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Use it to prepare kids for a trip to Beijing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Sure, this game may not be top of the list, based on its plot flaws and lack of real challenge. Nonetheless it's a great tool for getting your kids interested in Chinese history and culture if you're headed to China soon. The setting for the game was painstakingly recreated from historical information about the Old Summer Palace (Yuan Ming Yuan) in Beijing. After playing the game, your kids will be much more interested in visiting the palace ruins while in Beijing. Buy it for its historical and cultural value, play it long enough to learn a little, and don't expect too much.

Reviewed by Barbara Strother, author of Moon Living Abroad in China (Living Abroad).

Boring & Insulting to It's Targeted Demographic

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The genius developers that produced this train wreck invested a lot of time and money in the myth that women don't play computer games. Their solution? Create a game that is the technological equivalent of a picture book - lots of pretty shiny things to look at and none of the challenges that real gamers - men - like. Oh, and it also helps to turn the cursor into an adorable naked baby.

Every time you move the mouse around, the baby turns to show the direction you are going...and to remind you of what the developers think your real purpose in life is.

Navigating the game is annoyingly non-intuitive, for a game that is supposed to appeal to beginners (i.e., women). The chubby baby turns you left, right, forward, and back...and each way you turn the scene changes so much that you can't really tell where you are. You can only move several steps at a time, so you can't explore your surroundings fully.

Challenge is non-existent in this game. The puzzles aren't really puzzles, but more like toys you can play with.

The characters in the game appear occasionally in flashback scenes that are flat and uninspiring. Their interaction includes no dialogue, as I recall.

As for the story, there really is none. You are entering this garden long after the romance between the two characters has ended. There is nothing to achieve, nothing to win, no obstacles to overcome, no puzzles to solve, no real story to unravel. Nothing.

Absolutely the only good thing about this game is that the design of the garden is beautiful, but the graphics are so simple and unsophisticated by today's standards that you wonder if this game is for very young children...until you look at the box again and read that it is indeed supposed to appeal to you, an adult woman.

Despicable.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

A dull game that consists mainly of meandering. Puzzles are simplistic, yet unintuitive. Rewards consist of cut scenes featuring a courtship. The game is strongly targeted to women. To the extent that women are maudlin simpletons, it should appeal to them. For my part, I found it a bit insulting.

Though Clunky, One of the Best Older Games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a Myst, Atlantis, Syberia, Egypt II gamer (with even some Nancy Drew thrown in to play with younger friends; and a little Tombraider), and to this day, Lotus Spring remains as one of the most enjoyable & educational games I've played. I never traded it in. It stays in my collection. If you want to go back over the older games and you are a female gamer, try this out. It is clunky, but if you have patience, you'll enjoy the story and graphics. Most guys I know think it moves too slow and won't finish it. But I think gals age 12 to 80 will get through fine. Who wouldn't want to observe Koi fish in an oriental pond, then try to figure out how to "play them" to get to the other side?

A Stinky Flower

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: April 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Game produced to appeal to a specific audience - namely teenage girls with nothing better to do with their time. That is fine, and may be benificial as the monotany may force them outside, away from their monitors.

Repetitious and tedious. Buy if watching grass grow adds excitement to your life.

Good graphics, but boring.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: March 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Lotus Spring has very nicely done graphics and intricate details. However, there's virtually no plot to the game. Right from the beginning I was already confused as to what exactly the point of the story would be. You end up going around beautiful scenaries looking for really pointless and boring poems. I made myself finish the game because I didn't want to waste my money.

Lotus Spring, how does your garden grow?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: January 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

"The Legend of Lotus Spring" is the first game from Women Wise, a feminist group dedicated to producing quality games that appeal to a female gaming audience. "Lotus Spring" is more of an interactive exploration than a game per se: there are really no puzzles, no mazes, and no missions other than exploring the now-extinct Garden of Perfect Brightness in 19th century China. You play as Emperor Xian Feng and are searching for your love, the concubine HeHanQu, who, as a Han woman, was forbidden from marrying the Emperor, and the jealousy of the Dowager Empress CiXi proves formidable as she sends HeHanQu, or Lotus Spring, to an island in the middle of the garden. But Lotus Spring has disappeared and now you must find her....

"Lotus Spring" is filled with history and touches of now-vanished imperial China under the Qing dynasty. As you explore the many sights and locations in the Garden of Perfect Brightness you will stumble upon shared moments between the Emperor and Lotus Spring, many of which are poignant. Although not essential to winning the game, there are several exploration-type activities which are quite fun, including trying out various traditional Chinese musical instruments, brush painting, and more. Along the way you run across various animals and insects, although, much like Myst, there are no other people to interact with. The style is very similar to Myst, in a first-person point-and-click slideshow.

The pros:
+ Beautiful graphics that bring imperial China to life: intricate jade sculptures, bonsai, Chinese silks and dresses, dim sum picnic lunches, ancient musical instruments...
+ The originality and depth of the story
+ A touching love story
+ Exploring the reconstructed garden and the numerous pavilions, temples, shrines, etc. as well as the garden itself
+ Access to the lovers' shared dreams and entries in a diary

The only gripes that I have with "Lotus Spring" are:
- The music is too repetitive
- The doll cursor is annoyingly cute and overly large
- The pace may be too slow for seasoned gamers

Women Wise has also commissioned a novella based upon the real historical events that inspired "Lotus Spring"

Amazingly dull

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: August 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you have a heart condition or a nerve disorder and your doctor has recommended a life without stress, excitement, or even passing interest, put "Lotus Spring" on your shopping list. This is without doubt the single most tedious title since "Alphabetizing For Dummies." Game play consists of moving around gorgeous but static locations and randomly triggering non sequitur poetry. Ohhhh my. Be still, my foolish heart.

If you have a Mac--don't buy Legend of Lotus Spring

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

In order to open this game a Mac user has to disable QuickTime and the instructions for doing so are inconsistant and confusing. In my case once I did this and then installed the game's version of QuickTime-my computer failed and I had to clean sweep my computer and then try to restore all my files. Now, I suspect any game that has to disable software in order to play it. P.S. Amazon kindly replaced the CD once and neither the original or the replacement would play. I don't know about PC use but for a Mac. I would avoid this game at all costs. P.S. The instructions are not in the manual that comes with the CD. I had to E-mail Dreamcatcher Games and that's when the confusion began. Avoid this game and for me. I avoid anything by Dreamcatcher games.

Lovely to look at, but somewhat disappointing as a game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Unfortunately, this game really did not meet my expectations. It was gorgeous to look at (and I *do* appreciate the scenery, as I'm very much interested in Chinese culture), but it felt more like one long lesson rather than like a game at all, let alone one of of Myst caliber. In fact I never even finished the game -- just didn't find it challenging enough.

I'm not sure what exactly makes this game "women-gamer oriented" other than it's a love story. I appreciate the publishers' intent to create female-aimed games and would be happy to support future efforts of theirs... they just need be little more than a historical romance novel.

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