Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

I recieved this game on christmas eve from my parents and played practically 1/2 the game that night! Then I finished the game the next morning! And it's no fun whatsoever playing it over again. I must say I just wanted this game because I am in a book group at school and read 5 Lemony Snicket books! Here's my review:

Challenging: 3 out of 10

Fun: 10 out of 10

Graphics: 8 out of ten

I would defintly tell you to rent this game instead of buying it!

I enjoyed this game quite a bit--I ended up putting all of the other games I was playing aside to just finish this one. You play as the three Baudelaire kids. The story follows the 2004 Lemony Snicket film fairly closely, as you must first escape Count Olaf's decrepit mansion, then avoid being killed by a train before you head off to Uncle Monty's herpetology paradise, Aunt Josephine's seaside town, and finally save Violet Baudelaire from a fate worse than death. The environments are attractive and fun to explore, and the game play and puzzles are neither too easy nor too challenging and frustrating.

For most of the game--as you explore environments, solve puzzles, search for secret rooms and such, you can switch between Violet and Klaus Baudelaire as you please. For many "important" events, such as boss fights, you must play as one or the other, as they each have different skills and weapons. For some sequences--those that are basically 2D platformer sections (the entire game has some platformer aspects, but it's usually loosely employed and 3D), you must play as Sunny, the baby Baudelaire (and this is the only time you can play as her).

The various puzzles and challenges--they almost amount to a series of "mini-games", are varied and mostly non-repetitive, helping retain your interest. Some are fairly easy to figure out and perform, but some are appropriately more challenging, both mentally and in terms of manipulating the controller, and take many tries to complete. A couple first-person shooter sequences (the game is mostly in a third person mode), are especially challenging, particularly the end, but that's the final boss fight, so that's to be expected. Like most games, winning boss fights requires discerning patterns in the bosses and adapting a strategy appropriate to the pattern, which takes both brains and manual dexterity.

There are a couple negatives with the game, but they are minor. Games like this, released in response to the success of a film, are often rushed through production. That becomes evident here in the cut scenes, which are not very exciting--they feature 2D black and white sketches that are more like a slide show as major portions of the story are read to us. But I'd rather have skimping done in cut scenes than in game play, and that's just what was done here. Also, although the graphics are wonderful for the most part, the visuals are a bit dark overall--I found it best to play with the lights off. With a bright overhead light on, the glare was too much to see important information in the game. Finally, I would have preferred a different save game scheme, as you can only save when the game asks if you want to, and the save points seem almost random. Sometimes you can save after accomplishing only one more minor task. Sometimes you have to do long sequences (and sometimes a number of challenging ones) before you can save again.

The game isn't quite as funny as the film and doesn't have exactly the same "magical" atmosphere, but it is an engaging and fun journey to another world. The soundtrack, by Jeremy and Julian Soule, and inspired by Thomas Newman's great soundtrack for the film, is also a major asset--I found myself wanting to explore levels again later on as much to hear the music again as anything else.

All the family have played this game and have had a blast, Sorry you have to use your brain to play this one kids. The graphics are great and the puzzle solving is fun. We also own the movie.