Your mother dies when you were a child and your father disappeared under mysterious circumstances leaving you to be raised by your Aunt. Following her death you learn of the secret that your family has hidden from you for all these years: the fate of a magical world is in your hands and you are the key to freeing Nearwood from an evil magic as well as finding your father. You begin your journey into a mysterious world of adventure, danger and magic, not only to reunite with your long-lost parent, but also to save an ancient race of wise and majestic beings, the Time Keepers. An adventurous fantasy game with graphics that are beautifully hand drawn. I would have preferred a higher resolution as at times some scenes got blurred. However the details and colors are certainly georgous to look at. Especially take the time to look at the menu graphics with the traveling camera through the scenes, very well done. There are voice-overs and environmental sound and a haunting music in the background. An adventurous HOPA, heavy on adventure with the odd HO scenes that are mostly find 12 of the same items or silohettes. Gameplay offers three modes to choose from, a map that will allow you to jump but there is a catch, you need to wait for it to charge which was a bit discerning. You have a jounal and a bag that holds clues for you. You have your sidekick, an elf like gentleman whose name escapes me and acts as your guide and hint. At times he does ramble on but still, a jovial road companion to have. You also need to collect these adorable little SNOO-SEEs that are not always easy to locate. By finding these little guys, you unlock pages of their story from a book. The strategy guide is helpful but unfortunately the photos are rather blurred making it difficult to look at details. I simply loved this game, puzzles and mini-games were not all very easy, some are time-consuming which for me is a plus. I love spending time on mini-games rather than whizzing through them. Not exactly a flawless game but c

A gentle and magical game where the 'evil' elements are minimal, yet significant, and the dangerous obstacles are so beautiful that they fascinate rather than frighten. The story begins with your mother's sudden death and the disappearance of your father. On being given a key to your parents' home, you journey there and meet Fey, a Nearwood advisor. You enter Nearwood and begin your quest to put right your father's mistake and rescue Nearwood from evil. The first thing to strike you is the enchanting, colourful environment, supported by excellent music and ambient sounds. You will see tiny creatures hidden around and, when you click on them, you discover that they are 'Snoop-Sees' and they will gradually reveal pages of an encyclopedia. (Click on the collection at the bottom of the scene to read) Fey stays with you to guide and offer helpful advice occasionally. With few HOSs, this is more an adventure game, with many pick-ups within each scene to progress the game. There are no list HOSs so far. Puzzles are challenging enough, nothing completely original but very entertaining. There is a jumpable map which shows active areas but you have to wait for the amulet to recharge in order to transport to the new area. Forgot to check for achievements and used my hint/skip too much (in order to progress quickly in the trial) to earn anything if they are available. Despite that, there is much to do and I feel there is a lot of game left. This is a buy for me!

as I finished playing the free trial at 3:30 am. Here we have a happy family - mom, dad and little girl playing happily among the flowers and grass and suddenly mom dies (?), dad disappears (?) and little girl goes to live with her aunt. Years later we see her all grown up reading a note (did the aunt die too?) asking for forgiveness for not telling her the "truth" about her parents and sending her to her childhood home where she immediately is greeted and meets a quirky fellow who becomes her "hint/companion". She places an amulet against a mirror and is transported into the most beautiful, magical, wonderland of incredibly cute creatures (like the ferret she rescues and the little whatevers you have to collect to learn more of the story). The plants float and light up and mushrooms glow and OZ should have looked so good. But, as we all know, this cannot be all butterflies, unicorns and rainbows or we wouldn't have a game, would we? Of course not. While it isn't raining, there were no car accidents and it's not dark and dreary, we do have to save the world because dad was so upset about mom dying he broke a code, went to some magical clock to turn back time, broke something else and let the monsters loose. Not literally re monsters. However, there is this shadowy entity referred to as "the fog" which can be dispelled by the sound of ringing bells. Seriously, ringing bells. Now, on to the unimportant stuff (lol). Graphics are amazing! I have never seen such bright and colorful plants, animals, etc. - well, I guess we are in wonderland so it's to be expected. The voice overs are amazingly clear. The hint button recharges quite quickly and takes you on a clear course of where to go if you need that help so this would be a great game for beginners. The HOGs - I honestly don't remember if there were any so can't comment but the mini games really weren't that difficult. And the skip button magically appeared in seconds so I skipped in order to get back into game play. When I own th

