There is a reason that the 3 reviews on the game page are all App related: they haven't played the steam version. The game itself isn't bad. A lot of the HO scenes are a tough, which compared to some of the HO game's was a nice change of pace. So why the negative review, Simply put, I cannot, nor will not, condone yet another dev that slaps a port on an app game over here and refuses to support it.

There are 5 broken achievements to the game. If you go to the steam boards you will find that several people (myself included) have emailed the devs letting them know about it. Their responses have been bold faced lies. They have said:

1) They have so many versions it's hard to find the problem. (this is the only version with achievements so. . . . ?)
2) They haven't been able to find the issue. (they created the port, not a third party, which means they are the ones that coded)
3) They aren't sure they are going to be able to fix the issue. (there are several devs that have just eliminated broken achievements from their games when they couldn't find the issue)

And through all of this, they continue to gleefully sell their game with no warning on their page that some of their achievements are broken. Buyer beware, and oh thanks for your money.

I don't play games solely for their ahievements, but when they are there, I enjoy the extra challenge and replayability that they give. I; however, also went to college not for the grades but to learn. If I were to enter a class and find out that if I 100% every test I would receve an 85 max I would probably have been miffed (anyone still use that word?). This is the same.

Not only do I not endorse this game; I will subsequently refuse to purchase any games from the devs and publisher in the future. There is nothing that is more telling (imo) of a person or company that will take money from you for a product or service and not stand behind it. With so many games on steam, I would love to see valve start holding devs accountable for selling broken products and ban them from selling here again. I love steam for all it does to fill my entertainment void at times. Devs like this one don't deserve to be a part of it.

Cheers.

Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold is a hidden object game similar to others of the same genre. The storyline makes a good attempt at being memorable with a decent plot twist thrown in there. Plus the game is packed full of content which will leave you playing it long after your original playthrough. There are also many unique & challenging puzzles contained within it.

Gameplay:
You can choose from novice, adventure, and expert. These will hold your hand in varying degrees from little to not at all, but the help button will always be there if you need it. Choosing not to push it at all will reward you with an achievement, so there is an incentive to challenge yourself. Most of the hidden object games are fairly easy with some of the puzzles proving to be more difficult for myself, only because I chose to go for the highscores though. The game also gives you tools such as a gecko (to get in small spaces) and a flashlight (to see in dark corners). I know it isn't anything too fancy, but it just adds another layer onto the very cut and dry hidden object formula.

Graphics:
The game supports up to 4k resolution. This is nice when looking at it's beautifully drawn well lit environments. However the game lets itself down in the cutscenes with many of the characters wide mouthed arm flailing expressions looking more like a Chuck E. Cheese animatronic.

Story:
Both Melissa and her companion Julian were boring and forgettable. I didn't care about them or the young monk that I was looking for. Perhaps if the game gave me a chance to meet him before he went missing I would have cared a little more about his well being. The loopy old monk and asian guide were the only memorable characters in my opinion. The twist the game threw at me three quarters of the way through the game was nice, but apart from that I'd say the story was mediocre at best.

Audio:
Although I believe the soundtrack was of a perfect fit for the game and of a much higher quality than most hidden object game soundtracks, I wouldn't say that it was anything special. And the voice acting was as stereotypical as they come.

Verdict:
Compared to other hidden object games you get a lot more content than you normally would. The different asian inspired environments are well drawn and pleasing to look at. The character animations could use a bit of work, but the hidden object/puzzle games are all of high quality and that's what really matters. I'd personally say it's worth it's full asking price, but it frequently drops down to 90% off though, so save your money.

I'm conflicted as to whether I could recommend this game or not.

-On one hand it had beautiful, intricate illustrations, a solid duration and a lot of puzzles which I found refreshing. It's been a while since I played a hidden object game that didn't feel too short. It also had some charming Indiana Jones references that made me smile and I really liked the protagonist. Bonus points for having different difficulty settings, that's always a nice and considerate touch. The best part is that this isn't a clear-cut hidden object game. It has many mini-games but also many adventure elements that kept my interest and made the experience even more enjoyable. Oh, and it has a bunch of extra hidden-object and other mini-games after you finish the game! Yay!


-On the other hand the 3d animation is almost funny in it's crudeness, which becomes even worse when compared to the aforementioned jaw-droppingly beautiful illustrations. The plot may be interesting but the writing is bad. Some scenes are so poorly written that they become disconnected from one another, to the point I thought I'd skipped some in-between ones that explained how we got from point A to point B (no, unfortunately that was not the case and yes, I double-checked). The voice acting was hilariously slow and boring.
But most importantly the puzzles were not challenging even on the expert difficulty.

