I've finished "Heart of China" in 4,5 hours!

Mission accomplished!

Taking a very big chance and overwriting earlier save files, I continued playing Heart of China after I ran out of save files during my previous run. The Kathmandu level was quite tricky, because Jake Masters isn't exactly a people person. He keeps insulting people no matter which dialogue option you choose, so it takes a lot of restoring there to figure out which option does the least damage.

Istanbul's city gate doesn't look that impressive...

We finally ended up in Istanbul, which looked a lot more rustic than I imagined it would have looked in the 1930s. I think they got their centuries mixed up... Anyways, the moment I set foot in the city, Jake gets arrested for a previous transgression, and I'm suddenly playing as Kate.

Cleaned him out quite fast...

Devising a plan to free Jake costs money, so I have to play a couple of rounds of a shell game to gather the necessary funds. Bought some red herring items in the pawn shop, then had to restore because an item I needed couldn't be bought and earlier I had already accidentally ruined my chances to get it.

This ain't Prince of Persia...

With Jake freed we escaped on the Orient Express. Thankfully I saved right before boarding, because turns out the next dialogue-heavy scene between Jake and Kate defines which ending you get. And yes, I had to restore here to get a good ending... But not before playing another arcade sequence, swordfighting on top of the train and getting knocked off over and over. I admit, I looked up a strategy for this, because I didn't want to just skip it.

Heart of China turned out not so bad as Willy Beamish with its game-overs and dead-ends. The puzzles aren't that hard, if you can figure out the right things to say to people. There's just a lot of trial and error involved, and the twenty save slots the game has just aren't enough for that. I did like the story very much, there's this pulp adventure, swashbuckling style to it that appealed to me more than Dynamix's Rise of the Dragon. A remake of this game without any dead ends would be cool, but then you wouldn't have those charming graphic style with the actors anymore. And yes, that means I think I developed a little crush on Kimberly Greenwood playing Kate Lomax...

My next classic playthrough will be Laura Bow and the Dagger of Amon Ra, but first I want to finally play Loco Motive, since there's a good chance I might meet Adam Riches at AdventureX in November...

You can buy Heart of China on GOG.

I'm 2,5 hours into "Heart of China" and I ran out of save files...

The place sure has changed since I came here with Zak McKracken...

I'm 2,5 hours into Heart of China. I finally got through the Chendung chapter alive and well, and reached Kathmandu. Only problem is that I ran out of save files, so now I always have to overwrite them. This adds a little anxiety, because I can imagine having to go back further in time if I happened to miss something vital. So let's hope that won't be necessary!

Drowning is only one of many death scenes...

Getting into the palace of Li Deng was quite tricky, but I blame the user interface. It had been a while since my first session, so I had forgotten you had to DRAG items into your inventory instead of simply clicking on them. It's a 90s game, after all, and we were still far from a one-click interface. Anyway, this led to me drowning in the sewers a couple of times -- yak! I mean, yuck!

Already vanquished a guard dog, now there are guard SNAKES?!

Puzzling through the palace itself was quite intuitive. Still had to reload a couple of times, but I finally located Kate Lomax, surrounded by killer cobra's! I didn't have much time to think of a way to free her, since the guards always show up after some time. I was able to buy myself a LITTLE extra time, but every time I tried to use my gun on the snakes, it didn't work. Once again, an interface issue: turns out I first have to equip the gun by dragging it onto Jake's picture in the inventory, then I had to hold the right mouse button to get some crosshairs so I could shoot with the left button. Thank Buddah this game came with a digital copy of the manual...

What a magnificent polygon plane!

Not long after I needed the manual again, to figure out the tank controls. Yes, I had to escape the palace driving a tank! It's a skippable arcade sequence, but I wanted to do it for myself. Lost quite some time getting blown up by other tanks, flipping myself over or driving straight into a river, until I finally succeeded in reaching my plane and leave for Nepal.

