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The Cursed Ship: Collector’s Edition (Mac) Review

 
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At a Glance...
 

Formats: Mac
 
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Year:
 
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Final Score
7.5
7.5/ 10


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We liked?


A gripping story line keeps you guessing till the end.

Not so much?


Lots of wandering back and forth, which can get tedious.


Final Fiendish Findings?

A simple cruise has turned into a spooky mystery in The Cursed Ship: Collector’s Edition. Welcome aboard the Ondine, a luxurious cruise ship that has mysteriously disappeared without a trace. You play as someone who has been hired by the Trident Corporation to find and recover the massive ship – and find it you do, […]

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Posted September 17, 2014 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings...
 
 

A simple cruise has turned into a spooky mystery in The Cursed Ship: Collector’s Edition.

Welcome aboard the Ondine, a luxurious cruise ship that has mysteriously disappeared without a trace. You play as someone who has been hired by the Trident Corporation to find and recover the massive ship – and find it you do, right as the game begins. But as you step aboard the ship, now covered in a spooky green fog, you completely lose touch with the outside world. It’s now up to you to figure out what exactly happened to the Ondine and its unfortunate inhabitants.

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Said inhabitants seem to flicker in and out as you explore the ship, with spooky black figures appearing and disappearing regularly, all while the unknown green mist floats in the air. It soon becomes apparent to you that there is more than just a simple case of a lost ship – something treacherous has occurred on the Ondine. But what happened and who is responsible for it is a mystery that the well written story line will keep you guessing about until the very end. As you search for clues and piece together the events that led up to the ship’s loss, you are dogged by a creepy engineer who seems intent on scaring you away. If the Ondine is to be recovered, you’ll have to dodge his attempts and get the engines going – before it’s too late.

The gameplay in The Cursed Ship is a nice mix of a variety of puzzles that keeps things interesting but not overly challenging. There is a respectable amount of standard hidden object jumbles, where you need to locate a set list of objects on a fixed screen. You’ll also need to carefully scan each area of the ship in a search for usable objects to add to your inventory. Finding them is only half the challenge though, as you’ll also need to figure out when and where to use them – not always an easy task in a game with so very many different areas to explore.

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In addition to searching for items, you’ll also play through a number of mini games, all of which fit well with the tone of the story line. From reconfiguring pipes in the proper layout to reassembling objects, the mini games are fairly standard for this genre of game. They aren’t terribly challenging, but they do provide a nice touch of variety to the game play, and all are completely skippable after a short time if you choose to do so.

The Ondine is a massive ship, and the game reflects this well with loads of different areas and rooms to explore. There aren’t any map shortcuts in The Cursed Ship, so all of that wandering needs to be done in real time, which means you’ll spend a good deal of your time in game just traveling back and forth between areas, picking up one object over here and then traveling to an entirely different area of the ship to use it, and then going back again to reap the benefits. It does get a bit tiresome after a while, but for the most part the engaging story line keeps things interesting enough that you won’t mind. There is also a generous hint feature if you get lost on your way around the Ondine, which will point you in the right direction if need be. This is a nice feature for those of us who have young hidden object fans in the household, as it cuts down on frustration. For the most part, The Cursed Ship is kid friendly, however, kids who are easily scared may not care for the spooky black figures that appear often in the game, so keep that in mind when deciding whether your children can play.

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The Cursed Ship: Collector’s Edition features an engaging story line that keeps players guessing until the very end. With a ton of areas to explore, both past and present, you won’t lack for variety in this game. However, the large number of environments makes for a lot of wandering back and forth, so a map shortcut would have been a welcome addition to the game.


Amy

 
U.S. Senior Editor & Deputy EIC, @averyzoe on Twitter, mother of 5, gamer, reader, wife to @macanthony, and all-around bad-ass (no, not really)


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