Forgotten Places - Lost Circus

Dreams are a funny thing. Everybody has different experiences with them, like some reflect our deepest emotions, fears or hopes for that matter. I know by mine dreams, that there were times I simply wouldn’t want to wake up at all. I enjoyed having these dreams and they made me feel free, especially when I dreamt of flying. But our stories heroine had a similar but more realistic experience then mine. She dreamed intensively about one place all the time, about a circus, a beautiful circus and while she was dreaming she was the happiest person in the world. But as soon as she wakes up, there is nothing left but tears and the memory of that place. That dream started to become so real that she decides to find if she is crazy or this place really exists. Joy, our heroine started her search for that specific place and she found it after sometime but not as she dreamt it. She left her life behind and her husband and pretty much everything just to discover a place in ruins, a completely forgotten circus by the world. But in that moment as she enters the circus her memories of dreams start coming to her head like flashbacks making them real in a way, replacing everything in the circus by the memories of Joy. Now she knows she is at the right place and she starts the search for anything that could trigger her memory even further which could explain what is happening to her. The game uses a totally linearly approach when it comes to the gameplay. When you start the game, you search for the items and then move forward to the next level and so on, which are all predetermined by the game. It's a style that's well-supported by the rest of the game. A simple story isn't necessarily a bad one and Lost Circus is consistent and even has its moments of wit. The game will send you two helpers in one moment, a couple of acrobats, to get you going what is happening. The game also has a couple of places which have multiple items tucked in that place but it is up to you to find it. If a portion of the screen glows faintly when you pass your cursor over it, it means you can click for a closer look. If you click on an item and you see that the click isn’t registered or it takes a couple of clicks for it to be registered, this is due the uncommon mouse pointer and a bit of habituation will do the trick for the rest of the game. Two modes of gameplay are available, casual and expert, and in that regard it's all very straightforward. As mentioned on the beginning when you find your way to the circus the world that you have been dreaming and that one you see know start to interfere with each other, making a commotion and having you travel from one place to another solving and searching for different items. You will then hear different kinds of music and audio at all, sounds that are specific for a circus and making the ambient quite a treat as for the eyes but also for the ears. The treat for the eyes are the different scenes with the circus as it was before and the beautiful colors that characterize the screen. The hint system of the game is pretty simple. You have a star in the top left corner that is filling up when used. When it is full just click on it and you will get a hint. As far as difficulty goes, Lost Circus actually represents a comfortable challenge; while the mini-games and puzzles are admittedly pretty straightforward, most of the hidden-object scenes will require you to be fairly eagle-eyed in your search. If you have a problem with the mini-games or simply don’t want to play it, you can use your hint to skip the mini-game. The game does have a bit of its flaws, like any game. Here on our misfortune, the game is somewhat unbalanced making the hidden object scenes prevails throughout the whole game, not giving enough space for the story to expand and shine. However, the game will definitely trap you in a dark world called fun and enjoyment as the game has plenty of it. It will ease up on the challenge and give you enough small engagement making you interested in the game and watching and playing carefully but without having to make those grey cells work at full steam. It is just for relaxing and surely many will enjoy it…