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Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart Review

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When I glanced at the title of Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart, I immediately thought the worst, that this is going to be some kind of fright-fest in the same vein as Outlast or Slenderman. Fear not however, as that couldn’t be farther from the truth for this point & click puzzle game for the Xbox One.

The life of museum curator, Sarah Black, was thrown into disarray one night after the arrival of Captain Remington’s mummified corpse. This 18th century pirate has a reputation of being a natural bad guy and so, when brought back to life by a series of unfortunate events, Remington kidnaps Sarah’s daughter and sets sail to Skull Island. Naturally, Sarah infiltrates the ship to rescue her daughter; despite being out of her depth against this villainous ghost.

Fortunately for Sarah, brains will succeed over brawn in every way during Nightmares from the Deep due to having puzzles galore within the story mode. One of the main puzzles found, and only repetitive type throughout the entire game, are the hidden object scenes. Here you’ll be tasked with finding lists of items in a certain area, similar to Where’s Wally, except that the treasured areas are full of odd or exquisite items. It is often encouraged to be interactive with some of items, to forge new ones, in order to satisfy the list. You’ll gain a part of another different sort of puzzles upon completion of hidden object scenes.

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For those whom don’t wish to perform this task multiple times, then there’s an option to play a game of Mahjong instead. Mahjong was exactly what you’d expect it to be and the tiles are decorated by all things pirate like bottles of rum, skulls and pistols. I’m not entirely sure why or how Mahjong fits in to the whole scenario, but at least it can freshen up the mood if the hidden object games get tiresome. That wasn’t the case though because scouring the screen for items, which I’ve both heard of and never heard of, was an incredibly relaxing experience, especially when there’s no time limit hanging over my head.

What you’ll figure out rather soon after starting is that Nightmares from the Deep will have you bouncing (not literally) from puzzle to puzzle, where every solution and object picked up has a purpose. The only drawback to this idea meant that it took me to and from the island, the abandoned ship and all the rooms within, quite often. Hence I was going back and forward an awful lot throughout, but at least I always knew where there was an outstanding objective, thanks to the simple, yet effective map.

When it comes to the standard puzzles, the developers, Artifex Mundi, have brought variety aplenty and a difficulty level which increases on a steady incline. Early on you can expect to be placing coloured fuses in their designated colour slots, whereas, near the end you’ll have to figure out the correct order for a load of cleverly designed urns with very little help to get you started. There’s always the skip button for when it all gets too tricky but it’s far more satisfying to actually figure it all out.

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Now, onto the bad parts, which were basically anything to do with the standard of voice acting and the script. I dare say I could have performed a wider array of emotions more convincingly than was found here. At least the story itself improved with each trip to a magical chest, where a gold coin given to its protector provides more insight into Captain Remington’s past and the possible reasoning for kidnapping Sarah’s daughter.

Once you’ve completely wrapped up the main story, you can either go back through it all in Expert mode which just limits the amount of help given or just delve straight into the bonus chapter. Without spoiling anything, it consists of stumbling upon a wreckage and a spirit that needs your help to be freed from his eternal limbo. There are new puzzles of course and it’ll probably take another two hours to finish off, which isn’t too shabby for a bonus.

Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart proves to be a master class in how to deliver a multitude of puzzles one after the other, without much form of repetition. It’s just a shame it lacks when it comes down to graphics, acting or an interesting enough story, thus falling short of being an excellent game. Nevertheless it was a mostly chilled out experience that occasionally tested the boundaries of my mind.

If I was to compare Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed heart to another other game, it’d closely resemble Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos. So if you’re a fan of hidden object games, puzzles and who doesn’t particularly care for a story, then you’ll love this.

James Birks
James Birks
Been gaming casually since the SNES as a youngster but found my true passion for games on the Playstation 1 (the forbidden word ooo). My addiction grew to its pinnacle with the purchase of an Xbox 360 & Xbox Live Service. A recovering GS hunter that will still play literally any game.
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