The Year in HOGuru!

That's right, 2016 is almost over, making this the perfect time to take a look back on the first year of the HOGuru Youtube channel!

See you in the new year!

Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek

I've played more than a few bleak hidden object games, but few are as unrelentingly dark as Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek. Opening in the aftermath of a storm of biblical proportions, it follows a detective with a suddenly-spotty memory as she attempts to piece together her investigation into a disappearance in the titular town. The amnesia angle is a but of a strange conceit - things could well seem anticlimactic, since the main action of the plot has already taken place when the player starts - interviews have been conducted, and evidence collected. The developers are attempting to elide over the slower aspects of detective fiction, and just cut to the thrilling climax of the plot, with all the running through storms and fistfighting with serial killers.

Despite a few hiccups, this strategy works pretty darn well.

Now, on to the hidden object criteria!

Criteria 1: To what degree do the puzzle screens look like a thrift store vomited on my monitor?

Barely at all. Yes, every surface is covered with piles of random nonsense, but the developers have come up with a perfect explanation for the terrible condition of this small Vermont town - it's just been struck by a once-in-a-century storm! Honestly, as if these townspeople didn't have enough trouble with the murderous priest controlling all of their minds! They're well-built screens - no size or gravity cheating. The only problems I found were a couple of extremely unclear item names - if the word 'luck' appears on a list of items to find, how can that possibly be interpreted? Yes, the answer - a four-leaf clover - makes sense, but it's certainly not the first thing that comes to mind, and it, along with a few others like it, feel very out-of-place in an otherwise strictly literal game.

Criteria 2: Are the searches justified by the premise/story?

It's all 12:1 screens here. This is a traditional HOG - there are environmental problems to solve, and the player will do it by picking up a bunch of things and using just one of them. It's meat-and-potatoes gameplay, and the game handles it well, but there are no boundaries being pushed here, not are there any steps taken to make the HOSs feel like an organic part of the world.

Criteria 3: How well do the various puzzles and object searches meld together to form a coherent whole?

The game's puzzles all fit the world extremely well. There's boat repair, map construction, a few ornate locks - it all works in the 'small town mystery' milieu. Enigmatis' greatest strength is the mood that the developers have created. The locations are beautifully-drawn, full of storm-battered houses and crumbling old buildings. They're attractive enough to look at that I almost didn't mind the game's biggest flaw - the lack of a fast-travel system. There is a truly epic amount of back-tracking to be done in this game, and it's almost inexcusable that the developers didn't understand that players want to be able to click on a map and just be moved to that location. Especially since there's no good reason to keep that ability from them - it's not like the game is constantly surprising players with ambushes on their way to the next objective, or anything like that.

Enigmatis' story really is its strongest point. Using a wonderfully-conceived 'evidence board' system in which the player gradually rebuilds the case that the detective had been working on, a tale of supernatural menace is gradually revealed. For a character who gets almost zero screentime, the Preacher is expertly built up as a credible threat, which makes the final confrontation with him all the more thrilling. While its presentation may be lacking in places, Enigmatis confidently tells an enthralling story, full of intriguing twists and genuinely surprising reveals, kicking off a franchise with matchless aplomb.

Curious about the playthrough which led to this review? The first part is below!

The Most Hidden Object

I've played through some pretty terrible Hidden Object Games - the problem with being an arbiter of quality is that you don't get to only play the good things. In all of those terrible games, with objects so small as to be nearly invisible, or essentially transparent, there was never a hidden object as unfair as this one, from a little game called 'Haunted Hotel: Charles Dexter Ward'.

Please take a look at this screenshot and attempt to find the cigar.

No luck? Okay, I'll zoom in on the section of the screen where it's located. Try again.

Did you get it? Good - if not, I understand, as I had no idea where it was.

Here's the important thing to remember - the cigar is functionally the same colour as the wall. The only thing keeping it from looking exactly like part of the wall is the presence of a red cigar band. Or at least, that should have been keeping it from looking like the wall, except the developers went and pasted part of the UI over the cigar band.

Damn it, Charles Dexter Ward developers. Why would you do something like that?

Adam Wolfe - Season 1

This is, by leagues, the most intricate and deep HOG I've ever encountered. Partially that's due to its remarkable running time - the game's 'season' is broken up into four hour-long 'episodes' - although simple running time has little to do with the game's successes. After all, Evil Pumpkin dragged on for hours and hours with almost no content to it at all. What so impresses about Adam Wolfe is the fact that each one of its chapters is a fully fleshed-out story with its own cast of characters, as well as a beginning, middle, and end.