Kate's not looking too good...

Why Nepal and not back to Hong Kong, you may ask? Well, one of those snakes still managed to bite Kate, and Chi said the only cure can be found in Kathmandu. So once the plane was on the ground I had to reload a couple of times figuring out whether Jake or Chi should go look for help. All three of us froze to death repeatedly, until I figured out Chi had a right-click function as well... So now we're in Kathmandu, with several new locations to visit and several people to talk to. Let's try to get home now!

You can buy Heart of China on GOG.

Classic time: "Heart of China"

New game!

I've started playing Heart of China and I'm one hour into it! This is my first time playing this game, which was developed by Dynamix and released by Sierra On-Line in 1991. I got into adventure games a year later, I think, and even though I often saw this title, I never got around to it. I did play two other adventure games by this company, Rise of the Dragon and Willy Beamish. So I knew I had to be in a good mindset to play this one: save often!

Cool, real actors...

Nurse Kate Lomax is kidnapped in the Chinese province of Shendung. Her father hires me, "Lucky" Jake Masters, to go rescue her. Of course, if adventure games have taught me anything, it's not to dash in unprepared. So for the first hour of the game I'm in Hong Kong where I had to convince this guy named Chi - a ninja - to accompany me, and to gather some necessary inventory items.

My Cadillac of the skies...

Heart of China has beautiful graphics and the characters are stills of real actors - or, well, friends and family of the developers. The backgrounds have little animations. The puzzles are mainly of the dialogue variety (so far), so I saved and restored until I found the optimal configuration of the available options; took me quite a bit of trying.

Ho's Bar. I kid you not...

The user interface takes some getting used to. There are no hotspot labels; your cursor changes into an arrow when you can pick something up, or a dialogue balloon when you can talk to someone. You can right click wherever you want to get a description. Clicking on Jake's picture in the bottom right corner opens up the inventory. You have to drag the items to use them. But you also have to drag them back into your inventory, otherwise you drop them on the ground wherever you are.

The streets of Hong Kong...

So together with Chi, I managed to leave the airport and land near Li Deng's castle where he is supposedly holding nurse Kate. It was interesting to see that, when Chi joined me, I could switch between the two characters, each with his own inventory. I already solved one puzzle this way and I'm sure there are more to come... 

You can buy Heart of China on GOG.

"Quantum Witch", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "Like most narrative adventures, this game features freedom of choice as its most important aspect, though I loved the fun retro art and catchy music as well, and totally appreciated the main character standing up to religious doctrine (if I wanted). A lot of supernatural – or quantum-sciencey – things happen in the story that I didn’t really understand, possibly because I didn’t see all possible scenes. But I went with the flow, laughed at the jokes, and tried to give Ren the best ending I could. And then the worst. And then something in between. The game might still hold more secrets for me, but I’m totally fine to leave the rest for completionists. It’s definitely worth playing, though, and playing more than once, as it’s a challenge to unlock the various alternative versions of the story, and often a joy to experiment. Go in with the right expectations and you’re sure to be charmed by Quantum Witch."

I finished "Life is Strange: True Colors" in 11 hours!

Joy to the world!

What an amazing game! Without a doubt my favorite of all Life is Strange games. Then again, I've probably say that of every LiS game I've played ;)

So, after last time, Alex discovered that not all emotions she can read are bad. Joy has the power to change the world around her. This led to some great scenes. I really enjoyed the LARPing in chapter four, with everybody in town helping young boy Ethan have the time of his life. This was such a fun with all the battles and finding scrolls, but also touching sequence. It's something I would love to do in real life.

FIGHT!

Other than that I tried very much to woo Steph during the Spring Festival. I know the game lets you choose between Steph and Ryan as the main romantic interest, and for some reason Steph made more sense to me. Ryan's a good guy, but he just didn't have the spark for me.

Bewitching...