I still had a good time it's true, but there's one thing that really annoyed me, and tipped the scale into me not being able to recommend this. There are 2 specific puzzles in the game, one being the final one, that are near impossible to complete on a pc. It was clear the game was meant for touch-screens and those 2 would have been a breeze if I had one. But I don't and neither should I since I bought this on Steam and not for my tablet. This is something that should have been addressed and fixed before it was released on Steam.

I spent the better part of an hour trying to frantically click through the tiles of the final door puzzle. That was obviously not intended by the developers, seeing how easy that task was on tablets. It wasn't fun and neither felt rewarding when I finally made it.

There are other minor problems like some pixel-hunting and adventuring that just don't make sense -you have to look through the weirdest places to find an item that will give you a solution to a riddle no sane person would ever imagine, but they are not even close to being as irritating as the final door puzzle.

So yeah, I can't recommend it although that doesn't mean it's bad. Overall I had a good time, even if I lost some sanity points somewhere at the end. It's rough around the edges and that simply did not rock my boat.

Try it at your own risk.

I was surprised at how engaging this storyline is, especially for a scripted, and hidden-object puzzler, which don't often hold my interest for long; I played through the basic story in ~under 7 hours or so.

tl/dr:
Fun puzzler, will take 5+hours for an adult on first playthrough (with some use of hint button/strategy guide - which is provided in the options menu in-game); worth the price.

Pros:
1.) Hint button timer can be set to fast or slow, and the difficulty of the game describes these options *clearly* at game start.

2.) Cinematics can be skipped - but there is an achivement for watching them all without skipping. Some are annoying, and all take a bit too long imo, but they're tasteful, if low budget.

3.) Puzzle instructions are clear, but puzzles themselves can be challenging. There are extra puzzles at the end, and three different difficulties for several of them.

4.) Music can be turned off, but if you like Enigma-type music it should suit some of your taste.

5.) Safe for kids, but not patronizingly idealistic/simplistic.

Cons:
1.) For those interested in achievements/completionists, you will inevetibly need to play through at least twice if you don't carefully read the achievements. Most can be unlocked in normal game play, but some are related to puzzles or events that are just tedious, and the skip button becomes so very easy to use, thus preventing the accumulation of a completion in some challenges.
EDIT1a.) ALL puzzles and extras are available in the extras menu after game completion, and the achieves do pop from solving them there.

2.) For those interested in stunning graphics, you will be nonplussed by the decade-old character textures and limited facial expressions, though animations are fairly fluid and overall animation quality isn't unbearable. One character looks close to Nathan Fillian's appearance from his Firefly days.

3.) Some puzzles are dependent on spotting almost miniscule variations in item texture. While the puzzle isn't hard once you figure out what to do, finding that first tiny button is sometimes annoying if you don't know that's what you're looking for.

~In terms of a puzzle game, this one get 7.5/10 from me, which means it's not a failing grade.
EDIT - After solving the puzzles in the extras menu, this goes up to an 8.5. Very nice!

~In terms of creativity and clarity of puzzles, there were some good ones, and some were very well thought out; most will complete (and some even show the perfect solution) when you're 'close enough' that it's not absurdly tedious (the string puzzle will explain this remark): 8/10.

~In terms of a story game, this one gets 8/10 from me because there were things I didn't see coming, and yet those things weren't outrageously unbelievable, though some of the plotline was difficult to follow without using hints.

~In terms of technical difficulties, I ecountered none; 10/10 on this front.
EDIT - There are five achievements that don't pop on Steam, but that do properly award in the game; assuming the devs correct this minor issue, we will (presumably) one day get all the achieves at login.

Very nice work, SDP Games!

This review is based only on the base game, not the CE content.

EDIT - Having finished the CE content, let me add an 8-8.5/10 for that. You learn more about the Nathan Fillian character (he has the right personality for this, and dialogue is simple, but engaging and amusing - well done, here!) and his motivations, and gain a new player ability that makes looking at things a new way an absolute.

CE content adds about 2 hours to the game (with some use of the hint button).

Good game overall in its genre. As a rule I play wargames and puzzlers, with some side-scrollers and 3rd person shooters, and this game got my attention on content alone. 8-8.5/10 overall.

@Devs - Please do fix those couple of achieves! :)

Melissa K is a HOG wth puzzles, with a good story and graphics, as well. I highly enjoyed it and the game does have some replayabilty bonus as well. I found the HOG parts of the game fun and challenging, the puzzle parts were also challenging, a few of the puzzles are even more diffcult than challenging. There is some extras to play as well, as you can attempt to get better scores on all three levels of puzzles outside of the story of the game. This can add hours of playtime for the game and it's pretty fun as well.