Players take on the role of Wolfe, a supernatural detective determined to solve the mystery of his sister's disappearance - as well as help out the other three people who need his expertise in their own storylines. Each one of the stories is a fully satisfying experience, and had the developers been interested in doing so, they could have tacked a few extra puzzles and HOGS into each and sold this as four different games. Instead, they've released one of the most dramatically satisfying HOGs ever made.

Now, on to the hidden object criteria!

Criteria 1: To what degree do the puzzle screens look like a thrift store vomited on my monitor?

Not at all. Mad Head Games have gone above and beyond to create HOSs that look completely believable. Obviously aware that this is an issue in poorly-produced HOGs, they set all of the hidden object scenes in plausibly cluttered locations. Adam goes digging through an old box of personal effects, a bartender has the player searching through a packed shelf, there's even a child's treehouse absolutely stuffed with toys. All of the screens are beautifully drawn, with items hidden completely naturally. There's no cheating of any kind, yet the screens are never pushovers - great care was obviously taken to ensure that the items to be located match the art style of their surroundings. This is as good as hidden object scenes get from a presentation standpoint.

Criteria 2: Are the searches justified by the premise/story?

Again, this is a perfect example of developers going the extra mile and showing how much they respect their audience's suspension of belief. While the game doesn't have a ton of HOSs - there are just a few in each episode - the majority of them are fully integrated into the plot. There are some narrative screens, in which the player is asked to find a series of items as part of a story being told, justified lists, where they have to find puzzle pieces under a series of items, and plenty of mini-puzzles, that have them finding and using a series of items all within and intricately-designed screen. There are a couple of basic 12:1 screens as well, but by and large Adam Wolfe's HOSs are some of the best-integrated ones around.

Criteria 3: How well do the various puzzles and object searches meld together to form a coherent whole?

Incredibly well. Adam Wolfe offers a huge variety of environmental interaction, standard puzzles, and action sequences, all of which fit perfectly within the game world. The main character operates in a strata of society full of ancient secret orders, scheming demons, and otherworldly threats - of course he's going to have to open a few puzzle boxes here and there. Beyond the standard puzzles, however, the game has a few interesting mechanics of its own to offer. Most notable is the 'time rewind' mechanic, in which Adam arrives at the scene of a crime and has the ability to look backwards to the moment of tragedy - simply move a few items so that the the physical space has been reset, and the player is treated to a rotoscoped re-enactment of the action.

What truly impressed me, though, was how well the game managed to integrate action sequences into the gameplay. So many games stumble with fistfights and gunplay, but Adam Wolfe pulls it off with aplomb. There's frantic tapping, some symbol matching, and even a two-axis aiming sequence - and they all work just fine. This is a more intense, action-packed HOG than I'm used to, but it never asks too much from its player, managing to remain an accessible casual experience even when things get violent. And get violent they do - Adam shoots a surprisingly large number of people over the course of the game, yet another one of its standout points. The game is so well-built that I even enjoyed the card game I played against a supernatural foe at one point - and I tend to skip adversarial puzzles because of my well-established history of being terrible at them.

From beginning to end, Adam Wolfe is operating at the absolute peak of the art of HOG design. Compelling stories, great gameplay, challenging yet fair puzzles - this is as good as casual adventures get, and is an absolute must-play for any fan of the genre. If I was forced to find a single complaint about Adam Wolfe, it's that at the end of the game the story isn't completely over. All of the mysteries have been solved, but there's a fairly substantial dangling plot threat that might frustrate some. I tend to look at it as a good sign - it suggests that the developers intend to make more Adam Wolfe games - which, if this one is anything to go by, would be a fantastic result.

Curious about the playthrough which led to this review? Check out the first part below!

Haunted Hotel: Death Sentence

One of my favourite subgenres in HOGS I review are the stealth adaptations. Whether it's a popular video game franchise like Bioshock or a minor literary classic like The Shadow Over Innsmouth, I enjoy seeing how game developers who profoundly don't have the rights to a certain piece of media transform it into a hidden object game. How subtle will they be in their use of locations, character designs, entire plots? Haunted Hotel: Death Sentence is one of the least subtle adaptations I've come across - it's And Then There Were None: The Hidden Object Game, and it's actually fairly spectacular it hews to the book's storyline - actually making a little more sense here and there than the original did.

Now, on to the hidden object criteria!

