The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom Review (Switch)

Game: The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom
Genre: Adventure | Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, PS4, Xbox One)
Developers | Publishers: Sunward Games | Artifex Mundi
Age Rating: EU 7+  | US T
Price: EU $14,99 | USD $14.9 | UK £13.49
Release Date: September 18th, 2020

Review code used, with many thanks to Artifex Mundi

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom is the eighth game in The Secret Order series. It’s an adventure, puzzle and hidden object game. Having played other Artifex Mundi games, but not having played any of the games in this particular series, I was looking forward to reviewing this one.

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom LadiesGamers
Lovely peaceful waters, but not for long!

 The Eighth Game in the Series

The eighth part of the Secret Order series introduces new adventures, riddles, and secrets. You play as a young woman named Sarah and The Buried Kingdom that is on the verge of collapse. Maintaining the balance between peace and chaos has become almost impossible, as the dragons start to behave unpredictably. Who is behind all the magic anomalies? 

As the game starts Sarah is on a sailboat and she is contacted by Julie who is in need of some help as the Mother Dragon who protected the Kingdom has died. I’m presuming that Sarah has been connected to the dragons and the buried kingdom in the games in the past as the heroine.

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom LadiesGamers
On the sail boat

The rest of the dragons have gone a bit nuts and a Necromancer has come back to life and is setting out to conquer the Buried kingdom. It’s all the usual bad against evil stuff, I don’t think you need to have played the other seven games to get the gist of the story. However, fans of the series will enjoy the nostalgic value from being able to return to the splendid landscapes of the Buried Kingdom and meet old familiar faces.

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom
Julie and the Princess

More Than Hidden Puzzles


This is a hidden object game, but other styles of puzzles are included in The Secret Order too. However, I found that there are more logic puzzles than there are hidden puzzles in this game. You point and click to search for clues to help you solve the mystery, and gather items which can sometimes be blended with another item to make something else.

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom, LadiesGamers
Beautiful dragon

The majority of the gameplay functions well enough as it’s the usual point and click affair, I did find that there isn’t much of a challenge in any of the puzzles. I breezed through them all, you certainly won’t be needed a pen and paper to jot notes down with this game as the puzzles are quite predictable in their complexity. The hidden object scenes are slightly more creative though but there just aren’t enough of those in the game.

I also think that I have played some of the puzzles before in previous Artifex Mundi games, maybe they were regurgitated for this game. I could be mistaken of course but some of the puzzles did seem very familiar to me.

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom LadiesGamers
Complete the book puzzle

Character Vanishes


Where The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom hits a slight problem is in its storyline pacing, I felt the game was rushed and there could be more explanation for the player. For example, one of the two main characters, Julie, is seen at the start of the game. And then poof, she vanishes, never to be seen again, with no explanation to the player of why or where she has gone. The story kicks off from the start of the game as you’d expect, but shortly after Sarah and the sailboat are swallowed by the whirlpool she is attacked by the necromancers. Again there is no explanation of why the necromancer would be attacking Sarah other than he is a big bad guy!

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom LadiesGamers
The army of the dead!

Visuals and Controls

Leaving the rushed story and puzzles aside, The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom does excel is in its glossy visuals.

The glossy and mysterious atmospherics of the visuals certainly adds a layer of suspense to the game and splashes of vivid colours are used to good effect. Moreover, the animations and the voice-acted cutscenes are great too. All this is backed up with a range of appropriate sound effects and decent music. The game controls are joy-con only and while they are adequate and work as they should, it’s a bit of a missed opportunity to update the game with touchscreen controls.

The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom LadiesGamers
Make a potion!

Conclusion

This is a standard hidden object game with all the usual toys you expect for the genre.  While there is nothing new brought to the genre in the game, nevertheless fans of the series will probably enjoy this game. 

Whilst The Secret Order: Return to the Buried Kingdom has way more mini-games and puzzles than there are hidden object scenes, I did enjoy my short time (approx 3/4 hours) with the game even if I didn’t feel challenged.

Final Verdict: I Like ItI like it

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