User:Coin945/Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (Facebook)

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (2011)
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is a The Learning Company Facebook puzzle game released in 2011. It is an adaption of the 80's and 90's Carmen Sandiego games of the same title. The game, which was released along with another "blast from the past" The Oregon Trail, were developed by Blue Fang Games and released by The Learning Company.

Gameplay
Players begin the game in the Chief’s office, the ACME headquarters located on San Francisco, where they can check out the available cases. After accepting one of the available cases, players start with the travel to the first crime scene. Much like the original games, you travel through the city to search for and collect clues, both about the next geographic location to fly to (city clue) and to the identity of the thief for that case (ID clue). Plus, important information is collected and listed in the clue log. When you are ready to go the next destination, you open up the map and fly there. If in the new location people give you additional clues, you know you are in the right place. If they don't know what you're talking about, you're in the wrong location and have to backtrack. You also have to narrow down your suspect list until you have one left, and issue a warrant. Without a correct warrant, one cannot pass the case. Players have a certain number of days to complete the case (in-game days are merely defined by the distance between two geographic locations, not real-time day), but can take shortcuts by spending Facebook Credits. If players miss the deadline, the suspect will escape and thereby the case will be closed without any reward.

Critical response
Dan Zuccarelli of Gamezebo gave the game rating of 4 1/2 stars out of 5. He comments that "the great news is that the game’s transition to Facebook doesn’t detract from it in any way. Quite the opposite actually. Jet setting, clue solving, and criminal catching is as fun as ever". He adds that playing on the social medium allows players to ask their friends for help or even get them to take part in your cases. However, he also says that in the pre-internet era of Carmen Sandiego games, players were equipped with a "big desk reference book" that allowed them to search for answers to clues they were given throughout the cases. However now with Google and Wikipedia "only a browser tab away", it is hard to resist the temptation of getting the correct answer immediately. He said that he was addicted to the game and kept saying "just one more case!". His closing commennts were that "Carmen Sandiego’s engaging and educational gameplay is just as good now as it was way back when". While the pros were its engaging and educational gameplay, and great presentation, the cons were it having not enough visual variety.

Matthew Booth of Avault gave the game a rating of 3/5 stars. He notes that "it might not possess all of the characteristics of a AAA game, but it’s entertaining and a good option if you’re at work and need to kill a few minutes." He comments that "if you find yourself stuck on a clue, you can cheat like I did and enlist the help of Google, or you can request help from your friends." His closing comments are "it’s free and you’re already wasting time on FB, so what’s to lose? But don’t expect anything worth the hype...now if Carmen Sandiego had zombies, maybe then I’d stay interested". Out of the options "Skip it", "Play it" or "Buy it", he suggested "Play it".

On Common Sense Media, the game is rated 2/5 for positive messages, 2/5 for positive role models, 3/5 for ease of play and 2/5 for consumerism. The review notes that "the game does not push its premium currency on the player as aggressively as other titles, and the game is perfectly enjoyable without needing it". It gave the game an overall rating of 5/5 stars, arguing that the game is "essentially the same game as its PC counterpart", as opposed to its Oregon Trail counterpart which "resulted in a highly commercial and arguably less fun experience". It adds that "cases seem to be randomly generated and there are more than a dozen suspects, so replay value is very good". The site advises that the game is for ages 13 and up.