9 Elefants is a puzzle game developed for PC, smartphone and tablet by Microids in the spirit of the "Professor Layton" series. I tested the android version and tried to answer as many puzzles as possible to give you my overview.
The pitch
The story of the game takes place in the 1920s and plunges us into a mysterious Paris. The player plays Laura Weissman, the daughter of the famous professor of the same name (today it looks rather scholarly) who has disappeared. To find him you will have to, accompanied by your talking cat (and who has a lot of humor too), conduct the investigation by answering many riddles to discover clues or pieces of objects that, once gathered, will move the story forward. We are therefore in the classic with a story of missing persons as a pretext for puzzle mini-games.
The name of the app, 9 Elefants, is the name of the organization that kidnapped Laura's father. Indeed, since this one created a camera allowing to take photos of the future, his knowledge became invaluable for a criminal organization and it is, it seems, for this reason that he was kidnapped. . In any case, it will be up to you to find out ...
Un peu the Gameplay
Like Laura, you will travel through the different areas of Paris and in each location will have to answer the riddles posed by one of the occupants. These are easily recognizable because they are often highlighted by the image. They are also very varied, from the simple tourist to the police officers or even a young boy selling newspapers. It is a real panel of the Parisian population of the time who will help you find your father. Each place is different, day and night, and offers an enigmatic setting very carefully worked out in the smallest details. Accompanied by Jazz music, you will enjoy browsing the different tables of the game.
Once a puzzle is solved, you receive various items that lead to the construction of a work or the completion of a grand mission. So, in the first two levels, your objective is to collect enough coins to build a mechanical mouse that will guide you through different environments to the kidnappers of your father, the famous "9 Elechildren", each of whom wears a mask of elephant...
The puzzles are really varied (more than 200) and are one of the other strengths of this game. Your skills in mathematics, general culture, logic, analysis and memory will have to be at the top to advance.
And if unfortunately you stumble on a puzzle, you can start it again by spending time films. These films are pieces of tape that were taken from the professor's camera and appear randomly all over town. All you have to do is go to that location and, once a film roll appears on the screen, press it. Personally, I haven't been blocked by the game yet, so the difficulty setting seems quite relevant to me for now without needing to overuse this film.
Solution of the riddle
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Some tips
- The films you collect can be used to pass puzzles that are too difficult to solve. It is very easy to collect these bands and you just need to spend a little time collecting them. You can then accumulate puzzle points without solving everything correctly. It's a bit of a cheat but some puzzles can be a bit tricky and a little extra help can go deeper.
- At worst, for some puzzles, Google is your best friend.
- And if you really can't, then puzzle games aren't for you.
My opinion
- the graphics of the game are really beautiful.
- 9 Elefants is truly wonderful to watch and listen to.
- the puzzles are well balanced.
- a lot of humor.
- a bit repetitive in operation.
- a bit simplistic story.
This game really transported me very quickly to the Paris of the Roaring Twenties thanks to its very attractive graphics, its nice design and its particular humor. All the characters are pleasant and the villains often encountered in dark places are particularly devious.
Even so, after completing the first stages and solving a multitude of puzzles, 9 Elefants can get a bit boring. Puzzle lovers will find what they are looking for, but others might find that the dialogues between Laura and the townspeople are uninteresting and only slow down progress.
Me, in any case, I love and I continue to advance in the puzzles at the rate of my train journeys in Paris in order to discover the secrets of this mysterious kidnapping!
You can find the game on:
- iOS (2.69€)
- Android (2.69€)
- PC (9.99 €)
- MAC (9.99€)
