Mystery Tales: Dealer's Choices Collector's Edition > iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac & PC Game

Overall rating

5 / 5

38 of 50 found this review helpful

Deal Me In!

PostedApril 5, 2019

Tygerlily_Flower

fromWinnipeg, Manitoba

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Skill Level:Expert

Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Card & Board, Hidden Object, Mahjong, Marble Popper, Match 3, Puzzle, Time Management

Current Favorite:

Phantasmat: Remains of Buried Memories Collector's Edition

(38)

Fun Factor

5 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

5 / 5

Level of Challenge

5 / 5

Storyline

5 / 5

I love this developers games! The artwork is fantastic, storyline is great and their HOPs are always different and fun! No one should ever complain about a game being too long as most developers are making their games shorter and for the price I pay for these games, I want to be entertained and get my money's worth! Best thing is all the collectibles!! Thank you Domini Games!

I recommend this game!

+26points

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Overall rating

5 / 5

135 of 216 found this review helpful

AHOY! POKER PLAYERS WANTED ON THE “DECK” ABOARD THIS SHIP

PostedApril 4, 2019

sunnyglow

fromIt’s in the cards! Domini continues to deal award-winning games!

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Skill Level:Expert

Fun Factor

5 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

5 / 5

Level of Challenge

5 / 5

Storyline

5 / 5

REVIEW BASED UPON THE ENTIRE GAME
5 Chapters Plus a Bonus Chapter – Strategy Guide: 47 pages

OVERVIEW: Sail off into a soul-wrenching adventure as you, detective, board a casino ship, the Princess Lolita. Your friend has been invited by the ship’s owner, William Gladstone, with you as her sleuthing companion. Don’t forget to pack your paranormal skills in your suitcase. You are going to need ...Show more

REVIEW BASED UPON THE ENTIRE GAME
5 Chapters Plus a Bonus Chapter – Strategy Guide: 47 pages

OVERVIEW: Sail off into a soul-wrenching adventure as you, detective, board a casino ship, the Princess Lolita. Your friend has been invited by the ship’s owner, William Gladstone, with you as her sleuthing companion. Don’t forget to pack your paranormal skills in your suitcase. You are going to need them in this game! Players will ante up more than money playing cards on this voyage. Ahoy! All poker players on deck! – a deck of cards that is.

OPINION: Domini has hit the jackpot with this game! Again, Domini Games has dealt us another winning game flush with those extras that other developers do not provide in their games. The story behind the game is well-written. This is a fast-paced game with top-notch HOP scenes, mini-games, and collectibles. The developer uses different formats for each HOP scene instead of the repetitive lists of items alternated with silhouette scenes used in other developer’s games. The graphics well-depict a casino environment. My only complaint is the overuse of neon green and purple. Perhaps these colors are now a trademark of this developer’s games; however, I would love to see this developer utilize other color schemes within their games.

MECHANICS:
• Four (4) levels of play including a customized version.
• Eighteen (18) achievements.
• Collect fourteen (14) morphing cards, sixty (60) chips and fifteen (15) cocktails. There is an indicator bar to indicate if there is an item within a scene. Easy to locate
• Chips collected can be used to purchase items for a VIP room
• Ten (10) wallpapers along with concept art, music and video sequences
• Choice between “Hard” or "Easy" puzzles in the menu
• Gimmicky phone on the inventory bar which is a hotline to the spirit world.
• Replay fifteen (15) mini-games and eighteen (18) HOP scenes.

BONUS CHAPTER: This chapter is another story involving your friend, Virginia. While visiting her on the set of a new film, “The Puppet Witch,” a spirit hiding within an old doll is released. This spirit, a puppeteer, is out to cause havoc by trying to resurrect his wife, Greta. Now, using your paranormal abilities, you must stop him. The story is decent; however, I found the theme identical to the one in the main game. There are eight (8) mini-games and five (5) HOP scenes. Continue searching for collectibles within the chapter. I found the quality equal to that of the main game.

HOP SCENES: There are eighteen (18) scenes in the game. They are varied, creatively designed, and interactive. There is a Match-3 puzzle which can be played in lieu of the scene. I love the scenes which have sliders at the top and along the side used to move silhouettes to matching items within the scene. Other scenes include rebus clues, spot-the-differences, storybook, and replacement.

