Drew Bower0 comments
Tags: G5 Entertainment, Two Monkeys, Mad Scientist, Hidden Object, Puzzle
Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away
After a veritable glut of hidden object game releases earlier this year, it now seems quite a while since G5 Entertainment’s last find-me-do offering. Ending their dry spell comes CrossWorlds: The Flying City. The question HOG fans will ask is has it been worth waiting for?
The story begins with Monika, a young lady with a scientist father. Her father, in typical mad scientist fashion, has invented a teleporter and with a blatant disregard for any fatherly duties, promptly hops in and disappears. Perhaps inevitably, tragedy ensues leaving Monika to jump into the teleporter and discover her father’s whereabouts.
If you’ve played any iOS hidden object games before, you’ll feel instantly at home with the controls. Pinch to zoom in and out, swipe to scroll the area and tap to pick out objects or move to a different area. Due to the slightly maze like structure of some areas, a helpful button in the lower right corner will display all available exits. Alongside is the useful hint button that will point out a hidden object, or point you in the direction you need to travel next.
This becomes even more useful when you realise the game is pretty short on suggesting where you need to go next or what you are looking for. Often it becomes a case of wandering through the screens until you spot a sparkling area in which to begin an object search. The almost constant backtracking does become rather tiresome, especially when visiting the same locations over and over.
Thankfully some of the locations are a little more imaginative than your average HOG and nicely drawn to boot. The Robo City and River World are the two most interesting areas to explore which is handy as these are also the longest sections of the game. Monika’s house and the Flying City (first and last chapters respectively) are rather short in comparison, which is a shame.
When it comes to the actual hidden object searching – which is after all the most important part of hidden object games – there are a few issues. First, objects are listed along the bottom of the screen but are split over two pages. There aren’t that many objects to find in any given search so it seems unnecessary to keep scrolling between the pages to remember the items you’re looking for. Secondly, in keeping with the nonsensical logic of the hidden object genre, items you need to find are pretty darn random and often don’t fit in with the area. You’ll spot USB flash drives in amongst the bushes of River World for instance. It’s not a big issue, but it just seems a bit lazy. Finally, objects on the whole stand out pretty easily amongst the scenery. If you can see an object that looks a bit odd then the chances are that it’s on your two-page list. You are also not punished for over tapping meaning you can quite happily pepper the screen with taps picking up objects quickly should you be so inclined.
Unfortunately, Crosswinds just doesn’t match up to other G5 HOGs. The story isn’t captivating enough to make up for the monotonous tasks of wandering around the same handful of screens and finding objects. Occasional mini puzzles help to break things up a little, but it’s not enough to make this a recommended purchase.
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