Doodle Streets: London 1950's Reviews

a lot of fun with a lot of detail. hints help. there doesn't seem to be any button that tells you exactly where it is so it does take some time to decipher the hints and locate. a couple puzzles to figure out. i really enjoyed it

Doodle Streets is a hidden object game in 2.5D with multicoloured cartoon-style images, which are also partially animated, reflecting London in the 1950s. On each of 14 main levels, a list of characters and objects to be found is displayed; clicking on these also gives a textual clue to help to locate them in the large and detailed scene. Levels are also grouped and there are a further three items to find in each group. For each level there is a minimum number of items which must be found before the player can start the next level - I did this whenever I was stuck on the few last items in a level, coming back later to try to complete the previous one. The complexity in the game, and also the sense of awe for what the developer has created, comes from a number of different features: the great amount of detail in the scene for each level; the often small size of characters and objects (there is a good and absolutely essential zoom facility); the animation of many parts of each scene e.g. smoke billowing from chimneys, moving characters (and animals & vehicles), fires burning in grates and on stoves, etc; some characters and objects are inside buildings (doors and curtains/blinds can be opened & closed) or in bushes & trees (which can be searched). Occasionally there are little "help" signs dotted around a scene which, when clicked, explain a new mechanic e.g. "growing" or "shrinking" plants, and also little arrows which indicate something important. I found that Doodle Streets really challenged and delighted me for a period of time, but then, as I became frustrated or fatigued, I needed short or long breaks from it, playing other things. I first installed the game last July, played on and off for one month, and then didn't touch it again for five months, when I completed it over the next few days. The two levels which I most enjoyed were (a) one based around a large factory which had a stronger puzzle element to it (working out which circuits and pipe runs would activate sections of the factory and, ultimately, launch a hot air balloon on the roof), and (b) locating a number of escaped prisoners (again using the description clues) on a very long but, I felt, a more tightly focused scene. The levels based around rows and rows of almost identical houses more quickly led to frustration as door after door, and window after window, had to be opened. The deliberate "shaky" animation of many of the characters could also become tiring quite quickly. Nonetheless, I am very glad that I experienced such a clever variation on the "hidden object" theme.