Ancient Secrets Quest for the Golden Key Review

Ancient Secrets: Quest for the Golden Key is less like an adventure game and more similar to a hidden objects game with a wealth of logic puzzles peppered in for the added challenge.

Locate Pieces of a Missing Artifact

As the daughter of a famous explorer, you have been charged with the task of locating all the missing pieces of an ancient artifact your dear old dad was unable to complete. Your quest through the remnants of the ancient Tekka lands is almost entirely composed of completing mini-puzzles and tasks.

This game breaks from the traditional adventure genre which is characterized by exploring multiple new scenes, slowly acquiring objects and discovering new tasks to complete. Ancient Secrets only features one task to be completed per location with little to no overlap between areas.

Diverse Puzzles

On the bright side, the mini-challenges included are diverse and highly creative, including sliding lock puzzles, an assortment of hidden object hunting, photo reconstruction, and various other small tasks to be completed as new characters are encountered along the way. Although rather unique, many of these puzzles will prove overly simple for many players to beat and are made simpler by glimmering light that indicates some action must be taken over a particular spot after only a matter of thirty seconds. Furthermore, the story itself hardly ever relates specifically to the mini-games which detracts from the overall appeal.

Conclusion - A Stripped Down Adventure Game

Vibrant graphics and many one-of-a-kind puzzles do make this game somewhat worthwhile, but players looking for a true adventure game should be advised to steer clear of this release as its ease of difficulty and lack of fully integrated story will be most upsetting to those with a higher level of experience.