March 5, 2008

Haunted Hotel - new hidden object game

Today’s new release from Big Fish Games is Haunted Hotel, in which you’ll solve a mystery by finding hidden objects. For those unfamiliar with the genre, it’s pretty simple to learn. You’re provided with a list of items to find in each screen presented. As you discover each item, click on it in the picture and it will disappear from your list. Many hidden object games provide a storyline to explain why you’re looking for missing items and some provide minigames between sessions of searching for hidden objects. Haunted Hotel includes both.

Let’s get the storyline out of the way first. You seek shelter in an isolated hotel after crashing your car nearby on a dark and stormy night. No one greets you when you arrive and you quickly find out that the elevator takes you where it wants you to go. You begin to uncover clues that something mysterious has happened in the hotel in the past, and that it’s still going on. You must solve the mystery in order to escape from the hotel. This story is more detailed than those for most of the hidden object games I’ve played. It’s presented in long and tedious chapters between searches. Information already given is re-presented, further delaying your game-playing. The writing is deplorable. If you read my Grammar Day post yesterday and then take a look at the screenshot above you’ll, understand why my eyes are bleeding. The story is also littered with inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Did you have expiration dates on your food labels in 1957? We certainly didn’t!

Once you get past the drudgery of the story, this is acually a pretty good game. Most of the artwork is sharp and clear (haunted mist notwithstanding) and the scenes are just cluttered enough to make your task challenging. Hidden objects for you to find are in a written list. Bonus items are pictured as silhouettes instead of described by words. I found a few items througout the game that were not very clearly pictured, but it was very few. Most of them are well-defined and you’ll know that you’ve found a sought-after item when you see one.

The game is played in timed mode only. Don’t sweat it. You’ll have plenty of time on each screen even if you get stumped from time to time. Up to five hints are available at any given time. You won’t use most of them , but will have regular opportunities to restock your supply. A too-frequent minigame allows you to replenish your “energy” by capturing wildly cavorting balls of light. Yaaaawn! Several other minigames are are a little more engaging.

Several times during the game I found play to be a little confusing. There’s a lamp on the list for the above screen. See the lamp with the blue shade against a light background over on the left? That’s not it. There’s another lamp above the hard hat, with butterflies on the shade. I get annoyed when game creators are not careful about such details. If a single lamp is on the list, there should only be one lamp in the scene. This occured several time during the game, but not with enough frequency to keep me from buying the full version. There was also a minor annoyance with some items not responding when first clicked on, but that may have been a problem with my browser. You can let me know if you experience the same thing. The perplexing placement of the basement on the same hallway with rooms you’ve been told are on the second floor or the fifth? That’s pretty annoying, too. Details, kind creators! Details! They’ve kept this from being a great game, but it’s still a good one.

You can download a demo of Haunted Hotel for one hour of free play from Big Fish Games or purchase the full version for $19.99. Game Club members pay as little as $6.99, though, so you’ll probably want to join if you’re purchaging games.

If you’d like to read my reviews of other hidden object games, select Games from the drop-down category menu in my left sidebar.

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