PC Game Review: Drawn: The Painted Tower

Drawn: The Painted Tower tells the story of Iris, who has the ability to restore the light in the midst of darkness. She’s imprisoned high up in a tower with darkness making its way there. Iris draws pictures to help you unlock each floor of the tower to make your way to the top where she waits. This point and click adventure game contains breathtaking scenes and mesmerizing music.

You interact with the game picking up objects, using them together and on the scene and solving many mini-games where no two are alike. Franklin’s portrait provides you your latest tasks to advance in the game. He also gives hints when you need it. When you use one, his picture goes gray and must refill before you can use it again. You can use hints for help, but the hints aren’t always enough.

Some of the mini-games make no sense even as you try to move things around. After so much time passes, you can skip then mini-game when it drives you up the wall. Before skipping them, be warned! You can’t revisit them later unless you play the whole game again and not everyone has patience to do that. Drawn could’ve used a second mode that allows you to replay any of the mini-games.

The stunning and captivating scenes and cutscenes tell the not too exciting story with out using too many words, something some games overdo. The simple story doesn’t play a major role in the game other than you’re trying to rescue Iris with help from her drawings that come to life. That’s enough to make sense of the game play and enjoy it without feeling bogged down by too much text or story. However, some may become frustrated with the fact the game won’t let you skip or back up in any of the story — not even during the credits unless you press ESC.

Drawn: The Painted Tower is a massive download, probably due to its rich and detailed graphics. The larger download file is not a big deal, but it slows the game’s performance. The game lasted longer than expected considering every puzzle and every scene pays a lot of attention to detail. It runs about four to five hours.

Return to Ravenhearst fans will likely compare the two games. Nonetheless, both entertain and Drawn: The Painted Tower offers fans a new high quality game to play as they await another Ravenhearst release.