Hamilton's Great Adventure

Developer: Fatshark
Steam Release: May 2011
Hours Played: 5
Similar To: Candleman / Papo & Yo / Puzzle Dimension
Rating: 4/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Platform puzzlers are rolled out by the truckload but when an indie developer comes along with a 3D one and gets it right, it's worth bigging-up. Puzzle Dimension got half way there but the game proved unwieldy and plain too difficult for its own good. Enter Hamilton to save the day! HGA is not about killing enemies or shooting down monsters. You control the explorer along with his pet parrot (Sasha) and traverse pathways in all sorts of exotic locations. You follow the correct route to get to the exit in order to complete the level and move onto the next one. Your adventure however, is a tricky one in that paths hide various booby traps; an assortment of creatures jump and move around to block and impede you; doors need to be unlocked by hard-to-get-at keys and levers need to be pulled to allow Hamilton to get through various entrances.
 

BALANCE & PACE
The game is a lot like Puzzle Dimension in that you have to plan your moves carefully and be very aware of the surface you travel on. Some rickety surfaces fall away when you move off and some make you slide until you move off it. One wrong move and you can end up realising you have to start the whole level again! This is hardcore stuff - there are absolutely no checkpoints whatsoever! The experience however, is silky smooth and the game is a pleasure to play because it's 100% puzzle-solving fun. Unfortunately, it does have those pivotal moments when you’ve worked very hard to get to a crucial point and know that if you screw up or mess up an intricate jumping pattern – it’s right back to the bloody beginning again! Not fun - but, because it's so well designed - not always a chore when you have to do the whole lot again.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Graphics are a definite plus. Not only are locations and environments well-rendered and pleasant to look at but there is an efficient zoom feature. In addition, you can swivel the camera to see what's behind those steps or that slope. Furthermore, if you need to see further afield from where Hamilton is, you can switch to controlling the parrot and seeing the world from her point of view. The soundtrack has a grand and anthemic Indiana Jones feel while sound-effects are lightly done creating the right atmosphere. Hamilton grunts, groans and murmurs while the parrot, not surprisingly, squawks. Help & Options leads you to loads of ways to tweak the game and there is a comprehensive journal crammed with well-presented material.

PROGRESS SYSTEM
From on the desk at the start-screen, hitting Continue zooms in on the globe. From there you can go to areas on the map which you zoom into in order to access specific levels. Despite the annoyance caused by the buzzing mosquito, it's all slick and smooth. There are four environments and 60+ levels in total. There is a main pathway on the map plus unlockable trickier bonus levels. On finishing you get: a time; a score for the amount of treasures you collected (coins and gems); a medal award (from bronze to gold) and a score. You may check these stats by hovering over the level's spot on the map. Levels are re-doable so there's plenty for the hardcore gamer to get his teeth into if into speed-runs and fine tuning skills. 

CONCLUSION
One thing that does annoy me about HGA is the overuse of cut-scenes. For a start, I don't really want to get involved in an inane adventure story starring a pre-pubescent child. For seconds, children of primary school age are going to find the game far too difficult so why have them as the target audience in the story? It's not quite right. Now, I have compared this game a few times with Puzzle Dimension because of the obvious similarities between the two but Hamilton's Great Adventure trumps it in every way not least due to its lush environments and overall depth of character with the Indiana Jones theme. Its zoom and rotate camera movements are also worth a second mention as these features really do add class to the game. In closing, I recommend playing the game with an Xbox controller rather than going the keyboard + mouse route.