In Twisted Lands: Origin Review, you'll discover this HOG game where you play the role of a detective who has been sent to discover the fate of Teresa Huerta, a woman who hasn’t been heard from in months. Arriving at the island she calls home, you quickly realize the missing woman and her son are the least of your troubles. Most of the people in town have vanished, and those who are left, clearly indicate that something has gone seriously wrong. Gather your bravery and follow the clues to unravel the mystery in this haunting hidden object game.
I am a fan of spooky hidden object games, and that is exactly what I found when I started my Twisted Lands: Origin Review. This was a haunting game with an interesting storyline and gorgeous graphics, and was worth every minute I devoted to it (mostly to avoid homework and quizzes, which I resent having in the first week of classes). There’s nothing quite like the suspense you feel when getting to the bottom of a disastrous mystery, and Twisted Lands: Origin delivered on the creepy factor every step of the way.
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Visually, I really enjoyed this game. The only part of Twisted Lands: Origins I’m a bit on the fence about is the character designs, which to me resemble poorly animated dolls. And while I enjoyed the voice acting, the animations of speech reminded me strongly of some of my favorite old-timey kung-fu movies (and not in a good way).
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Still, the overall effect and feel of the game was creepy without being overdone, and the background music was almost always just the right level of spooky/scary with only the occasional random loud parts. You know the loud music in a horror movie just before the bad guy pops out from around the corner? That kind of tension, but for seemingly no reason. Strange, but not off-putting.
One interesting feature of Twisted Lands: Origins is the “interactive cinematics,” which are like cut scenes with options. For example, during a cinematic, your character will be fleeing from the zombie-like things and come upon a wall, at which point, you’re prompted to choose between jumping over the wall or crawling under it.
Personally, I didn’t really see the point of these little interactions, besides maybe ensuring you never have the time for a bathroom break or to grab more tea. Choosing one or the other doesn’t seem to impact the storyline, just alter the little “movie” you’re currently watching, and even then, only slightly. Still, I’ve never seen another game do something like that, so it did have its novelty value.
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Gameplay itself is fun, and the hidden object areas are lovely to look at and not impossible to finish. I also enjoyed the puzzles, which took thought but were well within my range of ability. I especially appreciated how different from one another they were. There’s only so much you can do to make a mini-puzzle interesting, but Twisted Lands: Origin managed to find a way to keep each puzzle fresh.
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Another unique aspect of Twisted Lands: Origin was how you "unlocked" each area. In the game, you have a game board, and your character is represented by a little toy figure. Throughout the game, you discover little pieces that fit the board, and when you put the pieces in, you gain access to another area (not right away in all instances; sometimes there’s a corresponding action in gameplay that will finish unlocking the new area). It’s like you’re building a board game, and I got really excited every time I found a new piece. It just added another dimension that I wasn’t expecting.
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Not everything in Twisted Lands: Origin was enjoyable, though.
One of the things that bothered me about this game was the amount of backtracking involved in finding all the little keys and pieces you need. I mean, there’s a lot of walking around. A loooooot of walking around. Luckily, the hint button can be used as a directional aid to find where you need to go. It’s also nice that if it was just giving you general directions, the hint button didn’t require a recharge. It only recharged if you used it for a legitimate hint.
For example, say you’re standing in a room holding a screwdriver, but you don’t know what on earth to do with it. Pushing the hint button, in this instance, will result in a lapse of time before another hint is available. But if you’re standing in front of the fountain, and you can’t remember where the desk with the feather-shaped lock is, you can keep hitting the hint button as many times as you need to until you find the zone with the desk. A nice touch, but for me Twisted Lands: Origins still involved waaaaaay too much mindless running around to be truly enjoyable.
