PC Game Review: Pure Hidden

You’ve probably heard this before when an original hidden object game came out, but this time I mean it — Pure Hidden flips the hidden object genre upside on its head, spinning it around and throwing everything we thought we knew about hidden object games out the door, heck — out of this world.

Pure Hidden takes place out of the world in a colorful scene reminding me of 1960s or 1970s graphics style with a plant and budding flowers. The flowers hold boxes, or surprises. But you can’t open them until you complete a puzzle inside one of the boxes. Upon finding the “key” or object to open another box, you can move on or you can finish the puzzle.

Good surprises wait for you behind those boxes. You could be finding hidden objects from a list, but the scenes vary. They’re nothing like you’ve ever seen before — more like different styles of mosaics.

You’ll never encounter identical scenes and objects. A couple of games repeat — not the hidden object ones, though. The dominoes game repeats and it’s a delight to do it again.

Despite “pure” in its name, the game has you doing more than finding items. Yes, sometimes you’ll look for a bunch of the same objects. But also, you’ll knock down a bunch of dominoes, help seeds bloom, look for differences in two scenes — however, in a lot of unique ways. One way has you spinning the scene around from day to night in 3D to find the differences.

Although you can move on to another scene once you find the object to open the next box, you may not help help but want finish the scene because it’s compelling and fun. You can play zen (ohhhmmmm – relaxed) or timed mode, so whatever your preference — you got it. Really, this one is for savoring not rushing through.

Hints are available when the asterisk fills up and you can select which item you want to find. The game posts a circle for you melting away any frustration in trying to find something.

The music wows. No story exists to waste your time. And the game has you from the first click, or close to it. Just go play for ten minutes. Pure Hidden is pure gold. It’s the kind of thing you’d want to do on a rainy day and a sunny one, too. Good to know innovation and creativity remain strong out there in the hidden object genre.

• Big Fish Games



• Reflexive GameCenterSolution – Win



• Reflexive GameCenterSolution – Mac