Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings HD
Score: 88% ESRB: 4+ Publisher: G5 Entertainment Developer: Fenomen Games Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure/ Puzzle (Hidden Object)
Graphics & Sound: Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings HD is an iPad only version of an adventure/hidden object game that leans more towards the adventure side of the fence. While the screens in the game are mostly static, each location is a sight to behold. The game’s settings range from a volcanic landscape to an enchanted forest, an under-sea temple, dwarven mines, and a frozen valley. Obviously, each world in the game has its own theme, and the various locations you visit in those worlds really keep with that theme. While I didn't get the chance to play the non-HD version (the iPhone version), I will say that this particular release of Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings appears crisp and clean on the iPad. Lost Souls features some voice-acting for a few of the characters in the game, but with the exception of Bella (our heroine), most of the dialogue feels stiff and phoned-in. As for the game's background music, it presents a sweeping orchestral feel, but one location's music feels just as generic as another's.
Gameplay: Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings HD starts off with Bella and her son receiving a strange painting in the mail. That night, the boy gets sucked into the painting and she follows him looking for a way to bring him back. She soon finds out that an evil wizard is behind his kidnapping and she sees him tearing up a portrait of her son and scattering it into some old painting surrounding the tarnished image. While she can't follow the wizard into his own painting, she finds that she can dust off the other ones and travel to the worlds they represent. In each world, she learns that the wizard has done something to corupt the land and each of the inhabitants tell her that they will give her pieces of her son's painting in exchange for her saving their world. What follows is a series of hidden object screens and adventure-style puzzles in each of the five worlds. While a lot of games that follow this style rely heavily on hidden object screens, Enchanted Paintings swings more towards the adventure style. Simply put, there are more logic and inventory-based puzzles in Lost Souls than most other games of this type. In fact, most of the hidden object screens are there more as a way to get you an occasional inventory item even though the game has no problem scattering other items around the world for you to pick up, if you happen to notice them.
Difficulty: Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings HD has hidden object screens that don't offer much of a challenge, but are still fun exercises. Enchanted Paintings keeps the badly scaled or hardly visible objects to a minimum, making the experience more enjoyable than the games that take the "hidden" part of hidden object too far. As for the game's other puzzles, experienced adventure gamers shouldn't have any real problems working their way through most of the puzzles presented in Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings, but it does offer a few twists on some classic obstacles. Lost Souls does offer two difficulty settings, one for the more advanced adventure gamer, and one for those not quite as confident in that particular genre. The easier setting shortens the cool down time for the Hint button and speeds up the Skip button's timer a bit. This should allow gamers who can't get past a particular puzzle to proceed before getting too frustrated.
Game Mechanics: I was most impressed by Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings HD's length. I've found that I can typically get through one of these iOS-based adventure/hidden object games in a couple of hours, but Lost Souls is a lengthy title clocking in at around six or seven hours. To make matters more interesting, there appears to be a Collector's Edition that claims to have an additional nine worlds beyond the six found in the Standard version. Given that each world seems to clock in at an hour or so of gameplay, this extended version promises a lot. Unfortunately, we didn't get the opportunity to review this particular version of the game, so I really can't speak for the extra content. I can only hope that it is as good as the rest of the worlds. Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings HD is a solid title for your iPad that anyone who enjoys some hidden object with their adventure should want to look into.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Related Links: Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings HD | iTunes
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