MINI-GAMES: There are thirty-five (35) mini-games. Most can be played in either a “hard” or “easy” mode. Although this designation can be set in the menu, the difficulty of a puzzle can be changed while playing the puzzle.

SPOILERS: HERE ARE SOME OF THE MINI-GAMES AFTER THE DEMO:

A. Switch puzzle. Switch the location of 4 bottles on the left with 4 on the right using a middle grid with paths to move the bottles.
B. Physics puzzle. Adjust the angles of 8 valves regulating steam, to push a ball through a maze.
C. Connection puzzle. Place flowers on a grid so that the petals of the flowers connected with branches are the same.
D. Physical puzzle. Move a car down the road avoiding obstacles within its path using left and right arrows. If you hit anything you start over.
E. Beat the computer. Domino puzzle. Place dominoes on a grid. If your end matches that of your opponent, you capture that domino. Continue until all are used and you have more dominoes than your opponent.
F. Let’s play war! Card puzzle. Play against the computer. Play to win cards from your opponent. Play until one of you gets the most cards.
G. Ye Old Queens 8 Chess Puzzle. Place stars on a grid on a chess-like grid so no star is in the same row or column as another star.
BONUS CHAPTER:
H. Assembly puzzle. Using a planchette from a Ouija Board, choose symbols which comprise a symbol in the middle of the board. 4X
I. Assembly puzzle. Dress dolls with the proper attire.
J. Matching puzzle. Match up keys with their proper keyhole. Show less

I recommend this game!

+54points

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Overall rating

5 / 5

6 of 9 found this review helpful

Cruise to another world!

PostedApril 12, 2019

sbechirian

fromMontreal, Canada

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Skill Level:Intermediate

Favorite Genre(s):Card & Board, Hidden Object, Match 3

Current Favorite:

PuppetShow: Porcelain Smile Collector's Edition

(35)

Fun Factor

5 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

3 / 5

Level of Challenge

5 / 5

Storyline

5 / 5

I liked the ambience of this game, it's really like travelling on a boat. The voice volume was too low, even to the maximum. But, in general, nothing that's stands in the way. For this reason, five stars!

I recommend this game!

+3points

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Overall rating

4 / 5

3 of 8 found this review helpful

Just OK.

PostedApril 13, 2019

Marja67

fromSpokane, WA

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Skill Level:Expert

Fun Factor

3 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

2 / 5

Level of Challenge

3 / 5

Storyline

3 / 5

It is just OK. Very easy to navigate. I liked it for going on
so long. Not much music just sounds.

I recommend this game!

-2points

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Overall rating

3 / 5

83 of 103 found this review helpful

Found it tedious

PostedApril 4, 2019

belamba

fromPoole, Dorset UK

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Skill Level:Expert

Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Card & Board, Hidden Object, Match 3, Puzzle

Fun Factor

3 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

4 / 5

Level of Challenge

4 / 5

Storyline

2 / 5

Wanted to like this game, but found it hard work. The graphics were excellent as was the music. I used custom mode but whenever I clicked on something a giant outline of what was needed popped up, over and again. The HOPs were nicely done and a bit different and the puzzles were intricate.
My other dislike was when asking for a hint as to where to go next, it took me to the map instead of the ...Show more

Wanted to like this game, but found it hard work. The graphics were excellent as was the music. I used custom mode but whenever I clicked on something a giant outline of what was needed popped up, over and again. The HOPs were nicely done and a bit different and the puzzles were intricate.
My other dislike was when asking for a hint as to where to go next, it took me to the map instead of the scene I needed. An annoying very loud buzzing phone needed in some scenes also got irritating.

I'm sure some will love this game, but it left me hoping the end would come soon. Show less

I don't recommend this game.

+63points

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Overall rating

3 / 5

94 of 121 found this review helpful

DEAL ME OUT PLEASE!

PostedApril 4, 2019

pennmom36

fromThe Joker originated in the US during the Civil War as a trump card for the game of Euchre. On the 8 of Diamonds card there's a secret '8' hidden in the middle as well as the figures of 8 stamped on the corners! seriously, go look, I'll wait... ⛄

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Skill Level:Expert

Fun Factor

3 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

4 / 5

Level of Challenge

3 / 5

Storyline

3 / 5

Completed game 5 hours
(including CE Bonus Chapter & all puzzles)

Ahh, the life of a movie star, everyone wants the life of a famous actress, but William Gladstone wants more than Virginia's Hollywood lifestyle, he wants her soul! It's time to solve another paranormal crime mystery, but hey, at least you get a free cruise and 15 awsome Cocktails!