The game possibly can be a little buggy, there is help in the forums for those that find they have a problem. Also, a few of the achievements are broke on steam. As far as getting all the achievements there are a couple that would be pretty difficult to get, I finally gave up trying to get the last two myself after quite a few times of trying.

If you like more challenging HOG/puzzle game, I recommend getting this. It is very fun and gives you more hours of playtime than the normal HOG game.

This one is what I call a great hidden object/puzzle game, with everything in its right place and soothing graphics that on one hand don't require much to any kind of PC but on the other hand they are always awesomely drawn and positioned (details and zooming included) and let the game run super fast without blocks of any sort!
Plus, this adventure is set into a '40s Thailand with lots of Oriental elements that aren't so easy to find in this genre, since it often focuses on fantasy themes or generally speaking, "Western" settings. And this means of course that there are lots of hints and themes drawn from the Buddhist tradition and the South-Eastern Asian culture!
The game also supports different difficulty settings and offers lots of hours of gameplay, has a great hint and recharge system, lots of different locations (more than 30) and lots of puzzles, among of course the usual hidden object adventure, so that you'll have to collect items, store them or combine into your inventory in order to proceed and so on, as a point 'n' cick game.
Maybe the plot and the NPCs aren't that awesome, but still everything's enjoyable and smooth and you won't give much attention to the small "errors", if I can call them like this, but long games like this one of course can't be perfect for every hint, every puzzle, every small object and such. It's overall really great, possibly one of the most interesting and entertaining adventure hidden object puzzle games here on Steam.
Plus, I found the puzzles (which are abundant but never "annoying" in my opinion, they're almost all put in the right places and situations) quite challenging and funny, and some of them are also definitely hard! And the game's also continuously saved, so that you can exit whenever you want without checkpoints and your progress will always be saved :)
If you're wondering what the difficulty settings are about, I'll try to give you a general view: the easy option gives you an easier time in the hidden object sequences with no penalties for wrong clicks, plus you'll have shiny zones displayed in order to reach the areas and fast reload times and so on. The medium option is the standard one, while the expert difficulty settings will bring you no help text at all, no skip buttons for riddles, penalties and very hard puzzles overall.
The main menu screen has moreover a great extra section in which you'll be able to view cinematics, replay puzzles only or hidden object sections, view artworks, collectibles and hear the soundtrack!
Oh, I've got also another tip to say: unfortunately, the game runs automatically in your native Steam client's language - Italian in my case - but the language chance isn't implemented into Steam. Luckily, the developers have posted an announcement years ago in which they tell you the procedure you need to do if you wanna play it in English (completely recommended, since unfortunately as always the local translations are often crappy and filled with big errors). The procedure is very simple and requires you to create a txt file in the game's folder and write into it the language you prefer, so simply "English" for instance.
I can't say that this is a downside, since all the localized games unfortunately are almost always crappy when it comes to the actual translation.. so if a non native English speaker kid wants to play this in his native tongue (the game "supports" 14 languages overall) well, he will be in front of a poor translation.
But this is the case of.. every game. From the most expensive Final Fantasy titles to the small simple indie ones. So, this small workaround is needed in order to change the language and well, it's better to keep it in English trust me :)
Ok, I finished with my lesson of today ahah, back to the game quickly!
As I was saying, everything runs smoothly and the navigation's fast, I've encountered no bugs in moving the objects, running around the screens and so on.
Yay, 9€ is too much, but you can find it on sales and it's worth 1 or 2€ or even more, it really has much replaying value due to the length of the game, the number of puzzles, the difficulty settings and also the fact that you can replay and see again cinematics (there's voice acting too!), tracks and such in the main menu!
So, this may not be a masterpiece but in this field it's one of the best titles I've played on Steam in my opinion. I get many of the points that other players pointed out (keep though in mind that this game came out years ago, and the developers fixed many bugs - between 2017 and 2018, I've encountered no bugs at all for what concerns what I read in 2014 or 2015 reviews), but as of today if found on some kind of sale it's great to play, entertaining, challenging and also suitable for kids, since the story isn't that scary or deep, but still it's enjoyable and of course we're here for the puzzles, the adventure and the hidden objects and not for dialogues or novel elements, otherwise I'd return to the university but no thanks, I've already given out too much in history and literature. Ok I know this isn't relevant for the review.. XD But in my opinion the story overall is enjoyable, not the best plot I've ever seen but it fits well and maybe only the NPC elements could have received more attention, but this isn't a big deal for me given the good quality of the game.
I've also got to add that everyone told me that this is a big homage to the Indiana Jones franchise, but unfortunately I've never watched it so yeah, may be xD
If you like hidden object adventures, and if you like riddles and puzzles with the option to change the whole game to a hard ("expert") rate, you'll find yourself playing lots of hours here. And since the developers fixed all the bugs in and outside the game (for what concerns the achievements), there's nothing really to complain about. Just play it in English with that little workaround, since languages such as Italian and French are quite bad (and overall, the voices and such will always be in English).
Plus, the Collector Edition adds another chapter to the game (you'll have to choose directly from the main menu, play normally or play the C.E.), which you will play with another protagonist (you'll see by playing as Melissa! Don't play the C.E. before xD) and you'll have also a strategy guide at your disposal. It's a way shorter chapter, but still a great plus to the game.
I think that with all the fixes and all the attention it had, this game is a really solid addition in your hidden object/puzzle adventure library and can also be enjoyed by kids or players not that accustomed to the genre (due to the easy setting and the hint system, plus there's also a diary in which everything will be written as you go on!), so put it into your wishlist and have fun :)

