I enjoyed the concept of the game, I love the fact that you get 4 hidden object games for less than $10 and thank goodness that the frustrating gameplay of “The Stolen Venus” does not show up in “Secret of Casanova”. Fun hidden objects, mini-games and puzzles for this second game in the series. “Insider Chronicles: The Complete Collection 4-Pack” is recommended!
VIDEO GAME TITLE: Insider Chronicles:Â Secret of Casanova (as part of the Insider Chronicles: The Complete Collection 4-Pack)
YEAR OF INITIAL RELEASE: 2010 (the 4-pack was released in 2012)
VIDEO GAME GENRE: Hidden Objects
PUBLISHER: Viva Entertainment
MEDIA: 1 PC DVD
RATINGS: E for Everyone
RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2012
VIDEO GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
When Casanova’s diary surfaces after being lost for hundreds of years, it’s up to you to use your power as a world class sleuth to solve a mystery shrouded with love! What secret does Casanova’s diary hold? Set out on the trail of Casanova as it leads you to the most beautiful and romantic place in the world. As you close in on the trail, you must solve challenging puzzles, discover clues and hidden objects and play fascinating mini games! Solve complex puzzles! Discover the secret of history’s most famous lover! An unforgettable adventure! Also includes the Bonus Game – Elven Mist 2 – for one incredible price!
- When Casanova?s diary surfaces after being lost for hundreds of years, it?s up to you to use your power as a world class sleuth to solve a mystery shrouded with love!
- What secret does Casanova?s diary hold? Set out on the trail of Casanova as it leads you to the most beautiful and romantic place in the world.
- You must solve challenging puzzles, discover clues and hidden objects and play fascinating mini games along the way to uncovering the secret of history’s most famous lover!
- This unforgettable adventure also includes the Bonus Game, Elven Mist 2, for one incredible price!
Francesca Di Porta is the brilliant detective who is known to take on the major art heist cases and having appeared in four hidden objects games which include “The Stolen Venus”, “The Stolen Venus 2”, “Missing in Rome” and “The Secret of Casanova”, video game publisher Viva Media has released “The Insider Chronicles: The Complete Collection 4-Pack” in March 2012. (Note: Previous releases of the game had it titled “Insider Tales”).
With a 3-Pack released back in 2010, this brand new 2012 version includes “The Stolen Venus 2”.
As a person who is passionate about art, loves going to art museums and also enjoy mystery storylines, I figured that I would give the “Insider Chronicles” series a try.
For my first review, I played the first game in the series, “The Stolen Venus”, a 2009 game that frustrated me as the difficulty was too high and the objects were transparent and very difficult to find. The fun of the first game was dampened by its hard-to-find objects that one had to use the hint button too often, while those who refuse to use the hint button, quit the game before completing it. Add in a ridiculous ending and sure enough, I gave it a rating of a C-.
But yet, I was a bit more lenient as it was an older hidden objects game, it did have an intriguing storyline and I enjoyed the detail of the graphics. But most importantly, with the release of “Insider Chronicles: The Complete Collection 4-Pack”, for under $8, you get four games (including an extra game provide with each “Insider Chronicles” game), so it’s hard to complain that for the price of one game, you’re getting all games in the “Insider Tales” series (note: The games were once called “Insider Tales” but the collections are now referred to as “Insider Chronicles”).
In the second game of the series, “Insider Chronicles: Secret of Casanova”, Inspector Francesca Di Porta is contacted by a Professor who had discovered something surprising that he has to share it with Francesca (who is on vacation). But because the two are good friends, she leaves her vacation to meet with him at his home.
But all she finds is a message from the Professor that he had to leave but left clues for Francesca to find these “secrets” and sure enough, what she finds are pages written by famed adventurer and womanizer, Casanova. What secrets did Casanova hide?
No worries, Francesca is up to the challenge in finding out Casanova’s secret as her investigation takes her to Milan, Paris, Vienna, Prague and Venice.
INSTALLATION:
I installed “Secret of Casanova” on a Windows XP laptop and did a full installation. I will say that the games of the “Insider Chronicles: The Complete Collection 4-Pack” were a pain to install.
Upon inserting the CD, you get the Viva Media screen where you select which game to install. I have never had a problem with this, but this game…I kept getting this message of “click on the Viva Media Universal program”. I kept doing it over and over and nada. And this window titled “Game Center” kept popping up. What is this game center? And why is it asking me to install all these other games not related to “Insider Chronicles”?
Sure enough, I found out that the Game Center is perhaps a joint company or related to Viva Media which allows you to keep in track of all your game installations. And sure enough, you do get a few free games and trial games with each game. For “Secret of Casanova”, you get “Elven Mist 2”, a free Tetris/Bejeweled style of game.
