When Alice Dahl leaves for a work trip and laments her job to her husband, she has no idea what turns of events awaits her. Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey tells the tale of what happens after she wakes up from a terrible car accident, and the lengths she has to explore to get home. Check it out!
Type of app: Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure
Platform/where to buy:
Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey HD iPad / iPhone versions on the iTunes App Store
Developer: Artifex Mundi / G5 Entertainment
Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey Description:
- 80 spine-tingling levels to master
- 21 exciting mini-games to play
- 17 encouraging achievements to earn
- Eight fabulous characters to meet
- Five magnificent dream worlds to explore
- Three play modes – casual, advanced, expert
- Amazing graphics and dramatic storyline
Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey Major features:
Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey starts as just another day in Alice’s life, lamenting her job as her husband encourages her to quit. But then, a frightening car accident turns her biggest nightmares into reality. Alice awakens in a strange hospital … or so she thinks.
You wake up strapped to a table and know you need to get out – this early part can serve as tutorial if you choose, and that helps you get into the game even as you are accomplishing essential tasks. Often tutorials are very dry and disconnected, so I appreciated how well-integrated this one was.
Artifex Mundi and G5 Entertainment have teamed up before to produce some of the best iOS HOPA games – the Nightmares from the Deep series, Abyss, Dark Arcana, and more. So I was not surprised to jump right into a compelling story with interesting characters and settings. You need to confront your fears as Alice to get yourself back home.
Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey isn’t what I would call an innovative game, but it IS what I would call a good game. And as always, you can download for free and check it out!
Ease of use/Overall performance:
Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey controls like a very standard hidden object puzzle adventure. You are tapping to find items, unlock new scenes and areas, solve puzzles and uncover clues. The touch accuracy is excellent, and never leaves you feeling frustrated. Puzzles all have logical solutions and the help system works perfectly.
There are the usual three difficulty levels – Casual, Advanced and Expert – and they provide the perfect levels of help. On casual you can almost always ask for help, and the game is very good about nudging you along. As you increase difficulty the game makes you figure out more on your own and penalizes you for asking for help.
The visuals, music and voice acting are all top-notch, something we have come to expect as tablets have gotten more powerful and developers have gotten more experienced. Whereas the earliest tablet HOPAs were lower-resolution, had no voice acting and limited music … now we are truly getting a PC-equivalent experience.
Would use again/recommend?: Definitely! I loved the graphics, sounds and music, the perfect mix of puzzles and hidden object scenes, and the story. The atmosphere and sense of dread and tension is well-played throughout. Definitely a strong HOPA game!
Suggested changes/wish list for updates: Nothing
Source: Publisher provided review code
Price: Free with in-app purchase of full game. Note: On sale for $2.99 iPhone / $4.99 iPad through February 13th!
Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey for iPhone – $4.99
Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey HD for iPad – $6.99
Here is the Mind Snares: Alice’s Journey trailer:
