Like many adventure games, there isn't much replay value after you beat the game.  It took me roughly ten hours to beat this game.  Your mileage may vary depending on how easily you can figure out the puzzles and by how often you read the walk throughs. Even though the story was decent, I had a hard time getting into this game.   Sadly, it too falls short like [LINK=/index.php/reviews/18-computer/5224-kaptain-brawe-a-brawe-new-world-pc]Kaptain Brawe[/LINK].  The $6.99 price tag is reasonable and there is a [LINK=https://play.onlive.com/launch/trial/tales-from-the-dragon-mountain-the-strix]demo available[/LINK].  I would recommend, especially for Mac users, to try the demo before buying it.

Tales from the Dragon Mountain: The Strix is a really well-made hidden object game. Firstly I though that's the similar game as other, but it's not! The history is preety nice and interesting, player wants to know what will happen next! Dialogues and other characters are quite funny and unusual.

Graphics in this production is really beutifull! The same thing I can say in case of music - very climatic and good composed. The only aspects that I didn't liked is very short gameplay for 2 hours. Game is too easy even on the highest difficulty mode. Puzzles are not original and easy too. But The Stix is still great game, I had a lot of fun and I want to play again!

This is a charming little game, which makes me nostalgic for a simpler time. With graphics straight out of the nineties and voice acting to match, it will sit quite happily on even my hard drive which has been filled to capacity. This is a point and click adventure, which tells the story of Mina Lockheart. Mina Lockheart is the heroine of our tale, whose Grandmother has recently passed away in suspicious circumstances, leaving Mina to take on her mantle, continuing her fight against the villain – Strix.

Mina has gone from living her quiet life to one of adventure where she meets supernatural creatures and solves puzzles to get to the bottom of the mystery her Grandmother left behind. The puzzles themselves are fairly simple, most of them being easily solvable by the use of trial and error. There is a hints system available if you get stuck which can be helpful when finding the items needed. However I feel that this could be more specific when dealing with the puzzles, perhaps using the Malik character to provide helpful information.

When looking at the storyline it is rather predictable and the voice acting is quite stilted. The script has also been clumsily translated in places effecting the flow of dialogue, however this is not a huge concern personally. The graphics are surprisingly detailed for a small game and it looks really smooth and the music helps create the fantastical mood of the game.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game despite it's flaws, it's simple and entertaining. There are some cosmetic errors, but this does not distract from the final game.

By Corinne Clark

Tales from the Dragon Mountain: The Strix was released in July 2011 by Cateia games, a development and publishing company based in Croatia. The game follows the basic point and click theme of found in many hidden object style games.

The aim is to complete what your Grandmother was unable to finish before she passed away, this is done by finding objects, solving puzzles and defeating the enemies. The game has a very good story line with good cut scenes and a good amount of talking to let you know what's happening and for what reason.

When starting the game for the first time, you are asked to choose which difficulty mode you wish to play under. There are three options to choose between;

- Easy; has a faster hint recharge rate, a find objects bar, faster skip recharge rate and sparkle hints on areas.

- Casual; has a slower hint recharge rate, slower skip recharge wait, a find objects bar and no sparkle hints.

- Adventure; has no sparkle hints, no find objects bar and an even slower recharge rate for hints and skips.

After selecting the difficulty you are taken through a short tutorial explaining the main components of the game. Taking you through the first few stages of the level, the tutorial shows you what you're looking for throughout the rest of the game, for example; Yellow arrows indicates different routes you can take, if the cursor changes to a question mark it means you are able to inspect an object, if the cursor changes to a hand icon it shows that you can interact with the object.

There are many different areas for you to search through and a variety of puzzles for you to discover and solve. The entire game is like one large puzzle, occasionally you’ll have to find items and piece them together to complete the item; these will then be used in the level to find other hidden objects. The smaller puzzles throughout the game are challenging but still enjoyable. To some these puzzles may seem easy, it all depends upon what your good at and enjoy. Some of the puzzles include; rearranging parts of an object, placing items in their correct places, selecting the right part at the correct time.

Throughout the game you go up against enemies in the bid to defeat them, to do this a small mini game is played which requires you to swap tiles around to make a line of 3 or more of the same colour. To goal is to fill the oppositions bar with blue before they fill yours, matching the skulled tiles together increases your blue bar and any other tiles slow the progress of your blue line.

At the bottom of the main screen are five main sections to help you on your way to defeat your enemies, these are; your inventory, a task list, hints, menu button and the skip button.

- The inventory shows you what objects you are currently holding and whether or not you can inspect them closer (this is shown by a green zoom icon). Alongside this you can also combine some items within your inventory to make a complete object (indicated by a green plus icon), which is then useable somewhere throughout the scene.

- The task list advises you on what needs to be done to move on, it is quite vague so it doesn't give too much away but if you ever get lost, referring here will help you to find your way.

- Hints are shown in the bottom left hand corner, they are generated over time, so once used it will be a while before you have another one. The speed at which they regenerate will also depend upon which difficulty you choose.

- On the bottom right of the screen is the menu button which allows you to change settings, exit the game and get help. The help reminds you of what things mean that you see on screen throughout the game.

- During puzzles you are given the option to skip it if you feel you are unable to solve it. Skips are generated over time, so you do have to wait for them to fill up, but this allows you time to try the puzzle before you give up.

Graphics 9/10

For a point and click game, I didn't expect the graphics to be as detailed and in depth as they were.

Game play 5/10

For me personally the game had too much talking throughout it. I did like that it had a solid story line but at times I felt it was just a bit too much. You can however skip these cut scenes but I didn’t want to miss out on any important information talked about. If these cut scenes had been shorter I feel the game would have vastly improved but on the other hand it would have made it a lot shorter. But all-in-all it was still an enjoyable game to play.

Sound 6/10

The music and sounds were satisfactory, not really my cup of tea. I found myself not actually noticing there was music playing throughout the levels; it kind of faded into the background. From what I did hear, it was good and did make me concentrate more on the puzzles.

Closing comments

I did really enjoy this game; it was good to have a story line and the objective to defeat enemies throughout. It was different to other hidden object games which made it that extra bit interesting for me to play.

Overall score 6.5

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Interseting mix of adventure game and hiiden object game. Gameplay is static - You dont move personally but clicking on screen to change locations or find items but also your duty is to solve many puzzles. Story showed in game is interesting and you ave to find objects hidden in terrain and also using items, making machinersie work, etc. Soundtrack is very nice and make ideal background to story which guiding us from old house in mountain to cityin skies... Try it if You like these kind of mixining genres.