Not sure why it was a pain to install each game and often at times I would have to go to the CD directory to click on the actual game but problem with that is that there was no activity and figured that the game wouldn’t install but realized there was a lag of maybe five minutes before this Game Center screen came on and because you attempt to click on the setup over and over, many installations start showing up and you have to close them all but one down.
I wish installation was as easy as the other Viva Media games but not sure if this problem will happen to everyone and it may be because I am using an older XP laptop.
So, if you do install this game, after clicking on the install of the Viva Media installation screen, just remember that the Game Center that will pop up, must be installed.
From there on, you can access all “Insider Chronicles” games plus the bonus games that came with each game including trial games that can be installed and accessed.
GAMEPLAY
“Insider Chronicles: Missing in Rome” is a fun concept, as you are an inspector on a detective case through finding hidden objects but also taking part in various mini-games and puzzles.
First, let’s talk about the hidden objects part of the game. Thank goodness that the developers ditched the transparent objects and the same color on background objects that frustrated many players. This was very important and was so happy that the frustrations have been eliminated.
So, this time you get a list of hidden objects which you must find. In the first game, “The Stolen Venus”, you can click on an object and see an outline of what the object shape looked like. Not this time around. But fortunately they fixed things with this second game. Â it’s not too difficult to find these objects. In fact, rating the difficulty of finding the hidden objects would have to be a 3 (1 being easy, 3 being average, 5 being difficult). The only thing that problematic part that I can see people having problems with the hidden objects for this game was the use of words for things that some people may not know what that object is. So, you may need to Google a word, for example, some people may not know what a “Fleur de Lis” is.
While the hidden objects has improved dramatically over the first game, I did find one or two objects that were so thin and small, you had to use the hint button. But other than that, everything was quite simple.
Like the previous game, if you click on various areas too quickly, you will be penalized and unable to find anything for a short while. So, try not to click on so many objects that are not what you are looking for in a quick manner.
In addition to the hidden objects are puzzles and mini-games. So, you may have hidden objects that may be used to interact with other items on the screen. So, this was a nice addition to this second game.
But the most fun aspect of this game was the ability to travel to different areas, new scenery and take on various tasks to help people in each city, before they give you information.
For mini-games, there are games that involve putting together puzzles that are memory-based, such as the repeating of piano notes, mixing chemicals in flasks, puzzles and more.
As for the hours of gameplay, it took me about 2.5 hours or so. I found this game to be much more easier as the hidden objects were easier to find and if there was anything that was detrimental were the occasional crashes (which was a problem possibly with my laptop) and having to restart. But for the most part, this is an easier game and less frustrating than “The Stolen Venus”.
If by any chance, you do get stuck and need help, I recommend visiting this forum on the Big Fish Games website.
GRAPHICS:
As for the graphics of this game, there is an improvement over the previous older games. The scenery and characters were well-painted, very detailed and vibrant. Definitely an improvement over “The Stolen Venus”.
AUDIO:
Aside from the music which didn’t get on my nerves considering it was the same music being looped. The biggest difference with “Secret of Casanova” is that you venture to different cities and thus, different music is played. I thought that was pretty cool and I enjoyed the music. It was not too obtrusive.
REPLAY VALUE:
There is no replay value for this game. You beat the game, that is it.
“The Insider Chronicles” has a great concept and the fact that this 4-pack is sold on Amazon for $7.99, the price is absolutely fantastic and you are getting a great deal for the money.
With the frustration of I experienced with “The Stolen Venus”, the good news is that all those frustrations I had with the first game does not exist in “Secret of Casanova”. No more transparent objects or white on white or green on green objects that made “The Stolen Venus” such a frustrating experience. While there are some small objects, they are easier to find in this second game.
But with “Secret of Casanova”, the experience is much more enjoyable because you do venture out to several different ethnicities and take on a variety of hidden object games in those areas in the city, may it be the place you are investigating or the people who you are trying to get information from. The hidden object games and the mini-games come together quite nicely!
While there are improvements that were made for the game, I still have a problem with so much attention to the cut scenes throughout the game, why can’t the developers have an ending with a similar length instead of a minute long. This is a problem not just with “Insider Chronicles” but with other hidden object games as well. So, while the game ended a bit abruptly with a short minute ending, still..the gameplay made up for it.
“Secret of Casanova” is a definite improvement over its predecessor and much more enjoyable to play.
Now is “Insider Chronicles: The Complete Collection 4-Pack” worth buying? Definitely for under $8 for 4 games in the “Insider Chronicles” series plus three bonus games. And for those wanting an even better deal, you can get 11 more games with the Viva Media “Mystery Masters: The Secret Stories Collection” (only available on Wal-Mart for $19.99 not at Target nor on online stores as of April 2012).
For this second game alone, I give it a RATING: B-