There is a Gadget, your smartphone allows ...Show more

Completed game 5 hours
(including CE Bonus Chapter & all puzzles)

Ahh, the life of a movie star, everyone wants the life of a famous actress, but William Gladstone wants more than Virginia's Hollywood lifestyle, he wants her soul! It's time to solve another paranormal crime mystery, but hey, at least you get a free cruise and 15 awsome Cocktails!

There is a Gadget, your smartphone allows you to make an otherworldly call to the spirit world to speak with the dearly departed (data rates, messaging, and roaming fees may apply) It may be annoying, but it's megabits better than those stupid glasses featured in the earlier Mystery Tales Games! Now apparently, I can see the ghosts without the aid of my geeky glasses, but I'm still trying to figure out how all of the ghosts, not only know how to contact me via cell phone but how did they know my otherworldly phone number?

This isn't a horrible game, but once again, the problem is, it's toooo loonnggg. Domini has slipped into a bad habit of throwing in everything but the kitchen sink to make their games longer. They put in so many mindless, and repetitive filler tasks, which doesn't have anything to do with the plot or its progression until it becomes mind-numbingly boring to the point that you just want it to end! I get it, it's a fine line between quality and quantity.

Some of the Hidden Object Scenes had clever concepts or were located in interesting scenes. There are only 13 HOP's in the main game and 5 in the CE Bonus Chapter, which pales in comparison to the over-abundance of Mini-games. There are several Keywords in Sentence Finds, Pictured Item Finds, Interactive List Finds, Vertical & Horizontal Slider Finds (match missing silhouettes) Combination Silhouetted Shape Finds, and Multiple of the Same Object Finds. A few of my favorites: A very unique scene where you choose the correct answer to the Joker's Riddles (Multiple Choice) and then find 3 Silhouetted Objects related to the answer. Finding 4 Objects relating to each paragraph's descriptions. Finding Multiples of Symbols (one of which morphs) on leaves filled with hieroglyphs. There is an alternate Match 3 game available, and one of the Achievements require you to opt for at least 1 HOP as the alternate M3.

There are a ton of Mini-Games, 29 in the Main Game and another 8 within the CE Bonus Chapter. Domini always gives you the option to choose between an Easy or Hard Mode, and you can also choose which difficulty mode is presented, in the Custom Setting (you can always manually switch per puzzle) Below are brief descriptions of some of the games I found interesting:

1-Drag a chain of colored tokens onto their matching colored squares on a grid.
2-Examine the clues and select the facts that match the photo.
3-Adjust the timing of gauges so they will push the ball past the holes to the end.ღ
4-Use directional arrows to guide the token to push the yellow ball to the end (gr8 "push the box" concept but way too simple even on hard mode Domini!)
5-Arrange flowers so the connecting flowers have related patterns.ღ
6-Slide skeletal hands to their color-coded columns.
7-Place Dominos to match either end to capture opponents pieces.
8-Play a card of the same color, larger cards beat smaller cards.
9-Rotate Skeleton head, arms & legs to align with each token.
10-Place all of the stars on the grid w/o intersecting rays.
11-Collect 3 of the same cards, collecting 4 of the same cards gains 1 point, 3 points to win.

The Collector's Edition Bonus Chapter has us back on the case when Virginia's Soul is once again taken while filming her latest film, Puppet Witch (that's gotta have some long-term effects) There are 8 Mini-Games and 5 Hidden Object Scenes and you'll pick up the remaining 4 Morphing Cards, 4 Cocktail Drinks, and 10 Zoom Zone Casino Chips which allows you to purchase the remaining VIP Room items.

This Collector's Edition version has 10 Wallpapers, 10 Concept Art Pictures, 5 Music Soundtracks, 24 Movie Video Cutscenes, 15 Re-playable Mini-Games, 18 Re-playable Hidden Object Scenes, 18 Achievements, 14 Morphing Playing Cards (with origin descriptions) 15 Collectible Cocktail's (yum) 60 Zoom Zone Casino Chips (used to buy 15 VIP Room items) 5 Main Chapters +Bonus Chapter, and a Built-in Strategy Guide.

