Lately, I’ve been playing “Drawn – The Painted Tower” with my wife, and I must say that once again, the guys at Big Fish Games have done it… And by it, I mean create a casual game that has me entertained for some hours… 🙂
“Drawn – The Painted Tower” is a departure of their usual “find-the-object” gameplay system present in the “Mystery Case Files” series, being more akin to the “static-screen” graphical adventures of old that to that gameplay mechanisms…
It has the usual puzzle-solving (align colors, do a tangram, etc) and graphical adventure (use object A in spot B). My only complaint is that it’s a bit easy so far (haven’t finished it yet)… I’ve only used the hint system once (and I regreted instantly, since I should have tried harder), and although it’s a nice touch, I wonder if it doesn’t spoil the game a bit (having that help there, without any apparent drawbacks seems like counter-game, but they probably know what their player-base wants, since they’ve been doing this sort of game for a long time now).
The game theme is also different from their usual fare: a girl is captive in a tower and we have to find out who she is and how to free her… and while the story is kind of simple, it has that fairytale vibe that seems easy to achieve, but isn’t.
Visually, they eschewed their usual “realistic painting” look for a more “hand-drawn” approach, which works better for this kind of game… in some moments, it kind of reminds me of Tim Burton’s work (for example, the daytime clocktower painting).
All in all, it’s a very fun and entertaining game, that sadly is a bit easy (which makes it a great introduction to the genre for newcomers, to be honest)… and for $7 USD, it’s a steal! 🙂
Happy gaming!