I finished this one today. Nice, big game, longish, took a couple of days to play. Some original puzzle ideas, but most too easy (too many clues provided that basically solved them for you). Same for the mini-games (I found myself saying, "That's it?" ha ha). The usual Collectibles, if you are into them, but you have to find them as you go along because scenes are locked after game tasks are completed. No real "Boss Fight" at the end. No scenes too dark to make it annoying and no flashing stuff to trigger vision problems. No arcade stuff.
HO scenes are not excessive, are conventional and straightforward, and are not unduly obscured by overlying stuff just to prolong them. Decent voice acting, fine graphics and a wide variety of environments. Lots of the usual shagging your #!!@$# around, back and forth, retrieving stuff needed in subsequent scenes, but the Map lets you do that easily, if you keep notes. There are pop-ups, but they are small, confined to the upper right corner of the screen, infrequent, and not as in-your-face as other games with pop-us. I didn't really notice them as I continued playing.
One sort of curious thing was the "helper" character. You know, sometimes you get dog or tiny person or bird who can retrieve things you can't reach? This time it was a helpful ferret. However, after the first couple of scenes, the ferret was not used for the whole rest of the game; it just sat there, like they had forgotten to integrate it into the story. Only in the very last scene of the Bonus Game (if you have the CE) does the ferret once again enter into play. But no biggee; just something you'll notice.
Overall, pretty good game, mostly due to the length, complexity and graphics. Not the best, but much better than most. I almost quit buying this series because I was so tired of witch clichés, but the game had very little of anything "witchy" in it. I probably will replay it.
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