Game: Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest Collector’s Edition
Genre: Hidden Object, Casual, Adventure, Point & Click
System: Steam (also on Android)
Developer | Publisher: Tuttifrutti Interactive | Tuttifrutti Interactive
Age Rating: US N/A | EU N/A
Price: USD $9.99 | UK £7.19 | EU € 8,19
Release Date: March 8, 2017
Review code used with many thanks to Tuttifrutti Interactive
Led into a Trap
Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest Collector’s Edition is a hidden object, point and click adventure game that immediately immerses you into its story. The game starts off with a cut scene showing you how Mary, the woman that you are playing as, ends up having to find objects and solve puzzles. Mary was sent a letter from her grandfather asking her to come see both him and her grandmother because she was not really an orphan like she thought and that they had so much to tell her. So, Mary packs up and sets out with her husband, James, and her daughter, Sophie. While on the boat heading to the mansion, a man on a flying buffalo swoops in and overturns the boat while kidnapping Sophie. This man was Darkarta who needed Sophie because she was the purest soul that he needed for his Elixir of Life that would restore his dead bride. Darkarta sent the letter to lure Mary and Sophie into the trap so he could steal Sophie but Mary has other plans… She is going to do whatever it takes to get her daughter back!
Extremely Well-Made Game
Like all hidden object type games, Darkarta gives the player a lot of options when it comes to how difficult they want the game to be, which makes it a game that is accessible for all level of players. You can choose how fast the hints and skips recharge depending on how much help you feel you may need throughout the game. Speaking of, this is one of the few hidden object games that I’ve played that does have a skip option if you cannot get through the puzzle for some reason. You can also decide if you want an area to sparkle if you are still needing to interact with that spot. If this is your first time playing this type of game, there is also a lengthy tutorial that you can choose to follow. For those who are more experienced, you can choose a tutorial just of the special features of the game or even no tutorial at all.
The collector’s edition of Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest has additional features such as collecting different objects as you go along. There are morphing objects that change during the scene (most often switching between snake and bird) and there are memory objects that can be found that tell you more about Sophie and Mary’s relationship with her daughter. It is a nice addition to the game that I really enjoyed! One of my favorite features of the game, though, is the journal. You can see your objectives and tasks that you need to do, catch up on the story line if you feel you have missed something, and there is a map that shows if there are any objectives in the room as well as if there are any morphing or memory objects. The map also has the option to let you click on a location and FAST TRAVEL! No traveling through different scenes to get where you need to go or getting confused about where you are!
Fantastic Puzzles
Darkarta is full of unique puzzles and scenes. You can interact with different objects and combine them with others if they need to be fixed or changed. Unlike other hidden object games, this one lets you do a bit more with objects and puzzles. You are able to unzip bags, chop specific branches, and move different objects one of a time; most others will do all of this for you after you just click once. There are also really neat mini-game type features in the puzzles, such as a marker that moves back and forth on a scale and you have to hit it in the green area to successfully remove a nail from a box. There are also recipes that you follow to mix and brew different potions, which I found to be really fun.
Another really unique feature of Darkarta is that you can choose whether you want to do hidden object puzzles or match-3 puzzles for the big, lengthy puzzles. I personally like the hidden object puzzles more but it is a really nice feature if you get stuck finding specific objects or you just really enjoy the match-3 type puzzles.
Detailed Scenes and Lengthy Gameplay
One of the most important parts of any hidden object games is how the scenes look. You are going to be staring at them and intently examining them for a quite a while, so it is important that the scenes look good! I enjoyed the scenes in Darkarta as they were quite detailed and clearly well drawn, which is a great think because of how long of a game this is. Speaking of the length, it is another thing about Darkarta that I really love. This game is much longer than any other hidden object puzzle game that I have played. In fact, some games are even shorter than Darkarta‘s tutorial!
Mild Annoyances
This is a game that has very few issues. I personally did not like the opening scene that played every single time you open the game and I felt that it got old after the first couple of times, but it is easily skipped. The only issue that I encountered was that I had to repeat a puzzle because I apparently exited the game before it autosaved but I was quickly able to get back to where I was with no major damage done.
Overall Thoughts
I do not say this lightly but this is literally the best hidden object puzzle type game that I have ever played. It has been available on Steam for some time, but recently moved to Android as well. Let’s hope it will get to the iOS store too!
The puzzles are just challenging enough and each one feels unique. I love that it is a longer game and every second of play has just been absolutely fantastic! I hope to see other, similar games from these developers because they clearly put in a lot of time and work to create quality games!
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up
