First Impressions: The Hidden Theft

[003Robin457]

Played it a little and I finaly got passed the the first part of ch. 2, after you solve how the safe combo could have got out*. (It was possible but unlikely) Any way after that happens you are free to roam Bayport using your map to go to School and the Police station. You can also go down the roads at the mansion to the places you saw in the screen shots. At the Bayport High you can talk to Iola, she is the woman in the commercial not Nancy. And in the Computer Lab you can visit Phil. (His First UB apperence) However he is about 2 or 3 times more neerdy than I thought he would be!

[003Robin457]

* For all thouse who where stuck where I was:
Put the door stop in the office door (Gears appead in the lower Right part of the door) then put the sheet of paper on the office desk. After that leave the mansion and watch what happens when you open the door.

That was suspost to be in the last post. I thought I'd post a hint since the Solutions Guide is not out yet.

[tomswift2002]

I just got a slip of paper on my door today from UPS saying that my copy of the game is here in Canada, but because they couldn't get a hold of anyone today I've got to wait till tomorrow to receive it.

[NZone]

oh I hate it when that happens!! You have to wait a whole day for something again. That drives me crazy, MY DOOR'S NOT LOCKED JUST PUT IT INSIDE!!

[003Robin457]

Well at least its almost here Tom!

[SkyWarp]

I got my copy today too and installed it and played the first couple minutes (part of first scene) and am actually impressed.  Of course I am comparing it mostly to the Nancy Drew games.

[tomswift2002]

oh I hate it when that happens!! You have to wait a whole day for something again. That drives me crazy, MY DOOR'S NOT LOCKED JUST PUT IT INSIDE!!

Well they sort of had to leave with it since I was charged Customs duty on it, so before I can get the game I've got to pay Customs.  At least its less than $5CDN.

[NZone]

oh, yeah I've never had to pay a custom's duty on anything, not even when I bought something from China. Is that a Canadian government thing?

[Olivia]

I've only had to pay a customs duty for something from the U.S. through the mail once or twice. I think one was a large item (like a huge dvd player or something) and the other was just, I don't know, "important"?

I also get off clean every time I go back-and-forth over the border. Then again, we take the cost and apply it over more than one person which helps.

On the other hand, I didn't pay squat the times I got stuff from Europe.

[tomswift2002]

I've only had to pay a customs duty for something from the U.S. through the mail once or twice. I think one was a large item (like a huge dvd player or something) and the other was just, I don't know, "important"?

I also get off clean every time I go back-and-forth over the border. Then again, we take the cost and apply it over more than one person which helps.

On the other hand, I didn't pay squat the times I got stuff from Europe.

Well, today when I payed the duty, and this is so stupid, but considering that the duty was less than $3.00, the courier wouldn't take the cash, since, I'm not sure whether it is the delivery companie's policy or the policy of the Gamespot, but they could only accept check or credit card.

Anyway, I finally got the game, so I'm going to install it after I finish checking my email.

[Olivia]

They think there's counterfeit coins or something?

Or probably just don't want to be loaded down with the cash. Who knows.

[tomswift2002]

I just finished The Hidden Theft.  It was pretty short about and 8-12 hour game, not like a lot of games nowadays where they are 20-30 hours.

The Plot: The producers tried to make the plot of The Tower Treasure into an Undercover Brothers story.  Back in the 50's, Walt Disney adapted The Tower Treasure to TV with style and penache.  This felt like someone had taken an axe to the Tower story and tried to cut parts of it out in a very rough manner and sew them together with a storyline from the Undercover Brothers series in a very non-uniform way.  Plus I found that a lot of times this "non-uniformity" left me wondering where to go next or what was required to move forward in the game.  When I compare it to the Nancy Drew game series, from the games that I've played I remember times where you would click on an object and Nancy would say :"It looks like I need____ to go here", or she would say something that would give me a clue as to what direction I was suppose to go in.  Plus I also found that the friends on the phone were either extremely hard to reach or when I did reach them they were mostly there for small talk and not to give hints as to maybe a certain direction I was suppose to go in.  I think that with this game, since it was originally going to be called The Tower Treasure, Dreamcatcher should've done the same as Her Interactive has done to the Nancy Drew series, if they were going to adapt a book, do a fairly faithful adaptation.  Or they could've maybe done  a game that was called The Tower Treasure, but then had plot elements from the books The Tower Treasure, The House On The Cliff, The Secret of The Old Mill & The Missing Chums.

Keyboard/Mouse Control: At times I found that it was extremely difficult to get the keyboard or mouse to do certain things.  An example would be the computer at the hospital where you are suppose to get the Emergency call signs.  I found that I would move the pointer over a certain key on the keyboard, go to type in the username and password, but there would be no resonant key stroke on the inboard keyboard when I clicked the mouse on the letter, unless I had the mouse inbetween the letter I was trying to click on and the letter above.

Rating: 6 out 10.  It was a good try for a first game, but hopefully the next game, if they do base it on a book, will be a faithful adaptation. 

Pros: Its been a long time in coming, but we finally have a computer game based on the best-selling boys book series.
-The character models were good and the people looked the proper age
-Sound was really good.  I was listening to it in 2.0 stereo and there were times when different sounds swept from the left to right or vice versa.  Plus the voice acting was clear and you could understand what the actors and characters were saying.

Cons: Not a faithful adaptation of The Tower Treasure
-What exactly was Fenton Hardy's purpose in the game?  In the original story he was the one that the boys ran too to help sort out evidence.  In this game it seemed like Chief Collig was more the boys father than Fenton Hardy.
-Not enough hints to help you know where to go next.  Clues were extremely subtle and friends and family memebers on the cell phones were no help at all.
-Front of the box says that Nancy Drew is a "Special Guest Star".  One problem, she never appeared in the game aside from being a voice on the phone, and the voice wasn't even the same voice actress that plays Nancy Drew in the Nancy Drew series of videogames.
-Audio: there were a number of times when you would be talking to someone and you would go to ask them a question and the sound would start with the end of another sentence.  Very confusing.  Also the voice actors didn't have a lot of emotion in their voice which lead to a very monotone sounding voice-over.

[Olivia]

Overall, though, do you think there was at least enough options of having different places to go and so on? And even though the plot wasn't up to par, was it interesting enough to keep playing?

[003Robin457]

I haven't finished it yet (Tom did you play for 8-12 hours stright!! ) but I think it deserves a 8 at least! I am kind of addicted to it! By the way it is AU TTT so it dosen't need to remain true to the Book!

[Olivia]

Yeah, I guess I understand that but I think they should have picked a different HBs title if they were going to do that. It seems to be a marketing strategy because The Tower Treasure, the first HBs book ever, is highly recognizable to a lot of people. It'll help lure fans of all ages I suppose.

So it's kind of a false impression. Not that they have to follow everything straight-up, but in this specific case of using the first book ever, it's kind of strange to me. But it's makes sense because it is the first book, thus the first game.

Okay, I'm overthinking.