Big Fish: Hidden Expedition 6: The Smithsonian's Hope Diamond - PC

As we're told in the introduction, "The Hope Diamond is infamous for its curse. Nobody really knows where the stories of the Hope Diamond's legendary curse began. Some say it started with a theft. The alleged culprit was a French explorer and diamond merchant named Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. Tavernier had heard tales of a hidden temple, lost somewhere in India, and he was determined to find it. People say that Tavernier found his lost temple and inside he discovered a statue with enormous blue diamonds for eyes. Tavernier couldn't help himself. He just had to have them."More of the Hope Diamond's story is given to you as you progress through the game. But what's most important to you is that at the beginning of the game, in August, 2013, you find yourself on a train, tied up in a chair, with a particularly nasty weasel of a man snarling at you, "Where are the shards? ... You better tell me, or I'll feed your friend here to Baby." Baby? Who's Baby? Oh, he's a white tiger.The shards are pieces of the Hope Diamond. When reassembled, the gem is supposed to have healing power, and the leader of this gang of thieves wants the Hope to bring him back to health. You are Dr. Blue, a successful expedition leader and you've been in tough scrapes before. How are you going to get off of this train and find the shards before the thieves can?"The Smithsonian's Hope Diamond" is a combination game. It has hidden object scenes (HO), puzzles and inventory actions. The game was created "in association with" the Smithsonian Museum. (The Hope was donated to the Smithsonian in 1958, for the start of it's now-famous gem collection.) In addition to regular game play, you find morphing objects (at which I am a total flop) and suns, which are the Smithsonian symbol/logo. The artwork is good. Not the best, but colorful and interesting.When you start a game, you chose to play at one of four levels: explorer, expedition guide, journey master, and custom. Even at journey master, you have hints an skips, they just take longer to recharge.There is a good amount of gameplay in this game. I counted 22 HO scenes and 18 puzzles in the main game. The HO scenes are more creative than usual. The puzzles range from very easy to difficult, with more leaning to the easy side. The puzzles are also creative. I got a kick out of one where you have to arrange bobble-heads.When you're finished the main game, you unlock a bonus game, with another 5 HO scenes, 10 more puzzles, inventory actions and morphing objects. Dr. Blue is on a case again. This time you are on the trail of someone wielding an antikythera, which turns a person into stone.You'll also unlock other extras, including the ability to replay 15 puzzles from the game, and 17 HO screens. It also gives you your completion time and percent correct (percent that were not "bad" clicks), so you can complete the HO screens again and try to beat your original time.But wait, that's not all! This Collector's Edition of "The Smithsonian's Hope Diamond" includes a whole separate free game, "Drawn: Dark Flight". It is installed separately, so you can play both or either/or with Hope Diamond. I am a fan of the Drawn computer game series, and Dark Flight is the 2nd. It's not quite as good as the 1st, "The Painted Tower" or the 3rd, "Trail of Shadows", but it is beautifully illustrated and has a good story to boot. It has no HO scenes, just inventory actions and puzzles. But the world created is very imaginative and out-of-the-ordinary.This is a combo set of the 1st two games in the seriesDrawn: Painted Tower / Dark FlightThe 3rd in the seriesDrawn:: Trail Of ShadowsFor both games, no authorization code is required to install. Once installed, you do not need the disc to play. Your game progress is automatically saved when you exit. I played both games on a Windows 7 with no problem.So all together, there is a ton of gameplay in the Collector's Edition of "The Smithsonian's Hope Diamond". If it was just the Hidden Expedition game, I would rate it 4.3 stars rounded down to 4. But the extra gameplay of the full-size "Dark Flight" gives you even more for you money - this definitely needs to be rounded up to 5 stars.Happy Reader

This is the 2nd game from Big Fish that would not load. They do make it easy to get a refund but I will not buy from them again!

Interesting game: however I love more of hidden objects when there's a lot to look for at one time. For those of you who like a story line and enjoy going back and forth to solve situations though, this is the perfect game.

Hope Diamond game is good fun, interesting story and good puzzles. Graphics are great and you can play hidden objects games again in 'extras' to beat your time, but the bonus game is poor. I like these game packs that have a bonus game and active extras after you've completed initial game play. The hidden object games are sometimes multi-tiered with several levels of things to find which I found added a layer of challenging fun. I actually got a kick out of repeating them in a timed version in 'extras' later. The other puzzles are challenging but not so hard they are frustrating. That suits me. I hate skipping a puzzle, but have my limits of patience.Considering how much I enjoyed this game, I was surprised that the bonus game was pretty poor. Not nearly the same quality. For this price I expected two good games. Even though the bonus game is usually shorter I expect the same quality. In the future I'll probably replay the first game but the second is a delete.

Really good game!!!!!! I played it 3 times just to get everything I had missed. Sun Signs... Each new room has one. Make sure you locate it before you leave. Lower right corner symbol lights up when you have it found. I found everyone. Morphing objects....These are found in the HOP scenes. This is fun, trying to find these. They disappear and come back. Once you leave the scene, you have lost it. I found everyone. Lower right corner symbol lights up when you found it. There are also 20 cards to find - found all these too. Each scene may not have a card...I only completed 15 out of 20 achievements though. I found the mini-games easy to do. I used the Strategy Guide once. Souvenir Room...After you have completed the game and Bonus game - do the souvenir room - find this in the extras - find it in the room on the screen - once you leave this room it is lost...Played the game on Windows 7...No problems...The other game - Drawn Dark Flight - not worth the trouble - Played it for 5 minutes and quit - lost interest. Each HOP had a gold crown in it - could not find any - did you? The game itself is well worth the money. It is a fairly long game. As I said - really good game. I like games where you find other objects when playing the game. I makes it more interesting. I will play it again. This time I will try for more achievements completed. If you have trouble installing - When you put the game in the computer - Press Open Folder to View Files...Hit 2 times Hidden Expedition CE then install...Hope you like the game as I did...

tried to play it, gave up, packed it away to give to anyone. big fish was associated with spin top, they are fantastic, not this!

A fun game with good puzzles and hints. The scenes from the Smithsonian interiors are nice and seem to give an accurate rendition of thereal thing.

Big Fish makes great games and this is one of the good ones. I won't say great as it does get a little boring in some scenes. I do think the graphics are good as Big Fish games are, and it is age appropriate for all ages. Fun to play and will keep you busy as you enjoy playing it,