Criteria 1: To what degree do the puzzle screens look like a thrift store vomited on my monitor?

Barely at all. This, like most of the Haunted Hotel titles, is an Elephant Games production, and as such it's made by people who care about the logic of their HOSs. The game's setting is a crumbling hotel on an isolated island, where the player has been called by frequent crime-solving partner James to help him determine the party responsible for a series of disappearances. The hotel has seen better days, so it's largely believable that there would be piles of sundry items scattered around all around the place. Especially since the maid is one of the killer's victims!

Criteria 2: Are the searches justified by the premise/story?

It's strictly 12:1 screens this time around. They're fairly designed, and frankly, pretty gorgeous, but story integration just wasn't a priority. The game features many examples of the signature Haunted Hotel design scheme - bouncing back and forth between a couple of screens as a series of locks open matryoshka-like. A few of the key items are found in the hidden object scenes, but by and large the game is more concerned with its puzzles and graphic adventure elements than the HOSs. Players generally search each screen just once, and there aren't any examples of the game livening things up or taking chances with the formula.

Criteria 3: How well do the various puzzles and object searches meld together to form a coherent whole?

And Then There Were None is the original slasher mystery, and this game does the story justice. The timeline has been shifted so that the killer was able to go after their victims on a longer timeline, and the plot takes a few original turns towards the end, but overall it's a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the source material. Many of the puzzle locks are a little on the contrived side for the setting, but overall I found the execution convincing and eerie - there are even a few ghosts on hand, which is a surprisingly rare occurrence in the franchise, considering its title.

Haunted Hotel: Death Sentence is a solid capper to the second HH trilogy. Some of the text is a little sloppily translated, but beyond that it's an incredibly polished package, and one of the high points of the franchise. Even the bonus chapter available in the collector's edition is top-notch, providing another solid 40 minutes of content, an intriguing look at an even more dilapidated version of the hotel, and a satisfying wrap-up to the story. While this game never reaches the insanely masterful heights of HH: Eclipse, it's a solid effort, and fans of both the series and the original novel will both be entertained.

Curious about the playthrough that led to this review? Check out the video below!

Haunted Hotel: Phoenix

After the strange way Haunted Hotel: Eternity wrapped up, with its Mystery Trackers crossover ending and history-altering bonus episode, I had no idea what to expect from Phoenix. Would it follow the same character from the previous game, as the previous trilogy of games had? Or would it depart from the detective millieu entirely and go off in a new direction?

The former - this is the second game in the third Haunted Hotel miniseries, following up on the story of Eternity as the detective from that case goes to solve a seemingly unrelated mystery, only to have a couple of familiar faces pop up again. But to say any more would spoil the twists, so let's move on to the hidden object criteria!

Criteria 1: To what degree do the puzzle screens look like a thrift store vomited on my monitor?

Not at all. This is, once again, a title from Elephant Games, who make it their business to build great-looking HOSs. The game is set at a hotel built atop the ruins of a badly-damaged university which had been attacked by an arsonist some years prior - which creates ample opportunities to justify HOSs, be they in a messy hotel room or a literal pile of burned rubble. This is one of the series' better locations, and the artists have outdone themselves, creating an isolated and foreboding locale, one where the frequent appearances by a nefarious masked figure (who bares more than a passing resemblance to Arkham's Scarecrow) never fail to unsettle.

Criteria 2: Are the searches justified by the premise/story?

Almost every type of HOS is on display here. There are - in descending order of logic - construction, puzzle, valid list, 12:1, silhouette, and memory scenes. It really runs the gamut, throwing everything at the wall with mixed results. The valid lists - in which the player is given a list of twelve items to move, only to discover that each one has a relevant item hiding behind it - are a great way of making the default screen feel relevant within the game world. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the 'memory' scenes, which have replaced 'placement' as my least favourite type of HOS. For those who haven't suffered through these screens, imagine playing a game of memory - where two items must be matched - without having any idea where the items were located. Sound frustrating? It is - players are presented with a screen and asked to click randomly on items until they find one which slides aside, revealing one of the matching items behind. Then they have to remember which item was behind what random piece of scenery while they resume clicking all over the screen in the hopes of finding another random item. It's a capricious and annoying type of HOS, forcing players to do the very thing - clicking randomly around the screen until something happens - that is anathema to how HOGs are supposed to be played. These scenes inclusion is the worst thing about the game, but luckily there aren't too many of them.

Criteria 3: How well do the various puzzles and object searches meld together to form a coherent whole?

