Features

To give a hidden object game a little oomph, most tell a story. The Magician’s Handbook: Cursed Valley does so, but it also lets you cut to the chase and start finding items. Stories can make a game interesting, but this one felt like a chore to read.

A nice feature that I wish the developer had expanded on is the ability to cast all the spells you pick up in each chapter. You can cast a couple of them, but the rest don’t do anything. The Repel Spell is the first one you earn, and it hides items that distract you from finding the real items. The spell doesn’t last for the entire chapter, but you can recast it. Hints hide under the guise of the Reveal Spell. You get three of them and the spell reveals the hidden object.

A hidden object game aims to challenge the player by making its objects hard to find, right? This one goes a little too far. For example, gold coins marked with a C randomly appear in the game. The first time I found one of the coins was by chance. It looked nothing like a coin with a C, but rather a button with a circle in the middle. Eventually, some coins do look like they have a C. When you earn enough coins, you unlock a surprise. It wasn’t much of a surprise, though I liked the idea of unlocking something.

Another issue is the clicking area. I found items and clicked on them, but nothing happened. Later, I learned I was right about the object — so I tried to click more when I knew I saw an object. Unfortunately, too much clicking leads to penalties.

The game contains only two mini-games and one was blah. You have to find the words that appear in a spell’s incantation from a jumble of many words in various colors, sizes and fonts. One time of this and I didn’t want to do it again. The other mini-game resembles a match three game except you can make a match diagonally. The three matched items don’t have to sit in a row or column, it can go either way plus diagonal as long as they’re next to each other.

Standard in hidden object games, you look in at least two places for items that appear on the list and you don’t have to find every item. However, this game lets you find the rest if you want –- this is only the second game where I’ve seen this and this should become a regular feature of hidden object genre. Another unique component is the use of lovely painting-style scenes instead of photos that most hidden object games use.

Though I wasn’t much for reading the story in each chapter, the last chapter and ending pleasantly surprised me. The game leaves open the possibility of a follow up game. If the developer pursues a sequel — and I think it has a good chance of success — I hope the sequel has less repetition, better mini-games, shorter chapters and provides more spells for the player to use. Though The Magician’s Handbook: Cursed Valley could stand some improvements, it’s a fun and challenging game. If the developer releases a sequel and avoids the aforementioned problems, the series has potential.

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
• 600MHz or faster Processor
• 128MB RAM

P.S. If you need help in the final chapter, this BC Soft Games forum post contains screen shots. Note these don’t give hints, but straight out answers.