Game review: Hidden Mysteries of the Civil War

To give you some idea about how much I enjoy the Civil War era of history, let me tell you up front that I was once one of those folks who dressed up and did battlefield re-enactments. I've always enjoyed learning about this time period in history, and when they came out with a Hidden Object game set in that era, I was beyond excited.

The game promised three exciting stories, and actual Civil War locations and facts. Aus and I named our player General Balls, and got ready to storm the south! True to its word, the game did include many historic locations and facts about each location. Instead of stages, it was divided up into years  and each year contained some famous battles that took place during that year.

There are three storylines the game follows  -  William Alexander Walker, who somewhat reluctantly becomes a General for the North; Richard Anthony Boyer who fights for the South but has a father whose loyalties lie with the North; and James Philip Munroe a penniless man who hopes that by enlisting for the North he will win the approval of a man whose daughter he wants to marry.  The stories are fictional, but with the letters from each character you pick up along the way, and the ancedotes that you feel like they are real people.

The only problem that we had with this game was the dificulty level of finding the objects themselves. Often times, they were actual size - which meant when you were trying to find a tiny bracelet on a vast battlefield full of stuff you were doing a lot of squinting and guesswork. Furthermore, when you misclick four times in a row - the game penalizes you for 'random clicking' which is extremely annoying and detracts from the enjoyment of the game.  Another bad gameplay decision they made is having the timer still ticking while you are reading the letters and historical facts. Though you can go back and review them later, I would have liked for the timer to stop so you could read and enjoy the facts as you found them.

The codebreaking puzzles were pretty fun - when you found a letter, it was a coded missive and you had to crack the code. They offered just the right amount of challenge and were something we could solve with a bit of thinking, so not as frustrating as the hidden object play.

Though it was frustrating at times, and rather challenging, the historical facts were pretty accurate and it was mostly enjoyable. The locations were well-rendered, and the historical doccuments and pictures had an old-timey feel that was appropriate.

In the end, General Balls claimed victory over the Hidden Object game,  with a satisfying one-fingered salute to those puzzles that caused too great a difficulty. This is a game that I will likely only play once due to the frustrating factors, but I was glad that I did in fact play. I would recommend it for those who like the civil war, or for those who are teaching a child about that era (though I would play with them because of the frustration factors).

SPOILER ALERT:
The South loses! And Lincoln.... well, actually, he doesn't die. You kind of wind up saving him in some strange twist of history. That was an interesting decision.

Available here from Big Fish Games.