Hamilton’s Great Adventure is a co-op puzzle adventure of epic grandeur and magnificence.

Take part in an amazing journey, guiding the splendiferous adventurer Ernest Hamilton and his brilliant bird Sasha as they co-operate to crack crafty conundrums and challenges!

Progress through four unique and visually stunning environments. Delve into gameplay featuring both action puzzling and traditional problem solving. Immerse yourself into a fantastical storyline filled with extravagant escapades and memorable characters.

We’ve got a great cast in this game which I’ll gladly introduce to you:

ERNEST HAMILTON

Ernest Hamilton is a retired adventurer, having lived a life filled to the brim with daring escapades and astonishing exploits. Although not famous in the public eye, his status among the initiated is nothing short of legendary. Nowadays, Ernest Hamilton is a widower and lives a quiet solitary life, enjoying frequent visits from his beloved granddaughter Amy.

SASHA

Sasha is a remarkably intelligent bird of a previously unknown species. Professor van Winkle found her while exploring ruins of a lost continent colony on a pacific Island, and brought her back to Boston. Back in the States, Sasha immediately became very fond of Ernest Hamilton, the Professors companion and protege. Considering Sasha’s intelligence and the amazing chemistry between them, the Professor imagined Sasha would be a valuable asset on Hamilton’s future adventures.

AMY

A bright and inquisitive young girl, Amy likes hiking, botany, track and field (especially the long jump) and videogames. She’s a bit of a loner, but loves hanging out with her granddad.Tonight is a special night. Her grandfather, Ernest Hamilton, has promised to tell her amazing tales from his adventurous youth. Amy is so psyched!

PROFESSOR

A man of many talents, Professor Philemon van Winkle is an accomplished archeologist, anthropologist, engineer and inventor. Although sometimes appearing a bit disorganized, his undeniably sharp intellect and good heart are his key characteristics. He is a lifelong friend and mentor of Ernest Hamilton whom he has traveled the world with, researching the legends of the lost continent.

CECIL TREMAINE

Cecil Tremaine, a purveyor of everything and stranger to nothing, is a self made man. A keen business sense combined with streetwise chutzpah has taken him from the squalor of the streets to the boardrooms and lounges of the rich and famous. Recognizing the potential of The Professor and Hamilton’s work, he has taken an special interest in their recent endeavors.

In this game you move around with the left analog stick or the D-pad, use triangle to change the currently equipped gadget (more on this later), use circle to activate said gadget, use X to open the door to exit the level and use Square to change control over to Sasha. While controlling Sasha, the left analog stick or the D-pad moves her around while the right analog stick adjust her altitude in order to move around obstacles or reach purple mystic dust or switches that are too high/low. While controlling Sasha you can teleport near Hamilton by hitting Triangle, issue a taunt by pressing circle, pull a lever or open a chest by pressing X or changing back control over to Hamilton by pressing Square again. While controlling either character you can use the L1 and R1 buttons to rotate the camera or L2 and R2 to zoom in and out of the level. Simple enough, right? Ok, now we’re good to go!

Your objective is to grab the gold key in the level and reach the exit tile to continue. While that may seem easy enough the fact that more and more enemies, traps and new types of tiles are introduced as you progress further and further makes this a very interesting game that keeps things fresh start to finish. As an added objective you can go for a high score on the level AND thus obtaining a bronze, silver or gold medal depending on how much treasure you’ve obtained. Which is why you’ve got a Treasure Meter to help you maximize your score and do better at planing a perfect route on each level . It has a timer that shows the elapsed level time, a treasure bar that fills up as you collect treasure (silver and gold coins as well as sapphires) and a treasure per minute counter that counts down from the highest score possible all the way to zero in case you take a LOT of time to complete the level. Just as an FYI: collecting treasure is not set as a requirement to complete he level so you can either focus only on the main levels or go for all the treasure to unlock extra levels.

A good adventurer must always consider all it’s options… which is why you must remember to always do a “fly around” with Sasha at the start of a the level (without moving Hamilton AT ALL) to see what needs to be done, collect some purple mystic dust to power up your items and activate any switches that might open up doors, close traps or help you out so you can speed things up and not have to blindly feel your way around a level “on the go”. Also, be sure to move the camera around while using Sasha to look around and behind walls, monuments, enemies or jumping piranhas for any treasure cleverly hidden by developers to prevent those in a hurry to get their gold medal on the first go. Getting as much treasure as possible will make it easier for you to unlock the extra levels and work towards the Hoarder trophy (collect 250,000 in treasures). Since there’s 21 bronze trophies in the game (yep, only bronze here so you’re sure to hear the “Ding” sound every couple of levels) fellow trophy hunters have got a lot of work to do!

There’s a lot of different tile types you must you must get to know to make some progress in the game and thankfully they’re all introduced in game by hitting X on the question marks that are present on the level where a new element is introduced to the mix. Just to give you an idea of things, here’s a small list of some of them:

Starting Tile: You’ve got to start somewhere and this is the spot. Excelsior!

Standard Tile: Safe and sound. The standard tile is a good choice for catching your breath and planning your moves.

Collapsing Tile: This tile will collapse as soon as anyone has traversed it. It doesn’t break when you step on it. It breaks when you step off it.

Switch: Switches are activated by being stepped on by something heavy. They come with marker symbols for easy reference so you know what switch activates/deactivates what.

To keep things interesting the last level of each chapter presents a challenge in which there is no gold key to obtain. Then WHAT do you need to do to get to the next chapter? Instead of your usual goal you must now find 4 silver keys to get to the guardian at the end of the road. Beating the challenge awards you with a special artifact (3 in total) to help you on your adventure. THIS is when all the purple mystic dust you’ve been collecting can be put to a good use! By now you’ve noticed the mystic dust counter at the top of the screen which keeps count of how much you’ve collected so keep one eye on it since if you run out of dust then you can’t use any of the gadgets, and without the gadgets you won’t be able to complete the game. Luckily there’s ALWAYS some mystic dust on each level and grabbing that with Sasha will allow you to finish the level itself but you better not risk being on such a tight budget. Grab all the dust and run!

Hamilton’s Great Adventure is a very fun game that is now available on the Playstation Network for all old school “move one tile at a time” (similar to The Adventures of Lolo, for example) puzzle game fans. This is a graphically good looking game that crams in a lot of effects into a small package and for that we are also thankful. The main game is about 7-9 hours long and the extra levels add a lot of content (as well as longer and more complex levels) that add an extra 2-3 hours to the game. This all depends on your skills and a bit of luck (as is almost always the case with puzzle games) so your mileage may vary.

[review pros=”Puzzles and adventures… what a concept!
A lot of Content available for you
Game looks great” cons=”A bit of a difficulty curve starting from the halfway point of Chapter 3 and on” score=94]

Developed and Published by FatShark

Cost – $9.99

Available on PSN

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Disclaimer

– Game was completed before writing this review.
– Total amount of time played: 9 hours.
– This review is based on a retail copy of the PS3 version of Hamilton’s Great Adventure provided by FatShark.