Hidden Mysteries 5: Vampire Secrets

Hidden Mysteries: Vampire Secrets
by GameMill Entertainment / Gunnar Games - July, 2010

Series links: Hidden Mysteries 1: Civil War,  Hidden Mysteries 2: Buckingham Palace, Hidden Mysteries 3: The White House, Hidden Mysteries 4: The Fateful Voyage Titanic, Hidden Mysteries 5: Vampire Secrets, Hidden Mysteries 6: Salem Secrets, Hidden Mysteries 7: Notre Dame - Secrets of Paris, Hidden Mysteries 8: The Forbidden City, Hidden Mysteries 9: Royal Family Secrets, Hidden Mysteries 10: Return To The Titanic, Hidden Mysteries 11: Gates of Graceland

Available at:
Big Fish for PC / Mac



What was intended as a relaxing vacation to Savannah, Georgia for Claire Donnelly, quickly turned into one of adventure and mystery! Upon her arrival, Claire started experiencing unusual visions, which grew to vivid depictions of evil forces living among the citizens of Savannah. Help Claire explain these terrifying visions in Hidden Mysteries: Vampire’s Secrets, a dark Hidden Object Adventure game.

• Mysterious atmosphere
  
• Beautiful scenes
  
• Join Claire on an adventure!
  Click on images to enlarge
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Review from August 5, 2010

I have just finished playing Curse of the Opera, so my review might be slightly skewed due to the inevitable comparisons.

Hidden Mysteries: Vampire Secrets is an IHOG with a strong adventure game feeling to it. There is a tutorial, but you can choose to skip it at any time.

The music is nice and creepy, but not in a jarring, invasive way - just enough to set the mood of the game. The voice-acting is well done and matches nicely with the graphics. The hidden object scenes have good graphics, and aren't hard, but not frustratingly easy, either. The hog scenes have a word list describing what you need to find, but the list is in a small font. I'd have much rather they crossed items off the list and added new ones, but that is just a small gripe.

The mini-puzzles are deceptively simple in the beginning. Like any good game, the difficulty increases as you progress, though they seem to balance more towards easy. Hints are refillable, mini-games are skippable and if you need help between hidden object scenes, you're in luck! The hint meter is now a "Tips" meter! Tasks are not hard to figure out, as you usually only have a couple of items in your inventory at any given time. You collect books as you progress through the game, and these books will help you through some of the harder mini-puzzles. I think the goal was to make the driving story of the game as interactive as the player wishes it to be, but somehow the books seem more than an afterthought than an integral part of the story.

As I mentioned there is a heavy adventure game feeling to this title. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes HOGs and is wanting to ease their way into the adventure genre. Unlike a "true" adventure game, you will not wander about endlessly, wondering what you're supposed to be doing. Once you have finished with a HOG scene, you can't view it again. There are multiple locations you will visit in this game, and once you've finished the location, you automatically move forward in the game and can't revisit the old location(s). This feature will make the game much less frustrating and easier to follow for those new to adventure gaming, plus, if you get stuck, there's always that handy "Tips" button. In other words, the game is very linear - perfect for a beginner.

Despite the plot, the creepy music and the semi-goth graphics (which are very well done, by the way!), I found nothing scary about this game. I think it's the way the main character is voiced - like Helene in Trapped: The Abduction, the strength of determination (and lack of fear) in the heroine lessens the creepy factor.

Understand that this review has been written over the course of several days as I have played the game. I am pleasantly surprised to find that this game got more complex towards the ending - I even got lost! Happy day! It was had enough to be interesting, but no so hard that I had to go find the walkthrough.

Final thoughts: Great tone-setting music, very nice atmospheric graphics, interesting story and GREAT game for IHOG lovers that want to ease their way into adventure gaming. Absolutely worth buying if you like hidden object games and aren't bothered by a vampire story with no vampires...

EDIT RE: The end of the game:

A lot of questions are left unanswered when you finish the game, but I do not mind this, as it leaves room for a sequel. Any good author will leave you hanging so that you'll buy the sequel, so why not do the same when writing games?