Hallowed Legends: Templar
Game Review

Hallowed Legends: Templar is the follow-up to Hallowed Legends: Samhain, an impressive hidden object adventure game by Elephant Games that explored the mythology surrounding the Gaelic festival. This time, the focus is on the myths surrounding the Knights Templar from the Middle Ages. Just like the other games developed by Elephant Games, this one also contains the same high quality graphics and gameplay that will entertain you while stumping you with mind-boggling puzzles.

Quite predictably for a game in this genre, this game begins as a missing-persons investigation. You are contacted by your sister-in-law, telling you that your brother has mysteriously disappeared and asking for your help to track him down. However, as you arrive at the quaint town in Southern France, you are knocked out cold by a man dressed in a suit of medieval armor. Things get more sinister as you encounter people stuck in some sort of magical coma, and more knights who look like they are trying really hard to kill you!

Gameplay-wise, Templar is a fairly standard hidden object adventure game. You get to explore the many locations in the picturesque French town, from the church and inn to old underground complexes. You will also pick up a fair few items in your travels, each of which will be used to help you overcome obstacles (such as locked doors and chests) or to activate complex puzzle minigames.

All the standard puzzle types (logic, pattern-matching, combination, jigsaws and more) make an appearance in the game, with varying challenge levels ranging from pretty simple to really mind-numbing. These puzzle minigames also have that Templar theme and feel, with plenty of heraldry, murals and medieval art featuring in them.

There are also quite a few hidden object scenes throughout the game. They are the standard list of hidden items that you need to find in a cluttered scene. However, some of them aren't just a simple searching for a well-hidden item, but require you to perform an action beforehand in order to make that item available. There are also some items that need to be manipulated by tools from elsewhere in the game, making these scenes more interesting and less mindless clicking.

The developers of the game have also made a great decision to let us play the game in 3 different difficulty levels. Hint and skip buttons recharge very quickly in the easiest difficulty, but aren't usable at all in the hardest level! This allows you to play the game whichever way you want; whether you want to be challenged by difficult puzzles, or just relax and enjoy the story.

And it is a really good story too. It's very engaging, with knights ambushing you at almost every corner. There is also the problem of the mysterious affliction that is putting everyone into a death-like slumber, as well as the fact that you're meant to look for your missing brother and his wife. However, the thing that really drives the story forward is the game's cutscene technology. Rather than simple animation, the game incorporates live-action acting into the cutscenes! These realistic-looking scenes add a whole lot to the flavor and atmosphere of the story.

The graphics in the game are also really good, being crisp and clean when you're working on puzzles and hidden object scenes, but foggy to give you that slightly-creepy feel when you are exploring the town. The music and voice acting also complement the game very well. Overall, this is a high quality game, and is a worthy follow-up in the Hallowed Legends series. You'll love it if you liked Hallowed Legends: Samhain or other similar games with hints of mythical legends such as Haunted Legends: The Bronze Horseman.

You can get the basic version of the PC game, or you can get the Collector's Edition which includes exclusive extras such as bonus gameplay (with a very interesting ending twist), strategy guides and more. Or get the basic version or Collector's Edition of the Mac game.

Check out the other games in this series!

Related PC Games at Big Fish Games:

Hallowed Legends: Templar Collector's Edition

Hallowed Legends: Samhain

Haunted Legends: The Bronze Horseman

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