Queen’s Quest 3: The End of Dawn

Developer: Brave Giant LTD | Publisher: Artifex Mundi | Release Date: 2017 | Genre: Adventure / Casual / Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

The original Queen’s Quest was a hidden object adventure game inspired by one of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. This was followed by a sequel where instead of royalty you played as a shape shifting alchemist. Now, Brave Giant is back with the third outing for the series and once again instead of royalty you play as an alchemist. This time the alchemist in question is Eliana Marcius, a student at the prestigious Zora Academy of Alchemy. Eliana was found on the doorsteps of the academy as a baby, but grew up to be a promising student. Players join Eliana on the day of her graduation where she has to complete one final trial before becoming a full fledged alchemist. However, things go very wrong when the academy is attacked by malevolent Gargoyles. These gargoyles are the servants of an evil dragon that was defeated long ago, but appears to be on the verge of awakening again. To prevent this cataclysmic event from happening the headmaster of the academy sends you off on a quest.

The story of Queen’s Quest 3 isn’t exactly the most original we’ve ever heard, but it provides a decent enough excuse for traipsing off to exotic locations and solving puzzles. Your quest will take you through fifty hand drawn locations where you’ll find close to thirty hidden object scenes as well as more than forty mini games to complete. While the game features three difficulty settings, along with the ability to customize the difficulty to your liking, Queen’s Quest 3 is still a very easy title to complete. In fact, it is possible to obtain 100% of the achievements during a single playthrough, without even having to complete the bonus chapter. While this might make the game appealing to newcomers to the genre, veterans should have no problem breezing through everything. In total, it took us about five hours to complete the main game as well as the bonus chapter and at no point were we ever stuck.

Like the previous two titles, Queen’s Quest 3 features a standalone setting and storyline, so no prior knowledge of the series is required. As Eliana, you travel from one detailed scene to the next while collecting any items that are not nailed down, completing hidden object scenes and solving puzzles. The hidden object scenes are actually quite varied and features everything from word lists to silhouettes and scenes where you have to locate a certain amount of the same objects like mushrooms, gems or mosaic pieces. Some objects continuously morph, which makes them a little harder to spot, but overall these scenes can be completed quite quickly. Players who tire of the hidden object scenes can also opt for a pair matching mini game instead. These are just as easy as the hidden object scenes, but it’s always nice to have options.

The puzzles are also quite easy to figure out, although we are glad that few of them are of the tedious variety. Seeing as the protagonist is an alchemist, the game also features plenty of potion making where you first need to find a recipe and then all the necessary ingredients before combining everything in the right order. Like many other hidden object adventures, Queen’s Quest 3 provides you with assistance in the form of a small fairy. Her primary purpose is to reach objects that are too high for your protagonist, but she has so little use in the game that we forgot about her most of the time. In addition, Eliana has access to a special amulet that is used in magical battles. For these scenes you have to memorize the correct sequence of colors flashing on the amulet in order to successfully launch an attack against your opponent. In addition, the game has some bonus objects to find in each scene if you are aiming for 100% completion. These consist of ghosts, hats and crests, all of which can easily be spotted with a bit of effort. Finally, completing the game unlocks a bonus chapter where you have to save some fairies from a gargoyle. It features a couple of nice locations, but the story and characters are not very memorable.

The highlight of Queen’s Quest 3 is definitely the visuals, although there are a couple of rough patches here too. The hand drawn locations all look brilliant and are packed with lots of detail. It’s not all just static pictures either, but animations like dust motes swirling around in the air, birds and butterflies fluttering about, and small animals roaming around enhances these scenes. Character animations are a little less impressive and the animated cut-scenes also look extremely fuzzy on a full high definition display. The music tracks are all quite mellow, but many of the tunes sound a little too similar to previous titles for our liking. Additionally, the voice acting is a bit of a mixed bag, with some characters sounding decent while others faring less successfully. The interface is fairly standard for the genre and has everything fans have come to expect from a hidden object adventure, such as a map with auto travel, hint button and a journal. Like we mentioned earlier, all the achievements can be unlocked with a single playthrough, although the puzzles and hidden object scenes can also be replayed separately if you wish.

At the end of the day Queens Quest 3 is a solid, but rather unremarkable entry in the genre. It can provide fans with a couple hours of entertaining, but overall there’s not much here that really stands out as particularly good or memorable. The story is one that we’ve seen many times before and the low difficulty also means that veterans can just breeze through the game. Anyone who has little experience with hidden object adventures will probably have a blast, but those looking for something new or different won’t find it here.