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Elephant Games takes us into the world of Literature with its Book Travelers: A Victorian Story offering.  This particular title is a Hidden Object Adventure game that casts you in the role of Megan Webster who is a librarian at the local library. 

As usual the game allows a standard array of options to be customised to suit your playing style.  Adjustments can be made to the volume levels used by background music, sound effects, environment and voice dialogue.  You can also adjust the gamma level and view the game in full or wide screen mode while blocking or displaying special effects.  Depending upon your playing skill level you can select from four difficulty settings of Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom offering different rates of Hint recharging and other forms of assistance.

The game opens as you arrive for work at the library to discover a disturbance has occurred and you need to investigation the ensuing damage.  Aiding you investigation are various tools positioned across the bottom of the screen.  These tools consist of a Map, Task list, Inventory, Strategy Guide and a Hint feature in the guise of a book.  You can either lock this panel arrangement in place or allow it to disappear when not immediately required.  In such a case the Inventory will reappear when its area is invaded by the mouse cursor. 

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Further assistance is provided by the mouse cursor.  This can change to a hand, magnifying glass or cog wheel to indicate when an appropriate task can be carried out.  An outbreak of sparkles will pinpoint the presence of a Hidden Object challenge while the Hint feature will inform you when a trip to another location will bring rewards.

Advised to visit the Great Library to further your investigation the game moves on as you discover that somebody was altering the original version of famous stories which was having the effects of destroying the worlds and characters created by the authors.  As you have the ability to immerse yourself fully into the corrupted stories, you have been chosen to find this story changer and return the stories to their original state.

After the initial opening section, during which Charlotte Bronte and Tom Sawyer make an appearance, I was expecting more authors and their characters to appear in the game -  but this was not so.  The game is played out in a Victorian household that has its fair share of secret passages and rooms plus a kidnap plot and various characters that are not always as friendly as they might seem.  You will need to complete numerous tasks that often involve the use of codes to remove blockages as you make progress in your investigation.

As you travel around the Victorian household meeting various characters, you will face many problems plus a selection of mini game puzzles and Hidden Object challenges that vary in style and, in some cases, difficulty.  I was particularly impressed by the feature of manuscripts representing several classic stories as part of this game.

I had been looking at the Collector’s Edition version of this game.  Along with the main story line, this package includes ten bonus items.  While some of the bonus items are available immediately, some items will require progress to be made or the main game completed before access will be granted.

This game can be downloaded from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at £19.99 or Big Fish Games with a price tag of £15.92.  The game requires a 2.5 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 1.00GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.

Book Travelers: A Victorian Story Collector's Edition | Big Fish Games

Book Travelers - A Victorian Story Collector's Edition | GameHouse