'Nightmares': An atmospheric adventure for iPad

Are you an iPad gamer who prefers slower-paced, story-based adventures than twitchy arcade or racing games?

If so, you might consider downloading G5 Entertainment's Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart HD, a try-before-you-buy game about a museum curator in pursuit of an undead pirate believed to have kidnapped her teenage daughter.

OK, if you can get past the silly ghost story about a centuries-old love interest, you should enjoy the attractive locations to explore, many puzzles to solve and more than a dozen minigames.

When you first boot it up, choose to play the Regular mode, with hints and other aids, or the Expert mode for more advanced players. A small movie begins the tale about the fearsome pirate Captain Henry Remington's remains found 300 years after he ruled the seas, and how the mummified corpse ends up in your museum.

As you roam around, items you find and tap will be placed in your inventory at the bottom of the screen and used when needed, such as a crowbar to pry open a crate, a key card to enter a locked room or the combination to a safe. Your diary also gives you additional information and sketches that will help solve puzzles, along with a list of your current objectives.

Many of the puzzles are of the "hidden object" variety, where you're presented with a busy scene and must find all the listed items at the bottom of the screen. Some have some relevance to what you're looking for, such as a fuse for a fuse box, while others have nothing to do with the objective, such as a feather, bucket, pencil, envelope or playing cards. Once you find the item, tap to have it crossed off the list. These Where's Waldo-like challenges are fun, but there's nothing really new here compared to other similar "hidden object" games.

Nightmares from the Deep also offers a handful of mini-games — including solving mahjong tiles, a Simon Says-like repetition exercise and memorizing shapes and patterns. They're all quite different from one another, which keeps things fresh.

Along with the attractive graphics — taking advantage of the new iPad's "Retina Display" for added detail — the game also has good music, sound effects and decent (but not great) voice talent.

The game is free to play for a few minutes but you'll soon hit a point where you need to cough up $4.99 to keep going. This in-app purchase unlocks the "Collector's Edition," which includes an embedded strategy guide and other goodies.

While not the best iPad game of 2012, Nightmares from the Deep is ideal for those who appreciate a game that requires brains instead of brawn, a fun story and great graphics.

Category:	Games
Developer:	G5 Entertainment
Rated:	3 out of 4