Dark Parables: Queen of Sands – Review

We have always been a fan of the Dark Parables games, not because of their terrific visuals and entertaining gameplay – but also because of the magical and heart-warming storylines that run through each game. While the story in Queen of Sands is still pretty captivating, it can be too convoluted for some and it definitely does not have the ‘magical’ aspect to it.

This goes the same with the graphics. We really do appreciate the effort that the team at Eipix has put into crafting the graphics to represent the original Dark Parables’ style. Although the artwork looks totally awesome and beautiful, and contains hints of Dark Parables here and there – the charm is somehow gone. The soundtracks are melodic and fit the game very well; however, we wish that the developer had included the original ‘clicking’ sound effects that we all loved.

Gameplay wise, Dark Parables: Queen of Sand is very well-crafted. The adventure part is not particularly challenging; all you really have to do is walking around, picking up random emblems and unlocking doors – just like in the previous Dark Parables games! The hidden object scenes are all fragmented-objects as we have already expected, and the puzzles are fairly decent.

The Collector’s Edition featured a bunch of extras, all listed below in the checklist. As for the bonus chapter, it introduces a new story and it took us roughly an hour to complete. That, combined with the 4-hour of main game, brings the total length to 5 hours on the easiest difficulty setting.