2019-03-01_PC_Gamer

LEFT: This HOPA

scene is about

collecting herbs.

RIGHT: Panic,

pursued by a bear.

GIVE IT A GO Standout HOPAs

NIGHTMARES FROM THE DEEP

FollowtheescapadesofSarahBlack,a

museum curator who must repeatedly deal

with undead menace Davy Jones.

T

here’s a specific kind
of relaxation that I
associate with hidden
object puzzle
adventures. HOPAs
are that endless stream of games,
often aimed more at tablet than
browser, about collecting and using
objects. They get their name from
the way the player is repeatedly
given a cluttered scene and is
tasked with finding particular
objects within it, like a visual
wordsearch. But they can also
involve minigames, simple skill
challenges and so on. As a very
general description, they’re the
beach read version of point-and-
click adventures.

The relaxation I feel when playing
hidden object puzzle adventures is a
similar kind to that which I get from
jigsaw puzzles, origami, crochet,
romance novels, crime procedurals,
Rubik’s Cubes and more. It’s the type
of relaxation where your hands or
eyes are kept busy as you follow a
step-by-step process towards a
certain (or at least predictable)
outcome. Given enough time the
jigsaw will be completed, the bird
folded, the cushion finished, the love
story fulfilled, the murderer caught
and the colours matched.
Whether or not the outcome is
important, it’s the process of getting
there that’s valuable to me. With
jigsaws I can shrug off stress or
anxiety by narrowing my focus to
exactly 1,000 puzzle pieces, all of
which have a single correct
placement and will eventually build
into an image I already know I like
because it’s why I picked the box up
in the first place. Jigsaws are the
opposite of that ‘Where do you see
yourself in five years time?’ job
interview question.
With origami, I’m essentially
following instructions, but within
that there’s a joy in manipulating the
paper. There’s the pleasure of a sharp
crease, or a deft movement. There’s a
sense of familiarity when a new
project requires you start with a
shape you’ve made thousands of

times before. There’s a soothing

rhythm of production when you’re

making lots of the same object, like a

thousand cranes.

For fiction, particularly murder

mysteries in the vein of Bones or CSI,

you’re both watching other people

assemble a jigsaw made of forensic

clues and trying to piece them

together yourself. Because it’s fiction

you know that everything will be

wrapped up neatly so the cast’s end

of the jigsaw is basically sorted.

On your end you’re partly picking

up on their science chit-chat and

partly using your own expertise in

primetime telly. ‘That lad’s the

murderer because he was one of the

first three guest actors we met and

he’s the one who doesn’t yet have a

clear motive!’ – it won’t stand up in a

court of law, but you’ll be entirely

correct. This pattern of plotting is

just engaging enough to hold your

attention, but it won’t consume you.

Instead it acts as a canvas for

interpersonal drama, character jokes

and more.

So to circle back round to hidden

object games, I used to think of them

as closest to jigsaws. There’s a

preordained location for each piece

of the overarching puzzle and the

pleasure is in slotting them into place.

Within that there’s the test of visual

skill as you pick objects out of a

scene. But after my most recent binge

I’ve seen more elements from those

other hobbies at play.

FINDING YOUR FEET

The common basic structure of

HOPAs allows you to notice the

differences between studios, picking

out favourite developers or

franchises, as with authors or TV

showrunners. I have a preferred style

for the hidden object scenes

themselves. I like them to be

incredibly cluttered, but I hate

finding long, thin objects because I

struggle to notice them, despite

knowing the familiar hiding spots. On

the origami side, returning to a scene

for a different set of objects offers

that flicker of familiarity I get from

paper base shapes, and a similar

divergence of purpose.

For the stories I like them to be a

little menacing, but without going full

horror. That cuts through the genre’s

more saccharine tendencies without

resorting to creepy doll faces. And,

even if a specific plot isn’t interesting,

there are often characters and

settings I’ll like enough to follow

them across multiple stories.

Not every purchase has been a

good one – as with any genre, there

are duffs, cash-ins and franchises that

aren’t as good now as they used to be.

But in those instances it’s also easier

to notice the constant mechanical

pleasure of hidden object puzzle

adventures. Clicking through a to-do

list, remembering the heart-shaped

lock when you encounter a heart-

shaped key, and, above all, the

knowledge that all the loose ends will

be tied up in a neat, conclusive bow.

THERE’S A PREORDAINED

LOCATION FOR EACH PIECE OF

THE OVERARCHING PUZZLE

GRIM LEGENDS

This series of

puzzlers uses the

trappings of

fairytales to tell

stories of

mysterious

ruined weddings,

cursed families

and powerful

artefacts.

DARK PARABLES

These twists on traditional fairy stories use

hidden object scenes that focus on pieces of

an object, not an arbitrary list.

MURDER SHE

WROTE

Available through

Big Fish’s own

platform, in this

game amateur

detective Jessica

Fletcher pokes

around crime

scenes solving

five murders.

EXTRA LIFE

NOW PLAYING I UPDATE I DIARY I REINSTALL I WHY I LOVE (^) I M U S T P L A Y