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It is time to take a break and relax.  While in this restful state you can accept the challenge offered by the Relax Games' latest release.  Entitled H.O. Secrets - The Whitefield Murder, is the next offering under review and it is available in Collector's Edition format for Hidden Object fans.

Opening with a sequence involving the stabbing of Stanley Morgan and the appearance of a message stating "The Eye doesn't forgive", you are assigned the task of trying to solve the mystery of this enigmatic murder.  Your investigation will need to follow a winding path over a snow bound landscape as you are faced by a variety of challenges spread over 72 stop-over points.  The various stop-over points must be tackled in sequence as you identify suspects.  You can then gather information regarding likely, or unlikely, characters as you find evidence or corruption within the local community.

While most of the action in this game will be conducted within a snow bound environment, a few stop-over points will bring you into a scene that is conducted inside,  This will involve a snow-free and helps make for a pleasant change.  In most cases you will have no idea what to expect prior to arrival at each stop-over point until you actually arrive there. 

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These stop-over points seem to fall into one of three categories that appear at random as your investigation proceeds.  As you might surmise from the game's title, Hidden Object action provides a major feature of this game.  Various formats of this type of action will be present during this game as the require items will be shown in different ways.  Often you will be asked to find items presented in groups of three in text format.  Sometimes the words will be made up of jumbled letters or with certain letters missing. 

Also you could be asked to find items represented by descriptions, riddles, silhouettes, patterns, images or by a clue as to their material.  Searching for matching pairs or two items that will link together to form a word are other required tasks along with spotting the difference between two similar scenes.  One factor that seems to run through all the various Hidden Object formats is that the content is linked to the accompanying scene. and the use of very small objects.  I was constantly wishing I had access to a magnifying glass to help search for items.

The second category of tasks involve mini game puzzles with each one offering a Skip option and an occasional Casual or Hard choice.  You might need to create a scene from irregular pieces, swap small sections or larger rectangular slabs to reveal an image.  Other types of puzzles involve playing Mah-jong, shooting coloured balls to stop a travelling chain reaching its destination, fill an area with various shapes and achieve a designated scene by linking symbols.

The third category involves identifying characters and examining suspects.  In such instances, the different characters deliver their dialogue in both spoken and printed format.  Having gathered your evidence, an arrest can be made.  You will then have access to a further 24 stop-over points to deal with what happens next.

I downloaded my copy of this title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99.  It is also available from Big Fish Games priced at £15.95.  The game requires a 2.0 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 762MB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later. 

Hidden Object Secrets - The Whitefield Murder Collector's Edition | Big Fish Games

Hidden Object Secrets - The Whitefield Murder Collector's Edition | GameHouse