it's very rare i don't recommend a game, however, this one was quite "lazy" in many aspects, and has quite a few issues for me...
hidden object levels:
- although there are 20 locations to search, you have to repeat each location 3 times to complete the game, and it becomes very repetitive, because many of the items you need to search for are the same as the previous stage and have not moved, making it relatively easy to identify the items you need to search for
- a lot of the items repeat across locations i.e. i was always looking out for a "sickle" or "razor, etc.
- some items never varied in design i.e. the nail polish bottle appeared often in different locations, but was always teal, making it easy to know what to look for
- there are often different visually looking items associated with same word i.e. "gear," "fish," and "razor" had 2 items each, for example, the "razor" was both a stainless steel razor blade, and a cut-throat razor you'd see in a barbers. the fish was either mounted and hyper-realistic looking, or bright yellow and cartoon-like. once i realised the issue, i wasn't actually sure which item i was looking for.
- on some occasions, the two different images with the same work appeared within the same level i.e. "gear" on stage 2 of the silent keep location, when there with other items that didn't need to found on the same level
- some item descriptions weren't clear i.e. "brush" was actually a wide rectangular paint brush, whereas i was looking for either a hair/shoe brush and even tried clicking a broom which was visible on the same level. "top" was actually a spinning top toy but i was looking for an item of clothing.
- similarly, some item descriptions changed between levels although you had to search for the same item i.e. "stamp" and "wax stamp" required you to find the same item, but there was ALSO a postage stamp often needed to be found within the same level, so having to actually click the wax stamp instead of the postage when searching for the "stamp" was very confusing.
- one of the items i had to find was "strawberries?" with the question mark, yet other levels asked me to find "strawberry" so there has clearly been no quality control checks
- there is a mechanic that one of the items you need to find could be 1 of 4, and you have to cycle through options and find the right one, however, on stage 2 of silent keep, the word "drum" appeared twice and at the same time, although there was only 1 drum item visible - one as an item i definitely had to find, and the other was one of the "options", which automatically ruled drum out as 1 of the 4 options.
- with the 1 in 4 mechanic, one of the options was "hourglass" and there was an hourglass in the level but clicking it did not work. after using a hint, apparently the right option was the "cat", which if this was the case, why include hourglass an option or put the item in the level...?
- each level also requires you to find 2 special items - a "collectible" which changes every level, but the other is always a part of magnifying glass, either the glass itself or the handle, so this became repetitive.
- hints worked on the magnifying glass part and you couldnt complete the level without finding it, yet hints did not work on the "collectible" and if it was the last item left to find, the level would complete meaning you missed out on that item - again, no consistency.
- there is a challenge mode where you're supposed to only be able to find 2 items at time, instead of 3, but on a few occasions that i tried this mode, it still allowed me to search for 3 items.
- each level has an alternative search area which causes a small window to pop where you can find other items, however, on some levels, this area sparkled so it jumped out at you, and on some, it didn't sparkle at all and the window only popped up when i accidentally clicked on it, e.g. on water, where the alternative area was underwater. very confusing but as each level is repetitive, you learn where the bugs are.
- the game encourages you to use hints (for achievements), however, using a hint when on the main hidden object area and the hint takes you to an item inside the alternative search area, the window doesn't pop up and show you the item, the game simply highlights the alternative search area itself, telling you to look in this area instead. this means you then have to click the you then have to wait for the hint to recharge which is frustrating. i found a work-around for this was to always be in the alternative search area/ pop up window first, because regardless of whether the item was in the main or alternative search area, it took you to the item.
minigame levels:
- similarly to the hidden object levels, every few levels there is a "minigame" level where you have to solve 1 of 5 puzzles, such as a jigsaw, match 2 items, spot the difference and so on. again, these each repeat 4 times before you complete the game and became somewhat repetitive.
- minigames 2 and 5 were both jigsaw puzzles but with different mechanic - for minigame 2, you had to move squares into the correct locations, and for minigame 5, you had to rotate each square, so both felt similar and lazy.
- the background images of the minigames were also just duplicate images of the hidden object levels (mostly without the searchable items) so, again, it just felt very lazy to me and there was an opportunity for the devs to add more engaging images.
- minigame 4 requires you to order 5 different mushrooms in 6 different sizes from large to small, but the instructions weren't clear, and my impression was that you had to arrange all mushrooms on the 5x6 grid at the same time (which was very difficult), however, you can actually just do 1 mushroom type at a time which then clears that mushroom off the grid, making it easier to then order the other mushrooms.
other:
- the game is marketed as a "detective" game but is anything but in my opinion - gameplay wise, its simply a hidden object game, although there is a visual novel element where you can read the story aspect, which is where the "detective" part comes in (the fox's job).
- the game becomes very boring and repetitive and you'll end up just mindlessly clicking on the screen and hope you click an item.
overall, if you like hidden object games and don't care about the umpteen issues/ bugs in this game, you'll still enjoy it, but it honestly feels like pulling teeth trying to finish this game and im only doing so out of principal because i paid for it.
