While personal beliefs regarding reincarnation may differ dramatically, have you ever wondered who or what you could have been in a "past life?" What if you had a chance to find out and experience it all for yourself? This is exactly what happens to a professional copywriter named Jane as she searches for answers and personal knowledge in the new hidden object adventure Reincarnations: Awakening, brought to you by Vogat Interactive.
Jane is a prominent copywriter whose work typically revolves around writing on the subject of makeup and fashion. However she’s looking to expand her horizons, and jumps at the opportunity when a major magazine offers her a chance to write the article of a lifetime on the subject of reincarnation.
While personal beliefs regarding reincarnation may differ dramatically, have you ever wondered who or what you could have been in a "past life?" What if you had a chance to find out and experience it all for yourself? This is exactly what happens to a professional copywriter named Jane as she searches for answers and personal knowledge in the new hidden object adventure Reincarnations: Awakening, brought to you by Vogat Interactive.
Jane is a prominent copywriter whose work typically revolves around writing on the subject of makeup and fashion. However she’s looking to expand her horizons, and jumps at the opportunity when a major magazine offers her a chance to write the article of a lifetime on the subject of reincarnation.
She’s got the research, the illustrations, and the statistics, but what’s a good story without personal experience and a flair of originality? By chance, Jane comes across the mysterious Dr. Herzle, who claims he can allow her to experience reincarnation for herself and relive moments of her past lives. Intrigued, Jane takes the bait and begins the journey of several lifetimes.
Reincarnations: Awakening is a hidden object adventure and the first of an upcoming series. Throughout the course of the game you will have the opportunity to discover five of Jane’s "previous lives." From a peace-seeking woman, to a famous magician, to a dog on the streets of Paris, each past life has something thoroughly unique to offer in this charming title.
Brought to life with a whimsical soundtrack and a painting-style art direction, this game immediately separates itself from your typical hidden object game. There are several areas available to each of the incarnations. Each one not only hidden object play, but is thoroughly littered with puzzles. Puzzles range in complexity, some being extremely simple and others a bit harder, but none are brain-busters.
The game features a renewable hint system, and the ability to skip puzzles as well. Hints are unlimited and replenish very quickly, and by the time you’ve actually started a puzzle, half the time it’s already skippable. Furthermore, all puzzle solutions are shown and completely mapped out in the Diary: a feature of the game which allows you to read notes, learn more about the characters, keep track of goals, and refer to for help. While this may be helpful in regards to solving harder puzzles, the fact every single solution is shown instead of a simple "how-to" really saps the challenge from this game.
Hidden objects in Reincarnations: Awakening are almost all randomized, which does boost the replayability of this title. In a twist of originality, the game has incorporated special objects in each hidden object area which must be interacted with in some way to find it and cross it from the list. This may be as simple as knocking out a drawer to find what you’re looking for, or finding a tea bag to use with hot water to make a cup of tea. Oftentimes these tasks are refreshingly non-obvious, slightly boosting the challenge meter on this title and actually requiring you to think.
One of the drawbacks to this title is the fact that many of the objects in the hidden object areas don’t make sense and are completely random to the surrounding. Some areas do a great job of keeping it on the subject, but most don’t, and objects are often scattered around senselessly to make finding them more difficult. Also, some chapters are much longer than others, leaving the areas of the game disproportionate to each other.
Yet despite the drawbacks this is still a charming title with a wide variety of puzzles. The game may seem short to some due to the fact that hints are so readily available and puzzles may be skipped, but overall it’s a good length with a nice pace, and chances are you’d be getting your money’s worth out of this title.
