[quote] Note: Summary above, detail below. I was given a free copy to review by the developer through my curator, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42611293-Elysian-Reviews/]Elysian Reviews[/url]. This has no effect on what I write in my review. For more coverage of indie games, follow a team of us reviewers at[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] IndieGems[/url]![/quote]
[h1]Introduction:[/h1]
A hidden object game for nature lovers, Nature Escapes brings high-quality, photo-realistic visuals and an all-round decent puzzle game to the genre. It is not a typical hidden object game, and might be better viewed as a puzzle game with hidden object scenes - whether or not that is a good thing depends on what you are looking for. Overall, it was a good game, but it gets boring played in long sessions too.
[h1]Summary:[/h1]
[b][u]Achievements:[/u][/b] Yes. Easy to 100% in one playthrough. A little grindy. 3-5 hours.
[h3]Positives:[/h3]
• Lovely graphics.
• Calm, acoustic guitar soundtrack.
• Bonus content.
• Lots of puzzles.
• Lots of hidden object scenes.
• Achievements.
[h3]Negatives:[/h3]
• Little to no replayability.
• Can’t download soundtrack.
• Downloaded wallpapers are watermarked.
• A bit clunky at times.
[h1]Performance:[/h1]
[quote] [i][u]Played On:[/u]
• [b]RAM:[/b] 16GB Dual-Channel DDR4 @ 1600MHz
• [b]CPU:[/b] AMD Ryzen 7 5700U with 512MB ATI AMD Radeon Graphics
• [b]Storage:[/b] WD 500GB SSD[/i][/quote]
Though my laptop did occasionally get warm, the game ran well without crashes or freezes. Nearly any computer today will be able to run this, it’s not demanding.
[h1]Gameplay:[/h1]
Unlike typical hidden object games, Nature Escapes has no story, and instead is best viewed, I think, as a collection of puzzles themed around nature. It is structured in the following way:
[b]Hidden Object Scenes:[/b]
There are 24 in total (20, plus 4 bonus) spanning all over the world from Europe, to Asia, to the Americas, and they form the bulk of the game. They contain animals and items you have to find, with bonus tasks in all of them to find one polaroid photograph and three morphing objects, which you must find all of to 100% the game. Helpfully, the game allows you to zoom in to images as well, although they look less clear when you do this. If you struggle with vision, this will perhaps help you to see items in the scenes.
[b]Sub-Hidden Object Scenes:[/b]
Yes, you read that right. There are hidden object scenes within hidden object scenes here! Personally this wasn’t my favourite feature, but often these were sort of zoomed in, smaller locations that would fit the main theme of the large hidden object scene. It is more of the same as far as gameplay is concerned though.
[b]Streaks:[/b]
Nature Escapes isn’t competitive, but there’s a score streak multiplier system. When you find several items in a scene this multiplies, raising your score at the end. All the time you spend looking for another object, that multiplier decreases. In some way it encourages you to keep a good pace with the scenes but on the other hand, I wasn’t very good, and I could still 100% the achievements. There’s no need to get a high streak and finish with a gold star on each level. It’s a nice challenge for those who want it, but causal players may ignore it. You can also use hints to find items to keep that streak going, and the achievements actually encourage this – to 100%, you have to use hints 30 times.
[b]Puzzles:[/b]
Each of the 24 hidden object scenes (which are best referred to as ‘Locations’) are in total a set of three tasks. The hidden object scene is one, and there is also a secondary puzzle (these vary from jigsaws to spot the difference, to a ‘match the picture’ game, ect), which were generally interesting but you can skip them after about a minute if you don’t want to do them. The game will count it as ‘complete’ for the purposes of the achievements.
Finally, there’s drawings to complete. They’re not too challenging and break up the hidden object scenes. It involves you colouring in an image, and this was quite relaxing, helped by the fact that once you colour most of it in, it’ll auto-complete the res t- an appreciated quality of life feature if you miss a bit you can’t see.
[h1]Graphics:[/h1]
Visually, this is the most photo-realistically impressive hidden object game I’ve played. Most of the environments are made up of high-quality rendered scenes with high quality assets thrown in for you to find. The puzzles and drawing sections have photographs as their background – anything from snowy forests, to sunsets, to the sea.
[b]Photographs and Backgrounds:[/b]
All photographs are extremely high quality with rich colours, and most can be set as your desktop wallpaper. While the photography is lovely, when applied as a wallpaper, the game’s logo is applied as a watermark though. It is not massively intrusive, kept to the bottom right corner of the screen, but nevertheless I don’t like it, so I ended up losing interest in the feature.
[b]User Interface (UI):[/b]
The UI is nicely themed in a kind of casual, almost child-like cartoony style. It is lightly animated as well, which makes it feel quite modern in a way some Hidden Object games don’t. But it’s also a bit clunky too. You have to click several buttons to leave a hidden object scene to return to the menu, and several then to go from the menu back to a hidden object scene for example. It works fine, but it feels like it slows you down a bit too. This was something that mostly bothered me at the end, going back to get missed collectibles. Visually, though, everything is in-theme with nature and easy on the eyes. I liked the presentation of this game a lot.
[b]Responsiveness/Accuracy:[/b]
The game also felt a bit clunky, or unpolished, in some puzzles. One has you match items that are the same, for example, and once you make a match, you cannot make another reliably (sometimes it lets you, sometimes not) until the animation for the first has finished. This makes it feel like the game slows you down which irritated me a bit.
In another puzzle where you place picture fragments within a wider picture, if you miss the location by just a tiny bit, the fragment wouldn’t place down, resetting to the pile at the side, so you have to drag it over the screen again. This, too, felt annoying, as there are several of these puzzles.
[h1]Audio:[/h1]
The music soundtrack in this game is lovely. It’s a very light acoustic guitar track – so tranquil and dreamy, I thought. If you listen to those relaxing guitar music compilations on YouTube it’ll remind you of those. You can listen to all these tracks in the game but sadly, while other hidden object games let you download their soundtracks, this one doesn’t. The artist is on Spotify though, I think, so you might be able to listen to it there.
[h1]Conclusion:[/h1]
Overall, it’s hard to get too excited about Nature Escapes. It is not in any way emotionally appealing – there is no story, and the game is just a series of digital puzzles - this is by contrast to most hidden object games that have stories and some exploration elements.
Better played in short bursts than prolonged sessions, I think, Nature Escapes will take you about 3 – 5 hours depending on how quickly you play it, and you can quite easily get all the achievements in that one playthrough. Some nice features like chapter select allow you go quickly go back for missed collectables, making mopping up missed achievements at the end of the game pleasantly easy.
Perhaps for people who really love this game there is [i]some[/i] replayability, but I’d generally say this is one of those you play once and never go back to. It is perfectly suitable for children and adults alike though, and with its great visuals and some new, innovative features for the hidden object genre is (while not a game to feel passionate about) good enough at what it does that it gets a recommendation.