A casual point-and-click adventure with puzzles, beautiful art and a decent amount of Hidden Object scenes.
While it has high production values for a HO game, after 2/3 of the game, I kind of zoned out and ignored everything except for the Hidden Object parts, as I was bored out of my skull.
I can't remember when I last heard lines... delivered... so... slowly. Even William Shatner delivers dialogue faster than this.
The writer clearly wanted to make an Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider epic but got lost somewhere in the endless sideplotting and should have focussed less on twists and cut scenes and more on great puzzles.
There is the constant backtracking, where suddenly new items shows up either just after you have visited a scene or 10 minutes later.
The game also has a problem in navigation in that you are really not aware that there might be extra scenes to your left or right, as it gives no indication they are there.
I usually give these types of HO games a thumbs up due to good puzzles, good HO scenes and a decent amount of play time, but the boredom of this made me even skip the extras and the "Collectors Edition" adventure.

You're Melissa, a professor of archaeology, who's gone to Thailand to teach a student - a young monk. At least, that's what I gathered from the fragmented and rather useless game intro. No reason is given for your being there, nor why you must "teach" that young monk or whatever. Once you arrive, the young monk apparently goes missing, and you must help find him. You then proceed to search the grounds of the house you are staying in for traces of the monk. That's it.

1. Nice graphics
   
2. OK music
   
3. Voiced in some parts

1. Extremely poor plot setup:
   
   • Insufficient story background so the player has no incentive to find out more
     
   • No proper explanation for why you must do all this
     
   • Boring premise: Monk disappears. So? Why should I care? Why the f*ck am I even in Thailand?!
2. Irritating & badly thought-through game mechanics:
   
   • Even on "normal" difficulty mode, if you leave the game running without doing anything, a hand will pop up and start pointing at what to do next
     
   • No direction arrows showing where you can navigate to; instead, you must click on stuff until you find an exit
     
   • When your character sees something noteworthy, instead of telling you direct (via text commentary), her observations go into her notebook, so you must check her notebook each and every time to see what she says about an item
     
   • Even on "easy" difficulty mode, active areas are never highlighted; instead, the game will tell you exactly what to do by pointing!
     
   • Some rooms don't fit on one screen, so you have to drag your screen sideways to see the entire thing, but there is no indication of whether you can drag the screen or not, so you'll just have to test it out on every screen
3. No logic in the game's priorities:
   
   • When you enter/exit a room, the game attempts to make it seem like it's a 1st-person 3D game (it's not, in case you were wondering - it's just static screens), so the screen jerks and wobbles a bit, and the background zooms in, to give the impression that your character is "walking" towards the exit. WHY??????? How on earth does doing this enhance the game in any way????? All it gave me was motion sickness, dumbtards!!!!!! Also, this made exiting any location take a million years.
     
   • We really don't need to see cutscenes every single time characters speak to each other ok? Especially when those cutscenes involve boring or non-important exchanges.
4. Puzzles are inane or don't make sense, and there are no hidden object scenes:
   
   • E.g. Feed chocolate bar to lizard so you can grab him and use him later on to retrieve objects in unreachable places. Since when did lizards eat chocolate?
     
   • E.g. Put found statue parts onto a statue. (No puzzle involved - just click anywhere on the statue to place them.)
     
   • E.g. Light a lantern with a match.
     
   • Almost an hour into the game, and I still did not encounter any hidden object scenes. I guess the hidden object scenes became hidden objects themselves.

