As Collector's Editions dominate the hidden object genre, players have come to expect every game to have a host of extras. But whatever happened to making a good basic game? Although sloppy here and there, Shadows: Price for our Sins, the spooky new adventure by 8 Floor Games, reminds us of the days when developers didn't pad their products (and their price tags) with pointless extras and focused instead on making great games.
In Motor Town: Soul of the Machine, you step into the role of a New York City reporter seeking her big break by way of an interview with a brilliant but reclusive inventor of some of the world's first automobiles. But he doesn't just make cars; he believes that cars, like people, have souls, and while the reasons for, or significance of, that belief is never explored, the fact that he's such a weirdo apparently makes him a worthwhile subject. It's a perfectly competent hidden object adventure, but really just not all that terribly interesting.
The first title in a planned five-game series, Valcarta I: Rise of the Demon introduces us to the expansive world of Drachell and our young swordsman protagonist, Valak. On what should be an uneventful trip to a neighboring town, Valak is cornered by a witch and forced to choose between receiving the power of light or darkness, sealing his destiny and the path he will follow for the rest of the game.
It's been 500 years since the Phoenix Queen was called to the realm of Enchantia to do her thing - and her thing just so happens to be scorching the land with fire, eradicating all life in the blink of an eye. According to her it's a righteous duty, but those whose lives are in danger are of a slightly different opinion.
The hidden object game genre carries along with it many common tropes, with its collection-based gameplay and puzzling plots that must be put together piece by piece. Sure, each game casts a unique art style and thematic glaze over the whole experience, but it is within the details of the plots that many of these games really get to flex their creative freedom. The results may not always be enthralling or captivating, but once in a while a gem shines through with an original story to tell, one beyond simple mystery devices and the who-done-it blueprint, one which delivers a tale really worth investigating. Chimeras: Tune of Revenge is one such game.
Have you noticed that hidden object adventures seem to keep getting bigger? The trend lately is to pull the player through as many outlandish locations as possible, which precludes the notion of making a tighter, more constrained game. 9: The Dark Side of Notre Dame ignores current trends by setting itself within and around Paris's famed Notre Dame cathedral and relies—for both good and ill—on its reboot of a classic tale to provide what's necessary for a great game.
Back in the first half of 2012, a little point and click adventure by Waffle Friday Studios appeared on Kickstarter. The funding was quite the success and today we have Duck Quest?. Yes, with a question mark. Because... why not? Duck Quest? is built like an adventure game of old, and when we say old, we mean a dozen colors on the screen and characters so pixellated you can count their edges old.
I thought I could do it. It had been a while since I had fallen off the wagon. All the devices in my house were purged of Triple Town, and I hadn't been caught in public screaming about "ninja bears" for quite some time. So when Spry Fox released their newest game, Leap Day, in a browser beta, you have to believe me when I say that I genuinely thought I could just take a quick look…so you'll lend me the money for some extra crowns, right?