Amazingly well. This is one of the strongest stories in the Haunted Hotel series - a tale of ghostly arsonists with secret agendas, of love and betrayal and surprising revelations. I won't  spoil any of the details, but suffice to say the developers have done a great job not only with the story, but with selecting puzzles and HOS types that fit the narrative perfectly. How well done was it? There are even a couple of reflex games/real-time puzzles that I didn't mind in the least, which is almost never my preference when it comes to HOGs. Here, though, they worked.

Which brings me to a final question before ending on a full-throated recommendation. What's going on with James? Playing these games vastly out of order (I started with 11 and then jumped back to 1) caused me to miss a pattern, so it wasn't until James showed up in this game that I realized that the detective who'd been nearly beheaded in Axiom was the same man who'd been calling the shots in the previous trilogy. But those games are set in the 20s, and this third miniseries is set in the 70s. Is it just a cute nod by the developers, or is this supposed to be the same man? I must know the answer, and would love to hear any theories or evidence that anyone may have come across.

Seriously, though, Phoenix is a top-notch HOG, so high-quality that even the appearance of a couple of my least-favourite types of HOSs couldn't sour me on the game. Amazing presentation, great story, wonderful puzzles, this is a great title through and through.

Curious about the playthrough that led to this review? It starts below!

Endless Fables: The Minotaur's Curse

The year is 1888, and archaeologists have discovered an amazing relic - the actual thread Theseus used to find his way back out of the Labyrinth after slaying the minotaur! Naturally, the discovery draws the attention of an evil cult of minotaur-worshippers, and it's up to the player to avoid their schemes, find the hidden isle of the Greek Gods, and prevent the resurrection of a certain bull-headed monster who has already been mentioned twice in this paragraph, and a third would probably be excessive. It's a crash course in mythological monsters packed alongside some great art and solid puzzles.

Now, on to the Hidden Object Criteria!

Criteria 1: To what degree do the puzzle screens look like a thrift store vomited on my monitor?

It's not a problem in the least. Logic and style are the buzzwords underlying the game's HOS design. While the screens themselves aren't the most intricate or beautifully-drawn, they fit perfectly within the game world. Whether the player is exploring ancient ruins or a cluttered blacksmith's shop, every time they're asked to search for hidden object, it's in a place that make perfect sense. The screens are also completely fair. No colour or gravity cheating here - they even go easy on asking players to find images of items rather than the items themselves. The end result are screens that are perhaps a little on the easy side as HOS go, but always a blast to play.

Criteria 2: Are the searches justified by the premise/story?

Almost completely. This is where the game really shines. While a couple of 12:1 screens make an appearance, by and large the player only has mini-puzzles and construction screens to work with, and wonderfully-built ones at that. The mini-puzzles are especially well thought out - the player is told how many 'interactions' are left before they can find the item they're looking for, and then they simply have to figure out which items on the screen can be used to pry open one container to find a secret emblem to open a safe to grab a knife... when these screens are well-done, they encapsulate the whole graphic-adventure experience in tiny slices, and this is a perfect example of developers knowing what they're doing.

Criteria 3: How well do the various puzzles and object searches meld together to form a coherent whole?

There are many familiar puzzles in this one - sliding blocks, chain linking, a maze to run marbles through. They probably make more sense in the context of this game than any other. Set in the millieu of the Greek Pantheon, Endless Legends has the player at one point traverse the labyrinth crafted by the actual Daedalus - so of course there are going to be some elaborate locks lying around. This is where that concept originates from, after all. The game splits up its journey into a series of 3-4 screen areas, each one involving a different mythological creature which needs to be helped or defeated, and this contained design helps keep the player focused on the task at hand, as well as moving the story along at a good clip. There's never a moment for the player to wonder what the dozen items in their inventory for, and it's almost inconceivable that anyone would ever have to check their map to see where to go next.

With great production values, an intriguing story, and wonderful puzzles, The Minotaur's Curse is a great jumping-off point for a potential series. This trip into antiquity feels fresh - while ancient evil returning to bedevil a chosen one may not be the most original premise, the developers manage to find new twists to the story with a surprisingly faithful presentation of Greek mythology, along with some surprising new gameplay mechanics. The game's breakneck pace ensures that players will constantly have new puzzles and HOSs at them, turning it into a thrilling ride which doesn't let up for the whole two-hour playtime.

Curious about the playthrough which led to this review? Check out the first part below!

A review copy of this game was provided by the publishers.