Embrace of Ocean: Story of Hope

Underwater cities are not exactly feasible, even if they are probably possible at this point. Bioshock popularized the idea a decade ago, and a few other games have tried to do the same over the years. In truth, it’s a fairly intriguing idea, especially if there are a few horror elements at play, given the fact that the sensation of being trapped is that much stronger when you are stuck in an underwater dome.

Embrace of Ocean: Story of Hope is a hidden object adventure game in which you play the role of a young girl going on a quest in search of her father. The gameplay is a bit outdated at this point in terms of mechanics, especially since the interface is slow and counterintuitive most of the time. On the other hand, the puzzles and the story keep you busy and distracted, so these issues are less obvious as you jump from one scene to the other.

The action takes place in an underwater city called Pearl, which is where Blue Hope lives along with her father. Unfortunately, her father goes missing under mysterious circumstances, which is why she must go after him and investigate his disappearance. She also has to get familiar with his scientific research, because it might lead to a few answers.

As mentioned before, there are certain problems when it comes to the interface, especially in terms of how you interact with the environment and the objects that are required to solve puzzles. In short, some items are difficult to spot and click on, not to mention the fact that once you click on a scene to get a better look you have to find the X button in order to go back, which is not how things are done nowadays.

The graphics are not very exciting either, and they are quite old in terms of technology. Hence, even if the pre-rendered environments look pretty nice, the tiny resolution makes things look a tad too unpolished. The soundtrack is pretty nice, on the other hand, even if it does get repetitive after a while if you play the game for too long.

In the end, Embrace of Ocean: Story of Hope has a few good things going for it, especially when it comes to the story and the mystery itself, because the plot thickens along the way and it keeps you engaged. However, the annoying interface might cause a bit of frustration every now and again. NOTE: This is a downloader for the game. Once run, the application will automatically download and install the game on your computer.

To buy the product you need to register with Big Fish. The registration is free and the account will let you earn free games, play community games or participate in game forums, write reviews as well as offer you significant discounts.