Buy Now...

With a gaming environment set in the modern world, It Happened Here - Beacon of Truth is a Hidden Object Adventure game that is available in Collector's Edition format.  The game casts you in the role of Emily Smith, a true crime podcaster.  You are asked by a friend to investigate a decade-old death and the rumours surrounding a mysterious cursed lighthouse as part of your series of podcasts regarding cold cases.

Developed by Elephant Games, this title supports the usual selection of options when adjusting volume levels used throughout the game plus full screen viewing and featuring special effects.  A choice of Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom difficulty settings are available when playing the game.  These levels contain different rate charging for Hint and Skip features plus the appearance of indicators to identify when active areas and where possible clues might be found to help the investigation.

While the mouse cursor will change shape to indicate when it was in the vicinity of useful items and sparkles will appear to target Hidden Object areas, the game will also offer other useful tools when tackling this task based adventure.  Running across the bottom of various locations will be an area consisting of a Map, showing possible locations and where collectible objects can be found, Tasks listing, an Inventory that can be locked in position or left to disappear when not required, Strategy Guide and a Hint feature. 

See also: Games

more

Adding to these familiar tools will be an extra tool in the form of a mobile phone, a vital item for any podcaster.  Sitting in the screen's top left corner, this tool can be used to send and receive messages.  It can also be used to capture images as part of your investigation into events concerning the lighthouse and its accompanying museum.

In your search for material for your latest podcast, you will need to visit various location looking for clues and other items.  You will need to meet and communicate with other characters.  Any dialogue will be delivered in both spoken word and as printed text. 

At various times you will be faced with mini game puzzles and Hidden Object game play sessions that will challenge your skill level.  The presented mini game puzzles tend to concentrate on dealing with problems that relate to images, such as putting together the sections of pictures and arrange images in the correct sequence.  When tackling Hidden Object scenes you will need to look for patterns, pairs of objects and links to a story that is spread over several pages.

Once you have completed the main game, you will gain access to a bonus chapter and the opportunity to replay the mini games and Hidden Object scenes plus view a secret room feature and check out collectibles dotted through the game.  While I felt the various mini games were challenging, the rest of the game was less so.  I was left with a feeling of slight disappointment regarding this game which never really drew me into its story line.

I downloaded my copy of this title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99.  You can also download it from Big Fish Games priced at £15.73.  The game requires a 2.5 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 1.89GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.

It Happened Here - Beacon of Truth Collector's Edition | Big Fish

It Happened Here - Beacon of Truth Collector's Edition | GameHouse