Various video game genres benefit from the degree of movement allowed within VR and, arguably, none benefit more directly than puzzle games. Classic hidden object games, a small branch off from puzzles, were typically static and asked players to dissect scenes as they gather different items.
Hidden object games are much more involved when coupled with VR headsets, unlocking those static experiences. Hidden Fortune by Archiact is one such experience that takes a couple steps forward and then leaps backward.
In Hidden Fortune, you play the role of a wizard as he assists a few characters with gathering their lost items. The opening tutorial that takes place in a hub/airship has you figure out the game’s main mechanic by shooting your magic orbs at gems that are scattered around the room. To shoot the orb, you tap the touchpad of the Gear VR — the vast majority of the game’s functionality is handled this way. You’ll use this not only just to collect items, but to teleport around different areas and initiate conversation with non-playable characters as you encounter them.
The teleport mechanic could have benefited by just having you select it with your gaze and hitting the touchpad, but you move by shooting the orb into a movable space instead. It’s a curious design choice and only a minor grievance.
Thankfully, you’ll be moving around a pretty spiffy looking cave. The graphics for the game are sharp and, despite the scarce sunlight, the cave you explore is pretty vibrant. The different sections of the cave are lovely and they have a peaceful ambiance to them accented by the small stream running throughout. All of the objects are well modeled as well, but not so distinctly designed that they seem out of place as you search for them. The game has a high degree of comfort with no high-speed movements to speak of and a consistent framerate.
There are object hunts and music puzzles but the foundation of the game is in the hidden object style of gameplay. An early example includes a task where you look for items to include in a recipe. Once you complete it you’re given a chest filled with gold, which is how you level up, and sometimes a diary entry. As you teleport around, you’ll note that there are some spots that are limited to a certain minimum level. To traverse the cavern, you’ll have to replay the same encounters to gain enough gold and level up.
This cheapens each encounter and extends the playtime of the game in an artificial way. It also doesn’t help that the interactions that lead to the actual task take what feels like a few too many pages of dialogue and this is made more glaringly apparent when you have to redo them with no way to skip the conversation and start.
Immediately the voice acting for this game is absolutely grating on the ears. The characters you encounter have personalities that run from overly eccentric to comically dull, but the diary entries you find in treasure chests are also fully voiced. For some reason, those reading the entries seem to have been given instruction to act out in the most ridiculous voices they can muster but you’ll be glad to know you can skip over them at the cost of missing story elements. The characters you encounter will ramble on as you work thru menus, though, so there’s no avoiding them. Worse yet, the NPCs will repeat the same victory dialogue each time you complete the tasks that you’ll have to repeat in order to progress.