Chapter five was both awesome but also a bit underwhelming. There wasn't really much gameplay there, simply going through some flashback scenes and then the final showdown, where all the little sidequests with the other characters paid off (still missed getting one right, it seemed...) And then the final decision on what the future would bring for Alex.
 

No guitar playing mini-game? Aw shucks...

I decided to stay in Haven, and Steph decided to stay with me. I hope that the vision of the future Alex received will become true. This was a great pay-off of a great game with amazing visuals, endearing characters, awesome music (even some licensed songs like Kings of Leon and Dido) and of course the fun gameplay the Life is Strange games are known for. Great to play a narrative game like this after a game filled with inventory puzzles.

Life is Strange: Double Feature is next in this series, but for my following playthrough I will be going back to the classics with Heart of China!

"Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "This is not a game you want to rush through, as from the get-go I enjoyed running around Ambrosia Island. Never lacking for something to do, I found myself often overwhelmed with possibilities, but in a positive, elated sort of way. Usually I’m not into achievements or collectibles, but in Mythwrecked it is central to its gameplay and highly rewarding, so addictive is that feeling of finding hidden items. The fetch quests themselves are satisfying to complete because they offer more lore about the world of these unusual gods without sifting through pages and pages of reading material. These Greek deities kept me entertained every step of the way, and this loveable bunch will no doubt steal your heart. I only wish the succinct revelations about them were linked to some actual puzzles, making the whole adventure more interactive than simply collecting things and returning them. Still, if you enjoy scavenging for lost items, doing so on a beautiful island filled with quirky Greek gods will keep you happily entertained for hours, feeling like your prayers have been answered."

I'm 5 hours into "Life is Strange: True Colors" and things are getting very emotional

Can I just go live here?

What a stunning game is Life is Strange: True Colors. I love everything about it. I'm five hours into it and I just reached Chapter 3. I discovered there's a run button, but who wants to hurry through this beautiful world? I'm totally enjoying walking through the fictional Colorado town of Haven Springs.

These aren't the flowers you're looking for...

And going from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3 I also noticed there were lots of optional quests I could have done. But I didn't know they existed. Which means I didn't even explore enough! Now, I do blame the game for that, because there's ANOTHER button that lets Alex use her powers on people, but this was never tutorialized. Because most of the time, the game automatically shows when it's possible to use your power, except not for these optional quests (like finding a man's lost dog, or helping out a birdwatcher in the park).

I can't even make decisions in real life, so why do I play games like this?

As far as the story goes, something unexpectedly tragic happened, so now it's a month later and I'm trying to uncover a conspiracy behind that accident. Meanwhile I'm going around helping people out, even in little things like playing a student's favorite song on the jukebox while she's studying in the bar. It's very hard hitting the brake like that on the main story. I'm not really a completionist like that, I just don't think it's fair that the chapter summaries are almost "blaming" me like "you didn't help so and so" when I didn't even realize those options were there to begin with!

Let's kick some foosball butt!

I really like all these characters, even taking pity on some of the more "disturbed" ones, once you use your power on them and figure out what's really going on. Of course now I'm starting to wonder whether it's possible for someone to totally fool Alex regarding their emotions, or if her powers are foolproof. Perhaps I'm thinking too much about it. Thankfully sometimes there are some mini-games to take your mind off it all, like playing foosball, the jukebox game (a version of Twenty Questions) or simply picking out another outfit to wear (I quite enjoyed that option in Crown and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit as well...

You can even choose Alex's outfit for the day!

I've played through some very tense scenes, several funny ones, but also quite scary ones. The one that struck me most is helping out someone suffering from dementia. When Alex sees the world through that person's eyes when she connects with them, that's an amazing piece of cinematography. But I also quite enjoyed figuring out how to help them remember everything. Still, many decisions you have to make feel like the game is twisting a knife in your heart. So, I'm just trying to play the game being as honest as I can.

Really wondering what the second half of the game has in store!

You can find Life is Strange: True Colors on Steam!