Small Town Terrors: Livingston

TL;DR: Gritty zombie survival meets hidden object game - Yes Please! As a fan of both zombies and HOG games, this game was exactly what I wanted. There's two modes of game play - casual and expert. There is a tutorial, and I found it was very helpful. I enjoyed the hidden object scenes, and was able to complete them all without hints. I enjoyed most of the puzzles, and was able to complete all but one of them without hints. PROS The story is interesting - you wake up in a hospital bed feeling awful and holding your daughter's stuffed bear. Except the hospital is deserted, and the place is a total wreck. Something is very wrong here. You must find your husband Stan and daughter Emily; and discover what happened. Bits of the story unfold through hospital memos, newspapers, etc along the way. Eventually you can read the emails on a computer and put the entire story together. The overall setting was done very well - everything had a gritty rust-toned color that constantly reminded you that you were in a post "things-gone-bad" town. Objects often were worn or broken, and the overall atmosphere was well done. There was good attention to detail in the setting - leaves were falling from trees, a fire was burning on an overturned car, bugs flying around an open trash car, police car lights were flashing - all these small details helped the setting to become immersive - so much that in the sporting goods store I actually jumped when I had to get the power tool and [SPOILER]the zombie sat up and scared me[/SPOILER]. I loved that your character had a health meter, and that you needed a certain level of health to do some actions. It reminded you that you were just coming out of a coma and feeling poorly, yet were on a search for your family and had to press onward as you were unsure of how safe it was to stay in an area of infected zombies with little chance to defend yourself. I found the health stat was an interesting game mechanic that helped me to stay immersed in the story. I also felt that looking for health packs seemed directly relevant to your character and the overall story, as opposed to some other HOG's where you search for faeries, snow globes etc. The music is really well suited to the game. It's nothing I would want to listen to as a soundtrack, but it's appropriately tense creepy vibe came through and made the game immersion even better for me. NEUTRAL There was no voice acting, but I didn't mind that because the silence seemed to bring out the idea that you really were along in a town full of infected "zombies" and had no one to talk to. However, I would have appreciated voice acting for the few conversations that did occur - like seeing Stan in the theater and when you finally found Emily. Adding this could have really emphasized how important it was to reconnect with your family, even if only briefly. There's no achievements and no trading cards/emotes/backgrounds. YMMV on if you like or dislike this. I appreciated the lack of achievements, but would have liked to see trading cards as an additional way to support the developer. CONS There is a map, but it is static with no animations and it does not allow for fast travel (you have to walk everywhere). Although you didn't have a lot of interaction with other people during the story, the few times that you did the characters looked unnatural. This was most noticeable with Stan in the movie theater - his hair was so shiny and stiff it looked like a helmet, or like he used an entire can of hairspray on it. I felt that this was a result of him [SPOILER]being close to turning[/SPOILER] but it would have been nice to have this explained in-game. It's a minor nitpick, but I didn't like that if you need 4 items for a puzzle and you have 2 of the items in your inventory, you can't leave the 2 objects at the puzzle and come back later with the other 2 items. You have to have all the items to start the puzzle, and until then the partial items must stay in your inventory. VALUE FOR THE MONEY I got this bundled, so I defiantly got my money's worth out of my purchase. Grabbing it on sale can help to offset the short game play time. I also own the other two games in the "Small Town Terrors" series, and I look forward to playing them.

Terrible looking "game". The only terror I had was having to try and continue playing this.