The story begins as you are enjoying a beautiful day in the park with your parents when your mother suddenly collapses and dies. Your father leaves you to the care of your aunt who raises you, and when your aunt passes away, you receive a mysterious letter from her that leads you to return to your family home to solve the mystery of your father?s disappearance. There is not too much to say about the technical stuff except to mention that the game did open automatically in widescreen. As another reviewer mentioned, the homepage video is so wonderful and immersive that it took a bit of willpower to actually hit the play button. Although the homepage video was in widescreen, the cutscenes in the game are in fullscreen with black bars on the side. I find this very distracting and annoying. I have no idea why the developer used this format for the cutscenes, which distracts from the overall continuity of the game. Fortunately, after each cutscene ends, the game reverts to widescreen presentation but to me it seems like sloppy programming and is why I gave the game four-stars instead of five. The graphics in Nearwood are a delight, and I love the beautiful artwork that flows from the mind of the artist to come to life on my computer. Needless to say, Nearwood is a visual feast: a world of beauty that I will become immersed in for several hours as I move through the game. The soundtrack is lovely and adds to the overall ambience of the game. Early in the game we are provided with a ?fast jump? map that indicates where something is of interest or needs to be done; however, the map does take time to recharge and you cannot immediately jump to a different location. Nearwood is more of an adventure puzzle game with a few HOP scenes added to the mix. The puzzles are a bit different and none are overly difficult but you do have to think about how to solve them. Throughout the game you will collect 111 little Snoop-See ?critters? that will unlock pages in a secret encyclopedia as you progress. Aside fr

stunning art work, light and airy like a breath of fresh air after all the dark games but it has its dark elements to it I only encountered one fragmented hidden object throughout the demo but lots of puzzles which you need to complete to progress through the scenes and there are some little pokemon type creatures to collect throughout the game, the little guy talks alot at the beginning but have patience as he explains the storyline and when the real adventure starts he does take a back seat ,fills my screen with beautiful stunning artwork and the music fits the scene and is not intrusive, im off to buy ...but it is definitely worth a demo

Based on 44 minutes of demo time: Interesting story line - has characters you care about and want to help. Interesting fantasy world you step into, not at all creepy, but there is an evil fog you must defeat somewhere along the line. HO scenes so far: 1 find 10 turtles and snails type - then you use them in a puzzle and one fragmented -find all the pieces and then use the constructed item More of an adventure game - solve a puzzle to get a tool Has a map so you can hop to places you have already visited, but map has a recharge time between uses Interesting "Help" character - he weaves the story as you go I'm off to buy it!!

Based on demo. An enchanted world that is visually beautiful and enchanting. Kudos to the artist and devs. The storyline may be familar, but the execution is what makes this game outstanding. Your mother died when you were young and then your father went missing. Now you are going to find out what happened. You have the help of a sweet, pointy-eared friend from Nearwood, the enchanted world you are about to explore. Nearwood is truly enchanting, beautiful and mysterious. An evil shadow has taken over and disrupted the balance of good. From where did the shadow come? And who released it? Oh no, could it have been your father? The opening cut scenes, with the background story, are well directed and gorgeous. The ambient sound pleasant and appropriate to the magical realm. You feel transported! There do not appear to be any achievements to earn, but you do get to search for Snoop-Sees, a cute, furry creature with a story of their own. There is "bag" that works as a journal/carry all for items you find. The puzzles were of medium difficulty. Though the shadow is ominous, it is not really scary and so anyone of any age will enjoy this lovely game. I know I am purchasing it. A real treat!

Fantasy becomes reality when a young woman goes back to her childhood home and with the help of a friendly gnome, enters a portal to Neverland I mean Nearwood! She learns that after her mothers death her father became so distraught that he tried to turn back time but the clock broke and allowed evil to enter the peaceful world of Nearwood. The fantasy themed graphics are crisp and colorful and the video cutscenes are lengthy but does a wonderful job of telling the story. You will collect Snoop See critters in each scene, these are cute fuzzy slugs (best I can describe) and for every 3 Snoop See's you find, you will unlock another page that tells a story about the Snoop See family. The hidden object scenes are find 12 snails and turtles, or find the item that matches the silhouetted shape. There are quality mini games but nothing new, the one I enjoyed the most was creating a path from top to bottom for water and fire to flow by switching tiles with different angles each intermingling with some stationary tiles as well. The only complaint I have is with the map because every area has something waiting to be done the map shows all locations with active areas even if you don't have the inventory item to complete. All in all this is one of the good games, enjoy!

I must say, I was WOWED constantly from scene to scene of this beautifully done game. It was just the right mix of fun, tasks and visual beauty. I could leave the opening of the game on constantly and feel like I was there. My favorite game in the 7 years I have been using Big Fish!

NEVER have I given a 5 star rating but Nearwood CE truly deserves every one of them!!! There are not enough superlatives to describe the wonder and joy of this game and it's bonus chapter. It is a feast for the senses. I just hope I won't have to wait too long for more of this caliber of game from this developer!!! I HIGHLY recommend this game!!!