I love games where they make me feel part of the story by letting me interact with the scene and its objects. Such stories contain puzzles where anything goes and you find them in Azada, Dream Chronicles and Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor. Artfully illustrated Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House comes with a game full of puzzles for solving and a few hidden object scenes.

As Natalie Brooks, players inherit her grandmother’s house only to find that the city plans to move or destroy the house to make room for its new road. Natalie starts a petition to help keep her grandmother’s house where it belongs and discovers the house has secrets of its own as well as some of the city’s citizens. Natalie learns she can trust no one.

Natalie’s story appears in comic strip format between scenes and in her conversations with people she meets in her unexpected adventure. The story captivates, but typos and imperfect grammar detract from the story at times.

Players need to pick up objects to add them to the inventory. These objects work together or with items in the scene to solve a puzzle whether it’s to open a safe or build something. Natalie also keeps notes in her notebook, but they don’t come in handy.

While the playing beguiles for a few hours — two sittings at most — the game has serious flaws. It feels like the developers wanted to make a deadline regardless if the game is complete. Solving the puzzles to make something happen almost satisfies though the story and some of the game don’t come together.

For example, scattered postcard pieces appear throughout the game. Nothing comes of them. Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House ends without a reference to those postcards. What’s the point? To offer a mini-game without purpose? No, it needs to have a purpose. Another time, I copy down a series of numbers for later use. The code never has relevance.

The incomplete postcard mini-game is one of many issues that caused the game to surprise me with its abrupt ending. It reminds me of Lost — more questions than answers, but everything in the TV show has a purpose (supposedly).

Natalie comments on things players click. That’s another annoyance – the first time she tells us, it’s fine. But she repeats it every time we click near the item in trying to find nearby things. I understand people miss the commentary on the first click and want to see it again. There has to be a more effective way to do this. Funny, I miss a few comments (because I accidentally clicked the screen to make it go away) and couldn’t bring the game to repeat itself.

Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House includes a few scenes that let you find hidden objects to gain bonus hints. These scenes appear in the first half of the game only to never be seen again. This makes the game feel uneven. The hidden object scenes should show up evenly throughout the game.

Some scenes come with a mini-game. For instance, one calls for a slingshot where you need to make all the circles light up to open the cage. I find the slingshot and look for something to use with the slingshot until my eyes hurt.

Stupid me. I click the slingshot and the target — the game automatically gives me what I need to shoot at the target. Yet in other similar games, I collect the “bullets” myself. So inconsistency is another problem.

Some scenes and puzzles are easy while a couple of them trick me. I think experienced gamers might call this one easy, but I’m glad I played the game despite its incompleteness.

Games in this genre tend to run short because of the work that goes in creating original puzzles as opposed to repetitive puzzles (hidden objects, match three, etc.). Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House isn’t the shortest, but it could stand a little more game play.

The “little faster than classical” and “slower than rock” sound fits the game’s atmosphere. It isn’t my favorite, but that’s a personal opinion and not a judgment of the sound quality. The attractive illustration engages and wows.

Flaws aside, Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House doesn’t feel like a waste of time. Its blending of wonderful art and a variety of puzzles prove entertaining.

Try Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House.

Anyone needing a change of pace from the standard casual games and repeated play will find a treasure in Azada. The game mixes a little adventure with a variety of puzzles and a powerful story. A book has trapped Titus into a painting in a room resembling an office. Titus beckons you to search for the book’s missing pages by solving puzzles.

Each chapter contains eight pages, or rather eight puzzles. Upon completing all eight puzzles, you gain another page of Titus’ story. The adventure part appears a couple of times in each chapter. On these pages, the game provides you with an inventory of items to collect to figure out the page’s puzzle. These puzzles resemble a standard adventure game in that you pick up the pieces and study the room to make something happen to reveal another missing page. These puzzles are, by far, my favorite part of Azada.

I’d love to see a game composed entirely of these types of puzzles. Of course, they take more effort since there is no repetition. To give you an idea of how these puzzles work

The games in between the “adventure” puzzles vary. The following lists some of the games:

• Sudoku with shapes instead of numbers.
• Matchstick puzzles where you rearrange matchsticks to add another square or take away a triangle.
• Dot game with a grid of dots and players take turns adding a line to close as many boxes as possible.
• Match three game where you find three connected items to clear the board (unlike most match three games, you cannot move the items).
• Memory game where you find matching pairs.
• Simon-like game where you must copy the sequence (I don’t like these).
• Peg solitaire (Also not a favorite) that is like playing checkers solitaire.
• Sliding puzzle game that isn’t missing a box (thank goodness, I despise these) where you put the pieces in the right place.
• Mastermind with colored ink calls for breaking the code by figuring out what color appears in what order.

The game occasionally rewards players with an orb that you can use to skip a puzzle. I saved these for the puzzles I didn’t like doing. Games that incorporate a variety of puzzles are bound to have a couple that any individual player may not like — an unavoidable problem of such games. If you love a puzzle, you can go back and play that anytime (after you’ve completed it).

The replay value is just moderate because once you solve some of the puzzles, it’s easy to do them again. However, some do change such as the tangram puzzle where you fit all available shapes into an object that looks like a bunny or some other animal or thing. This feature lets you play the puzzles you like without getting stuck doing the ones you don’t like. If you want to progress in the story, you either have to do the puzzle or give up an orb — and these don’t come by often.

Azada provides a delightful change of pace from the average casual game. The story, the puzzles where you find items to make something happen, the sharp-dressed graphics and fitting music turn Azada into an addicting and pleasurable game. I played the game as much as time allowed until I finished — that’s the true test of) a captivating game.

Download Azada from your favorite site:

• BigFishGames [Mac]
• Reflexive [Mac]

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
• 6700MHz or faster processor
• 128MB RAM

System Requirements: Mac

• Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer
• G3 400 MHz or faster
• 128MB RAM

Trapped in a magical puzzle book, the adventurous Titus needs your help to release him from his spell. To do this, you must solve the tricky puzzles of Azada. Crack the series of puzzles and fill in the missing pages of the enchanted book to free Titus from his prison.

An Azada Strategy Guide is available.

Download the game from your favorite site

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games