Eventide 3: Legacy of Legends

Overall, I very much enjoyed playing all three installments of this game. The puzzles were fairly straightforward but engaging, the visuals were good, and the storyline was interesting. Each chapter of the Eventide series was a little shorter than I would prefer, but otherwise, I felt that they were worth the cost. However ***SPOILERS AHEAD****...... The ending of this game nearly ruined the whole thing for me. All of the Eventide games are played with a female protagonist, and both Eventide 1 and 2 contain strong female characters. In this chapter, you again play as Mary, an intelligent, graduate-educated botanist who visits her brother to plant a threatened magical plant species. Of note, Mary spent Eventide 1 and 2 learning about, protecting and embracing her magical heritage. In Eventide 3, Mary’s brother, John, is introduced and spends the first 90% of the game denying the existence of magic and relying on Mary to save him from the magical villain. Mary’s character rescues her brother, finds magical artifacts, cooperates with magical beings, saves John’s life and then defends him against the villain with a magical scepter. At the very last moment, John accepts that magic exists and then seemingly just “knows” how to use his powers, which he does to strike the final killing blow to the villain. This is where things went wrong for me. The native magical beings declare that whoever kills the ruler becomes king i.e. John. The player is then directed to give the magical scepter (which you tracked down, liberated and fought with) to John (who you just saved and who denied the existence of magic until 5 seconds ago) so that he can become king. SERIOUSLY?? The game ends with you returning to Earth and your new-magical-convert brother flying over a rainbow on a creature (whom you also rescued) to Happily Ever After. Talk about an anti-feminist, colonial fairytale. Suggested edits: Why can’t Mary be queen? Even better, maybe the Clouders can rule themselves.

Game was fun. Just like every other game like this. Hops were okay. For $699 just not enough and no bonus game. I love Artifex Mundi but they are getting more expensive and shorter each new game.