Game Review | Drawn: The Painted Tower

Every now and then, someone awesome reaches out to me and wants me to take a look at one of their games. A couple weeks ago, a representative for Big Fish Games reached out to me with the opportunity to select any one game of my choice and redeem a free digital copy from their website for the purposes of playing and reviewing it. Since this wasn’t for a particular game, but any of the games in their ever-growing library, I suspected it was simply in an effort to get more current exposure out there for the company.

So, I selected a game that was released on December 11, 2009 called Drawn: The Painted Tower. I knew absolutely nothing about the game, yet what “drew” me to it (yep, that was bad!) was the unique art-style and the interesting story. I also knew that the company had a tendency to make some interesting point-and-click adventure games that revolved around puzzles, problem solving, and hidden object finding, and I did have some experience with the earlier entries in their Mystery Case Files series, so this game seemed interesting to me.

The video included with this mini-review shows the first unabridged hour of gameplay that I had with the game, and all in all I think it was a pretty fun, solid experience. I wasn’t sure what I went into it expecting, but the story was interesting, I really liked the little tidbits of plot found throughout the exploration of the tower via notes and other dialogue, and I thought the worlds created were colorful, fun, inventive, and yet sad all at the same time. The beauty in the game lies in a story that is told, but much of it is based on your experiences. So much of the game feels like it is simply part of a world around you, and this creates an air of mystery about it. Perhaps, though, this is what was intended, and certainly it results in a game that is more than just a game, but an adventure.

The game does have a few bugs (sometimes it has trouble minimizing during play when desired and at other times just feels slightly counter-intuitive in places), but these don’t mar a pretty solid score.

The game was a lot of fun for me to play, and I actually had a lot of fun recording it as well. Thus, I think it is a game I would love to revisit and do a full Let’s Play series on, possibly even doing it live on Twitch. Also, here’s some more good news: The Painted Tower is the first entry in a (so far) three-part series, so if you enjoy this game (currently only $2.99 USD as a direct digital purchase) you can pick up the others and continue the story!

FINAL SCORE:  B+

Jessica Brown

Retro Games and Technology Editor. She'll beat pretty much every Mega Man game without breaking a sweat.

4 Comments

        1. Haha, no, that’s unlikely 😛 I’d probably throw a code for a game like that in the virtual trash where it belongs!