Rating

A

Specific Ratings

GameplayA
GraphicsA-
Learning CurveA
Replay ValueC
SoundB

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Clues included in the game play
  • Entertaining and fresh puzzles
  • You can turn the music off
Cons
  • Not much of a story involved
  • Cheesy, repetitive music

Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure (PC)

Reviewed by:
Reviewed on:

Summary

An excellent example of puzzle gaming. Weak on story, but lots of fun puzzles. Best of all is that there are clues on how to solve the puzzles scattered throughout the game. No illogical or impossible to solve puzzles. A nice little diversion.

Images


Description

Your resume impresses your potential employers enough that they offer you a contract with a company that designs safes. Problem is, you must open and retrieve different clues from at least fifty safes to be able to open the master safe that contains your contract. Oh, and did I mention that you only have twelve hours to do so?

This game was a nice change of pace from the action-packed FPS games I had been playing. There's a nice range of puzzles, none of which required me to pull my hair out, because clues to their solutions were often available within the game. Some safes required no more than a key to open them, while others required some translations of various cyphers, such as a naval flag or braille code. Lots of red herrings litter the mansion and a percentile counter keeps you informed of your progress. (I wonder if I'll ever know what that last 1 percent was that I missed!)

A clock keeps you informed of how you are doing on time, but I found it easier to solve a puzzle, then go back to my last saved game, load it and head right for the puzzle to solve it again, then save my game, making sure I conserved as much time as possible. Graphics are pretty good and there are maps in the game to help you find your way around the mansion.

One nice selling point is that this game is playable on both Mac and PC. It's played in first person perspective, with an easy to understand interface. Point and click movement makes movement from room to room a snap. Individualized music for each room helps keep the mood interesting.

Review Page Hits: 0 today (875 total)