I’m gonna say right off that it’s the plot in Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life that kept me playing.
Not that there’s anything necessarily lacking in the rest of the game, but the storyline was kind of amazing: you’re playing the part of an archeologist on the way to making the biggest discovery of her life.
The game starts with you on an airship studying an artifact that you’ve recently found and believe may be able to lead you to the mythical Tree of life. But, the whole thing amps up to eleven when the airship is attacked by mysterious red whips that are out for the artifact. The ship crashes (of course) and you spend the rest of the game in an amazing rainforest, finding clues and discovering you hold the fate of a doomed world in your hands.
Pretty epic, no?
Generally speaking, I just really liked the vibe of Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life. It was lovely to look at (the part on the airship was very steam punk and the forest was just beautiful), and I enjoyed the background music (just the right amount of tension at all the right times).
I also thought the main actress had a lovely voice, but she did seem to lack excitement. I would love to listen to her read a book (maybe an almanac… there’s not much excitement in those), but when someone’s trying to take down your airship you’ve gotta put a little pizzazz in it. Still, she was very pleasant, and I never felt the need to mute the sound.
In general, I was super pleased with the world. (Although some of the character designs were pretty strange. Check out the main villain, whose costume is one of the strangest I’ve ever seen.)
I was also pretty pleased with the hidden object areas, although folks looking for a challenge might not agree. The areas seemed small, and they were much less cluttered than I’m used to. This meant, for me anyway, that I could find things with little effort and absolutely no hint button. I loved feeling competent.
I was also pleasantly surprised by what happened once I’d collected all the items. Normally, in a find-a-bunch-of-junk kind of hidden object area, at the end, a random item will be added to your inventory. However, in Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life, when you finish an area, you’re given a riddle that indicated which of the items remaining in the scene is supposed to go into your inventory. I’m not saying the riddles were anything to write home about, but they were a cute touch I wasn’t expecting, and I just really loved them.
I feel like the puzzles in Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life were also made with me in mind: cute to look at and completely manageable. I really love a challenge, particularly one I feel confident I can overcome (which, ok, isn't really a challenge).
I play these kinds of games for a bit of winding down, typically in the evening and occasionally in the middle of a rotten day. So, I hate it when my fun times are ruined by overly complicated or impossible puzzles. No fear in this game, though. I didn’t have to use the skip button at all, and the worst one only took me several minutes. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like the smell of victory in the evening (and look at those frogs, so cute!).
I’m the kind of person who gets stressed out when I have too many things going on at once. Because of this, I love the way Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life was "cut up" (for lack of a better term).
As the storyline unfolds, you’re assigned objectives; so instead of running around all over the map, you have to take care of the tasks where you are, and then, when that part of the story is over, you move on. For a flighty person like me, that kind of clear, goal-oriented organization makes gameplay so much more enjoyable. I hate that scrambled feeling you get when you’re not sure where you are or where you’re supposed to be going or how those two places relate to one another.
Give me some clear directions and I’m a happy girl.
When it comes down to it, this game was really great for me, but I can see why others (specifically people who play hidden object games on Expert) may not dig it quite so much.
It boils down to this: I’m recommending Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life for people like me, those who want a simple, fun, clearly outlined game. For those of you looking for a challenge? You might want to move along.