MYSTERY TALES SERIES LIST
Title***Collector's Edition Release Date***Average Rating
1-The Lost Hope (January 25-2014) 4.0
2-The Twilight World (January 24-2015) 3.5
3-Alaskan Wild (August 29-2015) 3.9
4-Her Own Eyes (February 18-2016) 4.1
5-Eye of the Fire (September 29-2016) 3.4
6-The Hangman Returns (January 26-2017) 3.8
7-The House of Others (June 29-2017) 3.9
8-Dangerous Desires (October 14-2017) 3.1
9-The Other Side (March 17-2018) 3.0
10-Reel Horror (September 9-2018) 4.2
11-Dealer's Choice (April 4-2019) n/a

by: Domini Games Show less

+67points

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Overall rating

3 / 5

30 of 39 found this review helpful

The High Price of Gambling

PostedApril 4, 2019

Majestyx12

fromWant More Hidden Object Games for PC

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This "Key Contributor" plays, rates, and reviews a lot of games. We think you'll trust their thoughts and opinions about games.
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Skill Level:Intermediate

Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object

Fun Factor

3 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

1 / 5

Level of Challenge

5 / 5

Storyline

5 / 5

Based on the finished game with bonus material.

I play a paranormal detective. My friend who is a actress invited me as a plus one to a exclusive casino ship.

I had a love/hate for this game. I liked the scenes except the hops. I wished they took as much attention to the hop scenes art as they did the cocktails. The cocktails look wonderful. As much as Domini uses saturated color, which I ...Show more

Based on the finished game with bonus material.

I play a paranormal detective. My friend who is a actress invited me as a plus one to a exclusive casino ship.

I had a love/hate for this game. I liked the scenes except the hops. I wished they took as much attention to the hop scenes art as they did the cocktails. The cocktails look wonderful. As much as Domini uses saturated color, which I don't mind. Why are most of the hops scenes washed out? Some hops, you can barely see the items by the toolbar that they want found. One corner has a light washing it out in many hops. It's terrible! Also way too many story hops. One hop has like 50 symbols on leaves of a bush. I groaned, then decided to treat it like a puzzle and then I was fine. It even had morph in this one. (It was more puzzle like).

I did like the attention to details like my name on a bag. The Domini dog in various places and Domini magazine.

I liked the animals they used. Buying things to decorate a room. The game storyline didn't take the expected route and I liked that.

Now the sounds drove me crazy. Mind you I turn down the music and everything but the voice. The first time I heard the joker I about jumped out of my skin. I almost had the environment sound on off. What drove me crazy was one place they had a constant bird sound, two place a constant yapping coyote sound and some places a unpleasant hum. This ruined a good deal of my enjoyment.

Now the puzzles. They had quiet a few I liked. You have to adjust gauges to move a ball to the end. Loved that one. Moving things by picture or color I also enjoy. Normally I like jigsaw puzzles but the one's they had were terrible. You would have pieces in the picture and you couldn't move them out of the way to see the picture. Very frustrating.

You have a smart phone beeping because it helps you communicate with ghosts causing anomalies.

The carnival lights on the left corner didn't bother me that has your collectible notice. What did was that is was empty most of the time. I would like them to be more generous with the collectibles.

The wallpaper has characters all over them so they are worthless to me. The concept art has the one's I would like but they are unfinished art.

I liked the unexpected story. 5 chapters + bonus. If you played the trial it ended on the end of chapter one. It's like they didn't finish shading the hops and they didn't clean up the sound. That's the good and bad of it in my opinion. I can't recommend it. Show less

+21points

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Overall rating

3 / 5

11 of 12 found this review helpful

Demo great, rest a bit boring

PostedApril 8, 2019

Valdy

fromWhere Pixies meet...

