Hidden Shadows

[nikkie_chan]

I'm never really going to be through with playing games on Facebook, am I?

I thought I had successfully thrown that monkey from my back when after a year and a half of obsessive, carefully planning out my next move more than I do in real life playing of Castleville. But no, from there, a former coworker alerted me to the existence of Full Bloom, a fun and challenging match 3 game with a garden theme. But then I stopped being able to collect enough items to unlock more stages of that game, and I thought I was safe again. But no, then Candy Crush Saga exploded all over the internet, and for 90 or so levels, I was enthralled by its colorful spell.

And then came Case Files, a seek-and-find game with a police procedural/mystery theme and I was hooked again. The characters were vibrant and memorable, the games enjoyable and I heartily enjoyed myself... until the game locked me out because I didn't have enough friends playing it regularly enough to unlock new chapters. And by that time, I had memorized all of the available boards and it had ceased being a challenge. "OK, that was it," I said to myself. "NOW, truly, I am done with games on Facebook."

But then Rachel started sending me friend requests for a new seek-and-find game called Hidden Shadows, and as Rachel is a dear friend whose tastes run similar to mine, I thought, "Why not? If she's enjoying it, I probably will too." and clicked on the link.

Hidden Shadows is zynga.com's answer to Case Files, a police procedural/mystery/item hunting game where you, the person behind the keyboard, is a detective with the other-worldly ability to invoke the spirits of the recently deceased and work to solve mysteries and give the dead some closure, so that they might move on to whatever lies after life. I've completed two chapters of the game, and while most games don't allow for any real characterization for the person behind the keyboard, this game, through unlocking secrets by completing levels entirely, has revealed that you have recently come to the precinct in which the cases take place at the bequest of your father. Why he wanted you to go there remains a mystery.

There is a constant cast of characters to help/hinder you from chapter to chapter. Michael Adler is your partner, who is largely absent, only popping up periodically to drive the plot. He gets some text here and there as you discover evidence at various locations, commenting on it and directing you to the next step of the process (but that's also dictated in the list of steps to take on the main overview page). Evidence is processed by a female lab tech named Marissa (I think). Chief Havers is your superior and a member of a shadowy organization running the town behind the scenes, and occasionally contacts you to discourage you from investigations. His purpose behind contact with you, the player, ranges from, "Knock it off, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" to "I'm serious, knock it off, go do something else." As he directly withheld information regarding the first murder that you solve in the game, he must rank pretty high in that shadow organization, or else he'd be removed from his position at the least, and at most thrown into prison for impeding justice. But whatever, he's our comically obvious bad guy and he seems to be around to stay. Everyone needs an antagonist.

Each investigation (individual game of seek-and-find) requires 30 energy units, which generate at 1 per 2 minutes, and at full energy you have 180 to use. Daily bonuses can give you an extra 30 above that, as can direct gifts from other friends playing the game, but clicking on rewards from a friends' Facebook feed will give you nothing if you have 180 energy, so plan accordingly. (Use 30 energy on one game, then claim rewards.) Completing stages will award you with direct rewards in the form of badges, which you need to unlock new chapters and process evidence, and units of passion, energy and fear. These units can be combined and spent in the Spirit Laboratory to create useful power ups, like more energy to play more games, more hints to help locate items you can't find on the game boards, or my personal favorite, speed ups to move along Marissa's processing of evidence.

Which oh man, you will need a LOT of if you want to play your investigations to proceed at anymore more than a snail's pace.

For the first chapter, things aren't paced all that badly. You investigate areas, you find evidence, which takes about two hours to process. Not bad. But in chapter 2, the amount of evidence that you find doubles and the processing time goes from two hours to six. SIX. Also, if you have energy to spare and you manage to find two pieces of evidence at the same time, forget about starting the second processing until the first has been completed. You can only do one at a time. (Apparently, Marissa is working forensics solo.)

Now on days where I have to work, processing isn't such a big deal. You click "Start Process," you go to work, you come home, you get the results. Unfortunately, then you just repeat the process all over again, and then you don't have anything to do until you wake up in the morning. And if you're looking for a game to fill a day off with some play, forget it. Especially frustrating is when the evidence you have to have processed seems so ridiculous. In chapter two, you have to process not one, or two, but three sets of rocks. Which are BLATANTLY similar or dissimilar entirely from looking at them. Really, game? Really?

This is my biggest problem with Hidden Shadows: the pacing. It's hard to remain invested when the game literally makes you sit on your hands for extended periods of time.

I realize that all game producers for things like Facebook are looking to make money, and this is Hidden Shadow's gimmick. Don't want to wait, buy points so you can skip painful processing and skip through them. My problem isn't that you can do this, but that the things that you can buy are things you can easily craft if you earn enough spirit units. If I'm going to spend cash for a game, I want a little something more to show for it. The Castleville crowns system seems more strong in this regard, creating rare, limited-time only items along WITH normal items. My agenda at the moment: I've finished chapter 2, but I still have about twelve badges that I can earn to complete it. I do like getting all of the secrets for every stage, so I'm going to earn all of the badges and concoct as many speed ups as possible, then go into chapter three and see how things go. Will I be less frustrated by the evidence system? Hopefully. The game starts you off with 20 speed ups, and now with my badge grinding and time spent in the Spirit Laboratory, I'm up to 35. By the time I complete collecting badges and spirit units, I figure I should have about 60 or so. IDEALLY, that should let me complete an entire chapter with a limited amount of waiting.

Hidden Shadows seems promising, but is kind of a poor man's Case Files. But if you're not a person with hundreds of game playing friends on Facebook, this is a good game that doesn't require a lot of begging to continue. The pacing is an issue, but it isn't a deal breaker, if you're willing to sink a little time into it. I just hope that zynga.com releases another questionaire about it so that they can maybe alter the waiting periods for evidence processing. Also, giving your sidekicks a bit more memorable personalities would be appreciated for purposes of storytelling.

If you enjoy seek-and-find games, I recommend you try this one out for yourself. I'll update if the game makes changes, or if further chapters prove more frustrating.