20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
By Christopher Healy,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Seek-and-find adventure gets sunk by excessive difficulty.
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
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What’s It About?
Players will get a Cliffs Notes version of Jules Verne's classic novel, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. The survivors of a shipwreck are recued by the mysterious Captain Nemo and his submarine crew, taken on amazing undersea adventures, and eventually discover a horrifying truth about their saviors. Even though it's greatly abridged, there's a lot of reading to be done here. In between illustrated story scenes, players engage in puzzles that are often (but not always) connected to the plot. Most of the puzzles are seek-and-find hidden object games. The physician narrator may need to gather medical supplies to help a wounded sailor, so the player will have to find those items among a cluttered scene -- and they'll also have to find weird random things, like a sea horse, a coffee press, or something called \"amphora.\"
Is It Any Good?
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a great adventure book, which ensures a great, engaging plot for the game as well. It does not, unfortunately, ensure great gameplay. The seek-and-find puzzles start becoming very repetitive as the same settings are re-used repeatedly. The spot-the-difference puzzles are outrageously difficult at times -- and you have to wait a long time for the "hint gauge" to refill before you can use it again. Some of the other varied puzzled types that show up in the game work much better, but some of those can also be way too hard. The spear shooting mini-games are incredibly fast-paced and difficult to keep up with while steering your character via mouse. A standard video game controller would make the game easier, but it is a PC game. On the upside, it could well inspire kids to read the book.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the very complicated character of Captain Nemo. He believes himself a hero, but is looked upon as a villain. He saves lives in the story and yet performs actions that could take the lives of innocents. What motivates Nemo? Is he really a good guy, bad guy, or something in between?
How did you feel about the difficulty levels of the puzzles? Were the too hard, or is that what makes this game fun?
Game Details
- Platform: Windows
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Legacy Interactive
- Release date: March 14, 2010
- Genre: Puzzle
- ESRB rating: NR
- Last updated: August 31, 2016
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