CREEPY AND SUMMER CAMP SHOULD NEVER GO TOGETHER 

Brenda Livingston is a paranormal detective who has been hired to find a young boy named Peter Wilson, a 12-year-old boy who disappeared without a trace. A few weeks before Peter’s disappearance, he began acting strangely and became fascinated with the strange phenomena surrounding the closure of a local summer camp. The camp was quarantined and eventually shut down after campers were stricken with a deadly epidemic, and three campers went missing and were presumed dead.

No one does a creepy, abandoned town…in this case, an abandoned Summer Camp, better than Alawar. The graphics cleverly depict a story of solitude as you roam the well-beaten paths and search boarded-up buildings deprived of maintenance for years. It’s hard to imagine this camp was once bustling with summer activities. Now the atmosphere is dark and heavy as if something evil is lurking around every corner and watching your every move. As luck would have it, there is an evil spirit lurking, and her name is Shtriga!

FUN MYTHOLOGY FACT

A Shtriga is a vampiric witch in Albanian mythology who preys upon children by sucking their essence during the night, which destroys the child’s immune system. The Shtriga then transform themselves into a flying insect, such as a moth, fly, or bee. Shtriga is usually depicted as an old woman with a crooked nose and a hateful stare, but they are occasionally depicted as a male entity, known as Shtrigu or Shtrigan.

Shtriga: Summer Camp has no frills, no bells and whistles, no morphing objects, no collectibles, no voiceovers …it doesn’t even have a Map. (Technically, there is a camp map on the bulletin board, just inside the main entrance). There are several interactive objects throughout the camp which is surprising considering it was released over a decade ago!

As you progress, you’ll discover secret entrances and underground tunnels, so it does get a bit tricky remembering where everything is located. This “free roaming” adventure aspect has all but disappeared in current HOPAs. I truly miss being able to wander from scene to scene and trying to remember where a particular task was located, once I found the correct inventory item.

JOURNAL & CLUES

These were the good ‘ole days’ when a Journal kept track of not only the progressing story but also the clues and codes you uncover along the way! Check your Journal often because it fills in the blanks of the story and gives you important clues to help you progress.

HIDDEN OBJECT SCENES

The Hidden Object Scenes are just Interactive List finds; again, there are no bells and whistles, just good old-fashioned HO’s. Most of the items are easily spotted, but there’s always one or two items that will elude you for a bit. There are a handful of scenes that are repeated (with a different set of objects to find). If you get stumped and can’t seem to find an inventory item, travel back to some of the previous HO scenes to see if a new one has been activated. (the repeated scenes seem to require doing a particular task in a different location to activate them)

MINI-GAMES

If you’re a hardcore puzzle-lover, these will probably be a letdown because most can be solved in a flash; however, they do get a bit trickier as you progress. I don’t believe a puzzle has to be a brain-burner to be enjoyable, especially when there’s a “complete all mini-games without skipping” achievement attached. Thankfully, there was only one Slider puzzle because this is my one and only puzzle nemesis!

TOP TEN FAVORITES

⚙️Place wires of various lengths and angles to set gauge at 32 volts.

⚙️Place books according to three categories, math-biology-physics.

⚙️Move smiley face tokens along paths to their color-coded slots.

⚙️Memory Match-Flip over 2 tiles at a time to match related objects.

⚙️Swap lock teeth on the bottom row to align with the top row.

⚙️Use up/down arrows on columns to make a path of pipes on both   sides.

⚙️Fill vials to the correct levels according to the clue found earlier.

⚙️Complete the moon phases by rotating the central disc & swapping.

⚙️Follow chains and place matching tokens on the bottom.

⚙️Change numbers on the green dots to equal the sum of the number in between.

Shtriga: Summer Camp will appeal to those who enjoy creepy, abandoned town graphics, a decent story, and the ability to free roam from the first scene to the last, throughout the adventure. Although the Hidden Object Scenes and puzzles tend to be easily solved, it’s still a unique and enjoyable game that may have slipped under your radar!

Find Shtriga: Summer Camp in the Ultimate Summer – 10 Pack or the Haunted Horrors Vol. 3 – 15 pack!

Happy gaming!