The Chronicles of Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet is a casual adventure game from Daedalic Entertainment inspired by one the most famous Shakespearean tragedies. Combining puzzles and hidden-object scenes, the game story centers on the young William as he writes the tragedy and attempts to prove his skills as a writer to become a member of a theater group. A game with beautiful graphics and some rather unique gameplay.
After a long introduction that includes details and dialogs with voice acting, comes a scene that you should examine to find hidden objects, this is essentially how the game plays out. As you mouse around the scene looking for a clue and keeping an eye on cursor changes, the game will show you one or two objects in a bar, which you should search across several rooms and places; behind paintings, inside drawers, etc. Some of them will be kept in your inventory and can be later used solve a puzzle and slowly move on in the game, for example, finding Shakespeare's writing utensils will grant you a key to open the locked office. Instead of the usual hidden-object scenes where you get a list of objects to find in the order you want, items can be picked up in any area but only when the game indicates so, which makes the gameplay surprisingly rigid. Cursor changes will let you know when you when you are able to interact with an object or use it with another item in a scene, and also when you can move to another location.
Another way of getting important objects is by solving mini games. Here the game does not provide very clear instructions so you'll most likely spend some time trying to figure out what to do.
Along the game, you will have to put up with endless, and too my view, unnecessary cutscenes, often taking away all the interest in the game itself. Except for a few blurry scenes, overall graphics are lovely, with lot of details giving the game a romantic mood. Still, the game failed to hook me with its plot and rigid, clunky gameplay. I played it for about two hours but there was nothing to make me want to have another go at it. Unfortunately, there isn't a trial to download so the only way to know if you like it is to buy it. Players' reviews could also help you decide; in my case, it was a rather disappointing experience.
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