Source: Cashmoneys
Price: £6.99
Where To Get It: Steam

Every now and again, there comes a time when there’s no diplomatic way to say that a game is terrible. Dark Heritage: Guardians of Hope is one of those times. This game is appalling, even for a genre not exactly known for high production values, or even polish at times. That genre is Hidden Object Puzzle Adventures (or HOPAs). Bear with me, while I explain why this game is the pits.

It is an unwritten law that all houses must have a ResEvil Lock/Safe somewhere on the property. Ghosts are not exempted from this.

For those who don’t know, HOPAs are a specific subgenre of adventure games, where at least a third of the puzzles (Usually more than half) involve finding hidden objects because… Well, between one and three of them (Usually just one) are important plot items, and the rest… Is just for the joy of finding hidden objects. Your mileage may vary immensely on whether that really is a joy, not only as a personal preference, but also within games. They mostly tend toward supernatural, sometimes romantic or familial stories, rely on simple characterisations, and have retained many of the same core UI elements as they had in their humble beginnings (Around 1998). Backgrounder over, let’s talk criticism.

For a start, unless specifically pluralised, hidden objects tend to be the only one of their kind in an individual puzzle. Not so with Dark Heritage, which not only has objects similar to each other (You may try and click on a “Hammer”, only to find out, near the end of the game, that it was actually a “Lever”. The actual hammer is on the other side), but exactly the same type of object (For example, two wheels. One’s a bicycle wheel, one’s a cart wheel. Only one of these choices is correct.

The game gives you clues via the usual journal. Those clues are not always visually clear, however.

The inventory puzzles, similarly, involve arbitrary interactions, much more so than usual. I couldn’t use a saw or an axe on some planks, because, since they had bolts on them, I was clearly meant to use a wrench. You’ll lose cutting tools (Because adventure game rules), then wonder why, as your main interactions appear to be cutting, smashing, and sawing of some description. Not all of them… But enough to leave you scratching your head, wondering why the hell you can’t smash this time.

As to the puzzles… There’s a lot of repeat puzzles, with at least two variations on the “Push levers which affect other levers, making sure they all go up/down” puzzle, a couple of jigsaws, and the lever push’s annoying cousin, “Three dials that go round and, bee tee dubs, affect each other. Good luck aligning them in patterns you may or may not have seen somewhere!”

This is the emotion portrayed throughout the conversation. Note also that that’s a webcam wig. You can tell because of the odd movements compared to the head.

The game attempts to experiment, with FMV actors over the usual fare of mixed 2d/3d scenes. This would be interesting, if a) They had something worth saying, and b) The actors weren’t asked, for some bizarre reason, to mostly just portray a single emotion, maybe two (Sometimes none!), with little to no relation to what is being said, or how it’s being said. The story is paper thin, even for a HOPA, and it can basically be summed up as Hero’s Journey Lite. “Get McGuffin, Beat Evil Master, and also solve the fiendish mysteri-” Oh, wait, we already covered those mysteries, didn’t we? They’re fiendish, alright, but not in the way you’d like.

HOPA fans will find the hidden object annoyances frustrating, Adventure game fans will not be sustained by the story, the acting (Voice or otherwise), and both will be annoyed by the inventory puzzles. This is one of those times I can’t recommend a game to anybody except those of us who look at games to see what the hell went wrong. And that makes me sad.

The Mad Welshman checked his pockets and sighed. He’d left his keys at home, and would have to solve a jigsaw puzzle, find a crowbar in among 11 other objects, break some planks, find some nails and a hammer (One of which was behind a colour matching lock), and build a ladder to get back in. Just another day, he sighed, as a Ghoul engaged him in conversation at the bus stop.

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Source: Review Copy
Price: £4.79
Where To Get It: Steam

In the beginning, there was only void. And then God said “Hey, I’ve got these four elements, let’s bang them together and see what happens!”… And then the miracles of life, technology, and the like occurred, with the occasional muttering of “No, I’m pretty sure that should have done something.” Such is Doodle God, a simple, yet fairly entertaining puzzle game, where you put things together to make new things. Fire and Water, for example, makes Steam, while later on, Money and Banks make Debt suddenly come into existence.

Early on, the world is largely barren, and without form…

For a puzzle game in the region of £5, it’s got a fair amount of content, with the main game (Containing four chapters of putting things together, with some simple and slightly silly story to go with it), puzzle mode (Where you’re aiming for something specific using a limited amount of elements), Quest mode (Mini stories), and Tournament (A daily quiz tournament, requiring coins to enter, that give hint rewards and more tournament coins). There’s a fair bit of variety, although not an amazing amount of replayability unless you really feel like it outside of Tournament mode. It looks alright, the music is relaxing, and the world of the main game fills up as you get more things made, which is a nice touch for such an accessible game, simple in both concept and control.

There’s just one small problem, and two larger ones. The first larger one is inherent to the game itself, in that, the further the game progresses, the more likely you are to be fruitlessly shoving things into each other in the hope that you’ll find the things you need to progress, as some elements only have a few interactions, while others… Have a lot. Humans, for example, get shoved into a fair few things, but Plasma is something that gets relatively little love. There is a hint system, but it leads to the other problem with this game: Microtransactions.

…But there are many things you can fill the world with.

Thing is, the microtransactions are for… Er… Hints. And, in the main game at least, they’re just on a cooldown rather than “Once they run out, buy more please!” It honestly feels extraneous and pointless, since… It’s a Steam game. The series has been around long enough from its free game origins that guides exist. And I know people would rather look something up than give someone money for hints in this day and age.

Finally, there’s the second larger problem: Some of the combinations are logical stretches at best, and somewhat nonsensical at worst. I often found myself scratching my head, thinking “Okay, how does this and this… Make that?” A good example (Only occurs once, to my knowledge, so not a huge spoiler) is that, at one point, Astral and Death makes… Er… Mindflayers (Y’know, the DnD monster. Psychic, has tentacles, octopus headed, eats brains?). That’s by no means a simple connection, and you occasionally feel that there could have been a simpler way to do things.

Tournament mode, it must be noted, has one somewhat annoying bug. See if you can spot it.

Still, Microtransactions can be ignored, there’s a fair amount of content for the price, and puzzle fans might find this one interesting. You’ll know fairly quickly whether you like it, hate it, or don’t particularly care about it. Just be aware that, unless you’re a completionist, you’re going to finish the game, finish the puzzles, quests, and artefacts, and be left with… 3 to 5 achievements to the game left, and the tournament. Personally, I finished the review and the game in a day’s worth of play, and don’t find the tournament all that “Addicting”. But I’m not you.

The Mad Welshman accessed his GodPod, clicked on Electrons, then on Printing Press. And Lo, Dideth Reviews Come To Pass.

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