Great Secrets: Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci is regarded as being an all-around genius, given the fact that he was skilled in multiple fields at once, including art, engineering and anatomy. However, it is also said that some of his most incredible and visionary inventions have been destroyed or hidden over the years, which has sparkled the public's curiosity, so much so as to spawn a book and even a movie speculating on the matter.

Great Secrets: Da Vinci is a neat little game that allows you to dream about being on the trails of the famous inventor and investigating some cases regarding his inventions, as well as visiting some of his known whereabouts. However, most of your time will be spent looking for well-hidden objects in overcrowded photos, as well as matching two pictures together, or searching for differences.

In essence, the game also tells a short and not that convoluted story behind the scenes, which is relayed to you through the use of a journal. After each successfully completed level, you get to read another page in the journal, which should be interesting enough to keep you going. The excitement of finding the required items surpasses the weak plot, on the other hand, which is why the story won't be captivating anyone who isn't five.

If you enjoy puzzles, on the other other hand, the game does put a nice variety of different levels at your disposal, enough to keep you occupied for a few hours, or even more, if some of them pose you serious difficulties. Speaking of which, each stage has a time limit and you must find every object before the timer runs out, although you can also take hits from time to time, in case you get stuck.

Visually, the hand-drawn graphics look pretty decent, but the objects themselves do sometimes appear to be out-of-place in the pictures, mostly because the artists did a not so good job at cropping them from the original photographs. However, the sheer amount of stuff visible in every picture should make this irrelevant, because you won't be able to discern between them anyway.

In the end, Great Secrets: Da Vince is certainly no masterpiece, but it does achieve its purpose and it is liable to keep you glued to the screen for at least an hour or two. However, there are some annoyances that make it difficult to swallow it for longer, such as the fact that many of the objects are not very clear and covered by darkness.