Plot: What’s it about?
As he spends time with his granddaughter, Ernest Hamilton tells her grand tales about his days of adventure. This time, his story involves a dangerous trek to the Amazon, in order to recover a stolen piece of technology. As he starts to recall the events, we’re placed into Hamilton’s shoes and tasked to complete his adventure. Hamilton’s Great Adventure combines platforms and puzzles, with a dose of collection and scoring goals. The game has a great difficulty scale, as you can navigate the levels with a solid challenge, or risk tougher paths to earn the highest rewards. So if you want the gold medals, which unlock bonus levels and leader board spots, you will have quite a hard journey ahead of you. As you travel through the various ruins, you’ll collect bonus points and a golden key, then unlock the level’s exit. You will notice some items are impossible for Hamilton to reach, but this is where his faithful bird Sasha comes in, as she can fly over the to items if within range. This mechanic has some minor issues at times, but adds a little more depth and can be quite fun to use.
Hamilton’s adventure is not a short one either, as you’ll have to traverse over 60 levels to complete the trek. The levels of course ramp up in terms of challenge, but it is never brutal. As I said before, you’ll have to showcase your skills to perfect each area, but the game isn’t cheap or impossible to master. The bird mechanic does cause some small headaches on certain levels, but those are the only times the game feels unfair. You can even bring in a friend to control Sasha throughout the adventure, which adds great value and lets you share the fun experience. Some of these puzzle driven platform games lack a decent story, but that is not the case with this release. There is quite a bit of narrative that unrolls as you progress, telling an enjoyable tale. I wouldn’t call it complex, but it is fun and that is what matters here. Hamilton’s Great Adventure has a lot to offer gamers of all skill levels, as casual fans can enjoy the basic game play and plot, while more hardcore folks can track down all the hidden goodies. In other words, you can make the game as brisk or in depth as you want. With colorful visuals, a fun story, and terrific game play design, Hamilton’s Great Adventure is highly recommended.
Video: How does it look?
The visuals here are excellent, with a great overall design and tremendous attention to detail. The smallest touches have even been refined here, which yields a terrific visual presence. The image is colorful and vivid, with subtle, but still impressive animation. If you’ve played similar puzzle/platform titles, then you know about what to expect, but Hamilton’s Great Adventure is head and shoulders above most of the genre.
Audio: How does it sound?
The soundtrack shows the same kind of detail and polish as the visuals, which means the audio is superb. The music is fun and never gets on your nerves, while sound effects are humorous and effective. The game uses text instead of voice work to advance the story, but that isn’t a bad thing in this case. The plot is moved forward in short bursts, which would be slowed down by actual voice performances, at least in my opinion. And while the story is fun, you’ll probably be wanting to start that next level as soon as possible anyway.
Supplements: What are the extras?
N/A
