[u]Recommendation[/u]: a magnificently incomprehensible story distracts from a series of fine hidden object puzzles.
[u]Critique[/u]: I am not in any way overstating the fact that the plot of this game makes [b]absolutely no sense[/b]. This isn't your run-of-the-mill nonsense of a hidden object game - it is a genre dominated by silly stories with enormous plot holes and illogical jumps, after all. This far exceeds that normal, baseline level of absurdity. The game can be understood (a little) by using film terms. Throughout the game, you will explore one series of scenes or a [i]sequence[/i] at a time. Each sequence might be around a set location: a modern apartment, or a pirate ship, or a dank underground cavern. It's also a bit like rides in an amusement park: one ride might have an underwater theme, while the ride next to it involves a bunch of talking animals. They have nothing to do with one another except that they are neighbors, so you move from one to the next because they're nearby. You don't expect a narrative to connect the two rides, and if you expect a narrative to connect these sequences, you'll be horrified and fascinated, because there is no real narrative. Don't try to make sense of the story; just accept that you won't understand it and move on with the puzzles.
The puzzles in this game are somewhat interesting, with a much heavier focus on hidden objects than is typical with hidden object games in general. In each sequence there are a bunch of screens, each with one or more exits that lead to other screens. For example, in the apartment you can go from the living room to the fireplace, to the desk, to the kitchen, to the den, and to a bathroom. Each of the screens shows an area cluttered with objects...some of which you can interact with or pick up to add to your inventory. There is no guidance for which items you grab, as everything in the screen is 3D rendered, making everything have the same "weight:" you can't tell by looking at a screen if the lighter, the pool cue, the fish hook, or the wallet will be an item you can grab. It could be all of them, or none. Completely separate from that, sometimes you will click on an area and a typical hidden object scene will load: a different scene cluttered by many objects, with a written list of objects you are trying to find. Some of those target objects will be concealed somehow - behind a locked area, underneath something else, or broken into pieces - and their names are greyed out to show that you can't find them yet. But the items that you need to get to "unlock" those listed targets - a key, a box that you need to open, a hat to flip over, etc - are NOT listed, so you have to experiment and/or make educated guesses as to where/how you can uncover a given target item. In addition to initiating a hidden object scene by clicking on an object, sometimes a hidden object puzzle will start just by moving from one screen to another. In those cases, the hidden object puzzle can span multiple screens, and the greyed-out target items may not even be on the same screen (so you have to try to leave to see if there is a second screen to search). All of this works very well; the puzzles are challenging and interesting, for the most part (sometimes the scenes are very poorly lit and/or obscured by smoke, which makes it almost impossible to find dim items in the shadows).
The inventory - what you grab and what you leave - doesn't make sense; it's much more like a classic adventure game than you usually see in a hidden object game. Usually in a hidden object game, you know that you need to unscrew something, and for that you'll need to find a coin (to mention a really tired trope). But in this game, there's almost none of the typical tropes, and your inventory gets quickly cluttered with stuff that gets used EVENTUALLY, but it can be a long time before you even comprehend what use it could possibly be. [i]Why do I need this stethoscope?[/i]
Adding to the confusion, some scenes in the game are unnecessary, and in at least one case, interacting with one item in a hidden object scene initiates a cut scene that ends the hidden object puzzle right then, regardless of how many items you've found.
The graphics are fairly well done for objects, but the people are terrible 3D renders (but still preferable to the horrible deepfakery that sometimes shows up in other games). The voice acting seems to have been done by native English speakers, but probably each line was recorded in a single take without rehearsal or direction: the line deliveries are very, VERY wooden.
So it's fun to play the hidden object puzzles, stumbling from one sequence to another, wondering what's going on, and then suddenly [spoiler]you are presented with a tough binary choice[/spoiler] and then the game is over with little explanation or resolution. If you need your game to make even a little bit of sense, you should skip this. If you can ignore (or are even entertained by) not having even a semi-coherent plot, then you might enjoy this.
[u]Review[/u]: The game starts with you looking at a bunch of photos of you & your sister spread out on a table. Then you go to visit her. [spoiler]A sinister figure confronts you outside her gate; you pass out.
Then the rest of these could happen in any order:
1. You wake up in chains on a ship in the 16th century, accused of witchcraft. You free another prisoner, Lionel, & escape on a rowboat after a guard is carried away by a demon.
2. You are in the FBI office, trying to find information about your sister's whereabouts. Breaking into Jane's records, you find out that Lionel is also in the present.
3. You talk to Jane's neighbor, who provides a photo of a strange man she saw with Jane. Inside the house, in a shocking development (which is [i]never explained[/i]), you run into yourself in the basement. You shoot you.
4. An irritated native American man in a cave tells you to clean up the "Palceface things" (the hardest puzzle in the game). Then you assemble a gun & shoot the lock off of a secret door.
5. You wake up in a hospital, dizzy & hearing your heartbeat, which is so loud that you will probably turn off sound. The patient next to you tells you to take a bunch more drugs ("any three medicines") to get over your nausea. You forge a staff ID, con a near-sighted doctor (you break her glasses), & break into secure storage to retrieve your stuff. A security guard catches you, but he is grabbed by the demon! The other patient appears in FBI body armor & shoots the security guard. The FBI guy explains that he's called "Watchdog" & he's on your side.
6. You are at your house. You look for various items. In the middle of a hidden object scene, you suddenly play your security video, which shows Watchdog, Jane's husband, & other guys trespassing. Everything fades out, without you finishing the puzzle.
Then, after all those things happen, you reach the final part of the game:
Back in the 16th century, you meet Watchdog, who tells you that the villains plan to marry Jane so that she can give birth to the Antichrist! You make dye to color bandages to stop a man from bleeding to death. You also construct a gun & a magic crossbow bolt as you drop the anchor. In the captain's cabin, you meet the demon & 5 robed figures holding Jane captive. The men all reveal their identities as if you've met them all before (you haven't). The demon puts a knife to Jane's throat. The ringleader announces that you are actually the chosen one, mother of the Antichrist! "So you see, you must marry me and get pregnant or your sister gets killed!" Then you are presented with 2 buttons:
"SAVE YOUR SISTER"
"STOP THE VILLAINS"
You select one, & the game is over. In my playthrough, I shot the villain, & the scene froze. Then a tiny cutscene starts, zooming back to reveal that the image is one of the photos on the table at the start of the game. The end.[/spoiler]
