Kate Arrow: Deserted Wood - Overall, a Very Enjoyable Game.

Kate Arrow: Deserted Wood tells us about the adventure of Kate and her efforts to rescue her kidnapped grandfather and restore stolen idols to a native tribe. This is a fairly straight-forward HOG/adventure game, combining the HOG search and elements of point-and-click adventue, such as the recent releases Puppetshow or Midnight Mysteries. This type of HOG is actually my favourite - search a cluttered scene, get an object to help me in my quest and on it goes. The structure of Kate Arrow's gameplay is solid enough - player is required to travel back and forth over 4 locations or so in each chapter, with sparkly HOG searches popping up.

The objects actually didn't repeat when I played it - I am always presented with a list of completely different items once I go back to the same search scene. Smattering of mini-games here and there, that are not very challenging but quite all right to play through.

If the story sounds fairly generic, typical and done a few times over...unfortunately true. Doesn't really take a genius to figure out the proceedings, but the solid gameplay kept me going. However, the game did end quite abruptly, stopping at where I thought may be the culmination. So, the game is not long, and neither is it difficult. Took me slightly over three hours to complete the game without using hints all that much.

Mini-games are interesting, and some are quite challenging. Some of the mini-puzzles I couldn't understand, so I skipped them, while others I managed to figure out (including one of those pipes puzzles that usually have me quite puzzled), so I'd have to say some of those puzzles were on the not-so-difficult side, which is okay by me, and hope by you, too.

Kate Arrow is a game definitely worth attention. It has decent production values, pleasing graphics, interesting travel/adventure type of gameplay, and a believable story. However, it simply just isn't a stand-out. It's an example of a game done well, but lacking in any sort of oomph or punch that makes people sit up and take notice.

I have a good time playing it, and hopefully so do you!