After a strange therapy session, a devoted gamer finds themselves at a mysterious bar. The owner is Mistress Eve, who not only sees the trauma the gamer’s been through but offers to help them out through their number one passion, video games. Unfortunately, these video games are not what they seem.
I haven’t played anything from Big Fish Games for awhile and I only recently got an email offering for me to beta test this game. So, if this is a sign to come back, I am taking it. As I said in the first paragraph, these video games are not what they seem. That’s because they’re more than video games, they’re gateways to another world. The protagonist takes the role of the character in the video game and explores that very world they’ve been sent to. As this is a beta test, I only got to explore this world which was about a cursed town. Here, the protagonist meets a ghost and listens to her tragic backstory that, minor spoiler, caused her to curse the town. Let me warn you, what happened to the ghost when she was alive is very upsetting. As for how upsetting, she found herself ridiculed for who she was and died in the most horrible way anyone could die. Just watching it got me so upset that I nearly cried!
As for the game play, most of it is standard hidden object. You go through scenes collecting objects to help you progress through the game. Sometimes, you’ll have to take part in an actual hidden object game where you collect several useless items to get the one you need. If you’re stuck, you can use a hint. There will also be times where you’ll have to play a mini game to progress but, if you find it too difficult, you can just skip it. One mini game has you match a silhouette to the right item. I had trouble finding one of the items no matter how hard I tried and there was no hint button, so I had to skip. When the trial was over, I actually suggested adding a hint button for that mini game for people having trouble matching a silhouette to the item. Here’s to hoping that they take my suggestion.
Like I said earlier, only most of it follows the hidden object formula. This game also has another feature where you can pick the actions and dialogue for the protagonist. What you say and do not only determine the protagonist’s stats but their relationship with the characters. Whether or not the story has a happy ending is entirely up to you. When I played it, the ending I got was far more bittersweet.
This game is addictive and intriguing. I definitely plan to buy the full game when it comes out. However, this game is a sequel to another, so I’ll have to settle for playing the one before this one.