Riddles Of The Past Reviews

The story is very very bad. It's based on a motive [spoiler] nerd vs jock fighting over a girl, but this time the nerd is the bad one. [/spoiler] The dubbing of the main character is ridiculous. Art is good. Gameplay is just meh. Warning: no hidden objects puzzles per se but you need to find a lot of stuff hidden on the levels. I spent a mediocre 2 hours with this game and finished it but when we have so many options on the market, it was just a waste of time.

Bought this game cause this was the same developer that made hope lake, which I enjoyed. Some parts of this game feel mobile game-like, which I'm not a fan of but still managed to enjoy the game to my surprise. Also the hint system dog sounds and movement annoyed me. This game does not have regular HOG scenes. Instead, you need collect much more items on the regular scenes and add those items together to unlock devices which allow the progression. Haven't seen that in a HOG before at least to this extent and appreciated the different choice. I enjoyed the art style in the comic cutscenes. The voice acting was alright. Would recommend this game but not at full price. If you are between buying this and Hope Lake I would recommend hope lake more.

[b]Riddles Of The Past[/b] is point & click, "hidden object", mystery puzzle game from the publisher who made Hope Lake. I explain the apostrophes later in this review. I gave negative review for the Hope Lake and this game wasn't too far from getting it too, but i'd say this is better than the one mentioned before since Hope lake had actual bugs and all. This game has flaws and some things that i didn't like, but i'd say they are mostly personal preferences therefore i give this an thumbs up. [b]Plot summary[/b] - It begins with Emily (You as a player), who have had amnesia for multiple years is starting to find some bits and pieces from their past. They travel to a abandoned post apocalyptic looking town which resembles like american road side village with iconic diners in the 60's. Town is called Riverside and it's taken over by robots. You meet some familiar faces from your past who help you reveal more what has happened to you. It's hard to tell any more specific without spoiling the whole game. I wouldn't say the plot is anything spectacular, it's kinda boring and used already if you ask me. Basic popular kid and nerd fighting for the same girl and if i can say it's kinda like 'teenager high school drama' type of a plot. It wasn't completely terrible tho, just not interesting, wouldn't recommend this game for the plot. What comes to the [b]game play and mechanics.[/b] Really big negative thing about this game is that they say it is a HO game and to certain level it is, but also it isn't typical one. There's no HO scenes at all and by that i mean like the ones where you have pile of trash for example and you need to find 10 mentioned items from there by name, shape or something else. This game when said hidden object, means you have to find items around the map and connect them to proceed in the game. Not actual hidden object scenes, which was a bummer. I usually just categorize games like that to more point & click genre (Like Deponia, Monkey island etc.) than HO's like Artifex Mundi games, but i do understand why they can say their game is also HO. So kinda my own fault i didn't make sure what type of a game i bought. Otherwise the game play at least for me was decent, it's pretty straightforward and not too hard. Sometimes i noticed that it was hard to find some objects, because they blend to the background due to the graphics being little bit low quality and items same color as the background, but i don't think i had to use google not even once. There was [b]no steam achievements[/b] to get, that was kinda let down since i like to collect complete games to my profile. I have started to notice this pattern in older games and also games that are published by some small publisher. Sometimes it seems like the game is made originally for another device like mobile and just posted without thinking too much to steam. Even tho i said earlier the items blending to the background sometimes, [b]i liked the artwork and ambient music.[/b] I didn't find the music or sounds too repetitive, at least not that much that i would have noticed anything like that. There was [b]voice acting[/b], which wasn't terrible, but would say that wasn't the best. So kinda have mixed feelings about that, but i'd say voice acting in these types of games probably doesn't have huge budget or anything so it's kinda predictable that they also don't sound that high quality. [b]Price[/b] isn't crazy high for this genres games, but still when it only took me a couple hours to play i wouldn't pay 6,99 EUR (7,61 USD) for a game like this. I bought it from sale so i think it might come to sale sometime again. Plot and game wise it wasn't that scary or didn't have anything crazy spooky or gore content nor it wasn't that hard to play, i would recommend this to all ages except for really young kids and that is only because there is robots, fighting etc to some extend even if its not blood splattering everywhere. I'd say this is something like 12+ game. Pros • Artwork • Music • Straightforward, not too hard or easy puzzles. • Good amount of mini games Cons • No actual HO scenes • Items sometimes blend in tho the background • Plot was below average Story □ Bad ☑ Could be better □ Decent □ Good □ Enjoyable □ Immersive Artwork □ Bad □ Could be better □ Decent ☑ Pretty good □ Beautiful □ Amazing Soundtrack □ Bad □ Could be better □ Decent ☑ Good □ Immersive □ Eargasm Minigames difficulty □ Toddler could solve □ Easy ☑ Medium □ Advanced □ Hard □ Had to check on google Overal gameplay difficulty □ Toddler could solve □ Easy ☑ Medium □ Advanced □ Hard □ Had to check on google Audience □ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Young adults ☑ Adults ☑ Seniors

This was an interesting HOG game. Very easy to complete and not very long. The story was a bit melodramatic for a HOG game, but overall this wasn't a terrible game for this genre.