The Miss Teri Tale game coming from casual game developer, Ouat Entertainment, is a hidden-object puzzle game that pits you in an investigation about the mysterious disappearance of a purebred Chinese Crested Dog named Jason. Now, while you may think that finding lost dogs will not really make a good game story, well, I guess we'll just see as we take a good peek at this casual game.
The game's story opens up with an introduction to Teri Tale, a famous mystery and suspense novel writer moving away from the hustle and bustle of New York City to settle in a quiet suburb called Peeking Town. While searching for a good enough story for her next novel, disaster strikes as the prized Chinese Crested Dog of her new friend and neighbor, Abigail Kingsley, was dog-napped without a clue! Seeing this as a good opportunity for a story, as well as a nice way to help her friend, Teri takes it on herself to find the missing dog and catch the culprit behind the mystery.
There's also this little sub-plot about Teri being blackmailed by an unknown shadowy figure through emails, wherein the sender is threatening to pin the crime on an innocent person unless she accepts to find Jason herself. Now, I really don't see the whole point about this additional plot at first since Teri had already been determined to find Jason before the emails, but I discovered during the actual game that the emails' main purpose is to lead Teri on finding her next clues. The mysterious man actually hints Teri about where to search next in the neighborhood, and aside from the occasional comic relief, he's quite useful when you think about it.
The Review
As far as hidden object games go, there's actually nothing new about the Miss Teri Tale game aside from its plot and gaming interface. Not that the game story had that much depth or anything, but I still liked it nonetheless. Also, the graphics and music are very nice as far as you can expect from games of this type and I definitely appreciated the smooth-enough controls.
What I liked best about this game though is the many different avenues wherein the story is being developed. Aside from the blackmails and clues, Teri's mysterious messenger actually adds to the storyline and you can even read more about the discovered evidences through the clipboard and also on Teri's diary. Not to forget the local newspaper, of course, where you'll get more detailed background information on your suspects.
However, the game's overall difficulty very much confuses me. In one hand, you are only given up to 4 items to look for at a given time unless you find it and it gets replaced. This presents a greater challenge than other hidden object games because you really have to focus first on these limited items (and really, they are very difficult to find). On the other hand though, it seems that the game also enables you to get unlimited clues by backtracking to Teri's office. Unlimited clues are great fun, but makes the game boring if you're not playing for the challenge. Can you see here why I'm confused? :)
As a bonus, the game also offers two different mini-games to play. One is a card-matching game wherein you're tasked to find 2 postcards with the same picture and the other one is a Mastermind-like puzzle game wherein you are to bust open security locks by arriving at their correct codes. These mini-games are actually very fun to play, but still are limited to just two.
All in all, the Miss Teri Tale game is a very good game and I bet you'll have a blast playing it just like I did during my testing. It definitely has it's negative traits, but no game is actually perfect from my own standpoint. I suggest getting it and try it out for yourself because I, myself had fun playing it during my testing process.
I had always loved playing games and this simple review is really my own way of giving back to the casual gaming community.
And you know what else? Getting to read game reviews is good, but trying out the game for yourself is definitely even better! You can check out [http://www.casualicious.com/games] for a free trial download of this game and other games that may tickle your fancy. Besides, your opinion is still number 1, right? :)
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