Hidden Clues

Detectives use all the evidence they can get in order to solve a crime, especially if it involves loss of human life. These investigations usually take a long time, on the other hand, especially if the suspect does not leave much trace behind. Puzzle games simplify this process, on the other hand, allowing you to catch a criminal in the span of a few minutes, if you are quick enough.

Hidden Clues is a puzzle game in which mosaics are your primary concern, since basically the entire gameplay revolves around them. In case you are not familiar with the subgenre, your main goal is to fill the tiles with the appropriate color and uncover the clue hiding in the design. It’s not very complicated, at least not at first, but the challenge is engaging enough to keep you busy.

The story itself is not very important, since you barely get a glimpse of it during gameplay, but there is a sense of purpose to it all. Each puzzle you solve is actually a clue regarding a suspect, and you can even start to guess what the complete mosaic is going to look like after a while. Still, it would have been nice to have more characters and a better plot to keep you interested.

Each mosaic is actually composed of only three colors, and your job is to switch between them and make sure that they are all placed correctly. Whenever you click on a tile that’s not assigned to the color you are currently handling, the action is marked as a mistake. You can only make four mistakes in total before you have to reset the whole puzzle and start from scratch.

Naturally, there is even a hardcore difficulty mode, although the puzzles remain the same. The only change is that you do not see the completed numbers except after the color in question has been exhausted. It may not sound like much, but it gets a lot more annoying when you cannot tell whether you last move either closed or opened up more possibilities.

In the end, Hidden Clues is quite clearly a production for the fans of the subgenre, because everything else about it is not up to standards. However, if you enjoy tackling difficult mosaics and you do not mind the weak story and repetitive gameplay, this is definitely a good choice.