Before the Clock Strikes!
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When the fable concerns the activities of three sisters, with one named Cinderella, your initial thoughts might include elements of a glass slipper, a fairy godmother and a handsome prince in search of a bride. But this Elephant Game obviously through otherwise and has come up with a different slant of the story.
Cursed Fables – Before the Clock Strikes is a Hidden Object Adventure title. It presents a different take on the story of Cinderella that you might remember. Available in Collector’s Edition format, this title comes with a number of bonus items to help supplement a tale of dark magic, stolen artwork and imprisonment.
Your role in this excursion into the world of Cursed Fables is that of Cinderella’s stepmother who receives an invite to a ball arranged to honour Cinderella. But the invite does not turn out as expected. On arriving at the event you discover the ball has been cancelled and you, along with your daughters, have all been accused of treason. All the accused are thrown into prison immediately.
How you escape from your imprisonment, set about rescuing your daughters plus solving the mystery of your sudden change of status forms the basic of the game but this needs to be carried out Before the Clock Strikes. Assisting you with these various tasks are tools arranged across the bottom of the screen. These tools consist of a Map, Tasks, Inventory, Strategy Guide and a Hint feature which is in the form of a pocket watch.
Further assistance is provided by a mouse pointer which changes shape when in the vicinity of an area requiring investigation. The Map tool allows you to move between location especially when in the search for puzzles and Collectibles dotted throughout the game. I often found that the Hint feature would direct to a location in order to carry out a task.
Once free from your imprisonment, you quickly discover that everything was not how it should be in the castle. People are found to be in a frozen state, Cinderella appears to be under the control of a witch, suits of armour dance around and some characters have been turned into small animals. All these elements, and some others, are obvious the result of some Dark Magic which you will have to deal with in order to resolve matters.
In order to deal with the Dark Magic effects, you will need to create potions by gathering the required ingredients from different locations and complete a variety of tasks. On your journey you will learn more about the history of Cinderella. Mixed in with other activities you will need to tackle 13 Hidden Object scenes and a similar amount of mini game puzzle action. As mentioned previously, hopefully Before the Clock Strikes.
Having completed the main game you can then move on to tackle a bonus chapter to restore the items you were unjustly accused of taking. You can also replay the Hidden Object scenes, mini game puzzles, embark on an Expedition to gather Collectibles you might have missed first time around and unlock a Secret Room.
Cursed Fables – Before the Clock Strikes can be downloaded from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99. It is also available from Big Fish Games priced at £15.02. The game requires a 1024MB of RAM and 757MB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.
Cursed Fables - Before the Clock Strikes Collector's Edition | GameHouse
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