A surprisingly challenging hidden object game that plays much like an animated Where's Wally? book. The art style is excellent, the sound design is unpolished but still enjoyable, and the scavenger hunt-style gameplay feels rewarding far more often than not. The only thing that bogs it down is that targets can be hidden inside other objects—a cool concept in theory, but not when the amount of clickable objects on certain maps sits comfortably in the hundreds. If that doesn't scare you, or you're willing to swallow your pride and let the game point you in the right direction if you get stuck, you're in for a real good time.

Sophia the Traveler is a hidden object game that follows a young girl named Sophia, along with her pet dog and parrot, as they take a trip to the streets of Venice, Italy. It features over 150 different things to find across 10 maps of varying size, and it also boasts hundreds of unique character models, animations, and sound effects to really fill in all that space. Each map gives you a list of targets you need to track down—usually people, but sometimes objects—and each one can be clicked in the list to show a description that may or may not give you a clue as to their whereabouts. Most of these are hiding in plain sight, but sometimes they can be hidden inside of a different object on the map, like inside a cabinet or behind a window on a building. The smaller levels require you to find everything on the list, but the larger levels offer some leeway and will let you progress before your list is complete. This leeway also applies to the Steam achievements, as the hardest one only requires you to find 150 targets out of the 163 there are overall.

The artistic direction is by far the best part of Sophia the Traveler in my opinion, and it's the first thing that stood out to me when I initially stumbled onto it. The hand-painted art style is simplistic, charming, and almost nostalgic in a weird way, like looking back on an old cartoon you used to watch as a kid. The small maps are nice and cozy, like looking at a picture book or a little diorama; while the big maps manage to be comparatively grand in scale without feeling needlessly padded out. No square inch of the canvas is wasted, and they're so chock-full of little details and easter eggs that you could easily spend a few hours doing nothing but combing through it all. Naturally, the most amount of effort was placed in the three levels where you explore the streets of Venice, which are both the largest and most detailed in the entire game. I couldn't tell you for sure just how accurate these maps are to the real layout of Venice, but they certainly look convincing enough.

The sound design isn't quite as polished as the art, but it still deserves some props. The first stand-out feature is the environmental audio sprinkled in to each level, which can range from animal sounds to crowd ambiance to even short music tracks. Each sound bite is tied to a specific spot on the map, and getting within a certain range of one with your camera will begin to play the sound on loop, starting at a low volume and getting louder and louder as you get closer to the exact point. The fade in/out on these can be a little abrupt at times, but they still go a long way towards making each environment feel more alive. On top of this, many objects and people on the map have audio when you click on them, even if they're not tied to your target list. A lot of people, for example, will play voice lines that have actually been dubbed into multiple languages, which is a nice touch. The audio quality on the voice lines felt noticeably lower than that of the sound effects, and some line reads were funny in a way that felt unintentional, but there was a certain charm to it all regardless.

As far as gameplay goes, it keeps things relatively simple instead of trying to reinvent the wheel: all you gotta do is move the camera around and click on stuff until you track down all the targets on your list. Every six minutes of playtime, you'll earn a magnifying glass that can be used to point you directly to the first missing target on your list just in case you're getting stuck, and this tool will very quickly become your best friend while playing this game. Despite its cute appearance, Sophia the Traveler is actually pretty challenging as far as hidden object games go; but some of this challenge is sadly the result of some frustrating design decisions. Remember when I said that targets can be hidden behind parts of the environment, like windows on a building? Those three Venice levels I mentioned earlier not only have hundreds of people in them, but hundreds of doors and windows you need to click on one by one because a couple targets happen to be hiding behind them, and the descriptions for these usually won't help you narrow down your search radius. This is also made worse by the fact that door/windows you open close automatically after a few seconds, so it's easy to lose track of where you have and haven't been. Your only other option is to sit around and wait for your magnifying glasses to replenish so they can just point you to what you're missing, and that'll just suck the fun out of playing if you need to use it too often. Hiding targets behind other objects is a cool concept at first, but the big maps take it way too far and can turn your scavenger hunt into a chore. The only saving grace here is that, again, you're not required to find absolutely everything in these levels to beat the game or even earn all the achievements, but not finding everything in a hidden object game of all things kind of defeats the purpose.

I finished the game in around 3 hours, though your mileage will vary depending on how observant (or lucky) you are and how often you find yourself waiting out the magnifying glass timer. Despite my gripes with the game, I enjoyed my time with it overall, and if nothing else, it certainly left a stronger impression than most other games I've played in this genre. If you're willing to tolerate a bit of frustration, Sophia the Traveler is a solid choice for players who want more of a challenge in their hidden object games.

