Hidden Secrets: The Nightmare review

[Herbert1405241469 0]

It isn't often I try one of the budget titles, but my girlfriend picked up this interesting puzzle game for $9 at walmart because she said she tried the demo and it was pretty good.This game isn't even on gamefaqs, but it is a nice puzzle game that tests your logic without driving you crazy in frustration.The basic plot is that you play as a woman who is in a coma, who was an attempted murder victim, and you have to "piece" together clues as to who your attempted killer is and why...There are 20 "scenes" which are pre-rendered photos that you interact with, and there are a series of events you need to perform to get the object for that level. This is a hypothetical example as i can't remember exactly one of the levels, but say you were in a store and she wants to get a lotto ticket, you find a wad of cash which gets a bunch of white sparkles around it to indicate it's clickable... and you find how much the lottery ticket is, and punch in the cost in to a cash register, and pay for the lottery ticket. Then you get change from your money and use the coin to scratch the lottery ticket, and what comes up is another 'clue'.... You are on a timer for about 20 minutes, and in that 20 minutes, you have to solve this above puzzle scene by putting things together and manipulating the environment, then it cuts to mini-games that are classic brain teasers like suduko, the hannoi tower, Hi-Q (I think that's the name of it)... etc. Basic IQ games.If you make a wrong guess, it cuts down your time... If you ask for a hint, it cuts down your time.Overall the puzzles were challenging but not too bad, and the "cutscenes" are all still drawings with voice overs... you can tell this is hella low budget but they did a decent job...The ending was mucho disappointing though. It has a "happy" ending, but it's so abrupt and lame that you just sit there wondering "I just spent 4 hours playing for... that?"the "credits" scene doesn't scroll... All the people that made it fit onto the one page of designers/artists/voice actors. You can't get much more low budget.The voice acting is decent, and the drawings and pre-rendered scenes are impressive at times, but overall, not a ton of eye candy. The game shines with its vast array of puzzles.Overall, I'd say this game is good for challenging your IQ, but don't buy it for the story.