Secrets of Great Art

aka: Secrets of Great Art HD
Moby ID: 40041
Windows Specs

Description

A man wakes up on a house full of classic paintings on its walls, with no recollection whatsoever of who he is, or how he end up there. By carefully examining the pictures, something triggers in his mind as he starts to find small discrepancies and anachronisms, and his memories slowly start to come back.

Secrets of Great Art is a straightforward hidden object game using 19th century paintings for the background art. Each level is a different picture, with its title and author displayed at the bottom-left for a few seconds at the start. The objective is to find and click on all the objects from a list at the left side of the screen, within a time limit. Sometimes a bonus round appears, where the player has to find the differences between two similar images.

A hint button provides help, indicating the position of one of the required objects. Three hints are available per scene, and using them removes some points from the final score. Successive wrong clicks take off 30 seconds from the timer.

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 60% (based on 1 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings with 1 reviews)

A way to discover art from the XVIIIe - XIXe

The Good
I'm historian of art. Well, much more archaeologist than historian of art, because I've studied Antiquity. Does that mean that I don't know anything about XVIIIth and XIXth centuries? Well, yes and no. While I can speak about it in a general way, I'm not specialized enough for knowing minor painters or international art (we're pretty much studying the French art than others).

By my cursus, Secrets of Great Art sounded like very promising. An hidden object game asking you to find items in paintings sounded like very entertaining. But at the end of the journey, the game lets in your mouth a taste of bitter.

Let's begin the review by presenting Alex and his story.

You're Alex and your niece just asked you to help her to solve a newspaper game. You have to find hidden items in a painting but she doesn't see them. Contrary to her, you begin to point them. As required, you're calling the number that was going along. Suddenly, you find yourself surrounded by scientists. It happens that you're the second person (and the only other one with an art thief) that can detect hidden objects in paintings. So, why do you have that ability? What is behind it?

It's time to go straight to the gameplay, as the storyline passage is placed under the bad points section. At the beginning of each level, you get a list of hidden object you have to find in the painting in a limited time. In reality, only the first five objects are given. When spotting one of them, you have to click on it for making it disappear from the list and let another item appear. It can be frustrating because there are so much objects at the end that you want them to disappear. Also, contrary to some hidden object games, where some useless items are still on the picture after finishing a level, Secrets of Great Art is a game where all hidden objects have to be found, letting you discover the painting. Clicking randomly for nothing or being wrong can cost you time and points, so be aware of it.

Every two levels, you get a spot the difference game. Two similar pictures are given, it's up to you to find the differences between them by clicking on them. As for the hidden object part, if you're stuck, you can use one of your three hints.

So, if the gameplay is still the same and isn't different from other games belonging to the same category, if despite being classic, it's still efficient and intuitive, what's about the hidden objects themselves or the differences?

First of all, nearly all hidden objects are really visible and you shouldn't have difficulties to get them by their right name if you're an English speaker native. For the others, some objects will really be hard to be found and the result will be a wrong click. It happens several times for me. Also, some objects are very well hidden: a black pen in a black feature, a white funnel on a white dress, well, as you can see, it can be hard to find them without an hint. I wish that it wasn't sometimes so well hidden, I hate using hints.

And what about differences? Just two words: too hard. If you want to know why, just read the negative part of the review.

There is no graphics in this game apart from the design of the HUD and the relating of the story. I will not speak about the HUD as it's just a classic one with the list, the hints, the time, etc..

For the main game, it's always a painting. So, it's more a picture of an existing painting than a new design. For example, just type Tissot in Wikipedia, choose James Tissot and you'll find some paintings that are in the game: "Captain Frederick Gustavus Burnaby", "Hush!", etc.. So, I can't really give an opinion about the paintings, it's not about doing a review of art. But it's an original idea to use paintings. Indeed, it's a discovery for people who aren't aware of these artists or of these "masterpieces". So, it has an educational side that I liked, even if it's not so developed. A little note with some historical background would have been welcomed.

As for the relating of the story, it's still the same background but on some entries, you'll find drawings. It's just refreshing to see them. It's not adding so much but it's better than nothing.

The music theme is very classic. It's limited to two or three tracks but still, it's relaxing, even if after an hour of play, it's hurting your ears to listen the same tune. It's just sticking to the "art" ambiance, it's not out of place, so, it's satisfying.

Lifetime is "long". Well short if you're used to that kind of game but it's somewhere long because of the well-hidden differences and objects. But if the lifetime is correct, what about replay value?

Well, once you have played it, you can't go back to it. I mean, as it's very repetitive, as you have very well hidden object and with these hard differences, Secrets of Great Art isn't giving you the envy to come back to it. It's a shame because it was fun to discover the paintings but it's always about the same period, always the same painters, always the same style. In the end, Secrets of Great Art is just a one-shot game.

The Bad
Surprisingly, for once, the storyline is clearly confusing me. At first, it's very hard to follow the storyline. In reality, you're just someone from another world sent in our world because of a traitor but before discovering it, you have to be analyzed by scientists, send in another dimension, come back in our world some years after and send back to your homeworld. It's a little too much for a storyline, it's just spreading everywhere and at the end, you're wondering what you have missed, particularly when you're not playing the game everyday.

It sounds interesting because despite being so "messed up", the plot did hook me at the perspective of Alex getting back his kingdom. Unfortunately, the game ends suddenly, letting you wonder if there will be a sequel (the game was released in 2007) for following Alex in his quest.

About the gameplay, as I've already said, some objects are very well hidden but it's not really about that I want to speak. It's about differences. If the developers didn't make it difficult, it could have been a great feature. Indeed, sometimes, it's about one line in the background, it can be about a very small difference. I wish the differences were put in the characters or somewhere more obvious, because I had really an hard time to find the last or the two lasts differences. Despite knowing that, well, I couldn't find some differences. At least, hints were present.

I've already mentioned it but it's always fine to have a reminder when the negative point is somewhere between long passages. The lack of different tunes is making me wonder if the developers didn't concentrate too much on the paintings. I mean, it could have been nice to have music sticking to the plot instead of having the same track. Look for the betrayal for example. It should have been a darker music than the relaxing tune.

The Bottom Line
So, if Secret of Greats is classic in terms of gameplay, the difficulty of the spot the difference part and some very well hidden object is making of it a frustrating game by moments. Graphics are just pictures of painting, soundtrack is limited but the strong point of the game is the discovering of painters and painting in a certain era. Anyway, the game is also having a fun factor by trying to clear the paintings but I think it's because of my studies that I'm indulgent in the game and find it worthy of a 7/10. Anyway, it could have earned a higher note if the replay value was there, if the educational side was more developed and if the storyline wasn't spreading in every direction. Try it for making an opinion, I can't recommend it or not as the feeling can be different between someone who is historian of art and getting pleased with what is in the game and someone else.

Windows · by vicrabb (7272) · 2009

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Macs Black.

iPad, Macintosh, iPhone added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: LepricahnsGold.

Game added April 8, 2009. Last modified February 13, 2023.