The Secret Order 8: Return to the Buried Kingdom Reviews

This story relates to events in The Secret Order 5, but doesn't require you to have played it in order to follow the story. Pros: - Map allows fast travel. - Map shows which locations have an action available. - You have an indicator which shows whether there is a collectable or morphing object on the screen. - Ability to skip dialogue. - There is an alternative card/tile game that you can play rather than a hidden object puzzle. Other: - There are achievements in the bonus chapter, but no collectables. - It took me 3 hours to complete the base game and bonus chapter.

Usually Artifex Mundi doesn't miss, but this one doesn't have much going for it apart from really good art. The puzzles are all pretty tedious, the point n' click is often confused and muddled, and there's just not much there in terms of the story. There are a few cool elements, but it doesn't come together.

This is an okay entry into a long game series. I think it doesn't feel too connected to the other games in the series but it's still a nice enough entry. For the puzzles there's very little we haven't seen before in this series, nothing too revolutionary, just a pretty straightforward game. 6.5/10

I hate to rate this a thumb's down because I LOVE dragons and I generally like the games in this series, but this one is just so mediocre. The story is barely fleshed out at all, to the point where things don't make sense or the transitions are really jarring. It just felt sloppy, which is a shame considering the artwork is -- as always -- beautiful. There's lots of creepy skeletal, swampy scenes that were cool and atmospheric but it just doesn't make up for such a short, bare bones (pun intended) plot. I still recommend the other games in this series but I would only buy this one WAY on sale.

Way too short for the price. Get it on a discount. Otherwise, it was an okay game. It had some good points. The story made little sense to me. The mouse was kind of laggy, which was annoying, but didn't keep me from playing.

Too short (3hrs for full completion of main chapter with all morphing/hidden objects found.). Weak, unoriginal story. Sloppy continuity. Uninteresting cut scenes. Some truly jarring music. Simple, cookie-cutter puzzles. Decent enough graphics (apart from cut scenes at times). And the HOG puzzles themselves covered pretty much all current styles, which is unusual for a single game. Didn't really seem to be very many of them, though. I wish I'd waited for a more substantial sale, but there haven't been many new HOGs on Steam lately. Really not much to recommend this, unless you're a [i]really[/i] big fan of the series/genre.

[i][/i] What happened to the quality levels in this eighth game? The artwork is grimy, gungy and grainy. It needs to look slick and smooth for a proper pleasing fantasy feeling. It appears the native resolution was lowered from series standard 1600x900 to 1366x768. This is slightly lower than the native resolution 1400x900 of the first game! (not available on Steam) Despite the strange reduction in quality, there are finally some interesting things in the gameplay. There are a couple sections of action, where timing and reacting are required. It's not difficult in the slightest, but it's such a departure from the usual gameplay that I enjoyed them a lot. I don't know if there will be any more Secret Order games, but it has been 3½ years since Sunward last released a game to Steam. Over the course of the series, they took a very unique first game and pumped out generic, yet inoffensive, sequels. I like The Secret Order as a series, but I literally cannot remember what happened in any of them without looking back at my screenshots. These sequels were forgettable, to the max. I've looked for other games like the first Secret Order: New Horizon, but haven't found any. I'm sure there are some out there in the thousands of hidden object adventure games on Steam, but I'd really expected that the sequels would have been those similar games. Well, there you have it. I've now played and reviewed all The Secret Order games. (Except for TSO: New Horizon which I played but haven't reviewed because it's not on Steam.)

The FINAL GAME and you cannot be counting it as the 8th of the series. No, nope. YES, you still play as Sarah. YES, you see some characters of the past. But NO... There is NO ORDER business and nothing from the previous games that relates to what made up the whole "SECRET ORDER". You don't even get cute pets anymore either... I mean... You get a hedgie for a few minutes... But he is an "item"........ :< This one shall be titled: "The Final Farewell". Because everyone is tired by now, even Sarah... Who looks like she could use a few weeks of sleep in that image. Well, in this one they brought back a few characters, but... I can't recall exactly who they are. I don't know of any person who can play 8 games of H.O. one after another and still be sane or know the meaning of "fun" afterwards. So that said... I only remember the dragon, who had no name back then (right? Oh well), only due to flashbacks. Then the gameplay and stuff. Visuals are fine. Music is fine. Puzzles are simple and okay, this time I'll give them credit as there were some stuff they hid really well. Outside the H.O. scenes. Otherwise you just blow past the game and things may have happened and you ask yourself... "Where is that damn sexy ship?!" Or rather... "What happened to the ORDER in the freaking "SECRET ORDER?" Oh screw it! We made it to the end and we went through it and we can finally put this whole series to rest. Woo? Yeah. We can do a small "Woo." But that's it. Woo. Fin.

This game was very "meh" for me. It's pretty, but not very interesting - and it definitely could have been! Summary: 7/10, being ~very~ generous and admiring the craftsmanship in the art and design; only get this one on sale and/or in a bundle, and because you enjoy AM games with Steam achievements too much to pass it up. [b]Pros:[/b] - art & concept design - interface - morphing object; collectable puzzle pieces; interactive map - the voice acting is good, but there isn't very much of it - I think the story had an interesting premise (especially with respect to the supposed villain), but as mentioned in the [b]Cons[/b] it was under-developed [b]Cons:[/b] - the story is hard to follow because there is no notebook and insufficient dialogue to explain what's going on; this is worst in the bonus chapter (I had no idea who I was or what was going on) - the puzzles were almost all too easy; there was very little challenge at any point - the music was repetitive, especially by the end, and the "atmospheric" sounds became annoying later on as well; yes, you can turn it all off, but I shouldn't want to with a game this price - the bonus chapter... It was short. Not "on the short side", or "a little lacking" - it was very short, and the ending is abrupt, to put it mildly.

I have Cerebral Palsy and use a HeadMouse to work the computer. Its one of the few games that will work with my HeadMouse. Its hard finding games that I can play because I don't have use of my hands. I would recommend it to anyone with a disability.