Epiphany O'day was a professor on a university and she was fired from it, as she was on a goose chase for the Dragon Wheel. Without any options left and any funding’s she turned to the only person she could trust and would help her, her old mentor Professor Lunn. As she contacted him he invites her to come to Istanbul and help him in his research which apparently is the same as Epiphany’s. He has found some evidence that the Dragon Wheel really exists but as Epiphany was trying to reach him, before she arrived he was already murdered as they aren’t the only ones who are searching for the Dragon Wheel. She then sets off on a quest to ensure that the Dragon Wheel does not fall into the wrong hands. A couple of very suspicious people are searching it too, and they will stop at nothing until they have it their possession. She discovers all of these events and anyone who has tried to get involve is presumed dead or missing, or very scared. But the man who is behind all of this, and the murder of professor Lunn, is a man called Caines. With this the game really begins. Secrets of the Dragon Wheel do use some story concepts and plots that are common in mystery murder games and may seem tired and overused. There is the mysterious train ride, an Eastern sage and a journey into the exotic Far East. Caines, probably not coincidentally, also killed another man who was riding in the same train car as Epiphany during her trip to Istanbul. As we are talking about a standard that is included in hidden object games, every scene has a specific number of items that need to be picked up, some used later, some in that moment, some are just random items. The objects and puzzles hidden throughout the scenes are blended into the background perfectly and don't stick out like sore thumbs. Simple puzzles come into play from time to time, breaking up the action with mostly standard fare like matching pairs of objects or repeating patterns of lights and sounds, while a rogue's gallery of bizarre characters will keep the story moving forward. As we have seen a lot of hidden object games, and apparently people are running out of new ideas for the stories another logical step is to advance your games in another area of gameplay. Silverback Productions have made a good decision so that advancement is in the graphics of the game. Every aspect of the game, the murders, the searches, almost everything is already seen, and how wouldn’t be seen as new games are released all the time, but the graphics is something that’s the games real pride with its full glance. The search for the items is pretty basic and easy. There aren’t any specials challenges through the main gameplay that could provide some special looking around and combining. The mini-games which are given can all be skipped but that is totally unnecessary as you will spend more time skipping them as playing them, as the difficulty is on the minimum. Some of these mini-games are the typical jigsaws and logic puzzles that normally appear in hidden object games. More than a half game is something that will keep you very interested and ready for searching items and finishing up quests, but later on you will notice some backtracking in the game, and items that are starting to repeat itself. The graphics of the game is amplified by the soundtrack in specific moments adding additional effect of the 1990’s and the murder and mystery scenes. All in all this this isn’t anything new as there are less and less new ideas in HOG’s, but it doesn’t disappoint at all. On the contrary it provides a nice number of hours, with a little repetition and without staying too long on specific places, combined with a beautiful sound and graphics, certainly one of the better HOG’s on the market. Try it for yourself.
