The Curse Review
PROS
- The music and 'book of secrets' presentation create a great atmosphere for puzzle solving.
- Large variety of puzzles on offer.
CONS
- Touchy controls.
VERDICT
Like Professor Layton, this is a game with a plot loosely based around solving puzzles. While having a charm of its own, it's missing the sense of adventure and exploration of its inspiration.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
Personally, if I’m tackling a series of puzzles that increase in difficulty with each successive victory, I’m not sure I want a sinister, yet pompous masked man taunting me and ridiculing my intellect. Still I guess it's my fault for tapping on that suspicious book in the first place, releasing this malevolent figure who might be dangerous if he wasn't so bent on observing my progress to entomb him back within the very pages he had just escaped from after who knows how long.
The Curse can best be described as being inspired by the Professor Layton games, but instead of a grand adventure constantly being interrupted by solving brain teasers with little relevance, this game removes the adventure and exploration, just giving you puzzle content, with consistent interjections from our masked antagonist making things more personal than they probably should be. The puzzles themselves are varied, and fans of brain teasers will be familiar with a lot of what's on offer here. Tangrams, adding puzzles, sliding puzzles, the Tower of Hanoi; many puzzle game staples and classics help round out the one hundred pages of problems set before you. The controls for each one are pretty self explanatory, but moving puzzle pieces can be a little iffy in certain circumstances.
The music and voiced cut-scenes add a certain foreboding atmosphere to the proceedings (perhaps invoking the previous horror puzzle game, The 7th Guest), and if you like puzzles, then this release certainly has you covered... but aside from some verbal repartee with Mr. Tragedy and Comedy, puzzle fans have played through these teasers before, and the whole package might not be enough to hold their interest.
Screenshots
$0.99
