Customer Reviews

History Channel: Monster Quest

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A fun game, but didn't take long to beat and I didn't have capabilities to save the previous games. I am not sure if it was related to my computer or not?? We got a new computer with Windows 7 and it sometimes does funky things to the games.

Giant footprints trail through the forest, too large to be human, but clearly two-footed and not belonging to a typical woodland creature. As a trained investigator, you've seen this sort of thing before - those footprints look straight out of the files you've been studying, containing eyewitness accounts of a supposedly mythical creature. Could this be further proof that the creature in fact exists, or it is just one more element in an enormous hoax?

The History Channel's smash hit series comes to life on your PC in Monster Quest. Join the team as a junior investigator, hot on the trail of some of history's most famous creatures of myth and legend. Whether you're experimenting in the lab, searching for clues in the field or combing through detailed files, it's up to you to determine whether these elusive creatures are fact, fiction or fraud. Solve puzzles and complete challenging quests in your pursuit of the truth. With your cleverness and keen investigative skills, the world will finally know whether these creatures of legend are real or figures of humanity's collective imagination.


Features :
* Join the team of the History Channel's hit show for a thrilling journey into the realm of myth and legend
* Pursue five elusive monsters to determine whether they truly exist
* Immerse yourself in a world of rich graphics and mysterious sounds that make the art of monster hunting that much more real
* Engage in field research and study in-depth files to seek out the truth
* Complete dozens of lab experiments to put the so-called evidence to the test
* Put all the clues together to determine whether each monster is real or just a myth


System Requirements :
* OS: Windows ME/2000/XP/VISTA
* Processor: Pentium 1 GHz or better
* Memory: 256 MB
* Hard Drive: 500 MB Free
* Video Memory: DirectX Compatible
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 8.0
* Keyboard & Mouse
* CD Rom Drive

This game looked like it would have been great. Had to return. I have xp pc which this called for. After I downloaded it it would not run told me I needed Open GL and to insert card????

We bought the game for our son and he really seems to enjoy it. He found the different types of monsters interesting.

Well, I am a fan of the Monsterquest show and I happened to see this game while browsing Amazon. I don't normally play PC games since my computer is slow and crap enough as it is, but I couldn't resist picking this up since I love the show. Well, my initial impression was that this game was low-budget--I wasn't expecting much. So, what did I get?

Graphics (score 7/10): Graphics are okay. There aren't any cutscenes or anything; everything is basically static backgrounds that change occasionally. Since this is a point and click game, this feature doesn't hurt it too much. The static pictures are clear enough that you can easily distinguish objects from each other, so it's good enough.

Music (score 7/10): There are a couple mellow instrumental tracks that play in the background. The various locations have appropriate background music and sounds. For example, a dock near some water features some tropical-sounding music and the sounds of seagulls and wind. There are some sound effects in the game, like the "ping" your mouse pointer makes when you click on something. Overall, nothing special.

Characters (score 6/10): The characters you interact with are unintentionally hilarious! I can't quite put my finger on it, but they all have the look of actors in fake-ish outfits. Not to mention, some of them make the funniest facial expressions as part of their "acting". All jokes aside, for the purposes of the game, the characters are decent-looking and have believable dialogue. Each case features a number of interviewees, and they all add extra interest to the game. In fact, given the gameplay (which I'll get to later), the interviewees are the best part of this game.

Story (score 8/10): Each case has it's own unique storyline and features it's own mystery monster. Obviously, if this game were an RPG or even an average point and click adventure game, the story would be seriously lacking because each case is short and sparse on things like detail or plot. However, this game is meant to replicate the monsterquest tv show, not to tell us an adventure story, and in that light, the storylines are presented well. The cases chosen are entirely plausible and are solved in pretty much the same way the tv show is (i.e. we never really discover any monsters). I only wish the cases were longer and had more details.

Gameplay (score 6/10): This is a bit of a catch-all category for me. Well, here's where all the flaws are. The biggest problem with this game is that after you read up on your monster and question witnesses, the gameplay devolves into a giant "hidden object" clickfest. You're given a set of items to find, and you just click on static backgrounds until you find those items. Most of the items are extremely random and have no bearing on the story or anything really (Why am I taking a guy's fishing pole and his ballpoint pen?!). Sometimes I feel like a thief since the game makes you break into people's sheds, houses, etc. and steal their stuff like the aforementioned fishing pole and ballpoint pen. Like I said, most of that stuff has no bearing on solving the mystery. Furthermore, a lot of the items are located in randomly bizarre unrealistic locations. For example, I found some circus tickets tucked under a picture frame that was HANGING ON THE WALL. In reality, those tickets would not just hang there; they would fall. In another room, I found a CD in the center of a fan. Nothing was holding it up there, and it wouldn't be located there in reality anyway. So, it's pretty obvious that the developers of this game just tried to hide random items in a picture rather than trying to put them in realistic places. This really detracts from the realism of the investigation. Another problem is that the investigator you control is implausibly stupid. Every time the investigator makes a footprint cast, he/she manages to break it. Not to mention, he/she also forgets to bring plaster with him/her TWICE and also doesn't possess a camera. So, you're forced to "steal" these items from someone's shop/shed/house. What kind of monsterquest investigator doesn't remember plaster or doesn't have their own camera?! It's pretty obvious that this was simply forced in to be another "puzzle" and waste time. So, I'm somewhat disappointed in the investigation portion gameplay. Once you've collected enough evidence, you take it all back to the lab to analyze. This "analysis" primarily consists of jigsaw-style puzzles (got to put those broken casts back together!) and "find the difference" photo analysis. And that's basically all of your gameplay right there. Seriously, that's all there is. Well, there are occasional quiz questions, but they're extremely easy. In fact, I wish there was a quiz at the end of the case. After you analyze the data, the game just tells you the conclusion. It would've been nicer to have a quiz at the end that asks you the conclusion to the case so that you can flex your analytical skills. Despite all these flaws and my wishing that there was deeper gameplay, Monsterquest still held my attention and was fun to play, if only because I like the idea of playing as a monsterquest researcher.

Overall (score 7/10): NOTE this score is not an average; it's my subjective overall score. Well, this game has a lot of gameplay flaws, but it's a fun game, and it's clear that they didn't have much budget to work with, so I went easy on the score. It's pretty short so it ends before you get sick of it anyway. Speaking of its shortness, I would've like to have more cases (I managed to finish the whole game in a single day). I'm not sure I could really recommend this game to fans of regular point and click games since it's so simplistic, but it's really cheap now (I got mine for about $4-and that includes shipping!), and if you're a fan of the show you might enjoy it.

I purchased the game to play with my granddaughters and am very disappointed. I do have the PC configuration recommended on the package and the game installed without error BUT.. the software is buggy! 4 screens into the play - the software will no longer recognize mouse input (which means you can go no further and you can save the game in-progress, so you only get to play 3 scenes). In another scene, whenever you selected a specific clue, the screen would repaint losing all of your progress. Tried numerous options to resolve and there is no work around. Totally a waste of time & money!!