It's not a hidden object game, but a traditional adventure game: Gabrel Knight. The remake is on steam, while you can get the original on GOG (I think you can get the remake there as well).
It's a classic, with a well deserved good reputation. I can't comment on the remake, but the original is very good.
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I know it has voodoo, and the streets of Louisiana and a librarian chick with a sexy voice. It's a good recommendation! I remember playing 10minutes of it.
I'm all in in this mood, the quiet afternoons of thinking when someone knocks at the door!
"Enter dear Watson, you know you're always welcomed" (read with heavy British accent, almost like a fake actor)
"Hello Holmes, how are you doin'... nigga?"
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Speaking of Holmes and horror/supernatural elements:
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
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The remake's not bad, but loses the pretty stellar voice cast the original had. I'd go for the original, really.
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Hate when they took something from the original version, at least if they would keep the original things like a second option.
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It's not that simple. They lost the master soundtrack, and weren't able to reuse it for the remake [apparently].
That being said, I've heard good things about the Anniversery dubbing, and the art is far better than the original game. So at a glance, it'd be the winner..
But when the original game has voice actors like Tim Curry and Mark Hamil, well.. it's just a bit hard to compete. :P
Plus side, there's nothing stopping you from getting both ;)
Though if want to just pick one of the two and can't decide which you want to go for, keep in mind the older version is about a quarter the listed retail price :P
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"But when the original game has voice actors like Tim Curry and Mark Hamil, well.. it's just a bit hard to compete. " - Yup, that's pretty much it.
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Artifex Mundi games are great. Cool Story with Hidden Object & Point and Click Elements. Dark Arcana & Clockwork Tales are awesome.
New York Mysteries: Secrets of the Mafia is a cool HO game too.
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I love HoG games.
Usually because of :
- atmosphere (horror, relaxing, etc)
- The story
- mystery, puzzle, problem solving
- The artistic (graphic and sounds)
e.g Nancy drew series, Sherlock Holmes, Artifex Mundi's, Alawar's HoG collection
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I liked some titles in Artifex catalog, and it also seems a lot darker than Alawar's. Nancy Drew sounds good, like Scooby Doo!
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I can deal with somehow crappy stories, if the atmosphere is right of course. I remember Alter Ego! Been always the good guy was interesting trying to outsmart in a manipulative way that cleaning lady (all that I played/remember :P). I didn't heard about Black Mirror (the tv series come to mind :P)
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If you like dark games and good stories - try Tormentum - Dark Sorrow. It's not really Hidden Object kind of game, but it's Point and Click. And the game is really great with cool art inspired by works of Giger and Beksiński. Totally worth of buying and playing.
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Well, no hidden object games but if you want something quiet and dark you may take a look at The Last Door and Wait - Extended if they are to your liking.
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I've never heard of Wait, nice surprise there! (Normally I don't trust in rpgmaker games)
The Last Door somehow reminds me of Alone In the Dark I mood.
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Well, your description reminded me of one game I played which was Face Noir. It has that 40's noir atmosphere with nice chill music and private detective story. Also, very affordable, been in bundles. Not really a hidden object game though... but everything else fits. :P
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I've entered Face Noir GAs a lot of times without luck :P
Now I will enter HoG GAs!
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Just keep in mind it ends on a cliff hanger because it's the first episode and the devs thought smart not to advertise that particular bit of information anywhere (at least AFAICT).
Also, there is a twist, so it's not exactly what it looks like.
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Then you need the old Gabriel Knight games or the first Still Life. HOGs usually have simple stories: female protagonist ends up on a low-fantasy land and has to break a curse, or a female investigator travels to a totally empty small town to find a missing relative/child and ends up solving some supernatural mystery. The only game in the HOG genre I can think of that may suit your needs is Brink of Consciousness (lightweight psychological/serial killer thriller), or maybe 9 Clues 2 (noir detective story; hasn't really have any ties to 9 Clues 1, so no pressure of missing out on anything).
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female protagonist [..] or a female investigator
I love it when reviewers comment on 'Oh, and this HOG is special because you play a male character!'.
It's just a nice reversal of the usual reviewer comments, for other game genres. :P
After all, Steam has a Female Protagonist tag, and not a Male Protagonist tag, and for good reason.. :X
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OTOH basically all of the Eastern European HOGs I played are so stereotypical in their depiction of their, admittedly paper-thin, women protagonists, so obviously aimed at and manipulative of that demographic, that my feelings are getting increasingly mixed.
They're like those commercials that play women by extolling the supposed, imaginary virtues that all women obviously must have, only to paint them in a degrading corner within seconds. "You are so much smarter than men, which is why only you will do their laundry and iron their pants while the useless, incorregible fucks are sitting on the couch watching football, stuffing themselves silly with food you prepared. But thanks to our magical product, you'll be able to do all of that in less time/with less effort"
Every time I take a look at the credits, the writer(s) are invariably men.
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HOGs as a rule tend to be paper thin on characters and story, so I never really associated an gender-bias there :P But yeah, HOGs are mainly targeted at women, so the female protagonist angle is certainly likely to be meant as a sympathetic appeal.
And, as you say, writers in games do have a bad habit of including such weak representations of (macho men) and (helpless/traditionally-minded women) that you have to wonder at how poorly developed the social awareness of the writers really is.
