Mystery on Telescope Hill

This game is solid, and a decent way to pass a few hours. The puzzles are moderately challenging and, unlike in some games, are organic to the story and the environment. The puzzles are also more well constructed than in some games in this genre, avoiding repetitive slider and combination lock puzzles. The only downside to me may be that the game is a tad on the short side. Overall, I like the Aircamp games, but this is probably the least of the three; I think Chimera Labs and Beyond Time are better games, and twice as long. Even so, Telescope Hill carries the same solid, organic puzzle style those games do, and that I think elevates the Room and House of DaVinci games. The Aircamp games aren’t quite as good as those, but they’re close, and worth playing.

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This game looked like it had promise, and in some ways it does, but it’s far off the mark. There appears to have been a lot of work that went into Telescope Hill. It’s a big game, lots going on, many scenes and locations. Where it falls flat is in the execution. First and most important is the the low resolution. The art looks like it has been enlarged too many times, to the point that the scenes are out of focus and confusingly fuzzy. There is no defining sharpness at all. Add to this the sophomoric sound (which I simply turned off), poor language skills, and the vague, often unresponsive tapping points and you have what is in the end a really tiresome disappointment. I just couldn’t stick it. But I can’t brush it off with only one star, because it does have a lot of promise. It badly needs to be redone, though, perhaps by a more experienced and/or skillful team?

I'm stuck on the clock bug.... the game is essentially over for me. Bummer. It looked to be an interesting way to spend an evening.... I restarted the game then as soon as I got the clock hand I set the clock and it worked. I didn't check the clue or do anything that might operate the bug. That was the only bug. I enjoyed the game very much. I might even re-play it sometime.

Designer put a lot of effort into the design and interface. For example, if you interact with an object, like a desk drawer, and open it, then if you back out of the close-up scene you can see that the drawer is still open when you are back in the view encompassing the whole room. Nice touch! Same for wall arrangements. Some of the puzzles are a bit different, too, which is fun. Got about 2 hours of game play. Nice value.

This one and its companions are a great set of games. There don't seem to be all that many games of this type with an actual story involved. I love the interface, the overall usability, and the nature of the clues. I just hope they'll be making more games like this soon – most of the rest of the stuff out there is pretty disappointing.