Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life Collector's Edition

This is one of those HO games that tries to be great, but falls flat on its face. You are an archeologist who is sucked into an alternate world by an artifact. Evil has taken over this world and you are its saviour. The graphics were pretty inconsistent. Major scenes were beautifully done, but the HO scenes were very bland and flat. Puzzles were very easy as were HO scenes. There is a map, but no fast travel, so there is quite a bit of backtracking. There are clips of the dying city's downfall, but the plot didn't excite me. Voice acting was wooden, music was ok. There are collectables which are blimps and butterflies...very easy to find. I didn't need an walkthrough for any of this game which shows you how easy it is. Graphics and story in the bonus chapter was very well done. This was the best part of the game which carried on from the main story. Not a bad HO game, just very easy and mediocre. Hope the rest of the series is an improvement. Buy this on sale. 6.5/10

[h1]Short version: 60%[/h1] Amaranthine Voyage looks good for its age, but otherwise it is a rather forgettable hidden object game of average quality. [h1]Long version:[/h1] Amaranthine Voyage 1: Tree of Life may be the first of a long series of hidden object games, but that series definitely had a humble start: while the game has no weaknesses in any design aspect, beyond its great graphics it also lacks any kinds of qualities that would make it stand out. Like with most mediocre HOGs, the core issue is the lack of a proper story; we just run around in a ruined and abandoned jungle city, looking for items to unlock even more items, puzzles, or hidden object scenes. We learn a bit about the city’s downfall through some visions, but even that is unremarkably similar to most any generic HOG plots. The biggest reason this game gets an upvote is the large amount of nice hidden object scenes. The puzzles are also okay, but the adventure game bits are a bit tedious, as the map does not allow fast travel, so most of the gametime is backtracking. Overall, it is a decent HOG, but you can find many much better ones.

excellent

This 1st entry in the series is an instant classic and I highly recommend it to fans of the genre. It would appeal most to those who are up for a bit of a challenge. The story won't wow you, but it's a fun game packed with a lot of content, all of which is original and logical. It features lots of good hidden-object scenes, quite a few puzzles (some of which are quite clever), and delightful full-motion video of characters. The point-and-click adventuring is on the more difficult side, with very little hand-holding, but there's an in-game guide as well as hints if you get stuck. Unfortunately there's no fast travel, so you will have to backtrack quite a bit. One thing to note is that this is a bit of an older game, so the resolution is quite low. The default aspect ratio might also be wrong (I had to enable "aspect correction" in settings). But despite the low fidelity the drawings are clear and pretty. Also note that there are in-game achievements, but they are not linked to Steam.

This game has average quality and I miss here proper story. I quite like map because it's showing places where the player need to do something. Graphic, bonus chapter and gameplay have very good quality. [i] Overall I enjoyed playing this game. [/i]