June's Journey: Hidden Objects

The Good
Graphics, scenery, sprites. It's all the game, looking bright, colourful and fabulous. Pairing with the cosmetic environment are the well-composed short music tracks as you play. This game is so reminiscent of a Miss Marple or Nancy Drew detective media, beginning with a murder and gradual continuous mysteries and crimes from chapter to chapter, it's so epic. Every screen looks scenic, you can almost imagine you're in the place. Being able to chat with users online and buying a drink, gives the impression you're in a café. Try playing inside a real café to get a good feel of the game.

The additional mini-games implement a decent amount of fun not just in playing them, but collecting in order to win them. For instance you collect cards to obtain pieces for the picture of Jane's past memories and it's satisfying to put the pieces together and win a prize for completing each picture. Then you have small variations of the hidden object main game and some checklist objectives to follow in order to win some unique prizes

As for the other half that makes up the game, you get a sort of estate building simulator. Building and decorating across the island is quite thrilling. You get so many plants, ornamental structures and props to choose from, you're sure to go wild and buy it all up if you've got the diamonds and coins for it. The system is so simplified you don't have to worry about finance, health and safety, economy and all that sim building stuff. This makes for a nice relaxing break from the hidden item finding as you gradually build an estate, which you can be proud to think of as your own. And when you're gathering resources and money, it's like saving oodles of pocket money to buy all sorts of cool stuff to add to your collection.

The Bad
Item hunting can be fun, but there are instances where it works against you. Some of the objects hidden are hidden in such a way, it's virtually impossible to find them on your first try. For instance the fountain in the first scenario has a Greek Ornament, and you wouldn't think it's there because it's indistinguishable from the area of the scene. If it's going to be a Greek Ornament, why can't they make it look like one? Put a Greek symbol or something. Then you have the things you're looking for described with a vague word as to what they are such as "Bat". Is it a live bat or a baseball bat? It would help if they were more descriptive so you know exactly what you're looking for. And you'd better have a pocket dictionary at the ready because you may not know what some things are, such as Papayas.

Now the controls. Sometimes it can be difficult to scroll or zoom the screen without accidentally tapping the screen itself, ruining your chance of a perfect run due to the way the accuracy works. Some of the items you find are so small that you need to press your finger in a very specific spot to register as a find due to the small hitbox, otherwise you get a pretty unfair accuracy penalty. It's more fun to look for bacteria with a magnifying glass.

And lastly the resources. It takes a while for energy to recharge in order to continue playing the game. You'll have to be skilled in each scene to earn a decent reward. You may not get the resources you want or enough of them, you just have to keep winning the same scenes lots of times to get a manageable income, unless you decide to spend real money to buy yourself the necessary stuff. And you'd better hope you get enough something to win a special temporary event before it expires. It would be nice if you could trade excess resources that you don't need to other players for something that you can use.

The Bottom Line
This game is very unique in what it does. Who would've thought that a building simulator would work well with a hidden objects game? If you want to be a smashing success at this game, I suggest you play this on a tablet and not a smartphone and put on a pair of eagle eyes. Also you may need to keep paying to play the game at a comfortable pace, unless you prefer the economical, slow and patient approach. Due to the way the game works, I can't recommend this one to younger players, but this one is a must for mystery lovers, social groups and your average mobile player. Get the best experience when you play this one with friends. And of course do keep playing everyday, because you never know what marvelous surprises, mini-games and products await you. It's as continuous as BBC's Eastenders. Who knows? You might be so enthusiastic about this title, you'll be playing through it for the rest of your life.