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Great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 32 / 33
Date: September 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I give this game a 5 star rating - the game was engrossing and logical, but very free - you weren't forced to do A so that B would happen, and then allowed to move on to C. While there were some elements that needed to happen in a certain order, it wasn't the driving force behind this game.

Great graphics, very spooky environment, great audio. I even liked the voice acting.

It reminded me of Myst, in that there is a puzzle to solve, and you are given all the clues you need to solve the puzzle. It wasn't nearly as scary as Scratches, but more along the lines of the Darkfall series.

As an added bonus, there seemed to be no glitches or bugs in the program, and I didn't need any patches to run this on XP. The interface was very easy to use, and it was easy to install and start playing fast.

I hope more adventure games are made like this one, it was great!

spookymystery

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: September 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

LOVED THE GAME. JUST FUN SEARCH AND FIND. NO FIGHTING (WHICH I DISLIKE-RUINS THE GAME). YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. GREAT STORY AND INFORMATION. THANKS GOT GAME.

Nice Atmosphere, Decent Story

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: September 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoy the horror genre, so I've been trying out a variety of different games that are supposed to be spooky and atmospheric. I don't enjoy gore and splatter that much, so I've been looking for something that focuses on creating a creepy supernatural landscape that you can explore.

This game does a pretty good job. The story is pretty cool, the actually "monster" stalking you isn't all that scary, but I enjoyed the landscapes: the misty swamp, the dark forest, the abandoned dig site. It has a pretty cool ending and believe it or not, it has an environmental message to it as well, making it a sort of eco-friendly horror, Cornish cultural mystery.

I'm still looking for something a little more shocking and intense, though. Maybe I'll try Scrathces.

I started playing Call of Cthulhu, being a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, and while the game had promise, it seriously degenerated into a lame piece of crap. The game play literally started giving me a headache. I did enjoy the world they created, and the creatures are cool, but you get killed so many times that it takes hours to get anywhere interesting. You have to arrive at a save point to save your progress, but sometimes that takes 3-4 tries to wade through the murky darkness through dozens of guys trying to kill you.

Still looking for the perfect horror game, one that's intense, exciting, interesting atmoshperic, engaging, and not centered on killing endless numbers of zombies. That's just not scary, that's frustrating.

Something between Barrow Hill and Call of Cthulhu would be nice.

Cheers!

Good promiseat the start, lackluster followthrough

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: September 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The premise of the game seemed great - finding the proper offerings to appease a centuries-old curse. Even the puzzles were of a decent calibre, though nothing overly taxing. Some of the puzzle for me was figuring out just how to use anything to begin with, as there was no instruction on how to do so ("When you get this specific cursor, call up your inventory and click on what you would like to use").

That's when the giant, walking, french toast stick showed up.

Yes, your ultimate nemesis, the Sentry Stone ("He's watching you....he's after you!"), looks more like a blown-up Burger King breakfast snack. Of course, he does have the power to incinerate you, so I guess that's something. Just run away, and then, poof! He's gone!

And it just went downhill from there. The 'acting' is nothing more than 3 or 4 still shots of people in different poses shifting randomly (America's Best Eyeware commercials, anyone?). The graphics are okay, but nothing to write home about. And I swear, if that girl galled me to ramble on about the thing following her and watching her ONE more time, I was about to find her MYSELF and torch her! Not being able to stop things like that was a little annoying.

Like I said, the puzzles were kind of clever, but the clues for them were often a little too close together and gave the WHOLE answer practically...very little to figure out or reason. I will be perfectly honest - I did look at a walkthrough to find the location of ONE ingredient for one of the offerings...a little half-inch by half-inch square that practically blends into the background is kind of tough to spot in a game where mostly EVERYTHING is dark and/or a repetetive forest print.

Finished it in a sitting, wasn't overly impressed.

Finished it in One Day................

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: October 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Me and my girlfriend spent all Sunday playing this game. We were hooked.

The Good.
Excellent graphics.
Good Story.
Fun to Play.

The Bad.
The Ending was weak.
The monster should have chased the character throughout the game. Only shows up twice.
Short game

Overall, not a bad way to spend a day. Better than Darkfall. If you want a Darker Myst type game with not as many puzzles, but more searching. This game should suit your tastes fine.............