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[h3][b][u]Short Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] A surprisingly challenging hidden object game that plays much like an animated [i]Where's Wally?[/i] book. The art style is excellent, the sound design is unpolished but still enjoyable, and the scavenger hunt-style gameplay feels rewarding far more often than not. The only thing that bogs it down is that targets can be hidden inside other objects—a cool concept in theory, but not when the amount of clickable objects on certain maps sits comfortably in the hundreds. If that doesn't scare you, or you're willing to swallow your pride and let the game point you in the right direction if you get stuck, you're in for a real good time. [h3][b][u]Long Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] [i]Sophia the Traveler[/i] is a hidden object game that follows a young girl named Sophia, along with her pet dog and parrot, as they take a trip to the streets of Venice, Italy. It features over 150 different things to find across 10 maps of varying size, and it also boasts hundreds of unique character models, animations, and sound effects to really fill in all that space. Each map gives you a list of targets you need to track down—usually people, but sometimes objects—and each one can be clicked in the list to show a description that may or may not give you a clue as to their whereabouts. Most of these are hiding in plain sight, but sometimes they can be hidden inside of a different object on the map, like inside a cabinet or behind a window on a building. The smaller levels require you to find everything on the list, but the larger levels offer some leeway and will let you progress before your list is complete. This leeway also applies to the Steam achievements, as the hardest one only requires you to find 150 targets out of the 163 there are overall. [b]The artistic direction is by far the best part of [i]Sophia the Traveler[/i] in my opinion[/b], and it's the first thing that stood out to me when I initially stumbled onto it. The hand-painted art style is simplistic, charming, and almost nostalgic in a weird way, like looking back on an old cartoon you used to watch as a kid. The small maps are nice and cozy, like looking at a picture book or a little diorama; while the big maps manage to be comparatively grand in scale without feeling needlessly padded out. No square inch of the canvas is wasted, and they're so chock-full of little details and easter eggs that you could easily spend a few hours doing nothing but combing through it all. Naturally, the most amount of effort was placed in the three levels where you explore the streets of Venice, which are both the largest and most detailed in the entire game. I couldn't tell you for sure just how accurate these maps are to the real layout of Venice, but they certainly look convincing enough. [b]The sound design isn't quite as polished as the art, but it still deserves some props.[/b] The first stand-out feature is the environmental audio sprinkled in to each level, which can range from animal sounds to crowd ambiance to even short music tracks. Each sound bite is tied to a specific spot on the map, and getting within a certain range of one with your camera will begin to play the sound on loop, starting at a low volume and getting louder and louder as you get closer to the exact point. The fade in/out on these can be a little abrupt at times, but they still go a long way towards making each environment feel more alive. On top of this, many objects and people on the map have audio when you click on them, even if they're not tied to your target list. A lot of people, for example, will play voice lines that have actually been dubbed into multiple languages, which is a nice touch. The audio quality on the voice lines felt noticeably lower than that of the sound effects, and some line reads were funny in a way that felt unintentional, but there was a certain charm to it all regardless. As far as gameplay goes, it keeps things relatively simple instead of trying to reinvent the wheel: all you gotta do is move the camera around and click on stuff until you track down all the targets on your list. Every six minutes of playtime, you'll earn a magnifying glass that can be used to point you directly to the first missing target on your list just in case you're getting stuck, and this tool will very quickly become your best friend while playing this game. [b]Despite its cute appearance, [i]Sophia the Traveler[/i] is actually pretty challenging as far as hidden object games go[/b]; but some of this challenge is sadly the result of some frustrating design decisions. Remember when I said that targets can be hidden behind parts of the environment, like windows on a building? Those three Venice levels I mentioned earlier not only have hundreds of people in them, but [i]hundreds[/i] of doors and windows you need to click on one by one because a couple targets happen to be hiding behind them, and the descriptions for these usually won't help you narrow down your search radius. This is also made worse by the fact that door/windows you open close automatically after a few seconds, so it's easy to lose track of where you have and haven't been. Your only other option is to sit around and wait for your magnifying glasses to replenish so they can just point you to what you're missing, and that'll just suck the fun out of playing if you need to use it too often. [b]Hiding targets behind other objects is a cool concept at first, but the big maps take it way too far and can turn your scavenger hunt into a chore.[/b] The only saving grace here is that, again, you're not required to find absolutely everything in these levels to beat the game or even earn all the achievements, but not finding everything in a hidden object game of all things kind of defeats the purpose. [b]I finished the game in around 3 hours[/b], though your mileage will vary depending on how observant (or lucky) you are and how often you find yourself waiting out the magnifying glass timer. Despite my gripes with the game, I enjoyed my time with it overall, and if nothing else, it certainly left a stronger impression than most other games I've played in this genre. [b][u]If you're willing to tolerate a bit of frustration, [i]Sophia the Traveler[/i] is a solid choice for players who want more of a challenge in their hidden object games.[/u][/b] [quote]For more game reviews, check out my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42524563/]Curator page[/url]![/quote]