Themes are getting redundant
Most people are aware that I enjoy Hidden Object games. Most of them are clever, in that there are intricate puzzles you need to figure out beyond the mundane part of finding items on a list. It seems safe to assume that market research shows that 18 – 25 year old white women are the biggest consumers of the games because that is usually the character we’re presented with in most of these games. She often has to travel the world or through time to find some hapless male relative who went and got himself missing either by messing around with stuff he shouldn’t have been messing with or messing around with the wrong mad scientist or evil wizard.
For mindless play, I guess this is okay, but usually the stories are so redundant that there is no point in playing them because you know how they’ll end. This is makes setting even more important. Mystery Case Files has a wonderful franchise in their games. While the puzzles and graphics are often excellent, what makes them more attractive is the setting. Ravenhearst and especially Return to Ravenhearst were just unsettling at times. There were areas of the games I wanted to avoid because they were scary.
Lately, it seems that other game companies, wishing to latch onto MCFs success with Return to Ravenhearst, have gone the mystery route. Sadly, they do it so poorly and just come off as cheap knock-offs. Most of these games don’t even have the awesome puzzles that are really the core of the MCF games. Now we’re faced with titles like in the graphic above (from Big Fish Games) and no compelling game play. Mystery for the sake of mystery is never a good idea. I need something to sink my teeth into.
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The Why so mysterious? by Anika Malone, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tags: Big Fish Games, hidden object games, themes, Video game