subject: Shades of Death: Royal Blood [print this page] Shades of Death: Royal Blood Shades of Death: Royal Blood
The title of this games is speaks for itself. Right from the start you understand that everything in the storyline of the game will comprise death, blood, murder and mysteries. If you like dismal games with lots of locations and hidden objects. If you are fond of ghosts and ancient castles and knights. There are no lingering doubts that you will get everything that you would expect from this one.
If the game has a story it makes it interesting even when the game follows one of the ordinary scenarios. The storyline has no twist but it is well developed. You get an unexpected telephone call with grievous news about your father's death. It is calling your sister named Violet. She asks you to come to their Family Castle and help her to put their father's business in order. Since now you amuse a role of her sister and help her to uncover the secret of their father's death.
There is a list of tasks and if you are stuck you always can have a look at it.
You take the road and when you arrive to the Castle the first thing that puts you on your guard is that Violet, who is supposed to meet you, doesn't appear. What is more, the gate is closed and in order to get in you have to fulfill some tasks. There is a list of tasks and if you are stuck you always can have a look at it. From the very beginning you have deal with hidden items and mini-games. A prefect hint system helps you in each location and if you find mini-games rather complicate you always have a chance to skip it without any penalty.
Actually this nice balance of both hidden object scenes and puzzles is a winning combination. The mini-games go as a natural part of the quest. It would be boring only seeking items all the game through. Although the HOG-scenes are the basics of Shades of Death: Royal Blood. But be aware you will have to ramble back and forth, from location to location really a lot. Hints could make your search easier and gives you ideas of where you need to go.
As for hidden object levels themselves, they are not very crowed and easy to complete. You have the whole list of items to find which are in a normal size. And just clicking on anything you will most probably choose the correct one. There is one disappointed moment - if you decide to play for the second time you will be faced with the same objects in the list. But if you're keen on achievements, that is your chance to play without mistakes. On the other hand, if you are looking for difficulties you may begin the game again and choose an advanced mode, which slows down the skip and hint recharge and remove twinkling stars that indicate active zones.
The game isn't voiced, so you have to read all the dialogues, lucky there are not many of them. So it couldn't be called the drawback of the game. The lack of voice is compensated with quiet background music which is accompanied you during the game. Everything: dark colors, ghosts, tense music, mysterious puzzles, pieces of newspaper, blood are here to help you to get involved into frightening exploring round the Family Castle. Graphics are generally adorable and very well done as well as the entire game. All of the graphics are as always detailed and beautiful.
Overall Shades of Death: Royal Blood well deserves your attention.
