Lost Legacies review

Lost Legacies is a new hidden object game for Facebook from Smeet, a company primarily known for its self-titled 3D virtual world. The game is currently showing up as the No. 22 top gainer by daily active users this week, with a gain of 30,000. Lost Legacies is a fairly conventional hidden object game, albeit one that eschews the "building" gameplay of rival titles such as Hidden Chronicles and Gardens of Time in favor of a more straightforward progression path. Players are challenged with working their way through a linear storyline and solving various mysteries by completing hidden object scenes to earn "seals." These, in turn, are used to unlock subsequent scenes in conjunction with special objects that must be purchased from the in-game shop using soft currency. Earning sufficient seals to unlock later scenes generally requires the player to complete currently-available levels several times, giving the game a somewhat "grindy" feel. This is exacerbated by the fact that the locations of the hidden objects don't change each time, making subsequent playthroughs more of a memory test than a challenge to the player's perception skills. This is by no means a problem confined solely to this game -- on the contrary, it's pretty rare for a hidden object title to elegantly sidestep this problem, with 6waves' Rooms of Memory being the only one to successfully do so in recent memory. The game monetizes primarily through sales of hard currency, which may be used in various quantities to unlock any of the later levels early without first fulfilling the prerequisite requirements. The player may even jump all the way to the final level of the game immediately for a fee, though they'll miss out on the story content if they don't follow the game's linear progression of quests that direct the narrative. Hard currency may also be used to boost the player's maximum energy value, allowing them to play for longer in a single session without having to either wait to continue or pay. Unusually, players may restore their energy using either soft or hard currency, though whichever approach they choose to take, they will end up having to pay, wait or grind for rewards in order to continue after a certain period of time. Lost Legacies has a distinctive visual aesthetic, with very clear, crisp and simple graphics that are functional rather than particularly attractive. This has the side-effect of making the hidden objects quite easy to find, particularly as each level seems to have a rather limited number of potential items to locate. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it makes the game accessible to players of all ages rather than those with either excellent eyesight or a lot of patience. Less pleasing is the amount of mistakes scattered throughout the in-game text, the most egregious example of which is the repeated misuse of "you're" instead of "your" in the shop screen. The narrative scenes are riddled with spelling mistakes, and a number of interface elements feature sentences that are too long to fit in the various windows so simply get cut off. These issues should really have been caught during quality assurance and localization, and just make the whole package seem cheap and unprofessional. The game is clearly trying to tell a story with strong characters, but the bad writing throughout gives the player little incentive to progress -- particularly when the gameplay is so conventional. Lost Legacies' core gameplay is solid, but there's nothing particularly remarkable going on with its structure, monetization or social features. As such, it's a title that can probably be safely skipped by all but the most dedicated fans of the hidden object genre. Lost Legacies currently has 340,000 monthly active users and 70,000 daily active users. Follow its progress with AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers. Skip A solid but unremarkable core surrounded by ragged edges make this one to pass by.

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Lost Legacies review

Pete Davison

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Pete Davison