Something Special Review

Something Special is an upbeat, romantic comedy hidden object game by Brighter Minds Media. You’ll take a journey around the country with Zoe as she searches for "Something Special" in various businesses and tourist attractions with the help of her Aunt Zandra. Unfortunately, the game itself isn’t all that… well… special.

Zoe is a bridesmaid in her sister’s wedding and runs into her long lost aunt Zandra who everyone tells her she is just like. When asked why she isn’t married yet, Zoe replies, she is looking for "Something Special" first and her Aunt Zandra who feels they have a lot in common too sends her on a whirlwind trip around the country visiting her friends that own various shops and museums.

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Something Special is an upbeat, romantic comedy hidden object game by Brighter Minds Media. You’ll take a journey around the country with Zoe as she searches for "Something Special" in various businesses and tourist attractions with the help of her Aunt Zandra. Unfortunately, the game itself isn’t all that… well… special.

Zoe is a bridesmaid in her sister’s wedding and runs into her long lost aunt Zandra who everyone tells her she is just like. When asked why she isn’t married yet, Zoe replies, she is looking for "Something Special" first and her Aunt Zandra who feels they have a lot in common too sends her on a whirlwind trip around the country visiting her friends that own various shops and museums.

Zoe searches for that "something special" that will tell her what to do with her life. She meets several colorful characters such as Felipe and Tony colorful shopkeepers that know a lot about her Aunt Zandra. By the end of her journey Zoe has learned many surprising things about her Aunt Zandra but most important she has learned about herself.

The game can be played in easy, medium or hard levels of difficulty and each one will have you finding different objects. Each time you play you will be taken to a different State which has three attractions for you to choose from in any order. Twelve of the tourist attractions are really located in the United States and there is a description of each real location given before you play.  For example the "Cockroach Hall of Fame" in Texas and "Museum of Bad Art" in Massachusetts are a few of the real locations you will encounter.

The objects you are to find are listed along the bottom of the screen six at a time and as one object is located another one appears in its place. There is a shopkeeper image at the bottom right of the screen and a red line draws around this image as you play which is your level timer. There are unlimited hints in each level, but once you use a hint, you must wait for a few seconds for the shopkeeper image to reload and this is seen as a shading in the image. There are no time penalties for multiple clicks and if you do not finish the level it lets you begin again without penalty. 

Twenty points are awarded for each found object, but you can’t progress unless you find all of them and you are never shown a cumulative total of points throughout the game to monitor your progress.  Trophies are awarded and put in a special case at the end of each few levels but it never really made sense why. There are no mini games or puzzles.

Something Special tries to have an optimistic storyline, but nothing really grabs you and makes you want to keep playing. The locations are fairly interesting and twelve of them are real locations in the United States.  I would love to have seen all of these locations as real locations as they were the most interesting part of the game and surely the United States has enough real attractions to make up the 47 levels. 

The hidden object scenes were drab, with many details so tiny and blurry I could not make them out. When you play easy versus medium or difficult the only difference is that you will be searching for different items, but they are no easier or harder to find than the other levels. 

There is no room to improve, no mini-games, and no challenge because you can use the hint button over and over until a level is complete.  The music had some variety there was bluegrass, jazz and Surfer rock throughout the game which was enjoyable at first but became annoying.  I frequently had items that I could not click on and had to exit the game and restart the level to progress which seems to indicate a game glitch.

"Something Special" is the last thing that comes to mind when you play this game. It gives the illusion of offering a lot more than it delivers and is not a game that will leave you engaged or wanting more. With 47 levels there is a lot of game for the money but with no mini games, difficult to see objects and music that will annoy after awhile this is not a game I would recommend to hidden object fans as they can find much better games for the money. I highly recommend trying the demo before you purchase this game as it does not deliver what it promises.

For similar games, try Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville, Fabulous Finds, and Annie’s Millions.

The good

    The bad

      40 out of 100