MacGuffin's Curse

MacGuffin's Curse
Developer: Brawsome
Category:  Puzzle (Logic)
Released: Apr 2012
Usual Price:   £4.99
Hours Played: 3
Controller Compatible:  Yes
Rating: 0 Stars

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This is one for the patient gamer. You are a burglar who breaks into a museum to steal a precious amulet. When you put it on you realise that you can change into a werewolf giving you super-human strength. MacGuffin's Curse is essentially a glorified slide puzzle adventure game with chicken/grain/fox type puzzle elements thrown in.  

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Menus, Progress & Stats

The start menu gives you a choice of 3 profiles with each showing you, in large figures, how much of the game you have completed as a percentage. Inside the game, the top left hand corner also shows you how much of the game you have completed. While playing, you can access a great many number of menus that give you information ranging from: a map which allows you to teleport to and from various areas; a quest log showing various objectives; an evidence folder and badges that have been collected... and so on and so forth. It's a little counter-intuitive to start with but you soon get the hang of it.

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Gameplay
MacGuffin's Curse is a top-down game of the slide-puzzle variety where you need to stop to figure things out. You'll often have to stand in a special lit-up square to change into a werewolf so you can push heavy items around. These items can be boxes or batteries which need to be pushed onto buttons or shifted to an energy source to open doors. You move around screen by screen and generally try to find a way of exiting the area so you can tackle the next one. The challenge comes in working out the order in which to click switches and change into werewolf form, or how to negotiate the pushing and pulling of boxes.

Gameplay is further complicated by the fact that paths are very narrow which makes the route for pulling and pushing boxes and batteries very complex. Switches serve the purpose of turning lasers on and off and also activating bridges (as well as other things) but as there are many combinations of how to move around, these actions have to be performed in a specific order. Complications also become compounded by the fact that you cannot move through water, click switches, climb through windows or open doors as a werewolf. You can, however, push and pull those heavy boxes which serve as an integral part to your success.

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Conclusion
MacGuffin's Curse is definitely a thinking-man's game where working out how to perform tasks in logical order is the key to success. Do you push the box on the button to activate the bridge and then cross it, turn back into non-werewolf form to click the switch to turn the laser off? Or, should I not activate the bridge and just swim over to click the switch? Oh, then when I'm in werewolf form I won't be able to swim back! But I need to be in werewolf form to pull the box over there onto that button! This is the sort of internal conversation you'll constantly be having as you play.

Of course, that type of logical thinking can make people pull their hair out and cause a lot of people to abandon the game early. Fortunately, a hint system is ready at hand if you feel totally stumped. Personally, at just 14% through the game, I have not had to succumb to this temptation and am thus very much enjoying my time in this game.