Hailing from the Artifex Mundi catalog, Dark Arcana: The Carnival isn't probably one of the best games brilliant HOG developer/producer team presented us so far. You see, said publisher has spoiled us to the degree of expecting narrative quality and story consistency from ordinary hidden object games alongside artistic quality in display, so compared to some prior master pieces, this one feels a bit pallid. Yet, it is still a charming enough game to go for in a lazy evening, endowed with your casual Artifex Mundi display quality.

We are yet another lady detective, this time summoned to the place of the local carnival to investigate an unusual case. A little girl's mother has disappeared, leaving her in an anonymous crowd of a carnival, of all places. Usually, it should be the other way around, right? Little girl disappears and the mother pleads that we should find her? Nope, not this time. Presented with the photograph of her mother quite conveniently, we start our search. Through our investigation, we are quick to notice that the only current inhabitant of this colorful yet creepy place, is the master of the carnival: knife-thrower extraordinaire Jim Gibbons. He also has a spectacular talent of avoiding us, so we keep tracking Jim to the point of travelling to a mirror dimension where everything ends up as an eerie, twisted version of the original. This is one persistent detective, I tell you!

Track the victim, learn the reasons of the perpetrator, save the day. Text-book hidden object story pace, alongside the millionth Hollywood action movie. Even though the earlier parts of the game are a bit ambiguous and unrealistic - detective chasing after Jim and casually hopping down into mirror world without even going through "wait, what, alien dimensions are real?" phase - , the game makes up for the most with a neatly arranged plot-twist nearing the middle. The rest is your casual puzzle solving genius, wrapped around a tragic and desperate romance.

The theme of choice is a big plus, if you ask me, considering travelling carnivals have always been the melting pot of the eerie and the spectacular for the Western culture. The Ferris wheel, lion tamer, acrobats, knife-throwers, fortuneteller, freak shows... you name it. Anything extraordinary comes with it, which doesn't necessarily mean safe or reliable. All the artwork here in this game, are accordingly appropriate for the theme: half-way enwrapped in vibrant colors and innocent displays of wonder. Yet, the moment we travel to the mirror world, everything turns into an elegant creep fest. I loved every single scene of it. This package of display comes with decent character animations, believable voice-acting and an efficient soundtrack. Kudos for the display, as always.

Gameplay consists of various HOG scenes, yet you get to visit the same scenes over and over again in their doubles: the original world version and the mirror world version. It becomes a bit annoying after a while. They are fairly easy to go through though, taking just a bit of your attention span. If you are bored of HOG scenes, you are presented with an alternative Monaco gameplay to replace it, which is a nice flavor. Puzzles are not really challenging, most of it is flavor for the setting, nothing more. Which really makes the game lose some points is the excruciating amount of backtracking though. If you are playing in expert difficulty for the sake of the achievement, it becomes a chore to go through all areas that might have opened in the given time.

As the last word, Dark Arcana: The Carnival is an okay HOG with a nice little story, enchanting setting and somewhat tedious gameplay. I'd recommend going for it in a sale, or as the part of a bundle rather than jumping into it. If you are familiar with the developer team, you'll find this one likable anyhow. If not, I strongly recommend a much more well-crafted title to begin. Good day, and good gaming to you!

Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page here - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!

And also Lady Storyteller's HOG Gems here - for casual games and HOGs you may enjoy!

Hailing from the Artifex Mundi catalog, [i]Dark Arcana: The Carnival[/i] isn't probably one of the best games brilliant HOG developer/producer team presented us so far. You see, said publisher has spoiled us to the degree of expecting narrative quality and story consistency from ordinary hidden object games alongside artistic quality in display, so compared to some prior master pieces, this one feels a bit pallid. Yet, it is still a charming enough game to go for in a lazy evening, endowed with your casual Artifex Mundi display quality. We are yet another lady detective, this time summoned to the place of the local carnival to investigate an unusual case. A little girl's mother has disappeared, leaving her in an anonymous crowd of a carnival, of all places. Usually, it should be the other way around, right? Little girl disappears and the mother pleads that we should find her? Nope, not this time. Presented with the photograph of her mother quite conveniently, we start our search. Through our investigation, we are quick to notice that the only current inhabitant of this colorful yet creepy place, is the master of the carnival: knife-thrower extraordinaire Jim Gibbons. He also has a spectacular talent of avoiding us, so we keep tracking Jim to the point of travelling to a mirror dimension where everything ends up as an eerie, twisted version of the original. This is one persistent detective, I tell you! Track the victim, learn the reasons of the perpetrator, save the day. Text-book hidden object story pace, alongside the millionth Hollywood action movie. Even though the earlier parts of the game are a bit ambiguous and unrealistic - detective chasing after Jim and casually hopping down into mirror world without even going through "wait, what, alien dimensions are real?" phase - , the game makes up for the most with a neatly arranged plot-twist nearing the middle. The rest is your casual puzzle solving genius, wrapped around a tragic and desperate romance. The theme of choice is a big plus, if you ask me, considering travelling carnivals have always been the melting pot of the eerie and the spectacular for the Western culture. The Ferris wheel, lion tamer, acrobats, knife-throwers, fortuneteller, freak shows... you name it. Anything extraordinary comes with it, which doesn't necessarily mean safe or reliable. All the artwork here in this game, are accordingly appropriate for the theme: half-way enwrapped in vibrant colors and innocent displays of wonder. Yet, the moment we travel to the mirror world, everything turns into an elegant creep fest. I loved every single scene of it. This package of display comes with decent character animations, believable voice-acting and an efficient soundtrack. Kudos for the display, as always. Gameplay consists of various HOG scenes, yet you get to visit the same scenes over and over again in their doubles: the original world version and the mirror world version. It becomes a bit annoying after a while. They are fairly easy to go through though, taking just a bit of your attention span. If you are bored of HOG scenes, you are presented with an alternative Monaco gameplay to replace it, which is a nice flavor. Puzzles are not really challenging, most of it is flavor for the setting, nothing more. Which really makes the game lose some points is the excruciating amount of backtracking though. If you are playing in expert difficulty for the sake of the achievement, it becomes a chore to go through all areas that might have opened in the given time. As the last word, [i]Dark Arcana: The Carnival[/i] is an okay HOG with a nice little story, enchanting setting and somewhat tedious gameplay. I'd recommend going for it in a sale, or as the part of a bundle rather than jumping into it. If you are familiar with the developer team, you'll find this one likable anyhow. If not, I strongly recommend a much more well-crafted title to begin. Good day, and good gaming to you! Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/11672469/]here[/url] - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games! And also Lady Storyteller's HOG Gems [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/27766387/]here[/url] - for casual games and HOGs you may enjoy!