Midnight Calling: Anabel Collector's Edition

[h1]Short version: 74%[/h1] The first Midnight Calling establishes an interesting story and characters, but its gameplay is repetitive with only a few (but great) hidden object scenes and puzzles. [h1]Long version:[/h1] Midnight Calling: Anabel is almost comfortably straightforward with its plot. Our protagonist is a young girl who travels to her long-forgotten hometown to find out what happened to her father a decade ago, and then everything turns into a simple revenge story as she tries to claim her rightful legacy from a usurper. This premise is undoubtedly simple, yet cleverly strong enough to keep the player invested through the relatively repetitive gameplay, where we spend an unhealthy amount of time looking for key-like items. This kind of lightweight adventure gameplay is a common element in hidden object games, but not to this degree. As a redeeming feature, the few puzzles and hidden object scenes are quite good. The latter category especially, since they feature almost every type you can think of, with a decent difficulty rate. As for the extras, they are a bit lacklusting for this developer (even the bonus chapter is mostly asset reuse), but considering this was the…

A lovely adventure that starts in the ordinary and ends in a fairy tale extraordinary world. You're a young girl that was sent to a boarding school when her father, a famous archeologist went missing. While in there, Anabel has recurring dreams about her father and a dark villain. A final dream tells her to go find her father and free him from a curse. You will have to escape the boarding school and find your way to the Midnight Castle, a place full of wonder and mystery. Some say there's a curse, some say there's a prophecy going on. Gossip maybe. All you know is that your father is in danger and needs your help. PROS: - Beautiful scenes; - Nice music; - Simple to complex minigames; - Varied Hidden Objects; - Main game + Bonus chapter; - Fast-travelling map; - Wonderful helpers (I love you, little batty!); - Multiple collectibles. CONS: - Bonus chapter button cannot be easily found in the Bonus content; - You can easily get out of a Hidden Object / minigame; - The baby phoenix is taxing (it needs food to do things). All in all, a great experience. If you want an adventure about mermaids, vampires and dragons, then this is a game for you!

The main game mechanics are quite dull; mostly finding small figurines, each one useful only for finding the next figurine. On the other hand, the graphics are beautiful, the music and sound effects are nice, the story and the setting is engaging, and some of the minigames are really great. Recommended!