scene. Each is removed from the background and checked off your list as you find and click on them. Often one specific item is the focus of your search, with related objects thrown in for good measure. You might need to find a mallet, but also several other heavy tools like monkey wrenches or saws, as well. Other times you'll be asked to find a collection of objects which, when assembled properly, solve whatever problem has popped up to block Miranda's progress. Many different computer components to repair a disassembled computer, for example.
Sparkles and gowing outlines indicate portions of the background which can be interacted with - either examined in closer detail (the mouse pointer becomes a magnifying glass) or used as an exit to another room (the mouse pointer becomes a running pair of feet). Sometimes one of the objects you need to find to solve a puzzle requires another whole collection of objects to be found in turn; thus the list portion at the bottom of the screen is divided in half, with the right side available for these sub-lists.
If you can't find a hidden object, a hint button is available to show you where one of the items in your list is hiding. It takes a generous amount of time before recharging, however, so it's best to save it for when you're really stuck. Random clicking is unfortunately penalized, with the screen going dark and that devilish teddy bear Jovie appearing out of thin air to float about inanely for a few seconds. Why, Vogat Interactive, why?
Once you've found the hidden objects needed to solve whatever obstacle the Otherside has thrown at Miranda, you use the item/items by dragging them from the bottom of the screen onto where you'd like to use them. For example, dragging an ice cold Coca Cola Blue onto a humming fuse box. (Note! Don't attempt this in real life!)
Sandwiched between each location's hidden object scenes are a few puzzles. Most of these are of the rather boring "find a few select objects in a drawer full of junk that can be slid around" variety of hunts. Some are more inventive however: jigsaw puzzles, memory games, pattern-matching games, a railroad switch logic puzzle, and many more.
The Otherside: Realm of Eons contains a fairly interesting, if slightly weird, story. None of the hidden object scenes are too difficult, in fact many are very easy. I liked that the hidden objects you're asked to find during Miranda's quest are somewhat related to the obstacle on hand. However I felt annoyance a few times because the actual objects inscene weren't the same color as the mini imsge shown in the list, forcing me to waste a hint. If you're going to show me a white scarf, don't put a blue scarf in the scene!
Finally, disappointingly the game didn't seem to recognize the collection of all the hieroglyphics in one search: Even after collecting them all the game still asked for one more! Other screens seemingly have no way forward. This appears to be a longer game, with many chapters, but there are just too many bugs in the current version.
Only encouraged if you like nightmarish teddy bears! Until some game-stopping bugs are fixed I would be doing a disservice if I recommended anyone purchase this title...
Download The Otherside: Realm of Eons
I bought The Otherside: Relms of Eon from Big Fish. I have uninstalled it and re-installed it 3 times and I still cannot get it to open. When I click on “Play” it just keeps going back to that button. How can I get this game to open, I really would like to play it. The same thing happened in the trial. I was able to open it then it wouldn’t open again. Any help appreciated.