Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box is a hidden object adventure game recently released by Focus Multimedia.  You begin the game in 1950 playing as Tyler, a young man who receives a call from his grandfather.  His grandfather claims he has killed someone and asks for Tyler’s help.   During the early part of the game you play as Tyler but, as the story progresses, his grandfather will tell you of past events (which tie in to his current day predicament), including how he stowed away on a ship from Puerto Rico to America but found a missing crew and some disturbing cargo when he emerged from his hiding place.  Whilst this story is unravelling you take on the character of Tyler’s grandfather in 1898.

The first part of the game (playing as Tyler) forms a mini-tutorial, introducing you to the various aspects you will need to know in order to progress.  There are two ways to find objects.  The first is to click on areas that are glittering and then you will be faced with a zoomed in view of the area and a list of objects to find.  Once you have found all of the objects you will receive a useful item, such as a wrench or crowbar.  The second method is simply to look around – if the cursor turns to a hand there may be something to examine and/or pick up.

As well as examining items you can also interact with them using the useful objects you receive after completing the hidden object puzzles and others you may pick up in each location.  At times you may just require a single object, such as an axe to open a door, but you may have to use it multiple times on the item before you get the desired result.  Other problems will require the use of several items.  For example, at one point you have to make a hot drink and so have to make a fire, combine two ingredients in a kettle, boil it and then pour it in a mug. 

The game is relatively sequential as often you will need to solve a simple problem or complete a hidden object puzzle to get a missing object before you can proceed.  In that respect it’s relatively easy to follow.  Puzzles often recur in places that you have already visited so you do need to return to them throughout the game to obtain additional objects.  There are a range of locations:  the first part of the game is played in Tyler’s grandfather’s house, most of the remainder of the game is spent partly on a boat and – for a smaller part – on an island.  Within the house there are several locations to explore including the bathroom, porch, bedroom and lounge.  The boat also houses numerous areas, including cargo bay, galley, Captain’s cabin and the deck.

I was initially concerned by two things in the game: firstly, the number of times you return to each location meant it could potentially become very repetitive, as you were scouring the same location several times but for different objects.  However, as stated above, there are a great many locations in the game so this was not nearly as much of a problem as I had imagined.  There is a far amount of to-ing and fro-ing between locations which can become a little dull but overall, there seems to be just enough variety in the game.  The second concern was that this was very much the kind of adventure where – during the hidden object puzzles at least - every object seemed to be grey or brown (even the pears but I guess that’s months at sea for you) against grey or brown backgrounds.  Admittedly it does work very well given the tone and the atmosphere of the game but it certainly makes finding those elusive objects extremely challenging.  Again, however, I was less concerned about this as the game continued than I was to start with – given the style of this game, I have to admit the drab colours added to the dreary, desolate atmosphere and, on the boat in particular, the general locations outside of the hidden object puzzles showed some lovely colour and detail.

In terms of help there are hints available both during the hidden object puzzles and in the locations in general to point out if you could be doing something in a particular area or if you need to be elsewhere.  There is a cooldown period between hint uses but other than that they appear to be readily available so it is up to you how much or little you wish to use them.  You also carry a journal which is automatically updated with useful information and which also provides little hints about what you could do next.  Though the hidden object puzzles may be particularly trying, the puzzles themselves are relatively straightforward once you have found all of the objects but it was nice to see puzzles that required you to obtain and use several items together, rather than just always applying one object to a given problem.

The title is rated for 7 plus which seems relatively reasonable, though I would advise a small amount of caution.  There is one occasion of swearing and some of the aspects of the game (vampires, dead bodies) could be a little much.  That aside, I genuinely think it is a game that older children and adults would get more out of and enjoy.

Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box plays out at a good pace and offers a reasonable amount of gameplay considering the price (£9.99).  The story is interesting and has a couple of twists which I didn’t see coming.  It was very nicely illustrated: the detail in the general locations was extremely good and though the hidden object puzzles weren’t the clearest I had seen, it felt deliberate, to offer a challenge.  Having just a limited number of characters did not limit the game: in fact, the isolation added to the eeriness and the game was carried along nicely by the main storyteller and his sceptical grandson, as well as a variety of locations to explore and revisit.  All in all, Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box proves to be another good addition to the hidden object genre and offers great entertainment at an excellent price.

**Review by Donna Haw**