Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby

[h1] Information / Review English [/h1] Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby is a point and click adventure game developed by N-Tri Studio Studio. [h1] Gameplay / Story [/h1] You start in an office and then find yourself in a prison cell, where the game really starts. There are a few things you have to do to get ahead. There are also hidden object scenes that are nicely done. Furthermore, in the game there is the possibility to switch from the different scenes, thanks to the existing compass. It is also nicely done that you don't just keep getting the game tips reloaded, but that you can always collect new tip points in the different scenes (which you have to look for well hidden). I think this is more thought-provoking than if the tips just always load up quickly by themselves. [h1] Pro [/h1] + atmospheric movie scenes + beautiful backgrounds + Puzzles and hidden objects have a suitable difficulty + good soundtrack + Achievements [h1] Contra [/h1] - short playing time of 2 hours [...

Negatives... - Buggy, missing or inaccurate voice acting and subtitles throughout. - Repetitive background music, that also happens to be missing in large portions of the game. - No map to navigate, lots of going back and forth. - Click on the left side of the screen to go to the room to the left, to go back you click on the bottom of the screen, not the right... even when the exit on the screen is to the right. Positives... + Some interesting puzzles. In short, it's an older title with little in the way of frill or fancy... uninspired, lazy or perhaps the budget was a little tight. I'd recommend for achievement hunters, but given the game was released 9 years ago and is still profile limited, as such I would only recommend when in a bundle or at a deep discount, even then know you are only playing the game for its puzzles. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2802478889

As a huge hidden object games lover I competely recommend to play Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby. The story is unique and very interesting. Scenes with hidden objects are well-made and have various scenarios. Puzzles aren't easy, but if you want to skip them - you always can. Amazing game!

Not a terrible HOG/HOPA, considering the age of the game. But I honestly cannot recommend it. The puzzles were unique, different than those in other similar games, but they were all either far too easy, or far too annoyingly fussy and felt dragged out. Hidden object scenes were not the best. Items were either far too obvious, or lacked enough contrast to pick tem out from the muddy artwork. The art itself was meh- either way to bright and overdone, or way too muddy and smudgy. Music was fine, if uninspired. The major issues were the text and voice overs- they often did not match up, and longer dialogues often had sound for the first sentence, and then silence- you saw the character's mouth moving, but there was no sound. Far too much needless back and forth between locations- often items you needed in the next scene were right there, staring you in the face, but you could not pick them up until you went to the next scene and then back again. Retracing my steps over and over and over w...

If someone were interested in this game, I wouldn't tell them not to get it, but I certainly would not recommend it, either. There were just too many isses/problems. Pro: + The artwork was decent + The music was decent + The story was decent Con: - A lot of the HOS objects were 75+% hidden (either covered by other objects or off-screen), making it nearly impossible to find them - Quite a few of the HOS objects were just a shade of color different than the background, making it so they perfectly blended in and were not visible unless you knew where to look (for example, by using a hint) - Way too much back and forth (expect to go back and forth between the same locations dozens of times) - Some of the puzzles had either confusing or just plain wrong instructions - Two of the puzzles had pictures showing proportions of items to use in recipes, but those proportions were wrong, making it so you couldn't complete those puzzles without looking at a walkthrough - At many times, there was ...

Hmm, this is a hard game to review. It is pretty decent and even not that short, but playing it without a map that indicates where to go next is painful. That only half of the dialogue lines are voiced is another 'interesting' choice. Otherwise the game is solid and quite fun to play. The ending is a bit week (actually the whole 'story' of the game), but it doesn't take away from the game itself. Wouldn't recommend it for the full price, but get the bundle with all games in a sale.

[h1]Short version: 51%[/h1] The nice-looking surface of 'Secret of the Ruby' hides a forgettable casual adventure game. With its bad dialogue and the overabundance of backtracking, sometimes not even the good hidden object scenes can help with its mediocrity. [h1]Long version:[/h1] Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby is not the kind of hidden object game you will remember for its story. True, technically, it has one: we play as a detective helping a grief-stricken spectre to hunt down the real killer of his wife. The problem is, the dialogue is bad. It is so terrible that it takes a Herculean effort to pay attention to the events. It is not the only way the game tests our patience. For some reason, we cannot pick up crucial key items until we find the place where to use them. This means we are stuck in an endless wild goose chase around a generic empty fantasy castle with no end in sight. Sometimes a few acceptable puzzles break the monotony, but the real highlights are the hidden objec...

Excellent game. *Lots* of gameplay in terms of puzzles and HO scenes. An interesting and consistent story. Good music. Decent voice acting (more European or British or softer American accents would be nice). The map functions well. There's nothing wrong and a lot right. Highly recommended.

Good Game. Beautiful soundtrack and nice gameplay. 10/10

The game includes 4 modes of difficulty, I chose the medium. The plot is quite diverse with reasonable puzzles. The game is still long, which will not let you get bored, definitely recommend.