Hamlet has been many things to many people since the time when William Shakespeare originally wrote the concept. It has been a play. It has also been made into a movie. One thing I never expected though was that it would be made into a computer game. However, mif2000 took the concept and made the game, which was recently released by Alawar Games.

When it was sent to me for review, my first question was how this story was going to translate into game form. The answer to that question is in puzzle format. Of course, while the names and story are somewhat the same there are plenty of changes to make gameplay funnier and more interesting.

Some of the most interesting changes include Polonious masking as a green alien with a huge head and time travel being made possible. Of course, we cannot forget Claudius’ electric guitar. All of this fun stuff is wrapped around a puzzle style game. There is one main puzzle for each part of the story. In order to continue to progressing Hamlet has to solve the puzzle to move throughout the rooms/areas.

Off the bat I can give this game an A for creativity. It’s a fun game without a doubt. However, it also manages to be quite frustrating at times. The overall game is positively adorable and the story allows people to get the basics of Hamlet enough to draw interest to Shakespeare’s work. Okay, the basics aren’t truly represented but they are about as faithful to the story as a casual game like this could be. These are both incredibly positive things that make me happy that this game was created.

In the game, a time traveler accidentally kills Hamlet and has to assume his identity. The goal for the new Hamlet is to save Ophelia from Claudius. Essentially this is a puzzle game. The problem with that is there are a million puzzle games on the market. Hamlet succeeds because it has a unique storyline that puts the story on the forefront and the puzzles as a goal to continue the amusing story.

The graphics are drawn in an elementary manner but they are cute enough that it doesn’t matter. They fit the story nicely, so it’s not something that you dwell on. With this in mind the visual works fine for any casual game. The audio really plays second fiddle. I know there was audio, but nothing really stands out now that I am writing about it. I don’t know if I tuned it out or if it was just that subtle. Either way, it’s nice to know that it wasn’t annoying. The average casual game forces me to turn the music off within five minutes or less.

The problem here is with the puzzles. Some of them are incredibly confusing. There is a hint system that pops into place, but that is the only form of instruction that you really receive. The immediate goal in many of the puzzles is to get from one place to another so that you can continue on your quest. Often times, you just have to click things until you can figure out what’s going on. Usually, the immediate goal is obvious. It’s finding out how to get there that makes it difficult. At times, this stretches out gameplay while you try to figure out what is going on. However, if it stretches it out only to make you decide to walk away from the game due to frustration, it seems pretty counterproductive.

While it’s somewhat disappointing that I was not able to solve all of the puzzles (I am sure that I could have if I kept playing), I was impressed with the unique nature of the game and the puzzles. So many times puzzle games can be horribly boring because they lack good stories and you end up doing the same thing every single time. Hamlet breaks away from that and will definitely have you thinking. With some of these puzzles being as hard as they are though, it might have been better to have a hint meter go off faster.

The good news here is that despite this being almost unsuccessful as a puzzle game (it takes more thought compared to your average puzzle game) the story makes it fun and worth playing. I don’t think this will be the last Shakespeare inspired puzzle game and I have to say I’m glad about that. I look forward to seeing the next game and hopefully the puzzles remain as unique, but each one is created in a logical, easier to solve (offering better instructions) manner.

Disability Note: There is little audio here and I do not recall any audio instructions so people with hearing impairments should not have any problems. People that have vision problems may be affected by color issues because there are some puzzles that rely on color picking. For people with mobility impairments, you should be fine if you can work a mouse. Most puzzles are simple point and click so there shouldn’t be any significant problems.

Hamlet is not going to be for everyone. Some people will get frustrated and the lack of instruction along with the wait for clues will be too much for them. With this in mind, I recommend trying the game out in the hour long preview to see if it’s for you. Give it a preview shot before buying this one, but make sure to at least try it because it’s worth it!

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