I did not enjoy this one. Granted, this is an older game, but I have played hidden object games older than this one which had better mechanics, directions, and narratives. And while not every hidden object game has to be 100% perfect, this one committed way too many cardinal sins that I just have to comment on it and give my honest review.

I was not a fan of the fact that you had to go back to multiple HOGs only to collect the same items over and over again, some of which were already used in-game to progress the game further, making the purpose of the HOGs completely redundant. This was further aggravated by the fact that you wouldn't know which of these HOGs had reactivated unless you pressed the hint button, which I had to do repeatedly. And normally, I try to avoid using the hint button as much as possible. This would have been helped if the map had shown more locations and indicated which locations had tasks to complete similar to most other games with an "!" symbol. And because of the lesser map locations, you didn't get to use as many shortcuts if you wanted to get to a location quicker. This not only slowed the progress of the game, it also made it a lot harder to keep track of locations and tasks that needed to be completed.

But the worst bit about the game had to be the mini games, particularly the one where you had to use the code plates to decipher the location of the second crystal. I literally could not click on half of anything to get the puzzle working. I got so frustrated that I clicked out of the game after two hours and didn't try again until the next day. It was only by way of a video walk through that I learned the only way to make that puzzle work was by playing in widescreen instead of full screen. And two other things that I was annoyed with: 1. if you were done collecting items from a zoomed-in location, that location didn't go away even after you were completely done, so you were confused as to why it was still up, and 2. when you needed to collect multiple items for a task like putting the boat engine together or making acid, it would have been nice to have a list of those you needed to collect and know where to find them. Again, a map with more locations and task symbols would have improved this.

Overall, just a lot of pet peeves with a game that was not very interesting and, dare I say it, quite honestly boring (which is NOT a word I throw around a lot with these types of games), which made me like it less and less as I went along. But I guess after playing so many higher quality games with clearer directions and far more engaging story lines, you tend to become spoiled by this genre after a while. So, needless to say, I will not be playing this one again, and if you're a hardcore fan of hidden object games like I am, I do not recommend this one at all, because you are not going to have a fun time if you don't steer clear of this annoying snooze fest.