It's really bad when you've got a game or film where it's clearly just the writer's two-dimensional, self-indulgent wet dream. Ed Greenwood is a notable example of that in his approach to his Elminster books, where Elminster is this mad ladies' man that can do anything despite being a total nerd/geek (but no, he's totally not, he's a sexy man-beast, noone can resist him, and he can do anything!). It's.. uhm.. awkward. :P
So no, I certainly didn't mean to imply the female protagonist angle necessarily was a qualitative gesture toward gender equality- I just meant that the reviewers on both sides always seeming shocked at the gender of the protagonist not being [the predictable one] was a rolleyes-worthy bit of bemusement.
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I just meant that the reviewers on both sides always seeming shocked at the gender of the protagonist not being [the predictable one] was a rolleyes-worthy bit of bemusement.
Of course, your comment simply happened to make some thoughts and feelings I had for a while turn into actual words type on a keyboard.
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Why you all people think that HoGs have like a common trait a female protagonist. Were this game originally intended for women? (like they thought they would want something casual to play??)
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Casual non-action games have been mostly targeted for women since like 2003. Maybe even before that.
HOGs are especially – not as much as VNs, but more than match-3 or marble shooter types. When Reflexive Arcade popularised them by offering a similar service for cheap casual games Big Fish does now (or, if you want another analogy, then Reflexive was the Steam of casual games back then), it was interesting to see the amount of reviews that had the phrase "my husband bought this for me".
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Well, it's like when you find a JRPG with a female lead. I honestly can name only two from the top of my head: FFXIII-3 and Septerra Core. And, well, with HOGs it is hard to deny that the protagonists are 99% women. Regardless of where they are made.
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Portal of Evil: Stolen Runes Collector's Edition
http://store.steampowered.com/app/361850/
Left in the Dark: No One on Board
http://store.steampowered.com/app/284890/
Lots of text in this one...
Darkness Within 1: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
http://store.steampowered.com/app/298930/
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Oh my! Darkness Within looks pretty good!
Left in the Darks is like a mashup of horror movies! Give me kitsch and cliche all in one bowl!
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Yeah Darkness Within is probably the closest to what you're after here - they're all great tho :D
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I really want some adventure/text game with horror/suspense/dark elements
IMO that's asking a bit much from a HOG, although someone above recommended Tormentum which is on my WL and may be a bit different, but the standard Artifex Mundi & the likes fare is a bit humdrum.
I would warmly recommend Lone Survivor instead.
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Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome would be perfect! Definitely turn the volume up and enjoy the ambiance!
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I guess Fairy Tale Mysteries: The Puppet Thief would fit the dark elements aspect you ask for, though it's not really a HOG I'd recommend. Played it yesterday and it wasn't fun at all sadly.
They are basically the opposite of what you want, but I really enjoyed the "Grim Legends" games by Artifex Mundi. Both, the first and the second. They're fairy tale / fantasy stories though..
9 Clues 2: The Ward and Dark Arcana: The Carnival were pretty good as well imo, they are both kind of dark.. I guess. Well, at least they are some of the darker ones by Artifex Mundi.
Edit: I just realised that the last two have already been suggested. Well then.
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I really liked this one: Alchemy Mysteries: Prague Legends
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I am not into hogs, but if you are interested in P&Cs too Fran Bow, Cat Lady and Downfall have not been mentioned yet. I also enjoyed Silence of the Sleep and DISTRAINT (although that one is depressing).
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Seconding The Cat Lady, although it's a bit rough in the execution and (more than) a bit disturbing in its contents, it's a game that goes places where most adventures don't tread.
Haven't played the others yet (except the Fran Bow's demo), and am almost tempted to ask Distraint depressing how, but I guess that's spoiler territory.
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If I'm correct, you're not talking about hidden object games at all, you're talking about classic point-and-click adventures. Some of the best have been already mentioned above (Gabriel Knight games, especially The Beast Within, Fran Bow, Rem Michalski's games - The Cat Lady and Downfall). How about some postnuclear comic FMV noir? You could try Tex Murphy series. If you don't mind retro gaming, I'd also suggest Black Dahlia, it's my favourite noir game of all time. Primordia and Blade Runner seem up your alley moodwise, Blackkwell series are also probably worth paying attention to. And then, of course, there are two noir stories about werewolf detectives, The Wolf Among Us and Discworld Noir, can't go wrong with these two :)
And if you're really going to play a HOG, start with True Fear: Forsaken Souls, it's the best one I've played in the genre.
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No, I'm talking about HoGs but also some adventures games popped on the way and I've never heard of them. So both worlds are good to me.
I'm extremely surprised that there is a Black Dahlia game, the only one I've ever known that touched that case was LA Noire. Thank you very much for this recommendation, it really is an eye openinng suggestion. That case is so gruesome and sad, but strangely, also fascinating, imho.
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They are not HOGs but some of the best point'n'click adventure games ever created and perfectly fit the mood you are describing. Please give the Blackwell games a closer look:
The Blackwell Legacy
Blackwell Unbound
Blackwell Convergence
Blackwell Deception
Blackwell Epiphany
In case you are wondering: yes, they should be played in order. While every one of them tells a story on it's own there's a connecting overall storyarch to them that makes this series stand out above all others.
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I hoped it would actually be about Hideo's games...
Anyway. Not exactly in the genre but maybe Lone Survivor? Heard good things about. Hidden object games I played were all consistantly awful with cautious exception I'd make for Artifex Mundi's ones (I played two for like 10 minutes total). But these were already mentioned just as pretty much every adventure game I was going to.
Uhh... Gray Matter, maybe? I started it a couple of years ago, seemed like it could go the darky road.
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That Hideo Kojima's demo of Silent Hill was amazing. How could they cancel that?!!??!?!?!?! It was a gold mine!!!!!
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fck you google.
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