The game’s art style is very colorful, even when traveling to rusted down locales. Like many titles of its genre, each of its backgrounds are gorgeously detailed and filled with interesting things; they are not only pretty to look at, but they also tell the story of the world.
Plenty of items in the world are 2D animated, giving a lot of life to an otherwise static image. And in some cases, objects will react to your clicking and start moving, particularly your pet Aya who follows you all through your adventure.
The game is fully voice acted, immersing anyone into its story. Yet not only that, whenever you interact with a character they become a fully animated 3D model. There are even cutscenes where the full 3D renders interact with each other, making it almost like watching a movie. It’s hard to overstate the level of quality in play here.
The story of the game begins with a narration, showing us a peaceful medieval kingdom being ruled by a kind king. Sadly but unsurprisingly the realm is invaded by none other than the Iron Lord, a being more machine than man with an army of robot soldiers armed with hand cannons. The poor king was outmatched and outgunned, making any kind of resistance futile.
He makes the decision to send his wife and newly born daughter away so they might be safe, but in the chaos of the invasion the baby is never seen again. Seventeen years have passed since that fateful incident, and you just so happen to take the role of a seventeen year old girl, who has this very story being narrated by her uncle.
Suspicious coincidences aside, you will quickly notice that you are not in a regular medieval context, since your uncle is a famed inventor and all around you are various devices built by his brilliance. As you explore the house, you will end up arming yourself with curious devices that will help you in your adventure, and said adventure begins sooner than expected.
You both end up being kidnapped by the Iron Lord’s forces, and now you will have to use your wit and the inherited brilliance of your uncle to escape this fortress and ultimately save the kingdom.
The gameplay follows the Hidden Object formula, with other puzzles sprinkled around for flavor. A lot of the puzzles are interconnected, meaning you might need to be searching from room to room to get the object that lets you advance on a particular brain teaser.
Now, once you have everything, you still need to know how to use it. Many of these puzzles come down to logic, or what can pass for logic in a world with sentient machines. There are sections where you need to follow a set list of instructions, and these moments are rather immersive, giving off the feeling of building your own plane model.
There are moments, however, where you might get stuck, particularly if you chose the “Expert” difficulty setting. The game does have plenty of safety measures in these cases, especially if you want to avoid frustration and just move on with the story.
One of them is the hint button; press on it and it will show you what to interact with next. It takes a long time to recharge, but use it sparingly and you will always have it handy when in need.
For particularly difficult puzzles, however, you might want to not even bother with them. Well, you have the option to skip them, actually. You will have to wait for the meter on the skip button to be filled before you can use it. This is great since it gives you the time to actually try the puzzle for yourself.
Namariel Legends Iron Lord is an incredibly immersive story that will have you play from beginning to end in nearly one sitting. The puzzles are very well thought out and the world is begging to be explored. This is a title to be remembered.
If you enjoy these free games, you will love this list of our 10 Best Hidden Object Myth Games!
