What's special about Agent Alice, anyway? To be honest, very little. You click around the screen to find hidden objects. There's no time limit - you simply get more points if you solve the puzzle faster.
In other words, at its core, just like most other games of that genre.
The Premise
The protagonist, Agent Alice, is an investigator with ESP. She gets drawn into cases of a supernatural slant, where her psychic abilities come in useful. At the start of every scene, there's a mission brief followed by the good ol' Treasure Hunt.
The Aesthetics
Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. The art department outdid itself there. The scenes are beautiful (though they get rather cluttered at the higher levels due to the sheer amount of objects you have to find), and the characters are very quaintly rendered.
Alice, in particular, is one smoking hot babe.
The Experience
Solving the puzzles net you rewards such as Action Points (you use these to play the hidden object puzzles), Stars (used for advancing the plot and playing other mini puzzles) and Cash (spent when the game asks you to wait for an allotted amount of time and you don't feel like waiting).
There is no way to lose in this game. Making incorrect decisions simply wastes Stars, which you can earn back anyway.
The Interface
It's pretty much a no-brainer. Right off the bat, you know where everything is and it takes very little deliberation to figure out where to touch next. Simplicity at its best.What I liked
The art, of course. I can't emphasize this enough. For what amounts to just another mobile game, a great deal of effort was put into art direction.The storyline isn't bad either. Just enough to keep me engaged, but not so addictive that I feel compelled to spend money just to find out what happens next.
Agent Alice is great for casual gaming. No consequences for failure, rewards for success... it doesn't get any more casual than this. Makes no demands on your time whatsoever. You can leave the game for as long as you like, and be ready to pick up again when you decide to resume playing.
The mini-puzzles are a mixed bag. Some of the mini-puzzles deserve a special mention. They add to the game. Others, not so much.
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| Jigsaw puzzles - always fun. |
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| Mini shooting game sequence. Nicely done. Good timing required. |
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| Mix-and-match. Far trickier than it looks. |
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| A memory-combination thing. Simple, yet fun. |
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| This one's a fresh challenge. manipulate the pieces to find a clear path from Point A to Point B. |
What I didn't
Replay value isn't great. Gets repetitive after a while. Then again, that's pretty much a given considering its genre, and the fact that it is a plot-driven game.Some of the mini-puzzles are just a little too simple. Seriously, they shouldn't even have bothered with those. The objective of these mini-puzzles is mostly to see how fast you can touch or swipe repeatedly, and reward you with Action Points based on that. It's just a little trite.
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| Rotate all the tiles to form the correct image. Lots of fast tapping. |
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| Swipe the screen repeatedly till the grime is cleared off. Really? |
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| A variation on the above. Swipe till fingerprints are revealed. then tap and hold. |
Also, the waiting times. There are times the game makes you wait for hours, days even, unless you have Cash (or spend actual money to buy Cash). But I suppose the designers need some way to make money off this game.
Conclusion
Worth a download, if you don't want a game you have to obsess over and spend a lot of time playing. And also if you're a sucker for good hand-painted graphics.My Rating
6.5 / 10
Have a go at Agent Alice, and tell me how you find it. (hur hur)
T___T
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