Text of the Adventure Gamers Xiama Review reprinted by permission

written by Mark Hanna

I have just returned from a wonderful place called the Alligator Creek Falls down in Australia. The strange thing about this “vacation” was that this trip was far from ordinary, throughout it there where so many different, as well as, obscure puzzles that one had to solve. All in all my whole experience was fun, frustrating, infuriating and pleasant.

Let’s clear the air about Xiama first. If you’re looking for a graphic adventure with story and character interaction, go look somewhere else. If you’re looking for a game with plenty of puzzles that can be played with the whole family and/or friends, try this one out — but it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Xiama is a puzzle game that was created by a man named Peter Hewitt and was based on his trip to Alligator Creek Falls, a national park close to where he lives.

The nice thing about the game is that there are so many diverse puzzles and the fact that you can play these in any specific order. Among these, you will find puzzles involving sound, mental arithmetic, memory games, jigsaw puzzles, card games, object placement and others! The reason for stating that it could very easily be a game enjoyed by the whole family is the fact that some puzzles offer more of a challenge than others and various people would need help by others on it, which in turn adds to all the fun. The sound effects which the game has, creates an atmosphere that you are actually out in the open and with nature itself as you will hear water rushing, birds singing and other various animals, although this does follow a bit of a repetition it never is constantly in your face.

The one key thing about Xiama is the scenery that was taken and imported into the game, looking at the various locations I honestly felt as if I had been taken to another part of the world. Unfortunately with a game that has so many things going for it, there where some flaws which ruined parts of my journey.

Most of the puzzles in the game are really good and are well thought out, but there are some severe problems with others. In the game you will find some puzzles that really don’t make any sense at all and they would have to be explained more, unfortunately in the game some of these weren’t and caused me to flip out more than once. Another thing about the puzzles was that some times I would have completed the puzzle and the game wouldn’t register that the specified challenge had been completed. The graphics in the game are great, as I have stated beforehand, but the way in which you move around sometimes feels as if your clicking through an interactive slide show which irritated me a bit. The game did experience some lockups and crashes on my computer but this was resolved after installing a newer version of DirectX. Lastly, if there was one thing that would have made this game make more sense, was if it had made an opening movie/introduction to explain why you were there and what the purpose for your being there was.

So why am I giving this game 3.5/5 stars and suggesting that all puzzle lovers get it? Here are the reasons:

• The game is clever, unique and different.
• The puzzles are some of the best I have seen in a while.
• The sound although simplistic suits it and has been well implemented.
• It’s a game that’s even better to play with your family and friends (how many games offer that nowadays?).
• The scenery is well shot. You can solve puzzles in any order.

The game can be purchased from Peter’s web site.