[h1] Genre [/h1] Ein Hidden Object Adventure [h1] Story [/h1] In der Stadt Livingston ist in einem Labor etwas schief gelaufen und es wurde eine Art Virus frei gesetzt. Wir spielen eine Frau die gerade mit ihrem Mann und ihrer Tochter durch Livingston fährt, dort aber einen Unfall erleidet wobei wir das Bewusstsein verlieren. Als wir zu uns kommen sind einige Tage vergangen und es gibt keine Spur von unserer Familie. Wir machen uns nun auf diese zu finden [h1] Gameplay [/h1] Es ist an sich das übliche Hidden Object Adventure mit den üblichen Wimmelbildszenen, die sehr gut gemacht sind und den Minispielen/Rätseln die meiner Meinung nach teilweise sehr simpel und dann wieder sehr knackig waren. Das Spiel ist nicht durchgängich wie man es von anderen Spielen aus dem Genre kennt, heißt es gibt hier mehrere kleine Orte wo wir uns in ein paar Szenen bewegen können. Mit anderen Worten es ist hier recht überschaubar aber dadurch bleibt alles etwas simpler, was ja nichts schlechtes heißen muss, ich fands recht angenehm. Eine neue Mechanik die ich vorher noch in keinem Wimmelbildspiel gesehen habe war hier, das man Medikits einsammeln muss um seine Kraft zu erhöhen um gewissen Aktionen in der Spielwelt zu tätigen, das ist jetzt zwar nichts super außergewöhnliches und es ist auch eher simpel implementiert weil man die Medikits eh finden muss aber es ist mal nett zu sehen das auch in diesem Genre, ein paar eher Außergewöhnliche Neuerungen hinzugefügt werden. Voice Acting hat man komplett drauf verzichtet was in diesem Genre auch kein Verlust ist, wie wir ja wissen. Musik ist passend [h1] Pro/Contra [/h1] + Story ist völlig in Ordnung und gut umgesetzt + Musik ist passend + Gute Wimmelbildszenen + Minispiele/Rätsel sind ebenfalls ordentlich + Die Deutsche Übersetzung ist ordentlich mit lediglich ein paar Textfehlern in Dialogen & Zeitungsausschnitten aber nicht in den Wimmelbildszenen selbst, was ja auch eher eine Seltenheit ist +/- Leider keine Achievements [h1] Fazit [/h1] Ein durchaus ordentliches Hidden Object Adventure was ich Fans des Genres doch schon Empfehlen kann. Die Story ist ordentlich und sowohl die Minispiele/Rätsel und besonders die Wimmelbildszenen machen Spaß 👑 Powered by HoI 4 Deu Curators group in German / English 👑⠀⠀⠀[list][*][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30388691/] Follow Main group [/url][*] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40282064/] Follow Second group [/url][*] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44688798/] Follow third group [/url][/list]

Resident Evil original trilogy got me into inventory puzzle games and, eventually, into HOGs I'm just addicted to the gameplay loop of finding the right tools to open new paths and progress further into new areas Other thing i love is the nightmerish atmosphere from Resident Evil. Being alone on dark alleys, hospitals, abandoned labs and factories, it remends me of dreams i used to have a long time ago The way i see it, HO'Games are kind of spiritual successors to those characteristics i love so much from RE and a thing i really wanted since i startet to play HOG's was a one directly inspired by RE , and this game right here gave me that feeling Small Town Terrors:Livingston is not the greatest HOG technically and objectively speaking, but its atmosphere and themes make it a must for any Resident Evil fans looking to recapture those puzzle horror vibes from the past Not a collectors edition, so no extras or bonus chapter

A very mediocre hidden object game.

Very good - excellent atmosphere, both story and puzzles make sense, and several uniquely designed mini games that work well in the context they are placed, without breaking immersion. Highly recommended for hidden object adventure fans.

Games not bad. Not very long though. A quick time filler game.

Me pregunto cómo no me ha saltado el antivirus con semejante mi-erda de juego. Yo ca-go zurullos más bonitos estéticamente que esta porquería. [b]PD: 10 pvtos euros vale este juego AJAJJAJAJAAJAJAJAJ.[/b] Saludos y corred en dirección contraria.

Puh, mediocre at best. No voice acting, bad graphics, useless game elements (map, health bar). But the worst offender is the uninteligent item distribution, I know most HOGs have this to a degree, but this develeoper puts items around like a mixer. If I get taken out of a game because I have to think about the logic of an item placement, then this game missed its intended purpose by a mile. My rating 4/10, not recommended.