February / March 2021 report

Not my type of game at all.
This time I have played on easy difficulty to not stress myself much with it… didn't work out the way I wanted.
I have noticed that there were somewhat three types of difficulty through the game. First is main, easy difficulty slightly rising up. Second, on people choice stages high rise up in difficulty in comparison to normal stages. And then there was one stage which was extremely slow due to wrong code setting, only that one stage took around 40 minutes to go through… and it repeated. That was really painful. Very very much. You can't even quit, because it will only reset your progress and you have to make the stage from the beginning (Luxor HD remembered where you ended). I have considered changing the difficulty to medium as this bug was only on easy, but I wasn't sure if I would need to play it whole from the start… so I just put up with the ordeal.
Visuals and music are okay, but get quickly repetitive. Different music is only in People choice stages. Some of the bonuses you can use are great (like scorpion), some of them are useless (Spike Ball, pretty much Black Hole etc.). In game achievements are crazy and can't imagine opening them all. Lucky that they are not on Steam.

Replayed this for the few missing achievements and two additional DLCs which added new story, environment, enemies, equipment, dungeoneers and rune system.
Still very funny and enjoyable, even on complete second playthrough.

My first report here: https://www.backlog-assassins.net/posts/db89p2l.

First game in the series "Small Town Terrors" - young family is passing through Livingston city when they get into car accident. Mother is injured and when she wakes up in the hospital her husband and daughter are nowhere to be seen, also the city is strangely deserted, filled with weird noise and creatures. What’s going on? That’s up to you to find out!

It has somewhat outdated visuals, but at the same time it offers a good atmosphere of a B-rated Zombie movies. Story is told through newspaper articles and messages from the city residents, still it felt a little bit weak in some moments. No voice acting, although sometimes it's actually a better choice. Puzzles and hidden object scenes were okay and I have liked the principle of health limit for progression in the story. The huge backtracking required throughout the game decreases the overall rating. Also there were situations where it wasn't clear on what to do or I was trying to make some action sooner than it was demanded so I got confused. Only ingame achievements.
Game is short, but for a quick evening playtime it's suitable.

Second game in the series "Small Town Terrors" - Vera is going back to her birthplace after disturbing call from her twin brother, when she arrives on the island dark secrets begin to uncover. The fate of the island and it's few inhabitants is now in her hands.

Overall improvement to the first game. Better graphics and even voice acting. Story is strange, somewhat interesting, but in the end there are things unanswered. Nice variation of puzzles and hidden object scenes. As you progress through the story the whole area remains open, sometimes you go way back to find items or to solve puzzles. At least map teleports you this time and when playing on easy difficulty you can see where some interaction is required. There are hidden collectibles to be found and after the completion of the main story you can access bonus chapter and also bonus hidden game. Achievements are only in game, but easy to get.

Last game in the series "Small Town Terrors" (my version is no longer on Steam, but apparently it’s getting released again so you can see the store page) - you are invited to the performance of Thurman the Magnificent as he suspects a sabotage will happen. Indeed, his performance turns to a horrible conclusion. Your investigation will be shrouded in magic and illusion, you have to stay vigilant as the truth is hidden right before your eyes.

Nice graphics, music and good voice acting. Varied puzzles and hidden object scenes. Story is really interesting with good twists. Again hidden collectibles to be found, bonus chapter after the end of the main story and solitaire games (you can switch hidden object scenes to it). Achievements are only in game, but they can be easily obtained. Even the one where you have to play one successful game of solitaire (you can do it from the bonus menu, not necessarily instead of the HOG).

I consider it the best game from the trilogy.

In this clicker game you take care of a Voodoo garden. You have to fill it with different kinds of trees, bushes and flowers. You will have to guard your crops carefully as hungry little bats will try to steal from you and only you can drive them off. Your garden will be also populated by different kinds of animals - like snakes, lizards, frogs. You need to collect them for resources too. Ceremonial totems will help you to lure more of them to your garden. Your helpers are ghosts from animals that you have to sacrifice first - chicken, rabbit, pig and turtle. They gather the fruit, leaves, nuts etc. for you and also make it grow quicker.

As you collect the ingredients you are automatically creating Voodoo items - potions and dolls. Each level up gives you a different item for your garden or new recipe. You have to set preference for the potions created to make the new better one which also brings more cash. With the money you generate you can then level up every single thing in your garden, that way you will raise the whole efficiency. Higher levels are pretty expensive. Crocodile and skull rising from the water at times offer little help with funds, you have to be quick though as they don't stay there for long.

Graphics are very cute, music fine (even though I think it's only one track). It's a nice game to play when you want to chill out. My biggest complaint is that you have to click for yourself a lot. Your ghosts collect only crops from plants and they are rather slow. You have to catch all of the animals by yourself, as their parts are needed for more expensive Voodoo products. Also they are not collecting when the game is closed, this is done better in Plantera where you raise a certain amount of cash. You have to work hard to gain 30 levels.

In 911 you take up a role of an emergency operator, on your shifts you have to solve the incoming calls and deal with any reports showing up on your screen. Sounds easy? You can be sure that it will get pretty hectic.

In story mode you go through different cities which have different main "cases" to them. I really liked that, as it offered a diversion from the same cases. You have at your disposal police, firemen and medic units. Different vehicles require different size of squads, so you have to plan your orders as you can't send one policeman on a bicycle to solve the bank robbery. You can equip your squads with items that raise their stats, each person can have only two of them and some are locked to their specific occupation.

You can play in any city you want (if the system can find its map), so that's nice. But after you play through the story mode, it's all the same - I have played this first and then the "Single city run" and it was pretty long for my taste. Also, I was quite sad that I didn't raise enough funds to buy that helicopter! There were always more important things to acquire. ;)

Respect to all who do this hard work, as I wouldn't be able to do it. There were cases that I have chosen bad advice which then led to worse outcome, even someone's death.

I am torn apart on this one. There were some interesting moments, but as a whole it doesn't work out much for me. Also, it reminded me a lot of Solstice, another visual novel with similar graphics. For a moment I thought it's from the same creators, but it's not.
Both these experiences just proves that these kind of visual novels aren't up my taste.

The lore of the world is interesting. Graphics are… well, for me it's strange. I like the background pictures more than the sprites, as they are very realistic. Too much for me. Also, same as with Solstice, their mouths are moving and emotions change rapidly as they talk, but it's not voiced. You have to pick what you will follow - grimaces or text first?

There are five main characters you will interact with, each one of them has their own motives and problems, as you progress you get to uncover them. Serious subjects are mentioned, but all are just barely touched and their potential will not be fulfilled. Which is a shame.
Character development doesn't make sense sometimes and one particular moment I have found hard to believe. Consistency of the story also isn't the best one, as some of the choices you make are ignored and later the game interprets completely different one. That's unfair. Don't offer choices if you don't plan to implement them further in the story. End seemed to be rather rushed and maybe even incomplete.
(Also, one of the girls is in game named Darina, on the card is her name Ruth… that confused me a little when I was searching in guide for some answers on this character - when you check videos on youtube you will find both variants).

Whole game consists of five chapters, second and third were best I would say. There is some kind of romance, but you don't have the last word in this, you are just an observer. As an addition to a simple visual novel gameplay you have an adventure element of collecting items and combining them. There are also action parts which work nicely. But even if all of this charmed me, even if you can see all the work behind it (they made a huge work on it, no doubts!), I just have not enjoyed it. The story didn't pull me inside enough.

More games of the same universe were planned, but looks like nothing will come out of it. Which is partly sad, as the lore, story and whole game had some potential.