Engaging Horror Mystery

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 33 / 35
Date: November 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Conrad Morse, a noted Archaeologist, has received permission to excavate the mound at Barrow Hill, a site in Cornwall that has remained undisturbed since its construction in 2500 B.C.E., according to local legends. A mysterious force seems to surround the mound, as former attempts to survey the area have resulted in disapearances. Morse's excavations have drawn the interest of the press as well as aroused the ire of several conservation groups. Matters seem about to come to a head, and on the night of the Autumn Equinox they do--but not in a way that any might have dreamed. That night you--an unnamed character with an unspecified role--are driving down the Barrow Hill road listening to the radio when, shortly after sunset, your car stalls. Behind you, some sort of forcefield prevents you from returning the way you came. Your only choice is to go on, and in the process, solve the mystery of Barrow Hill.

Barrow Hill is a lovely 1st-person slideshow game in the style of the Dark Fall series (no wonder, as Jonathan Boakes and developer Matt Clark are sometime collaborators). The action takes place in a relatively limited area, all in the course of a single night. As your surroundings are mostly deserted, you have to rely on collecting inventory and clues to find out what has happened and heal the breach that is allowing a dark force to run ramampant in the area. MOst of the puzzles involve accessing locked or blocked areas and putting together information.

Despite the dark subject matter and the literal darkness of the screen, I did not find this game quite as spooky as it might have been. Some things startled me, but I never felt personally threatened. Of course, I never encountered the large glowing stone that, by most accounts, is capable of bringing your explorations to an abrupt end. I have heard that these encounters are the result of not having completed tasks in one area before going on to the next, so I think making a logical exploration of central areas before proceeding to peripheral ones may be a lifesaver in this game.

Sounds effect and music are understated. Sometimes you'll hear a spooky chord that seems to herald a momentuous event, only to have nothing really happen. You hear quite a few birds, but don't see many. Voice acting was quite good, however. I especially enjoyed the many amusing commercials you could hear on various radio stations.

Collecting inventory was mainly easy, barring one or two pixel hunts and a few places where I had to get a hint because I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for. Collating information was more complicated, partly because you could not keep the many documents you found during the course of the game. This made taking voluminous notes a necessity. Also, there were a number of red herrings: notes that seemed to have no bearing on the case and items you could interact with that didn't have any purpose. It was easy to get bogged down trying to do something with these items other than pick them up and put them down again. One puzzle seemed unnecessary, because by the time I solved it, I had already figured out what the clues it contained revealed.

I found the ending a little abrupt and disatisfying. Once you solved the final puzzle, things happened very quickly. There was not a lot of time to look around the last area you came to. I also was left wondering about the connections between some of the elements; I wasn't quite sure who were the good guys and who were the bad. A cut scene at the end seemed sort of tacked on.

All in all, I enjoyed this game, which took me maybe 10 hours to complete. It had a level of complexity in the puzzles which I have found lacking in many inventory-based games, and the plot line was engaging and well thought out. My main critique is that I wuld have liked to have seen some of the elements developed more. However, I look forward to more games from Matt Clark and company.

Not the greatest...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The enjoyment factor of this game depends on how much you imagine yourself "in" the game. If you can imagine yourself walking around the actual environments, then the game might feel a bit spooky and you can appreciate it for what it's worth. If you can't see past some of the game's silliness, then you might not enjoy it too much.

The game is a simple point-and-click game. Puzzles aren't too hard, and you can probably finish the game in one day. The graphics are pretty good, but I think they shouldv'e been better considering how long it took to install all the data on my computer. The story is, again, a bit silly, or "cheesy", but overall the game is a pretty good adventure. I I don't know if it is worth 20 bucks, but you can always resell it after you play it. :)

Spooky Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: December 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game uses the ancient stone monuments in Cornwall as a pretext for a very good point and click adventure. SOMETHING has been awakened! The graphics are detailed and interesting, the atmosphere is suitably spooky, and you will probably not have to consult a walkthrough every 15 minutes. I played this game on a Windows ME system and it never crashed and performed smoothly throughout. The only downside to this game is that you may find yourself playing it when you have other, more important, things you should be doing. No action, no mazes, no sliders - just spooky fun.

Pretty Good Bang For The Buck

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you like the decidedly low-budget DarkFall series, you'll love this game. It's not flashy, but it oozes a creepy, unsettling atmosphere. The ambient music is great, and really adds to the game. It's certainly not going to win awards for detailed, innovative graphics, but for a few hours with the lights turned low and the sound turned up, you should enjoy some spooky fun.

Excellent adventure game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: December 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I received this game for Christmas and was hooked until I beat it. It only took me about nine hours of game time to beat, which was the downside, but it was a very interesting game nonetheless. The puzzles are just hard enough to keep you going, but not so hard that you give up and go find a walkthrough. I'd recommend the game for anyone interested in adventure gaming.

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