User Reviews (1 - 11 of 42)

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Puzzles turn into a dull click fest

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: March 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The 10 puzzles here get really old really quick. Most of them are rehashes on the jigsaw puzzle theme or the sliding square puzzle theme. And that's the best of them- on the bad side there are some really irritating click fests like "lens bender".

As the levels advance the puzzles simply add more pieces rather than becoming more interesting or difficult. Solitare and minesweeper are much better Microsoft products. Get a copy of Uncle Henry's playhouse instead (the puzzles from 11th hour & the 7th guest). Those puzzles reflect a real creative effort.

I was sick of this after a few hours

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: November 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Looks like a great game, doesn't it? Hundreds of puzzles! Don't let it fool you. All the puzzles involve composing images (some three-dimensional). Most are about as fun as a sliding puzzle. I can't believe this is the best they could come up with. There really are only about 12 puzzle TYPES. The hundreds of puzzles means basically that they have hundreds of images you can play slider puzzle on. It was fun for a few hours, but many of the puzzles are tedious after a while, and when I realized I'd played all the puzzle types, I didn't want to continue.

The puzzles aren't even particularly intellectual, either. Most of them involve matching, like a jigsaw puzzle. How long can that keep someone interested? There's no planning (ala lemmings), there's no figuring out how things work, there's no creativity for you. The images you form are sometimes pretty, but they pale in comparison to the lush interactive environments we are used to from the likes of Riven.

Challenging, but could use more interactive gaming

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: January 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Pandora's box is interesting in the puzzle type challenges it provides, however it has mostly to do with images and pictures (an obvious path to introducing their subsidary Corbis Inc.) When I purchased the game, I had taken it for an interactive 3D puzzle/brain teaser type games like that of Tetris. This game was fun while it lasted, but the puzzle and pictures got somewhat old after a few levels.

Challenges your brain, but not very fun to play

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game started out very compelling, but after a while the puzzles got very boring and repetitive. When my wife asked me if I was having fun, I had to answer, "no, not really." The graphics are beautiful of course, but the gameplay feels more like work than play. I prefer a game that lets me have fun at the same time I challenge my mind, like Dweep (dweep.com).

Pandora's Box needs to be more difficult

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed the game and the different varieties of puzzles but the difficulty levels did not increase appreciably as the game progresses. I had expected some of levels to be nearly impossible to complete but found almost all of the levels to be of easy to medium difficulty. It would have been nice if the more advanced levels were harder to complete.

Also, the way the games are constructed, there is no option for infinite variability. In other words, the pieces or puzzles are not reshuffled each time you reach the end. Each time you play it gets easier through the learning curve. This was a true disappointment.

I am still looking forward to add on modules, or additional images or pandoras box II

Pandora's Pentagon

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 89 / 91
Date: February 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Pandora's Box is a engrossing, entertaining puzzle game. It kept me occupied for hours, and made time flow at twice the regular rate (or so it seemed). The puzzle types were unique, original, and for the most part fun. Here are some pros and cons:

PROS:

* Puzzles are presented in a game format. There is always a larger reason to finish a puzzle - to progress through the levels.

* Levels become more challenging. It took me almost three hours to finish the final level.

* Hints and Free Puzzles are plentiful. If you don't like a puzzle type, you don't have to do it. If your stuck, you can use a hint.

* The 3D aspect of the puzzles was really neat-o.

* When you are done, there are still puzzles left to do. The game includes 350 puzzles, and I still had 125 left when I was done. The fun continues.

CONS:

* Perhaps this was just my video card, but some of the puzzles seemed dark - so dark that I couldn't see where I was placing puzzle pieces.

* Some of the puzzles rotate, and require fine mouse movements to complete. If you have a physical impairment, you may have trouble.

* I thought a few (2) of the ten puzzle types were rather lame. All luck and little thought. But that may be just me.

All in all, this is a great game for all puzzle fans. I definitely recommend it - if you have time you want to lose.

Finally, I found a game where I didn't have to kill aliens!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 88 / 88
Date: November 18, 1999
Author: Amazon User

If, like me, you have been looking for a game that didn't involve blood-letting, beheading, or slicing/dicing aliens, Pandora's Box will help you pass the time and exercise your left brain's three dimensional capacity by solving (by re-arranging) the puzzle's pieces. Some puzzles take 20 minutes or more to solve. Beautiful lay-out and nice audio too. You have the option of playing their game or just solving puzzles staight-up. It provides hours of mental fun. There are several levels of play---my ten year old enjoys it also.

Great Puzzler

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 32 / 32
Date: January 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is a must buy for anyone who enjoys jigsaw puzzles, slide puzzles, 3d puzzles, etc. without the mess or worry of lost pieces. The picture and art are beautifully rendered and the puzzle challenge progresses at a satisfying pace. The best game is the focus game which could only happen on a pc. My only complaint (and it's a minor one) is that "image hole" is nothing more than annoying and that the game with the many magnifying glasses (can't remember the name) can be beat in about 2 minutes even at the toughest level making it quite boring. Luckily thats only 2 of the 10 puzzle types. The rest are great. I finally completed the quest by solving only 180 of the puzzles but look forward to working the others and to reworking the old puzzles trying to improve my best times. Highly recommended

You can't solve just one

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: December 28, 1999
Author: Amazon User

My sister gave me Pandora's Box for Christmas, and I find solving the puzzles just like a bag of potato chips-- you can't solve just one and stop. The puzzles are nicely varied (although they are all spatial-relationship puzzles), so you don't feel stuck doing the same things over and over. I'm not so good at puzzles, so I may never get past Level 3, but even that will have provided hours of entertainment. My only gripe? The HINTS are not well done. When you need a hint, you want some strategic advice, not to slide piece A to the left.

The first Puzzle Game I liked!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: March 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is a thoroughly addictive game. The graphics are great, and the puzzles are neither too easy nor too difficult. But it does get progessively harder and more complex the more puzzles one solves... One drawback (and the reason for only 4 stars) is that I have to completely exit each and every application running at the time, even those in the background (that's right: CTRL-ALT-DEL and close everything in the list except for Explorer and Systray) before I can play Pandora. This also happens on my other computer system. It sure ties up resources, but other than that: intriguing, and it has the power to keep you at your PC all night (no kidding!).

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