Money was spent making this game, but in all the wrong areas. Showing animation of people talking, or attempting to make it look as if your character is walking towards an exit, and etc fancy schmancy stuff along this line, are NOT going to make people care more about playing. The horrible story setup, lack of drama, counter-intuitive game mechanics, and yawn-inducing puzzles make it extremely difficult for the player's interest to be sustained.

Avoid, unless you are a person of great patience. Or unless you are really (and I mean really) desperate to play something that has nice graphics and voice, but little else. Kids (maybe 4-8 years of age) might like this, because of the hand-holding and animation. But other than that, I can't think of anyone who would want to play this and not feel mentally insulted.

Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold is a hidden object puzzle game. Like most such games, it is ultimately a point and click adventure game, with an inventory of items; what sets these games apart is that a lot of the puzzles in the game are so-called hidden object games, where you have to do exactly that – find objects hidden in the environment.

Ultimately, this takes two forms – firstly, as you are walking around, there are objects around the world, cunningly hidden in the scenery. These inventory objects are things you need to collect in order to progress in the game. As you can adjust your point of view somewhat, this is actually essential to finding a lot of the objects, and some of these objects require you to line up the scenery just so in order to collect them. While pretty traditional as far as adventure games go, the game does hide small objects around the screen a great deal more than most such games do.

The other form of hidden object game is where you are given a fixed-view screen and are supposed to click on particular items from a list given at the bottom of the screen, or click and drag objects across the screen in order to assemble some object or complete some task, usually according to somewhat obscured directions. Again, these challenges center around finding objects in the environment, but in a more fixed manner. Some of these puzzles combine the two, or have items hidden inside other items in the environment (behind spiderwebs, inside a chest or pot, ect.) and you must click on them or drag some other object (like a hammer) over to break them open and get the object inside.

These puzzles are somewhat akin to Where’s Waldo, albeit with much more mixed things you are trying to find. If you enjoy Where’s Waldo type stuff, these games are likely to be at least somewhat up your alley, though I have to admit the fact that sometimes you had to click on sealed objects was counterintuitive, as some of the closed objects are less than intuitive to click on, and there are sometimes objects that it looks like you could open, but which you cannot.

There are also ordinary puzzles in the game, of a fairly broad variety, though all are simple point, click, and drag things, with the odd puzzle requiring an inventory object to complete. Things from arranging boards in order to form a bridge to navigating screens with a lizard to collect every item on the screen, these generally work out okay, though none of them are exactly groundbreaking.

But as an adventure game, this is a game with an overarching story – and frankly, it is a bit crap. The story starts with Melissa K, who is totally not a female Indiana Jones, going to Thailand in order to tutor some monk about western archaeology. The monk, however, has gone missing, and your rather weird guide encourages you to go find him. So begins a five hour long adventure (eight if you complete the optional collector’s edition section, which you can play after you complete the main game) where you go around a fairly small but surprisingly dense number of 2.5D areas with a slightly adjustable point of view.

The story is pretty nonsensical – characters appear without much cause or warning, the dialogue is often bizarre and not very well-written, and the challenges you must complete often feel quite arbitrary. The game contains CG cutscenes and CG characters, and while the CG cutscenes are passable, the 3D characters look very, very weird. To some extent, this is apparently intentional, but it still ends up looking very uncanny valley. On the other hand, the 2D art is generally fairly decent, and your namable lizard sidekick is downright cute.

If you find hunt the pixel puzzles annoying, you will absolutely hate this game, because it is centered around such things. If, on the other hand, you like hidden object puzzles, this game is okay… but the story is not exactly amazing, as far as such things go. I can’t really recommend it for $10, its asking price, but I got it for $1, as part of a bundle of 50 games in fact, so I’m not sure I can really complain. Still, I think there are a lot better adventure games out there, so unless you really love hidden object puzzles, I’d give this a pass.

This is my foray into hidden object games as a player. I've casually observed others play them in the past, so I had some idea of what to expect. I'm not easily impresssed, but Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold impressed me. The production values are high. The cinematics and voice work are better than I expected. The artwork is top-notch. The story that creates a narrative for the gameplay is intriguing enough to want to see how it plays out. The puzzles so far are not brain-taxing, but they are not as brain-dead as something in recent Telltale games (which I enjoy and appreciate as interactive fiction).

For the price, this game is a steal. We all know that Steam is now overflowing with substandard, buggy, amateur, and ill-conceived titles. This is NOT one of those. I find this ttitle a welcome diversion from my console JPRGs and Skyrim on the PC.