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6.8 sorta fun
Second to romance, horror is probably my favorite genre. But that's too bad because today's game review is not at all horrible and very much all about romance. It's a Harlequin romance novel in casual game form.
Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire, from Gunnar Games, is a hidden object game for players yearning to return to the modest hidden object games of yesteryear. Just a no sweat mindless hunt for (mostly) arbitrary clutter as you follow a simple story to its conclusion... no inventory puzzles and few minigames to get in the way of the eye exam scenes.
American reporter Allie and her photographer Shaun, on behalf of the Midwest Messenger, arrive at the twin island nation of Adamas to cover the Aristan crown prince Adrian Karedes' thirtieth birthday celebration. With one half of the famous Stefani Diamond missing, the nation is unable to crown either Prince Karedes from the island Aristo (or his opposite on the island Calista) king... and the nation is becoming restless. Things immediately get more interesting for the American tourists when Allie meets the charming ladies' man of a prince... and Shaun is thrown in jail after being accused of stealing the other half of the Stefani Diamond! Can Allie's journalistic snooping get to the bottom of the fiendish plot Calista has set in motion to steal the throne? More importantly, will the prince sweep her off her feet and smother her with kisses?
In every hidden object sequence Hidden Object of Desire gives Allie (or occasionally Shaun) a list of objects to find at the left side of the screen. Clicking on one will remove it from the list and the scene. These objects are somewhat tangentially related to the romance novel plot, or not at all related. A character may be looking for a camera to advance the story, but every other object on the list is a random item from the current disarray. Some items deemed important to the story pop up windows with story information and are added to Allie's inventory/journal after being found. Though you can look back over these items, they're never used in any sort of manipulation or adventure game style puzzles. Find all the objects and the game will move onto the next hidden object challenge.
A hint button is available and takes about thirty seconds to recharge between uses. You can recharge it immediately by finding one of the Harlequin logos that appear in each scene. Finding two objects back-to-back with only seconds between clicks also rapidly recharges the hint button. Sadly, you can also deplete the hint button by by being overly-zealous with your random clicking. Since "overly-zealous" is my middle name I had a bit of trouble with my standard strategy of starting each level off with a flurry of indiscriminate clicking in an attempt to "narrow the field" before getting down to searching for specific objects in earnest.
The story progresses with chapter headings, dialogue word balloons and torsos at the bottom of the screen, and the occasional fullscreen comic strip. I can't say I was particularly enthralled, but big-hearted romantics may find the predictable story enjoyable. (In fact, amusingly enough the game even offers you a chance right at the beginning to turn the story off.) What is, however, ultra-entralling is the included complete novel in PDF form just waiting to be printed out and enjoyed at your leisure. Billionaire Prince, Pregnant Mistress by Sandra Marton provides the setting of Adamas... some story background... and that's about the entirety of the simularity between it and Hidden Object of Desire.
Minigames are present, but take a back seat to the hidden object game sequences. Jigsaw puzzles, memory games, logic puzzles (but not too difficult), spot the difference between two pictures games, etc. All can be skipped after about a minute if you find yourself struggling, but none are hard enough that you're likely to reach any sort of point of frustration.
The graphics vary between run-of-the-mill and impressive, with thankfully well-constructed hidden object game scenes to hunt through. (i.e. no objects looked like they were floating above the background, even though quite a few were in silly or unbelievable places.) Only once or twice was I asked to find a hidden object that I thought unfairly hidden. Sometimes I ran across an object (a safety pin, for example) that needed to be clicked on in exactly the right position to register that I'd found it, which was mildly annoying. I found Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire a bit short compared to other hidden object games. Unless you're ready for a free Harlequin romance novel (and who isn't in this day and age when libraries are being down-sized and paperback novels cost more than the average casual game?) you may be disappointed with the length of Allie's adventure on Aristo.
Download Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire