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halfamoonI'm not actually sure if anyone has recced games before? Possibly someone recced the Nancy Drew games at one point. But I wanted to rec some of the hidden object-type puzzle games I've picked up over the years and greatly enjoyed, where the leads are generally women and the plots are somewhat entertaining or at least not too silly (I lie. Guest From the Future exists).
Actually, if you've played the Nancy Drew games, most of these are similar, though most of them have a lot less in the way of interactive conversations being part of the scoring/game-play.
Anyway, topping the rec list is the Grim Tales series. It's found on both Steam (up through the sixth game) and Big Fish games (as I believe they hold the release rights with the publisher, Elephant Games). Our protagonist is Anna Gray, a private detective who keeps having to rescue her family, and (surprise!) can travel into the past through pictures (she also has a convoluted Family History). The entire series has a backstory written by committee, so you can imagine how coherent parts of it are. It's still entertaining.
- The Bride is the first game in the series and kicks off the tone. Anna goes back home to investigate the murder of her twin sister (on the eve of said sibling's marriage) and on entering the deserted family mansion is confronted by a mysterious being who challenges her to discover the truth. This one is fairly simplistic, with a lot of one-item-solving scenes and tons of hidden object scenes that get a bit repetitious after a time.
- The Legacy is the second game. Anna is traveling to meet her sister, husband, and their son. They live in a creepy family mansion of John Gray's (this is where the committee comes into play as Luisa Gray married John Gray. No relation). On reaching the mansion, Anna finds herself threatened by wolves. She has to unravel the disappearance of her sister and the appearance of the wolves, and the ancient Gray family curse (which involves some time travel, of course). As with the first game, it's still a little flat, but I adore this one a lot.
- The Wishes, The Stone Witch - The third and fourth games in the series start to shift the game-play a little. There's a lot more interaction (or at least conversation scenes), and you pick up little helpers in each game. In addition, Stone Witch is a departure from the previous animation style, though it's still interesting. Both games show Anna's nephew to be a bit of an idiot. (seriously, Anna is like the only smart person in her entire damn family. I wish I was joking.)
- Bloody Mary is the fifth game in the series and a gorgeous horror-themed set piece with some amazing graphics and the color scheme is just, perfect for the tone. Also, the sound editing is creepy. Anna is off to visit her niece (adopted by Luisa and John when wee!Jackie's parents were murdered) at the creepy mansion their boarding school has moved to, when she gets a frantic call from said niece. Something horrible is happening, help, Auntie! I love this one so much. It's creepy and over-the-top and weird and just really entertaining to play. Just don't play it alone in the dark. The Collector's Edition contains the back story of Mary.
- The Vengeance is the sixth game, and the last one I'm enumerating on its own. Anna's nephew, James McGray (yes, another branch of the Gray family), has been accused of murdering his sister. Queue Anna to the rescue to use her time traveling powers to discover the truth from the past and change it. This is the game that really starts screwing with the timeline more than any of the others (I mean, it gets worse after this), and it also starts really confusing the eras it's set in (parts of this one could be Victorian--the court-room is full of wigs--but Legacy is firmly set in the 80s--I mean, that station wagon is PURE early 80s kitsch). Game play also continues to get a little more complicated.
- The games continue on (all listed here: https://hogs.fandom.com/wiki/Grim_Tales) - of the ones I've not mentioned above, I recommend: The Final Suspect, The Heir, Crimson Hollow, Graywitch, and The White Lady. I like the others, too, but those are the ones I replay a lot. The only one I would sort of anti-rec is The Hunger, as I felt like it focused a little too much on the serial killer plot. And Color of Fright is a bit not so great on its treatment of mental health. Also, the games continue to be entertaining in location design/color palette/plot. Some of them are more ridiculous than others (I mentioned Guest From the Future, and it's... I just. Anna's daughter from the future sneaks back to the past to ask her mother for help. It's beautiful in a "wtf is this plot, lol" kind of way).
I should also mention that Anna keeps uncovering family history and family members that were killed until she changed the timeline. It's hopelessly tangled, and Gallifrey would be appalled. Also, up until The Heir, while we never saw her, Anna continued to age into her (60s, I think?). And Anna's father went to not!Hogwarts.
I recommend the Collector's Edition for all games simply due to the fact there's always a bonus game-let, and lots of fun bits and pieces. Also, the people who do this game are sometimes such nerds, so watch for the ridiculous geeky things.
The second rec is the Secret Order series. Our protagonist is Sarah Pennington, a member of the 'Secret' Order, who keeps having to step up and save the world. And sometimes, I'm pretty sure she is just standing there with a hand over her face going why is this my life. I think both Steam and Big Fish have this one. The only one I've never seen is the very first, so it's not on my list.
- Masked Intent. Sarah's father and his inner circle are inducting a new member who... tries to take over the world with this mask. So Sarah has to go back in time and find the scepter that goes with the mask so she can defeat him. This one is a bit rough in its graphics, but it still works mostly ok. Don't watch peoples' mouths, it's painful.
- The Ancient Times. The mask and the scepter are destroying the world, so Sarah once again has to run off to the past and figure out how to destroy them before that happens. You get a cute li'l gryphon pet in this one. It also ends with Sarah completely stranded in the past when her fancy time-traveling schooner gets sunken to the bottom of the sea.
- Beyond Time. Sarah has to figure out how to leave her father a message so he can send someone back to the past to rescue her. Once she manages that, she runs afoul of some bad guys and gets dumped through a wormhole where Leonardo da Vinci and Nicola Tesla turn her damaged ship into an airship. And she helps kick Cortes out. This one is a bit "wait, what?" at times, and I'm not entirely sure I approve of the appropriation of some of the cultures that are obviously the influence?
- The Buried Kingdom. Sarah's BFF gets kidnapped and Sarah has to rescue her from under the sea. Where there's an entire ancient kingdom full of magical powers to discover. Fairly entertaining. There are dragons (to be fair, the other two had gryphons).
- Bloodline. Sarah is off to visit her mum, a biologist on a tropical island, when the bad guys attack and kidnap her mother. Once again, Sarah has to rescue someone and stop the Dragon Clan dudes from taking over the world (her mother isn't a slouch, but Sarah is our protagonist).
- Shadow Breach. Finally! Sarah is taking her well-earned vacation! Which ends when the brother of one of her friends shows up begging her to help rescue his sister who has discovered the Dragon bad guys are going to do something ~horrible. He's not much use, by the way. But Sarah sucks it up and takes off with him to rescue said sibling. Who ends up getting possessed by some ancient evil from beyond the dawn of time. Then things get really weird.
- Return to the Buried Kingdom. More dragons! Also, Sarah's BFF from earlier needs her help to figure out her dragon problem. And about halfway through gets possessed. Seriously. (this probably makes it sound like I didn't like it, but I thought it was hilarious)
Others (since, goodness, I've babbled a lot)
- House of 1000 Doors - Family Secrets and The Palm of Zoroaster are really both entertaining, if sometimes repetitious. Serpent Flame was ok, but I didn't like the sub-plot about ~aliens? I also didn't like the change in some of the voices/character designs (and that little kid is SO ANNOYING UGH). But I really really like Kate, the lead in all three games. She's clever and quick, and would so join Sarah and Anna at a bar to commiserate. I have NOT played Evil Inside as I've not heard good things about it.
- The Grim Legends series are fairy tale pastiches. The Forsaken Bride is about deals with the devil, twin sisters, and curses turning men into bears. Song of the Dark Swan is a skewed version of the Six Swans (and is a bit depressing in its body count), the lead is a Healer, who investigates for the lovelorn King when the silent Queen is thrown into prison. The Dark City is a departure from fairy tales but is really really beautiful and has a mystery around the lead (Sylvia) who lost her memory a year ago. Dark City has some really stunning graphics once the main plot gets going - they break the city into multiple layers and sections, and I sometimes just spend minutes staring at all of the little details. This is the one that has the most adorable little 'friends' to find (they're all little tiny skeleton creatures! =D).
- Queen's Quest 2: Stories of the Forgotten Past; a healer/potioneer is called to the castle to give the King her assistance in unraveling a mystery. Said mystery is about the death of the Big, Bad, Wolf, and includes Robin Hood, Red Riding Hood, and Grandma all in a conspiracy to over-throw the throne (I was cackling so hard about Grandma). The others in the QQ series are ok, but they're not always female protagonists (as I discovered to my annoyance with the 4th). The first is the only one with a Queen actually questing, as she has to go rescue her baby from an evil sorcerer. The third is a baby!potioneer/witch/sorceress just graduating magic school who has to help save the world (and discovers she's not who she thought she was).
- The Snark Busters series. The first (Welcome to the Club) and third (High Society) games have female leads. If you're into Steampunk, you'll probably at least enjoy the visuals. Game-play in the last game is very different to the first, but all three have some fun Backwards World graphics.
- The Haunted Manor series has a couple of good stand-outs. I liked Queen of Death, but the game-play is somewhat basic and there's very little logic to figure out what it is you need to do (and no map-jumping)--I spent a lot of this one frustrated, even though I thought it was sparse and interesting to look at. Halloween's Uninvited Guest is set during the 1920s and has a decent plot and entertainingly silly shenanigans. Remembrance starts out a bit... dull, but then dives right into the fucking creepy with the Past Versions of people who just... I spent part of the game shuddering a lot (and I've played Bloody Mary in the dark, alone, before).
- Sacra Terra: Kiss of Death. The last on my list (you can breathe again), this one is a bit silly. Tiffany's boyfriend is about to propose when he stupidly reads a spell and summons a succubus who drags him down to hell. So Tiffany chases after him to rescue him, encountering a creepy boat captain in a dirty mac, and basically having to release a bunch of lovers from their curses (I really really liked this game, as silly as bits of it are, and as annoying as the succubus was). I will note that this is one of the older games, and the coding isn't quite as good--so sometimes, where you click isn't where you need to click (I've still played the game something like ten times).
Most, if not all, of these games are full of additional 'hidden' or 'morphing' objects that you can collect over the course of the game. The Secret Order ones tend to have multiple things. And I recommend 1. Buying them on sale and 2. Buying the Collector's Editions. Or 3. Buying them in Steam bundles.
I should also note that a LOT of these games have insects in them. So if you're not a fan of creepy crawlies, you might not enjoy them so much (I've gotten used to them, though I'm still not fond of hidden object scenes where I have to find GIANT COCKROACHES).
ugh.
Links:
Big Fish: https://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/genres/15/hidden-object.html
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/
Actually, if you've played the Nancy Drew games, most of these are similar, though most of them have a lot less in the way of interactive conversations being part of the scoring/game-play.
Anyway, topping the rec list is the Grim Tales series. It's found on both Steam (up through the sixth game) and Big Fish games (as I believe they hold the release rights with the publisher, Elephant Games). Our protagonist is Anna Gray, a private detective who keeps having to rescue her family, and (surprise!) can travel into the past through pictures (she also has a convoluted Family History). The entire series has a backstory written by committee, so you can imagine how coherent parts of it are. It's still entertaining.
- The Bride is the first game in the series and kicks off the tone. Anna goes back home to investigate the murder of her twin sister (on the eve of said sibling's marriage) and on entering the deserted family mansion is confronted by a mysterious being who challenges her to discover the truth. This one is fairly simplistic, with a lot of one-item-solving scenes and tons of hidden object scenes that get a bit repetitious after a time.
- The Legacy is the second game. Anna is traveling to meet her sister, husband, and their son. They live in a creepy family mansion of John Gray's (this is where the committee comes into play as Luisa Gray married John Gray. No relation). On reaching the mansion, Anna finds herself threatened by wolves. She has to unravel the disappearance of her sister and the appearance of the wolves, and the ancient Gray family curse (which involves some time travel, of course). As with the first game, it's still a little flat, but I adore this one a lot.
- The Wishes, The Stone Witch - The third and fourth games in the series start to shift the game-play a little. There's a lot more interaction (or at least conversation scenes), and you pick up little helpers in each game. In addition, Stone Witch is a departure from the previous animation style, though it's still interesting. Both games show Anna's nephew to be a bit of an idiot. (seriously, Anna is like the only smart person in her entire damn family. I wish I was joking.)
- Bloody Mary is the fifth game in the series and a gorgeous horror-themed set piece with some amazing graphics and the color scheme is just, perfect for the tone. Also, the sound editing is creepy. Anna is off to visit her niece (adopted by Luisa and John when wee!Jackie's parents were murdered) at the creepy mansion their boarding school has moved to, when she gets a frantic call from said niece. Something horrible is happening, help, Auntie! I love this one so much. It's creepy and over-the-top and weird and just really entertaining to play. Just don't play it alone in the dark. The Collector's Edition contains the back story of Mary.
- The Vengeance is the sixth game, and the last one I'm enumerating on its own. Anna's nephew, James McGray (yes, another branch of the Gray family), has been accused of murdering his sister. Queue Anna to the rescue to use her time traveling powers to discover the truth from the past and change it. This is the game that really starts screwing with the timeline more than any of the others (I mean, it gets worse after this), and it also starts really confusing the eras it's set in (parts of this one could be Victorian--the court-room is full of wigs--but Legacy is firmly set in the 80s--I mean, that station wagon is PURE early 80s kitsch). Game play also continues to get a little more complicated.
- The games continue on (all listed here: https://hogs.fandom.com/wiki/Grim_Tales) - of the ones I've not mentioned above, I recommend: The Final Suspect, The Heir, Crimson Hollow, Graywitch, and The White Lady. I like the others, too, but those are the ones I replay a lot. The only one I would sort of anti-rec is The Hunger, as I felt like it focused a little too much on the serial killer plot. And Color of Fright is a bit not so great on its treatment of mental health. Also, the games continue to be entertaining in location design/color palette/plot. Some of them are more ridiculous than others (I mentioned Guest From the Future, and it's... I just. Anna's daughter from the future sneaks back to the past to ask her mother for help. It's beautiful in a "wtf is this plot, lol" kind of way).
I should also mention that Anna keeps uncovering family history and family members that were killed until she changed the timeline. It's hopelessly tangled, and Gallifrey would be appalled. Also, up until The Heir, while we never saw her, Anna continued to age into her (60s, I think?). And Anna's father went to not!Hogwarts.
I recommend the Collector's Edition for all games simply due to the fact there's always a bonus game-let, and lots of fun bits and pieces. Also, the people who do this game are sometimes such nerds, so watch for the ridiculous geeky things.
The second rec is the Secret Order series. Our protagonist is Sarah Pennington, a member of the 'Secret' Order, who keeps having to step up and save the world. And sometimes, I'm pretty sure she is just standing there with a hand over her face going why is this my life. I think both Steam and Big Fish have this one. The only one I've never seen is the very first, so it's not on my list.
- Masked Intent. Sarah's father and his inner circle are inducting a new member who... tries to take over the world with this mask. So Sarah has to go back in time and find the scepter that goes with the mask so she can defeat him. This one is a bit rough in its graphics, but it still works mostly ok. Don't watch peoples' mouths, it's painful.
- The Ancient Times. The mask and the scepter are destroying the world, so Sarah once again has to run off to the past and figure out how to destroy them before that happens. You get a cute li'l gryphon pet in this one. It also ends with Sarah completely stranded in the past when her fancy time-traveling schooner gets sunken to the bottom of the sea.
- Beyond Time. Sarah has to figure out how to leave her father a message so he can send someone back to the past to rescue her. Once she manages that, she runs afoul of some bad guys and gets dumped through a wormhole where Leonardo da Vinci and Nicola Tesla turn her damaged ship into an airship. And she helps kick Cortes out. This one is a bit "wait, what?" at times, and I'm not entirely sure I approve of the appropriation of some of the cultures that are obviously the influence?
- The Buried Kingdom. Sarah's BFF gets kidnapped and Sarah has to rescue her from under the sea. Where there's an entire ancient kingdom full of magical powers to discover. Fairly entertaining. There are dragons (to be fair, the other two had gryphons).
- Bloodline. Sarah is off to visit her mum, a biologist on a tropical island, when the bad guys attack and kidnap her mother. Once again, Sarah has to rescue someone and stop the Dragon Clan dudes from taking over the world (her mother isn't a slouch, but Sarah is our protagonist).
- Shadow Breach. Finally! Sarah is taking her well-earned vacation! Which ends when the brother of one of her friends shows up begging her to help rescue his sister who has discovered the Dragon bad guys are going to do something ~horrible. He's not much use, by the way. But Sarah sucks it up and takes off with him to rescue said sibling. Who ends up getting possessed by some ancient evil from beyond the dawn of time. Then things get really weird.
- Return to the Buried Kingdom. More dragons! Also, Sarah's BFF from earlier needs her help to figure out her dragon problem. And about halfway through gets possessed. Seriously. (this probably makes it sound like I didn't like it, but I thought it was hilarious)
Others (since, goodness, I've babbled a lot)
- House of 1000 Doors - Family Secrets and The Palm of Zoroaster are really both entertaining, if sometimes repetitious. Serpent Flame was ok, but I didn't like the sub-plot about ~aliens? I also didn't like the change in some of the voices/character designs (and that little kid is SO ANNOYING UGH). But I really really like Kate, the lead in all three games. She's clever and quick, and would so join Sarah and Anna at a bar to commiserate. I have NOT played Evil Inside as I've not heard good things about it.
- The Grim Legends series are fairy tale pastiches. The Forsaken Bride is about deals with the devil, twin sisters, and curses turning men into bears. Song of the Dark Swan is a skewed version of the Six Swans (and is a bit depressing in its body count), the lead is a Healer, who investigates for the lovelorn King when the silent Queen is thrown into prison. The Dark City is a departure from fairy tales but is really really beautiful and has a mystery around the lead (Sylvia) who lost her memory a year ago. Dark City has some really stunning graphics once the main plot gets going - they break the city into multiple layers and sections, and I sometimes just spend minutes staring at all of the little details. This is the one that has the most adorable little 'friends' to find (they're all little tiny skeleton creatures! =D).
- Queen's Quest 2: Stories of the Forgotten Past; a healer/potioneer is called to the castle to give the King her assistance in unraveling a mystery. Said mystery is about the death of the Big, Bad, Wolf, and includes Robin Hood, Red Riding Hood, and Grandma all in a conspiracy to over-throw the throne (I was cackling so hard about Grandma). The others in the QQ series are ok, but they're not always female protagonists (as I discovered to my annoyance with the 4th). The first is the only one with a Queen actually questing, as she has to go rescue her baby from an evil sorcerer. The third is a baby!potioneer/witch/sorceress just graduating magic school who has to help save the world (and discovers she's not who she thought she was).
- The Snark Busters series. The first (Welcome to the Club) and third (High Society) games have female leads. If you're into Steampunk, you'll probably at least enjoy the visuals. Game-play in the last game is very different to the first, but all three have some fun Backwards World graphics.
- The Haunted Manor series has a couple of good stand-outs. I liked Queen of Death, but the game-play is somewhat basic and there's very little logic to figure out what it is you need to do (and no map-jumping)--I spent a lot of this one frustrated, even though I thought it was sparse and interesting to look at. Halloween's Uninvited Guest is set during the 1920s and has a decent plot and entertainingly silly shenanigans. Remembrance starts out a bit... dull, but then dives right into the fucking creepy with the Past Versions of people who just... I spent part of the game shuddering a lot (and I've played Bloody Mary in the dark, alone, before).
- Sacra Terra: Kiss of Death. The last on my list (you can breathe again), this one is a bit silly. Tiffany's boyfriend is about to propose when he stupidly reads a spell and summons a succubus who drags him down to hell. So Tiffany chases after him to rescue him, encountering a creepy boat captain in a dirty mac, and basically having to release a bunch of lovers from their curses (I really really liked this game, as silly as bits of it are, and as annoying as the succubus was). I will note that this is one of the older games, and the coding isn't quite as good--so sometimes, where you click isn't where you need to click (I've still played the game something like ten times).
Most, if not all, of these games are full of additional 'hidden' or 'morphing' objects that you can collect over the course of the game. The Secret Order ones tend to have multiple things. And I recommend 1. Buying them on sale and 2. Buying the Collector's Editions. Or 3. Buying them in Steam bundles.
I should also note that a LOT of these games have insects in them. So if you're not a fan of creepy crawlies, you might not enjoy them so much (I've gotten used to them, though I'm still not fond of hidden object scenes where I have to find GIANT COCKROACHES).
ugh.
Links:
Big Fish: https://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/genres/15/hidden-object.html
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/