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Skill Level:Expert

Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Card & Board, Time Management

Fun Factor

2 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

4 / 5

Level of Challenge

3 / 5

Storyline

3 / 5

The game started out looking very promising, but after the demo it went downhill. It got so tedious that I stopped playing the game before the end.
I have played games before where people are sucked into cards and such, and taken to other places from where I had to rescue them. I thought this would be one of those games, but it turned out not to be the case. Instead it was just the same basic ...Show more

The game started out looking very promising, but after the demo it went downhill. It got so tedious that I stopped playing the game before the end.
I have played games before where people are sucked into cards and such, and taken to other places from where I had to rescue them. I thought this would be one of those games, but it turned out not to be the case. Instead it was just the same basic type of game I have already played many hundreds of times. Show less

+10points

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Overall rating

3 / 5

11 of 15 found this review helpful

Not the best or the worst game I've ever played. Still going to buy it.

PostedApril 7, 2019

BooksandGameFan

fromJacksonville, Florida

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This "Key Contributor" plays, rates, and reviews a lot of games. We think you'll trust their thoughts and opinions about games.
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Skill Level:Expert

Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Arcade & Action, Brain Teaser, Card & Board, Family, Hidden Object, Large File, Mahjong, Word

Current Favorite:

Living Legends: Fallen Sky Collector's Edition

(51)

Fun Factor

4 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

4 / 5

Level of Challenge

4 / 5

Storyline

4 / 5

I love Domini games and I've enjoyed and purchased all of the Mystery Tales games, some are better than others. This game falls somewhere in the middle for me, not the best and not the worst game I've ever played but still entertaining enough for me to purchase. I'm not sure why all the negative reviews this really isn't a bad game at all and I found I was having fun when my demo time was up, plus ...Show more

I love Domini games and I've enjoyed and purchased all of the Mystery Tales games, some are better than others. This game falls somewhere in the middle for me, not the best and not the worst game I've ever played but still entertaining enough for me to purchase. I'm not sure why all the negative reviews this really isn't a bad game at all and I found I was having fun when my demo time was up, plus now I really want to see how it all turns out.

No, it's not a really new idea we've pretty much played this same or similar storyline before and it's true when you use the phone to see previous activity in that area things are much harder to see, they used to much white light for those areas but other than that the game was bright, colorful and fun. The mini-games not usually my thing I could play in this game since they give me the choice of easy or hard. The hidden objects my personal favorite were nice to look at and fun to play.
I don't like playing a game when I'm the only character in the game and nobody else is around, it makes it feel quite lonely and this game didn't have anyone around except for the occasional pop up of the evil man. This and the hard to see hidden objects in the scenes mentioned above are why I took off 2 stars.
I still feel there are enough fun things to do and see that I will purchase the game!
I do recommend it. Show less

I recommend this game!

+7points

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Overall rating

3 / 5

26 of 41 found this review helpful

Bad Overused Story Trumps Interesting Game Elements

PostedApril 5, 2019

Granny_Gruff

fromOn Spring Break and looking for fun!

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This "Key Contributor" plays, rates, and reviews a lot of games. We think you'll trust their thoughts and opinions about games.
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Skill Level:Intermediate

Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Hidden Object, Mahjong, Marble Popper, Match 3, Puzzle

Fun Factor

3 / 5

Visual/Sound Quality

3 / 5

Level of Challenge

3 / 5

Storyline

2 / 5

William Gladstone, our protagonist, owns a luxury gambling boat and your friend, Victoria, was invited on a cruise. You, as a paranormal investigator, have been invited to accompany Victoria. You quickly discover that passengers have been disappearing from the boat and an evil Joker is gathering their souls through William as he defeats each player at poker. William is hoping to resurrect his wife ...Show more

William Gladstone, our protagonist, owns a luxury gambling boat and your friend, Victoria, was invited on a cruise. You, as a paranormal investigator, have been invited to accompany Victoria. You quickly discover that passengers have been disappearing from the boat and an evil Joker is gathering their souls through William as he defeats each player at poker. William is hoping to resurrect his wife by gathering enough souls for the Joker.
Good stuff: There are morphing cards, cocktails, and chips to collect among the CE bling. The HOPs and mini-games were well done and interesting. The artwork was over-colored, but well-drawn.
Bad stuff: The characters were one dimensional. I cold live with that lack if the story was at all innovate. The only question at the end of the Demo was how many souls William needs and how many times you would use your psychic phone before the end of the game.
I enjoyed several of the many puzzles, but being average is not a reason to buy a game - at least for me. I'll keep looking for a good story with good puzzles and HOPs. With the hundreds of really well executed games in my collection, I see no reason to "settle."
Please try the Demo for yourself. Show less

+11points

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