With any luck, bullying's next on our list of societal ills to become extinct. But when that happens, it could mean the end of the uber-villain. In stories, the villain is usually born after being mistreated by his peers; let's face it—revenge is a great motivator. In Web of Deceit: Black Widow, we meet a particularly interesting evildoer—one who uses her lethal charm to settle a few old scores—and in the process, we learn something about how villains are made.
After developing both the Dana Knightstone and Awakening series of hidden object games, it's safe to say that Boomzap knows a thing or two about developing entries in genre. The company isn't just about sequels, however, as Botanica: Into the Unknown looks to be a completely new offering that will see players explore a mysterious landscape full of beautiful plants and animals.
As a biosafety agent working for the US government in the 1960s, your life is more about scientific explanations than supernatural phenomena. Your job is to investigate the cause of diseases and stop them before isolated incidents turn into national disasters, but when the townsfolk of an entire city freeze in their tracks and are neither living nor dead, science won't come close to helping you explain what has happened.
I admit, I'm a confirmed pessimist. While I've played (and loved) all the Mystery Trackers games, I can't help but harbor the perverse expectation that one day the games' makers—Elephant Games—will let me down. Fortunately, today is not that day. With the release of Mystery Trackers: The Four Aces, the fourth in the Mystery Trackers series, Elephant has once again proven its hidden object/puzzle game prowess with a near-perfect example of casual interactive entertainment.
Ten years ago, the PC adventure game Runaway: A Road Adventure brought Brian and Gina together, and then forced them both to run like hell from Mafia hitmen nipping at their heels. At least the time they spent together on the lam gradually melded them together as soul mates—for about a decade, give or take a year. It's 2012, Brian and Gina can't stand each other, and it's up to you to comb through their story and re-ignite the spark in Hidden Runaway, an upcoming adventure/hidden object game.
The haunted, dark carnival has become a fairly standard setting within the hidden object genre, but Dark Arcana: The Carnival is proof that it can still feel fresh and gripping. The game's storyline starts off slowly with a standard case of a missing person, but quickly changes focus to become one of lost lovers, dark rituals and evil forces bent on destroying the world. With each plot twist, the game becomes even better than before, but it isn't without a few technical issues.
While ghost-filled pirate ships are fairly common settings within the hidden object genre, there's still an opportunity for developers to make fantastic games in that subgenre, with Mayan Prophecies: Ship of Spirits being a prime example of that fact. While the game's introduction is rushed and shallow, once you step foot onto an ancient Spanish galleon, you'll find yourself in an experience that is hard to top.
Sable Maze: Sullivan River starts with a premise we've seen countless times before; After being haunted by the same nightmare every night, you'll return to a location from the nightmare to investigate the cause. However, this isn't another tale of mental asylums or haunted houses, as Sable Maze takes place at an abandoned summer camp that you attended as a child. After six children went missing there in the 1980's, you'll return as an adult to finally solve the mystery of these missing children and hopefully free yourself from your nightmares.