Blackthorn Castle 4+

Unintended benefits

I’ve been teaching myself how to program over the last 5–10 years, and when it comes to really mapping out an application, especially in mobile development, I always have a hard time really visualizing the layout. I’ve had programmers tell me they pretend it’s a little cartoon town and all the scenes, classes, and functions are all part of their little town. I can see how that helped but, as a right brain thinker, I just couldn’t seem to find something that really stuck. I know it sounds stupid, but clicking on the map layout of this game has basically hit me in the head with a brick, seeing how they managed the scenes and break them down into paths, I think it was the perfect lightbulb I needed right now to drive me through the next steps. I’ve used every type of UML and mind map you can imagine, so I’m not sure why this layout is finally what made it click for me, but I just had to comment on it. Thanks a ton Syntaxity!

As for the game itself, it seems to have been inspired by “The Room”. Took me a few hours to beat. I got stuck a couple times but quickly figured it out. The paid hints or teleports are a solid IAP item. Whereas you don’t have to pay if you don’t care about the convenience, but it doesn’t force you to pay to solve it.

Spectacular game!

This game is great in so many ways... beautiful scenery, challenging puzzles that are also logical - not too hard, not too easy, fast transition time between locations so you can move speedily from one place to another, an integrated hint system if you need it, a camera to record important finds, and a map (not teleporting but I didn't need it). It has a lot of locations but they're well organized and were introduced gradually so I didn't find it too hard to learn my way around... the terrain was challenging but in a good way. It's also long. I was so happy that it went on as long as it did and it also had some surprises and unexpected delights. Overall a really great game. My only suggestion would be to make the camera one that we operate (like Glitch Games does) rather than one that's automatically operated. But that's a small thing. THANK YOU to Lone Wolf games and I can't wait for the next one! And, oh yeah, not one single glitch! Flawless in my opinion.

Simply a must-have

Syntaxity,

Since finally trying Blackthorn Castle last year, I was thoroughly impressed by the lack of glitches, smoothe gameplay with a functional and easy to use User Interface, explorative setting locations, challenging yet not too difficult to beat, quality graphics, realistic style, sound effects and music as well as the adventurous nature of these games. One after the other, I tried each game and delightfully found the same satisfaction in all (current) six.

Then, you released your bountiful update for the Lost Ship, which was originally much too short. Now seeing the pattern of adding similar updates and extra content, in order of original release, I eagerly await more to be released.

If I had to describe these games, in as few words, I would say they are honestly must-haves and instant buys for this genre. If a new game were to be released, I would buy it as soon as I found out about it. Having them all up to now is not enough because they are so satisfying. But there's more.

I discovered an interesting alternative to their replay value. Sure once you play them you might get tired. I liked Blackthorn so much I kept replaying it, but with an unexpected challenge I put to myself. Memory. I've repeatedly played them several times each as a way to stregthen my memory

So, I look forward to each new game/additional content Syntaxity releases. To be honest, you couldn’t release add-on or new game content fast enough.

Thank you.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for your review, we are so glad you enjoyed the game!